Walpole, MA

Walpole is a Norfolk County town southwest of Boston, with early industry tied to water power along School Meadow Brook and the Neponset River. Its first sawmill was built near that waterway, part of the practical mill-town development common in eastern Massachusetts. Walpole also has a Revolutionary-era story connected to British ships entering Narragansett Bay. Today the town is suburban but not featureless, with Francis William Bird Park, schools, commuter access, and older village areas giving it a more established New England feel.