1767 Milestones

1767 Milestones
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
The "Parting Ways" stone in Roxbury
Location	Massachusetts
Built	no later than 1767
Architect	Unknown (some erected by Paul Dudley)
NRHP Reference #	71000084, 85003300[1][2]
Added to NRHP	April 7, 1971

The 1767 Milestones are historic milestones located along the route of the Upper Boston Post Road between the cities of Boston and Springfield in Massachusetts. The 40 surviving milestones were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.^[1] Massachusetts has a total of 129 surviving milestones including those along the upper Post Road.^[3]

The first stone was erected by Paul Dudley, one of the prominent citizens of early 18th century Massachusetts, in Roxbury, which was at the time a separate community. Roxbury was located at the end of the Boston Neck, a narrow isthmus separating the mainland from the Shawmut Peninsula, where Boston was located. Travelers going by land from Boston to other areas had to travel over the neck and through Roxbury to reach their destinations. The Roxbury junction where Dudley placed the first stone was where several routes branched, heading south and west across New England.

Dudley erected several stones along the road from Boston to Cambridge which wound its way from Beacon Hill along what is now Washington Street through the Dudley Square area to what is now Huntington Avenue, then along Harvard Street through Brookline Village, Coolidge Corner, and Allston crossing into Cambridge at the Great Bridge, where modern JFK Street in Cambridge becomes North Harvard Street in Allston. The stones that Dudley erected have the initial PD on them, usually at the bottom of the stone.^[4] The most chatty of these milestones (not part of this collection), is inscribed P Dudley rather than PD, and is located on the corner of Centre and South Streets in Jamaica Plain.

The stones listed for miles 23 through 29 in Wayland and Sudbury are actually guideposts rather than milestones. They do not list any mileage. They were erected at road intersections rather than at the mile marks. The stones are quarried granite posts with plug & feather tool marks and post-date 1800.

Miles to Boston	Year Placed	Image	Location	Town	Notes
01	1741		710529Centre and Roxbury Streets 42°19′48″N 71°5′29″W / 42.33000°N 71.09139°W	Boston, Roxbury	This stone is called the "Parting Ways" Stone.
03	1729		710642Centre Street, Fort Hill, Roxbury 42°19′46″N 71°5′36″W / 42.32944°N 71.09333°W	Boston, Roxbury, Fort Hill	This stone is set in relief along a large stone retaining wall along Centre Street, most likely relocated to this location.
04	1729		710642841 Huntington Avenue 42°19′57″N 71°6′42″W / 42.33250°N 71.11167°W	Boston, Mission Hill
05	1729		710717210 Harvard St. 42°20′24″N 71°7′17″W / 42.34000°N 71.12139°W	Brookline
06	1729		710756142 Harvard Ave. 42°21′07″N 71°07′54″W / 42.351947°N 71.131586°W	Boston, Brighton
07	1729		710742240 N. Harvard St. 42°21′42″N 71°07′48″W / 42.361556°N 71.129998°W	Boston, Brighton
08	1734		710710Old Burial Ground (Mass. Ave. and Garden St.) 42°22′29″N 71°7′10″W / 42.37472°N 71.11944°W	Cambridge
23			712312River Road and Water Row 42°22′14″N 71°23′12″W / 42.37056°N 71.38667°W	Wayland
24			712408Route 20 and Landham Road 42°21′39″N 71°24′8″W / 42.36083°N 71.40222°W	Sudbury
25			712459Route 20 and Concord Road 42°21′44″N 71°24′59″W / 42.36222°N 71.41639°W	Sudbury
26			712530Route 20 and Nobscot Road 42°21′36″N 71°25′30″W / 42.36000°N 71.42500°W	Sudbury
27			712614listed at Boston Post Road and Dudley Road 42°21′36″N 71°26′13″W / 42.360003°N 71.436821°W	Sudbury	Listed as missing in 2009 state survey.
28			712732Route 20 and Peakham Road 42°21′35″N 71°27′32″W / 42.35972°N 71.45889°W	Sudbury
29			712819Wayside Inn Road and Dutton Road 42°21′28″N 71°28′19″W / 42.35778°N 71.47194°W	Sudbury
33			713725143 E. Main St. 42°19′44″N 71°37′25″W / 42.32889°N 71.62361°W	Northborough
35			714143Boston Post Road and Dean Park 42°17′45″N 71°41′43″W / 42.29583°N 71.69528°W	Shrewsbury
43			714458West Main St. near I-290 42°17′35″N 71°44′58″W / 42.29306°N 71.74944°W	Shrewsbury
47			714728Lincoln St. 42°16′41″N 71°47′40″W / 42.278071°N 71.794392°W	Worcester
48			714759Originally at 139 Salisbury St. 42°15′54″N 71°48′16″W / 42.265051°N 71.804379°W	Worcester	Moved to 30 Elm Street (Worcester Historical Museum) c. 2007 It was reported to be in storage there in January 2014.
53			715310Route 9 at Collier's Corner 42°14′24″N 71°53′10″W / 42.24000°N 71.88611°W	Leicester
54			715430Originally at Main St. east of Paxton St. 42°14′43″N 71°54′30″W / 42.24528°N 71.90833°W	Leicester	Stolen and recovered in the 1990s; relocated to museum space in local library in 1996. An unmarked replica is embedded in a stone wall just west of Paxton on the south side of Main Street.
56			715640Between 1676 and 1710 Main St. (Route 9) 42°15′2″N 71°56′40″W / 42.25056°N 71.94444°W	Leicester	Opposite Leicester Drive-In.
57			715721500 Main St. (Route 9) 42°15′21″N 71°57′21″W / 42.25583°N 71.95583°W	Leicester	In front of the Spencer Country Inn.
58			715834 325 Main St. (Route 9) 42°15′6″N 71°58′34″W / 42.25167°N 71.97611°W	Spencer
59			715920Route 9, Spencer Shopper's Village 42°14′46″N 71°59′20″W / 42.24611°N 71.98889°W	Spencer
60			720028Route 9 at Dewey St. 42°14′12″N 72°0′28″W / 42.23667°N 72.00778°W	Spencer
61			720140133 West Main St. (Route 9) 42°13′52″N 72°1′40″W / 42.23111°N 72.02778°W	Spencer
62			720240west of 324 East Main St. (Route 9) 42°13′38″N 72°2′40″W / 42.22722°N 72.04444°W	East Brookfield	Stone has been reengraved with loss of integrity.
63			720401184 North Brookfield Rd. 42°13′42″N 72°4′1″W / 42.22833°N 72.06694°W	East Brookfield
64			720445Elm Hill Rd., near North Brookfield line 42°13′49″N 72°4′45″W / 42.23028°N 72.07917°W	Brookfield
65			720540Elm Hill Rd., east of North Brookfield Rd. 42°13′18″N 72°5′40″W / 42.22167°N 72.09444°W	Brookfield
66			720629East of 31 West Main St. (Route 9) 42°12′57″N 72°6′29″W / 42.21583°N 72.10806°W	Brookfield
67			720714102 Foster Hill Rd. 42°13′33″N 72°7′14″W / 42.22583°N 72.12056°W	West Brookfield
68			720815East end of town common 42°14′10″N 72°8′15″W / 42.23611°N 72.13750°W	West Brookfield
69			720922147 West Main St. (Route 9) 42°14′1″N 72°9′22″W / 42.23361°N 72.15611°W	West Brookfield
70			721022Route 67 near Old Patrick Rd. 42°13′19″N 72°10′22″W / 42.22194°N 72.17278°W	Warren
71			721059Burbank and Washington Sts. (behind/north side of 129 Washington St.) 42°12′46″N 72°10′59″W / 42.21278°N 72.18306°W	Warren
72			721122Bemis and Washington Rds. 42°12′7″N 72°11′22″W / 42.20194°N 72.18944°W	Warren	Now in front of Warren Congregational Church; relocated after 1970.
73			721220North side of Baypath Rd. 42°11′53″N 72°12′20″W / 42.19806°N 72.20556°W	Warren
74			721318970 Read St., east of West Warren Rd. 42°11′9″N 72°13′18″W / 42.18583°N 72.22167°W	Warren
99			723446State Rd. (Route 20) at Springfield Armory 42°6′25″N 72°34′46″W / 42.10694°N 72.57944°W	Springfield	Now in storage at the Armory Museum.
999999Source unless otherwise cited: NRHP nomination papers[5]

References

1. National Park Service (2008-04-15). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
2. first refnum is for all milestones; second is for Brookline, Harvard Avenue stone
3. Gage, Mary E.; Gage, James E. (2014). Milestones & Guideposts of Massachusetts and Southeastern New Hampshire. Amesbury, MA: Powwow River Books. pp. 155–160. ISBN 978-0-9816141-7-5.
4. http://www.jphs.org/colonial/colonial-stones-mark-miles-from-old-roxbury-to-old-state-house.html
5. "NRHP Nomination for 1767 Milestones". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved 2011-08-29.

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in northern Boston, Massachusetts
• National Register of Historic Places listings in southern Boston, Massachusetts
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Brookline, Massachusetts
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Cambridge, Massachusetts
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Worcester County, Massachusetts
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Hampden County, Massachusetts