1767 Milestones

	1767 Milestones
	U.S. National Register of Historic Places
	U.S. Historic district
	The "Parting Ways" stone in Roxbury
Location	Massachusetts between Springfield and Boston
Area	less than one acre
Built	various dates; many pursuant to a policy dating to 1767
NRHP reference No.	71000084, 85003300
Added to NRHP	April 7, 1971

Last updated June 23, 2024

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 stones are so named, despite having been placed in many different years, because of a 1767 directive of the Province of Massachusetts Bay that such stones be placed along major roadways. The state highway department was directed in 1960 to undertake their preservation.^[4] Many of them underwent a major restoration in 2018.^[5]

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 initials PD on them, usually at the bottom of the stone.^[6] 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, and 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	Town	Notes
01	1741	Boston, Roxbury	This stone is called the "Parting Ways Stone".
04	1729	Boston, Mission Hill	Engraved "Boston 4 Miles 1729 PD".
05	1729	Brookline	Engraved "Boston 5 Miles 1729 PD".
06	1729	Boston, Brighton	Engraved "Boston 6 Miles 1729 PD".
07	1729	Boston, Brighton	Engraved "Boston 7 Miles 1729 PD".
08	1734	Cambridge	Engraved "Boston 8 Miles 1734 AI" on the front, and "Cambridge New Bridge +2⁄1 Miles 1794" on the back.
23		Wayland
24		Sudbury
25		Sudbury
26		Sudbury
27		Sudbury	Listed as missing in 2009 state survey.
28		Sudbury
29		Sudbury
33		Northborough	Engraved "33 Miles to Boston".
35		Shrewsbury	Engraved "Boston 35 Springfield 65 Albany 165".
43	c.1760	Shrewsbury	Engraved "43 Mile to Boston".
47		Worcester
48		Worcester	Moved to 30 Elm Street (Worcester Historical Museum) c. 2007 It was reported to be in storage there in January 2014.
53		Leicester
54		Leicester	Stolen and recovered in the 1990s; relocated to museum space in local library in 1996. Now on the Leicester town common. An unmarked replica is embedded in a stone wall just west of Paxton on the south side of Main Street.
56		Leicester	Opposite Leicester Drive-In.
57		Leicester	In front of the Spencer Country Inn.
58		Spencer
59		Spencer
60		Spencer
61		Spencer
62		East Brookfield	Stone has been reengraved with loss of integrity.
63		East Brookfield
64		Brookfield
65		Brookfield
66		Brookfield
67		West Brookfield
68		West Brookfield
69		West Brookfield
70		Warren
71		Warren
72		Warren	Now in front of Warren Congregational Church; relocated after 1970.
73		Warren
74		Warren
99	1763	Springfield	Known as the "Wait Guide Stone". Inscribed- Pulsantis Perietum Virtus est sua Merces This Stone is Erected by Joseph Wait, Esq. of Brookfield For the Benefit of Trav[el] Here. AD 1763 Replica placed in 2010.^[7] Original in storage at the Armory Museum.

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References

1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
↑ first refnum is for all milestones; second is for Brookline, Harvard Avenue stone
↑ 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.
1 2 "NRHP Nomination for 1767 Milestones". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Archived from the original on 2011-10-02. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
↑ "MassDOT Completes Milestone Marker Preservation Project". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. June 5, 2018. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
↑ "Jamaica Plain Historical Society - 'Colonial Era' Editor - - Colonial Stones Mark Miles from Old Roxbury to Old State House". Archived from the original on 2011-06-13. Retrieved 2011-07-08.
↑ Rivais, Larry (13 April 2010). "Springfield honors its past with replica of historic Wait Boston Road Marker". The Republican. Springfield, MA. Retrieved 15 October 2017.

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[nris-1] 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. April 15, 2008.

[2] rst refnum is for all milestones; second is for Brookline, Harvard Avenue stone

[milestones-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.

[NRHP-4] 1 2 "NRHP Nomination for 1767 Milestones". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Archived from the original on 2011-10-02. Retrieved 2011-08-29.

[5] "MassDOT Completes Milestone Marker Preservation Project". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. June 5, 2018. Retrieved February 16, 2021.

[6] "Jamaica Plain Historical Society - 'Colonial Era' Editor - - Colonial Stones Mark Miles from Old Roxbury to Old State House". Archived from the original on 2011-06-13. Retrieved 2011-07-08.

[7] Rivais, Larry (13 April 2010). "Springfield honors its past with replica of historic Wait Boston Road Marker". The Republican. Springfield, MA. Retrieved 15 October 2017.

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1767 Milestones

See also

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References