South Coast | |
---|---|
The South Coast Region of Massachusetts | |
Country | United States |
State | Massachusetts |
Cities and towns | Acushnet, Berkley, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Fall River, Freetown, Lakeville, Little Compton, Marion, Mattapoisett, New Bedford, Rochester, Somerset, Swansea, Tiverton, Wareham and Westport |
Population | |
• Total | 306,588 |
Largest city (population) | New Bedford, (100,941) |
Largest city (land area) | Dartmouth, 97.5 sq mi (252.6 km2) |
The South Coast of Massachusetts (sometimes stylized SouthCoast) is the region of southeastern Massachusetts consisting of the southern part of Bristol and Plymouth counties, bordering Buzzards Bay, and includes the cities of Fall River, New Bedford, the southeastern tip of East Taunton and nearby towns. The Rhode Island towns of Tiverton and Little Compton, located in Newport County, are often included within the South Coast designation due to regional similarities with adjacent communities.
The term is recent, dating to the 1990s, and sometimes confused with the South Shore (a region southeast of Boston that includes eastern Norfolk and Plymouth counties, and does not overlap with the South Coast).
The "South Coast" label was born as a public relations effort to counteract the perceived stigma of former terms like "Greater Fall River," "Greater New Bedford," or "New Bedford-Fall River," which conjured images, in many Massachusetts residents' minds, of depressed mill towns with run-down buildings and high unemployment. Local boosters, including The Standard-Times newspaper, began using the term in the mid-1990s in an effort to attract business to an area with "the Cape's climate," "better infrastructure" and "relatively low land prices," according to Standard-Times publisher William Kennedy. [1]
There are 14 Massachusetts municipalities that are almost always included in the South Coast (total population: 306,588). Two Rhode Island towns may also be included. [2]
The Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management also includes the towns of Dighton, Seekonk and Rehoboth within its South Coast regional service area; however, these communities are more often associated with the Providence Metro Area or Greater Taunton Area than the South Coast. [3] The entirety of the South Coast resides within the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District.
By its most literal definition, the South Coast only includes cities and towns in southern Massachusetts that may not be considered parts of the Providence Metropolitan Area, the South Shore or Cape Cod; it encompasses the geographic area of Massachusetts that borders Buzzards Bay (excluding the Elizabeth Islands, Bourne and Falmouth), Mount Hope Bay and the Sakonnet River. Little Compton and Tiverton Rhode Island are often considered parts of the South Coast due to proximity and shared regional heritage; it has been argued that Little Compton and Tiverton share more in common with the regional identities of Westport and Dartmouth (and to an extent Fall River) than the rest of Newport County. [4] [5] East Taunton is sometimes considered the northernmost extent of the South Coast region; however, it does not include the entire city of Taunton.
The South Coast region is typically associated with its distinct industrial heritage pertaining to textile, whaling, and fishing industries; the South Coast also has the largest Portuguese American population in the United States. [6] [7]
In recent years, an unofficial sub-region of the South Coast known as the Farm Coast has been used to describe the cluster of rural towns that are situated on the northern coast of Buzzards Bay; these towns are considered to be the last coastal farming communities left in Southern New England and share a common regional identity and aesthetic. The Farm Coast consists of the towns of Tiverton, Little Compton, Westport and Dartmouth. [8] [9] [10]
Institutions of higher learning located in South Coast communities include:
The major highways through the area are Interstate 195 (from Providence to Wareham, Massachusetts) and U.S. Route 6, which is the older route connecting Providence to Cape Cod. Highway access to Boston is provided by Route 24 and Route 79, both of which end in Fall River, and Route 140 which connects New Bedford to Route 24 in Taunton. On February 27, 2023, MassDOT initiated a project to demolish the southern end of Route 79 in order to facilitate the restoration of Fall River's waterfront. [11] Public bus service is provided by the Southeastern Regional Transit Authority, the Greater Attleboro Taunton Regional Transit Authority and the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority.
South Coast Rail is an ongoing project to build a new southern line of the MBTA Commuter Rail system along several abandoned and freight-only rail lines. [12] The project will restore passenger rail service between Boston and the cities of Taunton, Fall River, and New Bedford, via the towns of Berkley and Freetown. Passenger service to the South Coast was originally discontinued in 1958; efforts to restore passenger rail service began in the 1980s. [13] After decades of false starts, construction began on July 2, 2019, with a projected cost of $1.047 billion. [14] Service is expected to begin in mid-2024. [15]
The city of New Bedford offers passenger ferry services to Martha's Vineyard and Cuttyhunk Island. [16]
The term "South Coast" reportedly began with weather forecasts by Todd Gross on WHDH-TV in Boston. New Bedford's local daily newspaper, The Standard-Times, picked it up in the late 1990s, and other media have followed suit, albeit not without some protest by longtime area residents who protested the manufactured name. [1]
Other newspapers serving the area include The Herald News of Fall River; "The Standard Times" with an online entertainment subsidiary "southcoasttoday.com" of New Bedford; the Taunton Daily Gazette ; The Providence Journal ; and, for regional coverage, The Boston Globe and Boston Herald . Much of the broadcast media in the area is local to metropolitan Providence and Boston.
Radio stations include ethnic WHTB/1400-Fall River, news/talk/sports WBSM/1420-New Bedford, news/talk/sports WSAR/1480-Fall River, religious ethnic WFHL/88.1-New Bedford, K-Love WTKL/91.1-North Dartmouth, Portuguese-language WJFD-FM/97.3-New Bedford, country WCTK/98.1-New Bedford, top 40/dance WFHN/107.1-Fairhaven, and public radio news WNPN/89.3-Newport, RI.
Television stations include ABC affiliate WLNE-TV/49 (PSIP 6)-New Bedford and CW affiliate WLWC/22 (PSIP 28)-New Bedford.
Bristol County is a county in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. As of the 2020 census, the population was 579,200. The shire town is Taunton. Some governmental functions are performed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, others by the county, and others by local towns and cities.
Dartmouth is a coastal town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. Old Dartmouth was the first area of Southeastern Massachusetts to be settled by Europeans, primarily English. Dartmouth is part of New England's farm coast, which consists of a chain of historic coastal villages, vineyards, and farms. June 8, 2014, marked the 350th year of Dartmouth's incorporation as a town. It is also part of the Massachusetts South Coast. The local weekly newspapers are The Dartmouth/Westport Chronicle and Dartmouth Week. The Portuguese municipality of Lagoa is twinned with the town; along with several other Massachusetts and Rhode Island towns and cities around Bristol County.
Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. Fall River's population was 94,000 at the 2020 United States census, making it the tenth-largest city in the state. It abuts the Rhode Island state line with Tiverton, RI to its south.
Freetown is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 9,206 at the 2020 census.
Westport is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 16,339 at the 2020 census.
Little Compton is a coastal town in Newport County, Rhode Island, bounded on the south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by the Sakonnet River, on the north by the town of Tiverton, and on the east by the town of Westport, Massachusetts. The population was 3,589 as of 2022 Town Records. However, during the summer months the population nearly doubles due to the tourist aspect of the town.
Tiverton is a town in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 16,359 at the 2020 census.
The Narragansett Council of Scouting America serves all of the state of Rhode Island and some of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Its several camps include Camp Yawgoog, Champlin Scout Reservation, and Camp Norse.
Scouting in Rhode Island has a long history, from the 1910s to the present day, serving thousands of youth in programs that suit the environment in which they live.
Route 24 is a 40.91-mile-long (65.84 km) freeway south of Interstate 93 (I-93) in southeastern Massachusetts, linking Fall River with the Boston metropolitan area. It begins in the south in Fall River at the border with Tiverton, Rhode Island where it connects with Rhode Island Route 24, and runs north to an interchange with I-93/U.S. Route 1 in Randolph. Route 24 is also known as the Fall River Expressway, and officially as the Amvets Highway. Route 24 has a total of 21 interchanges
Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston, the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England, and its surrounding areas. The most stringent definition of the region consists of most of the eastern third of mainland Massachusetts, excluding the Merrimack Valley and most of Southeastern Massachusetts, though most definitions include much of these areas and portions of southern New Hampshire.
The Old Colony Railroad (OC) was a major railroad system, mainly covering southeastern Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island, which operated from 1845 to 1893. Old Colony trains ran from Boston to points such as Plymouth, Fall River, New Bedford, Newport, Providence, Fitchburg, Lowell and Cape Cod. For many years the Old Colony Railroad Company also operated steamboat and ferry lines, including those of the Fall River Line with express train service from Boston to its wharf in Fall River where passengers boarded luxury liners to New York City. The company also briefly operated a railroad line on Martha's Vineyard, as well as the freight-only Union Freight Railroad in Boston. The OC was named after the "Old Colony", the nickname for the Plymouth Colony.
Southeastern Massachusetts is a region of Massachusetts located south of Boston and east of Rhode Island. It is commonly used to describe areas with cultural ties to both Boston and Providence, Rhode Island, and includes the cities of New Bedford and Fall River and their respective suburbs. Despite the location of Cape Cod and the islands to its south, which are the southeasternmost parts of the state, they are not often grouped in this designation. At its broadest definition, it includes all of Massachusetts south of Boston, southeast of Worcester, and east of Providence, Rhode Island, while at its narrowest definition, it is Bristol County and the Western portion of Plymouth County. The region including Cape Cod roughly corresponds with the location of the historic Plymouth Colony, which became part of Massachusetts in 1691.
The smaller of the two main newspapers in Massachusetts' South Coast, The Herald News is a daily newspaper based in Fall River, Massachusetts. Its coverage area includes Fall River and the nearby towns of Dighton, Freetown, Somerset, Swansea and Westport, Massachusetts; as well as Little Compton and Tiverton, Rhode Island.
The Fall River Line was a combination steamboat and railroad connection between New York City and Boston that operated between 1847 and 1937. It consisted of a railroad journey between Boston and Fall River, Massachusetts, where passengers would then board steamboats for the journey through Narragansett Bay and Long Island Sound to the line's own Hudson River dock in Manhattan. For many years, it was the preferred route to take for travel between the two major cities. The line was extremely popular, and its steamboats were some of the most advanced and luxurious of their day.
The Providence metropolitan area is a region extending into eight counties in two states. Its core is in the states of Rhode Island and Massachusetts; its largest city is Providence, Rhode Island. With an estimated population of 1,622,520, exceeding that of Rhode Island by slightly over 60%, the Providence MSA is the 38th largest metropolitan area in the United States. The MSA covers all of Rhode Island and Bristol County, Massachusetts, with an average population density of 2300 per mi2.
The Watuppa Ponds are two large, naturally occurring, spring-fed, glacially formed ponds located in Fall River and Westport, Massachusetts. Watuppa is a native word meaning "place of boats". The two ponds were originally one body of water, connected by a narrow rocky straight called "The Narrows" located on a thin strip of land between the two ponds which forms part boundary of between Fall River and Westport. The border between Fall River and Westport is also divided between the two ponds. Together, the ponds have an overall north–south length of about 7.5 miles, and have an average east–west width of about a mile. The ponds are drained by the Quequechan River, and flows in a westerly direction through the center of Fall River from South Watuppa Pond to Mount Hope Bay.
For much of its history, the city of Fall River, Massachusetts has been defined by the rise and fall of its cotton textile industry. From its beginnings as a rural outpost of the Plymouth Colony, the city grew to become the largest textile producing center in the United States during the 19th century, with over one hundred mills in operation by 1920. Even with the demise of local textile productions during the 20th century, there remains a lasting legacy of its impact on the city.
South Coast Rail is a project to build a new southern line of the MBTA Commuter Rail system along several abandoned and freight-only rail lines. The line will restore passenger rail service between Boston and the cities of Taunton, Fall River, and New Bedford, via the towns of Berkley, and Freetown, on the south coast of Massachusetts. It includes passenger service to some of the southern lines of the former Old Colony Railroad and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.
East Taunton station is an under-construction MBTA Commuter Rail station in East Taunton, Massachusetts adjacent to the interchange between the Route 24 expressway and County Street. It is planned to open in 2025 as part of the first phase of the South Coast Rail project.