Acton, Massachusetts

A town of five villages west of Concord whose minutemen led the march on the North Bridge in 1775, and whose mill brooks once turned out barrels, pencils and woolen cloth at South Acton's Mill Corner.

Middlesex County · Record checked October 12, 2026

24,021Population2020 census¹

1735Became a townJuly 3, set off from Concord¹

75 feetThe monumentgranite shaft on Acton Common, 1851²

20,000Barrels a yearActon's coopers at their peak, early 1800s³

9National Registerplaces, all still standing⁴

Then and now

The same town 140 years apart. Click either map to look closer.

1886

South Acton in 1886

By Lucien R. Burleigh

The mill village of South Acton, the most industrial part of town, drawn as if from the sky, with Chadwick's Piano Stool Factory, Exchange Hall, the American House, Bowen's Wool Extract Mill, Barker's Cider and Vinegar Works and the Fitchburg Railroad station.⁵

See the 1886 print More about this map

2026

Acton today

By KNOWOL

All five villages on shaded terrain, with Main Street, Massachusetts Avenue and Great Road, Nagog Pond, Fort Pond, Barkers Pond and the Assabet River Reservoir, and Annursnac, Faulkner, Flagg and Canterbury hills.⁶

See the 2026 print More about this map

The story of Acton

God's own granite

In November 1850 Acton's town meeting voted to raise a monument over Capt. Isaac Davis, Abner Hosmer and James Hayward and move their remains to the Common. The town's minister, James T. Woodbury, carried the case to the State House, and to make his point he brought out the shoe buckles Davis wore and a powder horn carried that day. The Legislature gave $2,000 and the town added $500. Governor George S. Boutwell picked the spot on the Common himself. "Let it be of God's own granite," Woodbury said, and most of the stone came from the hill behind his own house, less than a mile north. The shaft rises seventy-five feet, and it was dedicated on October 29, 1851.⁷⁸⁹²¹⁰

The morning of April 19

Before dawn on April 19, 1775, a horseman nobody could name rode up to Capt. Joseph Robbins's house, struck the corner with a heavy club and shouted for him to alarm Acton. Robbins's son rode a mile and a half to Capt. Isaac Davis, whose children were all sick at home. Davis had his company on the road to Concord soon after sunrise, the fifer Luther Blanchard playing, as tradition says, The White Cockade. At the North Bridge his men led the advance, and Davis was heard to say, "I haven't a man who is afraid to go." He and Abner Hosmer were killed there. Years later an Acton man answered a toast in eight words: "Concord furnished the ground, and Acton the men."¹¹¹¹²

Mill Corner and the five villages

For most of its first century Acton Center was the only real village, and South Acton was a cluster of mills called Mill Corner. A town story says its first settlers, Nathan Robbins and his wife, moved over from East Acton, and when the family pig balked at the big brook, she carried the baby across first and then went back for the pig. The mill streams kept coopers busy, making fifteen to twenty thousand barrels a year early in the 1800s. The Fitchburg Railroad of 1844 made West Acton, and by 1874 South Acton had about 500 people, a woolen factory, pencil and soapstone works and a hotel called the American House. East Acton's post office then went by Ellsworth.¹³¹⁴³¹⁵

Through the years

23 moments from 1639 to today.

1639The first homestead inside today's town line is built, on land Concord uses for grazing.¹
1668Capt. Thomas Wheeler leases land on the condition that he keep a herd of 50 cattle for the inhabitants, penned at night against wild animals.¹⁶
1702Ephraim Jones starts the mills at South Acton that become the nucleus of the town.¹⁷
1732Jones Tavern is built as a home for Samuel Jones Jr.¹⁸
1735Acton is incorporated as a town on July 3, set off from Concord.¹
1736The new town votes to frame and raise its first meetinghouse before winter.¹⁹
1738Rev. John Swift is ordained as Acton's first minister.²⁰
1774In November a company of minutemen is raised under Isaac Davis, young men from sixteen to thirty.²¹
1775On April 19 the Acton minutemen lead the advance at the North Bridge; Isaac Davis and Abner Hosmer are killed.¹
1776On June 14 the town resolves that an American republic is the only government it wants to see.¹⁰
1780Part of Acton is taken to help form the new town of Carlisle.²⁰
1840Townspeople bring trees from every part of town to plant on the Common, and nearly all of them live.²²
1844The Fitchburg Railroad reaches Acton on October 1, the making of West Acton.¹
1848Ebenezer Davis builds the East Acton factory that later makes lead pencils.³
1851The 75-foot granite monument over Davis, Hosmer and Hayward is dedicated on Acton Common on October 29.¹⁰
1861The day after word of Fort Sumter arrives, about forty Davis Guards leave in open wagons, in a drenching rain, bound for Washington.²³
1862On October 24 a set fire burns most of Acton Center.¹³
1863A new town house goes up at the Center after the fire.¹³
1874South Acton has about 500 people, a woolen factory, pencil and soapstone works and the American House hotel.¹⁵
1886Lucien R. Burleigh draws his bird's-eye view of South Acton.⁵
1890The Memorial Library is completed, William Allan Wilde's gift in memory of Acton's Civil War soldiers.¹
1925Acton builds its first purpose-built high school on Massachusetts Avenue.²⁴
2018The Acton section of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail opens on April 3.¹

Places to see

Places worth a visit in Acton today.

Isaac Davis MonumentActon Town Common. Granite shaft over three minutemen.
Acton Memorial LibraryMain Street, Acton Center. Civil War memorial library of 1890.Visit their website
Faulkner HouseSouth Acton. Garrison house where the alarm sounded.Visit their website
Jones Tavern128 Main Street, South Acton. Built 1732, Acton's first store.Visit their website
Assabet River Rail TrailSouth Acton station. Old rail bed south toward Maynard.
Nagog PondNorth Acton. On the Littleton line; Concord's water.
Canterbury HillNorth Acton. Conservation land on the Bay Circuit Trail.
Village of Nagog WoodsNorth Acton. Big enough for its own ZIP code.

On the National Register

All 9 places in Acton on the National Register of Historic Places that still stand today, oldest first, and why each one matters.⁴

Faulkner Homestead

Built about 1707 · Listed 1971 · 5 High Street

Acton's oldest colonial building, built for Ephraim Jones, whose mills of 1702 began the settlement, and used as a garrison house in Queen Anne's War. Six generations of Faulkners lived here, and on April 19, 1775, Major Francis Faulkner fired three shots here to call out the militia.¹⁷

Visit their website
Acton Centre Historic District

Listed 1983 · Main Street, Wood and Woodbury Lanes, Newtown, Concord and Nagog Hill Roads

The town's civic heart since the 1730s, around the common of 1731 where the minutemen mustered in 1775. It takes in the Congregational Church of 1846, the Italianate Town Hall of 1863 and the Romanesque Revival Memorial Library.²⁵
Jones Tavern

Built 1732 · Listed 1986 · 128 Main Street

Built as Samuel Jones Jr.'s home and a tavern and store by 1750, it's believed to be Acton's first store. Local residents saved it from demolition in 1964.¹⁸

Visit their website
North Acton Cemetery

Listed 2019 · Carlisle Road and North Street

Also called the Forest Cemetery, it was in use by 1737 and is one of the town's oldest burial grounds. The oldest marked grave is Mary Heald's, dated 1758, and the yard was enlarged in 1811 partly with money from Carlisle.²⁶
Jonathan and Simon Hosmer House

Built 1760 · Listed 2002 · 300 Main Street

One of Acton's best-preserved colonial houses, an unusual double house built by the bricklayer Jonathan Hosmer Jr., whose work shows in its many fireplaces. The Acton Historical Society bought it in 1974 and runs it as a museum.²⁷

Visit their website
Isaac Davis Trail

Listed 1972 · Running east to west between Acton and Concord

The six-mile route Captain Isaac Davis and the Acton minutemen marched to the North Bridge on April 19, 1775, still lined with stone walls. The Isaac Davis Trailmarch follows it every Patriots' Day.²⁸
John Robbins House

Built 1800 · Listed 2003 · 144 Great Road

A late Georgian, early Federal farmhouse with stencilwork by Moses Eaton Jr. It is the best preserved of four Acton houses built after four townsmen shared a $10,000 prize in a Harvard College lottery of 1794 and 1795.²⁹
Exchange Hall

Built 1860 · Listed 1986 · Quimby Square on School Street, South Acton

James Tuttle, a dry goods merchant, built this Italianate hall with an open third floor for civic, social and religious gatherings. It later held the South Acton branch of the public library.³⁰
Acton High School

Built 1925 · Listed 2011 · 3 Charter Road

Acton's first purpose-built high school, a Renaissance Revival building by John H. Bickford. It was a high school for thirty years and an elementary school for 45, and it now holds homes.²⁴

In their words

“Concord furnished the ground, and Acton the men.”

A toast at Concord's 1850 anniversary dinner, as Governor George S. Boutwell recalled it in 1902¹²

“Let it be of God's own granite, said Mr. Woodbury, and let it be from the Acton quarry nearest to the site.”

Rev. James T. Woodbury on the Davis monument, from James Hayward, 1911⁹

“At the centre of the town there is a village of unsurpassed beauty. It has a broad common, bordered with neat residences and adorned with well-kept rows of wide-spreading trees”

History of Middlesex County, 1880³¹

Acton, Massachusetts

Then and now

South Acton in 1886

Acton today

The story of Acton

God's own granite

The morning of April 19

Mill Corner and the five villages

Through the years

Places to see

On the National Register

Faulkner Homestead

Acton Centre Historic District

Jones Tavern

North Acton Cemetery

Jonathan and Simon Hosmer House

Isaac Davis Trail

John Robbins House

Exchange Hall

Acton High School

In their words

Nearby towns

Sources