A river town at the head of the Acushnet, older than New Bedford by half a century, where Dr. Samuel West preached on the hilltop, whaleboats rolled to the wharves on trucks and a rubber works grew into the home of the Titleist ball.

Bristol County · Record checked October 12, 2026

10,559Population2020 census1
1860Became a townset off from Fairhaven on February 132
927Whaleboatsbuilt by Ebenezer Leonard for New Bedford ships3
42Spellingsways old clerks wrote the name Acushnet4
4National Registerplaces, all still standing5

Acushnet on the map

Click the map to look closer.

Map of Acushnet, Massachusetts in 2026, with the New Bedford Reservoir, Hamlins Pond and Main Street

2026

Acushnet today

By KNOWOL

Shaded terrain from the Sassaquin high ground down to the Acushnet River, with the New Bedford Reservoir, Hamlins Pond and Tinkham Pond, Main Street, Middle Road and Hathaway Road, and Braley Hill, Mendall Hill and Tarkiln Hill.6

See the 2026 printMore about this map

The story of Acushnet

Father West on the hill

The old meetinghouse of the Acushnet church stood on top of the hill east of the river, and from 1760 its pastor was Dr. Samuel West. A 1903 book calls him eccentric. He wrote a learned reply to Edwards' book on the will, and during the Revolution he did the patriots a service by deciphering the treasonable letters of Dr. Church. He was also famously absent-minded. Once he got down to rest his old horse, the horse slipped its bridle, and West walked home with the bridle on his shoulder, never knowing the horse wasn't behind him. He died in 1807 and was buried in the old graveyard beside the church site, ground that's been in Acushnet since 1860.78910

The day the British came around the river

In 1778 British troops who'd landed to attack New Bedford marched around the head of the river, and the village there suffered badly. They burned several houses at the Head of the River, Capt. Crandon's among them. Many families fled to the woods. One woman ran with the first thing she grabbed, a brass warming-pan, and it clanged so loudly against the branches that everyone ran from her as fast as from the soldiers. At the old Tobey house, once Dr. Elisha Tobey's, the soldiers found pork and beans baking in the cellar oven and ate every bit. They left the cellar door open, and it hid a second door where the family's best clothing was stored.11812

Mills, whaleboats and a golf ball

Acushnet was mostly farms, but the river turned a long row of mills. There was a fulling mill above the village, a saw and grist mill, and in 1811 Phineas White's cotton mill a mile upstream. By 1874 the town ran seven sawmills. From 1852 Ebenezer Leonard built whaleboats here, 927 of them by 1883, about thirty-one a year and some years one a week, and hauled them six miles to the New Bedford wharves on trucks. Plenty of Acushnet men went whaling too, and some came home as captains. In 1910 the Acushnet Process Company started in town processing rubber, and in 1935 its golf division brought out the Titleist ball.131436

Through the years

22 moments from 1652 to today.

  1. 1652The land is bought from the Wampanoag.1
  2. 1664On June 8 the Acushnet settlements become part of the new town of Dartmouth.4
  3. 1696About this year the church at the Head of the River is organized, the oldest in the region.15
  4. 1739Dartmouth orders a new town house built in the Acushnet section, then its seat of government.2
  5. 1759The Long Plain Friends Meetinghouse is built.16
  6. 1760Dr. Samuel West becomes pastor of the old Acushnet church on the hill.7
  7. 1778British troops marching around the river burn houses at the Head of the River.11
  8. 1787New Bedford separates from Dartmouth, taking in today's Acushnet.1
  9. 1796Long Plain's Christian church goes up, its first bill for lumber, other materials and West India rum.17
  10. 1811Phineas White builds a cotton mill on the Acushnet River.13
  11. 1812Fairhaven becomes a town, and the Acushnet lands go with it.1
  12. 1837The First Christian Church of North Fairhaven is formed at the Perry Hill schoolhouse.18
  13. 1841Herman Melville sails on the whaler Acushnet.1
  14. 1852Ebenezer Leonard starts building whaleboats for the New Bedford fleet.3
  15. 1860Acushnet becomes a town, and holds its first town meeting in the engine house east of the bridge.2
  16. 1874The town has seven sawmills and sends wood, bark and lumber to market.14
  17. 1875The Long Plain School is built to a design by Caleb Hammond.19
  18. 1896Acushnet's Free Public Library opens on June 13.20
  19. 1910The Acushnet Process Company is founded in town.1
  20. 1935The company's golf division brings out the Titleist ball.6
  21. 1975The Long Plain School becomes the Long Plain Museum.19
  22. 2026The Perry Hill Christian Church is added to the National Register.5

Places to see

Places worth a visit in Acushnet today.

  • Long Plain Friends MeetinghouseLong Plain, North Main Street. Quaker meetinghouse built in 1759.Visit their website
  • Long PlainNorth end of town. Village named for its broad plateau.
  • Acushnet RiverWest side of town. The town line with New Bedford.
  • New Bedford ReservoirNorthwest Acushnet. Filled by the Acushnet and Keene rivers.
  • Hamlins PondAlong the Acushnet River. Hamlin's Mill Pond on the river.
  • Tinkham PondMattapoisett town line. Partly in Acushnet.
  • Main StreetSouthern Acushnet. Runs east from the river bridge.
  • Acushnet CenterSouthwest corner. Most thickly settled part of town.
  • SassaquinNorthwest corner. Highest ground, just past 160 feet.

On the National Register

All 4 places in Acushnet on the National Register of Historic Places that still stand today, oldest first, and why each one matters.5

  • Long Plain Friends Meetinghouse

    Built 1759 · Listed 1986 · 1341 North Main Street

    Built in 1759, it is called the oldest church building surviving in southeastern Massachusetts. Quakers met here until 1985, and it is now part of the Long Plain Museum, with pews from three centuries.16

    Visit their website

  • Head of the River Historic District

    Listed 2009 · 2-28 Main Street

    The old village at the head of navigation on the Acushnet River, one of the first places colonists settled here. It keeps houses from the 1780s, the Hawes House of about 1817, and a stone-arch bridge older than 1850. A few of its buildings are across the river in New Bedford.21

  • Perry Hill Christian Church

    Listed 2026 · 39 Perry Hill Road

    Home of the church society formed in 1837 at the Perry Hill schoolhouse as the First Christian Church of North Fairhaven, when this part of Acushnet still belonged to Fairhaven.18

  • Long Plain School

    Built 1875 · Listed 2012 · 1203 Main Street

    A two-classroom schoolhouse designed by New Bedford architect Caleb Hammond, with a Gothic turret on its central pavilion. It taught children until 1972 and has been the Long Plain Museum of the Acushnet Historical Society since 1975.19

    Visit their website

In their words

“The pleasantest village in the vicinity of New Bedford, to the writer at least, and the one which is most intimately connected with it, is Acushnet.”

The history of New Bedford, 185822

“It was Acushnet village that gave Dr. Samuel West to the country in the American Revolution, one of the greatest men of the times”

History of New Bedford and its vicinity, 189223

“The Acushnet of the past is rich in historic associations”

History of New Bedford and its vicinity, 189223

Nearby towns

Sources

  1. Acushnet, Massachusetts, Wikipedia
  2. A history of Bristol County, Massachusetts, Vol. 2 (1924), on the town of Acushnet, Internet Archive
  3. History of Bristol County, Massachusetts (1883), on Acushnet mills and whaleboats, Internet Archive
  4. A history of Bristol County, Massachusetts, Vol. 2 (1924), on the name Acushnet, Internet Archive
  5. National Register of Historic Places listings in Bristol County, Massachusetts, Wikipedia
  6. Map of Acushnet, Massachusetts in 2026, KNOWOL (USGS elevation, Census Bureau roads)
  7. Our country and its people: Bristol County, Massachusetts (1899), on the old Acushnet society, Internet Archive
  8. Old paths and legends of New England (1903), Internet Archive
  9. History of New Bedford and its vicinity, 1602-1892 (1892), on the burial ground at Acushnet village, Internet Archive
  10. The First Congregational society in New Bedford, Massachusetts (1889), Internet Archive
  11. History of Bristol County, Massachusetts (1883), on the Tobey house and the British raid, Internet Archive
  12. Atlas of Bristol County, Massachusetts (1871), Internet Archive
  13. Our country and its people: Bristol County, Massachusetts (1899), on Acushnet's mills, Internet Archive
  14. A gazetteer of the state of Massachusetts (1874), Internet Archive
  15. History of the churches of New Bedford (1869), Internet Archive
  16. Long Plain Friends Meetinghouse, Wikipedia
  17. History of Bristol County, Massachusetts (1883), on the Christian Church at Long Plain, Internet Archive
  18. A history of the town of Acushnet (1907), on the Perry Hill church, Internet Archive
  19. Long Plain School, Wikipedia
  20. A history of Bristol County, Massachusetts (1924), on Acushnet's post offices and library, Internet Archive
  21. Head of the River Historic District, Wikipedia
  22. The history of New Bedford, Bristol County, Massachusetts (1858), Internet Archive
  23. History of New Bedford and its vicinity, 1602-1892 (1892), Internet Archive