1767 Milestones

1767 Milestones
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
File:BostonMA PartingWaysStone.jpg
The "Parting Ways" stone in Roxbury
Location	Massachusetts
Built	no later than 1767
Architect	Unknown (some erected by Paul Dudley)
Architectural style	No Style Listed
NRHP Reference #	71000084, 85003300
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. Massachusetts has a total of 129 surviving milestones including those along the upper Post Road.

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 Mr. Dudley erected have the initial PD on them, usually at the bottom of the stone. 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	76px	Centre and Roxbury Streets	Boston, Roxbury	This stone is called the "Parting Ways" Stone.
04	1729		841 Huntington Avenue	Boston, Mission Hill
05	1729		210 Harvard St.	Brookline
06	1729	76px	142 Harvard Ave.	Boston, Brighton
07	1729		240 N. Harvard St.	Boston, Brighton
08	1734		Old Burial Ground (Mass. Ave. and Garden St.)	Cambridge
23		76px	River Road and Water Row	Wayland
24		76px	Route 20 and Landham Road	Sudbury
25		76px	Route 20 and Concord Road	Sudbury
26			Route 20 and Nobscot Road	Sudbury
27			listed at Boston Post Road and Dudley Road	Sudbury	Listed as missing in 2009 state survey.
28		76px	Route 20 and Peakham Road	Sudbury
29		76px	Wayside Inn Road and Dutton Road	Sudbury
33		76px	143 E. Main St.	Northborough
35		76px	Boston Post Road and Dean Park	Shrewsbury
43			West Main St. near I-290	Shrewsbury
47			Lincoln St.	Worcester
48			Originally at 139 Salisbury St.	Worcester	Moved to 30 Elm Street (Worcester Historical Museum) c. 2007 It was reported to be in storage there in January 2014.
53		76px	Route 9 at Collier's Corner	Leicester
54		76px	Originally at Main St. east of Paxton St.	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		76px	Between 1676 and 1710 Main St. (Route 9)	Leicester	Opposite Leicester Drive-In.
57		76px	500 Main St. (Route 9)	Leicester	In front of the Spencer Country Inn.
58		76px	325 Main St. (Route 9)	Spencer
59		76px	Route 9, Spencer Shopper's Village	Spencer
60		76px	Route 9 at Dewey St.	Spencer
61		76px	133 West Main St. (Route 9)	Spencer
62		76px	west of 324 East Main St. (Route 9)	East Brookfield	Stone has been reengraved with loss of integrity.
63		76px	184 North Brookfield Rd.	East Brookfield
64		76px	Elm Hill Rd., near North Brookfield line	Brookfield
65		76px	Elm Hill Rd., east of North Brookfield Rd.	Brookfield
66		76px	East of 31 West Main St. (Route 9)	Brookfield
67		76px	102 Foster Hill Rd.	West Brookfield
68		76px	East end of town common	West Brookfield
69		76px	147 West Main St. (Route 9)	West Brookfield
70		76px	Route 67 near Old Patrick Rd.	Warren
71		76px	Burbank and Washington Sts. (behind/north side of 129 Washington St.)	Warren
72		76px	Bemis and Washington Rds.	Warren	Now in front of Warren Congregational Church; relocated after 1970.
73		76px	North side of Baypath Rd.	Warren
74		76px	970 Read St., east of West Warren Rd.	Warren
99			State Rd. (Route 20) at Springfield Armory	Springfield	Now in storage at the Armory Museum.
Source unless otherwise cited: NRHP nomination papers

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