Best Things to Do in Acton

10/03/2023

Nashoba Brook

This piece of town-owned conservation land is part of a group of four contiguous parcels, adding up to more than 500 acres, containing a section of the long-distance Bay Circuit Trail.

Adjoining Robbins Mill, Camp Acton and Spring Hill, Nashoba Brook can be your first step on an afternoon-long hike, weaving deep into the woods for six miles.

Nashoba Brook is perhaps the most scenic portion, for the changing riparian habitats along the unspoiled brook, from marshes to rapids and bodies of still water.

There’s also compelling history waiting to be discovered, including the remnants of 18th-century mills, stone walls first laid down by Native Americans, ancient cairns and the mysterious Potato Cave.

The origins of this manmade chamber are unknown; it may have been a shelter for railroad workers in the 19th century, an 18th-century root shelter or a pre-Colonial ceremonial structure.

10/03/2023

Acton Arboretum

Heading along Main Street you can easily walk from Acton Centre to this 65-acre swath of conservation land made up of a glacial esker, historic apple orchards, woods, ponds and a bog, but also a series of gorgeous planted gardens.

You can amble through a butterfly garden, herb garden, hosta garden, rhododendron garden, lilac fragrance garden, daylily garden and a picture-perfect pond planting.

One memorable trail Wildflower Loop leads through the woods, bedded with a stunning variety of native wildflowers in spring and summer, but also features two long sections of boardwalk, a fern collection, a brook and two old farm ponds.

10/03/2023

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Дмитрий Нагиев

10/03/2023

Дыхание Весны 🌸🌸🌸

08/03/2023

Acton Centre Historic District

At this understated ensemble of buildings around a town green you’ll be in the historic heart of Acton, going back almost 300 years.

The main explanations for the small-size of Acton Center are that there was no source of water power for industry here, and when the railroad came to Acton in the 1840s it went to the mill settlements in South and West Acton.

But the presence of civic buildings and places of worship ensured the prominence of Acton Centre. Around the green there are beautiful examples of Federal and Greek Revival architecture from the late 18th century to the mid-19th century.

The town’s obelisk for the American Revolutionary War is on the common, at the very place where the militia rallied before heading into battle on April 19, 1775.

This space is bordered by the Congregational Church (1846), the Italianate Town Hall (1864) and Acton Memorial Library, built in the Romanesque Revival style in 1889

08/03/2023

06/03/2023

Hosmer House

In Acton’s collection of well-preserved Colonial-era structures is the Hosmer House, raised in 1760 and rare for being a “double house”.

Under a saltbox roof, one of these is a typical Colonial three-bay house with an off-center chimney, while the other is on a square plan.

Jonathan Hosmer, Jr, who built this house, was a mason, and his skill can still be admired in the house’s unique assortment of fireplaces. Hosmer fought at the Battle of Bennington (1777), together with his son who was killed there at just 17.

The Hosmer House now belongs to the Acton Historical Society, which opens the property up to the public as a museum on select weekends.

04/03/2023

Patriots’ Day March

In the early hours of April 19, 1775 Isaac Davis led the Acton Minutemen from Acton Centre to the Old North Bridge in Concord to confront the British regulars at the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

It was there that Davis became the first commissioned officer to die in the American Revolutionary War. To mark Patriots’ Day on the third Monday in April there’s a reenactment of this march, following the vestiges of the original trail where possible.

The procession begins at the historic Isaac Davis Homestead (39 Hayward Rd) at 5:50 am, beginning with a ceremony of remembrance.

The Minutemen normally get to Acton Centre by about 6:20, and finally arrive at the Old North Bridge at around 9:00 am for a battle reenactment. The public is welcome to join the Acton Minutemen on their march, and take part in a slice of living history.