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By Kathy Arnold in Essentially America (2003)
For sheer variety, no other state matches Massachusetts. History and hi-tech, culture and cuisine, city sophistication and unspoiled villages, sandy shores and sylvan scenery - Massachusetts has the lot. No wonder people from other states often seem a little envious. Moreover, for more than four centuries, what happens here has influenced the rest of the country. But the people of Massachusetts look forward as often as they look back. A writer in the 1930s summed it up neatly: "Massachusetts ... is a state of tradition, but part of its tradition is its history of revolt."
The best place to start is at the eastern edge of Massachusetts - the peninsula of Cape Cod. The Pilgrim Fathers dropped anchor here in 1620, the first settlers in what became New England. After a ghastly voyage across the Atlantic, the Mayflower sheltered off what is now Provincetown. Today, the Pilgrim Monument, a 252-ft granite tower, towers above the popular holiday resort. Rather like a New England version of St Ives, its heyday of fishing is over, but the town still bustles with art galleries, boutiques, T-shirt shops and bike rentals. Everyone has fun in what is known as P'town - artists and theatre-folk, families and couples, both gay and straight.
Cape Cod was famously described by 19th-century Massachusetts author Henry David Thoreau as "... the bared and bended arm of Massachusetts ..." Village names hark back to the Old Country - Falmouth, Harwich; Barnstable and Sandwich. Drive along Route 6A, the Old King's Highway, and you pass the handsome homes of sea captains, built with the profits from trade and whaling. Many are now romantic (and expensive) bed and breakfasts. But the main draw of 'the Cape' is the seashore. My favourite stretch is the 40 miles from Chatham to Provincetown. Preserved as the Cape Cod National Seashore, the towering dunes and broad beach attract picnickers, kite-flyers, birders and swimmers who enjoy cold, cold water. Outside the summer holidays, the pace slackens, even in busy towns such as Hyannis with its Kennedy connection.
Massachusetts also boasts two famous island destinations - Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. Small, chic and the preferred hideaway of CEOs, Nantucket is 30 miles offshore. Neon signs and other tacky 20th-century intrusions have been banned, so that the 18th / 19th century charm of the oh-so perfect Nantucket Town remains unsullied. Only five miles from the mainland, 'the Vineyard' is larger and more varied. The rich and famous also flock here, along with the bucket-and-spade brigade. Choose from grand Edgartown, lively Oak Bluffs and the year-round port of Vineyard Haven, or head 'up island' (to the west) where a few fishing boats still chug in and out of Menemsha's tiny harbour.
Cross the canal at the neck of the Cape and you're soon in Plymouth, where the Pilgrim Fathers finally disembarked. Millions come to look at a large stone in the belief that it "received the first footsteps of our fathers on their first arrival". Nice myth. What does send shivers down the spine is stepping aboard Mayflower II, the fragile-looking replica of the Pilgrims' ship, and hearing the 'crew' describe the ocean crossing. Next stop is Plimoth Plantation, where more 'costumed interpreters' live life locked in 1627. Authenticity is the watchword here, with: feeble ears of corn, horrid porridge and flies buzzing round the smoking hearth. Wander in and out of the huts and listen to settlers telling it like it was in this brave, new world. Add in Hobbamock's Homesite, for the Native American side of the story, and you'll need a whole day for one of the best 'living history' attractions in the entire country.
Only 10 years after the Pilgrims landed, Boston was founded. Handsome to look at and easy to get round, it feels very European. Yet no other city has played such a major a role in American history. To find out who did what, where, when and why, follow the 2.5-mile long Freedom Trail, a walk linking 16 significant sites. Why was Boston the hotbed of anti-British feeling in the 1770s? Where did the American anti-slavery movement start? What is the world's oldest floating commissioned ship? Why did the Irish come to Boston?
Although Boston is renowned for its past and for its fine old homes (don't miss Beacon Hill), it is also a modern city, with spectacular skyscrapers. Photograph the reflections in the John Hancock Tower and enjoy the view from the top of the Prudential Center. The Big Dig, one of the world's most ambitious civil engineering projects is scheduled to transform the downtown when traffic on the overhead expressway moves underground. Boston buzzes, thanks to 250,000 university students in the area, plus great restaurants, sidewalk cafés, bars and shops galore. The symphony orchestra is one of the finest, as is the art collection at the MFA (Museum of Fine Arts). And you never have to 'drag' children round the New England Aquarium or the Museum of Science, where the Van de Graaff generator produces lightning to order. Outside, there are acres of greenery, including the Common (the country's oldest public park, 1634) and water, water everywhere, from the Charles River to the harbour where the tea was dumped in 1773 as a protest against what was seen as punitive British taxes on the colonists.
Across the river is Cambridge, indistinguishable from Boston to outsiders, but a separate city in its own right. The leafy home of the brainy students at Harvard and MIT (Massachusetts Institute Of Technology), this is Oxbridge, USA. Take the free tour of Harvard, America's oldest university (founded 1636), and a student reels off the names of the famous alumni (old boys) - Longfellow, TS Eliot and John Updike, Leonard Bernstein and Jack Lemmon, and not forgetting six presidents. Then, you can pick 'n' mix - pop into second-hand CD shops and Harvard's renowned museums or ogle the mansions on Brattle Street.
Just outside Boston are two small towns that every American schoolchild knows - Lexington and Concord, where the Revolution started. Every year on Patriots' Day (April 19) locals dress up to re-enact the events. Surprisingly, wearing the infamous Redcoats is more popular than playing one of the "embattled farmers" who "fired the shot heard round the world" back in 1775. But Concord had a second bite at the cherry of fame, thanks to a group of influential 19th-century authors. See where they lived and wrote: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Thoreau, who retreated to Walden Pond. While they were establishing an American literary tradition, an industrial movement was under way in nearby Lowell. This mill town saw the rise of the modern textile factory, and the vast Boott Cotton Mills Museum not only tells the story but also has working looms, as deafening now as they were 150 years ago.
Where next on our tour? One area that tends to be overlooked is North of Boston. Start in Salem, where much is made of the grisly witchcraft trials of 1692. But there's more to this city than that sorry saga. The newly-expanded Peabody Essex Museum is a treasure house, built on the 'souvenirs' brought back by sea captains, whose wealth also produced the mansions on Chestnut Street. Down on the waterfront is the House of the Seven Gables, the inspiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel of the same name. Farther along the coast is the 'other cape', rocky Cape Ann. Thank the owner of Hammond Castle for inventing the remote control; stop in down-to-earth Gloucester, home port for the fishing boat caught in The Perfect Storm; and click away at one of the most photographed buildings in America. This red fishing shack, nicknamed Motif No 1, stands on the quay in the artists' colony of Rockport.
Now it's time to head west. Route 2 leads across the state to the broad Connecticut River valley, where Historic Deerfield is like a film set for a costume drama. Along The Street, about a dozen of the 60 or so 18th- and 19th-century homes are open for viewing. The Indian House Door in the Memorial Hall Museum is a chilling reminder that this was frontier country 300 years ago - the hole in the door was made by a tomahawk.
Just as the coastline is holidayland, so, too, are the green rolling Berkshire Hills (pronounce that Burk-sher), perfect for hiking and biking. More surprisingly, there's culture in them thar hills. Williamstown is home to the Clark Art Institute, whose galleries are crammed with great Impressionists. Nearby, North Adams is a Cinderella story, a depressed mill town that has been revitalised by Mass Mo CA, a showcase for contemporary art on the scale of Tate Modern. These are open year-round, but farther to the south, the main draw is the summer arts festivals. Jacob's Pillow (near Becket) is synonymous with dance, while at Lenox, Shakespeare & Company perform and the Boston Symphony Orchestra plays on the Tanglewood estate. A century ago, the aristocracy of New York and Philadelphia fled the summer heat and built opulent 'summer cottages'. Some are still privately owned others are posh, small hotels.
Circling back east, you come to Springfield, where basketball was invented in 1891 and which now boasts the shiny new Basketball Hall of Fame as well as Old Sturbridge Village. This is another excellent 'living history' museum, where the cast of farmers, shoemakers and quilters present life as it was in the 1830s.
This is just a sampler of reasons to explore Massachusetts. Take to the back roads and discover a village green with a white-steepled church or a farm stand piled high with pumpkins. Chat to the locals and you’ll find that they are as passionate about politics as they were back in 1775. Also, that they’re proud of their state. After all, it gave us the microwave, the safety razor and e-mail, let alone baked beans, anaesthetics and mutual funds. I’m often asked by Brits heading for Massachusetts, “how long do I need?” The answer: “How long have you got?”
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