Sudbury is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. At the 2020 census, it had a population of 18,934. The town, located in Greater Boston's MetroWest region, has a rich colonial history.

History
Geography
- Adjacent towns
Demographics
Places of worship
Education
Notable people
See also

History

The town was incorporated in 1639. At that time, the boundaries of Sudbury included (by 1653) all what is now of Wayland (which split off in 1780), and parts of Framingham, Marlborough, Stow and Maynard (Maynard split off 1871). The Sudbury Center Historic District has changed little since 1800.

Sudbury also contributed the most militia during King Philip's War and was the site of a native raid. Ephraim Curtis was a successful leader of the militia of West Sudbury and would lend his name to the town's junior high school. Sudbury militia participated in the Battle of Lexington and Concord, in 1775, where Sudbury members sniped on British Red Coats returning to Boston.

One of Sudbury's historic landmarks, the Wayside Inn, claims to be the country's oldest operating inn, built and run by the Howe family for many generations. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote Tales of a Wayside Inn, a book of poems published in 1863. In the book, the poem The Landlord's Tale was the source of the immortal phrase "listen my children and you shall hear, of the midnight ride of Paul Revere." Henry Ford bought the inn in 1923, restored it and donated it to a charitable foundation which continues to run it as an operating inn to this day. Ford also built a boys' school on the property, as well as a grist mill, and the Martha–Mary Chapel. He brought in the Redstone Schoolhouse from Sterling, which was reputed to be the school in Sarah Josepha Hale's nursery rhyme Mary Had a Little Lamb. However, Giuseppi Cavicchio's refusal to sell his water rights scuttled Henry Ford's plans to build an auto parts factory at the site of Charles O. Parmenter's mill in South Sudbury.

In the period after World War II, Sudbury experienced rapid growth in population and industry. Defense contractor Raytheon became a major employer after opening a large research facility in Sudbury in 1958. Another major employer in that period was Sperry Rand. In the 1970s, the town was home to many of the engineers working in the minicomputer revolution at Digital Equipment Corporation in nearby Maynard. Sudbury was also one of the largest carnation-growing towns, with many greenhouse operations.

Residentially, Sudbury's 1-acre (4,000 m²) zoning bylaws helped the town maintain a more rural character through the 1970s and 1980s, when developments of single-family Colonials and large Capes established it as an affluent location. Commercial growth was restricted to the town's main thoroughfare, US Route 20, and significant tracts of open space—including much wetland—were preserved in the northern half of town. As subdivisions of large homes continued to be constructed well into the 1990s, Sudbury became one of the wealthiest towns in Massachusetts.

Contrary to local legend, the town's ZIP code of 01776 was not specially assigned in recognition of the town's historical connections to the Revolutionary War, according to the Sudbury Historical Society.

Geography

An antique granite road marker along Route 27 in the town's center

Sudbury in 1856

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 24.6 square miles (64 km²), of which 24.4 square miles (63 km²) is land and 0.3 square miles (0.78 km²), or 1.06%, is water. The highest point in Sudbury is on the north slope of Nobscot Hill, and the highest summit is Tippling Rock, which commands a great view of the west of Boston and the tops of the Hancock and Prudential buildings in downtown.

Sudbury is bordered by Wayland (the Sudbury River) on the east; Framingham on the south; Hudson, Maynard, Marlborough, and Stow on the west; Concord on the northeast; and Acton on the north. A larger town, Sudbury also shares a common corner with Lincoln, with which it shares a regional high school, Lincoln-Sudbury High School. Sudbury is 20 miles (32 km) west of Boston, 26 miles (42 km) east of Worcester, and 194 miles (312 km) from New York City.

The area of original town of Sudbury in 1650 included most of the area within the present towns of Wayland and Maynard and all of the area within the present town of Sudbury.

Adjacent towns

Sudbury is located in eastern Massachusetts, bordered by several towns:

Maynard & Stow	Acton	Concord
Hudson		Wayland
	Sudbury

Marlborough	Framingham

Demographics

Historical population
Year	Pop.	±%
1790	1,290	—
1800	1,303	+1.0%
1810	1,287	−1.2%
1820	1,417	+10.1%
1830	1,423	+0.4%
1840	1,422	−0.1%
1850	1,578	+11.0%
1860	1,691	+7.2%
1870	2,091	+23.7%
1880	1,178	−43.7%
1890	1,197	+1.6%
1900	1,150	−3.9%
1910	1,120	−2.6%
1920	1,121	+0.1%
1930	1,182	+5.4%
1940	1,754	+48.4%
1950	2,596	+48.0%
1960	7,447	+186.9%
1970	13,506	+81.4%
1980	14,027	+3.9%
1990	14,358	+2.4%
2000	16,841	+17.3%
2010	17,659	+4.9%
2020	18,934	+7.2%
* population 1850–2010 Source: United States Census records and Population Estimates Program data. * population 1790–1840 Source: Map Of Massachusetts

As of the census of 2000, there were 16,841 people, 5,504 households, and 4,749 families residing in the town. The population density was 691.1 people per square mile (266.8/km²). There were 5,590 housing units at an average density of 229.4 per square mile (88.6/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 94.23% Caucasian, 0.80% African American, 0.03% Native American, 3.72% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.23% from other races, and 0.96% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.24% of the population. An update in the town's census recorded the population at 18,192 as of 6/10/2015.

There were 5,504 households, out of which 51.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 78.5% were married couples living together, 6.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 13.7% were non-families. 11.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 5.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.02 and the average family size was 3.28.

In the town, the population was spread out, with 32.5% under the age of 18, 3.2% from 18 to 24, 27.3% from 25 to 44, 27.2% from 45 to 64, and 9.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.3 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $151,041, and the median income for a family was $222,008. Males had a median income of $148,593 versus $47,500 for females. The per capita income for the town was $75,865. About 2.1% of families and 2.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.9% of those under age 18 and 4.8% of those age 65 or over.

Places of worship

Sudbury's First Parish Church

The town's Presbyterian Church

First Baptist Church of Sudbury
Congregation B'nai Torah, Jewish
Congregation Beth El of the Sudbury River Valley], Jewish
Chabad Center of Sudbury], Jewish
First Parish of Sudbury. Gathered in 1640, and moved to the present site in 1723. The historic meeting house (second on the site) was built in 1797. First Parish became Unitarian in 1837 and is now Unitarian Universalist.
Memorial Congregational Church, member of the United Church of Christ. An Open and Affirming Congregation.
Our Lady of Fatima Parish, Roman Catholic
Presbyterian Church in Sudbury
Saint Elizabeth's Episcopal Church
St. Anselm Rectorate, Roman Catholic
St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church
Sudbury United Methodist Church

Education

Sudbury students in kindergarten through eighth grade attend Sudbury Public Schools, with high school students attending schools in the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional School District, which was established in 1954, integrating the former Sudbury High School with that of the nearby town of Lincoln, Massachusetts. In 2011, Boston magazine ranked Sudbury's school system 4th in the state, in both of its categories(classroom/academics & Testing/Achievement scores). In subsequent (as well as many prior) years, Sudbury is perennially ranked as a 'Top 20' Massachusetts school system. [1]

In June 2002, the towns of Lincoln and Sudbury began a $74 million project to build a new high school near the site of the original building. The shared Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School (LSRHS) is in Sudbury.

The high school's science program student team won the 2006 National Ocean Sciences Bowl championship and came in second in 2005. LSRHS has a nationally recognized school newspaper and school yearbook, The Forum and DYAD, respectively.

There are four elementary schools in Sudbury and one middle school. The four elementary schools are:

Josiah Haynes Elementary School
Israel Loring Elementary School
General John Nixon Elementary School
Peter Noyes Elementary School

The middle school is:

Ephraim Curtis Middle School

Sudbury has two former elementary schools that were converted to other uses:

Fairbank Elementary School is now a community center, and the central office for the school district.
Horse Pond Elementary School is now a Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory.

Notable people

Horace Abbott, iron manufacturer
George Hunt Barton, geologist, arctic explorer, and college professor. Founding president of the Boston Children's Museum
Edith Nason Buckingham, zoologist, dog breeder, chicken farmer
Sarah Cloyce, Salem witch trials survivor; relocated to Sudbury after permanently leaving Salem
Ralph Adams Cram, architect, resided in Sudbury on Concord Road and built his family a private chapel which is now owned and operated by Saint Elizabeth's Episcopal Church
Coco Crisp, lived here during some of his time with the Boston Red Sox
Matthew B. J. Delaney, author
Dennis Eckersley, baseball Hall of Famer, lived on Morse Road before his years with the Boston Red Sox and on Plympton Road during and after his years with the Red Sox
Chris Evans, actor
Scott Evans, actor
Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, lived in Sudbury during parts of the 1920s and 1930s
Mike Gordon, bassist for Phish
Robert L. Gordon III, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense
Michelle Gorgone, Olympic snowboarder
Edward Hallowell, psychiatrist, author, and specialist on ADD/ADHD
Eddie House, NBA champion with the Boston Celtics
Stephen Huneck, artist and writer
Tyler Jewell, Olympic snowboarder
Michael Kolowich, documentary filmmaker and technology entrepreneur
William K. Lietzau Director of the US Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency
Tony Massarotti, sports reporter for The Boston Globe
John Nixon, General in the Continental Army during the American Revolution
Shaquille O'Neal, four-time NBA champion, 2000 NBA MVP, fifteen-time NBA All-Star, rapper, actor, and current Inside the NBA analyst lived in Sudbury for a brief time
Samuel Parris, Salem Witch Trials judge and Puritan minister, later preached in Wayland, which was then a part of Sudbury
Paula Poundstone, comedian, grew up in Sudbury
Edmund Rice, co-founder and early resident of the town from 1638–1656
Ashley Richardson (also known as Ashley Montana), model
Babe Ruth, baseball Hall of Famer. While with the Red Sox, he and his wife rented a small house next to Willis Pond, Sudbury, for the 1917–1918 off-season
Matt Savage, musician
Simon Shnapir, Olympic medalist pair skater
Fred Smerlas, five-time NFL Pro Bowler
Jarrod Shoemaker, Olympian and Triathlete
Jeremy Strong, actor and Emmy winner for his role on Succession
Callie Thorne, actress (Rescue Me)

Sudbury, Massachusetts facts for kids

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