Welcome to Bedford

Bedford is a town in Middlesex County about 15 miles northwest of Boston, between the Concord and Shawsheen rivers. It pairs a historic center along Great Road with Bedford Depot Park, where the Minuteman Bikeway ends, part of Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, and Route 3 access, with Hanscom Field on its southern edge.

About Bedford

Native peoples fished and farmed along the Concord and Shawsheen rivers long before English settlement. In 1637 and 1638 the General Court granted land along the Concord River to Governor John Winthrop and Deputy Governor Thomas Dudley, who divided it at two boulders still known as the Two Brothers. English settlers arrived around 1640, John Wilson built a mill on Vine Brook in the 1680s, and in 1729 Bedford was incorporated from parts of Concord and Billerica as a farming community of about fifty households.

On the morning of April 19, 1775, Bedford's minutemen and militia gathered at the Fitch Tavern before marching to Concord. Tradition holds that the Bedford Flag went with them, and the town describes it as the oldest complete flag known to exist in the United States. A paper mill went up on Vine Brook in the 1840s and the railroad arrived in the 1870s, and after the state bought land for an airfield in 1941, research employers grew up around Hanscom and the Route 3 corridor. Bedford borders Billerica to the north, Burlington to the east, Lexington to the southeast, Lincoln to the south, Concord to the southwest, and Carlisle to the northwest.

Getting Around

Bedford has no commuter rail station, but Fitchburg Line stations in Concord and Lincoln and Lowell Line stations in Billerica, Wilmington, and Woburn are a short drive away, with trains to North Station in Boston. MBTA bus 62 runs from Bedford center to Alewife on the Red Line. U.S. Route 3 crosses the northeast part of town with an exit at Route 62, Routes 4 and 225 run along Great Road through the center toward Lexington, and I-95/Route 128 is just over the line in Lexington and Burlington. The Minuteman Bikeway runs about 10 miles from Bedford Depot Park through Lexington and Arlington to Alewife, and the Narrow Gauge and Reformatory Branch rail trails also start at the depot.

Bedford Real Estate

Bedford real estate ranges from early 1700s farmhouses to homes built after World War II, when the town grew quickly around Hanscom and new research employers. Center-chimney colonials and a few Georgian houses survive near the center, along with Federal houses, Greek Revival homes, Victorian cottages, Queen Anne houses, and bungalows and Colonial Revival homes from the early 1900s, plus single-family neighborhoods and condominiums built in the decades since.

The Bedford Center Historic District, listed on the National Register in 1977, covers Great Road between Bacon and Concord roads, with the 1816 First Parish church on the common, the Old Burying Ground, and the Fitch Tavern. Other National Register districts include Two Brothers Rocks-Dudley Road along the Concord River and the Wilson Mill-Old Burlington Road district, and the Job Lane House, an early 1700s saltbox, is run as a museum. Areas include Bedford Center on Great Road and the neighborhoods around Bedford Depot.

Living in Bedford

About a fifth of Bedford is protected open space, including part of Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge along the Concord River, known for birding. A trail through the Altmann Conservation Area leads to the Two Brothers Rocks, inscribed in 1889, and Bedford Depot Park keeps the restored 1874 depot, an 1877 freight house with railroad displays, and a restored Budd rail car where three rail trails meet.

The Bedford Free Public Library displays the Bedford Flag, and the Old Burying Ground on Springs Road dates to the town's founding in 1729. Bedford Day each September brings a parade, fair, road race, and fireworks, and Minute Man National Historical Park is a short ride away in Lexington, Lincoln, and Concord.

Questions About Bedford

What kinds of homes are in Bedford?

Bedford has colonial and Federal houses near the historic center, Greek Revival and Victorian homes, early 1900s bungalows and Colonial Revival houses, many single-family homes built after World War II, and condominiums.

How do you get to Boston from Bedford?

MBTA bus 62 runs to Alewife on the Red Line, and the Minuteman Bikeway reaches Alewife too. Commuter rail stations in Concord, Lincoln, Billerica, and Woburn are a short drive away, and by car Route 3 and I-95/Route 128 lead toward Boston.

What is the Bedford Flag?

It is a crimson silk militia flag with the motto Vince Aut Morire, or Conquer or Die, made in the early 1700s and carried, by tradition, by Bedford's minutemen in 1775. The town describes it as the oldest complete flag known to exist in the United States, and it is on view at the Bedford Free Public Library.

To see homes for sale in Bedford, browse the listings below. Thinking of buying or selling in Bedford? Call (617) 848-9616 or get a free home valuation. Bedford is part of our MetroWest guide.

Photos: John Phelan, CC BY 3.0 and Pi.1415926535, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.