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Massachusetts Oddities

Unusual destinations, curious landmarks, and worthwhile detours across Massachusetts.

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16 documented oddities Highest curiosity first

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Historic Oddities

Lizzie Borden House

Fall River, Massachusetts

The Fall River house where Andrew and Abby Borden were killed in 1892 now operates as a museum and inn centered on one of America's most…

Curious Landmarks

Paper House

Rockport, Massachusetts

A mechanical engineer turned layers of old newspaper into walls, chairs, desks, and even a grandfather clock inside this astonishing Cape Ann house.

Roadside Attractions

Turtle Boy

Worcester, Massachusetts

Worcester's beloved Turtle Boy fountain pairs a nude bronze youth with an enormous sea turtle in one of New England's most gloriously awkward public sculptures.

Curious Landmarks

Hammond Castle

Gloucester, Massachusetts

Inventor John Hays Hammond Jr. built a medieval-inspired stone castle on the Gloucester coast and filled it with his home, laboratory, collections, and technological experiments.

Giant Objects

Babson World Globe

Wellesley, Massachusetts

Babson College's 28-foot globe weighs 25 tons, was engineered to rotate on its axis, and began with a founder whose first idea involved spinning the Earth…

Strange Museums

Phineas Gage

Massachusetts

In 1848, railroad foreman Phineas Gage survived an accident that should have been unsurvivable. An explosion drove an iron tamping rod through his head. The rod…

Curious Landmarks

Clam Box of Ipswich

Ipswich, Massachusetts

Since 1935, this Ipswich restaurant has looked like an enormous cardboard takeout box with its top flaps thrown open.

Natural Oddities

Hagerman Fossil Beds

Hagerman, Connecticut

One of the world's richest Pliocene fossil deposits preserves horses, camels, otters, and other vanished animals.

Giant Objects

Hood Milk Bottle

Boston, Massachusetts

A 40-foot milk bottle that began life as a roadside ice cream stand in 1933 now towers beside Boston Children's Museum.

Roadside Attractions

Rollstone Boulder

Fitchburg, Massachusetts

Fitchburg loved its 110-ton glacial boulder so much that the city broke it into pieces, hauled it downtown, and reassembled the enormous rock beside the Upper…

Roadside Attractions

Jumbo at Tufts

Medford, Massachusetts

Tufts University's life-size bronze elephant marks a bizarre mascot history involving the real Jumbo, a preserved hide destroyed by fire, a saved tail, and ashes kept…

Historic Oddities

Dighton Rock

Berkley, Massachusetts

A 40-ton boulder covered in carved symbols was removed from the Taunton River and placed inside its own museum after centuries of argument over who made…