Overview

New England is a six-state region in the United States of America, associated with the States of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Hew Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont, in decreasing order of population. Within the New England region, numerous distinct heritages have collided with one another to form the modern region, with the most obvious distinction referring to the French heritage in Vermont, the Green Mountain State. Located in the Green Mountain State is the heritage of Calvin Coolidge, a former President of the United States. Additional aspects of early American history can also be identified within the remainder of the New England states and associated derivatives.

The Parks in Massachusetts

Within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Adams National Historical Park is located in the Quincy area, south of Boston along Massachusetts Bay. The Boston National Historical Park contains Faneuil Hall and is highly related to the Old South Meeting House which hosts Boston Tea Party reenactments on December 16 of every year. Though additional venues are associated with the Boston National Historical Park, a significant portion of the Boston city limits can pay tribute to the original perspective of the city from the colonial era. The four other National Historical Parks associated with the Commonwealth are the locations at Lowell, Minute Man, New Bedford Whaling, and Salem Maritime. The Lowell National Historical Park is located in the community of Lowell in Middlesex County because of the historical significance of the textile industry, with the Minute Man site in the nearby area of Lexington and Concord to the south, showcasing the American Revolutionary War. Outside of the aforementioned cases, New Bedford is a celebration of the traditional whaling industry, including the disproportionate Portuguese heritage, of the region, while Salem is renowned for the maritime tradition as well as for the historical significance of witchcraft.

The Parks in Connecticut

Only one National Historical Park site is located within the State of Connecticut: Weir Farm. Located in the southwestern part of the State and the far west of Fairfield County opposite the southern end of the Oblong in New York, the Weir Farm site is notable for attracting artists related to the Weir community to the area around Wilton and Ridgefield.

The Parks in New Hampshire

Only one National Historical Park site exists in the State of New Hampshire: Saint-Gaudens. Irish sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens was notable for attracting artists from the 1880s until around World War I to the Cornish Art Colony as the center of the art scene in the Town of Cornish, Sullivan County, New Hampshire, within the United States.

The Parks in Maine

Though Maine lacks an officially designated National Historical Park, Acadia is officially designated as a National Park, located predominantly on the same island for which Bar Harbor is located in the Mid-Coast region of the State.

The Parks in Rhode Island

Though the Lowell National Historical Park showcases the textile industry primarily with regards to the Merrimack River, the Charles River, and Pawtucket Falls on the Merrimack, the Blackstone River Valley is also notable for connections to the textile industry, albeit separately. If Lowell is known for the Age of Industrialization along the Merrimack, then the Blackstone River Valley is known for being an earlier industrial source in the areas between Worcester, Massachusetts, and Pawtucket, Rhode Island, down toward the Narragansett Bay.

The Parks in Vermont

The Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park serves the role of the sole National Historical Park located within the State of Vermont. No other National Historical Park sites exist, though the Saint-Gaudens site in Cornish, New Hampshire, is nearly directly opposite the Connecticut River from the immediate area in Vermont. The importance of the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller site, not just to the Town of Woodstock nor to the County of Windsor, but to the entire United States, is perhaps that of environmentalism and conservationism, both of which remain common cultural traits associated with the State of Vermont perhaps to a greater extent than elsewhere in the nation.