Mattapoisett, Massachusetts
Encyclopedia
Mattapoisett is a town in Plymouth County
Plymouth County, Massachusetts
Plymouth County is a county located in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. As of 2010, the population was 494,919. Its county seats are Plymouth and Brockton...

, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The population was 6,463 at the 2008 census.

For geographic and demographic information on the village of Mattapoisett Center, please see the article Mattapoisett Center, Massachusetts
Mattapoisett Center, Massachusetts
Mattapoisett Center is a census-designated place in the town of Mattapoisett in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 2,966 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Mattapoisett Center is located at ....

.

History and general information

Mattapoisett was settled in 1750 and officially incorporated in 1857. Originally a part of Rochester
Rochester, Massachusetts
Rochester is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,232 at the 2010 census.-History:Rochester was settled in 1679 on the lands called "Sippican" by the local Wampanoags, along the coast of Buzzards Bay...

, the area had most likely been visited by European traders and sailors. There is also evidence of prior Wampanoag Indian settlements, including burial grounds, throughout the town. In fact, the word Mattapoisett is Wampanoag for "a place of resting."

Early industry included logging and farming, but Mattapoisett became best known as a center for shipbuilding and whaling. Some 400 ships were built in the town's shipyards from 1740 until the 1870s, including the Acushnet, the ship that Moby-Dick
Moby-Dick
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, was written by American author Herman Melville and first published in 1851. It is considered by some to be a Great American Novel and a treasure of world literature. The story tells the adventures of wandering sailor Ishmael, and his voyage on the whaleship Pequod,...

 author Herman Melville
Herman Melville
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and the posthumous novella Billy Budd....

 sailed on and later deserted. The town supplied many of the whalers used on the East Coast in the first half of the nineteenth century. The last one, the Wanderer, was built in 1878, shortly after the discovery of oil in Pennsylvania.

With the decline of whaling and associated shipbuilding, Mattapoisett transitioned into a popular summer vacation spot for prominent New York and Boston residents, including Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932...

  Today, the town is largely a suburban community, with most residents commuting to jobs in greater New Bedford
New Bedford, Massachusetts
New Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States, located south of Boston, southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, and about east of Fall River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 95,072, making it the sixth-largest city in Massachusetts...

, Providence
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...

 or Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, or operating businesses targeting summer tourism.

A fictitious future Mattapoisett features largely into the 1976 novel Woman on the Edge of Time
Woman on the Edge of Time
Woman on the Edge of Time is a novel by Marge Piercy. It is considered a classic of utopian "speculative" science fiction as well as a feminist classic.-Plot summary:...

by Marge Piercy
Marge Piercy
Marge Piercy is an American poet, novelist, and social activist. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Gone to Soldiers, a sweeping historical novel set during World War II.-Biography:...

. Mattapoisett, Massachusetts is the only known town in the world with the name Mattapoisett. A campsite at nearby Camp Cachalot shares the name.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...

, the town has a total area of 23.3 square miles (60.4 km²), of which, 16.5 square miles (42.7 km²) is land and 6.8 square miles (17.7 km²)is water. The Mattapoisett River
Mattapoisett River
The Mattapoisett River is an river in southeastern Massachusetts, in the United States.The river begins at Snipatuit Pond in Rochester and flows generally southwards through Mattapoisett to empty into Mattapoisett Harbor, an arm of Buzzards Bay...

 begins in Rochester and flows through town, emptying into Mattapoisett Harbor, an arm of Buzzards Bay
Buzzards Bay (bay)
Buzzards Bay is a bay of the Atlantic Ocean adjacent to the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It is approximately 28 miles long by 8 miles wide. It is a popular destination for fishing, boating, and tourism. Since 1914, Buzzards Bay has been connected to Cape Cod Bay by the Cape Cod Canal...

. Mattapoisett is home to Haskell Swamp in the Tinkham Hill area in the northern part of town. There is also a state-managed wildlife area, commonly known as Nunes Farm, along the waterfront near the Fairhaven line. There are four beaches and two parks along the waterfront, as well as Ned Point Light
Ned Point Light
Ned's Point Light is an historic lighthouse on Ned's Point Road in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts.The light was built in 1837 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. The United States Coast Guard Light List description is "White tower". The actual light is 41 feet above Mean...

 which was built in 1837 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. The town is home to the Fin, Fur and Feather Club, a hunt club and shooting range located along the Mattapoisett River off Crystal Spring Road.

Mattapoisett is the southwestern-most town of Plymouth County. It is bordered by Fairhaven
Fairhaven, Massachusetts
Fairhaven is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is located on the south coast of Massachusetts where the Acushnet River flows into Buzzards Bay, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean...

 to the southwest, Acushnet
Acushnet, Massachusetts
Acushnet is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 10,303 at the 2010 census.- History :Acushnet was first settled in 1659. It has been included as a part of three separate towns throughout its history. It was formerly the northeastern section of the town of...

 to the northwest, Rochester
Rochester, Massachusetts
Rochester is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,232 at the 2010 census.-History:Rochester was settled in 1679 on the lands called "Sippican" by the local Wampanoags, along the coast of Buzzards Bay...

 to the north, and Marion
Marion, Massachusetts
Marion is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,123 at the 2000 census.For geographic and demographic information on the village of Marion Center, please see the article Marion Center, Massachusetts.-History:...

 to the east. Buzzards Bay
Buzzards Bay (bay)
Buzzards Bay is a bay of the Atlantic Ocean adjacent to the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It is approximately 28 miles long by 8 miles wide. It is a popular destination for fishing, boating, and tourism. Since 1914, Buzzards Bay has been connected to Cape Cod Bay by the Cape Cod Canal...

 lies to the south. The town is nine miles (14 km) east of New Bedford, Massachusetts
New Bedford, Massachusetts
New Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States, located south of Boston, southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, and about east of Fall River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 95,072, making it the sixth-largest city in Massachusetts...

, 38 miles (61.2 km) east-southeast of Providence, Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...

 and 60 miles (96.6 km) south of Boston.

Transportation

Interstate 195
Interstate 195 (Rhode Island-Massachusetts)
Interstate 195 is an Interstate Highway running a combined 40.1 miles in the U.S. states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. It travels from a junction with Interstate 95 in Providence, Rhode Island east to a junction with Interstate 495 and Route 25 in Wareham, Massachusetts...

 runs through the town, and U.S. Route 6
U.S. Route 6
U.S. Route 6 , also called the Grand Army of the Republic Highway, a name that honors an American Civil War veterans association, is a main route of the U.S. Highway system, running east-northeast from Bishop, California to Provincetown, Massachusetts. Until 1964, it continued south from Bishop to...

, which is the main road through town. I-195 has an exit for the town, Exit 19A/B, "Mattapoisett/N. Rochester," which accesses North Street.

Regional bus service can be reached in New Bedford, as can regional air service. The nearest rail service is either in Providence or at the terminus of the Middleborough-Lakeville line of the MBTA's
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, often referred to as the MBTA or simply The T, is the public operator of most bus, subway, commuter rail and ferry systems in the greater Boston, Massachusetts, area. Officially a "body politic and corporate, and a political subdivision" of the...

 commuter rail service to Boston. The nearest national airline service can be found at T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, Rhode Island, and the nearest international service can be reached at Logan International Airport
Logan International Airport
General Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport is located in the East Boston neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts . It covers , has six runways, and employs an estimated 16,000 people. It is the 19th busiest airport in the United States.Boston serves as a focus city for JetBlue Airways...

 in Boston.

Demographics

As of the census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

of 2000, there were 6,268 people, 2,532 households, and 1,769 families residing in the town. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 was 380.4 people per square mile (146.9/km²). There were 3,172 housing units at an average density of 192.5 per square mile (74.3/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 96.51% White, 0.62% African American, 0.13% Native American, 0.65% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 1.10% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...

, and 0.96% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.57% of the population.

There were 2,532 households out of which 30.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.7% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

 living together, 9.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.1% were non-families. 25.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.46 and the average family size was 2.97.

Age distribution figures show 23.9% of the population under the age of 18, 4.5% from 18 to 24, 26.0% from 25 to 44, 29.0% from 45 to 64, and 16.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females there were 92.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.9 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $58,466, and the median income for a family was $68,246. Males had a median income of $48,100 versus $35,938 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...

 for the town was $28,050. About 2.8% of families and 3.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.5% of those under age 18 and 3.2% of those age 65 or over.

Government

Mattapoisett is represented in the Massachusetts House of Representatives
Massachusetts House of Representatives
The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from single-member electoral districts across the Commonwealth. Representatives serve two-year terms...

 as a part of the Tenth Bristol district, which also includes Fairhaven, Marion, Rochester and a portion of Middleborough. The town is represented in the Massachusetts Senate
Massachusetts Senate
The Massachusetts Senate is the upper house of the Massachusetts General Court, the bicameral state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Senate comprises 40 elected members from 40 single-member senatorial districts in the state...

 as a part of the Second Bristol and Plymouth district, which also includes Acushnet, Dartmouth, Fairhaven and New Bedford. The town is patrolled by the Seventh (Bourne) Barracks of Troop D of the Massachusetts State Police
Massachusetts State Police
The Massachusetts State Police is an agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Executive Office of Public Safety and Security responsible for criminal law enforcement and traffic vehicle regulation across the state...

.

On the national level, Mattapoisett is a part of Massachusetts's 4th congressional district
Massachusetts's 4th congressional district
Massachusetts's 4th congressional district is mostly in southern Massachusetts and includes the South Coast region. It is represented by Barney Frank, who has served the district since January 1981....

, and is currently represented by Barney Frank
Barney Frank
Barney Frank is the U.S. Representative for . A member of the Democratic Party, he is the former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and is considered the most prominent gay politician in the United States.Born and raised in New Jersey, Frank graduated from Harvard College and...

. The state's senior (Class II) member of the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

, re-elected in 2008, is John Kerry
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...

. The junior (Class I) senator, elected in 2010, is Scott Brown
Scott Brown
Scott Brown is a United States senator.Scott Brown may also refer to:-Sportsmen:*Scott Brown , American college football coach of Kentucky State...

.

Mattapoisett uses the open town meeting
Open town meeting
An open town meeting is a form of town meeting in which all registered voters of a town may vote . This form of government is typical of smaller municipalities in the New England region of the United States....

 form of government, led by a board of selectmen
Board of selectmen
The board of selectmen is commonly the executive arm of the government of New England towns in the United States. The board typically consists of three or five members, with or without staggered terms.-History:...

. The town hall is located on Main Street, between Route 6 and the harbor. The town has its own police department and on-call fire department, both headquartered on Route 6. The Mattapoisett Free Public Library, located on Barstow Street, is a member of the Southeastern Massachusetts Library System (SEMLS) and the Massachusetts Library Internet Network (MLIN). The nearest hospitals are Saint Luke's Hospital in New Bedford and Tobey Hospital in Wareham, both of which are members of the Southcoast Hospitals Group.

Education

Mattapoisett is a member of the 2,700-student Old Rochester Regional School District. The town, along with Marion and Rochester, operate a single school system with each town having its own school subcommittee. Mattapoisett operates the Center School for prekindergarten through third grade students, and the Old Hammondtown School for grades 4-6. Seventh- and eighth-grade students attend Old Rochester Regional Junior High School, and high school students attend Old Rochester Regional High School
Old Rochester Regional High School
Old Rochester Regional High School serves the towns of Marion, Mattapoisett, and Rochester in Plymouth County of Massachusetts. The school was originally built in 1961 and underwent a major renovation beginning in 2001. This project added additional classrooms and combined the high school with...

. Both regional schools are located on Route 6 in Mattapoisett, near the Marion town line. The high school, commonly known as "O.R.R.," competes in the South Coast Conference for athletics. Their mascot is the bulldog, and their colors are red and white. The town's Thanksgiving Day football rival is Apponequet Regional High School in Lakeville.

In addition to public schools, high school students may also choose to attend Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School
Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School
is located on a 80-acre campus in Rochester, Massachusetts, the geographical center of the five-member town school district that includes Acushnet Carver,Mattapoisett, Rochester and students from Freetown & Lakeville Public Schools....

, located in Rochester. The nearest private schools are Tabor Academy
Tabor Academy
Tabor Academy is a highly selective independent preparatory school located in Marion, Massachusetts, United States. Tabor is known for its marine science courses...

 in Marion and Bishop Stang High School
Bishop Stang High School
Mission Statement: Bishop Stang High School is a private Catholic secondary school located in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts, in the New England region of the United States. It was the first diocesan secondary school in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fall River, which includes most of Southeastern...

 in Dartmouth.

Prior to the opening of the Old Rochester Regional High School in 1961, students in grades 10-12 attended Fairhaven High School
Fairhaven High School
Fairhaven High School is located in the town of Fairhaven in south eastern Massachusetts. The school building was donated in 1906 by Henry Huttleston Rogers, who was one of the key men in John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust...

 in Fairhaven
Fairhaven, Massachusetts
Fairhaven is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is located on the south coast of Massachusetts where the Acushnet River flows into Buzzards Bay, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean...


Notable residents

  • Robert Brink
    Robert Brink
    Robert Greenleaf Brink is an American violinist, conductor, and educator. He is a professor of music at the New England Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts....

    , violinist (b. 1924)
  • Jim Craig, Olympic hockey goalie, 1980
  • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
    Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
    Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932...

    , United States Supreme Court justice
  • Eunice Randall, broadcast radio pioneer
  • Geoff Smith
    Geoff Smith (athlete)
    Geoffrey Smith is a British long-distance runner who won the Boston Marathon in both 1984 and 1985.-Notable Information:...

    , Boston Marathon winner, 1984–85
  • Peter Uihlein
    Peter Uihlein
    Peter Uihlein is an American amateur golfer. He was a member of the victorious U.S. team at the 2009 Walker Cup, where he compiled a 4-0 match record. A junior at Oklahoma State University, Uihlein won the 2010 U.S...

    , Number One Ranked Amateur Golfer
  • Devon Barley, Contestant on The Voice (U.S. TV series)
    The Voice (U.S. TV series)
    The Voice is an American reality talent show that premiered on April 26, 2011 on the NBC television network. Based on the reality singing competition The Voice of Holland, the series was created by Dutch television producer John de Mol. It is part of an international series...

    , Season 1, 2011
  • Irving Vermilya, broadcast radio pioneer

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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