Framingham

Town in Middlesex County, east Massachusetts; population (1998 est) 64,600. It is situated on the Sudbury River, 34 km/21 mi southwest of Boston. A residential and commercial centre, Framingham has manufactured textiles and carpets since the early 19th century; paper products also have been an economic mainstay, and a General Motors plant was here until the 1980s. Biotechnology is now an important industry.

The first Europeans arrived in the area in 1633 and the town was settled from 1647. Thomas Danforth, who bought land in 1660, named the town after his birthplace, Framlingham, in Suffolk, England. The town was incorporated in 1700. Early industrial works made straw braid and bonnets; industrial development was aided by the arrival of the railway in 1834.

For many years, it has been the most populous town in Massachusetts.

The American revolutionary figure and former slave Crispus Attucks may have come from Framingham; and US author Henry Thoreau delivered his noted ‘Slavery in Massachusetts’ address here in 1854.

The town is the site of Shopper's World (1951), New England's first planned suburban shopping complex, Framingham State College (1859), and the state women's prison. It has 14 entries in the national register of historic places and a 45-acre wild flower site. The Danforth Museum of Art dates from 1973.