Chelmsford, Massachusetts

Chelmsford is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the Greater Lowell area. It is located 24 miles (39 km) northwest of Boston and, bordering on the city of Lowell, is part of the Greater Lowell metropolitan area. Named after Chelmsford, England, the town was incorporated in May 1655 by an act of the Massachusetts General Court. When Chelmsford was incorporated, its local economy was fueled by lumber mills, limestone quarries and kilns. The Chelmsford militia played a role in the American Revolution at the Battle of Lexington and Concord and the Battle of Bunker Hill. The farming community of East Chelmsford was incorporated as Lowell in the 1820s.

During the course of the next decades, it would go on to become one of the first large-scale factory towns in the United States, because of its early role in the country’s Industrial Revolution. Chelmsford experienced a drastic increase in population between 1950 and 1970, coinciding with the connection of U.S. Route 3 in Lowell to Massachusetts Route 128 in the 1950s and the extension of U.S. Route 3 from Chelmsford to New Hampshire in the 1960s.

Chelmsford has a representative town meeting form of government. The town has one public high school as well as two middle schools and four elementary schools. The charter middle school started in Chelmsford became a regional charter school (Innovation Academy) but was later relocated to neighboring Tyngsborough.