Kingston, Massachusetts

Kingston is a coastal town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts. Before European settlers arrived, Kingston was part of the tribal homeland of the Wampanoag (Native American) people. Originally the north precinct of the town of Plymouth, Kingston was first settled by Europeans in 1620, shortly after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock.

Kingston is home to the longest continuously run boat yard in North America. The American Revolutionary War era brig, the USS Independence, has emerged as a town icon. In the early-to-middle 19th century, Kingston flourished as a center for shipbuilding, as well as ice harvesting. Jones River Pond, the largest body of freshwater in town, was used to harvest ice that was then be shipped throughout the world. Jones River Pond was even renamed to Silver Lake for marketing purposes during the height of the ice harvesting export industry and retains the name today.

In the 1950s Kingston was transformed from a small rural town into an extension of the Boston metropolitan area when Massachusetts Route 3 was constructed, connecting Boston to Cape Cod, with two exits in Kingston (and a third exit immediately over the town line in Duxbury). The town saw its largest population growth in the 1990s when the Old Colony Railroad was reopened as a commuter rail line, connecting once-rural Kingston with Boston, making Kingston an even more viable place for commuters to live.