Norton, Massachusetts

Norton is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, containing the village of Norton Center. The town is the home of Wheaton College and the TPC Boston golf club, at which the Deutsche Bank Championship, a tournament on the schedule of the PGA Tour, is contested annually on the weekend preceding the Labor Day holiday.

Norton was first settled in 1669. Then called North Taunton for its location on the northern border of Taunton, Massachusetts, the town’s name was shortened to Norton upon its official establishment in 1710. Parts of Norton were originally established as Easton on December 21, 1725, and as Mansfield on April 26, 1770. Metacomet, the Wampanoag Indian sachem also known as King Phillip, is said to have hidden in a cave here near the end of King Philip’s War before meeting his death in Hockomock Swamp, a story well known to all Norton schoolchildren.

The town is bisected southeast to northwest by Interstate 495, as well as Massachusetts Route 140 from north to south and Massachusetts Route 123 from southwest to northeast. Interstate 495’s Exit 10 links the highway with Route 123. Exits 9 and 11 are just over the town lines. Route 140 and Route 123 intersect at the center of town, by the town green. Exit 12 (Mansfield) is an exit that goes to 140 north. The town is also a part of the Greater Attleboro Taunton Regional Transit Authority (GATRA) bus line. The nearest MBTA station is Mansfield.