Braintree, Massachusetts

The Gen. Sylvanus Thayer House, also known as the Sylvanus Thayer Birthplace, is an historic house at 786 Washington Street in Braintree, Massachusetts. It is operated by the Braintree Historical Society as the Thayer House Museum, which is open year-round. The 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame house was built in 1720 by Nathaniel Thayer and was subsequently expanded in the 1760s and again in the 19th century. General Sylvanus Thayer, known as the "father of West Point," was born in the house in 1785 and resided there until 1793. In 1958, the parcel of land on which the house sat was purchased by the Walworth Steel Company; rather than tearing the old house down, it was dismantled and moved approximately one mile down Washington Street to its present location. Roughly 60% of the timbers in the house are original, while the others have been replaced during restoration with materials appropriate to the late 18th century. The house is furnished to represent a middle-class agricultural household, like the Thayer family, in 1785–1793. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The Braintree Historical Society constructed a reproduction post-and-beam dairy barn to complement the Thayer House Museum in that same year. Both contain exhibit galleries and are open to the public. A cannon that was a gift from the U.S. Military at West Point, is on the front lawn of the House. Both wheels were reconstructed in by a wheel wright and a blacksmith, one for the wood and one for the iron tread, working together in Colonial Williamsburg, using only tools and techniques consistent with the period. The wheels were reinstalled and the cannon was rededicated in a formal Commemoration Ceremony on the front lawn of the Thayer House with the Williamsburg craftsmen present, on June 21, 2015. The cannon and carriage have been completely restored. Both wheels were reconstructed in by a wheel wright and a blacksmith, one for the wood and one for the iron tread, working together in Colonial Williamsburg, using only tools and techniques consistent with the period. The wheels were reinstalled and the cannon was rededicated in a formal Commemoration Ceremony on the front lawn of the Thayer House with the Williamsburg craftsmen present, on June 21, 2015.

The Thayer Public Library is a public library located in the town of Braintree, Massachusetts with 102,000 books, 200 periodical subscriptions, and 8,000 videos, DVDs, music CDs, and audiobooks. The library is a member of the Old Colony Library Network.

Thayer Academy (TA) is a private, co-educational, college-preparatory day school located in Braintree, Massachusetts, United States. The academy, conceived in 1871 at the bequest of General Sylvanus Thayer, known as the father of the United States Military Academy at West Point, and founder of the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, was established in 1877. Thayer annually enrolls approximately 470 students in the Upper School (grades 9–12) and an additional 220 students in the Middle School (grades 5–8). The 34-acre (14 ha) campus is situated in the heart of Braintree and consists of eight buildings and 54 classrooms. Students are drawn primarily from Boston's MetroWest and South Shore communities.

Braintree station is an intermodal transit station in Braintree, Massachusetts. It serves the MBTA's Red Line and the MBTA Commuter Rail Old Colony Lines as well as MBTA buses. It is located at Ivory and Union Streets. The tracks of the Red Line and commuter rail lines are all parallel to one another, their platforms are offset; the commuter rail platform is located north of Union Street, while the Red Line platform is south of the street. The station features a large park and ride garage, with space for 1,322 automobiles. Braintree is fully accessible on all modes.

Sunset Lake is water body located in Norfolk County in Eastern Massachusetts, United States, in the south side of the town of Braintree.

The Cochato River is a stream rising from Avon, Massachusetts and running several miles north to its confluence with the Monatiquot River in Braintree. It is part of the Weymouth Fore River watershed and empties into Boston Harbor. The river serves as the boundary between Braintree and Randolph. The river previously fed the Richardi Reservoir, a water system serving nearly 90,000 people in the Towns of Holbrook, Randolph, and Braintree. This use ended in the 1980s, however, due to severe pollution from the Baird & McGuire company. From 1912 to 1983, the Baird & McGuire chemical manufacturing facility was operated near the river in Holbrook, manufacturing products such as pesticides, disinfectants, soaps, and solvents. Between 1954 and 1977, the company was fined at least 35 times by various state and federal agencies for numerous violations. Because of their poor storage and disposal practices, industrial waste was discharged into the soil, river, wetlands, and a gravel pit. The facility was closed in 1983 and declared a "superfund" site. The Environmental Protection Agency dredged and treated over 4,000 cubic yards (3,100 m3) of sediments in the Cochato, with cleanup completed in 1997. The river has been monitored since that time.

Braintree High School (BHS) is a four-year public secondary school located in Braintree, Massachusetts. The school is part of the Braintree Public School district and is situated on the northwest side of Sunset Lake at 128 Town Street.

All Souls Church, also known as All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church of Braintree, is a church on the National Register of Historic Places, it is located at 196 Elm Street in Braintree, Massachusetts. The building is a large fieldstone structure, in a cruciform plan with a square tower that has a crenellated top. The gable ends are decorated with bargeboard, and the entrance is set under a gabled entry porch below a large window with Gothic tracery. The church was designed by Boston architect Edwin Lewis and built in 1905 for a congregation organized in 1900; it is Braintree's first stone church building. Land for the building was donated by George O. Wales, a leading force in uniting Braintree's Unitarian and Universalist congregations.The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.

Archbishop Williams High School is a co-educational Catholic school in Braintree, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded in 1949 by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. Archbishop Williams' school seal, originally that of the founding order of nuns, is the pelican, which was an early Christian symbol of Jesus. The school's motto is Caritas Christi Urget Nos, or "The Love of Christ Drives Us On." Blue and gold are the school's colors. The school is named after John Joseph Williams, the first Archbishop of Boston. Archbishop Williams High School was dedicated on September 12, 1949, by Cardinal Richard Cushing. In February 2004, the school was renamed Archbishop Williams High School Inc. to reflect its new independent governance status after separating from the Boston Archdiocese in the wake of the child sex abuse scandal.In the fall of 2014 Archbishop Williams added a 7th & 8th grade program. In the fall of 2016 Archbishop Williams unveiled its new Al and Rita Nazzaro P’75, ’76, ’78, ’82, ’83 Science Lab located on the top floor of the school as well as the Paul L. Dignan ’55 Athletic Training Center, its new training and workout center located underneath the gym. Along with these changes the school has added the James and Katherine MacDonald P'72,'74,'79,'82,'85,'87 Amphitheater, dedicated in Spring of 2017 and includes a walkway and amphitheater in accordance with the ongoing campus beautification project. Tuition is $15,750 for grades 9–12 and $13,400 for grades 7-8 for the 2020 & 2021 school year.

Pond Meadow Park is a 320 acres (130 ha) multi use park located between the towns of Braintree and Weymouth in Massachusetts. It has a 20 acres (8.1 ha) pond and dam that provide floodplain protection to the nearby Weymouth Landing Area. The park also acts as a recreation and conservation area, with a picnic area, camp ground, and walking and bike trails. It was officially opened in 1976 and is run under the Weymouth Braintree Regional Recreation Conservation District.

South Shore Plaza is a shopping mall in Braintree, Massachusetts, United States, owned by Simon Property Group. It is near the Braintree Split interchange, off the I-93 / US 1 and Route 37 junction. The mall opened as an open-air plaza in 1961; it was enclosed in 1976 and expanded between 1995 and 1996. With 192 tenants and 1,586,446 sq ft (147,385.7 m2) of gross leasable area, the mall is the largest in New England in terms of square footage and is the 16th-largest mall in the United States. As of 2023, the mall's anchor stores are DSW, Macy's, Nordstrom, Sears, Primark, and Target. Previous anchors include Circuit City, Filene's, Filene's Basement, Jordan Marsh, and Lord & Taylor.

The Braintree Split is the major interchange of Interstate 93 (I-93), U.S. Route 1 (US 1), and Route 3 in the South Shore of Massachusetts, on the city line between Braintree and Quincy. Traveling northbound, the routes merge into a three-way concurrency towards Boston. Traveling southbound, they divide into the concurrent I-93 and US 1 towards southeastern Massachusetts, and Route 3 towards Cape Cod. The split was previously the southern terminus of Route 128, the main beltway around Boston; it shared the roadbed with I-93 and US 1 traveling towards the split before they join with Route 3. It was truncated to the junction of I-93 and I-95 in Canton in 1997; despite no longer carrying this designation, the split continues to be informally recognized as the starting point of Route 128 within Massachusetts.The Braintree Split is used as a focal point in local radio and television traffic reports. In 2006, weekday traffic volume through the interchange averaged 250,000 to 275,000 vehicles daily.