Raccoon Island (Massachusetts)

Houghs Neck is a one-square-mile (2.6 km2) peninsula in Quincy, Massachusetts. It is surrounded by Quincy Bay, Hingham Bay and Rock Island Cove. It is lined by Perry Beach, which runs along Manet Avenue; Nut Island, which is just beyond Great Hill at the very end of the peninsula; and Edgewater Drive. Houghs Neck is commonly referred to by locals as "The Neck" or "God's Country," and its residents as "Neckahs" ("Neckers") or "Neck Birds".The Hough's Neck Pumping Station (or the "Pumpy" by the locals) is also part of the Boston Harbor Islands, along with Racoon Island, which can be walked to at low tide. Raccoon Island covers .3 sq. miles. In 1778, founding father John Adams left for a diplomatic mission to France from Houghs Neck instead of Boston, to evade capture by the British.

The House at 32 Bayview Avenue in Quincy, Massachusetts, is a modest Queen Anne style house built on the shore during Quincy's development of that area as a summer resort area. It was built in the 1880s, sited to take advantage of the views of the Town River to the north. It features relatively modest stylistic details, including varying gable sizes with bargeboard, and a wraparound porch with square posts and some Stick style woodwork.The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

Nut Island is a former island in Boston Harbor, part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. The island has been connected through a short causeway to the end of Houghs Neck, becoming part of the mainland of Quincy, Massachusetts. There are recreational trails, benches and a fishing pier on the small island, with multiple signs showcasing its history. The only building on the island is a Massachusetts Water Resources Authority sewage treatment plant, which screens out grit and large objects before pumping sewage from the south side of the system to the central processing facility at Deer Island through a 4.8 mile deep-bore tunnel. The Nut Island effect is named after this plant, which experienced management problems in the 1980s.

The Sea Street Historic District encompasses a portion of North Weymouth, Massachusetts that encapsulates 300 years of history in the town. The district is centered on a triangular area bounded by North Street, Bridge Street, and Sea Street, with extensions along Shaw Street, Curtis Street, and North Street as far as south as Neck Street. Predominantly residential in character, the district includes more than 150 buildings, dating from the 17th to the 20th century. Its most prominent features include Beals Park (on Bridge Street, established in the 1880s) and the 1852 Greek Revival Congratational Church on Athens Street. Most of the district's early buildings are modest in character, and are sparingly decorated; one of the more elaborate of these is the c. 1810 Federal period house at 180 North Street/555 Bridge Street. The oldest structure in the district is believed to be the Bicknell House at 55 Sea Street, a c. 1650 1+1⁄2-story Cape style house.The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.

The Brown–Hodgkinson House is a historic house at 42 Bicknell Street in Quincy, Massachusetts. This two story wood-frame house, built in 1832, was one of the first in what is known as the Germantown neighborhood. It was built by Captain Charles Brown, who moved here from Provincetown, seeing the beginning of growth of a fishing community. The house is predominantly Federal in character (despite a construction date that is late for that style), and received Queen Anne detailing in the 1880s.The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

Germantown is a primarily residential neighborhood in the city of Quincy, Massachusetts. The neighborhood is located on a peninsula surrounded by Town River Bay on the west and Rock Island Cove on the east. This peninsula was known since the 1640s as “Shed's Neck”.Palmer Street, the main thoroughfare of the neighborhood, was named for General Joseph Palmer. In 1752, Palmer and Richard Cranch, brother-in-law of John Adams and father of American jurist William Cranch, were held by tenure of lease by a company interested in German immigration to create a planned manufacturing community. The land was to be settled in the 1750s by a group of glassmakers and weavers from Germany. The planned community had failed by 1760, but the name has remained. Many of the Germans who originally settled in Germantown eventually left. Some went to Waldoboro, Maine, as indentured servants. By the late 18th century, ship building became the major industry because of the ideal location of the neighborhood. In 1861, a ferry service was established between Germantown and Quincy Point. The tallest building in the neighborhood is the seven-story O'Brien Towers. Most children in Germantown go to Snug Harbor for elementary school, Broad Meadows for middle school, and Quincy High for high school. Snug Harbor is the only school actually within the neighborhood. The neighborhood has a small general store (Palmer Street Store, also known as the Blue Store, as locals call it ). In 2007, the city opened the Germantown Neighborhood Center in the former St. Boniface Church for use in a variety of neighborhood educational and community functions.

Webb Memorial State Park is a public recreation area located on a peninsula that extends nearly half a mile into the Hingham Bay area of Boston Harbor in Massachusetts. It is composed of three connected drumlins and a low marsh area. The state park forms the only mainland portion of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area.

Weymouth Back River Reservation is a protected coastal reservation in Hingham and Weymouth, Massachusetts. It contains parks on the west and east sides of the northern end of Weymouth Back River. On the west side in Weymouth, Abigail Adams Park is adjacent to and north of Route 3A Bridge and Great Esker Park is south of the bridge. On the east side in Hingham, Stodder's Neck is north of the bridge and Bare Cove Park is south of the bridge. It features Weymouth Back River views, walking trails and landscaped areas.The reservation is part of the Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston.

The Fore River Bridge spans the Weymouth Fore River between Quincy and Weymouth, Massachusetts. The total length of the bridge including the approaches is 2,216 feet (675 m).

The Fore River Generating Station is a power plant operated by Calpine Corporation since 2014 alongside Weymouth Fore River in Weymouth, Massachusetts. It operates two combustion turbines, two heat recovery steam generators and one steam turbine. The plant has a baseload capacity of 750 megawatts. The plant can run off either natural gas or ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel oil. The current plant is on the site of the Edison Illuminating Company's Charles L. Edgar Station, built in 1923.

Grape Island is an island in the Hingham Bay area of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. The island is part of the territory of the town of Weymouth, Massachusetts. The island has a permanent size of 54 acres (220,000 m2), plus an intertidal zone of a further 46 acres (190,000 m2), and is composed of two drumlins, reaching an elevation of 70 feet (21 m) above sea level, and connected by a marshy lowland. Tidal sand spits extend from the west end towards Weymouth Neck in Webb Memorial State Park and from the east end towards Slate Island. As a visitor attraction, Grape Island offers trails, rocky beaches, and camping in wooded campsites. At weekends and summer weekdays it is served by a shuttle boat to and from Georges Island, connecting there with ferries to Boston and Quincy.The island was farmed and grazed for three hundred years, until the 1940s. On the eve of the American Revolution, the island was owned by Hingham resident Elisha Leavitt, a Tory. In 1775, British troops raided the island during the siege of Boston, as Abigail Adams wrote to her husband John about May 24, 1775: "...it seems their Expidition (sic) was to Grape Island for Levets hay." A pitched battle ensued until the British were forced to retreat to the mainland. The angry colonists burned Leavitt's barn to the ground. In the end, very little damage was done to either side despite the effort expended. Three British soldiers may have been wounded (unconfirmed), no Continental soldiers or partisans were wounded, and less than two tons of hay were taken by the British.Since the abandonment of agricultural use in the 1940s, the natural succession of vegetation has created a wooded and shrubby landscape. Vegetation on the island includes early successional tree and shrub species on the drumlins, including staghorn sumac, gray birch, and quaking aspen. The island has an abundance of berries, including blackberry, dewberry, raspberry, blueberry, huckleberry, and American elderberry. The island's marshy lowland contains salt tolerant species such as saltspray rose, cordgrass, purple loosestrife, honeysuckle, and seaside goldenrod.Grape Island contains two freshwater springs. One spring is located on the north side of the western drumlin and is located underneath a large boulder that faces Peddock's Island. Another freshwater spring is located behind the marsh that is situated in the saddle between the two drumlins. Both of these areas are off the trail.

Sheep Island is a small uninhabited island of about 3.2 acres (1.3 ha) (or less) in Hingham Bay, an outer arm of Boston Harbor. It is within the bounds of the town of Weymouth, Massachusetts, is owned by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation, and is part of the Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park. Sheep Island is an eroded glacial drumlin, long and narrow, the highest elevation being 10 feet (3.0 m). A patch of vegetation grows on the west end, sumac and other grasses, and the shoreline is entirely gravel beach. The island was formerly a good deal larger, about 25 acres (10 ha) in early colonial times, and since then has been steadily eroding to its present size. The island (then called Round Island) was deeded to the town of Weymouth in 1636. In colonial times it was used by the town for grazing sheep. William Chamberlain is the first known owner. In the 19th century people would sometimes camp there, and in the 20th century there was a house and a hunting lodge, belonging to a Mr. Bicknell. No structures remain now. Sheep Island serves as a nesting ground for local birds. People birdwatch there, but the authorities discourage visits during nesting season (all visits are by private boat, as the island is not served by the park's ferry service). There are unimproved trails but no other amenities. Sheep Island has also appeared in maps and publications as Shean Island (1759), Sun Island (1775), Sheaf Island (1865), and Ship Island.