Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1800.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Scituate’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Scituate is more historic than 86% of U.S. towns, #175 of 283 in Massachusetts. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
A
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Scituate’s overall grade.
Massachusetts towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Massachusetts town has 46.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Scituate’s 4.6 sits below most of its state (21% of Massachusetts towns have fewer) while its 9 listings outnumber those of 75% of U.S. towns.
NoteThe founding year comes from Wikidata alone; no second source gives 1630.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B+ to A+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.7 points).
Founding year: Wikidata (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Scituate’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Egypt StationlocaleFourth Cliff United States Life Saving StationlocaleGreenbush Post Officepost officeGreenbush StationlocaleNorth Scituate Post Officepost officeNorth Scituate StationlocaleOld Oaken Bucket HomesteadlocaleScituate Post Officepost office
7cemeteries and burying grounds inside Scituate
GrovelandJamesMen of KentMerrittMount HopeNew Saint MarysUnion
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
On the map
Scituate on the map, 1885 to 1984
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Scituate. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1885Duxbury sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Scituate.
The area was inhabited by Indigenous peoples for thousands of years, with archaeological evidence from southeastern Massachusetts indicating human presence dating back over 10,000 years (Paleo-Indian through Woodland periods). At the time of European contact in the 17th century, the region was part of Wampanoag territory. The name Scituate is derived from "satuit", an Indian word understood by early English settlers to mean "cold brook"; it refers to the brook that runs into the town's inner harbor (early spellings included Sityate, Cituate, and Seteat).
Passages that mention Scituate, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The early planters of Scituate1929 · page 158Read the page →
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edge to have received of the men whose names are before mentioned, fourteen pounds in full satisfaction in behalf of the inhabitants of the Town of Scituate as aforesaid; and I do hereby promise and engage to give further evidence before the Governor as the Town of Scituate shall think meet; when I am thereunto requir¬ ed; in witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The early planters of Scituate1929 · page 147Read the page →
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For this failure some of the heads of families having children, caused it to be indicted. At the May Term of the Superior Court of Judicature for the province “Elijah Turner Agent for the town of Scituate has this indictment read to him — he says that the said inhabitants of the town of Scituate will not contend with the Commonwealth.” A satisfactory grammar school was thereupon established.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Scituate, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 18311899 · page 269Read the page →
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JOHN FLOYD was in Scituate 1640. He purchased of Mr Hatherly the house that Samuel Hinckley left 1639, on Kent street. In 1653, he was a merchant in Boston, at which date we find the town of Scituate bartered with him, "boards for powder." He was afterward in England, and probably the same John Floyd who promoted the Society for propagating the Gospel among the Indians in New England. He had a son Nathaniel born
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Scituate, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 18311899 · page 60Read the page →
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" February 2d, 1642, " Wheras in former tyme, whilst Mr Lothrop was at Scituate Mr. William Vassall, Thomas King, Thomas Lapham, Judith Vassall, Suza King, Anna Stockbridge, together with many more, were together in Covenant in one Church, and that many of them, with Mr Lothrop our Pastor, departed and went to live at Barnstable, and did leave one part of the Church at Scituate, who by consent of all the Church, became a Church,
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
By decade
Scituate, decade by decade
6 decades in the archive, from the 1850s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
In 1630, according to Wikidata. Scituate’s post office opened in 1800, and the first U.S. census counted 2,856 people here in 1790.
How does Scituate rank for history?
Scituate is more historic than 86% of U.S. towns, #175 of 283 in Massachusetts. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Scituate?
9 listings: 5 buildings, 1 site, and 3 structures.
How old are the homes in Scituate?
24% of Scituate’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.7 points), against a typical 21% for a Massachusetts town; the median home was built in 1960.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (6), the Library of Congress (3), Wikidata (3), the National Register of Historic Places (9), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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