Living in Grafton, MA

About Grafton

Grafton's story begins with Hassanamisco, a Christian Indian plantation established in 1654; the town itself was established in 1735. Hassanamesitt Woods, about 200 acres on Keith Hill, is believed to hold the core of that Nipmuc village, and the Trust for Public Land bought it in 2004 for transfer to the town. Grafton Common was landscaped into an elliptical park in 1843 and 1844; the state's 1984 survey records a temple-front store on the common that became a bank, a mansard-roofed store and residence facing it, and a brick Second Empire block of 1862 to 1863 that served as the town hall.

Away from the common, Grafton spreads into villages built on water power. North Grafton, once New England Village, sits where the Quinsigamond River falls more than 50 feet in a short distance, and Saundersville, Fisherville and Farnumsville line the Blackstone River in the southwest. Benjamin Willard began making clocks in a North Grafton workshop in 1766, a legacy now kept at the Willard House and Clock Museum. Grafton station on Pine Street puts the town on the Framingham/Worcester Line, and Tufts University's Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine has its campus here.

Grafton's zoning already makes room for denser housing near the station: its bylaw includes the North Grafton Transit Village Overlay District, which the town amends under the state's Chapter 40R smart growth rules, and a Village and Neighborhood Mixed Use district. The May 12, 2025 Annual Town Meeting warrant carried amendments to both, including a definition of attached single-family dwellings, such as townhouses and rowhouses, for the mixed-use district. The state lists Grafton as compliant with the MBTA Communities law as of October 21, 2026. Values have climbed: the town reports that the average single-family assessed value rose from $625,767 in FY2025 to $663,695 in FY2026.

Homes in Grafton

The Massachusetts Historical Commission's 1984 survey describes Grafton Center as possibly the best-preserved and most substantial 19th-century residential and institutional village in its study area. In the Blackstone River mill villages, double-chimney multi-family worker housing continued to be built, and Farnumsville and Fisherville keep late 19th-century boardinghouses and a few double-deckers; North Grafton has four-unit tenement rows on Second Street. One-story Craftsman bungalows followed, mostly near the villages.