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title: Things to Do in Mansfield

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<h1>Things to Do in Mansfield</h1>

Just beyond the midway point among Boston and Providence, Mansfield is an prosperous metropolis of 24,000 humans in Bristol County.

For a network of modest length, Mansfield has a energetic downtown location, with eating places and locally-owned shops tracing an extended strip of North Main Street.

For many humans, the call “Mansfield” is a byword for the massive live tune amphitheater, Xfinity Center, which welcomes top artists playing stadium-size shows within the summer time months.

Mansfield’s conservation commission takes care of a few far off parcels of land around the metropolis for hiking and mountain biking journeys with out wandering too some distance from civilization.

1. Mansfield Center

Bookended by north and south commons, Mansfield’s business district sits along N Main Street that's covered for several hundred ft by local small organizations.

If you come back with an appetite you’ll have to pick from an entire spectrum of eateries, for pub fare, Chinese, Italian, Breakfast meals, bagels, and pizza, with 3 special spots for the latter.
In among you’ll manifest upon boutiques, a florist, a gift store, a sports activities products keep, homewares stores, and a roster of thriving carrier agencies, from a barber to a canine grooming salon.
By the south give up, Fulton Pond is a local beauty spot, website hosting the once a year Fall Festival, which we’ll talk approximately later.

2. Xfinity Center (Great Woods)

One of America’s pinnacle-grossing amphitheaters can be found in Mansfield, with a capacity of almost 20,000. Originally referred to as the Great Woods Center for the Performing Arts, the Xfinity Center opened in 1986 with a concert by way of Yo-Yo Ma.

The venue turned into increased in 1994 and turned into renovated in 2002, with five,900 wellknown admission seats, 7,000 reserved seats and seven,000 indoor seats.

We could write an entire article with a listing of famous past performers, but many of the big ones are The Who, Aerosmith, Depeche Mode, The Eagles, Pearl Jam, James Taylor, Rush, and finally Jimmy Buffet, who has played Great Woods greater than 60 times.

3. World War II Veterans Memorial Trail

You can cut throughout a massive slice of Mansfield on foot or by means of motorbike via this arrow-instantly rail trail.

On the former right-of-way of the Old Colony Railroad (1883), the World War II Veterans Memorial Trail opened in 2004 and runs for 1.6 miles between Mansfield Municipal Airport in the south and Mansfield Center inside the north.

Of path this is a beneficial manner to tour among the airport and downtown place, however the path shines as it passes through deep woods in far flung corners of the metropolis.

For nearly the whole thing of your walk you’ll by no means listen the sound of a automobile, much much less see one. About midway along the trail you may take a detour along the World War II Memorial Nature Trail, which follows a mile-long loop through a wooded property.

4. Flint Farm

From early to past due fall, this working farm opens up to the general public, promoting an abundance of clean produce and homemade items. Flint Farm dates lower back to 1868 and is administered by using the 5th and 6th generations of Flints.

Above all, that is a fruit and vegetable farm, with a bounty of produce (20+ one-of-a-kind sorts) to be had on the farm stand in the course of the summer and fall.

There’s also more than a few homemade or locally produced items, like maple syrup and raw honey.
The different area of expertise is ice cream, with more than 50 flavors from Richardson’s Ice Cream in Middleton, MA. Fall is a top notch time to visit the farm together with your circle of relatives as there’s a giant corn maze, usually open mid-September through October.

5. Great Woods Conservation Area

For a stroll in the woods, Mansfield’s Conservation Commission maintains several spaces around the town, and the biggest of those is the Great Woods Conservation Area.

This is a sprawling patchwork of man or woman parcels, going for walks from close to Mansfield Crossing within the north to the boundary with Norton and TPC Boston inside the south.

To put together to your ride you could down load a path map from the town website. Unsurprising given the scale of this property, there’s a first-rate assortment of herbal functions to find out at Great Woods, from reclaimed pasture to ponds, streams and swamp crossed by boardwalks.

Hidden in the woods are thrilling portions of records, like an vintage cemetery and stone partitions left over from centuries-old farms.

6. Fisher-Richardson House

The city’s oldest residence become constructed within the 1740s and has served as a history museum for almost a century.

Standing 1+1⁄2-tales tall, with a gambrel roof and six bays, the Fisher-Richardson House became enlarged at the turn of the nineteenth century, and then won a few of its info in a Colonial Revival recovery after it turned into purchased via the city in 1930.

You can come to look around on Sundays in the course of the summer time, to admire thrilling original functions and workmanship like feather-edged paneling, early gun-stock posts and intricately embellished ceilings. Artifacts from the Mansfield Historical Society’s collections also are on display.

7. Mansfield Crossing

South of Mansfield Center off I-495 there’s an outside mall set at the shorelines of Woodside Pond, and looking a chunk like a quaint New England metropolis.

On the west aspect is a walkable location, with the likes of LOFT, L.L. Bean, American Eagle, The Paper Store and Yankee Candle, while east of the pond is more of a electricity middle, domestic to Best Buy, Kohl’s, Petco, Dick’s Warehouse Sale and extra.
Mansfield Crossing has masses of eating options, among them Bertucci’s, TGI Friday’s, QDOBA, Sake and Omaha Steaks.

8. Fulton Pond (Rumford Ave Park)

A block west of Main Street in Mansfield Center there’s an attractive little park at the seashores of Fulton Pond.

This frame of water dates returned to the 1830s whilst the Rumford River was dammed to power a cotton mill that stood at the eastern corner, wherein the entrance to the park is now.
Up to the center of the twentieth century there were additionally knife-making, laundry and ice-making operations at Fulton Pond.

The automobile parking space here is right on the water, and has pretty views over the pond at sundown. A trail lines the south aspect, and is fringed with the aid of a grassy space, scattered with mature timber.

9. Fall Festival

On the first Saturday in October, Fulton Pond and its lovely foliage offer the ideal placing for Mansfield’s annual Fall Festival.

All afternoon there may be plenty for people of all ages to get excited about. You’ve got the Big Stage with a application of stay performances, a lager lawn, food court, paddle boat rides at the lake, a ferris wheel, yarn bombing and autumn panorama painting classes.

Kids could be capable of take pony rides, pet an alpaca, experience a “unicorn”, and take part in a bunch of sports at the craft booth.

10. Mansfield Common (South Common)

By the northern trailhead for the World War II Veterans Memorial Trail, the city’s old civic coronary heart is towards the south end of Mansfield Center.

At this neat green space, framed by using the Congregational Church (1866), the metropolis hall (which was initially the high school) and the Old Town Cemetery, which has many burials predating the metropolis’s incorporation in 1775.

On the east side of the commonplace are multiple cafes, and on a sunny day you can select up some thing to enjoy inside the greenery right here. Look out for the signpost, mentioning the direction of the various other Mansfields within the United States and round the world.

On Wednesday evenings in July and August the bandstand is the venue for Mansfield’s summer time concert collection.

11. Mansfield Public Library

Accessible and neatly organized, the city’s public library is praised for the helpfulness of its group of workers, and for the breadth and diversity of its collections.

These are enhanced via being a part of the SAILS Library Network, with 70 contributors in southeastern Massachusetts. Colorful and engaging, the kids’s phase is well sequestered from different regions, which is right news in case you’re here for paintings or studies.

The library additionally organizes a slew of activities, clubs and lessons for every age and pastimes. People with out a library card are free to come by way of to use most of the offerings, together with computer workstations and Wi-Fi, with a visitor pass.

12. Borderland State Park

Arriving greater than two hundred years ago, the Ames Family, traditionally one of the wealthiest in Massachusetts, has made an enduring impact at the neighboring town of Easton.

Mansfield Center is beneath ten minutes from the property founded at the turn of the twentieth century via Oakes Ames (1874-1950) and Blanche Ames Ames (1878-1969).

They had been a fascinating couple, as Blanche become an executed artist, inventor and vociferous suffragist, at the same time as Oakes was a main botanist at Harvard. Borderland State Park encompasses extra than 1,800 acres, with 20 miles of trails in the woods for trekking, mountain cycling and horseback driving.

The disc golfing course is seemed as one of the best within the place, and hosted the World Masters Flying Disc Championships in 1996.
Thirteen. Ames Mansion

Blanche Ames Ames had a hand inside the layout of the mansion at Borderland, that is a medley of Gothic Revival and Georgian Revival and changed into constructed in 1910.

The indoors of Ames Mansion has been used as a taking pictures region for numerous Hollywood movies, consisting of Ghostbusters (2016) and Knives Out (2019).

Touring the mansion, you’ll get a clearer picture of the multitalented Blanche, who developed patents for farming, lumber-cutting and air struggle. Tours are supplied by way of the DCR (first floor), and the Friends of Borderland, which gives an in-depth three-ground excursion on pick Sundays.

14. F. Gilbert Hills State Forest

Little more than five minutes from Mansfield Center there’s a country woodland composed of extra than 1,000 acres of pine-all rightwoods.

This rocky environment, with some implementing boulders and formations, is successful with mountain bikers for its 23 miles of trails.
According to the New England Mountain Bike Association (NEMBA), those trails are frivolously weighted between Easy, Moderate and Difficult, normally suiting folks who want velocity over technicality.

Part of the trail community in F. Gilbert Hills is a phase of the Warner Trail, which runs for 30 miles from Diamond Hill in Cumberland, RI, to Canton.

15. Flannel Cow Creamery

This unbiased ice cream store in Mansfield Center stands out for being the only spot in town to serve its very own selfmade ice cream.

Flannel Cow Creamery has advanced its techniques and recipes after taking courses on the Frozen Dessert Institute in Wisconsin and the Penn State Creamery.

There are more than two dozen difficult ice cream types to select from, but you can start with one of the six Signature Flavors.

Among these are The Flannel (strawberry with Oreo), Triple Threat (chocolate with brownie portions and chocolate chips), and the indulgent Dirty Dough, that's chocolate ice cream laced with peanut butter swirls, cookie dough and chocolate chips.

There’s also various sundaes and other frozen treats, and in summer you could enjoy your ice cream at one of the shaded picnic tables outside.