Middlesex

Formed May 10, 1643 (2^nd county)

Middlesex County (1,632,002), Cambridge (118,395)

The red brick 1813 building was built at Thorndike Street at 3^rd Street.  Massachusetts State Highway 28 is four blocks north of the site.  The architect is Charles Bulfinch.  The building was enlarged in 1848, 1898, and 1924.  There is a 1896 Probate Courthouse and a 1933 Juvenile Courthouse in Cambridge.  There are also augmenting courthouses in Ayer, Concord, Framingham, Lowell, Malden, Marlborough, Medford, Newton, Somerville, Waltham, and Woburn.  Middlesex County was formed on May 10, 1643 as an original county (2^nd county) with Cambridge as the only county seat.  The county is named for Middlesex, England.  The county seat is named for Cambridge, England.  Middlesex County was the birthplace of 9 Massachusetts Governors, John Brooks, William Eustis, Nathaniel P. Banks, Alexander H. Rice, George D. Robinson, William E. Russell, Charles F. Hurley, John A. Volpe, and A. Paul Cellucci. 

Middlesex County doesn’t have a unified government as each township governs.  Thirty-four District Court Judges and Twelve Probate/Juvenile Court Judges serve Middlesex County.  The county is in northeast Massachusetts.  Boston, Massachusetts is directly east.  The county center is 12.7 miles Northwest of Cambridge in Hanscom Air Force Base.  The county is surrounded clockwise by New Hampshire, and Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Worcester counties. 

The area of the county is 824 square miles.  It is 3 out of 14 in the state.  It ranks 1 out of 14 in population in the state.  It has a density of 1980.6 persons per square mile making it 2 out of 14 in the state.  Middlesex County has 53.0% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 90 crosses the county east to west from Suffolk County to Worcester County.  Interstate Highway 93 goes north to south from Essex County to Suffolk County.  Interstate Highway 95 enters from Essex County, northeast, and exits to Norfolk County, south.  United States Highway 3 comes from the north, New Hampshire, and goes to the east, Suffolk County.  United States Highway 20 parallels Interstate Highway 90 from Suffolk County to Worcester County.  The county’s shape looks like an arm and hand reaching down.  Cambridge is in the eastern tip of the county.  Lowell is near the New Hampshire border in the northeast part of the county.  Cambridge is the county seat and the largest city.  Cambridge is 7.3% of the county population.  This county is in the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy Metropolitan Statistical Area.