Acton's early settlements each have historically significant sites, although they are distinctly different.            

Isaac Davis was the first casualty of the Revolutionary War, dying in Concord at the North Bridge. His house was a meeting place for his 37 minutemen. Joseph Robbins was the patriot who reported the Alarm to Davis. Hannah Davis watched her husband Isaac march to Concord, knowing intuitively that she would never see him again.            

Albert R. & Mabel G. Jenks Library is behind Hosmer House. Hosmer House is open to visitors Patriot's Day and Sundays May-November. Library displays historical artifacts.            

After hearing the alarm from Prescott, Joseph Robbins proceeded to warn others including Simon Hunt.            

Acton's first general store, run by the Jones family for generations. It was Patriot Samuel Jones Jr.'s home and the town's Revolutionary rallying place.            

Part of the Patriot's Day reenactment of the 4/18/1775 call to arms when Dr. Samuel Prescott sounded the alarm. Prescott came here to warn Colonel Francis Faulkner. Faulkner's Militia gathered here to march to Concord Bridge.            

Joseph Robbins was a militia captain and was the first person in Acton to be warned by Dr. Prescott, sometime after 1 a.m. and before 3 a.m. The original house burned and the current one has a commemorative marker.

This is an old New England farmstead of the Conant Family, a central town landmark, with managed historic landscapes on both sides of the road. The late 18th century farmhouse was built by Abel Conant in 1793 as an addition to a small 1743 dwelling (which became the ell for the late 18th century house), and all were substantially modified in 1880. Land includes the woods beyond Conant fields on Main Street.

Important scenic farmland vistas along Route 2 (Massachusetts Avenue) are part of 122 acres west of the Concord/Acton line managed by the Massachusetts Department of Corrections. Fields include crops, and there are horse stables for the State Police. Land on the south side of Route 2 is also owned by the Commonwealth, and the land on the northwest corner of Wetherbee Street and Route 2 is owned by the Town of Acton.

Located near the Littleton border between the Newtown and Nagog Hill Roads, the 17-acre Grassy Pond is a designated Great Pond open for fishing, canoeing, and bird and other wildlife watching. It is a natural kettle hole with a quaking bog near the pond’s outlet (Grassy Pond Brook). The area is of ecological importance and high scenic value, and has been identified as worthy of preservation by the Massachusetts Natural Heritage Program.  Along the edges of the pond are 95 acres of conservation land, trails, and a boardwalk extending into the pond to provide views of the pond and bog.

Scheduled to be moved nearby onto an expanded property linked to a 40B development proposal, the preservation of this house is an example of how a community had time enough to make a successful case for protection by using its demolition delay bylaw.  The former Charles Miller property is the remnants of a small non-working farm in North Acton fronting on Main Street. The ca. 1875 clapboard dwelling faces south with a gable end to the street behind a tall vegetated screen that nearly hides it from the road. It was built for the North Acton stationmaster. The 3.7-acre property extends eastward to an old railroad right-of-way destined to become part of the Freeman Rail Trail.

Protected water supply and classified as a Great Pond, Nagog Pond is a 284-acre pond on the Littleton-Acton border directly adjacent to the south side of Route 2A.  The pond is actually owned by the Town of Concord as part of its water supply. It provides important vistas from Route 2A/119, and is categorized as a “distinctive landscape” in the Massachusetts Landscape Inventory.

The brook is the main waterway through Acton flowing from Westford to Concord on a more or less north to south route. Nashoba Brook is rich with history, from Native American campsites to 19th century mill sites and 20th century ice-cutting activity. Views from the road are intermittent.  One entrance to the Nashoba Brook Conservation Area is at the end of Wheeler Lane, off Main Street in the northern part of town. Here one can view the brook as it meanders through this wooded area, where there are mill ruins, the Robbins Mill pond and spillway, a cellar hole, and a wide cart path bordered by stone walls. The town recently constructed a “stone chamber” that is an archeological site near the brook.

Acton Center, East Village, North Village, South Village, and West Village, were all identified by the participants as part of the sense of the community and in need of protection for that reason.