Lexington is a suburban town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, located 10 miles (16 km) from Downtown Boston.

Native Americans inhabited the area that would become Lexington for thousands of years prior to European colonization of the Americas, as attested by a woodland era archaeological site near Loring Hill south of the town center.

[2][3][4][5] The contact period introduced a number of European infectious diseases which would decimate native populations in virgin soil epidemics, leaving the area largely uncontested upon the arrival of large groups of English settlers in the Puritan Great Migration.

In 1639, the Massachusetts General Court purchased the land that would become present-day Lexington, then within the boundaries of Cambridge, from the Naumkeag Squaw Sachem of Mistick.

[8][better source needed] Another view is that it was named after Lexington (which was pronounced and is today spelled Laxton) in Nottinghamshire, England.

[9] In the early colonial days, Vine Brook, which runs through Lexington, Burlington, and Bedford, and then empties into the Shawsheen River, was a focal point of the farming and industry of the town.

On the night of April 18, the British Army sent out 800 grenadiers and light infantry soldiers on foot from Boston, with the intention of destroying Colonial gunpowder and cannons that were being stored in Concord, as well as capturing two leaders of the Sons of Liberty, John Hancock and Samuel Adams, who were staying in Lexington.

[citation needed][10] Hancock and Adams were warned of the danger by two alarm riders, Paul Revere and William Dawes, who alerted the countryside of the British military movements.

There, several hundred militia and minute men from nearby towns assembled near the Old North Bridge to turn back the British and prevent them from capturing and destroying the Colony's stores of gunpowder and military equipment.

[12] For decades after the Revolutionary War, Lexington grew modestly while remaining largely a farming community, providing Boston with much of its produce.

Today, many companies are still moving into Lexington, with Takeda and BAE Systems both having major operations within the city limits.

The urbanization and massive job growth resulted in soaring property values, and the school system becoming nationally recognized for its excellence.

[15] Lexington was the Cold War location of the USAF "Experimental SAGE Subsector"[16] for testing a prototype IBM computer that arrived in July 1955[17] for development of a computerized "national air defense network"[18] (the namesake "Lexington Discrimination System" for incoming ICBM warheads was developed in the late 1960s).

[37] This racial diversity is largely reflected in the Lexington Public Schools, where Asians compose over 45% of the student population.

[39] The city of Lexington operates three weekday bus routes via its own Lexpress service, with their inbound terminus being Depot Square.

[41] Article LXXXIX Section 8 of the Massachusetts Constitution permits towns with a population greater than 12,000 to adopt a city form of government.

They also host a youth academy for children aged 12–17 as well as a Police Explorers Program (For high school students interested in the comprehensive learning of Law Enforcement).

It is based in the Fire Department Headquarters, with a secondary East Lexington Station, having 61 firefighters and EMS personnel.

In 2012, 2017, 2018, 2023, and 2024, Lexington High School won the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Science Bowl competition.