Reading (/ˈrɛdɪŋ/ ⓘ RED-ing) is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, 16 miles (26 km) north of central Boston.

[1] Many of the Massachusetts Bay Colony's original settlers arrived from England in the 1630s through the ports of Lynn and Salem.

The first settlement in this grant was at first called "Lynn Village" and was located on the south shore of the "Great Pond", now known as Lake Quannapowitt.

[2] The first church was organized soon after the settlement, and the first parish separated and became the town of "South Reading" in 1812, renaming itself as Wakefield in 1868.

[8][9][10] A special grant in 1651 added land north of the Ipswich River to the town of Reading.

[2] Reading was initially governed by an open town meeting and a board of selectmen, a situation that persisted until the 1940s.

It was prominently involved in the engagements pursuing the retreating British Army after the battles of Lexington and Concord.

John Brooks, later to become Governor of Massachusetts, was captain of the "Fourth Company of Minute" and subsequently served at the Battle of White Plains and at Valley Forge.

Only one Reading soldier was killed in action during the Revolution; Joshua Eaton died in the Battle of Saratoga in 1777.

This road, now known as Massachusetts Route 28, provided the citizens of Reading with a better means of travel to the Boston area.

[2] During the Civil War, members of the Richardson Light Guard of South Reading fought at the First Battle of Bull Run.

Both commuter services were later taken over by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, and for many years, there was discussion of extending the MBTA Orange Line to Reading.

Industrial expansion during that time included the Goodall-Sanford Co. off Ash Street, later sold to General Tire & Rubber Company, later known as GenCorp.

Additional businesses created after World War I included the Boston Stove Foundry, Roger Reed Waxes, Ace Art, Addison-Wesley Publishing and several other companies.

Military installations also came to the town, with two Nike missile sites, one on Bear Hill and the other off Haverhill Street, and the opening of Camp Curtis Guild, a National Guard training facility.

This retained the representative town meeting and board of selectmen, but focused policy and decision making in a smaller number of elected boards and committees whilst providing for the employment of a town manager to be responsible for day-to-day operations of the local government.

[11] Vandals broke into the basketball player's home and damaged his property, leaving racial epithets in their wake as well as defecating in Russell's bed.

They also review fiscal guidelines for the annual operating budget and capital improvements program and make recommendations on these to the town meeting.