Stoneham (/ˈstoʊnəm/ STO-nəm) is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, nine miles (14.5 km) north of downtown Boston.

[1] Its proximity to major highways and public transportation offers convenient access to Boston and the North Shore coastal region and beaches of Massachusetts.

The town is the birthplace of the Olympic figure-skating medalist Nancy Kerrigan and is the location of the Stone Zoo.

The earliest documented mention of the territory now called Stoneham dates to 1632 when, on February 7, Governor Winthrop and his party came upon this area.

They found Spot Pond and ate their lunch on a place they called Cheese Rock, now known as Bear Hill.

The town refused their petition at first, but on December 17, 1725, the General Court passed an act to establish the new township of Stoneham, separating it from Charlestown, and releasing its residents from the obligation to pay taxes to Charlestown, provided that within two years they would erect a suitable church and hire a minister and a schoolmaster.

In the same year, the town voted to raise £9 for the building of a school and chose a committee to hire a schoolmaster.

Stoneham borders the following cities or towns: Woburn, Winchester, Medford, Melrose, Wakefield, and Reading.

The Oak Grove subway station is 3.8 miles (6.1 km) from Stoneham Center, in Malden, and is the northern terminus of the MBTA's Orange Line.

The MBTA's 132 bus route travels through Stoneham Center, offering transportation to the Orange Line at Oak Grove and Malden Station.

Stoneham has a community-access television station, StonehamTV, which broadcasts locally produced content on Comcast, Verizon and RCN cable systems.

Originally, the number of blasts of the horn was used to signal different groups to fight fires or alert the town of other emergencies such as a missing child.