Five villages comprise the historic town of Montague
Montague is a historic small town in rural Massachusetts that sits opposite the town of Greenfield across the Connecticut River. “There are five separate villages that make up Montague,” says Corinne Fitzgerald, the Broker/Owner of Fitzgerald Real Estate, who has several decades’ worth of experience selling homes in the Pioneer Valley. “You’ve got Turners Falls, Millers Falls, Lake Pleasant–a really cool cottage community right around the lake–and then there’s Montague Center, which is the rural part of town with a lot of farmland and a general store, and finally you have Montague City, which isn’t really a city at all but that’s what it’s called for some reason.” Of the five, Turners Falls is perhaps the most recognizable of the villages, known for popular sites like the Great Falls Discovery Center. Another well-known spot in town is The Montague Bookmill in Montague Center, a cozy bookstore housed in a gristmill built in 1842. “The mills around here were the defining industry back when power was generated by the river,” Fitzgerald says. “Now that the mills are closed, more people are commuting out of town to work these days.” The city of Northampton is approximately 18 miles south of Montague, which translates to a half-hour-long drive.
Single-family homes dominate Montague’s historic housing stock
Single-family homes here encompass a variety of styles, including everything from ranchers and Cape Cods to Craftsman farmhouses and traditional New Englanders. “Montague has primarily single-family residential homes, although there are a few multifamily units and two condominium developments. A lot of the housing stock here was built around the turn of the century—the turn of the 20th century, that is,” Fitzgerald says. “We don’t have a lot of new construction; it's mostly just resales. Of the newer homes we do have, a lot were built on The Hill neighborhood in Turners Falls.” The median price of a single-family property in Montague hovers around $370,000, which is on par with the median home value of the greater Greenfield Town metropolitan area. Homes in Montague sell relatively quickly, spending an average of 19 days listed on the market before being sold, less than half the national average of 52 days listed on the market.
Zoning for Gill-Montague Regional School District
Students living in Montague are zoned for the Gill-Montague Regional School District, which receives an overall C rating from Niche. Hillcrest Elementary School serves prekindergarten through first grade and is rated C-plus, while Sheffield Elementary is for grades 2 through 5 and has a C-minus rating. Alternatively, kindergarten through sixth-grade students can attend Gill Elementary School, rated C-plus. Older students can then head to the C-rated Great Falls Middle School and Turners Falls High, which earns a B-minus. Fitzgerald notes that there are also several higher education institutions in this area: “We’re pretty close to Amherst, so that means we’re close to a lot of colleges—you’ve got UMass, Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College and Hampshire College,” she says. “Greenfield has Greenfield Community College, which is notable for how good it is. Montague is also home to Franklin County Technical School, which is so sought after that there is a waiting list to enroll there.”
Outdoor recreation along the Connecticut River
Many of Montague’s outdoor recreation amenities are located along the Connecticut River, including the Great Falls Discovery Center, a state park and historic mill complex open to the public. “You’ve also got a lot of bike paths and recreational trails that follow along the river,” Fitzgerald says. “And of course there are a bunch of smaller neighborhood parks throughout Montague’s residential areas and whatnot.” All in all, more than 20 miles of recreational trails weave across town. The Great Falls Discovery Center sits along the Canalside Rail Trail, one of the most popular pedestrian corridors in the area.
Turners Falls has shopping and dining amenities
Montague residents can find a handful of shopping and dining amenities in Turners Falls, including a Food City grocery store, Walgreens Pharmacy, Salvation Army Thrift Store and Aubuchon Hardware retailer. The village also has several local restaurants, such as The Upper Bend café, Shady Glen diner and The Rendezvous, a colonial-style tavern that serves pub grub and hosts weekly events and live entertainment. Additional commercial establishments are located in neighboring Greenfield, and chain stores and big-box retailers are available in Northampton.
Driving through Franklin County
The town of Montague itself doesn’t have any major highways running through it, but residents are close to busy roads in Greenfield, right across the river. Interstate 91 and U.S. Route 5 run north-south parallel to each other, while state Route 2 runs east-west through the region. All three thoroughfares have on-ramps within a few miles of Montague. Boston Logan International Airport is approximately 30 miles from Montague. Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield has a 24-hour emergency department and several specialty healthcare services.
