The town common is a long triangular green at the centre of Amherst, dating to the 1730s. It is fronted on the north by Pleasant Street and bounded by the First Congregational Church on one side and the buildings of central Amherst on the other. Concerts, farmers' markets, and the autumn town festival all happen here; outside event days it is a pleasant patch of grass with mature trees.
The historic Boltwood Inn (now the Inn on Boltwood) sits at the head of the common — a 19th-century country inn that has hosted everyone from Calvin Coolidge to Robert Frost. A short walk across the common puts you on the Amherst College campus.