two stories high with a copper hipped roof, and is built of Indiana limestone with details made of granite from Deer Isle, Maine. Other In the mid-1800s, Jonathan H. Cobb was the clerk of courts. Geography According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (11%) is water. It is the third-smallest county in Massachusetts by total area. The county is not completely contiguous; the towns of Brookline and Cohasset are each part of Norfolk County but are separated from the majority of Norfolk County (and each other) by either water or other counties. At the county's formation, Hingham and Hull were to be part of it, but joined Plymouth County instead, leaving Cohasset as the initial exclave of Norfolk County and an enclave of Plymouth County. Brookline became the second exclave of Norfolk County in 1873 when the neighboring town of West Roxbury was annexed by Boston (thus leaving Norfolk County to join Suffolk County) and Brookline refused to be annexed by Boston after the Brookline-Boston annexation debate of 1873. Adjacent counties Middlesex County (northwest) Suffolk County (north) Plymouth County (southeast) Bristol County (south) Providence County, Rhode Island (southwest) Worcester County (west) National protected areas Adams National Historical Park Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area (part) Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site Major highways Demographics 2000 census At the 2000 census there were 650,308 people, 248,827 households, and 165,967 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 255,154 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 89.02% White or European American, 3.18% Black or African American, 0.13% Native American, 5.50% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.78% from other races, and 1.37% from two or more races. 1.84%. were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 28.6% were of Irish, 13.4% Italian, 7.7% English and 5.0% descendants of colonists ancestry according to Census 2000. 85.7% spoke English, 2.3% Chinese in any dialect, 2.0% Spanish, 1.0% Italian and 1.0% French as their first language. Of the 248,827 households 31.20% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.20% were married couples living together, 9.50% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.30% were non-families. 26.80% of households were one person and 10.80% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household