The Southborough Historical Society is honored and gratified to announce that it has today received a 200K grant from MassDevelopment and it’s partners in the Capital Grants program, the Mass Cultural Council, Secretary of Economic Development Yvonne Hao and the Healey Driscoll, to further the renovations of Fayville Hall.
While these funds are not restricted to a specific portion of the project, it is the Society’s intention to use these monies to help pay for the ADA compliance portions of the building, including the new elevator, ramp and associated services.
Despite bizarre material shortages and extensive supply chain delays (6 months for the windows!) we anticipate finishing the exterior of the structure this September, with a soft opening early in the new year.
Forward, and thanks again to our friends at the Mass Cultural Council for believing in our new history and arts center!
I thought I would take a break from Fayville Hall updates to let you know about another exciting program the Society has been working on over the last year: a new self-guided history walk for downtown.
click on the image to enlarge
The original conception for this tour was a more traditional post-and-sign route, similar to what has been done in neighboring Hudson and Marlborough. However, given the large number of stops and the primarily residential nature of neighborhood, this traditional approach presented problems. Thus, our proposed tour will be almost entirely digital, and can be started at any point along the map. Just pull out your tablet or phone, go to the proper web address, push a button, and presto: images, text—and perhaps even audio—for each stop will pop up as you move along the route.
We’re currently in the process of adapting the map technology, and assembling the data for each stop. With a little luck, portions of the tour will be available this fall, with full completion expected by 2024.
Just another way we strive to bring your history alive!
The basement of Fayville Hall, and the newly dubbed Lake Weishan
Dear Friends,
As 2022 fades to gentle whisper, I thought it a good time to give you a quick update on the Society’s progress. In short, our membership numbers continue to rise, our long-term plans remain sound, and our commitment unflagging!
How’s that for good news?
And—as you probably know if you have passed by the Fayville Village Hall lately—we have begun initial work to shore up the structure, and correct pressing water “issues” in the basement of our future home. It’s hard to believe from the photo above that this will shortly be our new classroom space, but it’s true. Once this urgent work has been accomplished, and after a return visit to the Planning Board to present some simplified site plans, we should be able to begin construction in earnest. We are still hoping for a phased opening in the fall of 2023, but that of course is to a large extent in the hands of the weather and supply chain gods!
There is no doubt that work on an historic building like this demands a real leap of faith. It requires trust in the craftsmanship of the past, as well as a real vision of, and a fiduciary investment in, our shared future. Since I came on board at the the Society after the disastrous 2015 flood, I have been reminded again and again of the commitment that you, our members—and of our fellow townsfolk in general—have shown to preserving our past and moving our joint endeavors forward. You have indeed been asked to leap, and you have. As the clock slips towards midnight and 2023 beckons, I want to thank you all again for your faithful and continuing support.
From myself and the entire SHS Board, good health and godspeed in 2023.
It hasn’t been a good month for historical preservation in Southborough. Earlier this year, the Historical Commission was notified that the Fay School, which owns the 1840s home at 42 Main Street, wants to tear it down to build “an appropriately historical structure.” The school is claiming that the building is unsound even though it was continually inhabited until a few years back, when Fay purchased it for roughly 350K.
Personally, I and others will go picket at the Fay entrance if they try to tear down this historic gem. (I already have my placard picked out: Teach History! Don’t Destroy It!) This house was home to the town’s physician, Dr. Stone, for decades and has served a number of other important roles over the years. With its rambling structure and attached barn it is an amazing example of the Greek Revival farmhouse style, and occupies a crucial plot of land directly across from the Town House.
If the Fay school no longer wishes to preserve the property, it should simply put it back on the market, sell it for a healthy profit, and let some young couple rehabilitate the structure and make it a thriving home again.
Unfortunately, I will have to follow the demolition permit process from afar, as last week the Board of Selectman forced me to resign from the Southborough Historical Commission after 21 years of service. It’s a long sordid story which you can read here in MySouthborough, but essentially the BOS got tired of my harassing them about their abject mishandling of the St. Mark’s Triangle project, and invented an excuse to get rid of me. However, as you read the article, I think you will agree the matter is far from closed. As a final volley before I was forced off the decks, the Commission did send a letter to St. Mark’s School, essentially reminding them that as the owner of the St. Mark’s Triangle, it was their responsibility, or rather their duty, to ensure that there were no burials within the proposed construction sites before another spade of dirt is lifted—that is if we wish to continue to believe their claims of valuing diversity and Native American cultural heritage.
Finally, we received back the long awaited architects’ report on the Museum building funded through CPC monies. The story is bleak: the building requires 180K in essential repairs, mostly in long deferred maintenance.
To quote a favorite line from the Philadelphia Story, “this is one of those days that the pages of history teach us are best spent lying in bed.”
Would that the anti-preservation forces felt the same!
(On a personal note, I know all our hearts go out to the valiant, heroic, courageous people of Ukraine. Their horrific struggles set our first-world problems in true context, and we wish them godspeed in their valiant quest to save their homeland. Slava Ukraini!)
We are DEE-lighted, DEE-lighted to announce that as of the 29th of December, Southborough’s Downtown district, and all the structures nominated therein, are now listed the National Register of Historic Places. This has been a ten-year effort, championed by our dear departed friend, the late Kate Matison, who, I am sure, is smiling down from above. Congratulations to all involved, in particular to our good friends at the Southborough Historical Commission who helped push this through.
And in another good omen, the racist and white supremacist battle flags that flew over the January 6th capital insurrection and that our Board of Selectmen voted last spring to maintain in the Old Burial Ground—despite a petition signed by 300 (!!!) individuals here in town—have mysteriously disappeared, poles and all!
Huzzah!
I would like to believe that more rational heads prevailed at Town Hall, but for whatever reason they are gone, and should be gone for good, as the Old Burial Ground is now on the National Register and flying such flags is against federal guidelines. Should they re-appear, a citizens’ petition to have them permanently banned certainly would be on the agenda for the next Town Meeting, and would most certainly pass.
And finally, don’t forget that December and January is our annual appeal! Please consider giving generously. Just click the button below to donate safely and easily online, or mail a check to 25 Common Street, Southborough, MA 01772
The newly clearcut triangle between St. Mark’s Street at left and Marlborough Road at right, looking north. Click any picture to enlarge.
Dear Friends,
I would like to share with you a letter I wrote to the relevant Town Board and state agencies as Chair of the Historical Commission regarding the wholesale clear-cutting of the parcel adjacent to the Old Burial Ground. Though this parcel is entirely owned by St Mark’s, the town has apparently reached some license agreement—vetted by neither the Planning Board or the Historical Commission, to reroute St. Mark’s street in order to enhance the sports parking area for the school and create a pocket park. Apparently, the Town is using state funds to do this project, and St. Mark’s is paying for some?—though who is paying for what remains unclear at this point. Unfortunately, this ill-conceived project threatens to unearth human remains and has now destabilized the entire remaining Old Burial Ground tree cover.
The plan for the entire triangle. Click to enlarge.
To: Southborough Select Board; Southborough Planning Board; Southborough Open Space Commission; The Southborough Historical Commission; Mark Purple, Southborough Town Administrator; Brona Simon, Executive Director, Massachusetts Historical Commission and State Archeologist; Southborough Historical Society; Karen Galligan, Southborough Director of Public Works.
1 November 2021
As chair of the Historical Commission, I am writing to express extreme concern about the current road and park project along St. Mark’s street at the corner of Marlborough Road (Rte. 85).
Plans continue for a discontinued playground
Although the Southborough Historical Commission had seen some conceptual plans for a park and history-walk back in the spring, we had not heard about it since, and presumed the project dead. Suddenly last week, the entire triangle bordering the Old Burial Ground, Cordaville Road, and St. Mark’s Street was clear-cut over a period of two days, without consulting either the Historical Commission or seeking the required Planning Board site review and approval. After speaking with Karen Galligan, the DPW head, it now seems that the project is proceeding using only a conceptual plan, with major elements such as the history-walk and playground arbitrarily deleted. With the educational and entertainment features eliminated, what exactly is the point of this project except facilitating expanded parking for St. Marks School?
The plan showing the entire triangle, with park to the left and parking area to the right. Click to enlarge.
Had the Commission been consulted before construction began, we would have again warned the Board of Selectmen that previous ground radar surveys have indicated numerous colonial-era interments outside of the current Old Burial Ground (OBG) walls. Additionally, the wooded parcel that was cleared last week was also the most likely location of the original pre-contact Native American burial ground. Further soil disturbance so close to the OBG risks disinterment of human remains.
A man-made structure unearthed just outside the OBG walls. Crypt? Old Wall? Who knows without a proper archaeological inspection.
Equally critical, the clear-cutting of century-old woodland has now destroyed the windbreak for the trees in the Old Burial Ground, which were already in extremely precarious condition. With this protection removed, the OBG trees will now be highly susceptible to storm damage, which in turn risks the historic markers below.
One of the few remaining street trees I have objected to removing. The decision now moves to the BOS meeting this Wednesday 11/3. Please attend if you can.
Following the Historic Commission’s stated objection about felling trees on scenic roads, I have formally objected to the removal of any further trees on the site, in particular those along Marlborough Road.
Additionally, I would strongly advise the Board of Selectmen to work with the Historical Commission to fund an emergency professional tree survey of the Old Burial Ground with the idea of assessing the state of the remaining specimens, and doing any required pruning or removal before the onset of the winter storm season, in order to mitigate further damage to the burial stones. Long-term, there needs to be a proactive tree and marker restoration plan with sufficient annual funding to preserve the integrity of our most precious historical asset. There should also be a permanent marker acknowledging the Native American presence in this area.
Called widow makers for a reason, large dead branches like this can easily damage the historic markers below.
Regarding the park itself, in my professional capacity as the head of a landscape architecture firm, I have reviewed the proposed planting plan and design, and found them extremely lacking. The plant selection is poor and makes no provision for climate change. Even more worrisome, the entire design was conceived around a central play area that has been eliminated, rendering the current layout useless.
The design for the dead tree berm.
In particular, the proposal to cut down three large trees and use them sideways as some sort of tree-sculpture-berm-structure borders on the absurd, as after only a short period of ground contact, these trees will rot and create a huge legal liability for the town should anyone climb on them. There is also the issue of the historic stone wall along Marlborough road that will be destroyed if the current plans are implemented, violating our own preservation bylaw.
A typical tree in the OBG. The right side hasn’t lost its leaves, it is dead.
I would urge the Select Board to halt this project immediately until it can be thoroughly reviewed and approved by the Town Boards which should have been consulted before construction began: namely, Planning, Historical and Open Space. It remains unclear how much—if any—use by town residents the current “park” would have on such an isolated site without any attraction. The entire concept should be thoroughly reconsidered. Whatever else may happen to this parcel in the future, it is critical the area bordering the Old Burial Ground not be further disturbed, the expansion of the St. Mark’s parking area be visually mitigated, plans be made to restore the tree cover along the boundaries of the triangle, and immediate steps taken to preserve the existing trees and markers in the OBG.
Hard to believe this massive stump was a 100′ living oak a week ago.
The Society is excited to announce two history walking tours on Main Street this October to celebrate our new Downtown National Register District!
The first, Model Farms and Country Seats, will explore the development of West Main Street as an area of vast summer estates for Boston’s wealthy elite. Beginning at the museum, we’ll be taking in the history of Pilgrim Church, The Town House, St Marks, the Kidder, Choate and Sears Estates, as well as a special tour of the newly restored grounds at 84 Main Street, the Burnett Mansion.
The second tour, Merchants and Ministers, will head east from the museum to investigate the history of our main street from its origins as a native American trail to its development as a small commercial center. Stops will include most of the homes along Main Street, as well as the former sites of the railroad station, the Sealey Block, the Southborough Arms, and the second iteration of the Congregational Church. We’ll end up in the Old Burial Ground just in time for Halloween to hear some remarkable tales of those buried within.
Both tours will be led by SHS president Michael Weishan, and attendees will each receive an electronic headset to guarantee easy listening. Starting and ending point is the SHS Museum behind the town hall. While we will be on sidewalks most of the time, each tour is about 1.5 miles and encompasses hills, so comfortable clothes and shoes are a must. Rain dates are the following Sunday at 1 for each tour.
Tickets are free for Society members, $15 at the door for the general public. Advance reservations are required. Make your reservations soon as these will in fact sell out.
COVID restrictions: Age 12+ and full vaccination for all tour participants. Masks at your discretion.
In February 1850, native son Col. Francis B. Fay decided to make a remarkable offer to the citizens of his hometown. He would donate $500 to found a public library for the youth of Southborough, if the citizens would collect or appropriate the same amount. To really appreciate the foresight of this gift, you have to realize that at the time, there were no free libraries in the United States. The libraries that did exist were by subscription only, and many were non-circulating. By the time our free library was founded in 1852, it was just the second in the nation—the Boston Public Library beat us out by a few months.
Secondly while $500 doesn’t seem like much today, adjusted for inflation it’s almost $17,000. But that’s not a terribly accurate way to measure historical amounts. To give you a better idea of Col. Fay’s generosity, $500 in 1850 yields a relative wage of $326,967.21 today. In other words, a job that paid $500 in 1850 would have the equivalent buying power of 326K in 2021. That’s no small potatoes.
Finally, what’s most remarkable to me are the fair-minded stipulations of the gift: both young men and women are to be allowed equal access, and the library may not contain books or materials advocating a particular political or religious view. As Col Fay put it: I trust is will not be understood that I am indifferent to, or unmindful of the importance of religious culture or of political knowledge, but I desire to furnish our youth with the means to qualify themselves to be intelligent, useful and moral citizens, and leave each one at liberty (under the guidance of his parents) to furnish him or herself with the means of religious or political knowledge.
I leave it for you to read the rest of this enlightened offer, just last week transcribed as part of our ongoing work with the papers of Col. Francis B. Fay.
Boston, March 14, 1850 Letter to Fitch Winchester, Esq.
Dear Sir,
I wrote to you a few days since in relation to a proposition to the inhabitants of my native town and alluded to certain conditions which I should append to the proposal. I will now state those conditions.
1st. I propose to place in your hands five hundred dollars to be expended in furnish a library for the youth of said town provided the inhabitants either by subscription of otherwise shall raise or appropriate an equal sum for the same purpose.
2nd. I would stipulate that all the youth of both sexes (under 21 years of age) in the town shall have the privilege of using the library free of expense under such regulations as the government or trustees shall prescribe. I may add that I have no objection to have the privilege extended to all the inhabitants of all ages if desirable. My first object is to provide for the young who have an inclination to acquire useful knowledge the means of gratifying such inclination.
3rd. To guard against any dissatisfaction from any quarter and enable all to be benefited by the library with the approbation of their parents, I would stipulate that the books selected shall be confined to the works on various arts and sciences, history, geography, biography works calculated to diffuse useful knowledge etc. and that all works of a sectarian or party character shall be excluded. I trust is will not be understood that I am indifferent to, or unmindful of the importance of religious culture or of political knowledge, but I desire to furnish our youth with the means to qualify themselves to be intelligent, useful and moral citizens, and leave each one at liberty (under the guidance of his parents) to furnish him or herself with the means of religious or political knowledge.
4th. That trustees shall be chosen by the inhabitants at some town meeting held for the purpose and shall be composed of an equal number (as near as maybe) of each of the religious sects of which the inhabitants are composed, which shall have the power to purchase [for] the library from time to time and make such regulations and by laws respecting the same as they may think best to promote the object and that in the case of death or resignation of any trustee or trustees his or her place shall be filled if convenient with the same denomination.
5th. That such proportion of the fund as is thought advisable (probably five hundred dollars more or less) shall be expended as soon as may be for the purchase of books for the library; that any unexpended funds shall be kept at interest under the direction of the trustees and not less than the interest thereof, nor more than one hundred dollars, at the discretion of the trustees, shall annually be expended for additions to the library.
I thought perhaps you would like a bit of good news for a change.
Just before the COVID crisis hit, the Board of the Southborough Historical Society purchased and donated to the town a 12′ tall Princeton elm. It was planted in the field beside the museum (with the kind assistance of DPW head Karen Galligan) to replace one of the huge sugar maples that recently failed. This new variety has been field tested over the last few decades and has proven resistant to the Dutch elm disease. With any luck, this tree will shortly grow into a sizable specimen, giving shade to grateful future generations. To our knowledge, it is the first new elm planted along the roadways of Southborough in half a century.
And also, we are delighted to announce that the first crop of our new Lyscom apple trees will be available for sale shortly. (You’ll perhaps remember that the Lyscom originated here in the 1730s) Again, thanks to Karen, grafts from the sole surviving tree were taken several years ago, and 15 or so are now ready to find new homes. More on that soon.
The first page of Fay’s account. The letter spans 12 pages written over the period of about a week on the return journey.
Among the Fay correspondence the Society is publishing for the first time ever this winter, we found a remarkable letter that chronicles the almost superhuman effort it took to travel by land before the railroad system linked the continent in the 1860s and 70s. Although not stated in the account, it seems fairly clear that Fay took on this arduous 1836 journey from Boston to St. Louis to act as a business agent, looking for profitable investment opportunities for wealthy Boston clients.
In this first installment, our hero Colonel Francis B. Fay, late of Southborough, finds himself ill-housed, ill-used, battered about, and eventually, submerged in Lake Erie….
On board the steamboat Dayton, on the Ohio River between Mariette Ohio and Pittsburgh
November 2nd 1836
Dear Lori,
The time passing rather tedious—being penned up in a steamboat for 8 or 10 days without any relief, I made up my mind to give you a little history of my journey and adventures, although it is not very easy to write on a steamboat constantly shaking and trembling under the tremendous power of the engine and you may find some difficulty in deciphering all the [illegible} of the scroll.
I left Boston, as you know, September 12 at 1 PM and arrived at Providence at 4. [Presumably by the brand-new Boston and Providence Railroad, just finished the year before]. Went on board steamboat Massachusetts, had fog all the way through the [Long Island] sound which retarded out passage, arrived at New York the 13th at 7 AM, too late for the morning boat up the North [Hudson] River. Stayed in New York till five PM, took a boat for Albany and arrived there 6 AM; left there and arrived at Utica at 1 PM. 482 miles in 48 hours from home, having stopped 8 hours in Utica and 2 in Albany.
[This was breath-taking speed for 1836 and would have been a thing of wonder. Compare this to daily sums later in the letter.]
I there took a canal boat for Syracuse—61 miles where we arrived at 6 AM on the 15th. We there left the canal and took stage for Canandaigua passing through Auburn, Waterloo, and Geneva, and other beautiful towns to arrive at Canandaigua. Quarreled the stage agent for imposition, [unclear what this means, though presumably a disagreement about the fare] left that route and took the stage for Rochester and from there took stage for Buffalo through Lenox and Batavia, the last notorious for the scene of the Morgan abduction.
The route taken westbound by Francis Fay. Because there was as yet no train connection between Boston and Albany, the fastest route was by train and boat via Providence and New York. Incidentally, this poor connection to the interior, which would last another 20 years, was one of the principal reasons New York gained prominence over Boston.
[Fay’s reference to the “Morgan abduction” refers to one William Morgan, a resident of Batavia, New York, whose disappearance and presumed murder in 1826 ignited a powerful movement against the Freemasons, a fraternal society that had become influential in the United States. After Morgan announced his intention to publish a book exposing Freemasonry’s secrets, he was arrested on trumped-up charges. He disappeared soon after, and was believed to have been kidnapped and killed by Masons from western New York. The allegations surrounding Morgan’s disappearance and presumed death sparked a public outcry.]
An early Great Lakes steamboat. Travel by steamboat was fraught with danger: Poor (or no) maps of underwater hazards, no indoor sanitation, and engine machinery that was liable to explode.
Arrived at Buffalo on Saturday noon Sept 17th and remained there over Sunday and Monday. At 10 AM started in the steamboat General Porter up Lake Erie. Went for 45 miles, [before we] struck a rock near Dunkirk and stove a hole through her bottom, ran her into the harbor where she sank a few feet from the wharf with 3 feet of water in her cabin, and 700 passengers on board, men, women and children of all sorts of sizes, ages, conditions making one little world by ourselves. What may seem incredible too is that boats leave daily from Buffalo with an average of 700 or 800 passengers, mostly immigrants moving to the west. Here we were—700 of us—shipwrecked in a little village of some 30 to 50 houses. Our company consisted of 7 men on shore while the others got out our baggage near up the wharf. [We] chartered a wagon to carry us 3 miles to the stage road at Fredonia. We got there and chartered the only stage there for $20 to take us to Erie PA—50 miles. Before our stage was ready, swarms of passengers arrived from the boat wanting conveyance but they arrived “just in season to be too late.” We went on to Erie and from there by stage to Cleveland Ohio, about 110 miles. We there got on board the steamboat Thomas Jefferson and arrived at Detroit Michigan in about 24 hours. We there breakfasted and took another boat, came back down the Detroit River across the westerly shore of Lake Erie to Toledo at the mouth of the Maumee River. Again took a steamboat and went 8 miles up the Maumee to Perrysburg, the head of navigation on that river. This was Friday evening.
On Saturday we purchased horses, saddles, bridles, portmanteaus, leggings etc and on Sunday at 2 PM commenced our tour up the Maumee River through the woods on horseback to Fort Defiance at the conjunction of the St. Josephs River and the Auglaize River, whose junction forms the Maumee. We made 18 miles and put up at a house (a tavern it could not be called) kept by a man, half-French, half-Indian. We had a comical supper and were put to bed in a chamber— 8 beds, or more properly, substitutes for beds, where we stowed away, 18 of us men women and children, windows with more than half the glass out, and we had to put in our hats and coats to fill in the gaps. The next day we reached Ft. Defiance after a 38 miles ride through mud & ravines almost perpendicular—down and up through mud sloughs, fording rivers, etc. etc.
Fort Defiance
There is a little village at Defiance and a tolerable tavern where we fared comfortably. Fort Defiance is well named, it’s situation is most commanding being directly up the point where the two rivers meet, with the guns so arranged as to point down the Maumee and up the St. Joseph and Auglaize, with a high embankement and a deep ditch in the rear from river to river. I think troops stationed there might well defy an enemy. The village is situated directly in the rear of the fort and is very pleasant.
In leaving Ft. Defiance we commenced a journey of 50 miles through the forest where there was no road but for a path for man and horse through swamps [and] deep ravines. We would descend 50-75 feet almost perpendicular, the horses sometimes sliding from top to bottom unable to keep a foothold. At the bottom there were mud sloughs and water up to our horses bellies and immediately afterwards we would ascend almost perpendicular, obliged to hold onto the horses’ manes and let our horse keep prone step to step and with the greatest effort reach the top. The first night we put up at a log cabin of two rooms (about half a dozen of which were all the inhabitants there were between Ft Defiance and Ft Wayne—50 miles)
The Ohio and Indiana portions of Fay’s journey.
We had a supper I believe such as never before ate—meat that had been cooked some 8 or 10 times and fish which was not cooked without salt or butter. We were sent to bed under the roof (if roof it might be called) by a flight of stairs outside with no door and the logs so far apart that it appeared more of a cob house than a dwelling, stowed in with corn, oats, boxes, herbs, etc with 4 (what were called) beds. We stayed there till morning during a raging[?] night and had the same provision for breakfast and it was again set before 5 others travelers who came up just as we left.
The next day we passed Fort Wayne, a small little town, and commenced descending the Wabash River on a tow path of the Wabash Canal. That night we put up at a log house and had a splendid entertainment [the word here means “food and lodging”] as good as could be had in Boston. The next night we put up at another log house and fared comfortably. The owner was formerly from Massachusetts.
The next day we came to Logansport, a fine town in Indiana at the junction of the Wabash and Eel Rivers. In the meantime, I saw plenty of Indians and among them the head chief of the Miami Tribe who dresses and appears like a gentleman. He is said to be the richest man in Indiana, supposed to be worth $400,000. There was a collection of 11,000 Indians near Logansport to receive their pensions from government. But a quarrel ensued between them, and the whites and the militia [were] call out and two or three [Indians] killed before order was restored. We saw the troops just returning as we entered Logansport.
We left Logansport in the afternoon and went 6 miles to a small tavern on the banks of the Wabash and here my scene of troubles began….
