November 2014

On Sunday, November 23rd 2014, NHS members and friends joined in a celebration of the historical White Cliffs.

Photos and More from the Evening at White Cliffs.

October 2014

The October 2014 meeting featured Patricia Perry of Sneak Peek Productions presenting her program "Unsinkable."

Patricia Perry is a professional historical interpreter, a member of the Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums and the former Chairperson for the Blackstone Valley Interpreter Network. She is also a former junior high school teacher.

Pictured at right, Patricia Perry in her "Titanic" costume along with Noah Butler, 8, from Northborough.

May 2014

The final meeting of the season featured a presentation of Civil War songs by local singer/songwriter/guitarist Luanne Crosby. The audience was treated to a variety of songs, some written by George Root, an American songwriter who gained fame during the Civil War writing popular songs such as "The Battle Cry of Freedom" and "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!"

A number of the songs Luanne sang had familiar tunes, having been adapted over the years with different lyrics. One such song, "Goober Peas," was a familiar childhood song, although most audience members weren't aware of the song's backstory that was rooted in the Civil War. Goober peas, which were boiled peanuts, became a staple of the Confederate soldiers towards the end of the war when they were cut off from the rail lines and rations were low.

You can see music performed by Luanne Crosby on her YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/user/luannecrosby

May 2014

The Northborough Historical Society Museum opened for the summer season on May 4 with a "Made in Northborough" exhibit, featuring articles handmade by the Society's members.

The Museum is open to visits free of charge on Sunday afternoons from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. during the months of May, June, September and October. Tours and private visits are by appointment, and are also free of charge.

View photos from the event.

April 2014

At the April 25, 2014 meeting, Money, Money, Money, Making a Living in the 19th Century, Society members Ellen Racine, Cynthia Atwood and Kathleen Pierce donned period costumes and portrayed a number of 19th Century Northborough residents. These included Farmer Lewis Fay, Dr. Henry Jewett, mill worker Nettie Johnson, and Sarah Flagg Bailey, who taught school in one of Northborough's one-room school houses. The full house of audience members was treated to an informative and humorous dramatization of the lives of these various Northborough townsfolk and how they and scores of other residents earned their keep in the growing and changing town.

View the photos from this meeting

March 2014

At the March 28, 2014 meeting, Kevin Gardner was the guest speaker on the topic of stone walls.

Kevin Gardner, author of The Granite Kiss, spoke about many of the topics related to New England stone walls, including technique, stylistic development and aesthetics. He explained how and why New England came to acquire its thousands of miles of stone walls and their historical significance to the landscape.

Kevin delighted the crowd by building a miniature stonewall on a table in front of him as he delivered his fascinating talk on the history of stone walls in New England. (See photos at the right.)

For more than 25 years Kevin Gardner has been a stone wall builder with Owen Associates, a small family business in New Hampshire that designs, constructs, restores, evaluates, and teaches how to build traditional New England-style dry stone walls. Gardner has participated in major restoration projects and training workshops at Canterbury Shaker Village, Acadia National Park, and many other historic sites in New England. He is also an award-winning writer and producer for New Hampshire Public Radio. He lives in Hopkinton, New Hampshire. Gardner is a popular lecturer and leader of wall-building workshops who regularly draws standing-room-only crowds.

Thanks to a grant provided by the Northborough Cultural Council and
the Massachusetts Cultural Council that helped fund this program.

The photos and descriptions have been taken from Images of America: Northborough, written by our former Historian Robert Ellis and our Curator Ellen Racine.

(Click on the images for a larger version of the picture.)

Northborough Hotel. Dating from the Civil War era, the Northborough Hotel faced Main Street just west of the Church Street intersection. In 1911, selectman Philip Hilliard staged a one-man raid on the hotel after learning that it was dispensing alcohol in an officially dry town. The building, later known as the Northborough Inn, was destroyed by fire in late 1926. As a sure sign of changing times, a gasoline station was erected on the site of the old hotel.

Crossley House. This home, which stood immediately west of the old town hall, gave charm to the town center for years. As the Spa and later as the Whitehouse Donut Shop, it became a favorite hangout of several generations of townspeople. The CVS shopping plaza displaced the Crossley house in the early 1960s.

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