MARLBOROUGH SURVEY OF HISTORIC, ARCHITECTURAL, AND

CULTURAL RESOURCES

Throughout its history, Marlborough has been noted for the beauty of its rolling terrain and its hospitable topography, which is characterized by an abundance of hilly, glacially-formed uplands.  The landscape is dominated by twelve hills over 400-feet high, the tallest of which is Sligo Hill, at 590 feet.  One, Ockoocangansett, just north of the center of town, was the seventeenth-century site of the ca. 200-acre Indian "planting field".  The soil ranges from rocky to gravelly, and the vegetation is largely deciduous, interspersed with some stands of coniferous trees.  Marlborough has a highland watershed, with only one natural lake, Lake Williams, and several small ponds and minor brooks and streams.  Although a short section of the Assabet River bisects the northwest border on its way to Hudson, (once part of Marlborough), the community that is today the city of Marlborough developed without the advantage of water power from any major rivers.  Areas of upland bog and swamp occupy the rocky eastern third of the community, and large wetlands exist in the southern part, a portion of which may be a remnant of the original cedar swamp so desirable to the early settlers.  The southeastern-most wetlands, which supply the Sudbury Reservoir, are now part of the Boston water supply system.  The south and east sections drain into the Sudbury River; the north and west into the Assabet.  

CONTACT PERIOD   (1500 - 1620)

The fertile upland soil and the wetlands and streams of Marlborough supported Native American activity long before the European settlers arrived.  The area was peopled by inland Nipmuc groups, and others passed through on their seasonal migrations.  Indians could canoe from as far up as the "narrows" of Fort Meadow Brook down to the Assabet, and thence to the Sudbury, the Concord, and ultimately via the Merrimack River to the Atlantic.  Along the way, their principle objective would have been Wamesit (Lowell) near the confluence of the Concord and the Merrimack. 

 Marlborough is sited at the edge of the interior highland along an axis of western Indian trails.  The most important was the major native regional route, the Connecticut Path, which passed east/west through what later became the center of town roughly along the line of today's Boston Post Road/Route 20.  Secondary native routes are conjectured to have gone northeast along Concord Road and possibly Hemenway Street, and in the southeast section along Farm Road to Broadmeadow, with a possible branch down Parmenter Road.  It is also likely that a trail that skirted the base of Ockoocanganset Hill turned north toward the Assabet along the line of Pleasant Street, with branches up West Hill, Berlin, and Bigelow Streets.  

 Settlement Pattern/Archaeological Resources

Several native sites have been identified in Marlborough, including an early one overlooking Flagg Swamp in the northwest section of town.  Summer camps were situated near Causeway Street at the Hudson border, and on Mount Ward in the east part of the city.  Unspecified sites were also located on Ockoocanganset Hill, and adjacent to Fort Meadow Reservoir.  Other likely locations include the terraces and knolls at the northwest corner of town overlooking the Assabet River, the shores of Lake Williams, and at what may be native rock shelters along Flagg, Millham, and other brooks.  An Indian burial ground (Form 810) is located in the southwest part of town, and two others have been identified at Bolton and Union Streets and in the Highland/Union Street area.

 Subsistence Pattern

 The diverse upland terrain throughout Marlborough supported hunting and gathering activities, and there would have been abundant fishing in its ponds and streams, with seasonal runs in the Assabet of shad, herring, and salmon.  The local Indians took advantage of the good agricultural soils, establishing cornfields and orchards here by the first half of the seventeenth century. 

Today's Marlborough was originally included in the 1638 Sudbury grant to a group of English colonists.  Sudbury's territory was enlarged several times, including, in 1656, by the addition of a ca. six-mile-square plantation to its southwest first named "Whipsufferadge" ("Whipsuppenicke"), and later called Marlborough Plantation.  A provision of the granting of the plantation required that it be settled by at least twenty English families within three years' time.  Reserved out of the new area, however, were the 200-acre "Indian Planting Field", and a ca. 6400-acre tract that had been designated as an Indian "Praying Town" called Ockoocangansett, under the Rev. John Eliot, one of seven he established.  Another 842 acres of the plantation had been granted to John Alcock (e) in 1655, and the "Alcocke Farm" remained an independent area through several decades of Marlborough's early settlement. 

Situated here on the western frontier of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Whippsufferadge soon became an intermediate post between Boston and the Connecticut River settlements to the west.  A fort was even established here sometime before 1675.

Transportation routes through the new territory at first followed the existing native trails, and the Bay Colony undertook the improvement of the section of the Connecticut Path that led to the Marlborough Plantation. 

 Population and Settlement

Fewer than fifty families from branches of the Natick and Wamesit tribes settled at Eliot's 1654 Praying Town, which was located in the northeast quadrant of present-day Marlborough.  The first Englishman to move here is believed to have been John Howe, who arrived early in 1658.  The rest of the first group of settlers to come from Sudbury, numbering 15 to 20 families, began to arrive by the next year.  In 1660, the Marlborough Plantation was incorporated as the town of Marlborough, with 38 house-lots granted to its proprietors.  The first eleven houses were arranged in a small nucleated settlement flanking the Connecticut Path between Ockoocangansett and Fairmount Hills.  Among the first orders of business in the new town was the building of a meetinghouse, which was constructed by 1662-63 at the southwest corner of the Indian Planting Field, apparently because that location, as was required in the siting of meetinghouses, was the geographical center of the town.  The Rev. William Brinsmead (Brimsmead) was chosen as the town minister, and shortly thereafter, possibly during the first year, approximately two acres of land on Spring Hill were designated as a burial ground.  Over the next fifteen years the settlement became more dispersed, with settlers establishing outlying farms and mills at locations some distance from the center where the soil was good or water power from the streams could be utilized.  Partly because of legal restrictions placed on any new settlers, initial population growth was slow.  By 1670 there were about forty English families here, numbering about 210 people.   Five years later, however, during King Philip's War, most of the settlers left Marlborough, some never to return. 

Small outlying communities were the most vulnerable during this two-year conflict, and Marlborough, like other towns near the frontier, experienced the violence of King Philip's War first-hand.  Eight or ten houses were designated as "garrisons" to which the English residents could flee during an attack, and, as a precaution, the Indian residents of the town were rounded up and sent to Deer Island in Boston harbor.  Marlborough became a depot for war provisions and munitions, and a regional base for the colonial operations against the Indians, especially for the campaigns to Lancaster and Sudbury.  Indian "depredations" were reported in the town, and several Marlborough men were killed in area battles and skirmishes.  In August of 1675 the town of Brookfield was destroyed, leaving Marlborough as the westernmost settlement between Boston and the Connecticut River.  Capt. Edward Hutchinson, who had been shot in the famous ambush near Brookfield, was brought to Marlborough, where he died of his wounds, and was interred in the first marked grave in the Spring Hill Cemetery(See Inventory Form 800.) Then, on March 26, 1676, a band of Indians attacked the town, burning thirteen houses, eleven barns, and the meetinghouse. 

Economic base

In the town's early years both its native and English economy were largely agriculturally-based; in fact, the English government had chosen the site for the Marlborough plantation because of the agricultural and grazing potential of its uplands and meadows.  The Colonists also engaged in some trade with Indians of the region.  As Marlborough was a primary transportation locus west of Sudbury, taverns were established here early.  The first, John How's Tavern, opened on the Post Road some time between 1661 and 1670.

Architecture

Most of the first houses in Marlborough were undoubtedly small, and, if the meetinghouse is a typical example, had thatched roofs.  However, the description of the house of the Rev. Brinsmead, and the residence of citizen John Ruddocke, on which it was modeled, meet the definition of a true First Period "manor house".  The minister's house was 26 by 18 feet long, four by two bays, with two facade gables, each with two small windows.  It is not certain whether any buildings that may have survived the 1675 burning still remain, although, according to tradition, part of the John How(e) Houseat 29 Fowler Street, (Form 44), may pre-date King Philip's War.

COLONIAL PERIOD   (1676 - 1775)

In the century between King Philip's War and the Revolution, Marlborough underwent a gradual evolution from a frontier town to a thriving regional center.  It was heterogeneous both socially and economically, and developed into a community that, while still largely rural, encompassed both yeoman farms and the stylish homes of the affluent gentry.

The early eighteenth century was a time of major losses and gains in territory for the town.  In 1700 the town acquired a large tract of land north of the Indian plantation which extended to the Stow border.  In 1716 another large parcel called "Agaganquamasset" was granted to Marlborough, in 1717-18, John Alcocke's farm, by then called "the farm", was annexed, and in 1718-19 the 6,000-acre Indian plantation was officially added to the town.  Some of Alcocke's land and nearly 14,000 acres in the western part of Marlborough were taken to form the new town of Westborough in 1717, (to be divided later in the century into Westborough and Northborough.)  In 1727 the town of Southborough was established, incorporating the territory in the southern part of Marlborough that had been called "Stony Brook."  

Transportation Routes

During this time, the main through-routes of the seventeenth century continued.  The Boston Post Road was still the primary axis through Marlborough center, and in 1772 the first stage coach on the official stage route from Boston to New York passed through town along it.  The County Road from Worcester to Concord ran along the Post Road, then turned northeast up Concord Road.  Several roads were extended during the eighteenth century, including Berlin Road and Millham and Elm Streets to the west, Williams and Forest Streets in the southwest, Bolton, Stevens, and Hosmer Streets to the north, Stow and Concord Roads to the northeast, and Framingham Road and Brigham Street in the south part of town. 

Population

Marlborough experienced a steady growth after the mass exodus during King Philip's War.  By 1680 there were again ca. 200 residents, and by 1700 the population was up to 530.  A subsequent increase, when the population reached 800 by 1720, was associated with the annexation of the Indian lands.  The 1765 census recorded that the town had a population of 1,287 in 213 families, living in 183 houses.  Waves of disease frequently took a heavy toll, however, as in 1775, when 78 people in Marlborough died in an outbreak of dysentery. 

Settlement 

In the year of resettlement immediately after King Philip's War, at least 27 English families returned to Marlborough.  Some Indians returned from Boston, but most went to the western part of town, where they settled on the Thomas Brigham farm.  The forfeiting of the praying town/plantation lands by the Indians in this period led the way to the eventual acquisition of that property by the colonists, who by 1684 had illegally obtained a deed to the plantation, and laid out and divided lots upon it.  In 1695, four men from Watertown purchased 350 acres of the former Alcocke "farm" in the Farm Road area, and built several houses there.  Because of the continued threat of frontier warfare, however, settlement of the town through the beginning of the eighteenth century remained concentrated near the center.  Finally, with the end of "Queen Anne's War" in 1713, the number of outlying farms began to increase.  As early as 1720 there was actually a shortage of land, which led to the settlement of new outlying communities, as parents looked beyond the town borders to provide farms and dowries for their children.  Marlborough also became a way-station for settlers bound west to newly-established communities such as Grafton, Shrewsbury, Worcester, Rutland, and the re-established town of Brookfield.

Economic Base

By the later Colonial Period there were many farms operating in Marlborough.  A few were very large; many were about thirty acres in size.  Most raised cattle and grain, with apple orchards as an important secondary activity.  Enough apples were grown to support a substantial export of cider and brandy to markets outside the town.  Industry during this period encompassed the usual local mixture of several mills (both grist and lumber), and tanning, cooperage, blacksmithing, and tool-making activities.  By the latter part of the eighteenth century a small business district had developed at the center village, which included a few wholesale/retail suppliers.  At least two taverns were operating on the Boston Post Road--How's east of the village, and Williams' to the west, and another, the Asa Brigham Tavern, stood north of the section of the Old Connecticut Path along Elm Street that stage coaches followed before 1790.   

Religion/Education

By 1740 the citizens of Marlborough were worshiping in their third meetinghouse (built 1688), under their fourth minister, the Rev. Aaron Smith.  The first recorded town-built schoolhouse was erected in 1698-99.  By the early eighteenth century the community was following the system of "moving" schools, in which the school was kept in different parts of town for designated periods of time.  By 1748, however, the town was divided into six school "squadrons", or societies, and by 1762 a schoolhouse had been built in each one. 

Military/Political

During the continuing conflicts between colonists and Indians subsequent to King Philip's War, Marlborough was still at risk of attack because of its remote location.  In Queen Anne's War of 1704-1713 the inhabitants were again assigned to garrison houses (to which they could flee in the event of an attack), and several residents of Marlborough were actually captured or killed.  Some of the most illustrious military leaders in this war came from Marlborough, of which the best-known was Capt. Thomas Howe, who led a force to Sterling.  

Large numbers of men from Marlborough participated in the French and Indian Wars from 1722 to 1763.  They were involved in all the major campaigns, including the 1741 Spanish West Indies expedition to Cuba, the 1745 capture of Louisburg on Cape Breton, and the 1746 campaign to Charlestown, New Hampshire.  In 1757 Marlborough had two large companies of militia and one alarm company, and two militia companies fought at the fall of Fort William Henry under local leaders Capt. Samuel Howe and Lt. Stephen Maynard. 

From the 1760's to the start of the Revolution in 1775 there was growing resistance in Marlborough to the policies of the English government.  Among the local patriot leaders at that time were Peter Bent, Edward Barnes, and George Brigham.  In 1770 the town voted sanctions against one of its wealthiest residents, Henry Barnes, a trader of English goods and a staunch loyalist, and in 1775 a group of angry townspeople marched on his house, where two British spies had stopped.  Barnes left town just prior to the start of the war, and his property was confiscated. 

Architecture

A few known First Period houses built between 1676 and 1725 survive in Marlborough, most as 5-bay, 2 1/2-story buildings that have been expanded over the years.  One of the best-preserved is the Peter Rice House, 377 Elm Street (Form 42; NR) of about 1700, which incorporates a smaller, early house.  The first part of the John/Gershom Bigelow Homestead (Form 46) at 327 Farm Road may date to the late 1690's, the Harrington House at 180 Farm Road (Form 58) is believed to date from about 1705, sections of the Stow Homestead at 33 Spoonhill Avenue (Form 12) date from at least 1713 (Form 12), and #340 Bigelow Street, the Abraham Howe House (Form 38) was probably built in 1720.  The Joseph Morse House at 418 Farm Road (Form 59), in which the original exposed frame is still visible, is an early "half-house;” the John Weeks House, possibly of ca. 1705, at 1126 Concord Road (Form 55) is another of the same type.  Upon the residents' return to Marlborough after King Philip's War a thatch-roofed meetinghouse was built to replace the one that was burned, but it was left unfinished.  It was replaced by a larger one in 1688.

More houses remain from the Georgian or "second" period of Colonial architecture.  Most of these, too, are 5-bay, 2 1/2-story, side-gabled houses.  Some, like the William Gates House at 77 Lakeside Avenue (Form 62), are two-story half-houses.   475 Elm Street, the Jacob and Thomas Rice House (Form 57) was expanded at least twice, resulting in a "saltbox" profile with a rear lean-to, and a long, asymmetrical 7-bay facade.  982 Boston Post Road, the Amos/Jonas Darling House (Form 15),  and the Francis Barnard Homestead at 218 Farm Road (Form 13) are rare examples in Marlborough of the Cape Cod cottage in its center-chimney, five-bay form, and the little Felton/Brown/Dunton House of ca. 1738 at 31 Northborough Road (Form 91) is an even more rare gambrel-roofed cottage. 

As far as is known, no commercial or institutional structures survive from the Colonial Period in Marlborough.  In the Spring Hill Cemetery and Marlborough's second burial ground, the Old Common Cemetery (Form 805), established 1706, are many outstanding and well-preserved eighteenth-century slate gravestones, including early ones with flat geometric designs, and post-1750 examples embellished with effigies, skulls, cherubs, etc. 

FEDERAL PERIOD    (1775 - 1830)

 As its citizens struggled to free themselves from British rule during the Revolution, and subsequently to help form the foundations of a nation, Marlborough, like other communities, adjusted to new policies, ideas, beliefs, and a new-found freedom and independence.  New hardships were endured, as well, from the sorrows and deprivations of large-scale war to the severe economic conditions of the recession and restructuring that followed it.  Finally, by 1830 Marlborough found itself poised on the brink of the industrial age that was to transform the town into a different type of community altogether.   

After the Revolution, Marlborough's borders again underwent some changes.  In 1784 part of the northwestern section of town was included in the new district of Berlin.  In 1791 a small section of Framingham was annexed to Marlborough, but in 1807 part of Marlborough was annexed to Northborough, and in 1829 another section became part of Bolton.

 Transportation routes

The colonial highways remained during this period, with the Boston Post Road still the primary long-distance route.  The new Boston to Worcester Turnpike, however, bypassed Marlborough by following a westerly course through Southborough.  Two roads, Bolton Street as "the Road to Bolton", and Elm, Union, lower Stevens Streets and Concord Road as "the Road from Marlborough to Concord" became part of the county road system after the Revolution.  By about 1800, Elm and Union Streets were extended from west to east north of the center, and Mechanic and Prospect Streets were in existence as far as Elm and Union.  A wide network of local roads through the farming districts remained largely unchanged from 1800 to 1830.  At the center, Pleasant Street was extended south from Elm to West Main Street between ca. 1810 and 1815.  

 Population

Settlement Pattern

During this period two separate villages were developing at the center, one near the meetinghouse and adjacent common at the base of today's Prospect and Rawlins Streets, the other a third of a mile to the east along the intersection of the Post Road and the road to Bolton.  Around and between the center villages were the agricultural districts, still composed mainly of small to medium-sized farms. 

 Economic Base

 Economic growth stopped during the severe recession that followed the Revolution, and slowed again during the embargo period associated with the War of 1812.  Marlborough still had a primarily agricultural economy, with land used mainly for general farming and grazing, but fruit growing, especially apples, continued as an important secondary activity.  During the early part of the period, cider and brandy production, marketed in Boston, increased, and by 1812 there were two large distilleries in town.  Toward the end of the period, however, with the growing influence of the temperance movement, many orchards were converted to growing apples for "winter fruit" (eating), rather than for cider.

Over all, industrial activity expanded steadily but gradually during the Federal period.  While other communities were beginning to develop larger mills at the start of the nineteenth century, that potential was limited here because of the general lack of water power.  The village of Feltonville that had grown up along the Assabet in the north part of town, (today part of Hudson), however, was an exception, and there mill activity increased rapidly.  By 1794, five grist mills were operating in Marlborough--two in the north section of town that later became part of Hudson, Hezekiah Maynard's on the South Brook, Gill's on Millham Brook, and Cotting's on Broad Meadow Brook.  There were two saw mills, Hager's on Hop Brook at the east end of town, and Cogswell's on the Assabet at the north, where a fulling mill was also located.  Simon Maynard was operating another saw mill by 1803 on Fort Meadow Brook off upper Hosmer Street, just over the border of today's Hudson.

 Also by 1803 there were two tan yards in town, both run by members of the Brigham family--Aaron at Lake Williams, and Jedediah on East Main Street.  There was a basket shop at the south on Walker Street, and three stores at the center.  Home production of straw bonnets was a significant source of income, especially for women, in the early nineteenth century, declining after 1830.  Around 1815 the beginnings of a cottage industry in shoe-making were evident, with many residents setting up small cobbler's shops at home.  Another tavern/hotel, Thayer's Tavern, (Form 112) opened on the section of the Boston Post Road that is today's Main Street.  In 1799 the post office was established, located first in private houses, and later in the Thayer Tavern and nearby stores.

 Military

The first years of the period were dominated by the town's involvement in the Revolution.  On April 19, 1775, four Militia companies, numbering 190 men—1/7 of the town population—marched from Marlborough to Cambridge under Captains Cyprian Howe, William Brigham, Daniel Barnes, and Silas Gates.  Some Marlborough men also saw action at Bunker Hill under two other local commanders, Lt. Col. Jonathan Ward and Maj. Edward Barnes.  Other campaigns in which soldiers from Marlborough were involved included White Plains, and the Rhode Island campaign. 

Religion/education

 The Federal period in Marlborough was marked by considerable religious conflict, and by a growing diversity within what was still a solidly protestant community.  The first Methodist services in Marlborough were held about 1798 in Feltonville, in 1800 a Methodist Society was officially formed, and a Methodist Church was built in the northeast section of town in 1827-28.  Before the period was over a Universalist Society had also been founded (1818), and a Universalist Church was built on Main Street in the East Village in the late 1820's. 

From the standpoint of the community's development, however, by far the most important religious event of the period was the splitting of the old Congregational town church into two institutions.  By the turn of the nineteenth century, when it became apparent that the 1688 meetinghouse needed to be replaced, the geographic center of town had shifted east from the old meetinghouse location, and measurements from the boundaries showed it was now centered at Spring Hill in the East Village.  While town meeting voted to place the new meetinghouse there, a strong contingent of residents of the West Village fought to keep it at or near the old location.  The ultimate result was the division of the town into two parishes, with a town-built church erected at Spring Hill, and another, the "West Church", built with private funds, on Pleasant Street.  Both buildings opened for worship on the same day in April, 1806, and the presence of each was a catalyst for the development of the area around it for the next several decades.  Gradually, the West Church moved toward Unitarianism, while the other church, officially designated the Union Church in 1835, continued as the town's "orthodox" Congregational institution  (see Forms 194 and 74).

After the Revolution, Marlborough's educational system also underwent a transformation.  In 1790, in accordance with an order by the General Court, the town established a district school system, beginning with seven district schools meeting fifteen weeks per year.  By 1835 there were ten districts.  In 1826, a private academy was established, which erected a school building at the old town common in 1827.  After some generous gifts by Silas and Abraham Gates, it was renamed the Gates Academy.

Architecture

Building slowed during the years of the Revolution and the hard economic times that followed.  Most of the few houses of the period known to have been built or enlarged prior to the 1790's continued the old Georgian forms, especially the 2-1/2-story, five-bay, side-gabled type.  By the 1790's, however, the old lobby-entrance, center-chimney house plan was being replaced by an arrangement of rooms flanking a central through-hallway.  In a house that was two-rooms deep, this resulted in twin ridge chimneys, as in the massive Solomon Barnes House at 19 Ash Street (Form 11), which retains its pedimented, late Georgian doorway.  Another excellent example is the Supply Weeks Homestead at 768 Hemenway Street (Form 55), which has a slightly later, true Federal-style entry, with sidelights and an elliptical fanlight.  In a house that was one-room deep, such as the Stephen Eager House at 45 Eager Court (Form 21), the twin chimneys were located at the rear.  Some houses of the Federal period, such as the large Uriah Maynard House at 616 Hosmer Street (Form 52), were built with shallow hipped roofs. 

After the turn of the nineteenth century, scattered examples of several other Federal house-types appeared.  Several "brick-enders" were constructed, including a 1 1/2-story gable-roofed cottage at 275 Boston Post Road in west Marlborough (MHC #1239), the hip-roofed, one-room-deep house built by Samuel Howe in the 1820's, later moved to 159 Elm Street (Form 69), and its near-twin, the well-preserved Brigham House at 228 Glen Street (Form 650).  A large gable-roofed, rear-chimney house with one brick end stands at 38 Maple Street (MHC #1143), and two older houses were enlarged to two-rooms-deep, with one brick end and three chimneys, 200 East Main Street (Form 41) and 540 Concord Road (Form 56) in the early 1800's.  The largest of the two-story brick-enders is the imposing Gershom Rice, II House at 139 Northborough Road (Form 24), a true "double-pile", hip-roofed house of 1803-04.  One three-story Federal brick-ended house also exists--the Joab Stow House of ca. 1795, at 200 Concord Road (Form 8).

Marlborough once had several examples of the large five-bay late Federal-period house with front-facing gabled roof and two or four interior corner chimneys.  Remaining today of this type are the brick Thayer Tavern at 51 Main Street (Form 112), which may have been standing as early as 1800, and the Farwell/O'Connell House at 63 Maple Street of ca. 1825 (Form 92).  (One of the best-known buildings in Marlborough, the Williams Tavern/Gates Hotel (pictured below), rebuilt about 1815 and later demolished, was of this  type.)

 
Most vernacular buildings from this period have the somewhat shallow-pitched gabled roofs, high-shouldered proportions, and the 6-over-9- or, in later examples, 6-over-6-sash windows that were universal throughout New England at this time.  Somewhat altered examples from the 1810's still exist across the street from each other at 117 Pleasant Street (Dr. John Baker House--Form 75,) and 126 Pleasant Street (Rice/Holyoke House--Form 143).  The front part of the Sylvanus/Eber Howe House at 615 Berlin Road (Form 4), built of brick in about 1824 at the transition of the Federal style to the Greek Revival, is Marlborough's only example of a two-story, one-room-deep "I-house", with a pair of chimneys integral to the end walls.

Between 1790 and 1803 several one-room schoolhouses were erected, each 24-feet square, and some with a six-foot-square projecting lobby entrance, or "porch."  None, however, is known to survive today.

EARLY INDUSTRIAL PERIOD   (1830 - 1870)

The forty-year period spanning the middle of the nineteenth century was one of extremely rapid growth in Marlborough, sparked by an explosion in industrial development, the shoe industry, in particular.  In spite of the lack of water power, new advancements in technology in both power generation and production machinery set the stage for large factories in Marlborough, as did the arrival of two railroads in the 1850's, and the ready availability of willing workers.     

 The annexation of part of Southborough in 1843 enlarged the town, but its size was later greatly reduced in 1866, when the entire north section of Marlborough was incorporated into the new town of Hudson.

 There was a hiatus in the town's development in the 1860's during the Civil War, in which 869 men from Marlborough served.  The Soldiers' Monument at Monument Square (Form 900) was erected shortly after the war was over, in 1869.

Transportation Routes

The old turnpikes and highways remained from the early nineteenth century, with their main intersections still at the center of town.  Existing streets were improved and extended, and secondary local roads multiplied, especially at the center, to access the new factories and to accommodate nearby residential development.  By the 1850's Chestnut Street, the first blocks of Lincoln Street, and the lower section of Broad Street had been built, and South Street, part of the old road to Southborough, had been extended north to West Main.  In the third quarter of the century the east end of Lincoln Street, as Palfrey Street, was developed, Broad Street was extended to Sligo Hill, and Mechanic was continued north of Elm.  In that period residential side streets proliferated at the center, as much of the farmland between and around the two villages was subdivided for house lots. 

Although Marlborough farmers could ship some produce via railroad as early as 1834 when the Boston & Worcester was built through Westborough, the major transportation change in this period was the coming of the railroads first to Feltonville (today the center of Hudson), then to Marlborough center in the 1850s.  The "North" (Marlborough) Branch of the Fitchburg Railroad, incorporated by Mark Fay and Richard Farwell, reached Feltonville in 1852, and was extended to Marlborough center at Prospect Street in 1855, the same year that the "South" (Agricultural) Branch Railroad came northwest from the Boston & Worcester in Framingham through Southborough and south Marlborough to end at the center just south of Main Street. 

Population

Marlborough's population increased very rapidly after 1840, especially at Feltonville, which grew so large that it was set off as the separate town of Hudson in 1866.  In about 1850, a large influx of foreign-born residents began, first with the Irish, followed just after the Civil War by French Canadians.  In less than twenty-five years, the town's population more than doubled, from 2,500 in 1836 to 5,911 in 1860.

 Religion/Education/intellectual

Both the Congregational and the Methodist churches burned down in 1852.  Both religious groups constructed new buildings the next year, with a minority of the Methodist Society building theirs just east of the center on what was to become Church Street.  Roman Catholics were holding services in Marlborough as early as 1850. The Immaculate Conception parish was formed in 1864, but the first Immaculate Conception Church was built a decade earlier on Mount Pleasant Hill in 1854-55.  It was replaced by the present Immaculate Conception Church on Prospect Street in 1871 (Form 98).  A second Catholic parish, St. Mary's, was established in 1870, with its church building on Broad Street begun the same year (Form 96).  After a period of inactivity, the Universalists reorganized in 1865, and built a new academic Italianate church on Main Street.  A Baptist Society was formed in 1868, and in 1869 they acquired the former Town Hall, moved it to the north side of Main Street, and remodeled it for their church. 

In 1855 a state law was passed outlawing interments in family cemeteries, and the town took over the ownership and management of five neighborhood/family cemeteries that had been in existence since the first quarter of the nineteenth century (and, in the case of the Wilson Cemetery [Form 804], since the eighteenth century).  Two of them, the Maplewood Cemetery on Pleasant Street and the Chipman (later Rocklawn) Cemetery on Stevens Street, were greatly enlarged in the 1860's, and became the major publicly-owned replacements for the overcrowded Spring Hill and Old Common Cemeteries.  (See Forms 801 and 809.) 

The Gates Academy had declined by the early 1830's, but was rejuvenated under Marlborough's foremost educator, Obadiah W. Albee, in 1833.  Education for everyone was advanced by the establishment of a public high school in 1849.  The new high school incorporated the former Gates Academy, and O.W. Albee became its first principal.  By 1855 there were two large graded schoolhouses, one at the center, and another at Feltonville, and soon the larger district schools were graded, as well.  In 1860 the town built a new mansard-roofed High School on the common.

This was an era when adult education and intellectual enhancement was widely valued.  In 1853 the Marlborough Mechanics Institute was organized to present lectures and establish a collection of books for a private library.  In 1870, when the public library was incorporated, the Mechanics Institute donated its sizable collection to it.

 Settlement Pattern

The town's topography changed somewhat in 1849, when Fort Meadow Brook was dammed by the city of Boston for a "capacious reservoir", eliminating the former "dismal swamp".  (See Form 914.)  Density of development increased rapidly at the center, with high-style residences appearing on the lower sections of Pleasant and West Main Streets, and more modest houses, many put up in small groups by local entrepreneurs, spreading down the major cross streets of Lincoln and Chestnut, and on small streets opened between them.  With the coming of the railroads and the subdivision of the large farm of Maj. Henry Rice, the East and West Villages gradually grew together to form a single town center.  In the West Village, now often called the "West End", the Shenstone Society was formed to beautify the new streets with trees, shrubs, and sidewalks. 

In the late 1850's and 1860's, shoe-manufacturers Samuel Boyd and John O'Connell acquired large acreages south of Main Street.  Boyd and his associates laid out large house lots on Fairmount Hill for a stylish neighborhood with both scenic views and ready access to the factories and businesses downtown, while both he and John O'Connell developed clusters of smaller, more affordable houses in the Howe Street area as homes for their shoeworkers.  (See Area Forms F and G).  To a lesser degree, Samuel Boyd's longtime partner, Thomas Corey, did the same on land near his large estate in the Church Street area.  In 1855, Major Henry Rice had already laid out lots on his old family farm north of Main Street, between the East and West Villages.  Well before his death in 1867 houses had begun to fill lower Washington Street and the new Rice and Palfrey Streets (the first name of eastern Lincoln Street).  After he died, much of his real estate was bought by Samuel Boyd and others, who subsequently developed Devens Street, linked the two ends of Lincoln Street, and sold off more lots to complete the joining of the two villages.  (See Area Form H.)       

By 1861 there were 500 dwellings and 3,000 inhabitants in the center villages.  Between 1849 and 1853 two firehouses were built in the East and West Villages, and in 1869 the town built a large Victorian Gothic town house on Main Street, which incorporated under its roof the post office, police station, court room and jail, library, armory, three stores, and a bank.

Economic Base

Agriculture continued as an important base for the economy throughout the period, boosted by advancements in farm implements and machinery, and, especially from the 1850's on, by the railroads, which opened up new major markets for agricultural products.  For both reasons, the period saw a shift from general farming to more milk production and fruit raising.  In 1845 the town produced 31,772 bushels of apples for vinegar, and in 1855 there were 25,000 apple trees growing fruit for eating, and 50 acres in cranberry production.  In the 1830's John Clisbee conducted a brief experiment in silk-raising on his farm at the west end of Lincoln Street, which for years was called Mulberry Street after the trees he planted there for his silk worms. 

The commercial base of the economy expanded too.  In 1837 there were three hotels and four stores at or near the center.  In 1822 Lambert Bigelow founded the store that, as Morse & Bigelow, became known throughout the region, and was one of Marlborough's longest-running commercial enterprises.  Two banks were founded in the 1860's--the Marlborough Savings Bank in 1860, and the First National in 1863. 

This was the period, however, when the main base of Marlborough's economy shifted to the industrial sector, a fact that is all the more remarkable because, with the exception of the factories at Feltonville on the Assabet, all the town's enterprises developed without the aid of major water power.  Prior to the 1830's, industry in Marlborough had consisted of a largely local mix of shoemakers, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, tanners, etc.  In the 1830's there were two chair/cabinet makers in town, and there was wide-spread straw-bonnet-making in the area, supported by cottage-industry straw braiding.  Then, in 1835, Marlborough's shoe industry began when Joseph Boyd started manufacturing shoes at his father's house at 85 Maple Street (MHC #1137).  He was joined the next year by his brother Samuel, and in 1837 they opened the first shoe factory on Main Street, subsequently expanded and relocated many times.  In 1841 they took in their brother, John, who went into the business for himself in 1846.  (It was John Boyd's 1842 invention of the shoe die that, along with other innovations, gave Marlborough an advantage over adjoining towns.)  Others who were part of the first generation of shoe manufacturers in the late 1830's and '40's included John Chipman, who began in 1836 and was later joined by his brother, Samuel; L & L Bigelow (began 1836, and sold out to William Dadmun in 1840); John Winslow Stevens (1838); Charles Dana Bigelow (1842); Josiah Howe (1845); and Freeman Morse of F.W. and G.H. Morse Co. (1846).

In the 1850's the industry was boosted further by the introduction of shoemaking by teams, the 1852 adoption of the sewing machine in shoe production (by John Chipman), and, in 1858, the introduction of steam power.  The decade before the Civil War saw several more shoe companies established, some of which went on to join the Boyds and their associates as the largest concerns of the end of the nineteenth century.  Those with the largest and longest production were Henry Russell, who began in 1853 and soon merged with Abel Howe as Russell & Howe, John O'Connell, who began on Howe Street in 1854, S.H. Howe (1855), and in 1858, Timothy Coolidge and John E. Curtis.  In the 1860's two more major manufacturers John A. Frye (1863) and Rice & Hutchins (1867) began production that lasted through the turn of the century.  In 1845, 302,725 pairs of shoes and 624 pairs of boots were produced in Marlborough.  In 1860, 17 shoe factories were operating here, with over $1 million per year in production. 

Along with the shoe industry, by the end of the 1860's a significant number of associated concerns, including machine shops, shoe-die and other manufacturing equipment makers, and shoe-box manufacturers,  such as E.F. Longley's Box Factory off Elm and Mechanic Streets, were established here. 

Other types of manufacturing not associated with the shoe industry included the quarrying of building stone, and the continuing production of lumber at the local sawmills.  By 1855 there was also a harness and saddle shop, two tinware makers, and a sash-and-blind factory was operating south of West Main.  Sometime before 1840 John Clisbee began manufacturing church organs, a business that was continued by his son, George, until the end of the century.  Businesses that grew up along the railroads included George Cate's lumber yard (established 1856), two planing mills, and Levi Taylor's carriage factory.

 Architecture

The Early Industrial period produced a rich collection of architecture in Marlborough, and the prosperity of the first shoe manufacturers led to the building of some of the community's finest residences.  Several high-style, "temple-front" examples of the Greek Revival were constructed by Hiram Fay, Amory Maynard, and other builders from the late 1830's through the early 1850's.  A cluster of three stands at the foot of Stevens Street, the best-preserved of which is the John Chipman House, built by Amory Maynard in about 1838 (Form 85).  Both the tetrastyle John Cotting House of 1851 (Form 74--NR) and its slightly earlier tristyle neighbor across Main Street, the Hollis Loring House (Form 113), were probably built by Hiram Fay.  There are also a few examples of temple-front, 1 1/2-story cottages, such as the Lewis Frye House at 154 Pleasant Street (MHC #259); most today are severely altered.  O.W. Albee's House at 53 Mechanic Street (Form 70), built ca. 1835, is an unusual instance in Marlborough of a brick gable-end Greek Revival house with a clapboarded pediment and fretwork entry surround, and the Silas Howe farmhouse at 616 Berlin Road (Form 652) is a rare example of a small gable-end with a two-story facade colonnade with columns of unequal height.  Another Greek Revival house type, the gable-roofed house with pedimented ends, is exemplified here by the house built ca. 1846 for the Rev. Horatio Alger, Sr., at 9 Broad Street (Form 141).

The Gothic Revival has few surviving representatives in Marlborough.  It is most apparent in the applied decoration of some vernacular houses, including the gable-end cottage at 24 High Street (MHC #526).  Two Octagons, one of which was the ca. 1870 town-owned gasometer (demolished) were built during this period.  The other is a true octagonal house, at 43 (45) Mt. Pleasant Street (MHC #357), built in ca. 1855, now greatly altered.