The Marlborough
Historical Society

City of Marlborough, Massachusetts - Museum in the Streets®

The Marlborough Historical Society, Inc. and our colleagues at The City of Marlborough Historical Commission welcome you to the Museum in the Streets®!  It is our mission to preserve the records and artifacts and to relate the rich history of our founders and their remarkable achievements.  The Marlborough Historical Society is primarily a research and educational organization.  Our Trustee Curator Bob Kane and Trustee Emeritus Paul Brodeur are responsible for this walking tour of  our history, with the leadership of Nathaniel Bowen and Justin Demarco and their associates at the Department of Public Works.  If we have peaked your interest, please visit us at our 300-year-old home, the Peter Rice Homestead.

Douglas J Rowe

President, Marlborough Historical Society

Found in the Walking Map brochure of the Museum in the Streets®

Due to COVID-19, visits to the Peter Rice Homestead are not permitted at this time.

To view a WMCT-TV video of the Museum in the Streets grand opening, click here.

Welcome to Marlborough's Museum in the Streets®!  You are about to embark on a journey through our city's rich history - a history older than the United States itself.

Born of a partnership between the Marlborough Economic Development Corporation, the Marlborough Historical Society and the city's Department of Public Works, this historical walking tour is an exciting new fixture to Marlborough's downtown.  On your self-guided tour, you will find twenty-four panels with historical information and photographs, highlighting locations that tell our story.  You can take the whole tour at once or do a little at a time.  The panels are easily accessible, and a translation of the information is available for speakers of Spanish and Portuguese using a QR code on each panel.

Small businesses have always been the heartbeat of Marlborough's downtown.  As you stroll through along Main Street, we invite you to visit our local shops and restaurants.  You will find that same sense of small town community that we are so proud of still thrives today.

Thank you to the numerous local associations, foundations and city departments the made the Museum in the Streets® possible.  Now, it's time to take a stroll and learn about events and figures who made Marlborough what it is today.  Enjoy!

Arthur Vigeant

Mayor of the City of Marlborough, Massachusetts

Found in the Walking Map brochure of the Museum in the Streets®

We find in the history of Marlborough the full flavor of the American experience.  An early town of the Masachusetts Bay Colony, it helped delineate boundaries of town government, land policy and economic systems.  It lay on the Colony's very first frontier and on the main road, deemed the 'King's best highway', connecting Boston and New York.  A Praying Indian town sat adjacent to the Main Street, and the English village and the native village sat literally blocks apart living in surprising harmony until the outbreak of the King Philip's War in 1675.

The town became an important way station for military forays into the enemy territories to the west, and the period both during and after the war was marked by numerous Indian raids and abductions.  The early years in Marlborough were replete with stories of great courage and great treachery on all sides.

The eighteenth century saw the town grow into an agricultural powerhouse.  On the eve of the Revolution, the Massachusetts inventory showed Marlborough to be the greatest producer of apple cider in the state (and by interference perhaps the entire country). 

Both before and during the Revolution, Marlborough's proximity to Boston and Worcester placed it on high alert for the great military alarms and calls to action.  Independently, it was forced to deal with its own loyalist sympathies galvanized by local merchant Henry Barnes. 

In the years leading up to the Civil War, the town was heavily invested in the abolitionist movement.  As part of the primary lecture circuit, it found many of the leading opponents of slavery to speak here and both Church and government documents give evidence of the intensity of opposition.

During the Industrial Revolution, the town became a major shoe manufacturing site and went from being a Yankee agricultural enclave to an immigrant city.  Subsequent waves of Irish, French Canadian, Italian and Greek immigrants brought their great gifts to bear on the heritage of the local experience.

As in every city and town in America, Marlborough has contributed its healthy share of outstanding individuals though the years.  Many of these were born or lived in close proximity to downtown and are highlighted in this tour.

Today, the process continues.  Marlborough once again finds itself on the main road.  New groups of immigrants are making their contirbutions, new industries bring wealth and opportunity, and youth sports have created dynamic potential.  But the past brings us enduring lessons that we are happy to share with our many visitors.  We welcome you to our story!

Previous text was found in the Walking Map brochure of the Museum in the Streets®