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    Princeton, Massachusetts: A History of its Villages
    Princeton, Massachusetts: A History of its Villages
    Princeton, Massachusetts: A History of its Villages
    Ebook182 pages1 hour

    Princeton, Massachusetts: A History of its Villages

    By Joyce Bailey Anderson, Sheila Dubman and Alexandra Fiandaca

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    About this ebook

    Nestled at the foot of Wachusett Mountain, Princeton has come a long way since the days when cows outnumbered its citizens. Today, within its small circumference, the town boasts four nationally registered historical districts. With an
    array of styles from Colonial to Greek Revival, Richardsonian to Romanesque, its distinguished architectural landscape serves as a lasting reminder of the town s many transitions. Anderson, Dubman and Fiandaca document Princeton s growth from eighteenth-century agrarian community to turn-of-the-century summer resort.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe History Press
    Release dateMay 5, 2009
    ISBN9781625842596
    Princeton, Massachusetts: A History of its Villages
    Author

    Joyce Bailey Anderson

    The photographs in Princeton and Wachusett Mountain were compiled from those of individuals and the Princeton Historical Society's collection. Joyce Bailey Anderson, chairperson of the Princeton Historical Commission, brings passion, knowledge, and reverence for history, especially the history of Princeton, to the project.

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      Book preview

      Princeton, Massachusetts - Joyce Bailey Anderson

      Princeton.

      CHAPTER ONE

      A VERY BRIEF HISTORY OF PRINCETON

      FIRST, THERE WAS A MOUNTAIN

      It is impossible to come to Princeton and miss Wachusett Mountain. In 1632, John Winthrop, first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, traveled to Boston Rock in what is now the city of Waltham. He recorded a remarkable sight in his journal: A very high hill due west about forty miles off. At that time, neither the governor nor any of the colonists knew the name of that hill to be Wachusett or had any understanding of the area’s terrain. Within just a few years, Governor Winthrop and his people laid out the Bay Path from Boston to the Connecticut Valley and points west. This path followed native trails and crossed right through Princeton.

      At over two thousand feet above sea level, Wachusett is the highest point in Massachusetts east of the Connecticut River. It is a natural focal point in Princeton and has been for longer than anyone can remember. The native peoples recognized Wachusett as a ceremonial site and a landmark useful for hunting and staging during King Philip’s War.

      Our more recent ancestors took a less reverent interest in the mountain. In 1825, Mrs. John P. Rice became the first European to reach the top of the mountain on horseback, eclipsing Phineas Gregory’s earlier achievement with a team of oxen. In the same year, there was an attempt to change the name to Mount Adams in honor of the new president, John Quincy Adams. Adams’s admirers promoted this name change with a celebration on the summit, flashy enough to be seen from Boston. In spite of the bells, parades, cannon fire and bonfire, the name change was never adopted.

      A view of Wachusett Mountain from Sunset Rock, where the first meetinghouse was located. Princeton Historical Society.

      Princeton Center nestled at the foot of Wachusett Mountain, as seen from the east. Princeton Historical Society.

      Princeton has attracted tourism since the first surveyors climbed to the top of the mountain in 1830. Currently, more than 600,000 people visit the mountain every year, some to ski and some to enjoy the magnificent views.

      Wachusett Mountain became a symbol of Victorian American culture when Thoreau wrote A Walk to Wachusett and called Wachusett the observatory of the state. By the 1870s, the Summit House hotel was built for the comfort of summer hikers and then expanded to include a dance pavilion for a more formal crowd. In 1900, Massachusetts established the Wachusett Mountain State Reservation.

      Although Princeton shares the mountain with an adjacent town, there is no disputing the fact that the mountain is the heart and soul of Princeton. All who live in or visit Princeton know the sense of joy when they catch a glimpse of the mountain. Today’s residents are prone to referring to Wachusett as my mountain, expressing its importance to our sense of place.

      THEN, THERE WAS A TOWN

      With a centerpiece like Wachusett Mountain, Princeton’s table has always been set for a historical banquet. Princeton has a lot of history on which to build. After Governor Winthrop and his people laid out the Bay Path right through Princeton, it still took nearly a century for the region to be settled by colonists. The earliest colonial settlers found this part of central Massachusetts to be a dangerous, inhospitable frontier, rocky and unsuitable for agriculture. The area that is now Princeton was part of the territory that was purchased from the Naguag tribe in 1686 and established as Rutland in 1713.

      The region was beset by frequent wars between the colonists and the indigenous tribes until the end of Queen Anne’s War in 1713. That marked the end of a prolonged period of warfare that thwarted early attempts at settlement. The colonists’ perception that this land was dangerous did not die so easily and development was slow. The colonists were right to be wary. Hostilities were renewed with a vengeance during King Philip’s War. By 1723, nearly all of the settlers in the nearby town of Rutland had left in fear of an imminent attack. That attack did occur in August of that year, and the provincial government proved unable to offer adequate protection to any of the settlements around Rutland. This period of warfare continued until a peace treaty was signed in 1725. This time around the peace held, but the perception that the land was worthless persisted.

      Permanent settlement began in earnest in the 1730s because the General Court of Massachusetts was eager to expand beyond the borders of the Bay Colony in order to develop new sources of tax revenue. To that end, there was a great deal of surveying activity in this period and many large grants of land were made. For his services in laying out plans of the East Wing of Rutland, the Reverend Mr. Thomas Prince was granted sixty-three acres and an additional seventy-two very Rocky acres in consideration of great care & labour he has taken in calculating & Computing ye Divisions above mentioned & other good services perform’d to the proprietors.

      This was not the Reverend Mr. Prince’s first piece of Princeton property, but to understand his importance to the town we should understand a bit about who he was. The Reverend Mr. Thomas Prince was born in Sandwich, Massachusetts, and graduated from Harvard College in 1707. After ten years of travel and preaching, he returned to Boston in 1717 and ascended to the pulpit of the Old South Church in 1718. He continued to preach there for the rest of his life. He was considered, along with his more famous colleague Cotton Mather, to be one of the most learned men in New England and directed much of his considerable intellect to the study of history. It was said, during his lifetime, that nothing came from his pen that does not now possess historical value. His occasional papers are all luminous with the spirit and life of the time.

      He purchased his first piece of land, over thirteen hundred acres in the township of Rutland, in 1727. By the end of his life, he is believed to have accumulated a total of about three thousand acres.

      Although Mr. Prince lived in Boston and not in the town that bears his name, he probably traveled there frequently. A trip that now takes an hour would have taken him three days and involved stops with several friends in more settled areas along the way. The last several miles of his journey would have been on rough roads with no comforting sights of houses or inns by the wayside.

      By the 1740s and ’50s, a few more settlers arrived in the East Wing of Rutland and built homesteads while the French and Indian War was raging. In 1759, the district was reestablished as Prince Town in honor of the Reverend Thomas Prince, the largest landowner at that time. The building of a meetinghouse put Prince Town on the map as an independent community in 1763–64, when the colonist population was 284. Formal incorporation of Prince Town followed in 1771, by which time the population had soared to 701.

      Before the Revolutionary War, Princeton was considered a poor agricultural community. By the end of the eighteenth century, logging, milling and some manufacturing had been added to the economic mix and Princeton was seen as prosperous. Over the years, the town has gone through a number of changes, but Princeton has remained as strikingly beautiful as the site that Governor Winthrop saw in 1632.

      The Reverend Mr. Thomas Prince (1687–1758), largest early landowner in Princeton and benefactor to the town. Princeton Historical Society.

      CHAPTER TWO

      LET’S GO DOWNTOWN

      The Princeton Center Story

      Princeton Center is often described as idyllic for good reason. It retains its charming, frozen in time appearance as the center of local government, with gracious private homes, the oldest building dating to 1765, gathered around a pristine town common. Princeton Center has not succumbed to the commercialization or heavy traffic that has forever changed many other New England town centers.

      The town common still serves as a gathering place and focal point for community activities. It is also a visual backdrop for the public buildings set high above the common.

      What is not so apparent is that the center of the town of Princeton was not always where it is now. By the late 1750s, Princeton had about twenty-five homesteads that were widely scattered within its boundaries. Princeton’s first town center was located in Russell Corner, where Lieutenant Abijah Moore hosted a small group of men and women in his home and tavern. Then it was established about a half mile north on both sides of Mountain Road. Its migration was gradual and understandable.

      The Princeton Center story began around 1761, when land was donated for a meetinghouse on what became known as Meeting House Hill. The early period ended when a new meetinghouse was built in the area that is now the town common. The late period began in 1937, when the last of the major summer houses for wealthy residents was built.

      This early period of Princeton Center began once the residents of the newly created Prince Town finished debating the site for their new meetinghouse for dual use as a place for local government and for worship. They settled on a five-acre hilltop site donated by John and Caleb Mirick on the east side of Mountain Road. Abijah Moore was paid about sixty-six pounds to frame the building in late 1761, and construction was completed in 1763. The beginning of road construction accompanied this building activity, starting in 1762, connecting the new meetinghouse on Mountain Road to Sterling and Worcester Roads. The roads around the original Princeton Center

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