History Corner – February 2018 Hourglass
by Bob Ellis (former NHS historian)

The Coming of The Old Town Hall
An important date in Northborough history is February
25, 1868, one hundred fifty years ago. A newspaper
of the day, the Marlboro Mirror estimated that
1,100 or 1,200 people gathered at a substantial building
in the middle of town, perhaps noticing the settings of
Mr. Stone’s and Mr. Chesbro’s future stores or the room
where the new library would open in its west end, but
they all ascended the staircase to the second floor for the
program honoring the opening of a new Town Hall.
The reporter climbed to “the attic, under the French
roof, where are two smaller halls, with several anterooms,
which will many times be found of great convenience.
The whole is nearly furnished in chestnut, and
presents, both inside and outside, evidence of the taste
of the committee, the architect, and the builder.” Then
the reporter hustled back for the ceremony, which included
remarks by various people, the reading of scriptures,
the singing of an original hymn by Mr. Chesbro,
an address by Rev. Dr. Allen, and an immensely long
satirical poem in rhymed couplets by a nationally well known
educator and native of Northborough, Thomas
Valentine.
The new building had been envisioned eight years
earlier but delayed by the Civil War.
It would occupy a prime location on Main Street near the
railroad station, the road to Westborough, and other
downtown establishments, including the store of the
elder Cyrus Gale, who had headed the building committee
and funded the project.
Ann Morton, our Historical Society curator for a few years in
the 1970s, described the preliminary move of the tavern that had occupied that location as follows. “The Monroe Tavern was placed on rollers and pulled back with oxen-power
to make room for the new Town Hall. . . . It has been
recorded that the building was cut into sections and rollers,
resembling telephone poles, were placed on the
ground. As the building passed over the last pole, men
picked it up, brought it around in front of the building to
begin again.”
The Mirror periodically reported progress. As of
May 4, 1867, “the digging for the foundation to our new
Town Hall is nearly completed, and the foundation will
be commenced next week. The estimated cost of the
whole structure, which is to be of brick with French roof,
will be about $40,000.” By August 14 “the new Town
Hall in this place is progressing finely, the workmen now
being engaged in putting on the roof. . . . The fact that
this [building] is made of the most durable materials and
should last 150 years, shows the necessity of building for
future wants.” The foundation stones came from
Fitchburg, the bricks from Howe’s brickyard toward the
eastern end of Main Street
On May 16, 1956 someone challenged that prediction
by starting a fire in the room of the Sons of Veterans
on the third floor. Flags used in meetings were set on
fire, but on the custodian’s round of inspections, he discovered
that the fire had burned out with only some damage to the flags.
Already, however, deterioration was threatening.
From 1946 to 1972 various town commissions studied
the damage of the years and pondered attempts to rehabilitate or even destroy the historic building. One suggestion,
to cut off the upper level, would have eliminated the mansard roof and other details that made the building
visually compelling. The decision to rehabilitate it signified that townspeople prized it primarily for all the
things that flourished in it for over a century. It had
housed at times the library, the post office, a traditional
drug store, the Historical Society, concerts, dances, silent
movies, and of course innumerable acts of local government.
There was nothing else in town like it. But not until
the early 1980s did its restoration begin.
Some of us can recall the fire on a September night
in 1985 that destroyed it. That morning I found a small
charred piece of it in my back yard over a half-mile
away. Now that spectacular event is beyond the memory
span of many Northborough citizens. The building that
replaced it (a replica in its exterior features) was not a
center of Northborough history; its more important clients
came and went. It could replicate the Town Hall in
no other way.
Had the rehabilitation of the Town Hall been completed
with sufficient safety features, perhaps we would
now be anticipating that 150th anniversary celebration.
Bob Ellis can be reached by email at rpje1@aol.com