Boxborough Old Town Center

Boxborough Old Town Center is a linear village of about 100 acres on the highest hill in Boxborough, Massachusetts, strung along Hill Road. At its south end lie the remnant of the 1775 town common, the North Burying Ground with about 400 graves, and the granite foundation of the first meetinghouse, which burned in 1953. North of the common, farmhouses from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, including brick Federal residences, sit beside barns, stone walls, farm ponds, hay fields and old cart paths. Two small one-room schoolhouses, one used until 1949, add to the rural setting. The district matters because it holds the surviving institutional, commercial and residential heart of an agricultural town. Civic business was conducted here from 1783 until the Town Hall opened elsewhere in 1901. A well-known general store and meeting hall operated near the common in the early 19th century, and local craftsmen worked nearby. The district also contains the town's best collection of historic farm resources.