Natick, Massachusetts
A Short History of Natick
From the Massachusett homeland, to the 1651 praying town that gave Natick its name, to the shoe factories and the MetroWest suburb of today.
The First Praying Town, 1651
The name Natick comes from a Massachusett word often translated as a place of hills. In 1651 the Puritan missionary John Eliot and a community of Massachusett people who had converted to Christianity established Natick along the Charles River as the first of the praying towns, self-governing communities of Native Christians. They laid out streets, built a meetinghouse, and governed themselves under a written plan. That makes the ground in South Natick some of the most historically significant in the state.
King Philip’s War and Its Aftermath
The experiment did not survive the violence of King Philip’s War. In 1675, amid colonial fear and suspicion, the Massachusetts authorities forced the Praying Indians of Natick and other towns onto Deer Island in Boston Harbor, where many died over the winter from cold, hunger, and disease. Survivors returned to a changed place, and over the next century the Native community in Natick was steadily dispossessed of its land. Their history is the foundation of the town, not a footnote to it.
An Incorporated Town
Natick was incorporated as a Massachusetts town in 1781. Through the 1800s it grew from a farming village into a manufacturing center, above all for shoes. By the late nineteenth century Natick was one of the largest shoe-making towns in the country, and the factories drew waves of new residents and immigrants who reshaped the town.
Fire, Rebuilding, and the Railroad
A devastating fire tore through Natick Center in 1874, destroying much of the downtown, which was then rebuilt in brick. The railroad tied Natick to Boston and Worcester and made it a commuter town long before the term existed. Casey’s Diner, serving steamed hot dogs from a tiny dining car, has fed Natick since the 1890s and still does today, a thread of continuity through all the change.
A MetroWest Suburb
In the twentieth century Natick became a classic Boston suburb. The Natick Mall, opened in 1966 and rebuilt and expanded since, made the town a regional shopping destination along Route 9. Natick also hosts the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, long known as the Natick Labs, a major federal research site. The population grew steadily as families moved out along the commuter rail and the highways.
Modern Natick
Today Natick is a town of about 37,000 that still runs on representative Town Meeting, even as it has grown into a busy MetroWest hub. Voters have repeatedly debated whether to become a city, and have chosen each time to stay a town. The community has also worked to remember its origins, including the history of the Praying Indians and the Massachusett people whose town this first was.
Sources: Town of Natick; Natick Historical Society; Massachusetts Historical Commission; U.S. Census Bureau.