Sherborn, Massachusetts
A Short History of Sherborn
From a colonial farming town settled in 1652, to a place that has spent decades deciding, one Town Meeting vote at a time, to keep most of itself green.
Settled 1652, Incorporated 1674
English colonists began settling the land that is now Sherborn in 1652, and the town was incorporated in 1674. It sits in the MetroWest region of Middlesex County, about 18 miles southwest of Boston, bordered by Dover, Natick, Framingham, Ashland, Millis, Holliston and Medfield. From the start it was farm country, and much of it still is. The town covers roughly 15.8 square miles, and a striking share of that ground has been kept open on purpose.
A Town That Keeps Its Land
Sherborn has made a habit of buying open space before it can be built on. In 2001 the town bought the old Wilson farm and opened it to the public as Hidden Meadow. Over the years it has placed roughly 931 acres under the Conservation Commission and grown a 468-acre Town Forest that runs from the Framingham line down to the Charles River. None of this happened by accident: each purchase was a warrant article, argued and voted at an open Town Meeting where any registered voter could stand up and be counted. The green map of Sherborn is a record of those votes.
The Library and the Town House
Some of Sherborn’s institutions came as gifts from residents. The Sherborn Library opened in 1971 as a gift to the town from Richard and Mary B. Saltonstall, and it is still run today with the help of a Friends group founded that same year. The 1858 Town House, one of the town’s oldest public buildings, now holds the Community Center, kept up since 1985 by the Sherborn Community Center Foundation. Both are places built by townspeople for townspeople, and both still depend on volunteers.
Keeping the Record
The town’s memory is looked after by the Sherborn Historical Society, founded in 1911 and incorporated in 1913. For more than a century it has collected and preserved the letters, photographs and artifacts that tell Sherborn’s story, and it welcomes new members and volunteers. History here is not shut away in a museum in another city. It is kept by the neighbors, which is the same way the town governs itself.
Sources: Wikipedia, Sherborn, Massachusetts; the Sherborn Historical Society (sherbornhistory.org); the Sherborn Library (sherbornlibrary.org); the Sherborn Community Center Foundation (1858townhouse.com); U.S. Census Bureau.