First settled by European colonists in 1676, the town of Ashby is a rural community graced with a traditional New England Town Common. Incorporated in 1767, it was formed from portions of Townsend, Lunenburg, Fitchburg, and Ashburnham, Massachusetts.

Ashby Center on Route 119 is distinguished by the spire of First Parish Church centered on the height of the Common. Built in as the meeting house in 1809, the town and its citizens donated a 1,261-pound bell to the church from the Paul Revere Foundry.

Today, the hill town of Ashby has many beautiful sites, from the laurel banks of Willard Brook State Park to the blueberries and open ledges of Mount Watatic. While fewer fields are mowed or in pasture, a quiet, rural, agricultural mode persists in the community complementing the welcoming clapboard homes and churches of the Town Common.