This colorfully illustrated and highly informative lecture will be presented by Heather Lennon, President of the Lancaster Historical Society incorporating material researched by LHS Executive Board member, Karen Silverthorn.

About 375 years ago, the nearby Wattaquadock hills provided a gateway for early settlers of the Nashaway Plantation. The “Bay Path” was a trail used by Native traders and early settlers to travel from coastal settlements to what was then the western frontier of north central Massachusetts.

In the early eighteenth century, a new generation of Lancastrians settled east of the Nashua River and the “Old Common” area became a lively center of town activity. In the early nineteenth century, a small colony of residents from Salem, Massachusetts inhabited the area with Dorcas Cleveland establishing the Lancaster Academy based upon “cutting edge” educational theories of the day. In the 1870s, her son, noted landscape designed Horace W. S. Cleveland, returned to his birthplace to design Lancaster’s Eastwood Cemetery, demonstrating a respect for nature that he had absorbed early in his education.

In 1854, the Lancaster Industrial School for Girls was established as one of the most progressive correctional institutions for women of its day. After the school shut down in the early 1970s, the campus was divided and the western portion eventually became a location for the Robert F. Kennedy Action Corps. The eastern portion has been under the Massachusetts Department of Capital Assets Management and Maintenance (DCAMM). Presently the future of this eastern portion remains uncertain.

This presentation will be held in the Dexter Room of Thayer Memorial Library (use rear entrance). A brief business meeting will precede the program.

This program is offered by the Lancaster Historical Society and Thayer Memorial Library as part of the Hidden Treasures Festival of Nature, Culture & History, an annual month-long celebration showcasing events and activities hosted by local partners celebrating the unique places, objects, and stories of the Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area. Hidden Treasures programs are free and open to the public. Click to discover more Hidden Treasures!