Interior House Painter Harvard MA

Harvard, Massachusetts
Town
The renovated library, established in 1856
Seal
Location in Worcester County and the state of Massachusetts.
Coordinates: 42°30′00″N 71°35′00″W / 42.50000°N 71.58333°W / 42.50000; -71.58333Coordinates: 42°30′00″N 71°35′00″W / 42.50000°N 71.58333°W / 42.50000; -71.58333
Country	United States
State	Massachusetts
County	Worcester
Settled	1658
Incorporated	1732
Government
• Type	Open town meeting
• Town Administrator	Timothy P. Bragan
• Select Board	Rich Maiore Erin McBee Don Ludwig Kara Minar Charles Oliver
Area
• Total	27.0 sq mi (69.9 km)
• Land	26.4 sq mi (68.3 km2)
• Water	0.6 sq mi (1.6 km)
Elevation	420 ft (128 m)
Population  (2020)
• Total	6,851
• Density	250/sq mi (98/km2)
Time zone	UTC-5 (Eastern)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (Eastern)
ZIP code	01451
Area code	351 / 978
FIPS code	25-28950
GNIS feature ID	0619482
Website	www.harvard.ma.us

Harvard is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The town is located 25 miles west-northwest of Boston, in eastern Massachusetts. A farming community settled in 1658 and incorporated in 1732, it has been home to several non-traditional communities, such as Harvard Shaker Village and the utopian transcendentalist center Fruitlands. It is also home to St. Benedict Abbey, a traditional Catholic monastery. Today it is a residential town noted for its excellent public schools, with its students consistently ranking in the state’s top ten test results in English and math. The population was 6,851 at the 2020 census. The official seal of the town depicts the old town public library on The Common prior to renovations that removed the front steps.

History

Europeans first settled in what later became Harvard in the 17th century, along a road connecting Lancaster with Groton that was formally laid out in 1658. There were few inhabitants until after King Philip’s War, in which Groton and Lancaster were attacked and substantially destroyed. Over the next 50 years the population grew until it had reached a point adequate to support a church. A new town including parts of Lancaster, Groton, and Stow was incorporated in 1732, subject to the proviso that the inhabitants “Settle a learned and Orthodox Minister among them within the space of two years and also erect an House for the publick Worship of God.” It is uncertain how the town obtained its name, though the Willard family, among the first settlers and the largest proprietors in the new town, had several connections to Harvard College. The first minister was Rev. John Seccombe, serving from 1733 to 1757.

In 1734, the town was considered to have five districts or villages. These were Oak Hill, Bare Hill, Still River, Old Mill, and Shabikin, present day Devens.

One notable early enterprise based in Harvard was the Benjamin Ball Pencil Company, which produced some of the first writing instruments made in the United States. They operated in the Old Mill district from 1830 to 1860. Despite this and other limited manufacturing, the town economy was primarily based on agriculture until the middle of the 20th century. This past is most prominently visible in the number of apple orchards. These apple orchards produce many apple products every year the most notable being apple cider. It is now mostly a residential “bedroom community” for workers at companies in Boston and its suburbs. Harvard has had a relatively quiet history, but has attracted several “non-traditional” communities that have given its history some flavor.

The Shakers

One part of town is the site of Harvard Shaker Village, where a utopian religious community was established. During a period of religious dissent, a number of Harvard residents, led by Shadrack Ireland, abandoned the Protestant church in Harvard. In 1769, they built a house that later became known as the Square House. Not long after Ireland’s death in 1778, the Shaker Founder Mother Ann Lee met with this group in 1781 and the group joined her United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, or Shakers.

It was the first Shaker settlement in Massachusetts and the second settlement in the United States. The Harvard Shaker Village Historic District is located in the vicinity of Shaker Road, South Shaker Road, and Maple Lane. At its largest, the Shakers owned about 2,000 acres of land in Harvard. By 1890, the Harvard community had dwindled to less than 40, from a peak of about 200 in the 1850s. In 1917 the Harvard Shaker Village was closed and sold. Only one Shaker building is open to the public, at Fruitlands Museum; the remaining surviving buildings are in private ownership.

Nationally, 19 Shaker communities had been established in the 1700s and 1800s, mostly in northeastern United States. Community locations ranged from Maine to Kentucky and Indiana. The Shakers were renowned for plain architecture and furniture, and reached its national peak membership in the 1840s and 1850s. The Shaker community’s practice of celibacy meant that to maintain its population, it was always necessary to have new outsiders join. The improving employment opportunities provided by the Industrial Revolution would over the middle decades of the 1800s diminish the attractions of joining the Shaker community. Today, only one church “society” remains open, run by the last Shakers at Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in New Gloucester, Maine.

Fruitlands

Amos Bronson Alcott relocated his family, including his ten-year-old daughter, Louisa May Alcott, to Harvard in June 1843. He and Charles Lane attempted to establish a utopian transcendentalist socialist farm called Fruitlands on the slopes of Prospect Hill in Harvard. The experimental community only lasted 7 months, closing in January 1844. Fruitlands, so called “because the inhabitants hoped to live off the fruits of the land, purchasing nothing from the outside world”, saw visits from the likes of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Louisa May Alcott used her experience at Fruitlands as an inspiration for her novel Little Women.