Saxonville, Massachusetts

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Saxonville is an historic village located in the north end of the town of Framingham, in Middlesex County, Massachusetts 01701.

[edit] Geography

Saxonville is located at 42.3203 degrees latitude, 71.4404 longitude.

Large areas of Saxonville are situated on hilly terrain that rises up steeply in places from the Sudbury River, a small river that winds through the village.

In a description of the area for the proposed Saxonville Historic/Nature Walk, Stephen Herring (Framingham Town Historian), writes:

"...The area from the Concord Street Bridge to Central Street is surrounded on three sides by the Sudbury River, giving it the early name of Otter Neck. Framingham's first settler, John Stone, built his home at Otter Neck in 1647. We do not know the exact site of the homestead. Native Americans of the Nipmuc tribe had a village and fort here before the arrival of European settlers. For almost two hundred years this part of Framingham was known as Stone's End due to the dominance of the Stone family. It became Saxonville when the textile industry was established here, one of the early companies being named the Saxon Factory Company"....

In addition to the village's name, a road in the northern end is named Saxony Road. Though the name Saxonville has been thought to have come directly from Europe, Saxonville was named after a land development company, the Saxon or Saxony land development company.

[edit] History

Generations of children from the mid 1850s through the 1950s spent their childhoods playing along the river and in richly forested areas nearby. Native Americans lived and fished in the area of the Sudbury falls for centuries up through the 1700s. In the 1970s, arrowheads were found when portions of the river were drained to conduct maintenance on the dam and water control system around the falls.

Saxonville, in all likelihood, sprung up due to the Sudbury River's drop in elevation in that area and the free power represented by that fall. The very first industry in Framingham was the grist mill that John Stone erected at the Great Falls on the Sudbury River, circa 1650, in the center of what came to be known Saxonville. This mill privilege was held by the Stone family for 165 years when it was sold to the Saxonville Mills. Around 1865 a dam was built completely across the Sudbury river in Saxonville to fully control and exploit for power, the falling waters of the Sudbury river. The archaic remnants of the dam's power control gates and gears can still be seen near the falls at Central Ave. An underground channel supplied water from above the falls to the manufacturing plant where it was used to drive water wheels or turbines to provide raw mechanical manufacturing power at the Saxonville Mills. One can still see the lower portion of brick mills where "waste" power water exited turbines and poured into the lower portion of the Sudbury River that still runs close to the mills.

As late as 1968, residents all over Saxonville would hear the morning, lunch and quitting horns of the mills. And residents could hear the loud rattle and clatter of textile machinery still weaving carpet products as late as 1968. The brick structure of the 1858 Saxonville Mills still stands in places. It is very likely that former employees of the Roxbury Carpet mills still reside in Saxonville.

Up through the 1960s Saxonville still had its own operating dairy in a high, flat area on Danforth street just about 3/4 mile east of the village center. The dairy was "Twin Maple Farms," located just east of Meadow Street, bounded by Danforth Street. The dairy had a small herd of dairy cows that grazed on grassy fields near Danforth Street and were milked using automatic milking machines. Every morning, as late as 1966, a fleet of Twin Maple farm delivery trucks headed out of the Meadow Street Dairy to deliver fresh milk and dairy products to homes around Saxonville. Two large maple trees could still be seen in the front yard of the Twin Maple Farm offices on Meadow stree. Sometime around 1967, possibly a little later, the dairy shut down forever. The dairy's milking machines and bottling facility were seen lying in ruins at the site in the early 1970s. Throughout the 1970s the site lay vacant and was a playground for vandals and neighborhood kids. The site is now occupied by residences.

Saxonville had its own Butcher and Ice Company. A butcher named Daniel Webster operated a neighborhood meat market on Cottage Street up through the early 1970s. The wooden market appeared to be over 80 years old when still in operation around 1970. A simple black and white sign "Webster's Market" ran the full length, at the top of the building. Mr. Webster was friendly and a tyrant for neighborhood children who frequented his shop in the summer to buy ice cream treats and later cool pops.

Saxonville's ice company operated in an area a couple blocks east of Concord street, near Fuller street, along the Sudbury River. An elderly man still living on Meadow street in the 1960s, Matt McCann, said his family had started and operated the Saxonville Ice Company for many years. As a boy he and his brothers, Mark and Luke worked for the ice company. His parents had intentionally named the boys after the biblical Matthew, Mark and Luke. The McCann residence, still standing, is a larger 2-story home on the east side of Meadow street in Saxonville.

For many decades, children walked to Saxonville elementary school on the hilly portion of Elm St., just above the village. Behind the brick school, was an old wooden school house structure that held four large classrooms on two floors. The "annex" as it was known, was still used in the 1960s. The classrooms were large and airy with giant windows that looked out into trees and across a wooded area to the Sudbury River. The annex has been removed and the brick school has been modified and added onto several times but still serves as a Framingham school.

Late 1800s architecture with mansard roofs abounds as multi-level wooden residences and apartments still in use throughout Saxonville along Elm, Central, Concord and Danforth streets and smaller adjoining streets.