Shrewsbury, MA Historic District Walking Tour

A family-friendly historic walking tour in Central Massachusetts

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Shrewsbury, MA Historic District Walking Tour

Shrewsbury, Massachusetts 01545, United States

Created By: Town of Shrewsbury

Tour Information

The Shrewsbury Historic District was declared locally in 1972 to "offer a visual example of our historic and cultural heritage. The Shrewsbury Historical District was officially added to the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior on October 8, 1976. To its inhabitants it affords prestige and economic protection from decrease of land values through deterioration of neighborhood blight."

The Historic District Commission has jurisdiction over two designated Historic Districts in the Town of Shrewsbury:

  • The Historic District in the center of Shrewsbury, which extends north of Main Street, including the Town Common, The First Congregational Church, 1830 brick schoolhouse, Library, the southeast section of Mountain View Cemetery, and five historic homes

  • The Artemas Ward homestead owned by Harvard University (which is not included in this tour)


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What You'll See on the Tour

The church/meetinghouse was erected in 1721-1722 in the approximate location of the current First Congregational Church. The meetinghouse had no steeple or bell, and while the ornamentation was simple, it was artistic both inside and out. T... Read more
Located on Boylston Street, the Mountain View Cemetery is the final resting place for many of the Town’s earliest and most notable residents. It is the town’s largest cemetery with over 10,000 interments, the earliest of which were many... Read more
The 1830 Brick School is probably one of the earliest surviving schoolhouses in the Worcester County area. It started out as a schoolhouse in 1830, and later hosted Civil War Veterans’ events and meetings, and offices of the Superintenden... Read more
The Sumner House was built in 1797 and was the home of the Reverend Joseph Sumner, the town's second minister. The house stayed in the family for about 200 years before it was sold as a private residence in the 1980s. It was turned into a b... Read more
At the center of the Historic District is the Town Common, which was laid out in 1721 at what are now Main and Boylston Streets. William Taylor, one of the founders of the Congregational Church, donated to the town proprietors the 17 acres ... Read more
The Shrewsbury Public Library that now exists on the corner of Boylston Street (Route 140 and Main Street) dates back to 1792, when a group of town leaders established a private, subscription-based “social library” composed of 152 volum... Read more
This stately home was built in 1825 by the Reverend George Allen who was a minister of the Shrewsbury First Congregational Church from 1823 to 1840. The home is set back from Main Street and features a large front lawn. The front of the hou... Read more
Please respect the fact that this is a private residence. The house located at 4 Prospect Street is known as the Jonas Stone House. It was originally built in 1822 for Samuel Haven, though he never lived in the house. After its completion, ... Read more
Please respect the fact that this is a private residence. The Philo and Relief Slocomb House, located at 10 Prospect St, was built in 1806 on land that was part of the original town common. Philo Slocomb was a community leader, a member of ... Read more
Please respect the fact that this is a private residence. The Samuel Haven house is located at the intersection of Boylston and Prospect Streets. Built in 1816 on a piece of the town common sold to Daniel Goddard in 1781, it was the home of... Read more

 

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