Walking Tour #1 (Main
Street and the Mill): For newcomers to town this
stroll along Main , Summer and Nason Streets is
a great way to become familiar with downtown storefronts. Estimated distance is
two miles. Starts and ends at Memorial Park, on Summer Street, with free
parking adjacent in the town's parking structure. Restrooms at various
restaurants en route. What is interesting is leaning how many sites have been repurposed
over the years. At the entrance to #11, look down for evidence that this town
once had a Woolworth's.
Walking Tour #2 (Assabet
Village ): Estimated
distance is two miles. Mostly older houses (1830-90). Starts and ends near the
Library, so free parking. This stroll west on Summer Street passes by remnants
of farms (barns, one silo), Victorian era mansions and several repurposed
school and church buildings.
Orthodox Church dedication plaque |
The return (eastward) trek on Summer and then Concord Streets was the line of march for the Stow Minutemen heading toward
Walking Tour #3 (New Village and Maynard's Hill): This tour
starts and ends off Main Street, but most of it meanders through what was mill
worker houses constructed circa 1900-1920, on the streets named after
Presidents. Estimated distance is two miles.
Lorenzo Maynard's mansion, built 1873 |
Walking Tour #4 (Great
Road ): This is actually two walks, each of an
estimated distance of two miles. Together, the tours encompass Route 117 from Erikson's
Ice Cream, near the Stow border, to the Glenwood
and St. Bridget's Cemeteries, near Sudbury .
The Smith family were early settlers along Great Road , which
served as a stagecoach route to points west. Sons and grandsons owned houses,
many still standing. The dam across the Assabet River
is the Benjamin Smith Dam because it was his property, sold to Amory Maynard
and William Knight to provide water power for the initial mill.
Town's winter storage crypt |
Walking Tour #5 (Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge): ARNWR
can be accessed from five parking areas; one of those, in from the main entrance
off Hudson Road ,
is adjacent to the Visitors' Center, which has restroom facilities. Bicycling
is allowed on approximately half of the fifteen miles of paths. No dogs
allowed, nor any motorized vehicles. The Refuge is open from sunrise to sunset,
but the Center's hours are limited to THUR-SUN, 10-4.
All this was active or abandoned farmland until seized by
the U.S. Army in 1942 to be made into an ammunition and explosives storage area.
After the war this site, referred to as the Fort Devens-Sudbury Training Annex,
served as a troop training ground, ordinance testing and laboratory disposal
area. Subsequently, it was designated an Environmental Protection Agency “Superfund”
clean-up site then turned over to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in 2000
for a wildlife refuge.
Click on photos to enlarge.
Click on photos to enlarge.
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