Maynard Sesquicentennial History Talks

Thoreau Walked Thru

Presented by David Mark

Thursday, August 26th

7pm via Zoom

Click here to register.

Henry David Thoreau died in 1862, nine years before the founding of Maynard. This is not to say that he did not visit the area. On September 4, 1851, Thoreau set out with a friend to walk from Concord to Boon Lake and back. Outward bound, he notes that chemical odors from the gunpowder mill made them cough. Their walk continued westward past the paper mill, meaning that they were walking through Assabet Village. Maynard author and historian David Mark will speak about Thoreau’s walk thru, which occurred just a few years after Maynard and Knight opened their woolen mill. He will also read excerpts from Thoreau’s famous essay “Walking,” which was published in the June 1862 issue of the Atlantic Monthly, shortly after Thoreau’s death from tuberculosis at age 44.

IMAGE: May 2017 – the U.S. Postal Service celebrated writer, philosopher and naturalist Henry David Thoreau with a stamp for the bicentennial year of his birth

Maynard Schools Through the Centuries

Presented by David Mark

Thursday, September 30th

7pm via Zoom

Click here to register.

Maynard author and historian David Mark will speak about the 250-year history of public schools. The year 1892 saw a consolidation of the town’s four small schools – all of which pre-dated the creation of Maynard – into one two-story, twelve-room, wooden building at the Nason Street site, on the same stone foundation that is now the first floor of the library. The high school Class of 1892 chose orange and black as the school colors. At that time, state law required that a child shall go to school twenty weeks in each year until 14 years old. Entering its 150th year (ten schools and five fires later), Maynard has three schools on neighboring campuses. The student population, which had peaked in the “baby-boom” years at 2,106 students in 1971, declined to the mid-teens, but recently is on the rise.

IMAGE: Woodrow Wilson School (1903-1952), destroyed by a pre-dawn fire on December 17, 1952. Now the site of the Maynard Town Building.

Recorded Sesquicentennial Presentations

The Rise and Fall of Slavery in Massachusetts (February 25)

Before the Europeans...And After... (March 25)

How Maynard Became Maynard (April 19)

Assabet River Floods and Droughts (May 24)

Digital Equipment Corporation (June 14)

And the Bands Played On (July 22)

Upcoming Sesquicentennial Lectures

FEBRUARY - Slavery in Massachusetts (Thu, Feb 25 at 7pm)

MARCH - Before the Europeans Arrived… and After (Thu, Mar 25 @ 7pm)

APRIL- How Maynard Became Maynard (Mon, Apr 19 @ 7pm)