Posts by Beaman Library

West Boylston has had a series of town halls in its history. After the reservoir had stripped the valley of its buildings, the town decided to construct a new, permanent town hall. Below is a picture of the Program from the new Town Hall’s Dedication on January 18th, 1904. The town hall stood where the…

Shortly after construction on the reservoir began, the town of West Boylston decided to build a new Town Hall in an area that would remain above the water level for at least a few decades. So, construction began on the brand new, beautiful town hall just down the road from the modern location of our…

1897 is a critical year in West Boylston history. That year, construction officially began on what would become the Wachusett Reservoir. Businesses were sold or moved. Homeowners sold their property to the state and went elsewhere. But, despite these new changes, the real destruction of the town had yet to begin. Below are two clippings…

Christmas Eve 1917 wasn’t such a cheery day for West Boylston. The townspeople awoke to find that, during the night, Town Hall had burned to the ground. The fire started around 2:30 in the morning and raged until the whole structure had crumbled. Neighboring homes and businesses caught fire as well but were extinguished quickly…

The Beaman Oak has been mentioned several times in previous historical posts, but we have never before we shared an actual photograph of the tree. The Beaman Oak existed long before Ezra Beaman settled in what would become West Boylston. The tree overlooked Beaman Cemetery, where Ezra and his descendants were buried for generations (their…

The Beaman Watering Trough originally stood outside Beaman Tavern, the historic home constructed in the mid-1700s by town founder Ezra Beaman. It stood beside a large buttonwood tree at the edge of the property which Ezra himself planted. Horses could stop to drink from the trough when their owners visited the Tavern. The picture below…

The Beaman Memorial Library is officially listed in the National Register of Historic Places! Here’s some information about the history of West Boylston’s library and the construction of the Beaman Memorial Library:  West Boylston’s library was founded in 1878 with a donation of $100, left by noted lawyer and abolitionist, David Lee Child, in his…

“Realization That Day of Doom Has Dawned on the Town”–a headline which accurately summed up 1897 in West Boylston. For two years, the townspeople suspected the reservoir would soon flood the town. However, there was always that feeling that things could change for the town. Then, once 1897 rolled around, the truth was undeniable: buildings…