Autumn in the North Cemetery.

Sixty miles west of Boston, Massachusetts there is the small New England town of Sturbridge. Located at the junction of I-90 (The Mass Pike), and I-84 it has become known as the "Crossroads of New England". The town was first settled over 300 years ago, and like other small New England towns it has grown just enough over the years to be in a difficult place today. How do we embrace the future without forgetting how we got to our present? How do we attract the right kind of growth, and maintain who we are? And, what about our culture out here in Central Massachusetts?



These pages will cause one to think about how to protect what we have, our future direction, and how to move on in the very best way.


Those thoughts, and other ramblings, will hopefully inspire more thought, conversation, action, and occasionally a smile...

...seems to be working so far

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Time To Bring Back The Abandoned And Forgotten Pieces Of Our History

Do you know where this sign is in Stubridge?
When Mary and I are out and about with the top down on the Solara, we notice our history forming before our eyes.  Well, I do, Mary just tells me when to brake, and to stop rotating my head like an owl as I drive.

Have you ever seen an old, abandoned house on the side of the road all overgrown in weeds and neglected trees and shrubs.  Sometimes the house is leaning to the side, or collapsed upon itself.  I always wonder about the history of the building.  Why was it abandoned?  Who owns it now?  What happened to the family?  Abandoned property is always an issue in a community for reasons as benign as the property becoming and eyesore, to the property becoming a safety concern.

Today we have a number of houses in town that can be considered abandoned due to the economic trouble we have experienced in recent years.  Modern houses.  Their lawns mowed once or twice a year, and no buyer in sight.  They, too, will be relegated to the overgrowth in a few years, and in a few more years there will be other couples riding around wondering about the neglected house in the woods that at one time was a fine lawn.  This is history forming before our eyes.

We have a few of those properties here in town, but more on those at a properties in a later post.  We also have the bits and pieces  of the properties that are still very active, and alive, but a portion of them have been forgotten.  The abandoned sections served their purpose, and now are relegated to the Land of the Forgotten.  The sign in the above photo is one of those forgotten pieces of history here in town.  The ironic thing about the sign, is it is a sign about history.

At one time, the little bits that we sprinkled around to teach, explain, and tell about ourselves were valuable, and then, they are gone for a variety of reasons.

Go figure.

I think the sign in the photo still serves a purpose, and if you learned something new when you read it then you need to contact the owner, and have them move it so all can read it.

Do you know where it is?

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