The Old Middleborough Historical Society was founded in 1922 at the South Main Street home of Mrs. Ruth Cushman with 12 locals present. The records of this meeting are lost, as are the meeting minutes from the before 1924; We rely on the written account of the last surviving charter member.
“It was agreed that Middleboro had much historical love that should be preserved and the Historical Society should be founded.” BETTY A. BURKHEAD (1883-1961)
For over 30 years after, the OMHS held lectures, socials and collaborations with the likes of the Nemasket Grange, the Massachusetts Archaeological Society, and the Old Colony Historical Society, all while collecting artifacts, stories and some buildings along the way. In 1956, the Middleborough Public Library shared their space with us to create a small museum, the first in town!
Nearby on Jackson Street, history was being lost. A series of barn and chimney fires struck a row of five 1820s mill houses between 1937 and 1953. Beautification efforts were underway to make the street safer and modern. In a matter of six years, businesses sprung up, a Girl Scout troop established itself on the street (and remains more than 60 years later), electric street lights were installed, the barns were replaced with public parking, and three of the historic mill houses were demolished for a basketball court and skating rink. When bidding started for the final two mill houses in 1959, plans had floated for a decade to replace them with a gymnasium or a larger rink. That’s when the OMHS stepped in.
Our members, most notably our Curator, Lawrence Romaine (1900-67), spoke up. We convinced the Board of Selectmen two sell us two of the homes together for $1, while the other three became the Peirce Playground. It was a small victory in an era when many local historic sites were undervalued and faced demolition. In 1959, the Old Middleborough Historical Society finally incorporated as the Middleborough Historical Association, Inc., a name that has stuck ever since.
The Middleborough Historical Museum opened in 1961 after a lengthy remodeling period. It was after we received a large collection of memorabilia related to the celebrity couple, Lavinia Warren (1842-1919) and her husband Charles Stratton (1838-1883). They were famous entertainers and little people, known as General and Mrs. Tom Thumb in P.T. Barnum’s American Museum. The items were sold to us for $3,000 from Lavinia’s nephew, Benjamin W. Bump. Benjamin had worked for decades to gather the missing pieces of his aunt’s life and fulfill her wish: “Remember me.” Many more items have been added to our collection by generous donors
Between 1965 and 1980, three historic buildings were moved onsite (the Sproat Tavern Necessary, Judge Wilkes Wood Law Office and West Side Whistle House) and two were built (Carriage House and Blacksmith Shop). Most recently, the 1700s Sproat Tavern Necessary was restored by Board Director Bob Reimels in 2015, saving the museum’s oldest structure.
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