Boxford

As visitors meander down the country roads of Boxford, their first impressions usually include trees, an occasional house, and more trees. To some, it is hard to imagine that this town has changed much over the years. Indeed, with the twenty-first century upon us, the first traffic light has yet to be installed. Still, as many small towns transformed from agricultural to residential during the last century, Boxford changed, too. Through the conscious efforts of its citizens, however, it evolved into a town with rural character. In this first-ever photographic history of Boxford, readers will visit familiar places including the East and West Villages, the churches, houses, farms, roads, and hillsides, virtually unrecognizable at first glance. Readers will learn about factories, mills, and industries that thrived here and will see the one-room schoolhouses where Boxford education began. In this intriguing book, they will meet interesting people, such as the West Boxford Baseball Club and the Aaron Wood School Class of 1938. Readers will tour Camp Curtis Guild, the largest artillery training ground in New England, where 5,000 soldiers camped in 1917. To commemorate our nation's bicentennial, the Boxford Historic Document Center was established in 1976. The small brick building in West Boxford Village provides free public access to photographs, books, and documents handed down through generations of Boxford families. This unique collection contains thousands of rare and unpublished photographs, including those from the recently acquired glass plate negatives of Arthur Wilmarth.