Prepared by Stephen W. Herring, Framingham Town Historian
- 1600's -
|
| 1630 |
Connecticut Indians bring grain to the starving Massachusetts
Bay Colony along a trail now known as the Old Connecticut Path,
Framingham's oldest road.
|
| 1633 |
John Oldham leads a group of explorers along the Connecticut
Path, becoming the first Englishmen to set foot on the land
that would become Framingham.
|
| 1640 |
The first land grant, 600 acres on the east side of Lake
Cochituate, is awarded to the widow of Rev. Josse Glover. The
land is not immediately occupied for settlement or farming.
|
| 1647 |
John Stone sells his Sudbury property and moves his family to
the west side of the Sudbury River, at what is now Saxonville.
He becomes Framingham's first settler.
|
| 1660, Oct. 10 |
Thomas Danforth, an official of the Bay Colony and Harvard
College, receives 250 acres of land in payment for his services.
Danforth will accumulate over 15,000 acres and name the land
Framingham after the town of his birth in England where it is
spelled Framlingham.
|
| 1676, Feb. 1 |
During the Indian uprising known as King Philip's War the
remote farm of the Eames family on Mount Wayte is attacked.
Mary Eames and several children are slain in the Eames Massacre.
|
| 1693, Mar. 2 |
The first petition to incorporate Framingham as a town is
submitted to the General Court and denied. Thomas Danforth was
opposed.
|
| 1693, spring |
The first of several families persecuted by the Salem witch
hunt of 1692 arrive at Framingham Plantation and settle in an
area to become known as Salem End.
|
| 1699, Nov. 5 |
Thomas Danforth dies, opening the way for those residents who
want to organize a town government.
|
- 1700's -
|
| 1700, June 5 |
Danforth's Farms are incorporated as the Town of Framingham.
The first Town Meeting is held on August 5. The meetinghouse
was located in the Old Burying Ground on Main Street.
|
| 1701, Oct.8 |
The Framingham Church is organized with the Rev. John Swift as
the town's first minister.
|
| 1706 |
The Town hires its first schoolmaster, Deacon Joshua Hemenway.
|
| 1716 |
The first schoolhouse is built, west of the meetinghouse.
|
| 1735 |
After a long dispute over the location of a new meetinghouse,
the Town purchases four acres from William Pike, which will
become the Framingham Centre Common.
|
| 1775, Feb. 22 |
British General Gage sends out spies to chart the way to
Worcester for his invasion. They stay at Buckminster's tavern
and observe the Framingham minutemen drilling.
|
| 1775, Apr. 19 |
General Gage sends his Redcoats against
Lexington and Concord instead of Framingham
and Worcester. Framingham sends it's minutemen,
and one man is wounded.
|
| 1775, June 17 |
Framingham companies serve well at the Battle of Bunker Hill.
Peter Salem, a slave freed by Lawson Buckminster, supposedly
shoots British Major Pitcairn.
|
| 1776, Jan. |
Henry Knox drags his "cannon train" from Ft. Ticonderoga to
Framingham to await orders to bring the artillery to sites
around Boston where they would force out the occupying British
forces (Evacuation Day, March 17).
|
| 1792 |
Several prominent citizens form the Framingham Academy to
prepare students for college, becoming Framingham's first high
school.
|
| 1795 |
Paul Revere comes to Framingham to preside over the creation of
the Middlesex Masonic Lodge at the home of Esq. Jonathan Maynard.
|
- 1800's -
|
| 1800, Oct. 2 |
At the home of Mary Rice, Framingham's first manufacturing
industry is born: making straw braid and bonnets.
|
| 1812 |
Former minuteman John Fiske builds a stylish new house on the
Worcester Turnpike (The 1812 House).
|
| 1810 |
The Worcester Turnpike, a commercial highway
connecting Boston and Worcester, is opened
with Framingham at the mid-point. The
turnpike later became Route 9.
|
| 1824, Feb.4 |
1824,
Feb.4 The Saxon Factory company was not the first textile mill at
Saxonville, but did give its name to that part of town. There was
a cotton mill on Cochituate Brook as early as 1810. |
| 1824 |
Another commercial turnpike is built through the southern part
of town. It is called the Central Turnpike, and later becomes
Waverley Street (Rt. 135).
|
| 1826 |
Famous Boston architect Solomon Willard designs the First
Baptist Church, now Framingham's oldest public building.
|
| 1830 |
After a bitter dispute, the Town divests its church property
to the Unitarians. The Congregationalists build a new church
across the street, now Plymouth Church.
|
| 1833 |
The Framingham Bank opens following President Andrew Jackson's
veto of the Bank of the United States.
|
| 1834 |
A new town hall is built on the centre common, now known as the
Village Hall.
|
| 1834 |
The Boston and Worcester Railroad begins service through South
Framingham with a train consisting of a six-ton engine called
"Yankee" and seven stage-coach cars.
|
| 1845 |
St. George's, Framingham's
first catholic parish, is established in Saxonville where the Irish
population has been growing as a result of the Great Famine in Ireland.
|
| 1846, Mar.16 |
A large section of the south side of town is set off along with
pieces of Hopkinton and Holliston to form the Town of Ashland.
|
| 1849 |
Edgell Grove Cemetery, an outgrowth of the romantic rural
cemetery trend in America, is opened near Framingham Centre.
|
| 1853 |
America's first public teachers' college, the State Normal
School, relocates to Bare Hill at Framingham Centre. It is now
Framingham State College.
|
| 1853 |
Framingham organizes an official fire department.
|
| 1854, Mar. 18 |
Lovell Eames gives the town a piece of land in South Framingham
that becomes the South Common.
|
| 1854, July 4 |
At
Harmony Grove on the east bank of Farm Pond, William
Lloyd Garrison and Henry David
Thoreau give famous speeches in denunciation of slavery.
|
| 1855, Apr.9 |
The Framingham Public Library is born.
|
| 1862, Feb.22 |
At a Washington's Birthday service at Plymouth Church, Julia
Ward Howe's Battle Hymn of the Republic is sung in public for
the first time.
|
| 1871 |
The opening of the Framingham and Lowell Railroad completes a
period of railroad construction that makes Framingham a rail
hub for eastern Massachusetts.
|
| 1871 |
The first successful local newspaper, The Framingham Gazette,
begins weekly publication.
|
| 1872 |
The Camp Meeting Association begins summer sessions at
Mt. Wayte where it will become the New England headquarters of
the national Chautauqua movement.
|
| 1874 |
Framingham becomes the home of the Middlesex South District
Court.
|
| 1875-1879 |
In
1875 the Commonwealth purchases 115 acres of the former Pratt's
Plain for annual encampments of the State's militia brigades. This
area has since been know as the Musterfield. A reservoir project
to construct dams and reservoirs along the Sudbury River in Framingham
and Ashland swallows up thousands of acres of farm land, and brings
Irish Immigrants to Framingham Centre. |
| 1883 |
The sprawling wooden Saxonville Mills complex burns down and is
rebuilt in brick within two years.
|
| 1889 |
The
original Framingham Normal School building is replaced by a brick
structure, May Hall, which is later used as part of the design of
the Town seal. |
| 1890 |
Horse-drawn trolleys start appearing on the main roads
connecting the villages of Framingham. They are electrified by
the end of the century.
|
| 1893 |
The Framingham Hospital is established in a house on Winthrop Street.
|
| 1895, July 9 |
The Framingham Board of Trade is formed to encourage new
business to come to South Framingham. It exists today as the
MetroWest Chamber of Commerce.
|
| 1897 |
Efforts of the Board of Trade result in bringing Dennison
Manufacturing to Framingham, the town's major employer for
half a century.
|
| 1897 |
Charles
MacPherson starts up The Framingham Evening News, the town's first
successful daily newspaper, later The Middlesex News and now The
MetroWest Daily News. |
- 1900's -
|
| 1900 |
The Board of Trade is a major force behind the Framingham
Bicentennial, a gala celebration of the town's 200th
anniversary, with emphasis on South Framingham. The current
town seal is introduced at the bicentennial.
|
| 1902 |
Richard H. Long comes to town and sets up a shoe factory which
later becomes an automobile factory, and finally an automobile
dealership.
|
| 1903 |
The B&W trolley connects Boston and Worcester with Framingham
at the mid-point; headquarters at Framingham Junction (Rt. 9
and Rt. 126).
|
| 1906, July 13 |
The Amsden Building collapses while under construction in South
Framingham, killing thirteen workmen; one of Framingham's worst
disasters.
|
| 1912 |
Wallace Nutting, a leader of the colonial-revival movement,
brings his photo coloring and furniture making operations to
Framingham and moves to Framingham Centre.
|
| 1913 |
The U.S. Post Office officially recognizes South Framingham as
Framingham and demotes the previous Framingham to Framingham
Centre.
|
| 1917 |
Framingham is chosen as the site of an important national
health study known as "The Tuberculosis Demonstration."
|
| 1918 |
The Musterfield becomes the staging area for Massachusetts
troops preparing to fight in World War I.
|
| 1923 |
New
England's first airmail flight lands at the Musterfield military
airport. |
| 1924 |
575 acres of northwest Sherborn are annexed to Framingham. The
land includes the old Reformatory Prison for Woman, now known
as MCI-Framingham.
|
| 1928 |
A new town hall, the Memorial Building, named in honor of
Framingham's citizen soldiers, is completed.
|
| 1931 |
The B&W Trolley is replaced by a new state "super highway"
called Route 9.
|
| 1931 |
Will Curtis purchases 30 acres in north Framingham and starts
creating a botanical garden called Garden in the Woods.
|
| 1944 |
The U.S. Army opens Cushing Hospital on the west side of Farm
Pond as a centralized facility for treating New England
soldiers wounded during World War II.
|
| 1948 |
Framingham is once again selected as the site of another
important health survey, the Framingham Heart Study.
|
| 1948 |
The General Motors Corporation establishes a major automobile
assembly plant on the south side of Framingham, at the Sherborn
border.
|
| 1951 |
With a population of 28,000, Framingham modifies its government
from an open Town Meeting to a representative Town Meeting.
|
| 1951, Oct. 4 |
Shoppers World, one of the nation's first regional shopping
malls, is opened.
|
| 1957 |
As part of the new interstate highway system, I-90, also known
as the Massachusetts Turnpike is opened with two exits in
Framingham.
|
| 1958 |
A summer tent theater, the Carousel, opens near Mass. Turnpike Exit 13.
|
| 1962 |
The Massachusetts Civil Defense Headquarters, an underground
bunker on Route 9, is built on the old Musterfield land.
|
| 1967 |
Framingham's post-war population boom makes it the largest town
in Massachusetts.
|
| 1970 |
A new state park consisting of 425 acres of northwest
Framingham is opened as Callahan State Park.
|
| 1975 |
The town celebrates its 275th anniversary and a regional fine
arts museum, the Danforth Museum, is opened in the old high
school on Union Avenue.
|
| 1978 |
Framingham is wired for cable TV.
|
| 1986, Jan. 28 |
Christa McAulliffe,
who grew up in Framingham, graduated from
Framingham State College, and was selected as the "first
teacher in space," perishes in the space shuttle Challenger
disaster.
|
| 1992, July |
Selectmen name the city of Lomonosov in Russia as Framingham's
sister city, at the request of FLAME
(Framingham-Lomonosov Association for Mutual Exchange).
|
| 1994, Oct. 16 |
President Bill Clinton visits Framingham
to sign an historic education bill, and address a political rally at the Memorial Building.
|
| 1996, April |
Town government is reorganized with a Town Manager and a
five-person Board of Selectmen to make it more responsive to
the needs of a large municipality.
|
2000 |
Framingham
celebrates 300 years as a town. Tercentennial events are held
throughout the year. The Civil War Encampment attracts over 10,000.
|
