View from Middleborough Town Hall No. 3, c. 1902

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This view taken about 1902 looks westward from the top of Middleborough Town Hall and features the corner of Union and High Streets just left of center. In the lower left hand corner appears the rear gable of Middleborough High School, later the Bates School. The large open area between the school and Union Street was utilized for a variety of functions, serving as the town's Chautauqua grounds in the early twentieth century as well as being the site of band concerts following the construction of a bandstand (since relocated to the Peirce Playground). Across Union Street are two houses which occupied the site of the present Lincoln D. Lynch School, formerly the Union Street School. In 1937 these properties were taken by eminent domain so that a new eight-room school building could be constructed to replace the earlier (1875) Union Street School. One of the houses was demolished while the other was relocated to Pearl Street behind. Beyond these houses, the sides of the houses on High Street and the rear of those on Pearl Street are visible. Above them and to the right of center is a white steeple-like structure rising through the trees. This is the tower of the Leonard House on High Street, the site of the present Middleborough Elks Lodge. The cluster of houses to the left of center are situated on Pearl Street between Oak and High Streets.