View from Middleborough Town Hall No. 6, c. 1902

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This view taken from the top of Middleborough Town Hall looks eastwards directly over Thatcher's Row and Center Street. Directly below in the center foreground is the H. L. Thatcher & Company print shop with a skylighted roof. This was the first building erected on Thatcher's Row and, in addition to housing Thathcer's printing business, for a time was also the home of the Middleboro News. It burned in 1978 and was replaced with the structure which now houses the T. M. Ryder insurance agency. Just beyond are visible the greenhouses of Levi P. Thatcher who operated a floral business for nearly 35 years. In 1905, these greenhouses were relocated to the corner of Wareham and Benton Streets by Timothy F. Creedon who had managed the Thatcher greenhouses for 27 years. Behind the greenhouses, the rear of the commercial buildings on Center Street are visible. The large block in the center of the photograph is the Thatcher Block which housed numerous businesses over the years including Lucas & Thomas, grocers; Fayette Hayden, the occulist, "whose sign of the winking eye was sufficiently dim to convince all that the aid of spectacles was a necessity and the added flicker of the gas jet made one wonder how blind he really was"; D. B. Monroe, boots and shoes; and William Egger, furniture dealer and undertaker, in the rear of whose "establishment was located the mortuary where, if one was innocent, he might stumble upon an inert form which only yesterday might have held a cigarette, rather than a lily, in its hand." The Middleborough Post Office was also located here until 1902 when it relocated to the Peirce Block. Adjoining the Thatcher Block to the right is the Middleboro Clothing Company building, now the Middleborough Art Gallery. The next large building to the right is B. F. Tripp's candy store, followed by the Middleborough Savings Bank Building (on the Center Street side of which is painted an advertisement for "Boots & Shoes"). On the opposite side of Center Street from left to right are visible the T. W. Pierce hardware store (now the site of Benny's), Whitman's department store (now the site of Sovereign Bank), Shaw and Childs drug store (now Hollyberries gift shop), the Sproat House which housed Oneto's fruit store (now the site of Reedy's Archery), the Lovell Building which had once been the home of the Middleboro Gazette, the Sylvester or Lincoln Building and the Peirce Block. Other landmarks visible in the picture include the Reverend Henry C. Coombs House on School Street (the large white-painted residence with a rear ell at the left of the picture) which at one time housed students at Peirce Academy and was consequently known as the "Beehive" from the activity surrounding the building; the Peter H. Peirce House on North Main Street; and the Star Mill, the presence of which is marked by its smokestack seen in the upper right corner.

View from Middleborough Town Hall No. 5, c. 1902

. This view from the top of Middleborough Town Hall taken about 1902 depicts, most conspicuously, the Gothic Revival style Central Baptist Church constructed in 1888 to replace the previous church which was destroyed by fire. Behind the church, barely visible, is the white-painted Peirce Academy building with its distinctive cylindrical cupola. Across Union Street, the Church of Our Saviour is seen.

On the north side of Center Street are (from left to right): the Leonard & Barrows Shoe Manufactory, the Briggs building which was shortly to be replaced by the original School Street School, the Otis Briggs House half hidden behind the large tree, the smaller white-colored Weston House, and the Glidden Block. Behind the Glidden block, the roofs of the School Street School and Central Methodist Church are seen above the treeline. East of School Street, also on the north side of Center Street, are the T. W. Pierce Hardware Store (demolished in 1940 for the construction of a First National Store - now Benny's) and Whitman's department store (demolished in 1968 for the Plymouth-Home National Bank - now Sovereign Bank).

View from Middleborough Town Hall No. 4, c. 1902

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This view from the top of Middleborough Town Hall clearly shows Union Street in the foreground. In the center is a light-colored frame building with dark trim - the original Union Street School (1875). Throughout its history, the schoolhouse was never held in high public esteem. It was demolished to make way for a replacement (1937), following which lumber from this building is believed to have been used to construct the bleachers at Battis Field. To the right of the school is the French Gothic style Church of Our Saviour (1897) by noted Boston architect Ralph Adams Cram. Above the nave of the church is seen the Leonard & Barrows shoe manufactory (the U-shaped flat-roofed building with water tower and smokestack) which stood on the corner of Center and Pearl Streets and was later occupied by Plymouth Shoe. The most notable feature in the picture, however, is the Forest Street standpipe which interrupts the horizon line at the center of the picture. Constructed in 1884-85 on the highest point of land in the center of town, the standpipe provided a store for the community's water which was pumped from the well at the East Grove Street pumping station. The standpipe was a local landmark until 1915 when it was replaced by the concrete water tower on Barden Hill. At that time, the Forest Street standpipe was disassembled and sold for scrap, reportedly being made into barrels for sugar cane syrup in Puerto Rico.

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.

View from Middleborough Town Hall No. 2, c. 1902

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This view from about 1902 looks southwestward from the top of Middleborough Town Hall. Directly below is the roof of the school building (1886) which housed Middleborough High School and the Main Street Grammar School, and later the Bates Junior High School. Above and to the left of the school is the Zachariah Eddy House, painted in dark colors. Beyond, the houses along South Main and Pearl Streets are visible in the middle distance.

View from Middleborough Town Hall No. 1, c. 1902

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The view above was taken about 1902 from the tower of Middleborough Town Hall looking south, and depicts the existence of a pre-suburban sprawl rural landscape in close proximity to the village. In the bottom right appears the front lawn of what was then Middleborough High School, later the Bates School and now a portion of the Veterans' Memorial Park. Directly across the street is the Horatio Barrows House, now home of the Masons. Although the house is not visible behind the trees, construction work is clearly being carried out and the photograph probably depicts the house during the major renovation which transformed it into a southern-style home. Clearly visible, however, is the white-painted Barrows Barn with its square cupola on top. The row of houses behind is Rock Street. In the far distance in the middle of the picture, the Middleborough Pumping Station on East Grove Street with its brick smokestack, may be seen, with the George H. Shaw varnish works visible as a nearby cluster of buildings. Further to the right are the early houses on East Grove Street. Between Rock Street and East Grove Street are the Harlow and Pickens Farms, now the site of Woodland and Mitchell Streets, and Mayflower Avenue. Barely discernible near the top of the photograph, just below the horizon, is Lake Assawompsett.