Welcome to the Natick Historical Society

Our mission is to build community by inspiring connections to local history. The Natick Historical Society is an independent non-profit that welcomes everyone. We look forward to meeting you!

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From our Algonquian roots to the present day.

Natick History →

All of this summer heat has got us hungry for some tasty summer treats. An advertisement from 1904 for C.M. McKechnie & Co. lists ice cream, sherbet, frappes, lemonade, cakes, and rolls among their offerings. The horse and delivery wagon shown here is from sometime before 1902, after which the company changed from McKechnie to McKechnie & Co. Charles Melon McKechnie was born in Ripley, Maine in 1858. He came to Natick in 1885 and bought "The Domestic Bakery" that belonged to a J.E. DeWitt. This is part of a weekly series where we'll be sharing highlights from our photograph collection as they're inventoried by our summer interns.
Last month we spent a weekend moving our archival collections into the museum. We sure could have used the help of this moving company! This photograph from our collection is of the horse-drawn wagon operating W.S. Daniels Moving Company, pictured here on West Central Street. This is part of a weekly series where we'll be sharing highlights from our photograph collection as they're inventoried by our summer interns.
Did you know Natick had a huge shoemaking industry throughout the 19th and early 20th century? These photographs are of the Pfeiffer Shoe Company, which was located on Water St in South Natick. Most of the shoemaking in town was in Felchville (named after the Felch family, a large shoemaking family in Natick at the time), but the industry spread to the shores of the Charles too! This is part of a weekly series where we'll be sharing highlights from our photograph collection as they're inventoried by our summer interns.
We found this photograph of several women operating a switch board for the town downtown. Now that we've moved our operations from our old office to the museum on Eliot Street, our main phone number is different! If you're looking to give us a call, you can do so at (508) 647-4841 This is part of a weekly series where we'll be sharing highlights from our photograph collection as they're inventoried by our summer interns.
Today we have Ms. Sarah Sweeney's 4th grade class at the Eliot Grammar School here in Natick! This was their 1898 class portrait. That year, Natick had just 51 teachers educating 1,578 students aged 5-15 across the town. You can see Ms. Sweeney on the far left side of her 27 students and the Head of School on the far right. This is part of a weekly series where we'll be sharing highlights from our photograph collection as they're inventoried by our summer interns.
Last week we shared a picture of the Bigelow Mill in South Natick. This week we've got a photo of the Morse Mill that lined the Charles River. The mills along the river were primarily grist mills (for grinding wheat) and saw mills (for planing wood). This mill belonged to the Morse family of Natick, the same family for which the Morse Institute Library downtown is named. This is part of a weekly series where we'll be sharing highlights from our photograph collection as they're inventoried by our summer interns.
Sometimes the photographs we come across in our collections don't have any information on them. This photograph, for instance, doesn't have a date or any names listed. We can see it was taken outside Central Drug Store and Economy Grocery Store on Clark's Block, but that's it. Do you recognize any of these faces? This is part of a weekly series where we'll be sharing highlights from our photograph collection as they're inventoried by our summer interns.
Here is a photo of the Bigelow Dam and Mill in 1892 on the river in South Natick. This dam is one of the many iterations of dams that have blocked the river over the past four centuries. This dam was slightly further up stream from where the 1934 dam by the Pleasant Street bridge is today. This is part of a weekly series where we'll be sharing highlights from our photograph collection as they're inventoried by our summer interns.

The Natick historical Society office and museum are closed until further notice due to covid-19.
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Featured
Virtual History Book Club - Agent Zigzag
Sep 9
Virtual History Book Club - Agent Zigzag
"Oldtown" Walking Tour of South Natick - September 19
Sep 19
"Oldtown" Walking Tour of South Natick - September 19
Meet Our Neighbors: Walnut Hill School
Sep 22
Meet Our Neighbors: Walnut Hill School
Walking Tour of Natick's Historic Walnut Hill Neighborhood
Oct 2
Walking Tour of Natick's Historic Walnut Hill Neighborhood
Helen Keller: Champion of the Disabled
Oct 6
Helen Keller: Champion of the Disabled
Virtual History Book Club - Book of Ages
Oct 14
Virtual History Book Club - Book of Ages
Featured
Get to Know our Summer Collections Interns
Get to Know our Summer Collections Interns
Exciting Changes at the Natick History Museum
Exciting Changes at the Natick History Museum
NHS and Local Students Partner on Remembering Harwood
NHS and Local Students Partner on Remembering Harwood
Featured
Kilroy Brothers Share their Treasures
Kilroy Brothers Share their Treasures
Saving Natick's Historic Concert Hall
Saving Natick's Historic Concert Hall
A Conversation with Charlotte Diamant About her Account of the South Natick Dam
A Conversation with Charlotte Diamant About her Account of the South Natick Dam
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