Groton, Massachusetts | |
|---|---|
 Town Hall | |
 Seal | |
| Motto(s): "All Are Welcome", "Faith, Labor" | |
 Location in Middlesex County in Massachusetts | |
| Coordinates:42°36′40″N71°34′30″W / 42.61111°N 71.57500°W /42.61111; -71.57500 | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Massachusetts |
| County | Middlesex |
| Settled | 1655 |
| Incorporated | 1655 |
| Named after | Groton, Suffolk, England |
| Government | |
| • Type | Open town meeting |
| • Administrative Officer | Mark Haddad[1] |
| • Board of Selectmen | Peter Cunningham[2] Alison Manugian Rebecca “Becky” Pine Matthew Pisani John Reilly |
| Area | |
• Total | 33.7 sq mi (87.3 km2) |
| • Land | 32.8 sq mi (84.9 km2) |
| • Water | 0.93 sq mi (2.4 km2) |
| Elevation | 322 ft (98 m) |
| Population (2020) | |
• Total | 11,315 |
| • Density | 345/sq mi (133/km2) |
| Time zone | UTC−5 (Eastern) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−4 (Eastern) |
| ZIP Code | 01450 |
| Area codes | 351/978 |
| FIPS code | 25-27480 |
| GNIS feature ID | 0619399 |
| Website | www |
Groton is atown in northwesternMiddlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, within theGreater Boston metropolitan area. The population was 11,315 at the2020 census. It contains thecensus-designated place of the same name. An affluentbedroom community roughly 45 miles from Boston, Groton has a large population of professional workers, many of whom work inBoston's tech industry. It is loosely connected to Boston by highways (Route 2) and commuter rail (theMBTA Fitchburg Line).
The town has a long history dating back to the colonial era. It was a battlefield inKing Philip's War andQueen Anne's War, and several Grotonians played notable roles in theAmerican Revolution (includingWilliam Prescott, the American commander at theBattle of Bunker Hill) andShays' Rebellion. Groton is home to twocollege-preparatory boarding schools:Lawrence Academy at Groton, founded in 1793; andGroton School, founded in 1884. Notable Groton residents include former U.S. Secretary of StateJohn Kerry, sports writersPeter Gammons andDan Shaughnessy, and NBC political correspondentSteve Kornacki.
The area surrounding modern-day Groton has, for thousands of years, been the territory of various cultures ofindigenous peoples. They settled along the rivers, which they used for domestic tasks, fishing and transportation. Historic tribes were theAlgonquian-speakingNipmuc andNashawayIndians, who established trails connecting the area toMassachusetts Bay.[3]
The European presence in the era began when John Tinker established atrading post with the Nashaway tribe at the confluence of Nod Brook and theNashua River. The Nashaway called the areaPetapawag, meaning "swampy land." Over the years, more European settlers moved to the area, as it was productive forfishing andfarming.[3]
In 1655, the town of Groton was officially settled and incorporated by a group of selectmen includingDeane Winthrop. The town was named forGroton inSuffolk,England, the hometown of Deane's father, the Massachusetts governorJohn Winthrop.[4] CalledThe Plantation of Groton, it included all of present-day Groton andAyer, almost all ofPepperell andShirley, large parts ofDunstable,Littleton, andTyngsborough, smaller parts ofHarvard andWestford, and the New Hampshire towns ofNashua andHollis.[3]
DuringKing Philip's War, when Native Americans tried to destroy the inhabitants, on March 13, 1676, Native Americans raided and burned all buildings except for four Grotongarrisons.[5] Among those killed was John Nutting, a GrotonSelectman. Survivors fled toConcord and other safe havens. Two years later, many returned to rebuild.[3] The rebuilt town was heavily militarized, and recorded a garrison of 91 men in 1692.[6]
In 1694, Abenaki warriors attacked the town again during theRaid on Groton (duringKing William's War).Lydia Longley and two of her siblings were taken captive; the rest of their family was killed. Lydia was taken toMontreal where she was ransomed, converted to Catholicism, and joined theCongregation of Notre Dame, a non-cloistered order.
In 1704, duringQueen Anne's War, an Abenaki raiding party kidnappedMatthias Farnsworth III from his home and brought him to Montreal.
In June 1707,Abenaki warriors abducted three children of the large family of Thomas Tarbell and his wife Elizabeth (Wood), cousins to the Longleys who were abducted in 1694. The raiders took them overland and by water to theMohawk mission village ofKahnawake (also spelled Caughnawaga) south ofMontreal. The two Tarbell boys, John and Zachariah, were adopted by Mohawk families and became fully assimilated. They later each married chiefs' daughters, had families, and became respected chiefs themselves.[7] They were among the founders in the 1750s ofAkwesasne, after moving up the St. Lawrence River from Kahnawake to escape the ill effects of traders. The brothers' older sister Sarah Tarbell was ransomed by a French family, and converted to Catholicism. Renamed as Marguerite, she followed Lydia Longley in joining theCongregation of Notre Dame, and served with them for the rest of her life.[7][8][9] In the late nineteenth century, a plaque was installed about the Tarbell children at the site of the family's former farm in Groton. Descendants with the Tarbell surname are among the Mohawk living at Kahnewake and Akwesasne in the 21st century.
The townsfolk of Groton supported thePatriot cause in theAmerican Revolutionary War. Following theBoston Tea Party, the town passed a resolution thanking Boston "for their wise, prudent and spirited conduct at this alarming crisis," and resolved to boycott the tea industry until duties on tea were lifted.[10]
In 1775, localminutemen assembled on thecommon in front of the First Parish Church of Groton before marching to theBattles of Lexington and Concord.[3][11] Groton sent 101 men to the battle, but they arrived too late to participate.[12] The American commander at theBattle of Bunker Hill,William Prescott, was born in Groton, and Groton lost 10 or 12 men at the battle, more than any other town.[13][14][15]
This patriotic feeling did not last very long, and a majority of Groton residents aligned with the rebels duringShays' Rebellion.[16]Job Shattuck, a formerContinental Army officer and Groton's largest landowner,[17] organized an early tax revolt in 1782.[18] He escaped with a fine, but rose up again in 1786 and led a mob that shut down the Middlesex County Courthouse inConcord, Massachusetts.[17] He was captured by a search party that included some pro-government Groton residents.[19] He was sentenced to death but pardoned by GovernorJohn Hancock.[17]
Early Groton developed a strong economy, assisted by its location near the confluence of theNashua andSquannacook Rivers. By 1790 it was the second-largest town in Middlesex County, with 1,840 residents.[15] Agriculture was the backbone of the economy, but the town also welcomed industry.[20] In the early 1800s, the Hollingsworth family (Hollingsworth & Vose) acquired a paper mill in West Groton.[21] In 1828, miners discovered a large soapstone quarry; Groton eventually hosted the nation's largestsoapstone factory, which exported products as far away as China.[22] South Groton (Groton Junction, nowAyer) was connected to railroad lines in the 1840s. One line survives as theMBTA Fitchburg Line, the town's present-day commuter rail link to Boston.[23][24][25]
African-Americans have lived in the area since at least the 1750s, when Primus Lew (father ofBarzillai Lew) bought a farm in the area. Private Pomp Phillis was called up to fight at Lexington and Concord.[26] HistorianJeremy Belknap wrote that "a negro man belonging to Groton" fired the shot that killed MajorJohn Pitcairn at theBattle of Bunker Hill.[27][28]
Starting in the 1840s,Catholic immigrants (mainlyIrish, but also someFrench Canadians) began moving to theNashoba Valley in large numbers.[29] St. Mary's Catholic Church was established in 1858 to serve the Catholic residents of Ayer.[30] Ayer split off from Groton in 1871, and in 1904, one of the local private schools donated Sacred Heart Church for the use of the Catholics who stayed in Groton proper.[31]
Groton's economic growth slowed in the second half of the nineteenth century. The soapstone quarry shut down in 1868.[22] The town's population nearly halved (3,584 to 1,862) from 1870 to 1880, although most of this was due to the 1871 secession of Ayer, which had 1,600 residents in 1870.[32]
In the 19th century and early part of the 20th century, Groton's population was largely white and Christian; people have debated whether it was asundown town.[33] The town became a center of the SecondKu Klux Klan, which was active in Massachusetts in the 1920s. This incarnation of the Klan expressed primarilyanti-Catholic and anti-immigrant prejudice, while also opposing racial minorities.[34] Local schoolmasterEndicott Peabody summarized the movement as follows: "There is an astonishing tendency among some of the respectable people in this part of the world to justify [the Klan's] existence on the ground that the Jews and Roman Catholics are taking possession of the country."[35]
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The Klan held a rally in Groton in September 1924.[33] In 1925, an Irish resident reported across burning on Gibbet Hill, not far from Main Street.[36] In October 1926, a group of 400 Klansmen were meeting in a field in the town when they were fired upon withguns used by a group of approximately 100 people opposed to the Klan; the police reported that over 100 gunshots were exchanged between the two groups, but no casualties were reported.[33] In 1927, the local Klan chapter endorsed a full slate of candidates for the town elections, with partial success.[37] The Klan appears to have peaked as an organized force in the area by 1931, when Klan headHiram Wesley Evans visitedWest Townsend to implore the remaining Klansmen to rebuild the local chapters.[38] The rate of inter-confessional marriages, which decreased significantly from 1924 to 1928, began rising again starting in 1929.[39]
In 2020, Groton unanimously approved a measure denouncing racial bigotry and advocating equality in recognition of earlier violence and the contemporary social justice movement.[40]
Starting in the 1950s, the town of Groton enjoyed an economic revival as Boston's high-tech sector expanded along theRoute 128 beltway. Although Groton does not lie on Route 128, the gravity of the suburban beltway pulled exurban towns like Groton into Boston's economic orbit. The town attracted professional workers, and the population expanded rapidly, nearly quadrupling since 1950.[41] (A group led byMarion Stoddart, the wife of one such technology worker, sponsored the cleanup of the Nashua River;[42] previously, the river was so polluted with sludge that on some days, animals could run across it.[43]) In 2021, Groton's per capita incomeranked 32nd out of 341 towns and cities in Massachusetts. In addition, as of 2015, 31 Groton residents reported incomes over $1 million.[44] Town representatives describe Groton as a "bedroom community"[45] and "a relatively affluent town" where "[m]ost residents are well-educated and hold high-paying professional, managerial, or other office jobs."[46]
In the 21st century, the town has sought to preserve its rural character and to slow population growth; as of 2017, 42% of the town's 32.5 square miles of land was permanently protected from development.[47] In the 2000s,Geotel Communications founder Steven Webber purchased the 338-acre Gibbet Hill Farm to prevent residential development on the site; the town meeting reportedly greeted his intervention with a standing ovation.[48] Town representatives state that they welcome tourists and seek to encourage "a constant trickle rather than a deluge of visitors."[45] In 2017, the town adopted the motto "All Are Welcome" and placed six waystones engraved with the motto on the major roads entering the town.[33]
Although the town's policies have successfully slowed population growth, town amenities have generally improved. Gibbet Hill now hosts afarm-to-table steakhouse.[49][50] In 2017, the nation's largestShirdi Sai Baba temple opened in Groton; it cost approximately $11 million to build.[51] The 126,000-square-foot Groton Hill Music Center opened in 2022 and includes a 1,000-seat (expandable to 2,300) concert hall, a 300-seat secondary performance hall, a professional orchestra, and a community music school;[52][53][54] it was the gift of an anonymous donor, posthumously revealed to beSterilite ownerAlbert Stone.[55][56] TheGroton-Dunstable Regional School District is currently building a new $88.4 million campus for its elementary school, which is scheduled to open in 2024.[57] However, the annual per-pupil expenditures in the 2022–23 school year were $19,392.35, just below the state average of $20,133.67,[58] and in April 2024, voters rejected a proposed $7.6 million/3 year tax increase for the school district by a 3-to-2 margin.[59]
According to theUnited States Census Bureau, Groton has a total area of 33.7 square miles (87.3 km2), of which 32.8 square miles (84.9 km2) is land and 0.9 square miles (2.4 km2) (2.79%) is water. Groton is the largest town in Middlesex County in terms of square mileage. The town is drained by theNashua River,Squannacook River, andMerrimack River.[60] The center of the town is dominated mainly by Gibbet Hill, with several other large hills throughout the town.
Groton is served by state routes40,111,119 and225. It borders the towns ofPepperell,Dunstable,Tyngsborough,Westford,Littleton,Ayer,Shirley, andTownsend.
Groton has a hot-summerhumid continental climate (Dfa) bordering onDfb and monthly averages range from 23.8 °F (−4.6 °C) in January to 71.8 °F (22.1 °C) in July.[61] Thehardiness zone is 5b.[62]
In a typical year, temperatures in Groton are below 50 °F (10 °C) for 195 days per year. Annual precipitation is typically 45.7 inches per year (high in the US) and snow covers the ground 68 days per year, or 18.6% of the year (high for the US). It may be helpful to understand the yearly precipitation by imagining nine straight days of moderate rain per year. The humidity is below 60% for approximately 25.4 days, or 7% of the year.[63]
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 1676 | 300 | — |
| 1765 | 1,408 | +369.3% |
| 1776 | 1,639 | +16.4% |
| 1790 | 1,840 | +12.3% |
| 1800 | 1,802 | −2.1% |
| 1810 | 1,886 | +4.7% |
| 1820 | 1,897 | +0.6% |
| 1830 | 1,925 | +1.5% |
| 1840 | 2,139 | +11.1% |
| 1850 | 2,515 | +17.6% |
| 1860 | 3,193 | +27.0% |
| 1870 | 3,584 | +12.2% |
| 1880 | 1,862 | −48.0% |
| 1890 | 2,057 | +10.5% |
| 1900 | 2,052 | −0.2% |
| 1910 | 2,155 | +5.0% |
| 1920 | 2,185 | +1.4% |
| 1930 | 2,434 | +11.4% |
| 1940 | 2,550 | +4.8% |
| 1950 | 2,889 | +13.3% |
| 1960 | 3,904 | +35.1% |
| 1970 | 5,109 | +30.9% |
| 1980 | 6,154 | +20.5% |
| 1990 | 7,511 | +22.1% |
| 2000 | 9,547 | +27.1% |
| 2010 | 10,646 | +11.5% |
| 2020 | 11,315 | +6.3% |
| 2022* | 11,162 | −1.4% |
| * = population estimate. Source:United States census records andPopulation Estimates Program data.[64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74] | ||
As of thecensus[75] of 2020, there were 11,315 people, 3,668 households, and 2,757 families residing in the town. The population density was 335 inhabitants per square mile (129/km2). There were 3,393 housing units at an average density of 103.5 per square mile (40.0/km2). The racial makeup of the town was 84.9%White, 1.0%Black orAfrican American, 0.0%Native American, 6.0%Asian, 0.0%Pacific Islander, 0.6% fromother races, and 7.4% from two or more races.Hispanic orLatino of any race were 3.9% of the population.
There were 3,668 households, out of which 27.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.4% weremarried couples living together, and 26.9% were never married. Of all households 19.8% were made up of individuals, and 12.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.96 and the average family size was 3.47.
The age distribution of the town's population was 72.3% age 18 and older, 6.5% from 20 to 24, 7.6% from 25 to 34, , 13% 35-44, 12.1% from 45 to 54, 7.6% from 55-59, 7.7% from 60-64 and 14.7% who were 65-84 years of age. The median age was 40.4 years. For every 100 females, there were 102.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.8 males.
The median value of owner-occupied housing units was $673,500. The income for a household in the town was $189,180 and the median income for a family was $179,167. Males had a median income of $156,161 versus $99,750 for females. Theper capita income for the town was $75,687. About 4.3% of the population were below thepoverty line, including 2.0% of those under age 18 and 9.0% of those age 65 or over.[76]
Groton annually hosts the NationalShepley Hill Horse Trials, anequestrian competition. The Groton-Dunstable Crusaders high school boys and girls athletic teams also compete in the town.
The town of Groton is governed by an open town meeting and administered by an elected five-member select board and appointed town manager.[77]
The town has a large proportion of swing voters. 58.9% of Groton voters chose RepublicanMitt Romney in the 2002 Massachusetts gubernatorial election,[78] 55.0% chose RepublicanScott Brown in the 2010 U.S. Senate election,[79] and 53.8% chose RepublicanCharlie Baker in the 2014 Massachusetts gubernatorial election.[80] By contrast, 50.8% of Groton voters chose DemocratBarack Obama in the 2012 U.S. presidential election,[81] 63.9% chose DemocratEd Markey in the 2020 U.S. Senate election,[82] and 67.2% chose DemocratJoe Biden in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.[82]
| Voter Registration and Party Enrollment as of February 1, 2021[83] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Number of Voters | Percentage | |||
| Democratic | 1,915 | 21.92% | |||
| Republican | 1,089 | 12.47% | |||
| Unaffiliated | 5,662 | 64.81% | |||
| Total | 8,736 | 100% | |||
Groton previously hosted Prescott Elementary School (1927–2008, now closed),[85] the Catholic Country Day School of the Holy Union (1949–2017, now closed),[86] and theLowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture (1901–1945, merged with theRhode Island School of Design).[87] The oldGroton High School building at 145 Main Street, which housed the Prescott Elementary School, is listed on theNational Register of Historic Places.[88]
Over 30% of the land in Groton, Massachusetts is protected open space.[95] The majority of this open space is accessible to the public. Groton also has over 100 miles of trails. Many of these trails can be walked and biked, others are available for hunting and/or camping. The trails are made and maintained by theGroton Trail Committee and the land itself is owned and managed by theGroton Conservation Trust,The Groton Conservation Commission, theMassachusetts Audubon Society,The New England Forestry Foundation,The Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation, andThe Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game.
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Places adjacent to Groton, Massachusetts | |
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Municipalities and communities ofMiddlesex County, Massachusetts,United States | ||
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| Other villages | ||
| Footnotes | ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties | |
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