Author off ers pictorial trip through Marlborough's history

Susan Alotola, author of "Images of America: Marlborough" Photo/Angela Greiner Marlborough - Anyone who has ever wondered what Marlborough looked like in the late 1800s will find Susan Alotola's book "Marlborough," published as part of the "Images of America" series by Arcadia Publishing, to be a great summer read. The book illustrates through photos and stories the local history and the growth of Marlborough.

Alotola is a Marlborough resident who enjoys local history. She said she first began to think about writing a local history book in 1993 after she became aware of the Acadia Publishing project. Not ready to commit to the project, she continued to familiarize herself with local history through archives at the Marlborough Public Library, where she worked for 20 years.

During this time, Alotola began canvassing yard sales, looking for paper collectables. She would seek out postcards, product labels, matchboxes and old photographs with graphic labels from Marlborough.

"It helps to tell the story of your culture," Alotola said.

She explained that in her digging she discovered from soda bottles with labels of Marlborough that a company in the city used to produce soda bottles.

The pictures she found pieced together a history of Marlborough that included a fresh water spring with a public pump on the corner of Broad and West Main streets in the late 1800s. Her photo research led her to discover the farmhouse where the developer of the birth control pill once lived. To find it, she noticed a house in the reflection of a window in one of the pictures at the museum of the Historical Society. After going through thousands of photos, she finally discovered a picture of the house that matched the reflection.

"It was an absolute delight to discover," Alotola said. "It was like finding a rare gemstone."

"In 2000, I began actively choosing photographs and writing the book," Alotola said.

The research was tough, she said, because she would find documents that often offered conflicting information.

"But it was fun for someone like me who loves to do research," she said. "I loved it. I spent three years dedicating my vacation and weekends to writing."

The book captures images of triplets Faith, Hope and Charity. It also displays a visual representation of what downtown and the social community of Marlborough was like in the early 1900s.

"Marlborough was a really bustling, happening place that attracted people who could indulge themselves," Alotola said.

She explained that this was "the vacation spot" in the 1940s, which she represents with several photos of water skiing on Lake Williams and Fort Meadow Reservoir.

Some of the photos included in the book date back to the early 1870s. During her search for photographs, Alotola was grateful of all the support she received from community members like Dick LaFreniere, a longtime photograph collector, the Historical Society and the Photo Society of New England.

Alotola is an active member of the Marlborough Historical Society and several other historical organizations. Her book is available at local bookstores that carry the Arcadia series.