Southborough eyes 300th anniversary preparations 

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Southborough eyes 300th anniversary preparations 
Southborough will celebrate its 300th anniversary in 2027.
(Photo/Jesse Kuecwicz)

SOUTHBOROUGH – The Southborough Select Board is looking for residents to join a planning committee for celebrations of the town’s 300th anniversary in 2027.

Speaking with the Community Advocate last week, Select Board Member Martin Healey said that the committee would look both at previous anniversary celebrations held in Southborough as well as other towns to inform their plans for the town’s tercentenary. He said that the goal is for there to be at least one tercentennial event per month in 2027.

“We’d like to think that the town – and the committee as a vehicle for the town – will look at this pretty ambitiously, and want to do basically a yearlong celebration of the 300th,” Healey said. “The idea is a number of different events over the course of the year, not one weekend event.”

Healey added the board wants the committee to represent “as varied a cross-section of the community as possible.”

Town seeks diverse representation on planning committee

Healey said it would be helpful to have members from both multigenerational families and new residents, as well as a mix of people who have been involved in town government and those who have not been.

He added that the Select Board hopes that residents with fundraising backgrounds or capabilities become involved with the committee.

“Ideally as little as possible of the financial costs of the 300th celebration should fall on the taxpayers,” Healey said. 

While Healey said that it is typical for planning committees like this to have a baseline of between 10 and 15 members, he added that the Select Board was not thinking of a hard cap on the amount of members who could join this group.

He also said that there would be no deadline for applicants to get involved with the committee. Those interested would ideally join early, he said, but it would not be a problem if someone decided to get involved six months or a year from now.

“On the one hand the 300th is five years away,” Healey said. “On the other hand, those five years are going to click by pretty fast, particularly when you’re talking about hopefully planning a number of different events.”

Healey said that the Select Board wants the committee to incorporate the history and perspectives of other town institutions like the Open Land Foundation, the town’s schools, and the Police and Fire Departments into celebrations.

He also hoped that both the Southborough Historical Commission and Historical Society would play a role in planning the celebrations. The Historical Society’s museum, he said, has collected resources and pictures dating back to the invention of photography that help to track the town’s journey.

“New England, Massachusetts, Southborough were some of the first places where the country got going,” he said.

‘Hopefully it ends up being a really big deal’

Healey said that those interested can apply to join the 300th Planning Committee by reaching out through the Town’s website, the Select Board’s email — at SelectmenOffice@Southboroughma.com — by phone or by an in-person visit to the Town House. Applicants will need to fill out a form describing their background and interest in the committee.

Approaching three centuries since Southborough’s founding in 1727, Healey added that it is important for the town to recognize its 300-year journey.

“It’s not going to happen for another hundred years, so hopefully it ends up being a really big deal for the town,” Healey said.

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