Uxbridge, MA: Two for One

It’s been longer than usual since I last posted. I’ve been experiencing some life developments, for lack of a better term — all of it good, but all of it diverting my energy from this blog. Bear with me, yes?

Bear • Credit: rchall, http://www.morguefile.com

Non sequitur to Uxbridge, MA. Well, not really, because the town is already in the title. But yeah. Uxbridge is pretty cool because it’s right at the center of the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor — say that 10 times fast — the area that got a jump on industrialization before any other region in America. If you’ve ever heard of Uxbridge Blue, the first Air Force dress uniform, that’s where it came from.

I was on my way to Farnum House when I got a little turned around due to the complete lack of digital compass chips in my brain. My geographical defect forced me to face what appeared to be an abandoned mill off the main road, on Depot St. Let’s investigate, shall we?

Bernat (Capron) Mill • Uxbridge, MA

The fence was taller than I was. Fun fact about me: I’m 5’7″. So, that’s fairly tall. So much of the structure was missing that

Gardner and Winchendon: Bygone Eras

Yesterday, one of my goals was to find a couple of Massachusetts monuments and do a compare/contrast. I ended up accidentally finding a lot more. Before I get into that, though, let’s take a look at what was once the largest chair in the world.

Large Chair • Gardner, MA

Why does Gardner, MA have a super-huge chair sitting on the front lawn of the Helen Mae Sauter School? At the turn of the century, this town was churning 4 million pieces of furniture each year; 20 chair factories is nothing to shake a stick at. Some people call Gardner the Furniture Capital of New England, while others simply call it Chair City.

Another 15-minute drive and I was looking at a horse in Winchendon, MA.

Clyde II • Winchendon, MA

As I jumped out of my car and photographed the Clyde II statue, I probably looked as if I were on a scavenger hunt, team of one. So why was this silly horse standing in the middle of the bank’s parking lot? Around the same time that Gardner was in its furniture heyday, Winchendon was at the height of its toy production. The town produced so many toys that people called it Toy Town — this horse represents that.

What was even more interesting was what I found on the way to the horse. As I was driving down the main road, I could see a