Waters Farm Preservation

CONTACT:

4 Uxbridge Road
Sutton, MA 01590
(508) 865-0101
www.watersfarm.com

Ralph W. Gurney, Jr., President

DESCRIPTION:

Here is a rare gem of Massachusetts, New England, and American, folk history: a 130-acre working farm in the Blackstone valley of south-central Massachusetts, that was owned for over 250 years by a single family — six generations, from 1720 to 1974. It provides a continuous record of material remains and documents — diaries, letters, photographs, business records, books — of this family's collective biography, from the Colonial period down through the American Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, the Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Depression, and on to our own time.

In 1974 Dorothea Waters Moran, the last family member to live on the farm, philanthropically donated it to the Town of Sutton, stipulating that it be preserved intact as conservation land and historical museum, for public benefit. In 1991 a beneficial corporation assumed responsibility for developing the educational programs of the farm, which they have done with care and quality — erecting a barn (1994), a blacksmith shop (1995) and a shingle mill (1996); developing printed and other media materials; and sponsoring events, tours, displays and demonstrations to attract visitation, which steadily grows. In the meantime, the value of this legacy increases with our distance in time and history from the worlds it represents. When change is accelerating so rapidly, it may help to have another reference, reminding us and our descendants that there have been other ways. You can help enhance this legacy.

(2001: CULTURE: Education: Informal: Historic Preservation)