Natick (pronounced /ˈneɪtɪk/ ) is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. Natick is located near the center of the MetroWest region of Massachusetts, with a population of 32,170 at the 2000 census. Only 15 miles west of Boston, Natick is considered part of the Greater Boston area. The center of population of Massachusetts in 2000 was located in Natick.
Origin of the name
The name Natick comes from the language of the Massachusett Native American tribe and means place of hills. The original settlement, in the community of South Natick, is a hilly area. Located in the community of West Natick, is Captain Tom's Hill, which was the site of a small Indian encampment during King Philips War.
History
Natick was first settled in 1651 by John Eliot, a Puritan missionary born in Widford, Hertfordshire, England who received a commission and funds from England's Long Parliament to settle the Massachusett Indians on both sides of the Charles River, on land deeded from the settlement at Dedham. They were called Praying Indians - Eliot was best known for attempting to preserve the culture (minus the religion) of the Native Americans by putting them in thirteen planned towns where they could continue by their own rule, with Natick as the political and spiritual center. Eliot and Praying Indian translators printed America's first written Bible in the Algonquian language.
The colonial government placed such settlements in a ring of villages around Boston as a defensive strategy. Natick was the first and best documented of such settlements. The land was granted by the General Court, part of the Dedham Grant.
A school was set up, a government established, and the Indians were encouraged to convert to Christianity. In November, during King Philip's War, the Natick Indians were sent to Deer Island. Many died of disease and cold, and the Indians who survived found their homes destroyed. The Indian village did not fully recover, and the land held in common by the Indian community was slowly sold off to white settlers to cover debts, and, by 1785, most of the Natick Indians had drifted away.
In 1775, both English and Praying Indian citizens of Natick participated in the Battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill, as well as serving in the Continental Army. The names of the Praying Indian soldiers from Natick are memorialized on a stone marker, along with all of Natick's Revolutionary War veterans, on a stone marker on Pond St near downtown Natick.
The town was officially incorporated in 1781. Henry Wilson, born in 1812 and eighteenth Vice President of the United States, lived most of his life in Natick as a shoemaker and schoolteacher, and is buried there. He is the namesake of one of Natick's middle schools.
Though Natick was primarily a farming town, the invention of the sewing machine in 1858 led to the growth of several shoe factories. The business flourished and peaked by 1880, when Natick, with twenty-three operating factories, was third in the nation in the quantity of shoes produced. The shoes made in Natick were primarily heavy work shoes with only one or two companies adding lighter dress shoes to their line. Natick was famous for its brogan, a heavy ankle-high boot worn by soldiers in the American Civil War. The wound core for a more resilient ball was developed by John W. Walcott and combined with the figure-eight stitching devised by Col. William A. Cutler. It was manufactured by the firm of H. Harwood & Sons in their factory built in 1858 - the first plant in the world for the manufacture of baseballs. In 1988 the H. Harwood & Sons factory was converted into baseball factory condominiums
In 1874, a great fire in downtown Natick demolished 18 business blocks, two shoe factories, the Town Hall, Natick's only fire engine house and the Congregational Church, as well as many private homes. Though no lives were lost, the loss of property was greater in proportion to the town's wealth than the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. In 1875, Natick's new Central Fire Station was completed on Summer Street and opened with grand ceremony on the same city block where the great fire was first discovered. The Central Fire Station is now the home of a private non-profit community performing arts center called The Center for Arts in Natick (TCAN).
The Boston Marathon miles 8 thru 12 go through Natick on Patriots Day every year, and thousands of residents line the road to watch.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 16.0 square miles (41.6 km 2 ), of which, 15.1 square miles (39.1 km 2 ) of it is land and 1.0 square miles (2.5 km 2 ) of it is water. The total area is 6.04% water, including bodies of water Lake Cochituate and Dug Pond.
Communities & Neighborhoods
Natick Center
Natick Center is located at the intersection of Central Street and Main Street and serves as the Civic hub of the town.
Many public services and public land use are located downtown. Municipal buildings like the Natick Town Hall, Natick Fire Department, Natick Police Department and Morse Institute Library are located here along East Central Street. Also located directly downtown is the Natick Town Common where many town events are held. An MBTA Commuter Rail station links Natick with Boston. Along with the public buildings and services are churches, several banks and small businesses, like insurance companies, funeral homes, and a small number of retail specialty stores, pizza and ice cream shops. In the 1990's new downtown construction of a town hall, fire/police station, and enlargement to the library gave the downtown a fresh new look, and town officials changed the name of the area from "downtown" to "Natick Center".
South Natick
South Natick is where the Native American settlers first arrived and began the town on the shores of the Charles River. The section of town is known for its scenic nature. Housing developers like Martin Cerel, lived in South Natick, and thus refrained from building major tract neighborhoods in this part of town. A common mistake is the belief that South Natick is its own separate town or village. Neither of these are true and South Natick is just a section of the town, governed by the same government of The Town of Natick. A main reason for this is due to the street signage like one located in Wellesley along Route 16 which has the destination as So. Natick. Due to this and many other reasons, it is common to see mail addressed to South Natick, Massachusetts rather than just Natick, Massachustts.
North Natick
North Natick is located at the intersections of North Main Street and Worcester Road. It is a primarily residential area but there is a retail strip mall at the intersection of N. Main and Worcester known as 27/9 which has business and stores like Staples, Super Stop & Shop, Building 19, Panera Bread, The UPS Store, Hair Cuts Ltd. and more.
North Natick is another major community of Natick and it is also common to see mail addressed to North Natick, Massachusetts although unlike South Natick, North Natick is not misunderstood as a separate town
East Natick
East Natick is a community of Natick that is located along Oak Street and at the intersection of Oak and Worcester Road. It also borders Wellesley as well as Wayland.
West Natick
West Natick is a large section of Natick that borders the town of Framingham. The Natick Mall, now called Nouvelle, as well as the strip mall called Sherwood Plaza with it's office Industrial Park behind, are considered to be the commercial hub of West Natick. In addition to it's retail development, post World War II housing developments like Westfield, Pelham, and Sherwood as well as the National Guard depot and a golf course on Speen St brought many people to this part of town.
There are many businesses in West Natick along West Central Street as well as another MBTA Commuter Rail station in addition to the one downtown. The area in West Natick, along Route 135 is the most heavily populated section of town, with its thousands of condominiums and apartments clustered across the street from the train station.
===Neighborhoods=== Natick is a small town, and thus, the various sections of tract development homes are considered neighborhoods. These were houses built by several contractors in the late 1940's until the late 1950's. Listed here, are a few of these sections.
Sherwood
One of the earliest post World War II developments in West Natick, the homes are colonial in style, with street names reminiscent of the Robin Hood legend. The homes were built in 1948 and the neighborhood remains poplular due to the fact that there's no thru traffic, and most of the houses have been enlarged with additions.
Walnut Hill
Walnut Hill is a neighborhood located north of downtown. It is known for the private boarding school, Walnut Hill School as well as many Victorian era houses lining Walnut and Bacon Streets.
Wethersfield
The Wethersfield area of Natick is a residential neighborhood North of Route 9. It is a typical 1950's development of Campanelli ranch houses, and remains popular with first time home-buyers, due to the relatively inexpensive nature of slab style houses.
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