Health & Fitness
Meeting House Common Historic District
Northborough currently has one Local Historic District, the “Meeting House Common Historic District”. It was established 41 years ago at the April 1973 Town Meeting. The district is centered around the Unitarian Church and contains properties along Church, Pleasant and Whitney Streets. It includes seven private homes, the Unitarian Church, the colonial section of the Howard Street Cemetery and the Minuteman Muster Site along Pleasant Street.
Local Historic Districts are created through a local bylaw and are a means for protecting historic resources within a town. As stated in Massachusetts General Law, Local Historic Districts have 3 major purposes; 1) to preserve and protect the distinctive characteristics of buildings significant in the history of the Commonwealth and its towns, 2) to maintain and improve the setting of those buildings and 3) to encourage new designs within the district compatible with existing buildings in the district. Local Historic Districts work with property owners so that changes and additions are harmonious with the street view aesthetics of the district.