Benjamin Spaulding marched from Townsend to Cambridge on the alarm of April 19, 1775.            

Located in historic Townsend Harbor, the Conant House is no longer a public house open for business. It is the oldest building in town, originally built as a garrison against possible Indian attacks. It became a tavern in the 1700s. The story has it that it became a “nest of Tories, ” and may have become a garrison for British troops prior to the Revolutionary War. The house is part of Townsend’s Historic District II and on the State Register of Historic places.

Stage coach stop and a possible minuteman site.            

This site may be the oldest structure in Townsend. Main Street was the Boston Post Road and the tavern was a stagecoach stop between Boston and Keene, NH (other stops included the Groton Inn in Groton, and the Fitzwilliam Inn in Fitzwilliam, NH). The Post Road eventually continued on to Albany, NY.  After the Battle of Bunker Hill, George Washington came to Boston to inspect and regroup the Continental troops. On his way to Albany, Washington is reported to have stopped at the Joslin Tavern.  The Inn has two rooms of particular interest: a large front room known as the “Map Room” where a large table in the room was used by stagecoach drivers and others to review maps and share information on road conditions; the Inn had a few private bedrooms, but on the west side of the second floor there was a communal bedroom where single men slept. This “dormitory” room runs from the front to the back of the house.

Purchased by the Historical Society in 1973, this building was home to four generations of the Reed Family. The Society maintains lovely Victorian gardens, an extensive collection of furnishings and clothing and second floor murals by traveling folk artist, Rufus Porter who decorated walls with stenciled images and original paintings.

Another property of the Townsend Historical Society, the Cooperage sits on the Squannacook River. Built as a fulling mill, by Nathan Carleton, the mill was where wool was washed and then spun into goods. It was subsequently purchased in 1865 by Jonas Spaulding who converted the mill into a cooperage. A small canal directs water from the main stream around the dam that once drove the grinding stones in the gristmill.

Located in historic Townsend Harbor, the Conant House is no longer a public house open for business. It is the oldest building in town, originally built as a garrison against possible Indian attacks. It became a tavern in the 1700s. The story has it that it became a “nest of Tories, ” and may have become a garrison for British troops prior to the Revolutionary War. The house is part of Townsend’s Historic District II and on the State Register of Historic places.

This is 1,000-acre park is open from Memorial Day through Labor Day with some of the largest and most private campsites in Massachusetts beneath a canopy of stately pines. There is also a day use area, which includes a five-acre pond with a beach created by the seasonal damming of Park Hill Brook . Miles of hiking trails and a new 4-mile trail connecting Damon Pond of Willard Brook State Forest to Pearl Hill State Park.            

There are 3 miles of riverbank in Townsend, part of the total 296 acres of the State Forest, a second or third growth pine forest. The trails feature two oxbowsand an oxbow pond.

Town Common was created when residents appropriated $300 to grade and level the plot of land. It was used to pasture cattle traveling north to summer pastures or south to railroad depot or local farms.  Within ten years, the Common was in use as a training field for the Townsend Infantry.  In 1878 the wrought iron fence was installed that remains today. In 1838 the Townsend Military Band was organized and by 1875 a bandstand was erected. This bandstand and the common are depicted in the design of the town flag that hangs in the Hall of Flags at the State House.

This was the Second Meetinghouse and was originally located on Meetinghouse Hill outside the town center. The first meetinghouse was constructed in 1732 and was a small rough structure so by 1769 it was too small for the town and in need of repair. By 1771 a site was chosen 16 feet from the old one and designed to be spacious enough for the population. It was used as a meeting place for the town’s local congregations, town meetings, the committee of safety, the town’s military band and as the point of departure for the Continental Soldiers during the Revolutionary War. In 1804 it was move to its present location. When the Methodists purchased the building in 1852, they turned the structure to face south rather than west. The church has hidden slave pews in the rear of the balcony accessed by a narrow stairway to the belfry. This was a practice in many churches of that time: African Americans were expected to attend church but hidden from view of the other parishioners. Such slave sections are of historic value today as many churches, embarrassed by their past, have pretended they didn’t exist by boarding them up or tearing them out.

After the Congregationalists had shared the pulpit of the second meetinghouse for fifty years, they decided to build a church of their own. The building was designed and built by Josiah Sawtelle, and except for the 1931 porch, it remains true to its original plans.