Phillipston, Massachusetts

Phillipston Center Historic District encompasses the historic village center of Phillipston, Massachusetts. The town was first settled in 1751 on land grants made in the 1730s, and was incorporated as a separate town in the 1770s. The surviving village center not far from the location of the first settlement, eventually came to include a tavern. After incorporation, the center developed around what is now the junction of the Baldwinville, Petersham, and Templeton Roads, although this took time, possibly because of difficulties associated with the American Revolutionary War. As a result, the district has relatively few properties that date to the 18th century. All of these are modest vernacular residential structures. The town grew only modestly until 1830, after which time its population declined, not reaching the same level until 1980, 150 years later. As a result of the lack of growth, most of the properties in the district are Federal and Greek Revival in character. Many of the institutional buildings in the center date to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.The town common is an irregularly shaped trapezoid, which is mostly grassy, with lines of mature trees at its fringes. There are no buildings on the common itself, with residential and civic buildings lining the roadways that define its boundaries. It is anchored on the north by the Congregational Church, built in 1786 and altered and given Greek Revival styling in 1837, and the south by the town hall, built in 1891 with Victorian Gothic styling. Just east of the church is the town library, formerly a district school; built in the 1830s, it is distinctive for its four-column Greek Revival temple front.

The Searles Hill Cemetery is a historic cemetery near the junction of Searles Hill Road and Old Queen Lake Road in Phillipston, Massachusetts. Established in 1777 on land donated by an early settler for the purpose in 1759, it is the town's oldest cemetery. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 15, 2011.

Elliott Laurel is a 33-acre (13 ha) open space preserve located in Phillipston, Massachusetts. The property, notable for its extensive stands of mountain laurel, is managed by the land conservation non-profit organization The Trustees of Reservations. Elliott Laurel also contains woodlands, ledges, boulders, and a hayfield.

The Burnshirt River is a 12.9-mile-long (20.8 km) stream in Worcester County, Massachusetts. It is a tributary of the Ware River, draining ultimately into the Connecticut River and thence the Long Island Sound. The river rises about one mile southwest of Templeton, Massachusetts at an elevation of 653 feet (199 m) above sea level. From there it flows through forest and marshes south to Williamsville, then southeast to join the Ware River about two miles east of Barre. It is stocked with trout for fishing. For much of its length, the river is paralleled by the former Ware River Railroad, now the Ware River Rail Trail.

The Templeton Developmental Center was a state-run facility for mentally disabled people located in Templeton, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Founded as the Templeton Farm Colony in 1899 through the efforts of Walter E. Fernald, superintendent of what is now called the Fernald School in Waltham, Massachusetts, it was considered an innovative and progressive facility for managing the state's developmentally disabled population at the time. The large facility was closed in 2015, with some intermediate care facilities remaining open on the campus. The property and some of the buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.

Harvard Forest is an ecological research area of 3,000 acres (12 km2) owned and managed by Harvard University and located in Petersham, Massachusetts. The property, in operation since 1907, includes one of North America's oldest managed forests, educational and research facilities, a museum, and recreation trails. Harvard Forest is open to the public.

The District No. 4 School, also known as the First East School or Ledgeville School, is an historic school building at 191 East Road in Petersham, Massachusetts. Built in 1846, it is one of the town's older surviving district school buildings, and now serves as a local community hall. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.

The District No. 5 School is an historic school building and local history museum at 311 East Road in Petersham, Massachusetts. It is one of two relatively unmodified one-room schoolhouses in the town that were built in 1849. It is presently managed by the local historical society as a local history museum. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.

The Templeton Common Historic District encompasses the historic town center of Templeton, Massachusetts. Laid out in the 1750s, the area has been the focus of the town's civic and economic affairs since, and includes its finest assortment of 18th and early 19th-century architecture. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The district was in 2010 named as one of the 1,000 places to visit in Massachusetts by the Great Places in Massachusetts Commission.

Templeton is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 8,149 at the 2020 census. The town comprises four main villages: Templeton Center, East Templeton, Baldwinville, and Otter River.

North Common Meadow is a 25-acre (10 ha) open space preserve in the town of Petersham, Massachusetts. The property, part of a larger, contiguous area of protected open space including Harvard Forest and The Trustees of Reservations' Brooks Woodland Preserve, is maintained as grassland in keeping with the town's rural character. The preserve, acquired in 1975 by the land conservation non-profit organization The Trustees of Reservations, is suitable for hiking, horseback riding, picnicking, and cross country skiing; it is also maintained as habitat for ground nesting birds such as the bobolink, red-winged blackbird, and eastern meadowlark. Access to North Common Meadow is located off Massachusetts Route 32 and East Street in Petersham center.

The Brooks Woodland Preserve is a 558-acre (226 ha) open space preserve located in Petersham, Massachusetts. The property, named after industrialist and diplomat James Wilson Brooks, is managed by the land conservation non-profit organization The Trustees of Reservations and offers 13 miles (21 km) of trails and primitive woods roads available for hiking, horseback riding, and cross country skiing. Second growth forest, overgrown farm fields, granite ledges, historic stone walls, creeks, and rolling hills characterize the preserve. The property is divided into three contiguous parcels, the Roaring Brook Tract, Swift River Tract, and Connor's Pond Tract. Trailheads are located off Massachusetts Route 32, East Street, Oliver Street and Quaker Drive in Petersham. A network of trails runs between the tracts and abutting conservation land. Moccasin Brook and the East Branch of the Swift River pass through the center of the preserve.