Squannacook River Dam

The Groton Leatherboard Company is a historic former factory complex at 6 W. Main Street in West Groton, Massachusetts. It manufactured leatherboard, a bonded leather made by pulping and compressing scrap leather, waste paper and wood pulp, but went out of business. The structure has since been renovated and adapted into senior housing called RiverCourt Residences. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. The factory was built in 1916 on the site of an earlier saw and grist mill, which operated by waterpower from the Squannacook River. The original mill was established by the Tarbell family, a name prominent in Groton history since its settlement. The present complex's access road is flanked by brick houses built by brothers of that family; the Col. Abel Tarbell House is today a bed-and-breakfast, while the Asa Tarbell House is a mixed-use annex of the River Court senior housing facility. In 1862, artist Edmund C. Tarbell was born in the latter.

The Squannacook River is a 16.4-mile-long (26.4 km) river in northern Massachusetts. It is a tributary of the Nashua River and part of the Merrimack River watershed flowing to the Atlantic Ocean. The river rises within West Townsend, Massachusetts, at the juncture of Walker Brook, Locke Brook, and Willard Brook. Walker and Locke Brooks rise within Greenville, New Ipswich, and Mason, New Hampshire, while Willard Brook rises in Ashby, Massachusetts. The Squannacook flows east and southeast through Townsend and West Groton, Massachusetts, and joins the Nashua River in wetlands just east of Woodsville. The river is dammed three times in Townsend and twice in West Groton. Its watershed covers 73 square miles (190 km2), of which 18% is permanently protected. It has been designated an Outstanding Resource Water. There has been a conversion of one of the former mills on the Groton portion of the river. The former E.H. Sampson Leather Board Mill became a senior citizen/ nursing home. Riverside is located next to West Groton Square.

The Shirley Center Historic District encompasses the original historic center of Shirley, Massachusetts. The district is centered on the 1753 town common area, from which five roads (Brown, Center, Horsepond, Parker and Whitney Roads) radiate away. The district includes the buildings that surround the common, as well as some that line these roads. The district includes Shirley's town hall and First Parish Congregational Church.The district features Greek Revival, Georgian, and Federal style architecture. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

WTYN (91.7 FM) is a radio station airing a Christian format licensed to serve Lunenburg, Massachusetts. The station is owned by Horizon Christian Fellowship and is an affiliate of RenewFM. WTYN's programming consists of Christian music and Christian talk and teaching programs such as Turning Point with David Jeremiah, and Truth for Life with Alistair Begg. The allocation of 91.7 to Lunenburg follows a long drawn out dispute involving WAVM, University of Massachusetts Boston (owner of WUMB-FM, whose Stow repeater WUMG started during this time and shares time with WAVM), and Living Proof, Inc (the original applicant of what became WTYN).

Groton School (founded as Groton School for Boys) is a private college-preparatory boarding school located in Groton, Massachusetts. Ranked as one of the top five boarding high schools in the United States in Niche (2021–2022), it is affiliated with the Episcopalian tradition. Groton enrolls about 380 boys and girls, from the eighth through twelfth grades. It has one of the largest endowments of any prep school in the country at $477,000,000 as of June 30, 2021. Tuition, room and board, and required fees in 2014–2015 amounted to $56,700 (with books extra); 38% of the students receive financial aid.The school is a member of the Independent School League. There have been many famous Groton alumni in business and government, including U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. For the 2020–2021 admissions cycle, Groton School reported an acceptance rate of 9%.

Shirley is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is approximately thirty miles west-northwest of Boston. The population was 7,431 at the 2020 census. The town has a well-preserved historic New England town center. It is home to the Massachusetts Correctional Institution – Shirley, a medium-security state prison. (The neighboring maximum-security Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center lies just outside the town limits in the town of Lancaster.) The remains of a Shaker village have been preserved within the grounds of the prison.

The James Parker House is a historic house on Center Road in Shirley, Massachusetts, United States. The oldest portion of this 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame house was built c. 1720, and probably consisted of a typical First Period three bay structure with a large chimney. The house was enlarged to its present five bay width in 1797 by James Parker, a noted local resident. The house stands at the end of an 18th-century road, and is one of the few 18th-century buildings left in Shirley.The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

The Pleasant Street School is a historic school building on Pleasant Street in Ayer, Massachusetts. It is a 2+1⁄2-story Colonial Revival building, with a hip roof pierced by wide gabled dormers with bands of small windows. It was constructed in 1893 to a design by Boston architect Charles E. Parks and is one of the oldest school buildings in the town. It was enlarged in 1906, doubling it in size. It served as a public school until 1984.The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

Ayer ( AIR) is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. Originally part of Groton, it was incorporated February 14, 1871, and became a major commercial railroad junction. The town was home to Camp Stevens, a training camp for Massachusetts volunteers during the American Civil War. Later, Fort Devens was established by the federal government to train New England soldiers for World War I. Fort Devens is a major influence on the area, although it is considerably smaller than when it was first closed in the mid-1990s. The town's population was 8,479 at the 2020 census.

Ayer station is an MBTA Commuter Rail station located off Main Street (Route 2A/111) in the Ayer Main Street Historic District of Ayer, Massachusetts. It serves the Fitchburg Line. There are three tracks through the station, two of which are served by a pair of low-level side platforms, which are not accessible. There is a shelter on the inbound platform. Ayer has been a major railroad interchange since the Fitchburg Railroad opened through South Groton in 1845, followed by the Stony Brook Railroad, Worcester and Nashua Railroad, and Peterborough and Shirley Railroad in 1848. The original depot was replaced with a union station with a large trainshed in 1848. Land speculation and industrial development spurred by the railroad access expanded the tiny farm village into the independent town of Ayer. A new station was constructed in 1896. By 1900, the town was served by five lines all controlled by the Boston and Maine Railroad, with service to Boston, Worcester, and Lowell plus New York, New Hampshire, and Maine. Passenger service ended on all of the lines except the Fitchburg mainline between 1931 and 1961. After a brief disruption in early 1965, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority began subsidizing commuter rail service to Ayer as part of what would become the Fitchburg Line. The station and part of the line was closed in 1975, but reopened in 1980. CSX Transportation also runs freight trains through the town to various destinations. Planning began in 2003 for a parking structure to serve park-and-ride commuters at the station. After delays caused by disagreements with a property owner, the property to ensure a public access route to the station was acquired by the town in June 2016, allowing the parking expansion to proceed. The garage opened in 2019, with improvements to the station entrance constructed in 2020–21.

The Ayer Main Street Historic District encompasses most of the historic central business district of Ayer, Massachusetts. It extends along Main Street between Park and Columbia Streets, and was mostly developed between 1872 and 1898 as a hub of railroad and roadway-based economic activity. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

North Middlesex Regional High School is a public high school located in Townsend, Massachusetts, United States, in Middlesex County. It serves grades 9–12 primarily from Townsend, Pepperell, and Ashby. North Middlesex Regional High School has approximately 800 students. According to the official North Middlesex Regional School District website, North Middlesex is a comprehensive school accredited by the New England Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges. The professional staff includes approximately seventy-five full-time teachers, a library/media coordinator, an academic support center coordinator, four guidance counselors, three school nurses, a school psychologist, approximately fifteen teaching assistants, two assistant principals, one principal, and a resource officer.