Shirley, Massachusetts

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.

Shirley station is an MBTA Commuter Rail station in Shirley, Massachusetts. It serves the Fitchburg Line, and is located in the village center. The station consists of a short low-level platform with an asphalt patch for passengers to cross the tracks, plus a small wooden shelter on the inbound side. Shirley station is not accessible.

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.

Shirley is a census-designated place (CDP) comprising the main village in the town of Shirley in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,611 at the 2020 census, out of 7,431 in the entire town of Shirley.

The Lovell General Hospital North is a former hospital at Fort Devens. It was named after the first Surgeon General of the United States Army, Joseph Lovell.

The Shirley Village Historic District encompasses the main commercial and industrial village of Shirley, Massachusetts. It is located in the southern part of the town, and grew up around a series of mills that were located along Catacoonamug Brook, and then the railroad, which was built through the area in the 1840s. The district contains 441 properties. It is roughly bounded by Center, Harvard, Leominster and Shaker Roads. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

The Lovell General Hospital South is a former hospital at Fort Devens. It was named after the first Surgeon General of the United States Army, Joseph Lovell.

SPARC is a tokamak under development by Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC). Funding has come from Eni, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Temasek, Equinor, Devonshire Investors, and others. SPARC plans to verify the technology and physics required to build a power plant based on the ARC fusion power plant concept. SPARC is designed to achieve this with margin in excess of breakeven and may be capable of achieving up to 140 MW of fusion power for 10 second bursts despite its relatively compact size. The project is on schedule for operation in 2025 after completing a magnet test in 2021.

New England Studios is a film production facility located in Devens, Massachusetts. Established in 2012, it has quickly become a prominent hub for the film and television industry in the New England region. The studio is known for its modern facilities, versatile soundstages, central location in New England, and on-site rental department.

Massachusetts Correctional Institution – Shirley is a medium-security state prison in Shirley, Massachusetts. The facility also contains a minimum-security section which houses less dangerous prisoners. MCI-Shirley maintains 13 inmate housing units, a 28-bed full-service hospital unit, a 59-bed segregation unit, gym, recreation areas, school, industries, laundry, vocational area, and food services/programs. This facility is under the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Department of Correction. It is located directly to the north of the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center, a maximum-security facility in the town of Lancaster. On January 6, 2020 there was 992 Medium and 269 minimum inmates in general population beds.

Shirley Shaker Village is a historic former Shaker community in Lancaster and Shirley, Massachusetts. Defined as an historic district, it includes about half of the original buildings and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Shirley Shaker Village began in 1793. Hundreds of acres of land was donated by John Warren, Elijah and Ivory Wildes, and Nathan Willard near their properties. At its peak there were 26 buildings; Now there are 13. Within the community there were the North, South and Church families. By 1853 there were 150 believers, or members, and the community continued into the 20th century. The buildings were first made of clapboard and painted yellow and white. After the 1840s and the founding of a brick factory nearby, new buildings were constructed of brick. The brick administration building was styled similarly to one at the Canterbury Shaker Village in New Hampshire. The interiors of the buildings were described by William Dean Howells in 1875 as "the unpapered walls, the scrubbed floors hidden only by rugs and strips of carpeting, and the plain flat finish of the wood-work. Each chamber accommodates two brothers or sisters, and is appointed with two beds, two rocking chairs, two wash stands, and a wood stove with abundance of rugs. There were few tokens of personal taste in the arrangements of the rooms." The Shakers earned income by producing and selling jellies, applesauce, herbs, mops and brooms. When the community dwindled and they were no longer able to be self-supporting, in 1908 "believers" moved to the Hancock Shaker Village.The state purchased the property in 1909 and adapted it for use as an "industrial school" for troubled and delinquent boys. Extensive changes were made to the property, resulting in the movement, alteration, and demolition of buildings. In 1971 the school was closed. New construction was done on site and the total facility was converted into the Massachusetts Correctional Institution complex. A historic district, encompassing the Shaker-related resources on more than 700 acres (280 ha) of land in Shirley and Lancaster, was defined and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The Shirley Historical Society arranges periodic tours of the former Shirley Shaker Village.Several other Shaker village sites operate today as museums. A similar community was founded in nearby Harvard. The meetinghouse of Shirley Shaker Village was moved in 1962 to Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield to replace an identical one which burned and then was razed in 1938.Today, only one "society" remains in the control of the last Shakers, located at Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in New Gloucester, Maine.

Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center (SBCC) is a maximum security prison in Lancaster, Massachusetts (though it receives mail through a post-office box in the town of Shirley). It is operated by the Massachusetts Department of Correction. It is close to the medium-security prison Massachusetts Correctional Institution – Shirley, which is directly to the north over the town border. Souza-Baranowski opened on September 30, 1998. As of January 6, 2020 SBCC housed 672 inmates in general population beds.The prison is named in honor of a corrections officer, James Souza, 29, and an instructor Alfred Baranowski, 54, who were shot in July 1972 by an inmate whose wife had smuggled in handguns into what was then the Norfolk Prison Colony. Souza-Baranowski is the only post-conviction maximum-security state prison in Massachusetts. Massachusetts Correctional Institution – Cedar Junction operates a pre-trial maximum-security "reception and diagnostic center", and the Federal Medical Center, Devens operates at all security levels, including maximum.