Fitchburg Historical Society

Anyone can be a member of the Fitchburg Historical Society. We have a Research Library which is open to the public and includes books, documents, photos, and maps related to the history of Fitchburg from the 1700s to the present. People locally and from all over the country contact us for help with their family genealogies, old homes or historical issues about the City. We conduct programs for the public and students all year long. One of our most popular programs is the Historic House Tour, on the first Saturday of December. This affordable fundraiser features a roster of 10-12 historic properties each year, decorated for the holidays and welcoming visitors. The tour is self-guided and provides the opportunity to rest and refresh at a free tea room as well. We also do a lot of programs with school children, providing teachers with "Traveling Trunks" for learning about the Civil War and the Revolutionary War periods, and welcoming field trip visits. Our book and gift store offers Fitchburg-themed history books and gift items.

The Fitchburg Historical Society's mission is to collect, preserve, interpret and make accessible the history of Fitchburg. To do that we collect photos, documents, books and objects that tell about the history of Fitchburg. We have put more than 13,000 items into our computerized database which is available on our web site. Our volunteers have a lot of fun and learn something about old-time Fitchburg too. The Fitchburg Historical Society was founded in 1892 by citizens who pledged to encourage a love of research and collect and preserve any materials that would fulfill that. In 1912 our beautiful building was designed by renowned architects H.M. Francis and Sons to be the Society headquarters on Grove Street. Since then the Society has acquired more than 200,000 items related to the history of Fitchburg. Volunteers at the Society have input data of more than 13000 photos, documents, paintings, and artifacts in the computerized program, with more added every day. After purchasing a beautiful historic building on Main Street (also designed by H.M. Francis), we renovated it and made it accessible. It now functions as our headquarters, research library, and exhibition hall. There are two free parking lots (accessed from Central Street) and an accessible entrance. Exhibitions change approximately 5 times per year, and we offer many free educational programs about local and national history that are open to the public.