1930 marked the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Tercentenary was expected to be a major cultural event in Massachusetts, so in 1928, a special commission was created to “consider and study the question of the proper celebration of the three hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.”
The Massachusetts Bay Colony Tercentenary Commission agreed that the best way to promote the Tercentenary was to encourage cities and towns to put on their own celebrations—from parades to pageants. They also opted to publish a book, develop an historical motion picture, and create murals in the State House to commemorate the founders of the colony.
Special interest was taken to honor the “colonial developments” at Lexington and Concord, “that led to separation from the Mother Country.” The commission began exploring the preservation of the old road between Lexington and Concord which now makes up the Battle Road Trail through Minute Man National Historical Park. The sites of the fight at Elm Brook Hill (formerly known as the “Bloody Angle”), Paul Revere’s capture, the Hartwell Tavern and Hartwell House, and Bloody Bluff were all identified as historic locations that justified the purchase and preservation of the western end of the road.
However, one of the most unique—and lasting—initiatives of the Commission was a push to create roadside markers at historic sites throughout the Commonwealth. Automobiles had become increasingly commonplace in the United States. By 1929, an estimated 60% of American families owned a car. The Commission estimated that two million people had motor toured through New England in 1928, and as many as ten million motor tourists could be expected during the Tercentenary.
In anticipation of this lucrative influx of tourists, the Commission ordered that, “every spot of historical significance, should be properly inscribed.” With $100,000 approved by the legislature, the Massachusetts Department of Public Works was authorized to create and install 275 roadside markers across ninety-six municipalities.
These now ubiquitous tablets were made of cast iron, with inscriptions visible to passers-by on both sides. A book that documents the signs and their inscriptions was also published in 1930. In its introduction, Massachusetts Bay Colony Tercentenary Commission Chairman Herbert Parker wrote, “The travelers who shall pass by the many storied ways through the lands of the Puritan occupations in the ancient days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, may now read on tablets set by roadsides or in city streets the tales which the ocean shores, the hills, the fields, the churches, the garrison houses and the old hearthstones, have to tell of the heroism, of the romance and of the tragedies, and of the unfaltering faith, of the ancestors of our Commonwealth.”
Unsurprisingly, many of these markers have fallen into disrepair since they were erected nearly a century ago. Others have been covered up due to inaccurate or objectionable language. But in many cases, these markers have become historical relics in and of themselves—a reminder of the places, events, and the many ways that Massachusetts has elected to remember its history, including that of the American Revolution.