Have you ever wondered how our forefathers powered industrial expansion in rural New England?
We have few landmarks that tell the story, but Leverett is lucky to have one such beloved icon. With your help we can let it tell us its secrets, triumphs, and disappointments, and how it can be a bellwether for the future.
With the donation of a nearly three-hundred-year-old sawmill property and the land surrounding it, Friends of the North Leverett Sawmill has been formed for charitable purposes to rehabilitate this historic mill built in the 1760s and turn it into a living history and technology museum.
The goal is to create a heritage park that weaves along the Sawmill River and includes archeological ruins and mill structures. Once the site has been rehabilitated and the park has been completed, the building and the trail will allow visitors to explore and be educated about eighteenth to twenty-first century industrial New England.
Throughout America, people are losing important barometers of their past. We are lucky to have a community that treasures and wants to understand and document our past: in a recent survey about half of Leverett households wished to save our historic buildings. We decided to try to realize their desires by starting with the most iconic, the Sawmill at the junction of North Leverett and Cave Hill roads along the meandering Sawmill River.
Program with a CPA grant executed by the Leverett Historical Society and the Leverett Historical Commission. From a series of programs about Leverett’s industrial history.
I think the sawmill should be preserved indefinitely, as it is unique, and together with the Baptist Church properties gives a special flavor to North Leverett center. If it were torn down or collapsed, the character of the village would be lost forever.”
— Quote from the Historic Assets Survey recorded between 11/29/2017 and 4/3/2018
With your help, we can build a stronger sense of community through walking the ruins and enjoying the terrain that tells part of Leverett’s story
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