Athol, Massachusetts

A Millers River mill town of two villages, Uptown on the hill and the depot town below, where cotton, shoes and silk gave way to precision tools stamped with Athol's name and sent around the world.

Worcester County · Record checked October 12, 2026

11,945Population2020 census¹

1762Became a townthe plantation of Pequoiag, renamed Athol¹

1,282 ftPratt Hillthe town's high point, near Bearsden Forest¹

316,000Cotton clothyards made at the Athol Cotton Factory in 1837²

3National Registerplaces, all still standing³

Then and now

The same town 139 years apart. Click either map to look closer.

1887

The bird's-eye view

By Lucien Burleigh

Athol drawn as if from the sky in 1887, with street names and old landmarks: the public schools, the Pequoig House, the Exchange Street House, the Summit House, the railroad station and the Baptist, First Congregational, Second Advent and Roman Catholic churches.⁴

See the 1887 print More about this map

2026

Athol today

By KNOWOL

Shaded hills from the Millers River up to Pratt Hill, every street from Main Street to West Royalston Road, with Silver Lake, Tully Lake, the Bates Powers Reservoir, Davenport Pond, Baldwin Hill, Chestnut Hill and Cobb Hill.⁵

See the 2026 print More about this map

The story of Athol

The day the business blocks burned

On December 21, 1890, fire broke out in downtown Athol and took the Masonic block and the Central block, two of the biggest business blocks in town, with everything in them. The loss came to a hundred thousand dollars. Thousands of people lined the streets to watch, and a delegation of Orange's best firemen came over to fight it beside Athol's own. The town's 1899 history calls it the most magnificent fire fighting ever seen in that part of the state. Six firemen were badly hurt. A few days later Alexander McLeod, a shoe shop worker from Quebec and foreman of the Star Hose Company, died of his injuries. He was the first Athol fireman ever lost in the line of duty, and the whole town mourned him.⁶

Two villages, one town

For most of the 1800s Athol was really two villages: the old upper village around the Common on the hill, and the newer one down by the railroad depot and the river mills. They argued about the high school house, and in 1871 about fire steamers, so hotly that one town meeting adjourned for good right after it picked a moderator. The fight over post office names ran even deeper. On July 1, 1876, by order of the postmaster general, Athol became Athol Centre and Athol Depot became plain Athol. By then a brick and concrete walk ran about two miles along School Street to join the two, and a county history guessed no town its size in the state had more sidewalk. Today the hill is called Uptown.⁷⁸⁹¹

Stamped Athol, Mass.

Athol's mills started with whatever the Millers River could turn. The Athol Cotton Factory, built in 1811, made 316,000 yards of cloth in 1837. The railroad came through in December 1847, after a heavy test train broke through a bridge between Royalston and Athol and killed seven people. An 1869 travel book said the town's wealth had trebled since the line opened. Shoes, silk thread, pails and boxes followed. Then came Laroy S. Starrett, whose company was making precision tools by 1881. A 1913 writer said it gave a fellow a queer feeling, in a French or Russian factory town, to be handed a tool marked Athol, Mass., in letters fixed deep in steel. That's how Athol became Tool Town.²¹⁰¹¹¹²¹¹³

Through the years

24 moments from 1735 to today.

1735Five families kindle their first camp fires at the spot later called The Street, on September 17.¹⁴
1741The Old Burying Ground on Mill Brook is set apart for the first settlers.¹⁵
1762The plantation of Pequoiag is incorporated as the town of Athol.¹
1773A meetinghouse goes up at the north end of the Common in the upper village.⁹
1791Water power runs four gristmills, six sawmills, a fulling mill and a trip hammer shop.¹
1808Lysander Spooner is born on a farm in Athol.⁵
1811The Athol Cotton Factory is built.¹
1828The meetinghouse that's now the Old Town Hall is built, after the old one burned.¹⁶
1837The Athol Cotton Factory turns out 316,000 yards of cloth.²
1847A test train breaks through a bridge between Royalston and Athol, killing seven; the first passenger train arrives December 22.¹⁰
1848Gilbert Southard starts making pails near South Athol, and Southardville grows up around his shop.¹⁷
1859The nearly forgotten Old Burying Ground is rededicated with a granite monument on July 4.¹⁵
1868The Athol Machine Company is set up to make Laroy S. Starrett's chopping machine.¹
1869A travel book says Athol's wealth has trebled since the railroad opened.¹¹
1876On July 1 the post offices swap names: Athol becomes Athol Centre and Athol Depot becomes Athol.⁷
1877The 29-acre Silver Lake Cemetery is dedicated on May 10.¹⁵
1881The Athol Silk Company is incorporated, and the L. S. Starrett Company is founded.¹²
1882The Athol Public Library opens with 1,063 books and $300.¹
1890On December 21 fire destroys the Masonic and Central blocks, a $100,000 loss.⁶
1894Lucien Lord builds the Pequoig Hotel, and trolleys start running to Orange.¹⁸
1897A town directory ad tells readers Athol house lots beat the Klondike 50 to 1.¹⁹
1902A Boston church charity runs a summer Farm Colony for 150 city people at South Athol.²⁰
1937The Art Deco center of the high school is built with Public Works Administration help.²¹
1955Athol's population peaks at 12,186.¹

Places to see

Places worth a visit in Athol today.

UptownThe hill southeast of the old factories. Where the first bank went up.
Athol Historical SocietyOld Town Hall, Main and Liberty streets. Museum in the 1828 meetinghouse.Visit their website
Athol Public LibraryMain Street. Opened 1882, rebuilt 1918.Visit their website
L.S. Starrett Tool MuseumAt the company office. Old machine tools, by appointment.
The old depotDowntown, beside the freight main. The railroad station still stands.
Millers RiverThrough downtown. River Rat Race course every April.
Silver LakeSilver Lake Park. Wiffleball nights, April to September.
Fish ParkTown park. Town-owned park for swimming and ball.
Tully LakeNorth of town. Army Corps reservoir built in 1949.
Pratt HillNear Bearsden Forest. The town's high point, 1,282 feet.

On the National Register

All 3 places in Athol on the National Register of Historic Places that still stand today, oldest first, and why each one matters.³

Old Town Hall

Built 1828 · Listed 1987 · 1307 Main St.

Built in 1828 as the town's fourth meetinghouse, after the third burned, it served as town hall from 1847. The town gave it to the Athol Historical Society in 1957, and it now holds the society's museum.¹⁶

Visit their website
Pequoig Hotel

Built 1894 · Listed 1978 · 416 Main St.

Built in 1894 by a leading local developer, it is downtown Athol's largest and most prominent building. After serving as a hotel into the 1950s, it was converted into a senior living facility in 1982.¹⁸
Athol High School

Built 1915 · Listed 2011 · 494 School St.

The old high school grew in stages on a plateau above the Millers River: wings of 1915, then an Art Deco center built in 1937 with Public Works Administration help, a style that's very rare in Athol. It was the high school until 1957 and is now senior housing.²¹

In their words

“It gives a fellow a queer feeling to accost a man in any French, German, Italian or Russian manufacturing town, and on learning that you are from Athol, Mass., have him hold up a tool he may have just been using bearing the name, 'Athol, Mass.,' in letters fixed deep in steel.”

Biographical history of Massachusetts, 1913, on Starrett tools¹³

“Yet at this distant day, it seems rather odd, That they carried their guns to the house of their God.”

A Kendall family rhyme on the first settlers, in Athol, past and present, 1899²²

“Athol is a lively and enterprising town, of three thousand inhabitants, on the western border of Worcester County”

From the Hub to the Hudson, 1869¹¹