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The City of Gardner Massachusetts
is an urban/industrial center. The city was settled late and showed a dispersed,
small scale woodworking industry in the 1800's. By the early 19th century,
however, this had become concentrated in a large number of chair manufacturing
shops. Between 1830 and 1870 the expansion had brought in immigrants mostly
from England, Ireland and Canada. Russian Finns, Swedes and Poles joined
them in the 1890's as the chairmaking industry expanded.
The Heywood-Wakefield chair factory
complex was created and expanded between 1870 and 1897 and remained for
the whole of the 19th century a major factor in the city's economy. Mt.
Gardner Seminary, a college for women, was formed in 1884 and the free
public library was created in 1886, but the Gardner Light Infantry, a voluntary
military troop, was formed as early as 1813. In 1896, the evening naturalization
classes established in the city to help immigrants become citizens were
commended by the state.
The Gardner State Colony for the
Insane, built in 1904, was a pioneer in the then innovative dispersal of
patients in cottage residences rather than one huge building, a model that
has since been copied around the country.
Gardner Massachusetts is located
in Located in North Central Massachusetts, bordered by Winchendon and Ashburnham
on the north, Templeton on the west, Westminster on the east, and Hubbardston
on the south. Gardner is 28 miles northwest of Worcester, 59 miles northwest
of Boston. |