Rutland Historical Society

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Rutland Historical Society

A Historical Museum filled with treasures, artifacts and history of Rutland, Massachusetts and its settlers.

08/26/2026

Bigelows by the dozen! Well almost a dozen.
Photographed here are the eleven children of Lewis Bigelow.
How many did you know? How many can you name?

08/25/2026

Vacation Season

Before automobiles people of means would often spend their vacation in a country hotel. For a few days, for a week, or sometimes for the whole season. Extended stays were common.
Newspaper articles listing the guests at the hotels were fairly common as well.
The Prospect and Muschopauge Houses in Rutland Center were popular destinations.
Shortly after this post card was printed the owners of the Muschopauge House would change the name of their hotel to Hotel Bartlett. The name change was due to patrons mistakenly exiting the train at Muschopauge Station instead of Rutland Station which was closer to the hotel.

08/24/2026

North Rutland Chapel

Acting as a venue for larger social gatherings, the North Rutland Chapel played a vital role in the fabric of the village. Weddings, funerals, along with many community meals and fund raising events were held at the chapel.
The accompanying newspaper articles also show a relationship between the villages of North Rutland and the rarely spoken of village of East Hubbardston.
The lower left corner of the map shows the two roads, East County Road (RT68, also known as Worcester Road in the town of Hubbardston) and River Road, that tie the two villages together. It also shows the property of Mrs. M. A. Coding. The Codings (and other Coding family members) lived in Hubbardston and owned the North Rutland Store for many years. Mrs. Coding was very active in North Rutland’s social scene. Coding’s store later became Bigelow’s Red & White.

PHOTOS WANTED!
It is worth noting that there are no known photos of the North Rutland Chapel. Please comment, or contact the Rutland Historical Society with any leads that could result in acquiring such photos.

08/23/2026

Gilbert Nicholls

In July of 1900 Gilbert Nicholls, a nationally accomplished golfer, visits the Muschopauge Golf Links in town. As guest of the Bartlett’s for several days, he played an exhibition match and offered instruction on the sport.
Nichols would go on to five PGA victories in his career, along with second place finishes in the 1904 & 1907 US Open. He finished in the top ten of that tournament eight times. He played to a ninth top ten finish but was then disqualified for a scorecard signing error.

08/22/2026

Aldrich and Outdoor Sports Club Camp Ruins

Tucked away on the shore of White Hall Pond on 30 plus acres of land was one of the most popular camps in town.
Purchased by the alumni of Worcester Academy in 1924 the camp would later be sold and then leased for one year to the Outdoor Sports Club.
The Outdoors Sports Club is a Women’s organization, and like Worcester Academy, is still in existence today.
All that remains of the camp are scattered ruins and the view of the Rutland State Park Beach where additional family owned camps once stood.

08/21/2026

RUTLAND STATE SANATORIUM

As presented by T. C. Murphy in History of the town of Rutland published in 1970

The discovery of the tuberculosis germ was made in Germany by Professor Robert Koch, in 1882. In 1884, Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau founded a Cottage Hospital for tubercular patients at Saranac Lake, New York, and established the Saranac Laboratory in New York City in 1894. He was a pioneer in the treatment of
this disease.
The first State owned and operated Sanatorium in the country, solely for the treatment of this disease, was built on Muschopauge Hill in Rutland. It was officially opened October 10, 1898, situated at an elevation of 1150 feet above sea level on a site of 200 acres.
The first patient was admitted on October 3, 1898. Dr. Walter Mar-cley was appointed as the first Superintendent.
Dr. Trudeau's methods of treatment were adopted at first. This meant drinking great quantities of milk and raw eggs, probably to gain weight to counteract this wasting disease, and to spend all time possible in the fresh air, winter or summer. At this time, the "White Plague," as it was commonly called, was highly contagious and fatal in the majority of cases.
This hospital, as well as other tuberculosis hospitals, spent hours in research, study and experimentation to find a cure for this terrible scourge. It was finally conquered, after many years, to the extent that lengthy hospitalization was no longer necessary, nor did patients have to be in Rutland to be treated, but could be treated as well in Boston or any other city. New drugs and other treatments were discovered. Thoracoplasty was introduced in 1927 which proved very successful in the majority of cases. Since all known active cases of tuberculosis were segregated, there was less spreading of the disease. As hospitalization was shortened and less and less new cases were discovered, it soon became evident that there would be less need for T.B. Hospitals. Their successful study and research had spelled their doom.

08/20/2026

How many of these do you remember from your childhood?

08/19/2026

The Monuments of the Ware River Watershed

The dedication of the West Rutland Monument, located at the corner of RT 122 & 122A, occurred on May 20, 2006. The group that assembled for the occasion included 14 former residents of the village. It is said that many of the former residents had not seen each other in nearly 60 years.
If the ceremony were to be held today, that number would be zero, or nearly zero.
Similar ceremonies were held in Oakham and Barre to commemorate Coldbrook Springs and White Valley respectively. All were villages displaced in the name of water quality protection.
Note Wes Dwelly’s name at the very base of the White Valley monument in recognition of his map used to make the monument.

08/18/2026

Camp Clusters

The shores of Long and White Hall Ponds would combine to rival the forty plus summer camps on their counterparts, both Demond and Turkey Hill Ponds. Most of these camps would be concentrated in clusters, while others were sprinkled along the shores with more privacy, and some of them served as second homes defying the seasonality of most camps.
These clusters that appeared in the 1920s were effectively summer communities for their seasonal inhabitants.
The accompanying Wes Dwelly map shows the two clusters, one on Long Pond, and one on White Hall pond. One known as Fahlstrom’s and then Charter’s Grove, and the other which spanned the Beach area of what is now Rutland State Park Beach.

08/17/2026

Late Train

With train service not arriving in town until 1887, Rutland was at the center of a transportation desert.
The accompanying map from 1855 illustrates just how late we were. At that time not even one town adjacent to Rutland had train service. This certainly helped to seal our faith as a near pristine, healthy, agricultural town.

Address

232 Main Street
Rutland, MA
01543

Telephone

+15088864893

Website

http://www.rutlandmahistoricalsociety.org/

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