"Envisioning a walkable village center in the heart of Boxborough." That's how the town's own Economic Development Committee describes Village for a Day, the pop-up gathering of local businesses returning to town on Saturday, October 3rd. For one afternoon, local businesses gather in one place, and the town gets to see what a walkable village center could feel like in practice.
This is the event's second year. Last October 18, roughly twenty small businesses from Boxborough and the surrounding towns set up for an afternoon in what organizers called the village center, run jointly by the Economic Development Committee and the town's Office of Land Use and Permitting. This year keeps the same shape: 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., with October 17 held as a rain date. Businesses that want a spot fill out a form and set up a booth, so neighbors can meet several local businesses in a single afternoon.
The town's own description calls it a day to celebrate the community, and a second year gives the idea a chance to build on the first.
Where Boxborough Gathers the Rest of the Year
Through the rest of the year, one of the town's gathering spots is Craft Food Halls, at 500 Beaver Brook Road inside the Boxborough Business Park. Under one roof, the hall houses three separate food concepts, Project X Pizza, Vessel and Sousviderie, alongside a self-pour beer and wine wall, live music and a room with pool, ping pong and foosball. The venue describes itself as having room for weekday lunches, after-work gatherings, families and groups.
Village for a Day gathers local businesses in one spot for an afternoon, which is the picture the Economic Development Committee has in mind when it talks about a walkable village center.
Steele Farm, Where the Town Has Long Gathered
Boxborough also has a long-standing gathering spot in Steele Farm, on Middle Road, whose roots trace back to 1775, eight years before the town was incorporated in 1783. The 36-acre property, part of a larger 110-acre conservation area with the adjacent Beaver Brook Meadow, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Its farmhouse is an 18th-century post-and-beam structure, and the barn on the property was rebuilt after the hurricane of 1958 destroyed the original, its foundation incorporating gravestones from the North Cemetery that the same storm had damaged. An ice house, donated by the West family in 1997, was moved to the site the following year by volunteers from the Boxborough Historical Society.
The farm's roughly 3.5 miles of trails wind through hay fields still mowed to keep them open for bobolinks, a grassland bird that nests there each spring and summer, past two ponds and the remnants of an apple orchard that Burpee Clark Steele planted on the western hillside after buying the property in 1908. In winter, the same hills draw families for sledding, and the farm hosts the town's annual Winterfest bonfire. The Steele Farm Advisory Committee manages the farm portion of the site.
Steele Farm carries more than two centuries of local history, and Village for a Day, six days away and in its second year, adds another reason to get out and see the town in October.
A Saturday That Uses Both
If you're mapping out October 3rd, the order that makes sense is to start at Village for a Day while the booths are still fresh, then slow the afternoon down at Steele Farm.
Arrive between 11:30 a.m. and early afternoon to visit the local businesses before the 4 p.m. close. From there, the farmhouse lot off Middle Road gives you off-road parking and a direct walk into the pasture, or you can start from the Hill Road access point near Route 111 and cross the hay field to the marked Nature Trail sign at the wood line. Either way, the loop covers about 3.5 miles at an easy grade, roughly an hour and fifteen minutes if you're not stopping to look for bobolinks or the old apple trees. Footbridges and boardwalks on the property can be slippery when wet, so if a shower pushes the pop-up event to its October 17 rain date, treat the same weather as a reason to check trail conditions before you go.
For dinner afterward, Craft Food Halls keeps its dining room open Wednesday through Saturday until 8 p.m., with the self-pour wall and games running past that for anyone sticking around for a drink.
What a Second Year Adds
Roughly twenty businesses filled last October's afternoon, and a second year lets the Economic Development Committee build on that first turnout. Steele Farm already brings neighbors together across the seasons, and on October 3rd the town's businesses join it for a day in the village center.
If Village for a Day has you thinking about what Boxborough's village center could become, Ann Shaw Homes is happy to talk it over. Reach out anytime.
