Address 10 Blake Street. Style/Form. West and south elevations, camera facing northeast.

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1 FORM B BUILDING MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS Assessor s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number Town Northborough Shrewsbury Place (neighborhood or village) Northborough Center NBO.235 Address Historic Name DEERFOOT CREAMERY Uses: Present Original Restaurant Creamery Date of Construction ca Photograph West and south elevations, camera facing northeast. Source Style/Form 1910 Sanborn map Architect/Builder Not known. Exterior Material: Foundation Concrete Wall/Trim Roof Vinyl siding over concrete Asphalt shingle Outbuildings/Secondary Structures Major Alterations (with dates) Modern siding, cupola. Topographic or Assessor's Map Condition Good Moved X no yes Date Acreage.13 acres Setting Across Blake Street from historic (but altered) 19 th -century commercial buildings; adjacent to the CSX railroad rightof-way. Assessor s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number Shrewsbury NBO.235 Recorded by Bruce Clouette, PAST, Inc., Storrs, CT Organization: Northborough Historical Commission Date (month / year) April 2009 Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form.

2 BUILDING FORM ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION see continuation sheet Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. The building is a single story in height and measures 30 feet by 70 feet in plan, with its long axis running in a north-south direction, parallel to the adjacent CSX railroad tracks. A small louvered cupola is centered on the low-pitched hip roof. Currently, there is an entrance and a large plate-glass window on the south side, with a rear door and two small windows on the north side. Originally, there was a platform at a height convenient for loading railroad cars along the east side, where it joined the platform of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad Company s freight house, which stood immediately to the north. The platform also ran along the north end of the building. A photograph of the adjacent freight house, dated 1927, shows the creamery in the background as a one-story, hip-roofed building very like the current building in form. The Sanborn insurance maps consistently show a one-story building with this footprint from 1910 to 1941, and the Northborough Assessor dates the structure as ca.1900, so there is good reason to assume that the current restaurant was remodeled from the historic creamery. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE see continuation sheet Discuss the history of the building. Explain its associations with local (or state) history. Include uses of the building, and the role(s) the owners/occupants played within the community. For many years in the early 20 th century, this was the location of an important Northborough business, a creamery owned and operated by Deerfoot Farms, headquartered in nearby Southborough. Creameries of this type gathered milk from local dairy farms, stored it under refrigerated conditions, and then shipped it to urban markets in refrigerated railroad cars that typically operated as part of passenger trains. Creameries also had mechanical equipment for separating out cream and butterfat and for churning butter; the Deerfoot Creamery powered its equipment with an electric motor. Having such a creamery in the center of Northborough was undoubtedly a great boon to the town s farmers. Deerfoot Farms was an important dairy wholesaler for the Boston region in the early 20 th century. The business was started in 1847 by Joseph Burnett ( ), a Boston pharmacist and manufacturer of medicines, and continued by his sons, Edward Burnett ( ) and Robert M. Burnett ( ). The Burnetts were celebrated for their scientific farming and pioneering use of mechanical milk-processing equipment, some of which they invented; the family also became known as the founder and major benefactor of St. Mark s School and as hosts to the poet James Russell Lowell. (continued) BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES see continuation sheet Doucette, Paul A. A History of Deerfoot Farms. Westport, CT: National Association of Milk Bottle Collectors, Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture. Sixty-Fourth Annual Report, 1916 (Boston, 1917), p Resident and Business Directory of Westborough, Northborough and Southborough, Massachusetts, Hopkinton, MA: A. E. Foss & Co., 1905 Sanborn Map and Publishing Company. Insurance maps of Northborough, Microfilm, University of Massachusetts Library, Amherst, MA. Sturtevant, E. Lewis. Deerfoot Farm Centrifugal Dairy, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for the Year 1880 (U.S. Department of Agriculture), Winslow, C. E. A. An Outbreak of Tonsillitis or Septic Sore Throat in Eastern Massachusetts and its Relation to an Infected Milk Supply, Journal of Infectious Diseases Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form. Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form.

3 HISTORICAL NARRATIVE (continued): In addition to dairy products, the farm produced sausages; Deerfoot sausages were marketed nationally and are known to have been served at the White House. The company was acquired by the National Dairy Corporation (Sealtest) in the 1930s. By 1941, the company s former Northborough creamery was being used for storage by an adjacent hay and grain business. The Northborough creamery was Deerfoot Farms only satellite operation and supplemented the processing that occurred at its main location in Southborough. The company products were widely respected and commanded a premium price. In 1917, the State Board of Agriculture reported: Deerfoot Farms Dairy, office at 172 Tremont Street, wholesale distributing house at 132 Central Street, Boston, milk received from milk depots at Southborough and Northborough, sells milk of superior quality and cleanliness at a price above that of ordinary market milk, and handles the product of 120 dairy farms, averaging about 10 cows each, located in Southborough, Northborough, Westborough and Holliston. Deerfoot Farms was linked to a major outbreak of septic sore throat in the Boston area in Thousands were infected, and at least 48 died. Fortunately for the reputation of Northborough farmers, it was conclusively shown that no milk from the company s Northborough creamery was involved. Deerfoot Farms began pasteurizing all its milk shortly thereafter, and the company appears to have suffered no long-term repercussions from the incident. Continuation sheet 1

4 Deerfoot Farms advertisement in the 1905 directory, soliciting the business of local dairy farmers. Continuation sheet 2

5 Photograph, dated 1927, showing the Northborough freight house on the right and the creamery building (arrow) on the left (Bob s Photos, Wallingford, KY). Continuation sheet 3

6 South and east elevations, camera facing northwest. Continuation sheet 4

7 North and east elevations, camera facing southeast. Continuation sheet 5