From the early 1800s this the town in Worcester County changed into a hub for the lumber and furnishings industries. Gardner was once identified specifically for its chair making, gaining the nickname, The Chair Town.
The marketplace chief right here was once the Heywood-Wakefield Corporate, which was once integral to the town date for 150 years till shifting out within the Seventies.
The corporate’s repurposed manufacturing unit advanced can nonetheless be evident downtown, generation the informative Gardner Museum is in a library donated through the Heywood nation within the Eighteen Eighties, and has a powerful selection of Nineteenth-century furnishings.
For guests Gardner generally is a actual meals revel in, taking in multi-generation companies like a precious downtown sweet store, a creamery making award-winning cheese, and an orchard rising greater than 30 apple types.
1. Dunn Shape Soil
In 1915 one in every of Gardner’s furnishings makers, John Ainsworth Dunn (1831-1915) bequeathed this reliable quality, simply east of the middle to the city.
Round a unutilized 20-acre pool, Dunn Shape Soil is now controlled through the DCR, and is an actual inactivity hotspot, for mountaineering, fishing, boating, paddling, swimming in summer time and cross-country snowboarding in wintry weather.
The paths air in the course of the logs at the jap a part of the quality, generation the seashore department at the pool’s north shore is complemented through a old fashioned pavilion, picnic tables, grills and a wood dock with benches for you to sit down and wonder on the surroundings.
On the subject of fishing, Dunn Lake is understood for its abundant yellow perch, and brown trout in deeper fields.
2. West Gardner Sq. Historical District
From the mid-Nineteenth century, Gardner’s the town heart steadily made its means westwards, ailing the hill to be nearer to the furnishings generators alongside the streams.
The municipal purposes had been in the end shifted within the Nineteen Twenties to finish that travel. The solemn commercial, civic and industrial structures of that “new” heart can also be favored on the sprawling, 340-acre West Gardner Sq. Historical District.
This has 3 surviving mill complexes, together with the sizable Heywood-Wakefield Corporate Advanced (1863), in addition to an collection of stately industrial blocks just like the Garbose Construction, at 4-12 Delightful Side road, in-built 1883.
West Gardner Sq. continues to be a thriving industrial district with endearing native retail outlets for artisanal sweet, materials, fitness meals, jewellery, clothes, house design, and a lot more.
For a lovely breakfast in a timewarp, create for the Blue Moon Diner, constructed through the Worcester Lunch Automotive Corporate in 1949, with a marble counter, 14 stools and a suite of window cubicles.
3. Gardner Museum
One of the crucial magnificient points of interest up the slope within the Gardner Uptown Historical District is the city’s used library from 1886. In-built reminiscence of Levi Heywood (1800-1882), it is a mix of the Romanesque Revival and Queen Anne kinds.
The library was once to begin with funded through an endowment from the Heywood nation, and was once housed on this development till 1976. Now the Levi Heywood Memorial Library Construction is the house of the Gardner Museum, which sparkles a sunny in town’s historical past.
As you may be expecting, chairs and furnishings are a central anecdote. The museum preserves the reminiscence of this as soon as dominant business, and in its assortment is a massive array of Nineteenth-century Gardner furnishings, together with a chair manufactured through James Comee within the early 1800s.
The collections additionally constitute alternative sides of Gardner’s generation, equivalent to firefighting, silversmithing, stovemaking, effective artwork, and the form of hour recorders through the Simplex Recorder Corporate (est. 1902)
4. Gardner Bicentennial Chair
To honor its furniture-making heritage, Gardner has erected a succession of outsized novelty chairs, the primary of which was once made in 1905 and claimed to be the biggest chair on this planet.
The Heywood-Wakefield Corporate constructed the nearest one in 1922, status greater than 13 ft. This survived for for much longer, however had to be pulled ailing within the Seventies later part a century uncovered to the weather.
Status at the garden in entrance of the Helen Mae Sauter College development (1898), the flow 20-foot Bicentennial Chair went up in 1976 and in brief reclaimed the file of worldwide’s biggest chair. This monument was once restored within the Nineties later a case of rot, and a liked landmark within the the town.
5. Mount Wachusett Crowd School (Theatre on the Mount)
On a verdant rural campus sprinkled with fashionable structure, Mount Wachusett Crowd School is a stone’s throw from Gardner Heart and was once based in 1963.
The campus is widely known for its significance of renewable power, equipped through photovoltaic panels, a biomass plant and air generators.
Some other declare to reputation is the newly renovated Superb Arts Heart, finished in 1976 and containing a 554-capacity auditorium.
That is the seat of Theatre on the Mount, a highly-regarded nation theatre program that has offered greater than 300 performs because the Seventies.
A couple of fresh productions come with The Play games that Is going Fallacious, Leaving to Margaritaville, The Drowsy Chaperone, Don’t Get dressed for Dinner and Iciness Wonderettes.
6. Priscilla Sweet Store
Some other of the veteran companies in downtown Gardner is that this third-generation sweet store at 4 Major St. Priscilla Sweet Store was once based within the the town in 1936 through Charlie “Grampie” Stephano, remembered for introducing Gardner to his signature French Roll, which continues to be one of the vital store’s best-sellers.
This decadent deal with is composed of a comfortable chocolate heart, related to ganache, dipped in milk chocolate and later rolled in items of roasted cashew.
The French Roll is one strong point from a immense length of home made candies, working the gamut from comfortable facilities to caramels, muffins, lotions, chocolate-dipped fruit, nut-filled candies and sumptuous fudge.
7. Smith’s Nation Cheese
Famend for its award-winning Gouda, Cheddar and Havarti, this dairy farm and creamery is inside a ten-minute power of Gardner Heart.
Smith’s Nation Cheese was once based in 1985 through David Smith, who began farming this land in 1969. Since that hour, Smith has change into a regional authority on farmstead cheesemaking and has mentored diverse untouched makers throughout Fresh England.
Smith retired in 2016 and handed the torch to untouched homeowners, however the recipes are the similar, and also you’re welcome to discuss with the rustic store Tuesday via Sunday.
In addition to that scrumptious cheese, there’s a wide array of in the community sourced gourmand meals pieces, in addition to house decor and natural cosmetics and candles.
Should you come on the valid hour you may additionally get to look the cheese being made via viewing home windows, and you’ll wander all the way down to the farm to appreciate the cows and their calves.
8. Puddle Wampanoag Flora and fauna Sanctuary
Within the north of Gardner is an unfrequented department of grounds and pink spruce and balsam fir woodland, controlled through the Massachusetts Audubon Nation. Unfold throughout 377 acres, Puddle Wampanoag has an plethora of natural world.
Savanna sparrows and bobolinks nest within the meadows in the summertime, and at the trails you be on one?s feet a just right probability of sighting deer, bears, moose, coyotes and bobcats.
The sanctuary is straightforward to revel in on bedrock alongside the primary Moosewood Path, which has a few loops, off into the jungle, and around the meadow alive with butterflies and dragonflies in summer time and fall.
9. Brian’s Bowlaway
The sport of candlepin bowling was once invented round the corner in Worcester, simply over 140 years in the past and is basically performed in Fresh England and Canada’s Maritimes.
Should you’re untouched to this transformation, it has a petite, hand held ball and ten lengthy and slim pins. Those are tricky to knock ailing, to the purpose the place some crowd spend their complete lives enjoying candlepin bowling with out ever creating a clash.
There’s a captivating used candlepin alley in Gardner Heart, at Brian’s Bowlaway, which has 14 lanes and has been round because the Nineteen Thirties. Lots of the inside main points month again to that hour, and the owner, Brian, is readily available to trade in pointers and aid you with scoring.
10. Gardner Cinemas
A refreshing trade from company film theaters, Gardner’s multiplex is in the community owned, and is so for its carrier, cleanliness and affordability that it draws moviegoers from miles round.
There are 8 displays right here appearing the original first-run films, ceaselessly at a fragment of the cost of alternative theaters.
Once we made this checklist, all seats had been $6.50 for screenings earlier than 5 pm each age (except for Tuesday), generation Tuesdays had been $6 all age lengthy.
The concession be on one?s feet may be quite priced, with popcorn all the time made unutilized, and a length of alternative treats from sizzling canine to ice cream.
11. Crimson Apple Farm
A slight additional afield, this fourth-generation orchard in Phillipston is solely over ten mins away, give or jerk.
Crimson Apple Farm deals a large length of pick-your-own plants July via October, kicking off with blueberries and ramping as much as a longer apple season, with greater than 30 types to be had from the top of July to the top of October.
During the season the farm holds gala’s to mark every harvest, so there’s a Blueberry Jamboree in July and a Sunflower Pageant in August.
However the largest of those is the Appleseed Nation Truthful over Exertions Occasion weekend, with dozens of distributors, reside tune, a brew and wine barn, a North American sanctioned mess around duel and lots extra.
Apart from those occasions there’s enough quantity to revel in on an ordinary age, whether or not you’re grabbing unutilized apple cider donuts from the rustic bind, or visiting the Brew Barn & Cidery, viewable all while, serving scrumptious BBQ and web hosting reside tune performances nearly day by day.
12. North Central Pathway
First deliberate within the Nineties, a 16-mile motorbike path is steadily taking circumstance between the facilities of Gardner and Winchendon.
On the hour of writing, 11 miles have been finished. In Gardner you’ll decide up the North Central Pathway on the Gardner Veterans Enviornment, at the southeastern shore of Crystal Puddle, taking you north between the lakeshore and Heywood Sanatorium the place there’s a picturesque wellness loop.
Additional north on Inexperienced Side road there’s a parking department and trailhead for an extended category, following an used railroad right-of-way via far off jungles to Worn Gardner Highway at the southeastern Fringe of Winchendon.
Similar through the path starts over again at N Ashburnham Highway, into Winchendon Heart.
13. Monument Soil
Sloping ailing against Cottage Side road, this nation landscape in Gardner Heart is an ideal herbal amphitheater for summer time occasions.
There’s a bandstand on the base of the slope, web hosting weekly concert events mid-June via August.
Those displays in most cases jerk playground on Saturday evenings, and there are performers to fit all tastes, whether or not you’re up for some vintage rock, blues, society, nation or conventional Polish tune.
On occasional Friday nights in summer time households can catch out of doors film displays, starting at nightfall and arranged through the city’s formative years fee.
14. Gardner Municipal Golfing Direction
The native muni additionally occurs to be one of the vital perfect publicly available lessons within the department. Relationship again to 1936, this 18-hole route is in great status all season, and avid gamers of all calibers will to find one thing to revel in.
As a problem, Gardner Municipal Golfing Direction is nice-looking simple, so newbies and prime handicappers can assemble some self assurance right here.
There are 4 units of tees, and a little excess between the flat and viewable entrance 9 and the tighter hillier again 9.
There’s a using length and hanging inexperienced if you wish to heat up or simply discuss with to paintings for your sport, and the eating place on the clubhouse has a second-story deck with a dreamy view of the utmost few holes.
15. Gardner Meals Truck Pageant
One annual tournament that has truly taken off in Gardner is the meals truck pageant, hung on the second one Saturday in July.
This culinary extravaganza has grown to the purpose the place the vans take a seat bumper to bumper for a number of hundred ft, in entrance of Town Corridor on Delightful Side road and later alongside a stretch of Town Corridor Road.
One of the issues to like concerning the pageant is that you simply’ll be supporting petite companies with the probability to pattern a plethora number of cuisines, from Cuban fusion to sizzling canine, Italian side road meals, Korean bites, cheesesteaks, BBQ, sizzling canine, subs, grilled cheese and a slew of candy treats.
The place to stick: Best Hotels in Gardner, Massachusetts (MA)
