Chester Mass History Museum

Chester Mass History Museum Chester Massachusetts History Museum operated by the Chester Historical Society. Located in the former Methodist Church on Route 20 in downtown Chester.

Open House today: Sunday, August 3011am - 3pm
08/30/2026

Open House today: Sunday, August 30
11am - 3pm

Today in Chester history: August 30, 1943Brothers Louis and Jesse Johnson had not seen each other since December of 1941...
08/30/2026

Today in Chester history: August 30, 1943

Brothers Louis and Jesse Johnson had not seen each other since December of 1941 when they had each enlisted, Louis in the Navy and Jesse in the Army Air Corps. Through letters from home they learned they were both in North Africa and managed to meet up with each other, some 4,000 miles from their home in Chester.

They had quite the military pedigree. They were the 4th great grandsons of Jesse Johnson, an original settler of Chester and a veteran of the Revolutionary War. They were also 3rd great grandsons of Elijah Churchill who moved to Chester after the Revolutionary War and was the recipient of the very first Purple Heart awarded.

Open House today: Sunday August 2311am - 3pm
08/23/2026

Open House today: Sunday August 23
11am - 3pm

Open House today: 11am - 3pm
08/16/2026

Open House today: 11am - 3pm

Phyllis Anne (Salvini) DonovanJuly 28, 1932 - July 25, 2026Phyllis was the daughter of Alfred and Margaret (Sturgeon), h...
08/14/2026

Phyllis Anne (Salvini) Donovan

July 28, 1932 - July 25, 2026

Phyllis was the daughter of Alfred and Margaret (Sturgeon), her father worked for the Hamilton Emery Company and later spent 30 years as a conductor on the Boston and Albany Railroad. The family lived on Prospect Street.

Both of her parents were first generation Americans, her paternal grandfather emigrating in 1890 from an Italian speaking area of Austria and her maternal grandfather emigrating in 1881 from French-speaking Quebec.

Phyllis attended Chester Grammar School and Chester High School, graduating in 1950. She started her writing career early as a regular contributor of both prose and poetry to the Springfield Daily Junior News while she was still in grammar school.

At Chester High School she was Editor-in-Chief of both the newspaper, “Granite Chips”, and the yearbook, “Blue Print”, and was also a cheerleader. She was named Valedictorian of the Class of 1950.

The Salvini family attended St. John’s Church in Chester and during her high school years Phyllis was the organist.

She received a degree in English from UMass in 1954 and it was there that she met her future husband Francis Donovan. They were married October 8, 1954 in St. John’s Church just as Francis started basic training in the US Army.

After his discharge they settled in Meriden Connecticut where Phyllis started a long career with the Meriden Record-Journal. Francis died in 2019 after 64 years of marriage.

While Phyllis spent most of her life in Connecticut she was in Chester frequently and was active with the Chester Historical Society and Chester Foundation. She compiled “A History of Chester Massachusetts” which was published in 2008 by the historical society.

Phyllis is buried in St. Thomas Cemetery in Huntington with her husband Francis and parents and grandparents.

Open House: 8/9 11am-3pm
08/09/2026

Open House: 8/9 11am-3pm

Today in Chester history: August 8, 1873 (Springfield Republican)The Good Templars were a fraternal organization dedicat...
08/08/2026

Today in Chester history: August 8, 1873 (Springfield Republican)

The Good Templars were a fraternal organization dedicated to temperance, the movement against alcohol. They took their name from the Knights Templar because they felt they were on a crusade against alcohol.

One uncommon aspect for a fraternal organization during this time period was that the Good Templars admitted women on an equal basis and they could hold any position within the lodge.

The abbreviations for the officers stand for Worthy Chief Templar, Worthy Vice Templar, Worthy Secretary, Worthy Financial Secretary, Worthy Treasurer, Worthy Marshall, Worthy Chaplain, Worthy Outside Guard, Worthy Inside Guard. They copied the organization of a Masonic lodge with degrees, secret passwords, an anteroom controlled by the Worthy Outside Guard and a lodge room controlled by the Worthy Inside Guard.

You can find many of the names of the officers on the 1874 map of Littleville and Dayville included with this post. We don’t know where they met in Littleville but it would have to be some place where they could have both a dedicated anteroom and lodge room.

Wherever they met is now under the waters of the Littleville Reservoir, though the spirit of the village lives on in the Littleville Fair which runs through Sunday (August 9) at 15 Kinnebrook Road.

The Littleville Fair will hold their 104th annual fair this coming weekend, August 7, 8 and 9 at the fairgrounds on Kinn...
08/01/2026

The Littleville Fair will hold their 104th annual fair this coming weekend, August 7, 8 and 9 at the fairgrounds on Kinnebrook Road in the Dayville section of Chester.

The fair started in the early 1920’s in and around the Littleville Chapel in the village of Littleville. In 1926 they purchased property on Kinnebrook Road in Dayville and have been holding the fair there ever since.

First Open House is tomorrow Sunday August 2 from 11am to 3pm, and then every Sunday through the end of September.New ex...
08/01/2026

First Open House is tomorrow Sunday August 2 from 11am to 3pm, and then every Sunday through the end of September.
New exhibits were added over the winter so stop in and check them out!

Today in Chester history: July 27, 1919The Chester Granite Polishing Works company has a 60-foot log delivered for use a...
07/27/2026

Today in Chester history: July 27, 1919

The Chester Granite Polishing Works company has a 60-foot log delivered for use as a derrick at their polishing works in Chester. (Berkshire Eagle)

The Chester Granite Polishing Works company had been formed in 1910 to lease the cutting and polishing operation of the Hudson and Chester Granite Company, who had decided to concentrate on their Becket granite quarry. This new company was formed by a group of local Finns and was operated on the cooperative model with the workers also being shareholders of the company.

For their first 11 years of operation they bought their granite from quarries in Becket and Otis but in 1921 they purchased the former Blue Chester Quarry in Otis so they could control the entire process from quarrying to cutting to polishing. By 1926 they had 96 employees, all of whom were also shareholders.

In 1931 a fire destroyed their cutting and polishing operation in Chester and while they were able to reopen, the fire combined with reduced business during the Great Depression led to bankruptcy in 1933. The assets were purchased by the former president, William Tuomisto, who would change the name to the Chester Granite Company and continue operating for a number of years.

Address

221 Route 20
Chester, MA
01011

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