Above: SHS is excited to announce the long awaited opening at of the SHAC! (contributed image)
The Southborough Historical Society is announcing an event to add to your list of places to swing by on the busy first Saturday in December.
After years of difficult repair, restoration, and renovation work, SHS is finally opening the doors to its new venue, the “Southborough History & Arts Center” in historic Fayville Hall.
The Grand Opening will feature a Holiday Craft Fair and a “sneak peak” at an upcoming exhibit.
The event will take place on Saturday, December 6th from 11:00 am – 5:00 pm, at 42 Central Street.
If you’ve driven by recently, you may have noticed that the location doesn’t seem quite ready to accept visitors. I reached out to SHS President Michael Weishan. He assured me that the parking lot will be paved, and the new handicap ramp installed, in time for the event. And while they are still finishing up the permitting stage, they were given the green light for this event.
A postcard promoting the event includes the following details:
After four years of dedication and community effort, the wait is over! The Southborough History & Arts Center is about to open! To celebrate, we’ve organized our first annual Holiday Arts and Crafts Fair & Open House: Saturday, December 6th from 11-5 PM.
Browse for that perfect hand-crafted present while enjoying tasty nibbles and tunes of the season. Visit our brand-new makerspace. See our restored assembly room, map room, and library, perfect for hosting your next event. View pieces from our historical collections. And, don’t forget to become a member to receive priority access and discounted pricing for our 2026 arts, history and culture classes, as well as unique one-day events.
Plus, as a special bonus, our Long Gallery is hosting a sneak peek of our upcoming 2026 art exhibit, Four Artists, featuring the amazing works of Southborough residents Sigrid Knemeyer, Joseph Landry, and Lucia & Warren Prosperi.
The postcard also encourages donations to SHS’ annual appeal. You can do that here. And that link introduces a new website focused on the new center. You can browse that here.
As some readers may recall, Fayville Hall was built in 1911 to serve the Fayville Village community. It served multiple purposes overtime, including as a field hospital during the flu pandemic of 1918.
The Town sold the building in 2018 for $21K to Jon Delli Priscoli (owner of the Burnett Estate) who had planned to restore it for use as an antiques shop and fine arts gallery. In 2022, a change of plans was announced. Delli Priscoli donated the property to SHS. (Technically, he sold it for $100.)
SHS planned to use proceeds from selling their copy of the Declaration of Independence to renovate and restore the property. Weishan announced the grand plans for the Southborough History & Arts Center.
On the SHAC website, it explains SHS’ vision for their updated mission and the new center:
To stay relevant, historical organizations like ours need to embrace a much broader spectrum of cultural programming in order to fulfill another of our primary goals — “increasing a sense of community and place among the townsfolk.”
That is not to say we are abandoning historical education or our preservation advocacy—far from it. We are, however, going to bring historical instruction into the 21st century by emphasizing its arts and culture components. If you take a ballroom dance class with us, for instance, you are going to learn about the origins of 20th century jazz. A still-life painting class might focus on the women of the Boston School, like our own Helen Sears. A genealogy class may reveal the hardships of Catholic immigrants moving to places like protestant Southborough. Wreath-making? The home factory system so prevalent in Southborough in the Civil War Era. Everything we do will have an historical aspect, and we believe this unique blending of history and the arts will set us distinctly apart from any other organization in this area.
But it wasn’t long after taking over the new property that SHS discovered that building challenges and water issues were more dire than they realized. The additional fundraising needed and work to be done contributed to project delays.
Now, they are finally near the finish line on on the major renovation project. And thanks to the new SHAC website, you can already take a peak at the improvements.
Under the tab for space rentals, the website shows off newly renovated spaces, including the restored grand staircase:
The website doesn’t yet list its upcoming events. But it does feature a promising list of “instructors”. (And obviously, the postcard makes clear that at least one art exhibit will soon open.) So stay tuned for more news on that front.
