The Middlesex Under Demolition

This photograph, taken by Alfred Munroe late in March 1900, shows the half-razed Middlesex Hotel. Digital enhancement of the sign posted just to the right of the door reveals that “C.F. Walcott, Building Mover, Marlboro” had submitted the winning bid for the removal of the building from the site. The large posters advertise out-of-town entertainments. In his House, & Owners or Occupants in Concord, 1885, John Shepard Keyes wrote that in earlier times, the corner occupied by the hotel’s stable was “the favorite bill posting place for the town, & had all the Singers[,] Circuses[,] Caravans & shows stuck on and painted on all over its front. What a list it would be if saved.”