The April 19, 1900 Committee Urges Town Purchase of the Middlesex Property

At a town meeting on June 21, 1899, a twenty-one member committee was appointed “to arrange for the proper observance of the 19th of April 1900.” Issued by the committee prior to March 3, 1900, this partial report recommends that the upcoming one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary be marked not only by public ceremony but also by the establishment of “some permanent memorial” of the Concord Fight. Toward this end, four civically-motivated members of the committee—Stedman Buttrick, Edward Waldo Emerson, Richard F. Barrett, and Prescott Keyes—had purchased the Middlesex Hotel—“so long an unsightly object in our public square”—for $7,500 and offered it to the Town of Concord for the same price. The committee suggested that the property be used “for the site of a memorial hall, or a municipal office building, or for other similar municipal purposes, and in the meantime … as a public park.” At town meeting on March 3rd, Concord voted to raise and appropriate $6,650 for the purpose.