Sudbury, Massachusetts

Sudbury is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 16,841 at the 2000 census, with the sixth highest per capita income in the state.

History
Sudbury was first settled in 1638 and was officially incorporated in 1639.

Sudbury militia participated in the Battle of Lexington and Concord, in 1775, where Sudbury members sniped on British Red Coats returning to Boston. Sudbury also contributed the most militia during King Philip's War. One main contributor was Ephraim Curtis who put up only victories for the militia of West Sudbury.

One of Sudbury's historic landmarks, the Wayside Inn, has claims to be the country's oldest operating inn, built and run by the Howe family for many generations. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote Tales of a Wayside Inn, a book of poems published in 1863. In the book, the poem The Landlord's Tale was the source of the immortal phrase "listen my children and you shall hear, of the midnight ride of Paul Revere." The property was owned, restored and expanded by  Henry Ford between 1923 and 1940. The expansion included a boys school, the Old Grist Mill, the Martha-Mary Chapel and the Redstone Schoolhouse, reputed to be the school in Sarah Josepha Hale's Wikipedia:nursery rhyme: Wikipedia:Mary Had a Little Lamb:, which was moved from Sterling. However, Giuseppi Cavicchio's refusal to sell his water rights scuttled Henry Ford's plans to build an auto parts factory at the site of Charles O. Parmenter's mill in South Sudbury.

In August 1925, a Sudbury farm was the scene of a riot between local members of the Ku Klux Klan and Irish-American youths from the area. Five people were wounded by gunshots, and the State Police arrested over 100 Klansmen. Massachusetts officials cracked down on the group's meetings thereafter, and the area Klan died out.

Sudbury was considered to become the part of the site for the headquarters of the United Nations, along with parts of Lincoln, Concord and Marlborough. Protests by townspeople and the Knights of Columbus caused the United Nations to choose a different location.

In the post-war period, Sudbury experienced rapid growth in population and industry. Defense contractor Raytheon became a major employer after opening a large research facility in Sudbury in 1958. Another major employer in that period was Sperry Rand. In the 1970s, the town was home to many of the engineers working in the minicomputer revolution at Digital Equipment Corporation in nearby Maynard. Sudbury was also one of the largest carnation-growing towns, with many greenhouse operations.

Residentially, Sudbury's one-acre zoning bylaws helped the town maintain a more rural character through the 1970s and 1980s, when developments of single-family Colonials and large Capes established it as an affluent location. Commercial growth was restricted to the town's main thoroughfare, US Route 20, and significant tracts of open space - including much wetland - were preserved in the northern half of town. As subdivisions of large homes continued to be constructed well into the 1990s, Sudbury became one of the wealthiest towns in Massachusetts.

Of special amusement is the town's Zip Code, 01776, the year the Declaration of Independence was signed.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 24.6 square miles (63.8 km²), of which, 24.4 square miles (63.1 km²) of it is land and 0.3 square miles (0.7 km²) of it (1.06%) is water.

Sudbury is bordered by Wayland on the east; Framingham on the south; Hudson, Maynard, Marlborough, and Stow on the west; Concord on the northeast; and Acton on the north. Sudbury is 20 miles west of Boston, 26 miles east of Worcester, and 194 miles from New York City.

The area of original Town of Sudbury in 1650 included most of the area within the present Towns of Wayland and Maynard and all of the area within the present Town of Sudbury.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 16,841 people, 5,504 households, and 4,749 families residing in the town. The population density was 691.1 people per square mile (266.8/km²). There were 5,590 housing units at an average density of 229.4/sq mi (88.6/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 94.23% White, 0.80% African American, 0.03% Native American, 3.72% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.23% from other races, and 0.96% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.24% of the population.

There were 5,504 households out of which 51.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 78.5% were married couples living together, 6.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 13.7% were non-families. 11.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.02 and the average family size was 3.28.

In the town the population was spread out with 32.5% under the age of 18, 3.2% from 18 to 24, 27.3% from 25 to 44, 27.2% from 45 to 64, and 9.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females there were 95.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.3 males.

The median income for a household in the town is $128,041, and the median income for a family is $149,000. Males had a median income of $98,593 versus $47,500 for females. The per capita income for the town was $53,285. About 2.1% of families and 2.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.9% of those under age 18 and 4.8% of those age 65 or over.

The median home price is $759,405.

Sudbury was ranked in 2005 as the best town in Massachusetts in which to raise a family.

Education
Sudbury students in kindergarten through eighth grade attend Sudbury Public Schools, while high school students attend schools in the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional School District, which was established in 1954, integrating the former Sudbury High School with that of the nearby town of Lincoln, Massachusetts. In June 2002, the towns of Lincoln and Sudbury began a $74 million dollar project to build a new high school near the site of the original building. The shared Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School (LSRHS) is located in Sudbury.

The high school's science program student team won the 2006 National Ocean Sciences Bowl championship, and came in 2nd in 2005. LSRHS has a nationally recognized school newspaper and school yearbook, "The Forum" and "DYAD" respectively.

There are four elementary schools in Sudbury and one middle school. The four elementary schools are:
 * Josiah Haynes Elementary School
 * Israel Loring Elementary School
 * Gen. John Nixon Elementary School
 * Peter Noyes Elementary School

The middle school is:
 * Ephraim Curtis Middle School

Sudbury has two former elementary schools that were converted to other uses:
 * Fairbanks Elementary School is now a community center,
 * Horse Pond Elementary School is now a Massachusetts state police crime laboratory.

Places of worship

 * Church of New Jerusalem
 * Congregation B'nai Torah, Jewish
 * Congregation Beth El of the Sudbury River Valley, Jewish
 * Chabad Center of Sudbury, Jewish
 * First Baptist Church
 * First Parish of Sudbury. Gathered in 1640, and moved to the present site in 1723. The historic meeting house (third on the site) was built in 1797. First Parish became Unitarian in 1837 and is now Unitarian Universalist.
 * Memorial Congregational Church
 * Our Lady of Fatima Parish, Roman Catholic
 * Presbyterian Church in Sudbury
 * Saint Elizabeth's Episcopal Church
 * St. Anselm Parish, Roman Catholic
 * St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church
 * Sudbury United Methodist Church

Notable residents

 * Horace Abbott, iron manufacturer
 * Ralph Adams Cram, architect, resided in Sudbury on Concord Road and built his family their own private chapel which is now owned and operated by St. Elizabeth's Episcopal church
 * Dennis Eckersley, baseball Hall of Famer, lived on Morse Road during and after his years with the Red Sox
 * Chris Evans, actor
 * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, lived in Sudbury during parts of the 1920s and 1930s
 * Mike Gordon, bassist for Phish
 * Bradford A. Navia, M.D., Ph.D. co-discover of the neurological disease called AIDS Dementia Complex @ Memorial Sloan Ketting Cancer Center, Cornell Medical School, 1986.
 * John Nixon, General in the Continental Army during the American Revolution
 * Paula Poundstone, comedienne
 * Ashley Richardson, model
 * Babe Ruth, baseball Hall of Famer. He lived on Dutton Road called Home Plate Farm, formerly known as Elm Farm at the Perry homestead. Even after Ruth was traded to the New York Yankees he still wintered in Sudbury. In a footnote to the Curse of the Bambino, legend has it that Babe Ruth's piano rests at the bottom of Willis Pond in western Sudbury near what was once his home.
 * Fred Smerlas, 5 time NFL Pro Bowler

Boy Scouts of America
Sudbury is one of nine towns in the Liberty District of the Knox Trail Council
 * Cub Scout packs
 * Pack 61
 * Pack 80
 * Boy Scout troops
 * Troop 60
 * Troop 61
 * Troop 63