More than a century after Edwin, Stanley, and Emily Hildreth donated land for Harvard’s elementary school, the School Committee voted to name the school that now stands on that land for the Hildreth family. Harvard Elementary School will become Hildreth Elementary School—but will remain HES.
Last September, Dr. Jeffrey Harris renewed a request he has championed in the past, asking the School Committee to consider the name change to honor the Hildreth family’s generosity. In November, Superintendent Thomas Jefferson reported back to the committee, suggesting a plaque at the school, but not advocating a name change. Committee member Piali De liked the idea of a connection to the town’s history and volunteered to develop a recommendation on the matter.
At the committee’s Jan. 25 meeting, Harvard Historical Society board member Jared Wollaston listed some of the Hildreth family’s many contributions to the town, crediting Dianne Newton with assembling the information. Wollaston strongly supported the name change, but he specified that he was speaking for himself, not as a representative of any group.
In 1904, brothers Edwin A. and Stanley B. Hildreth, with their sister Emily E. Hildreth, purchased six acres of land across from the old Bromfield School (now the Harvard Public Library). The Hildreths donated the land to the town for a grammar school, which opened in 1905. “We would not have a town center campus for all our children if not for the Hildreth family,” Wollaston stated.
According to Wollaston, the Hildreths also paid half the costs of building the first school, which remained in use until 1990 and was long known as “the brown building” because of its color. The brick building that replaced it was never formally named, although it was generally referred to as Harvard Elementary School, or HES.
In discussing the process for changing the name, School Committee members agreed that the matter did fall under their authority. Committee member Stu Sklar suggested that they might submit the issue to a vote at Town Meeting, to get broader backing for the change. However, the committee eventually approved the name change by a unanimous vote.
Supporting the name change, Harris pointed out the importance of past generosity in creating the town’s attractive center. “If not for the building of the school,” he noted, “there would probably be a gas station there!” He expressed the hope that the name change would make both students and adults more conscious of the town’s history and the many donations of land and money that have made the town what it is today.
Among the Hildreth family’s other contributions to Harvard are the watering trough on Ayer Road by the Town Hall, along with two acres of land to preserve the overlook there. In 1901, the Hildreths donated the water supply for the town center, including two reservoirs beside Bolton Road and the pipes to carry water from those reservoirs to Ayer Road and to the Common. In the following years, the family donated money for fire hydrants to protect buildings in the town center. And in 1936, Stanley Hildreth gave the town 17 acres near the reservoirs to protect the water supply and also provided all the piping and connections for the houses and churches around the Common. The Hildreths also donated funds for the upkeep of the Common and for planting shade trees there.