Easing toward change in Pepperell, Massachusetts
Tucked up against the New Hampshire border, the Town of Pepperell, Massachusetts, is quintessential New England, with a 250th birthday celebration in the works for 2025. A mix of fields and old stone walls, foundations from a once prosperous industrial era, a church steeple reaching toward the heavens, and a stately library with wide, welcoming steps — it is all there — even a covered bridge.
Running through its center is the Nashua River, itself part of the 5,010-square-mile Merrimack River watershed and home to wildlife, as well as humans and their layered history.
The town is classically unfussy and quietly busy, founded by settlers expanding outward from Boston into a landscape where the Nashaway Indians had once fished and farmed.
It is a region rich with stories, and soon, residents will be telling their own stories, as Pepperell Heart & Soul Phase Two is launched with leadership from Pepperell Plus, the nonprofit helping to spearhead the Community Heart & Soul® project. Work began in early November 2023 to encourage and train volunteers who will be out in the community meeting with residents, inviting them to talk about their lives in Pepperell, and what they hope to see in the future.
Changing economy
On an August afternoon, the Nashua River shimmers in the heat, its banks lined with trees and bushes. Alongside the meandering waterway is the 12.5-mile-long Nashua River Rail Trail where bicyclists and pedestrians move beneath shady trees on what once was a rail bed.
Downtown, where mills formerly abutted the river, old brick and stone foundations are gradually being covered by vines and branches, as nature reclaims them.
The town grew up on both sides of the river, and a bridge carries Main Street from one side to the other. Uptown, as locals call it, is the old center anchored by the Community Church of Pepperell and the Town Hall, aptly situated at One Main Street. Down a street, the expansive Pepperell Cemetery stretches for acres.
Closer to the river, there is a cluster of enterprises along Main Street — a convenience store/gas station, numerous restaurants, a grocery store, cannabis shop, pharmacy, hair salon and a wide variety of other businesses and professional services. On the east side of the river there is a downtown block with several more businesses, including a restaurant, barber shop, and a package store (the “packie” in Massachusetts lingo). Kemp’s Service Station ties it all together at the head of the intersection, reminiscent of days when a garage was a hub of an American town.
Pepperell’s roots are working class, but demographics are shifting. Demand for housing in the 23-square-mile town has increased as a migration of homebuyers from the more congested Boston, and wealthier towns, such as Wellesley and Lexington, creep into the northern edges of the state.
Its population as of 2022 was 11,625, with residents organized in a town meeting form of government — a direct democracy with strong self-determination, and ample opportunity for opinion expressed at public proceedings.
A strong legacy of farming (crops, dairy and beef) endures, and the town has a local Right-to-Farm ordinance that encourages agriculture and farmland protection. Local parades are led by a battalion of red tractors.
Like many municipalities, property owners of real estate expressly classified as farmland or forest in Pepperell can apply for tax benefits. A more recent trend reflects an increase in the number of equestrian farms in the town.
“Pepperell has always been a blue-collar community,” said Stephen Themelis, a Pepperell business owner and longtime resident. “Shoes, textiles, that’s how this community grew along the river. The economy was based on the mills.”
That was the 19th and 20th centuries, until manufacturing companies, at one time so reliant on the hydropower of New England rivers, pulled up stakes and went south or to other countries.
As the economy shifted, more residents commuted to jobs in nearby cities and Pepperell took on the characteristics of a bedroom community. When the COVID-19 pandemic dictated an abrupt shift to remote work, smaller towns like Pepperell became even more attractive for those seeking less hectic communities. Located just 19 miles from Lowell and 35 miles from Boston, Pepperell joined the go-to list.
Finding a path forward
The town has changed substantially from what Stephen remembers in the 1960s. His parents, second generation immigrants from Greece, had been asked to head west from Lowell and settle in Pepperell to open a “frontier” office for the then Lowell Gas Company.
In those days, rail cars from the mills still ran on tracks alongside the Nashua River.
“As kids, we used to hop trains, go for a little ride,” Stephen said. “Sometimes we would hide in the train trestle and wait for a freight train to drive by.”
A Vietnam War Memorial on the east side of town illustrates the call made on one small Massachusetts town. Sixty-five young men served in that war, from a town that in 1970 had a population of 5,587.
Stephen left for the American South in the 1980s, when it was common for younger New Englanders to seek more lucrative opportunities in other states. A decade later, however, he returned, got married and began cultivating a number of businesses. He also stepped forward to serve the community, sitting on the town’s Planning Board, Board of Health, and on the three-member Select Board. He knows well the stresses and strengths of Pepperell, and its people.
“We’re safe in our community, with lots of open space, and lots of time to reflect on what our journey in life is,” he said. “People are friendly, want to help, and want to work together.”
Jenny Gingras, a cofounder of the nonprofit Pepperell Plus, whose mission is to, “communicate and connect with the community to discover and celebrate ‘what matters most’ in order to build consensus, heal divides, find common ground, and help build a vibrant, thriving and connected community,” was instrumental in securing a Community Heart & Soul Seed Grant.
She formerly served as Pepperell’s Town Planner and witnessed pressure increasing between agricultural and urban interests.
“Those two were clashing and creating a huge divide,” she said. “People did not want to volunteer in the community because of behavior at town meeting and at board meetings.”
Jenny watched a nearby Community Heart & Soul project in Winchendon, another Massachusetts town just to the west and also on the New Hampshire border.
“Pepperell could really use that,” she thought to herself.
Working with the Community Foundation of North Central Massachusetts, Pepperell Plus applied for, and received, a $10,000 Community Heart & Soul Seed Grant and last February, the Pepperell Select Board signed a resolution supporting the project.
Karen Roertgen settled in Pepperell three years ago. She is a board member of Pepperell Plus and also sits on the Pepperell’s Economic Development Advisory Committee. Karen moved east from Talent, Oregon, on the winds of change. At that time, Oregon was under duress from wildfires, and half of Karen’s town had burned to the ground. She knew it was time to leave but where would she land? An online real estate search led her to Pepperell, and sight unseen, she bought a home there.
Being a newcomer, she was initially confused by some of the town dynamics she observed.
“After moving from Oregon, I thought, ‘we’ve got to all work together in this country.’”
The strain she perceived was not political, Jenny stressed. Instead, it arises from concerns about Pepperell’s future and what kind of community it wants to be.
Residents have been financially hit by rising taxes and inflation, and the town recently created a new committee to address sustainable local governance and growth, as well as budgetary concerns.
As the tight real estate market drove home prices up, and interest rates increased, the middle class, especially the younger generation, were squeezed out of home ownership. That, coupled with few rental properties, shrunk the labor pool, and small businesses in town began to suffer.
“A lot of things are in play,” said Jenny. “Pepperell has been a small community for a long time, but is starting to hit that point where change is needed and we need to consider what is best for the future of the community by hearing from all voices.”
Stephen Themelis is optimistic. “The community has a lot going for it,” he said, “with established farms and protected open space. We all want good drinking water, we all want good health.”
Karen Roertgen, who works in consensus building, is firmly in support of the Heart & Soul effort to listen and provide opportunities for all voices to be heard. “Offering everyone the opportunity to participate, be respectfully and deeply heard, listen with curiosity to others, and see their thoughts expressed amidst the growing vision that this process creates can be transformative for all involved. I’ve experienced it before and I know it can happen here,” Karen said.
Want to bring Community Heart & Soul to your town? Apply for a $10,000 Community Heart & Soul Seed Grant to get started. Learn more at: www.communityheartandsoul.org/seed-grants
Lynda Clancy is editorial director of the Penobscot Bay Pilot, an online community hub that covers a large region of coastal Maine. The beauty and complexity of small towns have inspired her as a writer and photographer since the 1980s. An award-winning journalist, she serves on the Maine Press Association’s Board of Directors, the Maine Legislature’s Right To Know Advisory Committee, as well as local community nonprofits and municipal committees.
