The Founding of Masco

Before the opening of Masconomet, from the 1920s through the fall of 1957, students of Middleton attended Howe-Manning through eighth grade, and high school students attended Holten High School in Danvers (Raynard 97). Boxford students had to travel to other towns to receive education after primary school. These schools were in Georgetown, Andover, North Andover, and Topsfield (Jansen 124). Topsfield students attended Topsfield Academy, built in 1827 and was located on the land behind the current Topsfield firehouse. Photographs of the Topsfield Academy show the school before it was demolished in 1934 and replaced by the newly built Proctor School (Dinan). Major population growth in the three towns made them recognize the need for a new school (Jansen 32). Topsfield began looking for solutions, and in the early 1950s, Topsfield voted against joining a proposed school district with Hamilton-Wenham and Manchester (Jansen 124). As the towns recognized this need for a combined higher education school, plans began to form.

The first official Masconomet School Committee meeting was held on February 7th, 1956. A 38-acre property on Endicott Rd was chosen to be the site of Masconomet, which the school district purchased from Mr. and Mrs. Fredrick McComisky on July 1st, 1957, for $27,500 (Jansen 125). This land on the Ipswich River was the location of Agawam encampments for thousands of years (Jansen 127). The Killam Collection is a collection of artifacts from the Agawam Tribe found on the school grounds. This collection was added to when an archaeology class at Masco in the 1970s found more artifacts on school grounds (Jansen 128).