Southborough, MA

Southborough is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 21,912 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Greater Boston metropolitan area.

The town was first settled in 1635 as part of Charlestown. The land that would become Southborough was purchased from the Wampanoag tribe by General John Glover in 1649 and named for his home town of Southborough, England. Glover's son-in-law, Colonel Thomas Dudley, laid out the town's first streets and built its first house (now known as Dudley House). In 1713 Dudley sold Southborough to James Bowdoin III and Nathaniel Sylvester for £6,000 (equivalent to $ in ).

In 1775 during the American Revolution, British troops burned down most of Southborough's buildings while they were stationed there for defense against patriot forces led by Paul Revere. After the war ended and peace returned to Massachusetts Bay Colony, Bowdoin donated much of his land to form what is now Central Square (the heart of downtown). In 1802 Bowdoin's grandson James Bowdoin IV deeded an additional parcel of land on which stands today's Town Hall (built 1832–34), which served as both courthouse and meeting place for local residents until 1889 when it became Town Hall proper.

In 1881 Charles Eliot opened Harvard University's new campus in Southborough adjacent to Dudley House where he had been living since moving from Cambridge in 1870 after serving as president of Harvard from 1865-1869. Eliot chose Southborough because it was a rural community without any large concentrations of people who could not afford to live close to Harvard; at its peak enrollment there were about 1,500 students living on campus with another 2,000 commuting from all over Massachusetts.

Today much has changed since then with many new homes being built near Boston suburbs such as Arlington and Watertown while others have been converted into apartments or condos which have made housing more accessible than ever before especially for young professionals who are looking for an urban environment but without having to deal with high prices or long commutes typical of major cities like New York or Chicago.