In an unprecedented display of grassroots activism, Worcester County citizens gathered on the grounds of Salisbury Mansion in 1774 to march over and close the court house in protest of the recently passed Coercive Acts. To read more, see Ray Raphael, The First American Revolution (2002). The mansion at that time stood at what is now Lincoln Square (the site of the former Boys’ Club); it was moved up the hill to its present location in 1929.