This cache replaces and fills a hole in the excellent Boxborough-Centric geocache series placed by SCWB in 2010. The original was archived in 2017 and is now replicated to complete the series. Past finders of the original cache are welcome to log this one, though it would be nice to leave the FTF for a first-timer.
A complete list of the Boxborough-Centric caches can be found here.
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This is the second of ten in the Boxborough-Centric geocache series. This one is a two-stage cache, and probably the quickest to find of the series. The listed coordinates are for the front door of Boxborough’s Schoolhouse No. 2. There is no cache at this stage, which is why it has to be listed as an unknown type. On the front of this building is a plaque with dates outlining the history of this schoolhouse.
The Boxborough-Centric series is a collection of nine individual caches, each with a clue to the tenth. All are located in Boxborough, Mass. They will take you to some of the more interesting places in the town. Several of these caches will rely on information that can be found in a book called Boxborough: Portrait of a Town, published by a group of Town residents in 1983. A special copy of this book, reserved just for this cache series, can be found in Boxborough's Sargent Memorial Library. The librarians will show you where it is. Please do not mark it up. Bring a pen and paper with which to make notes because you cannot take this copy out. Or, for a cost, you may make copies of a few pages at a time in the library if you prefer. The library’s hours can be found on its website here. You need to find ALL the first nine caches with their respective clues to find BC#10 Boxborough Centroid GC2DDCR. You do not need to find them in order.
Until Boxborough built the first iteration of its current elementary school, Blanchard Memorial School, on Mass Ave., in 1949, there were four one-room schools serving the town since the end of the 1700s. To help pay for the new school all four were sold to private owners. Three were converted into residences; only Schoolhouse No. 2 remains largely as it was on its last day as an active school, although it was used for a short period as the Town’s library. It had been purchased by the Robinson family who have lovingly maintained it in its original form ever since. The other three are hardly recognizable as schoolhouses. Schoolhouse No. 1 is at the easterly side of the intersection of Hill and Cunningham Roads, close to Mass Ave; Schoolhouse No. 3 is at the westerly corner of the intersection of Depot and Liberty Square Roads; and Schoolhouse No. 4 is located on the north side of Burroughs Road at its intersection with Pine Hill Road. All have plaques on them. I have included waypoints for these. You can find out more about Boxborough's schools in Ch. 7 of Boxborough: Portrait of a Town.
UPDATE Spring 2022: The container, hide location, and puzzle have changed!
To locate the cache, count the number of window panes on the school building.
Divide 6.912 by the number of window panes, and add that to the north coordinate of the schoolhouse doorstep.
Divide 3.348 by the number of window panes, and add that to the west coordinate of the schoolhouse doorstep.
The cache is now a micro container with no room for swag. The clues needed to solve BC#10 Boxborough Centroid GC2DDCR will be found at the top of the log sheet.
Please be stealthy and respectful of the schoolhouse property; it has been vandalized and burgled in the past, and neighbors are watchful.