Location

This is the map from 2019, we will update the map soon.

Main Venues

1. Ezekiel Bates A.F. & A.M. –  71 N Main St, Attleboro, MA 02703.

2. Attleboro Public Library – 74 N Main St, Attleboro, MA 02703. The Library will host programming. The Library is wheelchair accessible.

3. Balfour Riverwalk Park – 74 N Main St, Attleboro, MA 02703. The Balfour Riverwalk Park will have the vendors, a children’s activity area, and Athena School of Arms, a historic sword fighting school. The Riverwalk is wheelchair accessible and a great place to picnic!

4. Attleboro Area Industrial Museum – 42 Union St # 2, Attleboro, MA 02703, The museum will be open during the festival hours of 10am-4pm and will host the rest of the programming throughout the day. The museum itself is also open to visitors and is a wonderful gem of the industrial history of the Attleboroughs. Walking around on your own is free but please ask staff about the cost of a tour! The museum is wheelchair accessible.

5. Centenary Untied Methodist Church – 15 Sanford St, Attleboro, MA 02703. Centenary United Methodist Church has been serving the area for over 150 years and is the oldest Methodist church in Attleboro. It is home to the Hebron Food Pantry, which helps low income people in the greater Attleboro area. The church is wheelchair accessible and will be serving food and hosting some programs throughout the day. Proceeds from the food benefit the church.

6. East Attleborough Academy – 28 Sanford St, Attleboro, MA 02703. Built in 1843, the East Attleborough Academy once served as a private academy, the town’s first high school, and an office building before becoming the home to the Attleboro Historic Preservation Society. It is the only example of Greek Revival temple front architecture in town. The building itself is still closed to the public, but it serves as a great photo backdrop.

Parking

Attleboro Public Library lot
75 N. Main Street

Mullaney Twins Memorial Parking Area
5 S. Main Street

Gilbert Perry Square
The intersection of Park and Pleasant

Union Street lot across from Industrial Museum
32 Union Street

Judith H. Robbins Riverfront Park
Riverfront Drive – onstreet parking

Bathrooms

Every venue has bathrooms located inside. See our accessibility page for information on wheelchair accessible bathrooms. There will also be port-a-potties located near the Balfour Riverwalk Park.

History

It’s one year before the end of the American Revolution. A French soldier, brought to America by General LaFayette, knows that the soldiers fighting in the trenches are in dire need of a small yet very important commodity: buttons. He finds himself in the town of Attleborough, on the southern border of Massachusetts, and establishes a forge there in order to sell gold buttons to the American Continental Army and support the war effort.

By the turn of the 19th century, Attleborough was a pillar of the jewelry industry. The Frenchman, whose name has been lost to time, contributed to the start of a booming industry in the town, which became the City of Attleboro in 1914. By that point, twenty-five jewelry manufacturers had set up shop in the city, and the business had moved from buttons to all sorts of jewelry. Street-facing windows set in the walls of the factories let light in to basement workshops, so a pedestrian walking down the street could hear the noise and feel the heat. Women set up their own button businesses in any spare rooms they could find. For the length of the Industrial Revolution, Attleboro became known as the “Jewelry Capital of the World.”