DISTANCE FROM BOSTON: 45 miles
POPULATION: 39,102
WEBSITE: www.ci.fitchburg.ma.us
ODD FACT: Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong are among the cyclists who have competed in the Fitchburg Longsjo Classic, a four-day stage race held every year since 1960.
Fitchburg may be one of the state's oldest industrial communities. As early as 1750, the Nashua River was powering gristmills and sawmills. By the late 19th century, the town had grown to a city and its factories produced not only consumer goods, but also the tools and steam boilers for operating other factories. The late 19th century was the city's financial heyday, and downtown buildings reflect the red brick Beaux-Arts and Romanesque Revival styles of the time. A modern train depot on Main Street makes downtown Fitchburg accessible by commuter rail, but some of the city's quirkiest attractions are on its perimeter, beyond walking distance.
Do
Artist and art collector Eleanor Norcross, daughter of Fitchburg's first mayor, bequeathed money, paintings, and decorative arts to establish the Fitchburg Art Museum (185 Elm St., 978-345-4207, fitchburgartmuseum .org; adults $7, seniors and students $5, children under 12 free), which opened in 1927. Look for her paintings of the Louvre's decorative arts galleries; she made them to show Fitchburg citizens what they were missing. The permanent collection includes works by George Bellows, Childe Hassam, Edward Hopper, Rockwell Kent, and John Singer Sargent; the museum also mounts interesting temporary exhibitions. Nearby on Main Street, the Fitchburg Historical Society is renovating the 1893 Phoenix Building as its new headquarters. It will open late this year or early in 2009 with exhibition space as well as an extensive research library. In the meantime, the historical society is open for research Monday through Wednesday 10 a.m.-4 p.m. in its current spot (50 Grove St., 978-345-1157, fitchburghistory.fsc.edu). Top Fun Aviation Toy Museum (21 Prichard St., 978-342-2809, topfunaviation.com; open weekends, adult and one child $5, ages 14-18 $4, ages 3-14 $3) claims to be the only museum in the world devoted exclusively to aviation toys. The 2,000-piece collection includes colorful tin and cast metal toys from Japan, Hungary, Germany, and the United States, as well as more modern wooden and plastic pieces. Farther afield, the Fitchburg State College Campus Center Art Gallery (Hammond Campus Center, 160 Pearl St., 978-665-3177, fsc.edu/cultural/hammond artgallery.html; open Monday-Friday 10-5; call 978-345-2151 to inquire about weekend hours, free) mounts temporary exhibitions, with paintings by Greater Boston artist Yu-Wen Wu running March 4 through April 8.
Fuel
Old-fashioned American cooking is alive and well in Fitchburg. The Moran Square Diner (6 Myrtle Ave., 978-343-9549, $4-$7, closed Saturday), a classic from the Worcester Lunch Car Co., serves breakfast and lunch Monday-Friday and breakfast only on Sunday. City Hall Cafe (695 Main St., 978-342-7404, lunch $2.50-$6.95, Friday dinner $8.95-$14.95) also serves breakfast and lunch, and a popular BYOB Friday night dinner featuring baked, grilled, or fried fish, and perhaps stuffed cabbage or beef stew. Down-home Southern cooking is the specialty of Country Good BBQ (346 River St., 978-345-0900, $3.69-$13.79). Most diners order ribs, smoked brisket, fried chicken, or pulled pork as take-out, but there are two tables in the small storefront shop. For a leisurely meal of pasta, chicken, veal, or seafood, join the townies at Slattery's (106 Lunenburg St., 978-342-8880, slatterysrestaurant.com, $9.95-$22.95). The front room is a bustling bar scene.
Play
On Saturdays and Sundays, the ski train from Boston's North Station arrives at the Fitchburg depot for the 20-minute shuttle ride to Wachusett Mountain Ski Area (499 Mountain Road, Princeton, 978-464-2300, wawa.wachusett.com; weekend lift tickets $44-$49, seniors and children $30-$35, evening lift tickets $36-$39, seniors and children $30-$35). Winter sports enthusiasts will also find ice-skating rinks at the 1,800-seat Wallace Civic Arena or the adjacent Landry Arena (1000 John Fitch Highway, 978-345-7593, fmcarenas.com; $4). The latter is named for Olympic speed skater and former Fitchburg resident Carmelita Landry. Any time of year, Fitchburg is a great town for candlepin bowling. Owner Gary Therrien has traced downtown's Putnam Street Lanes (14 Putnam St., 978-343-9664; $2-$2.50 per string; call for nonleague hours) back to the 1890s, and thinks it might be even older. Back then, Therrien says, the alley was furnished with spittoons and men bowled in three-piece suits and top hats. (Women were not allowed.) New Palace Lanes (78 Daniels St., 978-345-0731; $2-$2.50 per string; call for nonleague hours) has 20 lanes on two floors in a building that housed a movie theater before it was converted to a bowling alley around 1955. "I want to keep it old school - no computer score cards," says co-owner Rene Gravel. He also sells hot dogs and homemade double crust pizza ($1.50 for a slice or a dog).
Spend
Fitchburg's central retail district has waned over the years, but a couple of specialty shops on the edges of the city offer memorable merchandise. Halloween Costume World (480 Water St., 978-343-6666) is open year-round should the need arise for wigs, fake teeth, fangs, noses, ears, mustaches or beards, "horror hands," or angel wings. This huge warehouse has costumes for every family member - even the dog. The fast world of radio-controlled model car racing is a subculture unto itself. Enthusiasts converge on R/C Excitement (208 Bemis Road, 978-342-3374, rcexcitement.com) to purchase customized car gear and to race on indoor and outdoor tracks. "We really cater to drivers," says staffer Kevin McDaniel. "We make sure the track gives good traction so their cars won't get too beat up." Good thing - a starter car runs around $800, though rentals are only $30 per day.
Party
Fitchburg State College's CenterStage (160 Pearl St., 978-665-3709, fsc.edu/cultural) offers a limited but intriguing lineup of concerts (tickets $15-$25) ranging from jazz to hip-hop to chamber music, and will screen films from the Boston Jewish Film Festival on March 11 and April 1 (adults $7, seniors $5, students $3). Destaré (320 Main St., 978-345-5734, destare.com), which opened last summer, blurs the lines between coffee bar and martini bar with a chic lounge atmosphere. A snazzy baby grand piano gets star billing in the decor; check the website for performance schedule. Also downtown, the Stratton Players (60 Wallace Ave., 978-345-6066, stratton players.com) perform innovative theater in a picture-perfect brown clapboard building with arched windows and a picket fence. It's no surprise that The Compound (281 Lunenburg St., 978-348-2500, the compoundrocks.com) sits on the highway far from any residences. Open nightly from 7 p.m. until 2 a.m., the complex features live bands in the upstairs dance bar and a DJ dance club down below.
Rest
The Royal Plaza Hotel and Trade Center (150 Royal Plaza Drive, 978-342-7100, rplaza.com, $89-$119) on the outskirts of town just south of Route 2 is Fitchburg's primary lodging. The 245-room hotel, currently a Best Western, will be transformed into a Marriott Courtyard by the end of the year. General manager James Wolfe anticipates that the most disruptive construction will happen in April, but says guests will be booked into areas of the hotel that minimize inconvenience.
