This year is Trottier’s 25th anniversary. Let’s reflect on the past years to where Trottier started in 1998. Trottier’s land used to be Deerfoot Farm, which started in 1847 as a giant mass of land carrying cattle for milk, owned by a man named Joseph Burnett and his family. Deerfoot Farms was a leader in bottling milk in glass bottles, but this became a problem in 1912 after 48 people died, possibly due to milk contamination. Over time the Deerfoot farms milk farm grew. In the 1800s, they started delivering fresh milk to homes every day since there were no refrigerators back then. They were delivered in horse-drawn carriages and later were delivered in yellow taxi cabs. This milk delivery continued into the 1950s.
The farm wasn’t just used for cow’s milk; it also produced meats, such as pork and sausage. However, this land had an opportunity. At the beginning of the twentieth century, other dairy farms were being bought by big companies. The Deerfoot Farm was purchased by National Dairy Products in 1929, but by 1959, Deerfoot farms wasn’t producing dairy anymore. The old Deerfoot building was torn down in 1965, and many years later, it would become something new and special, a middle school for Southboro for 6th, 7th, and 8th students. Southboro turned the old plain into a middle school and named it after a well known teacher, Mr. P. Brent Trottier.
In 1998, Trottier officially opened for education. That’s when the first yearbook came out. The cover was blue with swirls and a goat. Many teachers from when Trottier first began are still working in the school now! Mrs. Alzapiedi is one of them. She was and still is the music teacher. Shows were still being performed, but music was a little different. 7th graders didn’t have music. The first shows to be performed were Annie Jr., You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, and Once on This Island. Theater was different back then too, Mrs. Alzapiedi said, “In 1998 we only did a musical in May, but now we do a musical in January and a straight play in May and the junior musical that wasn’t around in 1998.” The theater, chorus, and music have changed, but what about the academics?
Tania Saunders-Taylor experienced being one of the first students educated in this school back in 1998. Tania said, “It was exciting because the school was new and it was a new territory to explore. When I was in fifth grade and I was touring the school, it felt like we were going into a high school. When we toured, we wore hard hats.” The school was fresh and new. New supplies, new teachers, new equipment, new lockers, etc. When school occurred back then, there were no chromebooks, phones, or TV’s, so students had to use pencils and textbooks. Tests were taken on paper, and there was no online work. There are more clubs now.
Now how has the yearbook evolved? Over the years, the yearbook has changed in numerous ways. Back in the 2000’s, the yearbooks were hard covered and had a texture. The year books also had collages. The collages were made by kids in the school. Students could send in photos to be put in a collage for the yearbook. Saunders-Taylor said, “In our yearbook we would do something where someone (yearbook club) would walk around and take photos around school with the Kodak camera. Kids would pass in photos to make scrapbook collage in the yearbook and the whole yearbook was black and white except for the school pictures. The yearbook was also smaller and no clubs were featured except the musical.”
The staff has also changed. Over the years as the population increased, more teachers were added and academics. The school has also been expanded over time. Field trips have mostly stayed the same, but are a little different now. Tania says, “We did some of the same field trips. We went to Stone Environmental overnight program, similar to Nature’s Classroom for grade 6. In 8th grade, we went to Washington D.C.” Stone Environmental was discontinued because of the COVID 19 pandemic in 2020. Stone Environmental went out of business and now 6th graders go to Nature’s Classroom for an overnight. There have been lots of impacts over the years that have shaped our school today.
Over the years, the Trottier Middle School land has been impacted majorly in positive and negative ways. Starting from when the land was first used for cattle growth and milking to when the land was transformed into Southborough’s precious school, which has changed in academics, popularity, and population. Trottier has changed so much, and we will cherish this school and its history for decades to come.
