Late in September 1997, as the Town prepared to landscape the newly opened, renovated and expanded Morse Institute Library, a battle broke out over the disposition of the eight ton boulder on which the Revolutionary War memorial plaque was mounted.

The Middlesex News reported that the boulder was headed for the gravel pit to make room for new  landscaping design. The plaque itself would hang on the library’s outside walls along with the other war memorials.

Once this plan reached the public’s ears, protests arose from veterans, Minuteman reenactors, history buffs, Town officials, and even the backhoe driver who was scheduled to remove the boulder.

Grant Bennett-Alder and Greg Swartzfelder, members of Natick’s Company of Minutemen, stood guard.

The boulder was donated in 1913 by the great-granddaughter-in-law of Thomas Broad, from whose farm it came. It and the memorial plaque were dedicated on June 17, 1913 by the Natick Daughters of the American Revolution.

After much discussion between the Trustees, the Historical Commission, the Town Administrator, and Selectmen, the Trustees reversed their decision.

By October, the memorial and boulder were reset in the library lawn, where it remains today.  The DAR rededicated the memorial on Saturday, October 25, 1997.