Old natick inn key & fob | c. mid-1880

1651.1045.1

Donor: Barbara Gorely Teller

In the days before key cards, a large key fob was a compelling reminder to leave your hotel key with the desk clerk instead of tucking it in your pocket. The word “fob” comes from the German word “fobke” or “fuppe” which means “small pocket”. A fob would refer to the chain or cord attached to a pocket watch. The term described any small object such as a medallion, charm, or ornament attached to a pocket watch or key.

The Old Natick Inn was built on Eliot Street in 1873, replacing an earlier tavern. When the Inn was demolished in 1929, owner Isabelle Hunnewell Shaw donated the land to the Town of Natick to become Shaw Park.

A tavern on the site of the Old Natick Inn was built in 1782. The tavern burned down in the 1872 fire that devastated South Natick. The tavern was rebuilt in 1873. It was then purchased and renovated in 1880 by Isabelle Hunnewell Shaw, who ran it as the “Old Natick Inn” until 1929. The inn was torn down in 1930.

Isabelle Hunnewell Shaw was a member of the prominent Hunnewell family of Wellesley. Her husband, Robert Gould Shaw, was the architect who designed the Bacon Free Library building. Shaw shared a name with his cousin, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, who commanded the famous all-African-American Massachusetts 54th Regiment in the Civil War.