Milfordian Cataloguing Town's Past

Looking through Robin Philbin's home office, it's easy to get lost in the past.

The lifelong Milford resident estimates he has 15,000 photos—hard copies and negatives—dating back to the 1800s. Collectively, they illustrate the town's history. But that's not all Philbin has to tell Milford's story.

He has copies of advertisements for long-gone Milford businesses, and a turn-of-the-century architect's rendering of numerous structures in town. He has news stories from the Milford Gazette, and Milford-centric trinkets found on eBay and at flea markets.

Philbin can't pinpoint what led him to become one of the few people in town who maintain or have access to such a wealth of information, but since assuming that role, he has embraced it.

"I've unofficially been given a responsibility," he said Monday at his house, surrounded by catalogued articles and photographs. "The past doesn't deserve to be forgotten and discarded."

Philbin, who works full-time as a letter carrier in Hopedale, has nurtured this hobby for 45 years. He started accumulating Milford-related memorabilia while working for a printing company, Greater Milford Newspaper Distributors, in the 1960s. Then, in 1970, he started working as a lithographer at the Throughout the 10 years he worked at the paper, he'd regularly scoop up photos that otherwise would have been discarded—photos that were duplicates or never printed.

"I'd say that about 1 out of 20 photos were printed," Philbin remembered. The unused ones would go in a box, and at some point I'd ask, 'Can I take these?' Otherwise, they just would've been thrown out."

When the Milford Daily News moved from Park Terrace to its current location on South Main Street, Philbin seized an opportunity, and got permission from the then-publisher to take hundreds of negatives that otherwise would have been discarded. The negatives go back to the 1940s.

"Sometimes, you know when the opportunity strikes," he said. "During the move, I was put in charge of moving stuff out of the third-floor attic, which had a lot of the old Milford Gazettes."

Philbin is responsible for the old editions of the paper being preserved at the . He sent the old editions, dating from 1884-1906, to be microfilmed.

As he amassed his collection, his hobby became known throughout the community.

"People would call me," Philbin said. "As someone told me, 'you're the only idiot who collects this stuff.'"

"One day this kid called me up, in the early 90s," Philbin remembered. "His uncle, a renowned Milford architect, Robert A. Cook, was going to sell his place, a little house off Rte. 140 that used to be his office. I went up there and it was like I died and went to heaven. The place was loaded with anything he ever did—covered with a ton of dust."

Philbin got a few old mail sacks and "threw everything in there."

"You have to strike while the iron's hot," he said.

Philbin has manually transcribed hundreds of articles, which he organizes by category. He's particularly interested in information about Milford Pink Granite. 

"I'd have to say I spend about eight hours a week on this," Philbin said, "compiling and cataloguing. I want to make everything accessible in one book. If you come to me looking for, say, information on crimes, I can find them for you."

Philbin will be sharing both his print and photo collection with Milford Patch for an ongoing column that will provide a glimpse into the town's past.

"In collecting all of this, I have made a commitment to everyone who has given me anything, not to let it be forgotten," he said. "Everything that came before us has made us what we are at this moment."