Ceremonial wooden-framed cake on move from Leverett to Pepperell

This wooden-framed cake, which in 2023 marked Deerfield’s 350th anniversary, most recently was used by Leverett to commemorate its 250th anniversary. The cake is on its way to Pepperell. CONTRIBUTED/JONATHAN BOSCHEN
Published: 01-06-2025 11:01 AM |
LEVERETT — A giant wooden-frame cake with hundreds of electric candles, serving as a centerpiece of anniversary celebrations in several area communities, is on its way to another part of Massachusetts.
The ceremonial 16-foot-tall, 26-foot-wide and 1-ton cake, which for more than a year has been located in the large field between the Leverett Elementary School and Leverett Library on Montague Road to help mark the town’s 250th anniversary, is to be reassembled and reinstalled in Pepperell, a Middlesex County town about 90 minutes northeast of Leverett.
Members of that town’s 250th Committee recently made two trips to break down the cake into its various wedges. Then, with two flatbed trucks and a crane, a crew of volunteers, assisted by Leverett Highway Superintendent Matt Boucher, got the cake loaded and on its way.
Kari Ridge, a member of the Leverett 250th Committee, said residents have enjoyed the cake since it was first lit on March 5, the evening marking the date that Leverett was founded in 1774. “Folks in Leverett spoke often of how much joy the cake brought them as they passed on dark nights,” Ridge said.
The cake then continued to be at the heart of events, like the parade and anniversary barbecue on July 6 and the Fall Festival in October.
Leverett got the cake in October 2023, transporting it from Deerfield.
The cake was originally built by professional and volunteer carpenters and electricians for the 350th anniversary celebrations in Westfield in 2019, modeled after a similar cake that city had during its tricentennial in 1969. It was then brought to Hatfield later that year. Hatfield kept the cake for the town’s 350th anniversary celebrations in both 2020 and 2021, some elements of which were delayed due to the pandemic.
The cake then made a short trip to neighboring Whately in 2022, for that town’s delayed 250th anniversary, before arriving in Deerfield.
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Ridge said members of the 250th Committee voted that a new home should be found for the cake and that the “Legacy of the Cake” should be kept alive. She identified Pepperell as a town that would be celebrating its 250th, meaning the cake would have just the right number of light bulbs on it. The Leverett Select Board also voted to preserve the cake until a new home could be found for it.
The committee members are pleased that the cake will remain in use.
“We think it’s pretty cool that the cake, after several stays in western Mass. towns, will now be brightening the nights of people in another area of the state,” Ridge said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.