Poll: Is it Foxborough or Foxboro?

It's the town's most frequently asked question – is it Foxborough or Foxboro? Today, we ask you for the answer.

Foxborough – or is it Foxboro? – Town Historian Jack Authelet tackles this question on the town's website, providing the following:

"When the Massachusetts Legislature finally acted upon the petition of families living in this area, who were residents of Wrentham, Walpole, Stoughton and Stoughtonham, to be set aside as a town of their own, it was decided to name the new town in honor of Charles James Fox, a British statesman who strongly supported the independence sought by the Colonies.

The new town was incorporated June 10, 1778 and it would be called Foxborough. The ‘borough’ signifies a free-standing entity with its own government. But almost immediately, the name of our town became “Foxboro” in common usage.

So from the beginning, we have been Foxborough on official papers and Foxboro on most everything else. But our mail was a mixed bag, and as communities grew in size and number, the United States Postal Service sought some level of consistency in an 1893 directive, asking postal patrons to use the short form for names like Foxborough, Attleborough, Middleborough, etc. The request had no official standing and did not change anything other than how most people would address their mail.

The name Foxboro became known the world over when the former Standard Gauge Company reorganized as The Foxboro Company in 1914. Conversely other entities chose the formal name of the town, such as Foxborough Savings Bank, , , Foxborough Country Club but the local newspaper has been since it was founded in 1884.

When signs were erected on each end of the Common in 1928, they proudly proclaimed the community as Foxboro. During the town’s Bicentennial Celebration in 1978, they were removed and replaced by signs that read, just as proudly, Foxborough. One of those signs is still in place on the easterly side of the village green.

A major change about that same time was the insistence by then Superintendent of Schools Bill Glynn to have local students use the official name of our town and Foxborough became standard on all student work and school correspondence.

From the time our town was incorporated in 1778 until the present, we are a municipality with a dual identity, Foxborough and Foxboro, and we wear both names proudly. One is official (and to some, preferred), and the other more a matter of convenience, familiarity and habit, perhaps, but no less respectful.

Use of the long form of Foxborough is encouraged at and it is reflected on the town website but some community groups list themselves under the short form of Foxboro.

In the final analysis, much that was Foxborough remained that way as did everything named later as Foxboro but there is now a trend in some circles to opt for the original spelling, which delights the purists among us."

So Foxborough/Foxboro, we want to know ...

Today's question: Which spelling do you use/prefer – Foxborough or Foxboro? Vote in our poll and expand on your answer in the comments section below!