It was named in honor of Colonel William Prescott, who commanded the American forces at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

As with the nearby town of Dana, after the dissolution of incorporation, houses were moved or razed, but cellar holes remained.

The former Town Hall, once located just south of Atkinson Hollow, is inaccessible to the general public, and stands today off of Route 32 in Petersham.

Prior to this the church stood at its site on the New Salem line until 1949, when it was initially moved to Orange as home of the former Prescott Historical Society.

Prescott House, an on-campus living facility at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, is named after the former town.