USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Newton > Beautiful Newton the garden city of Massachusetts > Part 4
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Joseph W. Bartlett
66
6, Abbott B. Rice
Robert M. Clark
7, Joseph B. Jamieson
ยท Henry W. Jarvis
4, Guy M. Winslow
William S. Wagner
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3, John S. Alley
George M. Cox
THE NEWTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS
By FRANK E. SPAULDING, Superintendent of Schools
Prominent in every part of Newton stand the public schools. While a few of the smaller buildings, of wood, date from a past generation, centrally lo- cated in every ward is one or more handsome and substantial brick build- ings in which four-fifths of all the pu- pils find accommodation. Most of these brick buildings have been erected within a dozen ycars, and arc thorough- ly modern in all provisions for heat, light, ventilation and sanitation; nearly all the older buildings, even the wooden ones, have been recently modernized, as far as practicable, so that the Newton school plant may fairly be said to rep- resent the best current architectural and educational ideas. No other city and only one town in the state has in- vested in its school plant as much per pupil as has the city of Newton.
But the transformation of the school plant, radical and complete as this has been, has been more than equalled by the transformation of function which the schools have undergone in the last ten years. Ten years ago the aim of the schools was to teach a certain pre- scribed and limited range of subjects to pupils who were compelled or who desired to be taught these particular subjects; today, the aim of the schools is to educate according to individual capacity and need every child whom the law requires to attend school and every youth who wishes to do so. This change in aim has vitally affected the whole or- ganization, content, method and spirit of instruction; instead of trying to fit
every child to a hard and fast organiza- tion, curriculum and method of instruc- tion, formulated before the child was ever born, which was characteristic of the older aim, the present aim is to adapt school organization, subject- matter and method of instruction to the needs of each pupil, as these are discov- ered by constant study.
One of the most striking, and at the same time reliable, evidences of the in- creased efficiency of the schools under this new aim is to be seen in the extra- ordinary, disproportionate increase in enrolment of pupils over fourteen years of age. Whatever the schools offer, the law has long compelled attendance of pupils from seven to fourteen years of age, but after the fourteenth birthday is passed, the law leaves children free to continue in school or to withdraw. Within the last eight years, the num- ber of pupils over fourteen - that is, voluntary attendants - has increased more than twice as rapidly as has the number between seven and fourteen, compulsory attendants. Pupils and their parents, who are, on the whole, the best judges of the service that the schools are rendering, are giving this unmistakable endorsement of the re- cent redirection of effort in the Newton schools.
The changes that have been made un- der the present effort to educate every boy and girl of the city are perhaps most apparent in the increased variety and range of subjects taught, especial- ly in the high schools; but no less sig-
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nificant, though less noticeable, changes games, work in the gardens, frequent have been made in methods of instruc- excursions through the fields, are some of the means used most successfully in training the youngest children to ob- serve carefully, to think and to express themselves clearly, to control both their bodies and their minds -- which is edu- cation. tion and in class and school organiza- tion throughout the system. What is best for this particular boy or girl, for this particular group of children, at this time? is the ever guiding question whose answer results in constant change of methods and things that were formerly regarded as fixed - almost sacredly fixed.
There is room here for only the brief-
Kindergartens are located in all parts of the city; there are thirteen of them altogether, one within easy walking dis- tance of the home of nearly every child.
MASON SCHOOL, NEWTON CENTRE
est description of the different depart- ments under which the work of the school system is carried on.
There is no more interesting depart- ment than the kindergarten, through which children are introduced to their school career through the grades and the high schools. Books find almost no place in the kindergarten; varied exer- ciscs in which the child expresses his thought with pencil or crayon, with blocks and other materials, songs and
Children are received in the kindergar- ten at four years of age, though many do not enter until they are four and one-half or five; here they remain until they are ready for the first grade, that is, until they are five and one-half or six.
From the kindergarten, children go to the grades, where they remain, on the average, cight years. In the grades, the principal subjects of instruction are to- day, as they have been for many years,
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reading, spelling, arithmetic, penman- ever such are needed to serve the inter- ship, composition, grammar, geography ests of pupils. In such special classes, pupils are often able to advance much more rapidly than the normal rate of a grade in a year. and history ; several other subjects help to interest and to develop pupils' varied talents, especially drawing, singing, gymnastics, practical hygiene, manual In the Old Claflin School at New- ton, occupying one whole floor, there is a class maintained for the care of chil- dren whose capacity and needs are such that they cannot be taught in regular classes with advantage to themselves or to other pupils. To this class go chil- training and sewing, nature study and gardening. Recently several of the grammar schools have added type-set- ting and printing to their program, which are proving wonderfully effec- tive in rousing the interest and enlist-
RALPH WALDO EMERSON SCHOOL, NEWTON UPPER FALLS
ing the efforts of many boys to whom other means of expression make little appeal.
In all the larger grade buildings, as- sistant teachers make it possible to meet the special needs of individual children, either in groups or singly. Ac- cording to ability and need, pupils are thus helped to keep up with their class- mates, or to advance more rapidly as the case may be. Special, temporary classes are frequently formed, when-
dren from six to fourteen years of age from all parts of the city. Most of these children can be taught comparatively little from books; they have to learn through the use of their hands. They are taught the use of carpenter's tools ; they learn to weave and braid rugs, to cane chairs, to make baskets, to mend shoes, to sew and to perform simple household duties. Thus they are taught means of service within their limited capacity, which will render them capa-
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ble of self-support, wholly or in large part. This class usually numbers about forty and is in charge of a teacher of much experience and especially trained to work with this type of children; she always has two or three assistants, de- pending upon the number of pupils. So much individual attention do these chil- dren require, that an average of no more than ten children per teacher has to be maintained.
for a professional career? Shall they engage in commercial or in industrial pursuits? Whatever they decide - and teachers and principals are always willing, and at least somewhat prepared from their intimate knowledge of pu- pils' interests and aptitude, to aid in answering these important questions --- they find unsurpassed opportunities in the Newton high schools through which they may realize their ambitions.
CHARLES C. BURR SCHOOL, AUBURNDALE
When the age of early youth is reached, that is, at about fourteen, boys and girls, and their parents, must begin to think seriously of their future. How much longer can they remain in school? How much longer will it be worth while to go to school? For what type of career are they best adapted? Shall they prepare through cight, or ten, or even twelve further years of study end- ing with college and university courses
The time was - and that scarcely more than ten years ago - when the Newton High School was providing splendidly for those boys and girls who wished to prepare for college, but it was offering no courses specially suited to the needs of the still larger number of boys and girls whose interests and ca- pacities or whose conditions made it de- sirable or necessary that they become capable of rendering efficient service, of
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earning a self-supporting wage, within a very few years. Today the opportu- nities offered those who wish to prepare for college are better than ever before; at the same time equally good, and widely varied, opportunities are offered those who must prepare more quickly for service. Open to this latter class of boys and girls are no less than a dozen distinct vocational courses. Chief among these courses for boys are the following: business, clerical, electrical, machine-shop, cabinet-making, pattern-
rolment in all the college preparatory courses. A careful study of the matter shows that the enrolment in the college preparatory courses has suffered little, if any, diminution since the establish- ment of the vocational courses. The membership of the latter courses is made up almost entirely of boys and girls who would be getting no education at all beyond the grammar schools were it not for these vocational courses.
The Newton high school department consists of three schools, an academic,
PEIRCE SCHOOL, WEST NEWTON
making, printing. For girls the princi- pal vocational courses are the clerical, household arts, dressmaking, design and applied arts. That these vocation- al courses are needed and appreciated is demonstrated beyond a doubt by the rapidly increasing numbers of pupils who are entering them; while only a single one of these courses, the clerical, has been established as long as five years, the total present enrolment in all of them, over nine hundred, exceeds by more than half a hundred the total en-
a technical and a vocational; the first of these is the Newton High, the last two make up the Technical High. The most striking characteristic in the or- ganization of this department is that it is open to all youth of high school age; it receives pupils who have com- pleted the work of the grades, which most pupils do from thirteen to four- teen or fourteen and one-half years of age, but it also receives pupils of four- teen, or older, whenever it seems to be for the interest of the pupils, even
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though they have not completed the grade work.
The function of the Newton high school department is, not the mainte- nance of certain courses and standards for a selected group of youth who can profit by such courses and standards, but the adaptation of subject matter and method to the education of all boys and girls of high school age in the city.
The present (December, 1913) num- ber of pupils and teachers in the three chief departments of the school system are as follows :
Pupils Teachers Asst's Prin's
Kindergarten,
574
13
23
Grades,
5021
143
16
8
High,
1924
80
6
3
7519
236
45
11
In addition to the above there are fourteen teachers and supervisors of special subjects, manual training, sew- ing, music, drawing, and physical train- ing.
.
HORACE MANN SCHOOL, NEWTONVILLE
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THE NEWTON HOSPITAL
By WILLIAM C. BRAY, President Board of Trustees
In the fall of 1880 public sentiment years of study, and practical work in was aroused to the need of a hospital in Newton, and prominent citizens were called together for conference.
On January 4, 1881, an organization was completed and on January 11th the Newton Cottage Hospital received its charter. This name was retained until March 31, 1894 when it was changed to Newton Hospital, the pres- ent title.
In 1884 the present location on Washington Street was purchased, and in 1886 the first buildings were erected and dedicated. As the work developed, new buildings were added to the group. The substantial contagious wards were built by the city of Newton, the Nathan P. Coburn and Thayer Wards by the Hospital Corporation, while the Geor- gia A. Leeson Memorial Ward, the Pratt Converse Nurses' Home, the Haskell-Emerson Operating Building, the Eldredge Memorial Ward, the Dennison Memorial Ward for Chil- dren, the Mellen Bray Surgical Ward, the Corridors, Ellison Hall, and Founders' Memorial, were all magnifi- cent gifts of individuals. The Harriett Gould Paine domestic building is a monument to the Newton Hospital Aid Association, which since 1885 has been one of the most helpful supporters of the Hospital work.
The Training School for Nurses which was established in 1888 has kept pace with the growth of the Hospital, and today numbers over sixty pupils. The course of training includes three
the wards of the Hospital. The high standard which the School has attained, is attested by the fact that its gradu- ates have been called to fill positions of responsibility and trust not only in other hospitals, but in many of the so- cial activities for the welfare of man- kind.
In 1906 the Hospital and the Dis- trict Nursing Association became more closely affiliated. A graduate of the Training School superintends the nurs- ing work under the general direction of the matron. Two pupil nurses act as assistants, and while helping the pa- tients in their homes in a most practical way, are themselves receiving the bene- fit of a broadened experience.
During the present year, a new de- partment for "social service" has been created in conjunction with the New- ton Hospital Aid Association and So- cial Service League.
The Newton Hospital occupies a prominent place not only because of its attainments, but because it was one of the first to perfect an organization un- der which service could be successfully rendered in the same wards by a Staff composed of members of the two schools of medicine.
Probably no institution in the city has a wider circle of friends and sup- porters from every ward than has the Hospital. It was recognized at the be- ginning that an institution of this kind could not be self-supporting, and in 1885-even before the actual work had
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begun, Hospital Sunday was inaugu- rated, and has been recognized by the churches ever since as a day for special offerings for the Hospital work. The money received in this way is applied directly to the charitable work.
The following statistics for 1913 are an indication of the development of the Hospital from a very modest begin- ning :-
Number of patients treated, 2050.
Average daily number, 100.29.
Largest number during 24 hours, 130.
Smallest number, 64.
Total nurses on roll, 69.
Patients visited by District Nurses, 836.
Number of calls made, 5507.
Hospital expenses, $86,219.40.
Hospital earnings, $67,524.55.
Contributed by churches, individuals, firms and corporations, $16,393.21.
Amount of Endowment Fund, $133,881.40.
Board of Trustees. W. C. Bray, President; F. A. Day, Vice-President ;
George Hutchinson, Vice-President; G. R. Pulsifer, Treasurer; A. R. Weed, Clerk; W. H. Allen, J. S. Al- ley, H. F. Bothfeld, A. C. Burnett, J. E. Clark, Bernard Early, W. T. Far- ley, F. S. Keith, M. D., C. E. Kelsey, G. E. May, M. D., F. E. Porter, M. D., A. S. Pratt, J. L. Richards, C. E. Riley, C. I. Travelli, G. L. West, M. D., H. A. Wilder, Mrs. H. P. Bel- lows, Mrs. Allston Burr, Mrs. G. D. Byfield, Mrs. J. R. Carter, Mrs. A. B. Cobb, Mrs. H. B. Day, Mrs. N. H. George, Mrs. W. H. Gould, Mrs. E. B. Haskell, Mrs. C. E. Hatfield, Mrs. J. T. Lodge, Mrs. H. O. Marcy, Jr., Mrs. E. H. Mason, Mrs. G. W. Morse, Miss C. A. Lovett, Mrs. E. P. Salton- stall.
Ex-Officiis Members of the Board. Hon. Edwin O. Childs, Mayor of New- ton; Arthur W. Blakemore, President Board of Aldermen; Mrs. H. H. Car- ter, President Hospital Aid Associa- tion.
Matron and Superintendent of Nurses, Miss Mary M. Riddle.
HOSPITAL
THE NEWTON HOSPITAL
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CHURCHES IN NEWTON
FIRST CHURCH, NEWTON CENTRE.
Newton was originally a part of Cambridge, and called Cambridge Vil- lage. Religious services were instituted in 1654, and the first meeting house was built in 1660. In 1661, by an act of the General Court, the people were re- lieved from paying rates in Cambridge. The First Church was organized July 20, 1664, with eighty members-forty men and forty women. Until 1780, when the First Baptist Church was formed, a period of one hundred and sixteen years, it was the only church in the town.
The house of Rev. John Cotton was
burned in 1720, and that of Rev. Jonas Merriam in 1770. The Church Records were thus twice destroyed and imper- fectly restored from memory. The first bell was the gift of Federal Street Church, Boston, in 1810.
The Sunday School was organized in 1816 in a little red schoolhouse on Ho- mer Street with twenty scholars.
Fifty-seven members of the Church fought in the Revolutionary War, out of a total male membership (in 1776) of seventy-eight. Twenty from the con- gregation were volunteers in the Civil War.
-
FIRST CHURCH, NEWTON CENTRE
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Six meeting houses have been erected, in 1660, 1698, 1721, 1805, 1847 and 1904. The first was built in the old cemetery on Centre Street. The sec- ond, nearly opposite, on land now in- cluded in the estate of Mr. Joseph L. Colby. The third, after long discus- sion, on the present site, selected by a Committee of the General Court, to whom the matter was referred for de- cision. The present building was de- signed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, and erected by Horton and Hemen- way at a cost of $107,100. The furnish- ings, provided by the ladies of the par- ish, cost $5,000 additional, and the or- gan, installed in 1905, $10,000 more. The total value of the church property is about $150,000, and there is no debt.
The church was incorporated in 1895.
It is a remarkable fact that during the two hundred and fifty years this
church has been in existence it has had but ten pastors. Its first minister, Rev. John Eliot Jr., was a son of the Apostle Eliot, and died after but four years' service. The next four ministers all had long pastorates, Rev. Nehemiah Hobart, 38 years, Rev. John Cotton 43 years, Rev. Jonas Merriam 22 years, and Rev. Jonathan Homer 57 years. Rev. James Bates was an associate pastor with Dr. Homer for eleven years. He was succeeded by Rev. William Bushnell, who served for four years, and was followed by the late lamented Rev. Dr. Daniel L. Furber, with a pas- torate of thirty-five years and as pastor emeritus for seventeen years more. Rev. Theodore J. Holmes was pastor for ten years, and the present minister, Rev. Edward M. Noyes, D.D., was installed in October, 1894.
FIRST M. E. CHURCH, NEWTON UPPER FALLS.
The First Methodist Episcopal Church of Newton is situated on Sum- mer street, between High and Chestnut streets, Newton Upper Falls, crowning the hill which rises from the Charles River at Echo Bridge. The structure represents the historic New England Meeting House, being substantially the same as when first built about 1825.
On March 5, 1828 an act was passed in the Massachusetts House of Repre- sentatives and Senate incorporating "The Upper Falls Religious Society" and the "Proprietors of the Upper Falls Meeting House of Newton." In pursuance of a warrant issued March 13 by Amos Allen, Justice of the Peace, a meeting of the latter corporate body was held at the Meeting House March 20, 1828 "at 7 in the afternoon." At this meeting Otis Pettee was chosen first moderator and Rufus Ellis first clerk. The Elliot Manufacturing Com-
pany and Rufus Ellis having erected the Meeting House at private expense to the former were given sixty-one shares and to the latter thirty-nine shares, when, on September 3, 1832, the stock was fixed at one hundred shares of $33.00 each.
The first Methodist Class in Newton was formed in 1826 under the leader- ship of Rev. Joel Steele. It dissolved within a year. But in April, 1828, a class of seventeen members was formed, with Marshall S. Rice as leader, and out of this class grew the church. July 1, 1832, the first Methodist sermon preached in Newton was delivered by Rev. Charles K. True, a student at Harvard University. On Nov. 11th of the same year Rev. Abraham D. Mer- rill was present to administer the sacra- ments of Baptism and the Lord's Sup- per, and to organize the church. When, in April, 1833, the use of the Meeting
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House passed to the Methodists, Rev. Charles K. True was appointed the first minister. In June of that year, the church was shifted from its place as part of the Needham Circuit, and was elevated to the rank of a station. Meanwhile Marshall S. Rice, with the full consent of his wife, had purchased all the stock from the Proprietors of the Upper Falls Meeting House of Newton, mortgaging his home to pro- vide the necessary funds. April 1, 1835, he deeded the property to the trustees of the First Methodist Episco- pal Church of Newton. The church at this time was composed of the classes in Upper Falls, a class in Newton Lower Falls, another in Needham, and one in Brookline. The first regular official board meeting was held at the home of Rev. N. B. Spaulding May 27, 1835. By vote of the Board, the church as- sumed the debt incurred by Marshall S. Rice in the purchase of the church. To this earnest and consecrated layman the organization and early prosperity of the
church largely was due. In addition to his service as class leader and financial sponsor for the new society, he was for more than 50 years the enthusiastic and greatly beloved superintendent of the Sunday School. His faithful work is commemorated in a memorial tablet placed upon the East wall of the church. Regular services have continued in the church down to the present time. Among its many efficient pastors ap- pears the name of Bishop Francis W. McConnell.
The following are the Officiary of the church :- Resident Bishop, Rev. John W. Hamilton, D. D., L. L. D .; District Superintendent, Rev. Dillon Bronson, D. D., Westminster Hotel, Boston; Pastor, Rev. J. T. Carlyon; Trustees: Walter Chesley; President, H. E. Locke; Secretary-Treasurer, L. P. Everett, Charles R. Brown, C. A. Chadwick, J. W. McNeally, O. E. Nut- ter, Samson Shuker, and William Warren.
CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM, NEWTONVILLE.
This Society, which represents the "New Jerusalem Church", holding to the doctrines believed to have been re- vealed to the world through Emanuel Swedenborg, is perhaps, as a worship- ping body, the oldest church organiza- tion in Newtonville. Its first meetings were held in the home of Mr. Davis Howard, which was built in 1846, when Newtonville was known as "Hull's Crossing." In the following year Mr. Timothy H. Carter, who was a member of the New Church Society in Boston, having purchased a tract of some thirty acres in what is now the centre of New- tonville, built himself a home, and sev- eral other houses, which became the
homes of other members of the same church. Sunday services, begun in 1849 at the house of Mrs. Howard, were afterwards held for a time at Mr. Car- ter's, generally condueted by a lay reader, but with occasional visits by a minister.
In 1857, Mr. John Worcester, a son of the Rev. Thomas Worcester, D. D., the original pastor of the church in Boston, was called to minister to the little flock, but was not ordained until 1861. Until 1869, after Mr. Worces- ter's call, the meetings were held, first in Mr. Carter's home, afterwards in a small hall on Bowers street, then in a small, unoccupied church on Washing-
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ton street, and later in a room in Tre- mont Hall Building, then standing in Newtonville square.
In 1869, a wooden chapel was erected on the present church lot on Highland Avenue. In 1886-7 the stone building now used for social and weekly meet- ings and classes, was built. In 1894, the present church was built, and con- secrated free from debt in 1898. The smaller frame building was removed to the back of the lot, and is used for Sun- day School and social purposes.
The church, built of Brighton stone, is capable of seating rather more than four hundred persons. It is well equipped, having a fine organ, and is lighted by electricity and gas. The ad- joining buildings contain Sunday School rooms, a social hall, a well-ap- pointed stage, a library, kitchen, coat and toilet rooms, etc.
After a pastorate of forty-two years Mr. Worcester died in May, 1900. To his unusual ability and remarkable
character the growth of this church is chiefly due. For many years he was the President of the Massachusetts Association of the New Church, also the head of the New Church Theological School at Cambridge, and for several years the President of the General Con- vention of the New Church in the United States and Canada. His writings fill an important place in our church literature.
Rev. John Goddard, who had for thirty-five years been the pastor of the church in Cincinnati, and the "General Pastor" of the Ohio Association of the New Church, was invited to become Mr. Worcester's successor, beginning his work in Newtonville in February, 1901. In 1910, Rev. E. M. L. Gould of Mon- treal was called to become the assistant minister. Mr. Goddard and Mr. Gould also have for several years supplied the pulpit for the New Church Society on High street, Brookline.
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