USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Athol > History of Athol, Massachusetts > Part 21
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Hillside
Another outstanding Athol citizen who died in the period of prosperity and expansion some ten years before the close of the last century was John C. Hill, born in (North) Orange, John Cheney, and early a power in this community. He in- herited from his adopting father Abijah Hill, his home farm, the homestead being now numbered 201 South Main Street. He had in his busy life developed much real estate, largely industrial enterprises, but had kept most of his home place intact. After his death in March, 1890, his three children almost at once began disposing of his large holdings of real
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estate situated in all sections of our town. Encouraged by the success of their contemporary, Lucien Lord, they also divided a portion of their lands into streets and building lots. Their first offering was the section southeast of South Main Street, the frontage on that street finding a ready market, but the street laid parallel with that thoroughfare and much nearer the river, named by them W Street, has never even after a half century become attractive for home buildings.
Their next move was to open up some ten acres bounded on two sides by Mt. Pleasant Street, which they named Hill- side. The map that I have of this sub-division is dated 1895 but my remembrance is that the tract was originally put on the market as early as 1893 and at once become a minor compet- itor of the extensive Lord activities of that period. A factor in overloading the real estate market in those yeares were the 68 lots on this tract. After sixty years, perhaps two-thirds of these lots have been utilized for homes, the remainder being utilized for farm land. The names of the streets on this tract are par- ticularly confusing, the three leading off Mt. Pleasant are J, C and H (the initials of the old-time owner), while the one leading off South Main Street is D Street, named after Dolly (Smith) Hill.
Intervale
The Satinet or "shoddy" mill of David E. Tebo at Pinedale was burned on April 5, 1893. Mr. Tebo forthwith announced that he could not rebuild there unless he could have a better means of access to the village, Silver Lake Street being then the only road to it from Athol.
A revived and enthusiastic Board of Trade, of which Lucien Lord was Executive Secretary, cried aloud for a new road from Pequoig Square to Furnace Village, which of course would pass by Lake Park and through Pinedale. With very little delay the present Exchange Street north of Main Street and Pinedale Avenue was laid out and accepted by the town. Incidentally Mr. Tebo never made any real move towards rebuilding his mill at Pinedale but I have always believed that he urged this new road in good faith, fully intending to make use of it. Before he got started to re-establish himself, however, the business slump of 1893 was in full swing and ere long he was able to buy the plant of one of his competitors at Enfield on practically his own terms. He thereupon deserted Pinedale and Athol and established himself in Enfield, where his busi- ness continued many years.
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The new road to Pinedale, spoken of at length above, prac- tically bisected a 35 acre tract which Lucien Lord and his brother, Ethan Jr., had bought of the Mersylvia Twichell estate in 1875, the whole title having been acquired by Lucien after his brother's death. Perhaps Mr. Lord's better judgment whispered a caution to him but a louder voice emphasizing his successes so far drowned out any warning that may have been suggested to him. Here was a most desirable area for home sites, on a modern road to the north and near his Lake Park, then an assured success. Should this desirable area lie idle for perhaps many years until even the ultra conservatives ad- mitted a call for it? No, a thousand times No! Opportunity knocked at his door and he would bid her welcome.
Although he had just represented his town on Beacon Hill as our Republican Representative yet he had been born a Democrat and had in his youth always espoused the party of Jefferson. Thus he might well attribute to pure slander the cry that the ascension of Grover Cleveland for a second time to the Presidency had sapped the public confidence and produced the panic then upon the land. He forged ahead, developed his tract, named it Intervale, and alone in a develop- ment for the first time, he advertised as never before. Al- though he never sold, before his bankruptcy, half the 156 lots he laid out there, yet he did make sufficient sales to cover the fair value of the land before he began, together with all incidental expenses of survey, and so forth. Thus he con- vinced himself at least that this venture had been a success and he had triumphed over the depression.
Pleasant Valley
While developing South Park and Intervale, Lucien Lord had built the Academy of Music building, had bought the old Pequoig House and built the present Pequoig Block. These were perhaps much an over-building of our then mercantile demands as his three subdivisions were of the home site mar- ket, but the financial institutions were still ready to advance him money and he seemed, to conservative citizens, to have completely lost his head.
Out south of the Lower Village beyond the then end of Sanders Street was another area which Mr. Lord had taken as a part of his inheritance from his conservative father. There were the clay pits where the pioneers of Pequoig made their brick, there were over a hundred acres that might well be cut up into house lots. Evidently believing that Lady Luck had
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taken up her permanent abode with him he again set Mr. Cas- well to work with his transit and Joseph Adams with his team and scraper. Soon Pleasant Valley, with nearly six hundred lots, was thrown upon an over-burdened market.
Industry was at a standstill in those hectic days and there was quite a period during which not a factory whistle blew in town. Public enterprises like a sewer system, the grade cross- ing elimination and Lake Park School kept some employment in town and a little money in circulation. In this condition of affairs the real estate market tottered and fell. Foreclosures were common and evictions numerous. Many of the lots bought with hopes of profit the few preceding years were taken by the tax gatherer, to be in turn acquired by a new group of speculators at calamitous prices. Gradually Mr. Lord was stripped of his assets and at length he was hailed into the debtor's court. For six years he held on hoping against hope that the tide would turn and he would re-establish himself un- til finally one blustering January night in 1900, while the elite of Athol were gathered in the Pequoig House which he had provided for the convenience of the whole community, Lucien Lord, no longer bidden to their feasts, sadly climbed the stairs of the Bank Block into Wilson's office where I was a law student, and with much emotion signed a petition into voluntary bankruptcy.
In fifty-three years since the ending of this remarkable period of real estate expansion, Athol has scarcely grown to need half the home sites provided for it well over a half cen- tury ago by this public spirited though visionary citizen.
Prospect Park
The depression of the last decade of the nineteenth century ended rather abruptly upon the ascension of William Mckinley to the presidency in 1897 and the ensuing Spanish-American War of 1898 and there followed a few years of prosperity. In these years, numerous groups of real estate promoters combed New England for prosperous towns where a new land develop- ment would be likely to succeed. Strangely enough one of them decided to venture a subdivision here despite the hun- dreds of idle lots in the market. In 1900 Otis C. Thayer of Worcester opened a tract in the Simonds Street area, naming it Prospect Park. This tract was far enough away from the downtown section which had been boomed in the not distant past so that it found some interested buyers. Although only
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a small proportion of its lots have ever come into actual use yet my guess is that it was a moderate success financially.
Goodale Heights
Prosperity continued to smile upon Athol and the remem- brance of the calamity of the nineties gradually faded from memory, so that the town was ready for another speculative venture. McNamara & Coughlin came here from Providence in 1910. Sensing the situation, they bargained for the Solon D. Goodale farm in the Brattle Street area and by ultra modern methods of promotion launched a mild boom, disposing of most of their projected lots in a very short period. Several houses were built, others started and then abandoned but the large majority of the lots were unoccupied and in the hands of the original buyers or of local speculators who have picked them up in the last thirty years at comparatively low prices. In 1941, Sunset Terrace was opened by the Cass family east of this subdivision and has increased the marketability if not the selling price of these lots.
Pleasantdale
Encouraged by the success of Goodale Heights, McNamara & Coughlin went searching for another area for their opera- tions. The tract reclaimed from the wilderness by Lewis Sanders a quarter of a century before for his mill site was not only vacant but going back to its natural state. These promot- ers acquired this and by still newer and more unique methods successfully put over the sale of the lots.
This was the era of unrestricted immigration and many Lithuanians were coming to our town, gravitating to the sec- tion south of the railroad. People of this race were the pre- dominating purchasers of lots at Pleasantdale. With an in- herent love of the soil and a prodigious energy they soon had most of the 202 lots improved and occupied. The area is owned almost exclusively by home owners, there being very few, if any, vacant lots for sale today in Pleasantdale.
Washington Park
It seemed in 1900 as though Lucien Lord was broken in spirit and would never recover any appreciable amount of his enthusiasm which had brought him, with many of his friends and supporters, so much grief. But after a decade of business inactivity, during which time he served as Town Treasurer and
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an Assessor, something of his old fire returned. Acquiring of his brother-in-law, George E. Pierce, the so-called West Brook Farm he again employed Mr. Caswell with his transit and soon put out a plan showing some 216 building lots which he of- fered for sale.
Athol was far short of absorbing the upwards of a thousand building lots which he had within the then twenty years past put on the market. It is more surprising that Mr. Lord at- tempted this promotion than it is that the public refused to become interested in it. I think he made a very few sales there, perhaps three or four. Then becoming convinced that he at least could not float another subdivision, he turned the whole area back to his brother-in-law, who soon sold the section west of the Brickyard Road to Jordan & Sellick, who re-surveyed that area and gradually disposed of the lots laid out by them. Since less than two score of these lots are occupied today, even this small portion of the pretentious plan cannot be counted a success.
Park View
This tract of land lying between Gage Road and Partridge- ville Road was long owned by Mrs. Adolphus Bangs, landlady of Pequoig House and by her sold to Diamond Match Company. Early in the real estate boom of upwards of a half century ago Augustus Coolidge acquired an option on the land and laid the whole tract out naming it The Peach Orchard. But that was before the days of the auto, yes before the electric car made its appearance here, when buyers were not attracted to a loca- tion so far from the center.
After many years of idleness Hamilton & Kumin bought it of the Diamond Match Company, soon passing the title along in 1925 to Edward P. Massee of Providence. He re-surveyed and actively promoted the proposition for a time, but with the com- ing of the most recent depression he ceased his activities and the title reverted to Mr. Kumin. Recently there has been quite some activity along Coolidge Street and the public begun again to take an interest in the locality.
Sanders Terrace
In 1924 Alexis J. Grennon acquired several acres south of Harrington Street and naming it Sanders Terrace laid it out into building lots. A few houses have been erected along Birch and Wood Streets. Looking to future building activity buyers are gradually picking up other lots.
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Mapledale
In May, 1862 Amos Doane of Royalston bought of David' Goddard, who then lived at 680 Chestnut Hill Avenue, a part of the westerly portion of his farm and started to build thereon a pretentious home, which he never completed. This whole tract, comprising about five acres, was sold in 1868 to S. S. Farrar of Roylston, who at length sold it to J. Sumner Par- menter and Alpheus Harding. The Doane buildings were never completed sufficiently for occupancy. As they were well roofed they withstood the ravages of the elements and stood there unfinished for nearly twenty years, being commonly called "Doane's Castle" or "Doane's Folly."
Dr. Marshall L. Lindsey acquired the property in 1881 and gradually made the buildings habitable. Soon after his death in 1898 this was sold to Arthur F. Tyler and E. V. Wilson. Mr. Wilson soon acquired the Tyler interests and entered upon a major plan of alterations and improvements. The Doane barn became the house at 151 Silver Lake Street and the dwelling house was numbered 165 in that street.
Some two acres of this area were acquired by the town as a school house lot but the remainder was the property of Mr. Wilson at his death in 1923. His widow soon sold all north of the school house lot to Albert A. Brouillet, who laid out a street graciously named Wilson Avenue and along it some eighteen building lots. The whole subdivision was given the name of Mapledale.
Sunset Terrace
In the heyday of Lucien Lord's prosperity he acquired sev- eral acres of the Hollis Goddard farm directly west and north- west of his home at No. 441 Chestnut Hill Avenue, eventually selling it to his uncle, N. Henry Richardson, who built the house at 486 Chestnut Hill Avenue. After Mr. Richardson's. death this land was not disposed of with the homestead but was ultimately sold to N. D. Cass who used it many years for agricultural purposes. In 1941 his son as local agent cut up the southerly portion of the area into some 12 building lots, naming the subdivision Sunset Terrace.
Goodale Street was already laid out along the southerly boundary of this tract and in 1941 Dinsmore Street was ex- tended from the adjoining Goodale Heights easterly along the northerly line of the lots to Chestnut Hill Avenue.
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Ardendale
One of the many tracts of land owned by John C. Hill at his decease in 1890 was a considerable acreage west of the Syl- vanus Twichell lot, later developed as Intervale.
After this latter subdivision was developed the Hill heirs contemplated another development west of it on their land. To that end they made some surveys and staked out a few streets but the collapse of the real estate boom of that period ended their scheme. The land was sold to Elton M. Bassett and in the adjustment of his estate passed to his son, Harry E. Bassett, who, encouraged by the era of World War II pros- perity, re-surveyed the tract and put it on the market. The some eight acres in the subdivision is laid out into 42 lots with three streets - Western Avenue, Bird Avenue and Castle Avenue, running north and south through it and one street, Lynde Street, along its northern border, Lenox Street as al- ready existing being along its southern line. Abutting Castle Avenue on the west the United States Government built seven buildings out of Army Camp Barracks which relieved the hous- ing shortage for a time but these were finally abandoned and razed in 1952.
Sunshine Park
A considerable acreage of the J. B. Cardany land west of Silver Lake Street was eventually acquired by Exilda Adams, wife of Horton Adams. The southerly half of this acquisition was conveyed to Mrs. Adams' daughter, Celia E. Horrigan, and the northerly part including the dwelling eventually went to the Fredette Family.
For years these people, especially Mr. Horrigan, struggled to get a road opened through their tract and at long last suc- ceeded in getting the easterly end of Lenox Street accepted and built. This opened up a very desirable area for develop- ment. The Horrigans built themselves a home there and have their entire area well planned and many lots sold.
Mr. Fredette's area was quite some larger. He has plotted his entire holdings there, named them Sunshine Park, laid out many streets, and sold many building lots. Eventually the Locke family opened up another tract west of this which Edgar H. Locke acquired of Mrs. Lizzie (Cardany) Mann, and the three have been since 1940 the area of more new homes than any other section of our town.
Various Other Subdivisions
It would be difficult to enumerate the remaining minor sub-
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divisions that various owners have put on the market in the last forty years.
Slate & Lord in 1907 opened up a considerable acreage at White Pond for summer cottage lots and although this was slow in developing, yet today it is practically all disposed of.
Hamilton & Kumin opened up an area off Silver Lake Street, near Sportsmen's Pond but there has never been much activity there.
Around 1905 Herbert S. Goddard built Sunrise Terrace and gradually sold perhaps a half dozen lots there, following it about 1935 by Pitman Road.
Admittedly this is not a complete list of all the various de- velopments projected in the last hundred years, but I think it enumerates most of the major, as well as some of the minor activities.
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CHAPTER XVIII ASSEMBLY HALLS
ORSAKE not the assembling of yourselves together" ad- monishes the Holy Writ, but it would seem that our ances- tors confined their assembling to their religious services. Thus in all our towns we find until modern times no place of gen- eral assembly save the Meeting House.
Every tavern worthy of the name had some sort of a hall adequate for a small assembly, but it was the church edifice alone that could contain the masses.
We find no reference in local annals to any public hall un- til about the close of the eighteenth century. Other chapters of this book tell of the tavern at the Center first operated by Smauel Sweetzer around 1792. Here was a sizable public hall which continued to serve our people until the building was removed in 1854.
Across the way on the corner of Grove Street was the Dis- trict School building, now the dwelling at No. 2 Morse Place, the second floor of which was an assembly hall. It was in that hall that all public gatherings were held after the burning of the third meeting house on July 2, 1827.
After that catastrophe our citizens set about providing them- selves not only with commodious church building now stand- ing at 1307 Main Street but also the Town House, built at about 1521 Main Street, now the dwelling at 1476 Main Street. In 1847 the town disposed of this building but not un- til it had made a treaty with the First Unitarian Church and thrown huge timbers across the interior of their Church Build- ing thus making a Town Hall which was to serve the town as its only official meeting place for nearly 75 years.
In Eliphalet Thorpe's old mill book under date of November 25, 1834 is the notation "Dedication of Mr. Fish's Hall by 150 people-glory enough for one day." This refers to the as- sembly hall in the ell of the Pequoig House, which ell before 1860 was moved to the corner of Main and Canal Streets where St. Francis Church now stands and used as a public hall there for some years. That was the first public hall in the Factory Village and served that section of the town until 1847 when the present Baptist Church edifice was built by joint collab-
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oration of the church and the townspeople, the upper auditor- ium to be exclusively a place of worship while the lower story or present "vestry" was Union Hall, to be used by all the vil- lage folk.
Public spirited citizens in 1871 provided Music Hall, ade- quate for the needs of the whole town at that time. Dedicated on February 7, 1872 it was located at the corner of Main and
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MUSIC HALL, CORNER MAIN AND GROVE STREETS, 1872-1876
Grove Streets with a row of stores along the southerly side, and the main entrance to the auditorium from Main Street. This, while it lasted was a source of pride to the whole town but its duration was short for on April 8, 1876 a disastrous fire entirely consumed it. Rumor to this day throws suspicion on a citizen whose insurance realized as a result of the fire was quite ample but no evidence sufficient to warrant criminal action was ever obtained.
Hardly had this enterprise become a reality when Mr. Charles M. Lee began preparations to provide the Lower Vil- lage with a similar assembly hall. His Starr Hall at corner of Main and Exchange Streets was dedicated on January 8, 1873 and there for a decade the entire lower village flocked for all kinds of assemblies. There Hi Henry's Minstrels gave their an- nual show, there we were thrilled by Uncle Tom's Cabin as
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portrayed by a road troupe, there the Second Unitarian Church met for some two years, there Hubbard V. Smith Post G.A.R. was instituted, there were uncounted Spelling and Singing Schools, and there in the day of rabid Temperance agitation were held the trials of several who were accused of dealing in contraband liquors.
Mr. Albert Ellsworth in 1883 built a rather crude but com- modious skating rink at the corner of Exchange and South Streets and soon this ground floor auditorium superseded Starr Hall in the affections of the people. In 1892 Mr. Ellsworth replaced this building with a modern Opera House which served the Community until it was burned December 8, 1929.
In 1892 Lucien Lord built his Academy of Music which complimented the Opera House in supplying the needs of Athol for it had a level floor while the Opera House was slanted towards the stage. Here were held political rallies, some town meetings, and many dancing parties. With a determination that it should never compete with the local "Movies," and in- spired by the local theatre management, the dismembering of this hall was accomplished after it was acquired by Tully Lodge of Odd Fellows. A part of it is the District Court Room and another section the Lodge room of that society and its affil- iates.
A few years after the Second Unitarian Church was built, a rather crude addition called Unity Hall was affixed to its north side. This had an ample stage and a good floor with galleries on three sides. In it were held the many social activities of that church when it was more prosperous than it is today. By the fire of January 28, 1912 not only the church edifice but the Unity Hall was destroyed. The new church with its Unity Hall in the basement seems to be ample for the needs of that church in these days, but fond memories cluster around the first Unity Hall and the many activities.
Tyler's Hall
Following a disastrous fire of the furniture finishing shop at 576 South Street on February 24, 1877 Pitts C. and Charles H. Tyler built the present building there with two commodious stores on the ground floor and an assembly hall occupying all above the stores. This they named Tyler's Hall which was for a generation a real competitor of Starr Hall for all sorts of gath- erings.
Here noted temperance advocates lectured, political rallys were held and Masonic Balls enjoyed. The author well re-
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members attending there the graduation exercises of the Class of 1879 of our High School.
The hall was the first voting place of Precinct two after the town was divided into precincts in 1889.
After the Webb's Block fire of December 21, 1890 Star Lodge and all other Masonic bodies tenants with them in the burned building held their meetings in Tyler's Hall until new quarters were provided them in Richardson's new block some ten months after the fire.
ATHOL MEMORIAL HALL
In later years it was the lodge room of the Eagles and finally the Franco-American Naturalization Club. In recent years the building was acquired by one Ephraim Corriveau and by him the assembly hall was built over into apartments.
For some years Athol had discussed a new Town Hall Build- ing but had taken no effective action along the line until after World War I when Mr. Frank E. Wing and a few others seized upon the desire to build a Soldiers' Memorial. Easily they con- vinced the town that it was expedient to combine this with a Municipal Building. Mr. Wing, being treasurer of the Star-
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rett Company, had no difficulty in getting the ear of Mr. L. S. Starrett and inducing him to donate the present site for this purpose.
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