USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Needham > History of Needham, Massachusetts, 1711-1911 : including West Needham, now the town of Wellesley, to its separation from Needham in 1881, with some reference to its affairs to 1911 > Part 32
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Wellesley > History of Needham, Massachusetts, 1711-1911 : including West Needham, now the town of Wellesley, to its separation from Needham in 1881, with some reference to its affairs to 1911 > Part 32
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CHARLES RIVER RAILROAD
On March 6, 1851, the town resolved in favor of extending the Charles River Railroad to unite with the New York and Boston Railroad, the resolve to be sent to the General Court. By notice dated December 30, 1851, the subscriptions for the capital stock of the Charles River Railroad were called in to the amount of $25 per share, payable on or before February 2, 1852. On certain days these payments could be made at the following places : - I. Nahaton Hall, Newton Upper Falls. 2. House of Marshall S. Rice, the treasurer, Newton Centre. 3. Office of Artemas Newell, Esq., Brook- line. 4. House of E. K. Whitaker, Needham.
The notice of the opening of the railroad to Needham was dated May 25, 1853, and took place on June I. A special
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train left the Boston and Worcester Railroad station at 12 M. on that day, and stopped five minutes at each way station to receive stockholders and guests. The notice states that "On the arrival of the train, a procession will be formed at the Great Plain Station, Needham, and proceed to a Grove in the vicinity of the station, where a collation will be pro- vided. The return train will leave Needham at 5.15 P.M. Committee of Arrangements
E. C. Hutchins Henry Billings
H. W. Jones Artemas Newell
E. K. Whitaker Marshall S. Rice"
This grove has been for many years owned by John J. Morgan.
The opening of the railroad transferred the business of East Needham to the Great Plain, and in 1879 the meeting- house of the First Church and First Parish was removed from the old Centre, the flag pole, which was a fine tall one, was soon after taken away, and the eclipse of the "Centre" became total.
The unwillingness of one citizen to give his land is said to have led the railroad prospectors to abandon the route by the Centre, and to substitute that over the Great Plain, where land was cheerfully offered. In 1855 the Charles River Railroad became a part of the New York and Boston Railroad Company, and was united with the Charles River Branch Railroad and with certain roads in Rhode Island and Connecticut. In 1865 the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad Company acquired the New York and Boston. In 1873 the General Court ratified and confirmed to the New York and New England Railroad Company all of the fran- chises of the Boston, Hartford and Erie; the former repre- sented the bondholders under the Berdell mortgage of 1866, who had been incorporated as the New York and New Eng- land Railroad Company. This new company was in turn purchased by its mortgagees in 1895, who were authorized to change its name, and they called it the New England
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Railroad Company, although they had been incorporated the previous year as the New England and New York Rail- road Company. The New England Railroad was leased by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company under an Act of the General Court passed in May, 1898, and in 1905 the latter company was authorized to purchase the former, and obtained a deed in the spring of 1908.
In 1871 the town had petitioned for flagmen at the grade crossings.
In 1878 William Emerson Baker completed a large hotel in Needham, which he named Hotel Wellesley, and within a year or so he persuaded the New York and New England Railroad Company to build a branch from their road at Charles River Village to this hotel, raising a bridge over the tracks at Central Avenue, and running along the river to a point southwest of the hotel. This road was op- erated for several summers and then abandoned, the town removing the bridge and restoring Central Avenue to a reasonable grade in 1889. The expense was about $750, of which the railroad paid $300, and Harold W. Windram $200.
In 1889 the town had a controversy with the railroad as to Oak Street, as the County Commissioners refused to lay out a road over a railroad crossing at grade. The railroad claimed the right to close the crossing, and the town brought suit, employing Henry E. Fales as counsel. The next year the town removed the obstructions placed by the railroad company, replanked the crossing, and ultimately won its contention. This is not the only instance in which the town has had a controversy with the steam railroad, and in later years dissatisfaction with the street railways has led to official action from time to time.
At a town meeting on December 21, 1892, the town unani- mously urged the Old Colony Railroad Company to build a road from South Framingham to West Roxbury, and offered "a free right of way over lands owned by the town
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within the town", but nothing more than surveys resulted, and presumably these were not inspired by the town's liberal offer.
STREET RAILWAYS
In March or April, 1893, the selectmen of Needham granted a franchise to the Needham Street Railway Company from the Wellesley line to the Dedham line over Great Plain Avenue, also over Webster Street, and on Great Plain Avenue and Highland Avenue from the Needham post-office to the Newton line. The petition was signed by William Carter, William G. Moseley, James Mackintosh and thirteen others. It was an ambitious project, and in March, 1893, the petitioners, or some of them, asked the Board of Aldermen of the City of Newton for a franchise over some of the principal streets of that city, the descrip- tion ending with "through Walnut Street to the Boston and Albany Railroad in said City of Newton". The location granted in Needham was accepted by the directors of the company on April 8, 1893. Dr. Albert D. Kingsbury was then an officer of the corporation, and subscriptions were received for stock. On January 7, 1896, the selectmen conceded a franchise to the Needham and Newton Street Railway Company to lay tracks on the easterly side of Chapel Street to Highland Avenue, thence on the easterly side of this avenue to Morton Street, thence in the centre of the avenue to a point opposite a private way on the north side of the property of the Methodist Church, thence on said Highland Avenue, on the easterly side, to the Newton line. Charles Atherton Hicks was interested in this enter- prise, as in others for the development of the town. A bond of $1000 was given as a guarantee, but the death of Albert C. Pond of Newton prevented the construction of the railroad, and the town surrendered the bond, after some discussion.
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THE NEWTON AND BOSTON STREET RAILWAY COMPANY
The Newton and Boston Street Railway Company re- ceived a franchise from the selectmen, William G. Moseley, Francis L. Fuller and George K. Clarke, on February 2, 1897, and was the first street railway built and operated in Needham. The locations were accepted by the directors on February 24th. The corporation was desirous of this franchise, and the selectmen were negotiating in order to protect the town from expense caused by damage to its streets while the road was being built, and to have the company assume certain responsibilities for the care of the streets it was to use, particularly with reference to the removal of snow. Reduced fares for the school children, and the acceptance of transfer checks from other street railways within the limits of the town, so that but one fare should be collected for a continuous ride from one section to another, were matters then under consideration, and everything was progressing favorably. A public hearing was necessary, and it was held in the town hall on December 7, 1896, where it was declared that the road was "a neces- sity", the selectmen were criticized for attempting to pro- tect the interests of the town, and everything was to be left to the generosity of the railroad officials. "What we want is a railroad, and I don't care whether the fare is five cents or ten" was the statement of one orator, and equally discreet sentiments were expressed by others to the evident amusement of the representatives of the Newton and Boston Street Railway Company. The selectmen declined to accept the verdict of this meeting, but were nevertheless embarrassed by its action, and could not secure for the citizens all of the advantages that they might otherwise have had. Early in 1907 grievances against this street railway company were discussed in town meetings, but the events at the time the franchise was granted were ignored, and criticism was confined to the selectmen for
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1907. The petitioners for this railway were Horace B. Parker and five others, and their petition of November 10, 1896, asked for a franchise "to the Square at Needham De- pot", but this the selectmen, with a view to the future, refused to grant, and time has shown the wisdom of their position. Extensions of this franchise have been granted, but only two of them are of special interest. On January 15, 1900, a permit was given to extend wires on three poles of the West Roxbury and Roslindale Street Railway Com- pany, across the tracks of the steam railroad, in order to supply the Natick and Cochituate Street Railway Company with additional power. On February 1, 1907, an extension of the tracks on Chestnut Street, from South Street to Great Plain Avenue, was granted.
THE NATICK AND COCHITUATE STREET RAILWAY COMPANY
This was the second street railway that materialized in Needham, and the location or franchise was obtained from the selectmen of Needham on November 1, 1897, and the first car ran from Wellesley to Needham at one o'clock P.M., on April 6, 1899. The franchise had granted a location not only to the present terminus, but to the Dedham line via Great Plain Avenue, Dedham Avenue and Great Plain Avenue again to the Dedham line, but the location east of the track of the steam railroad was subsequently can- celled by mutual consent, and would have expired by limi- tation on November 1, 1899.
OTHER STREET RAILWAYS
The Needham and Boston Street Railway Company was granted a location by the selectmen on November 10, 1898, on petition of Charles Atherton Hicks and four others. The railway was to start on the easterly side of the tracks of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Com- pany (New England Railroad Company), and to run over
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Great Plain Avenue to the Dedham line. It was to be com- pleted by June 1, 1899, but on May 25, 1899, the select- men extended the time one month. On February 14, 1899, an additional location via Dedham and Harris Avenues to Great Plain Avenue, crossing Webster Street, had been granted by the selectmen, and this was practically substi- tuted for the earlier plan so far as the route was changed by it. Charles Atherton Hicks, who subscribed for sixty shares, was president of this railway company, Frederic G. Tuttle clerk, and Edward F. Howe treasurer, but the con- trol was acquired by others, who built the road, which was advertised to open for travel on June 28, 1899. On June 6 the selectmen had consented that the Needham and Boston Street Railway Company should exchange cars with the West Roxbury and Roslindale Street Railway Company at the Dedham line. In 1900 the Needham and Boston became a part of the West Roxbury and Roslindale Street Railway, and in 1901 of the Old Colony Street Railway. On peti- tion of seven men, including some citizens of Needham, a franchise was granted on November 4, 1899, to the Natick
and Needham Street Railway Company. The route was from Great Plain Avenue, over Chestnut, South and Charles River Streets to the Dover line. In 1901 this railway be- came a part of the South Middlesex Street Railway, and the cars ceased to run on December 18, 1903. Within two years the tracks were removed, with the exception of those on Chestnut Street, which were later acquired by the Newton and Boston Street Railway Company. The selectmen, however, for a time withheld the franchise from the latter company because it increased its fares to six cents, and required two fares instead of one to Watertown. When the Natick and Needham Street Railway was first opened there was considerable travel over it, as was the case with all of these roads, but in this instance it was particularly dependent upon pleasure riders and did not last.
On November 28, 1899, the selectmen granted a franchise
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to the Medfield and Needham Street Railway Company from Day's Bridge on Chestnut Street to South Street, but no road was built, nor has the Boston and Providence Street Railway Company availed of a franchise granted them by the selectmen on March 5, 1905. This latter road was petitioned for by James F. Shaw and four others, under date of December 6, 1904, and the proposed route was .on Highland Avenue to Webster Street, thence on Webster Street to its intersection with Great Plain Avenue, thence via this avenue and Chestnut Street to the Dover line at Day's Bridge.
NEW STEAM RAILROAD
In August, 1905, the New England Railroad Company began to build a railroad from a point south of the Needham station in order to connect with the Boston and Provi- dence Railroad at West Roxbury. Both of these railroads were leased and operated by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company. The lease of the Boston and Providence to the Old Colony Railroad Company was the first of the consolidations now controlled by the New York, New Haven and Hartford. This new railroad was elaborately constructed, with many costly bridges over the roads, several of them in Needham, and was completed and opened for travel on Sunday morning, November 4, 1906. Its superior service has brought Needham within twenty-one minutes of the South Terminal station; many of the trains are express between the new station at Need- ham Junction and the Back Bay, and others stop only at West Roxbury. In 1911 an extensive granolithic platform, largely roofed, was completed at the Needham station.
All of these railroads, including the street railways, had formal openings, and the first cars run were practically private cars, as is the custon.
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ENGINEERS AND CONDUCTORS
Henry Hitchcock ran the engine that drew the train at the opening of the Charles River Railroad, but whether this was the opening through to Needham is uncertain. In the early days of this railroad Mr. Hitchcock was the engineer between Brookline and Needham, and drove the "Mercury", James M. Alger taking the train between Brookline and Boston with the "Lion". Mr. Alger had driven the "Lion" drawing the gravel cars between the Upper Falls and Brookline during the construction of the railroad. The "Marshall Rice" and the "Hiram Allen" are said to have been the first engines in regular use on the Charles River Railroad.
From 1861 to the present time (1911) Myron A. Munson has been known to successive generations as a conductor, and a respected citizen of Needham. He is in charge of trains between Boston and Cook Street, via the railroad completed in 1906, and has survived all the re-organiza- tions, leases and sales of the different railroads connecting Needham with Boston. Another genial and popular con- ductor, and a familiar figure to all who have used the steam railroad for the past thirty years, was George Frederick Story, who succeeded Luther J. Hamlett of Woonsocket. Mr. Story died November 2 (or 1), 1909.
For a quarter of a century Edmund C. Hawes of Woon- socket ran trains through Needham, retiring in the early nineties on account of age. Mr. Hawes is pleasantly re- membered. For twenty-two years ending in 1889 Enos H. Tucker was the superintendent of the Woonsocket Divi- sion, and his son, Frederic H. Tucker, who was a railroad official for thirty years, acquired his early experience on this division. Of the engineers Horace [G .? ] Witherell was a faithful servant of the public, who lost his life many years ago at the crossing of the Providence Railroad, near Hunt- ington Avenue. John Heath and Charles A. Lord, both
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citizens of Needham, are veteran drivers of the locomo- tives that have drawn in safety the train loads of people to and from their daily occupations in the city. Isaiah W. Heath and Daniel Barnes were for years engineers on the Woonsocket Division, and both lived in Needham.
FILLING OF THE BACK BAY IN BOSTON WITH SOIL FROM NEEDHAM
In 1859 Myron C. Munson of Shirley began to transport gravel to fill the Back Bay in Boston from East Needham, near the Charles River and southeast of the village of the Upper Falls. Powerful locomotives drawing forty loaded cars, and the best machinery were employed, and in ten years hills were levelled, more than one hundred acres east of the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad were totally changed in character, and the work was extended west of the railroad to Central Avenue. In this territory were several special tracks, and two hundred men were required, as there was no cessation of the trains at night. This re- moval of gravel from Needham continued into the early seventies. The first reference to it is the vote of the town on December 27, 1859, which referred to the selectmen the proposition of the "Gravel Company" as to taking down the hill between Otis Alden's and Josiah Eaton's, and in June, 1863, an offer of Mr. Munson to remove the hill near Kendrick's Bridge, and to build a proper road, was re- ferred to the selectmen, with the provision that Mr. Munson give a bond, which he did, and as late as 1873 this bond was the subject of discussion. Hundreds of acres were transformed into a desert by the removal of this soil, to the depth of many feet, and for twenty-five years the land was practically of no value, and the valuation of $10 per acre was thought to be high.
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LAND ENTERPRISES
In 1853 Daniel Ayers of Lowell bought the Jesse (Luther) Kingsbury farm of sixty-eight acres, which extended from Washington to Worcester Streets, and on the southeast side of the former to the brook. Mr. Ayers built Kingsbury and State Streets through this farm, and he also purchased one hundred and seventy-five acres of Holman, Paine and Childs, between Forest Street and Wellesley Avenue, reaching from Washington Street and the aqueduct to a point opposite the Abbott Road. This territory was called Bostonville, and was the subject of the first real estate boom in Needham; auctions were held and free lunches provided for possible purchasers. It does not appear whether people were brought to these auctions at the expense of the owners of the land, as was the custom in the nineties when such sales occurred at River, Fremont or Home Parks.
In Bostonville space was left for Churches, school- houses and other public buildings, and for a time there was active competition to secure lots in the contemplated city, which Mr. Ayers assured the purchasers was inevitable. This land in Bostonville was the first that was taxed in lots in Needham, and in the sixties was designated by the names of its former owners, - Kingsbury Land, Paine Land or Holman Land. In 1860 the Blanchard Land was also assessed in lots to many different owners.
Soon after the railroad came to the Great Plain, a Mr. Whitaker made a prospective plan of "Needham Great Plain Village," showing a thickly settled place, with a high school where is now the blacksmith's shop of John H. Fitzgerald. Highland Avenue was then called East Street. The land of Stephen F. Harvey, on the west side of Chest- nut Street, was laid out in lots for a long distance, and also the land of Charles E. Keith to the west of it, and close to the railroad. About 1854 Mr. Harvey built Village Hall, which was a small structure.
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From 1869 to 1872 many houses were built in East Need- ham, as well as in West Needham, and the demand for house-lots led to the belief that the whole town was about to show a rapid growth. Charles E. Keith and others on the Great Plain had been enthusiastic for years, and some of them had paid high prices for fields and pastures, which, in some instances, they still possessed in 1905. The Nehoiden Land Company was organized by William H. Crocker in 1875, and offered attractive building sites on the Great Plain. About the same time the Avery Land at Highland- ville had been divided into lots, and was owned by William Carter, and in the West John W. Shaw had laid out in lots an estate on Laurel Avenue. Similar enterprises multi- plied. Prior to 1876 Dr. Albert E. Miller was the owner of the Colburn and Morton estates (Nehoiden Land Com- pany), and that year became a resident of Needham, and rapidly developed "Millerville", where he built and sold many houses. William Carter was constantly engaged in land and building enterprises in Highlandville, which vil- lage owed its origin to the courage and foresight of his father- in-law, Jonathan Avery, who induced industries to locate there, provided houses, and is justly regarded as the founder of this important portion of the town. Avery Square, Avery Street, and the Avery School perpetuate his memory.
The years 1893 and 1894 saw the beginning of a number of the "parks" that since have attracted much attention. On the Great Plain there were several fine tracts of land offered for sale in lots, including Oakland Park, of which John Moseley is the owner, and Oakhurst, then controlled or owned by Charles Atherton Hicks, who constructed a costly boulevard through it, on which the tracks of the street railway, now the Old Colony, were laid. Mr. Hicks was usually in advance of the time, but there can be no question that his enterprises benefited the town, if not the investor.
Dr. Larkin Dunton developed River Park, one hundred
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and twenty acres on the west side of the railroad, near the Upper Falls, and also, to a smaller extent, Home Park, for- merly Fuller Land, on the east side of Highland Avenue. Frank W. Yerxa was the principal owner of Fremont Park, which, before there were sales, contained sixty acres. This park is on Highland Avenue, and southeast of River Park, and at the junction of Central and Wellesley Avenues was Highland Park, which had less area than some of the other parks in that vicinity, and by 1898 had many owners. In some instances lots of five thousand feet in one of these parks were sold for more than the assessed valuation of ten acres of the same land when the parks were first planned and laid out. The sales in the larger parks near the river were usually at auction on Saturday afternoons, and often on the installment plan. Subsequent to 1900, particularly after the new railroad was opened in 1906, the development of real estate was rapid, and cannot be followed in this history; the advance in prices has corresponded with the increased demand for houses and house-lots. The Co- operative Bank has been an important factor in the growth of the town, and The Needham Associates, consisting of Dr. Albert E. Miller, F. Ernest Thorpe, and a Boston partner, have built seventeen good houses in six years at a cost of nearly $100,000, and Mr. Thorpe, the active asso- ciate, has bought and sold a large amount of other prop- erty for this trust, or syndicate. The assessed valuation of some of the land that has been improved by these Asso- ciates has increased six fold.
BANKS
The Needham Savings Bank was incorporated on April 7, 1874, and the Honorable Galen Orr became its president, and Emery Grover secretary and treasurer, but the bank never did a large business, and after a few years it was given up. The depositors received their money in full, but lost some interest.
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The Needham Co-operative Bank was incorporated on April 21, 1892, and began business on May 9. This bank is one of the most important and successful institutions in Needham, and from January 8, 1906 to May 1, 1911, its assets increased from about $100,000 to $309,392.29. On May 1, 1911, there were nine hundred and thirty-nine members, and there were seven thousand five hundred and ninety-eight shares, the latter representing twenty-three of the thirty-eight issues. The thirty-ninth series of shares is now offered for sale, and the bank has paid at the rate of six per cent, compounded semi-annually, from its in- corporation. The authorized capital is one million dollars. Dr. Albert E. Miller has been the president and William G. Moseley the secretary and treasurer from the beginning, and the management has been both prudent and enter- prising, resulting in a bank which has the confidence of the community. The bank held its first meeting in the town hall in the Bourne Building, as it is now called, and for fourteen years had its office in this building, renting the library room for certain hours. From the autumn of 1898 it regularly leased these premises until the room was granted by the town to the Grand Army of the Republic, when the bank was removed to the banqueting hall above, returning to the second floor when the town clerk transferred his office to the new town hall. In 1906 the bank moved into a commodious banking-office at 234 Great Plain Avenue, in Fowler's Block, and on November 1, 1910, it occupied a still more spacious office at 232 Great Plain Avenue, where the treasurer is on duty an entire day and evening each month, and at advertised hours at other times.
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