USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Winchester > History of Winchester, Massachusetts > Part 29
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Twelve patients were accommodated at first, six in wards and six in one- or two-bed rooms. The nursing was attended to by grad- uate nurses, but this proved so expensive that in the fall a training school was established and four student nurses were received. Miss Grace Cushing was the first superintendent. The very first year proved the demand for a hospital in Winchester. The beds were continuously occupied, and many who wished to enter had to be denied for want of room. It was an interesting fact that not a few patients came from surrounding towns - Woburn, Stoneham and Reading in particular; a larger hospital it was clear could depend for patronage on a wider territory than Winchester alone. The Visiting Nurse Association took the lead as usual in raising the money needed to enlarge the existing hospital or provide a new and
1 Winchester Star, January 15, May 14, August 27, September 3, 1909.
3II
THE HOSPITAL
more adequate one. By a canvass of the town October 6, 1913 they raised about $22,000,1 and in the following spring a committee of the men of Winchester secured additional subscriptions of $25,000.
With approximately $50,000 in hand the association boldly determined to erect a new and modern hospital building. The large lot on Highland Avenue at Fairmount Street was bought, and Kendall and Taylor of Boston were employed as architects. It was not until May 18, 1916 that the cornerstone was laid by Mrs. Joshua Coit and Mrs. O. C. Sanborn, chairmen of the build- ing committee. Governor McCall was present, and an address was delivered by Mrs. Henry L. Houghton, who had been from the first one of the most active and devoted leaders of the Visiting Nurse Association. The occasion was made memorable by the unexpected announcement by Mr. George Harrington that the will of his mother contained the bequest of $50,000 - the sum she had offered the town seven years before - for the endowment of the hospital.2
The new building was opened for patients almost exactly a year later,3 and at the same time a nurses' home was ready for occu- pancy; $10,000 had been secured for that purpose from the Andrew O. Slater Fund, of which Mr. Alfred C. Vinton of Winchester was a trustee.
The Winchester Hospital has been doubled in size since 1917. Within seven years from the dedication of the new building it was overcrowded and its endowment was entirely inadequate to its needs. Annual campaigns for subscriptions to its deficit were required. A committee of ladies, among whom Mrs. Oren C. Sanborn was the moving spirit, promoted an annual Pop concert, the proceeds of which went for the maintenance of the operating rooms, but still the institution was financially needy. In 1924 therefore Winchester saw a thoroughly organized "Hospital Drive" to raise $250,000 for additions to the hospital building and its endowment fund. Committees of men and women were formed; the town was divided into districts, in each of which "teams" of earnest canvassers went from house to house urging subscriptions. The drive began with an enthusiastic dinner - with appropriate speeches - in the town hall; it ended on April 1 with $232,100
1 Winchester Star, October 3, November 21, 1913.
2 Winchester Star, May 19, 1916.
3 It was formally dedicated June 30, 1917.
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HISTORY OF WINCHESTER
subscribed,1 including a bequest of $20,000 from Mr. George L. Huntress.
With the funds thus provided, a considerable addition to the hospital was built, and its equipment brought up to the highest modern standard. It is today one of the best small hospitals in the state, thoroughly equipped for both medical and surgical treatment and for work with the X-ray. It stands in a high and airy location, amid spacious and attractive grounds. It has eighty-five beds in wards, private rooms, maternity and nursery departments. Six are endowed free beds and twenty-five are in the wards.
The extent of the service it renders to the community may be gathered from the statistics for 1934-1935. During those twelve months 1,422 patients were received and treated, in addition to 133 out-patients. Eight hundred and nineteen were from other towns than Winchester; 70 physicians sent patients to the hospital; 1,809 radiographs were taken; 229 babies were born within the building. The endowment funds now amount to $195,571. Mr. Albert K. Comins is the president of the hospital, Mr. Frank E. Crawford its financial manager. Dr. Clarence E. Ordway is chief of the medical and surgical staff which includes seventeen physicians and a consulting staff of twenty-one specialists. Miss Louise Dempsey is supervisor of nursing.
In 1933 the nurses' training school was discontinued; it had graduated, during the twenty years of its existence, ninety-two nurses. A year later the hospital and the Visiting Nurse Association were divorced. The hospital is now a separate corporation; the Visiting Nurse Association has changed its title to the Winchester District Nursing Association.
Another beneficent local institution is the Home for Aged People at Mt. Vernon and Kendall streets. The house was opened in 18942 in consequence of a bequest of $2,000 for the purpose by the late Philip Waldmyer, owner of the tannery originally founded by Deacon B. F.Thompson. It was necessary to raise additional money in order to purchase and furnish the house at No. 2 Kendall Street; this was done by a committee of citizens of which Alfred S. Hall
1 Winchester Star, March 21, March 25, April 4, 1924.
2 It was dedicated on April 8, 1894.
THE WINCHESTER HOSPITAL
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TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
was the leading spirit. The house, though its means were narrow at first, has been continuously successful. It was able to accom- modate only four persons when first opened. Successive enlarge- ments, including the purchase of the house at No. 110 Mt. Vernon Street and its integral connection with the earlier building, have increased the size of the home until it can now take care of sixteen inmates. Its rooms are always full, and it is excellently managed; it is a "home" in every sense of the word; a happy retreat from the cares and anxieties of daily life for the elderly and aged men and women who are so fortunate as to be admitted to it. The presi- dents, in addition to Mr. A. S. Hall, who was the first, have been Preston Pond, Fred Joy, Nelson H. Seelye and Frank E. Crawford. It would take too much space to enumerate all the worthy men and women who have given their services as officers and directors of the Home; the institution has had the devoted support of great numbers of the citizens of the town from its beginnings to the present day. Its permanent fund amounts to $120,000 in addition to the value of the real estate which it holds. Some twenty resi- dents of the town have generously remembered it in their bequests.
The decade 1890-1900 saw two interesting historical celebra- tions in Winchester. In 1890 the town observed the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its settlement by Edward Converse and the Richardsons. In 1900 it celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its incorporation as a town. The first occasion was really memo- rable. The arrangements were in the hands of an active committee - J. F. Dorsey, Henry A. Emerson, Louis Barta, Henry F. John- son and Edwin Robinson. A goodly sum was raised by popular subscription for the expenses of the celebration which was fixed for July 4, 1890. The day was fine and the town was crowded with visitors who poured in to witness the proceedings.
The procession, with Edwin Robinson as chief marshal and Major William H. Oakes of the Fifth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, Joseph J. Todd and Henry A. Emerson marshals of its three divisions, was long and interesting. The Woburn Phalanx, the Charlestown Cadets and the Lawrence Light Guards of Medford, appropriately preceded by brass bands, represented the military, and were followed by the Winchester fire department
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HISTORY OF WINCHESTER
-- the steam fire engine, the five hose companies and the hook and ladder company in full regalia.
The second division consisted of a number of interesting his- torical floats-the landing of the Pilgrims, the Aberjona tribe of Indians, the response to Paul Revere's ride, Samuel Richardson the first and his wife, and groups of young girls representing the thirteen original states and the forty-two states that then consti- tuted the Union. A battalion in colonial uniform from G. A. R. Post 15 of Boston and a company of kilties from the Clan Mckinnon of Woburn also marched in this division, which was diversified by a coaching party from the Calumet Club, and two children of Thomas W. Lawson in a pony cart representing "Young America."
The third division consisted of wagons, often tastefully dec- orated, representing the various industries and private businesses of the town. The procession wound its way through the principal streets between lines of houses gaily decorated with flags and bunt- ing. It was voted by citizens and visitors alike a very creditable affair.1
The anniversary dinner was held in a large tent erected on the vacant land behind the Episcopal - now the Christian Science - Church which Mr. Nelson Skillings had offered for the occasion. Mr. Abijah Thompson presided over the exercises and Hon. Samuel W. McCall was the orator of the day. He delivered a sound and scholarly address on the historic associations of the day and the character of the government which we have inherited from the forefathers. Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge, whom Mr. McCall was shortly to succeed in Congress, came on from Washington to deliver a graceful little speech, and Mr. Henry H. Edes, representing the ancient town of Charlestown, and Mayor Edward F. Johnson of Woburn also spoke. Mayor Johnson permitted himself to rally the people of Winchester humorously for their presumption in cele- brating an event that really occurred in the old town of Woburn two hundred years before Winchester became a town at all, but admitted that "no such celebration as this had ever taken place in the territory embraced in the old township of Woburn. In a family existing for two hundred and fifty years, the youngest child is
1 For a full account of the day's events, including the speeches at the dinner, see the Winchester Star, July 12, 1890.
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TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
entitled to the respect and honor of being the first to celebrate the deeds of our ancestors on a scale proportionate to their importance."
The day closed with band concerts and fireworks. Edward Converse, if his spirit were able to look down on this celebration of his courageous invasion of the forested wilderness of Waterfield, must have smiled with satisfaction at the prosperous outcome of his labors.
The fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of Winchester did not pass without observance, but was of a very quiet sort. The town, as such, took no steps to celebrate it;1 but the Calumet Club under the vigorous direction of its president, Edgar J. Rich, determined to mark the thirtieth of April with appropriate exer- cises. There was a reception and dinner at the clubhouse, to which as many of the leading citizens of the town as the house would accommodate were invited. Mr. Arthur E. Whitney delivered a long and extremely interesting address on the early history of the territory now included in Winchester, and Rev. John W. Suter and Mr. N. A. Richardson also spoke.
1 It did appropriate $500 at a special town meeting in November 1899, but at the March meeting the vote was reconsidered and defeated.
CHAPTER XXI
THE GRADE CROSSING CONTROVERSY. WINCHESTER IN THE WORLD WAR. TERCENTENARY CELEBRATION
No history of Winchester can avoid extended mention of the grade-crossing controversy which has agitated the town at recur- rent intervals for many years. From the very first building of the railroad the problem has existed; for the rails crossed at grade not one only but both of the principal traffic arteries of the town and at their precise point of intersection. Obviously the obstruction of traffic was bound to be serious, and the likelihood of fatal accidents considerable. When the Boston and Lowell railroad was built, this Winchester crossing was, with the exception of that at High Street, West Medford, the only level crossing between the two cities. It was even then regarded as dangerous, though traffic both by rail and highway was inconsequential compared to what it is today. The act incorporating the railway provided that the tracks should not "imperil or obstruct the safe and convenient use of any . . . high- way," and empowered the corporation to raise or lower any high- way that it crossed, if necessary, to avoid obstruction of travel.
As a matter of fact the abolition of the Winchester grade crossing was officially ordered - and this will surprise many Win- chester people - one hundred years ago. The County Commis- sioners met at Abel Richardson's house on November 21, 1834, viewed the location of the railway and directed the highways (Church and Main streets; the present Mt. Vernon Street was not then in existence) to be altered and elevated, so as to pass over the tracks. Main Street was to be relocated, passing over the mill pond and through what is now Converse Place, rising gradually all the way; it was then to turn sharply to the west, in the line of the present Mt. Vernon Street, and be carried over the tracks to meet Church Street, which was also to be elevated from a point near the present Common Street, but not changed in its course. Beyond the bridge, Main Street was to be graded downward, till it reached its
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GRADE CROSSING CONTROVERSY
old level somewhere near Park Street.1 This order was definite enough, but for some reason it was never complied with. Instead the railroad erected the ponderous gates over the crossing which for a time gave the village the name of "Woburn Gates."
The increasing inconvenience of the grade crossing led eventu- ally as we have seen, to the removal of the railway station from its original site beside the crossing to its present location. The original gates in time were taken down and for many years the crossing had no other protection than a flagman and conspicuously painted signs warning the public to "look out for the engine when the bell rings." Conditions grew worse, as the years passed; the selectmen were in continual correspondence with the railroad, demanding that the gates be restored,2 objecting to the practice of detaching a Woburn car from a passing train so that it should "coast" up over the crossing some time after the rest of the train had passed;3 protesting against occasional freight trains standing upon the cross- ing and blocking it completely "in some instances as long as twenty minutes,"4 and so forth.
These nuisances were abated; new gates were put up, and the veteran Patrick Holland was put in charge of them. But traffic continued to increase and accidents to occur with disquieting fre- quency. The Winchester Star once published a list of forty fatal accidents that had occurred on the railway tracks from 1852 to 1914, twenty-five of them between 1882 and 1905.5 By no means all of them happened at the crossing. A few persons were killed at the stations incautiously boarding or alighting from trains, and a great many lost their lives while using the tracks as a footpath from the center across Black Ball Pond to Spruce Street before the town made use of its annual accumulation of ashes to build a real path alongside the tracks. But between 1900 and 1905 four persons were killed by railway trains at the crossing itself. The town was greatly stirred in consequence and determined that the grade crossing must forthwith be abolished.
The law at that time provided that in such a case a town might
1 Records of Middlesex County commissioners, 1831-1835, page 471. See an interesting article by Arthur E. Whitney in the Winchester Star, December 7, 1906.
2 June 23, 1880.
3 June 23, 1880.
4 November 9, 1881.
5 February 20, 1914.
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HISTORY OF WINCHESTER
petition the Superior Court, which would thereupon appoint three special commissioners to hear the plea, decide whether necessity existed for abolishing the crossing, and, if it existed, in what way it should be done. The expenses of abolition were to be borne by the railroad involved, the Commonwealth and the town - sixty- five per cent by the railway and not more than ten per cent by the town. By direction of the town meeting1 the selectmen filed the required petition in court, and in January 1906 the court appointed George W. Wiggin, Arthur Lord and George F. Swain special com- missioners to sit upon the case. The commissioners were agreed that the crossing was a dangerous one and ought to be abolished; nor did the railroad object, provided the cost were not excessive. The question was how best to go about it, and on that point a great diversity of opinion at once developed itself among the townspeople.
Obviously the ideal plan would be to depress the tracks through the center of the town. Unfortunately that was impos- sible. They would have to be lowered fifteen feet or more at the center, but the crossing is a bare twenty-eight feet above sea level, the subsoil is saturated with water, and the Aberjona has to be crossed only a short distance north of the center. The selectmen took the matter vigorously in hand,2 and presently had a plan to propose to the town and to the commissioners. It had been worked out by Irving T. Guild, landscape architect, and John L. Brown, engineer, and it was known variously as the Guild plan, the select- men's plan and, after its approval by the town, as the town plan. By this plan the tracks were to be depressed three feet and the highways raised to a maximum of sixteen feet at the bridge. That would require, of course, the elevation of every store or business building at the center of the town from three to fourteen feet according to its location, and it was the expense of doing so that was the chief objection to the plan.
Another solution was proposed by Ralph S. Vinal, a resident of Winchester. He would do away with the present crossing entirely and carry the highways across the railway by a new road, passing from Church Street at or near Common Street over the tracks just
1 July 17, 1905.
2 George Adams Woods, Samuel S. Symmes, Frank E. Rowe, William E. Beggs and William D. Richards formed the board.
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north of the station and so through Waterfield Road to South Main Street at the Parkway corner, while access to the center itself would be provided through a widened Thompson Street. This would be less expensive but it was vigorously opposed by those doing business at the center on the ground that it would change the natural routes of travel disastrously and leave the center of the town cut quite in two.1
Besides these two plans, over the merits of which the towns- people divided and wrangled earnestly, there were other sugges- tions, different in one or several details. We read of the Braddock plan, the Symmes plan, the Redfern plan and others; but none of them were seriously considered. The railroad had no plan to offer, and at a town meeting held in November 1906 the town appointed a committee of leading citizens to study and report on the various methods of abolition proposed.2 The committee surprised every one by reporting in favor of a new plan, the "stone arch bridge" plan so-called, by which the railroad was to be carried through the town on an elevated viaduct and cross the highways at the center on a bridge of two wide stone arches. Incidentally the street level at the crossing was to be lowered seven feet. The committee's plan was loudly assailed by almost every one in town. The viaduct would be noisy and unsightly. The drainage of the streets in the hollow beneath the bridges would be impossible, the passage under the arches would be dark and dangerous. At the special town meeting of February 11, 1907 over which Moderator Arthur H. Russell presided, there was an abundance of oratory, but it was one sided. The advocates of all the other plans made common cause; the committee had no friends; their proposal was voted down almost unanimously.
This left the situation in confusion. The town had rejected the advice of its committee, and though at a later meeting it did vote to approve the selectmen's plan, and recommend it to the commissioners, it was known that public opinion was still divided.
1 For a complete account of the controversy, with maps and estimates of cost for the various plans, see Special Report of the Selectmen issued in February 1929.
2 The committee originally consisted of Charles T. Main, the distinguished civil engineer, George A. Woods, Marcus B. May, John L. Ayer, Marshall W. Jones, Lewis Parkhurst, Alfred Clarke, W. J. Daly, Warren F. Witherell, Addison R. Pike, S. D. Leland, Jere A. Downs, Winfield F. Prime, Francis J. O'Hara and Freeland E. Hovey. Mr. Pike withdrew and his place was filled by Daniel B. Badger.
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HISTORY OF WINCHESTER
Only two hundred and five citizens had actually voted for the select- men's plan at town meeting out of more than fifteen hundred quali- fied voters. The Boston and Maine Railroad also entered loud objections on account of the costliness of the plan, which it was estimated would consume not less than $900,000. The commission hesitated, delayed; held hearings, but put off its decision. It was evident that they sympathized with the railroad in the matter of expense and did not mean to condemn it to pay $600,000 for abol- ishing a single crossing.
IQII came. The town, restive under continued delays, ap- pointed another committee1 to see if something could not be done to present a plan on which all could agree. This committee recom- mended a plan reminiscent of the Vinal plan, with a way from Church and Main streets, crossing the tracks at the station and closing the crossing at the center entirely. The town would have none of it. It voted it down 168 to 21 and also slaughtered a revived stone arch bridge plan 143 to 27. It was now the selectmen's plan or nothing so far as Winchester was officially concerned.
At last in December 1914 the special commission, harassed by the complaints of the town at its long delay, brought in a report. It held that public necessity did not require so expensive an aboli- tion as the town plan, and recommended a somewhat modified Vinal plan, without the proposed widening of Thompson Street as a means of reaching the center. Their recommendation went for final approval to the Public Service Commissioners, and the town, through its counsel, Charles F. Dutch, opposed it vigorously. It was disposed to insist on its own plan - the old selectmen's plan - and to accept no other. The Public Service Commissioners rejected the report of the special commission on March 14, 1916, because the proposed plan "encroached on property dedicated by the town to park and playground purposes, makes long and circuitous detours from long established routes of travel ... and would affect injuri- ously, if not destroy, the business center of the town." After ten years of agitation, struggle and heart burning, Winchester was back precisely where it started from. The grade crossing was still there.
The excitement of the war years, 1917-1918, and the financial
1 Maurice F. Brown, John Abbott, Robert Coit, Vincent Farnsworth and Fred- eric S. Snyder.
C
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HISTORY OF WINCHESTER
Only two hundred and five citizens had actually voted for the select- men's plan at town meeting out of more than fifteen hundred quali- fied voters. The Boston and Maine Railroad also entered loud objections on account of the costliness of the plan, which it was estimated would consume not less than $900,000. The commission hesitated, delayed; held hearings, but put off its decision. It was evident that they sympathized with the railroad in the matter of expense and did not mean to condemn it to pay $600,000 for abol- ishing a single crossing.
IQII came. The town, restive under continued delays, ap- pointed another committee1 to see if something could not be done to present a plan on which all could agree. This committee recom- mended a plan reminiscent of the Vinal plan, with a way from Church and Main streets, crossing the tracks at the station and closing the crossing at the center entirely. The town would have none of it. It voted it down 168 to 21 and also slaughtered a revived stone arch bridge plan 143 to 27. It was now the selectmen's plan or nothing so far as Winchester was officially concerned.
At last in December 1914 the special commission, harassed by the complaints of the town at its long delay, brought in a report. It held that public necessity did not require so expensive an aboli- tion as the town plan, and recommended a somewhat modified Vinal plan, without the proposed widening of Thompson Street as a means of reaching the center. Their recommendation went for final approval to the Public Service Commissioners, and the town, through its counsel, Charles F. Dutch, opposed it vigorously. It was disposed to insist on its own plan - the old selectmen's plan - and to accept no other. The Public Service Commissioners rejected the report of the special commission on March 14, 1916, because the proposed plan "encroached on property dedicated by the town to park and playground purposes, makes long and circuitous detours from long established routes of travel ... and would affect injuri- ously, if not destroy, the business center of the town." After ten years of agitation, struggle and heart burning, Winchester was back precisely where it started from. The grade crossing was still there.
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