USA > Massachusetts > Massachusetts : a guide to its places and people > Part 16
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77
It is one of the most noted of the smaller colleges for men in the United States, and its standards of plain living and high thinking are well illustrated by the characters of two of its best-known graduates, Henry Ward Beecher and Calvin Coolidge. Noah Webster, Helen Hunt Jackson, Emily Dickinson, Eugene Field, and Ray Stannard Baker ('David Grayson') all lived at one time or another in Amherst. Their presence fostered a literary atmosphere very congenial to the college, enhanced in later years by the addition of Robert Frost, the poet, to its faculty.
TOUR - 3 m.
S. from Amherst Common on Pleasant St. (State 116).
I. The Amherst College Campus crowns an elm-shaded knoll at the center of the town. The college buildings are of brick, stone, or wood, in a variety of architectural modes reflecting its growth. Their grouping is spacious and dignified, and considerable beauty is achieved by wide lawns shaded by ancient trees and outlined by barberry hedges.
College Hall (open), at the west end of the Common, resembles a New England Colonial church, with yellow-painted brick walls, a white-pillared portico, and a low octagonal belfry.
North and South College (private), are the oldest dormitories, resembling army barracks, but much beloved by reason of tradition and long, honorable service. Between these two dormitories stands the brick Johnson Chapel (open), another time-honored landmark, with three-story white-pillared portico and square white belfry.
Morgan Library (open), next door to College Hall, is a gray-stone building now an Art and Historical Museum. Exhibits include an exquisite Della Robbia Madonna from the study of Clyde Fitch, noted playwright, Class of 1886; Henry Ward Beecher's Chair; Lord Jeffrey Amherst's Chair; and the immortal 'Sabrina,' a semi-nude statue donated to the college in 1857 to adorn a fountain, and for many years the prize of the Freshman and Sophomore battle. The trustees, at length wearying of these Homeric contests, fastened Sabrina into the structural walls of Morgan Library with such heavy masonry that only dynamite could now dislodge her.
The Babbott Room (open), occupies the tower of The Octagon, a stucco building on the campus. In this room Robert Frost talks informally to the students.
I29
Amherst
The Natural Science Museum designed by McKim, Mead and White, houses the biological and geological laboratories in a large building on the southern end of the campus overlooking Hitchcock Field. In the Biological Museum is a large collection of shells and a celebrated Audubon Collection of birds. The Geological Museum contains minerals collected throughout Europe and America and a col- lection of fossils and vertebrates. Adjoining is a large room containing the famous Hitchcock ichthyological collection of fossil footprints.
2. The Helen Hunt Jackson House (private), 83 Pleasant St., a two-and-a- half-story yellow frame dwelling with white pilasters and a gabled roof, was the home of 'H. H.,' the pseudonym under which Mrs. Jackson wrote 'Ramona' and other popular novels.
Retrace Pleasant St .; R. from Pleasant St. on Spring St. at the Common.
3. The Lord Jeffrey Inn (open), is a charming replica of a Colonial brick tavern, white-painted, with 40-paned windows on the lower story. It houses the Plimpton Collection of French and Indian War prints, maps, and autographed letters and papers of Jeffrey Amherst, George Washing- ton, William Pitt, General Wolfe, George II and Louis XV.
L. from Spring St. on College Ave .; R. from College Ave. on Main St.
4. The Home of Emily Dickinson (not open for public inspection; those interested in Emily Dickinson memorabilia may consult the collection next door) stands above Main Street, behind a high evergreen hedge. It was the first brick dwelling-house in Amherst, and was built about 1813 by her grandfather, Samuel Fowler Dickinson, one of the chief founders of Amherst College. Here was born in 1830, lived her life apart, and died in 1886, the poet and mystic who, after her death, was acclaimed as one of the very few great American poets and one of the leading women poets of all time. Her gradual withdrawal from the world, following a youthful renunciation of love, became almost complete during her later years as she devoted herself to a life of thought - and the writing of the hundreds of poems she was to leave to the world. With the exception of two or three, none of these was published during her lifetime, it remaining for her sister Lavinia, and then for her niece and heir, Martha Dickinson Bianchi, to make her work available to the public. More than nine hun- dred of her poems are now collected in one volume. Nothing relating to the Dickinsons now remains in the old family mansion, but the Emily Dickinson memorabilia are preserved at The Evergreens, the home of the poet's only brother, the late William Austin Dickinson, just across the lawn, which is now the home of her niece and biographer, where during the summer months they may be seen by those especially interested in Emily Dickinson's work.
Retrace on Main St .; straight ahead on Amity St.
5. Jones Library (open: summer, weekdays 9-6; winter, Tues., Thurs., Sat. afternoons and evenings. Sun. afternoons) is a gambrel-roofed field- stone building recognized as one of the most luxurious small public libraries in the United States. The interior is divided into twelve large rooms and sixteen smaller ones in the manner of a private mansion. All are paneled in Philippine white mahogany or walnut. Many have Oriental
I30
Main Street and Village Green
rugs and comfortable chairs and divans; many are hung with valuable paintings. In the Room of Amherst Authors are representative and exten- sive editions of the works of Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Eugene Field, Helen Hunt Jackson, Noah Webster, and others.
6. The Strong House (open Tues. and Sat. 2-5; adm. free), corner of Amity and North Prospect Sts., is a three-and-a-half-story gambrel- roofed brownish frame dwelling of 1744, now the home of the Amherst Historical Society. It is the oldest house in town, and was built by local craftsmen of entirely hand-hewn timber and hand-wrought hardware.
Retrace Amity St .; L. from Amity on N. Pleasant St.
7. Massachusetts State College, fondly known as 'Aggie,' a contraction of its former title of Massachusetts Agricultural School, occupies a large open campus, on the edge of farming country. Its brick buildings, utili- tarian rather than decorative, are grouped in a long semicircle, at the center of which stands Goodell Library (open), with high white Ionic portico, giving access to 100,000 reference works.
The State College Science Museum in Fernald Hall, headquarters of the geology and entomology departments, contains unusual specimens of insect life, and one of the most interesting existing collections of insects injurious to cultivated plants and trees. It was started early in the history of the college by Professor Fernald, one of the first presidents and head of this department.
The Veterinary Science Museum is in the Veterinary Science Building on the western side of the campus. It contains interesting specimens of abnormal animal growth.
ARLINGTON . History and Homes
Town: Alt. 30, pop. 38,539, sett. about 1630, incorp. 1867.
Railroad Station: B. & M. R.R., Mystic and Mass. Ave.
Bus Station: Arlington Center for B. & M. Transportation Co., Champlain Coach Lines, and Frontier Coach Lines.
Accommodations: Boarding and rooming houses.
Information: Robbins Memorial (Town) Hall, Mass. Ave.
VICTIM of a series of industrial and agricultural frustrations, never quite fulfilling its destiny as a producing center, Arlington is a residential suburb.
The story of Arlington begins just after the Revolution. Industrial development started with the establishment of William Whittemore and Company (1799), card manufacturers, founded on the invention of Amos Whittemore of a machine for the manufacture of cotton and wool cards.
-
I3I
Arlington
Prosperity was blighted in 1812 by the general wartime depression, culminating in the sale of the Whittemore plant to a New York firm, and Arlington lost its main industry. In 1827, after the expiration of the original patents, card manufacturing was revived, but never regained its vigor, and when the factory burned down in 1862, it was never rebuilt. In 1832, James Schouler, a calico printer, moved from Lynn to Arlington. Other lesser enterprises combined to give the town a sense of industrial importance which temporarily seemed justified. By 1850 the Wood Ice Tool Company and Gage, Hittinger and Company, ice-cutters who shipped Spy Pond Ice to various parts of the world, were established. Arlington's industrial importance was at its crest.
Agriculture developed parallel to industry, but was accompanied by far less acclaim. Natural conditions and proximity to Boston markets made truck gardening the chief gainful occupation, and by 1850 Arlington produce became famous along the North Atlantic seaboard.
Just as industrial development reached a climax and then declined, so did agriculture. Farms were broken up into house lots as the increasing residential value of the land, coupled with proportionate increases in tax assessments, made it unprofitable for market-gardening.
The early city fathers had been faced with such knotty problems as the purchase of a town hearse, or the installation of a public bathtub 'for the use of the inhabitants, but to be in the custody of the treasurer.' Their successors had to gird themselves for a different sort of task - a struggle against outside turnpike companies seeking franchises through Arlington along routes considered inimical to the town. Hardly was the battle won, and hardly were the roads established along routes agreeable to all, when the victory crumbled to dust. Business men of Arlington and Lexington built a railroad to Cambridge in 1846 and turnpikes lost their significance. Horsecar lines (1859) and electric lines (1897) followed, and Arlington developed into a residential suburb.
TOUR - 6 m.
S. from Massachusetts Ave. into Pleasant St.
I. The Ancient Burying Ground is at the rear of the Unitarian Church. Toward the farther side of the cemetery, close to the main path, is a Monument over the graves of 12 Americans killed on the retreat from Concord and Lexington, and buried 'without coffins, in the clothes they had worn when they fell.'
2. Spy Pond was so christened, says tradition, when a company of white men, seeking Fresh Pond to procure water, 'spied' this instead. It acquired some reflected glory later on from the fact that old Mother Batherick was digging dandelions on its bank on April 19, 1775, when six British grenadiers came along, fleeing from the 'old men of Menotomy,'
2
St
Edmund Rd
SC
St
Acton
St
St
Rob bins
Rd
Chatham
Ave
Menotomy Rd
Gray
Gloucester St
Massachusetts
Grove
St
Ave
Lockeland
Ave
Summer
Ridge
Churchill
Ave
13
Massachusetts
Irving
Jason St
12
Academy
St
St
Maple St
9
St
8
Valley
MYSTIC 5
LAKES
SPY
6
2
POND
ARLINGTON mass. TOUR
Broadway
Warren
Washington
St
Brad tle
St
St
Hemlock
St
Dudley St
Brattle St
Highland
Endicott Rd
Mystic St
Mystic
Pleasant
St
7
Mystic
Med ford
Parkway
3
St
St
Appletor
04
For est
4.
Ave
Mill St
I33
Arlington
as Arlington was originally (1637-1732) called. The brave old woman took them off guard, captured them, and marched them to prison.
Retrace Pleasant St .; R. from Pleasant St. into Massachusetts Ave.
3. The Site of Cooper Tavern, corner of Medford St., Arlington Center, is identified by a tablet. In the Tavern, two aged men, Jabez Wyman and Jason Winship, sitting over their toddy, were killed on April 19, when the Redcoats, rushing through the town, fired blindly through the windows.
4. The Site of the Black Horse Tavern is opposite Linwood St. Here the Committee of Safety and Supplies of the Provincial Congress convened on April 18, 1775. The following day a British searching party surprised Vice-President Gerry and Colonels Leo and Orne, who escaped by making a hasty exit and concealing themselves in a near-by field.
Retrace on Massachusetts Ave .; R. from Massachusetts Ave. on Medford St .; L. from Medford St. into Mystic Valley Parkway.
5. The Mystic Lakes are popular as a resort for swimming and boating in summer and skating and ice-boating in winter.
L. from the Parkway on Mystic St.
6. Russell Park is one of the recreational areas of Arlington. A tablet at the rear of the school records the exploits and longevity of Samuel Whitte- more, the hero who survived a bullet and a bayonet wound and very nearly lived to see his hundredth birthday.
R. from Mystic St. into Massachusetts Ave.
7. A marker on the Green identifies the Site of the John Adams House (1652), which served as a hospital for the Provincial soldiers during the siege of Boston.
8. In front of the Unitarian Church (L) is a tablet which recalls the Arlington Minutemen. It reads as follows: 'At this spot, April 19, 1775, the old men of Menotomy captured a convoy of 18 men with supplies on the way to join the British at Lexington.' When word came that a British supply train was coming through with only a small guard, the 'old men' made ready for its capture. Crouching behind a wall, they arose as the British approached, covered them with leveled muskets, and forced a surrender; the contents of the supply wagon were distributed to the farmers.
ARLINGTON MAP INDEX
I. Ancient Burying Ground
2. Spy Pond
3. Site of Cooper Tavern
4. Site of Black Horse Tavern
5. Mystic Lakes
6. Russell Park
7. Site of John Adams House
8. Minute Men Tablet
9. Arlington Public Library
IO. Whittemore-Robbins Mansion
II. Arlington Town Hall
12. Jason Russell House
13. Site of Deacon Joseph Adams House
14. Benjamin Locke House
134
Main Street and Village Green
9. The Arlington Public Library (open weekdays 10-9), known as the Robbins Memorial Library, erected in 1892 from the designs of Gay & Proctor, is constructed of Ohio limestone in Italian Renaissance style. Engaged Corinthian columns support the arches over the windows. The entrance is similar in style to the main door of the Cancellaria Palace in Rome.
The Indian Hunter, by Cyrus E. Dallin (see below), stands in the park between the library and the Town Hall.
IO. The Whittemore-Robbins Mansion, behind the library, is a Federal three-story building with a hip roof, a cupola or watch-tower, and four chimneys.
II. The Town Hall designed by R. Clipston Sturgis and built about 1914, is a contemporary adaptation of Colonial design. Two stories in height, the 'great hall' is surrounded on three sides by administrative offices.
L. from Massachusetts Ave. on Jason St.
12. The Jason Russell House (open weekdays except Mon. 2-5, Apr .- Oct.), 7 Jason St., a wooden two-story dwelling with pitched roof and central chimney, was built in 1680. A number of Minutemen, almost surrounded by the British on that memorable April 19, dashed into it for cover. A few who fled to the cellar were unharmed, but Jason Russell and I I others who hid upstairs were killed. The house was occupied by descendants of the Russell family until 1890. It is now the headquarters of the Arlington Historical Society.
Retrace Jason St .; L. from Jason St. on Massachusetts Ave.
13. A tablet at 840 Massachusetts Ave. identifies the Site of the Deacon Joseph Adams House, from which British soldiers stole the communion service of the First Parish during their retreat from Lexington and Concord.
L. from Massachusetts Ave. on Appleton St.
14. The Benjamin Locke House (private), 21 Appleton St., was built (1726) by a captain of the militia. When the British passed by, about two o'clock on the morning of April 19, Captain Locke was awakened and rushed out to arouse his neighbors. In a short time he was able to muster 26 men. By the afternoon the band grew to 52, which, with companies from surrounding towns, joined in harassing the rear of Percy's retreating column.
15. St. Anne's Chapel (open), between Hillside and Claremont Aves., was designed by Cram and Ferguson and completed in 1916. It is built in Romanesque style, the interior and exterior being of local field-stone. It is furnished with ancient ecclesiastical furniture, most of which came from Spain and Italy.
L. from Appleton St. into Claremont Ave .; L. from Claremont Ave. into Florence Ave .; R. from Florence Ave. into Cliff St .; R. from Cliff St. into Oakland Ave.
I35
Boston
16. The Home of Cyrus E. Dallin (private), 69 Oakland Ave., also serves as the eminent sculptor's studio. Mr. Dallin (1861- ), a native of Utah, is well known for his understanding portrayals of the American Indian. Among his most noted works are 'Appeal to the Great Spirit,' which stands before the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and 'Medicine Man,' in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia.
L. from Oakland Ave. into Park Ave.
17. The Water Standpipe (open to visitors each second Sun.) rises 50 feet above the loftiest point on Arlington Heights, emphasizing the great difference between the lowest and highest altitude of this town. From a balcony near the top, Boston and the harbor are visible to the east; to the west Mt. Monadnock and Mt. Wachusett are dim blue shapes on the horizon.
BOSTON . The Hub of the Universe
City: Alt. 8, pop. 781,188, sett. 1625, incorp. town 1630, city 1822.
Railroad Stations: North Station, 120 Causeway St., for B. & M. R.R., Rutland, Central Vermont, and Canadian Pacific R.R.s .; South Station, Atlantic Ave. corner of Summer St., for N.Y., N.H. & H. and B. & A. R.R.s .; Back Bay Sta- tion, 145 Dartmouth St., for N.Y., N.H. & H. R.R .; Trinity Place Station, Trinity Place and Dartmouth St., for B. & A. R.R.
Bus Stations: 8 Broadway for Berkshire Motor Coach Lines, Inc., and Victoria Coach Line, Inc .; 2 Park Square for Blue Way Trail Ways, Inc., Granite Stages, and Quaker Stages Co .; Hotel Brunswick, 520 Boylston St., for Gray Line Inc. and Royal Blue Line, Inc .; 51 Scollay Square for Black Hawk Lines, Inc .; 36 Park Square for B. & M. Transportation Co. and New England Transportation Co .; 222 Boylston St. for Greyhound Lines; 30 Boylston St. for I.R.R. Co., Inc .; 620 Atlantic Ave. for Rawding Lines, Inc .; 10 Park Square for Capitol Stages. Piers: Commonwealth Pier No. 5, South Boston; B. & A. Docks, East Boston; Pier 3 for Cunard-White Star Line; Pier 4 for Anchor and U.S. Lines; N.Y., N.H. & H. Piers, South Boston; Pier 2 for M.M.T. Co .; Hoosac Docks, Charles- town; Pier 42 for Ocean S.S. Line and Pier 44 for Dollar Line; Mystic Docks, Charlestown; Pier 46 for Furness-Withy Line; India Wharf and Central Wharf, Atlantic Ave., Boston, for Eastern S.S. Co .; Long Wharf, Atlantic Ave., Boston, for United Fruit Co. and Cape Cod S.S. Co.
Airports: Boston Airport, East Boston, 2 m. from city; American Air Lines, B. & M. Airways, Mayflower Line (Boston & Cape Cod, summers); taxi fare 85¢, plus 15¢ toll fare for East Boston Tunnel.
Accommodations: Thirteen large hotels and many small ones.
Information Service: Chamber of Commerce, 80 Federal St .; New England Council, Statler Bldg., 20 Providence St.
136
Main Street and Village Green
BOSTON during its three hundred-odd years of existence has become so encrusted with legends that the true Boston of today is almost completely obscured by them. According to time-honored tradition, this city is the Hub of the Universe, its intellectual center, its cultural center, populated by superior persons all of whom have at least one ancestor who came over in the 'Mayflower' or the 'Arabella,' a closed society of 'Brahmins.'
Visitors arriving in Boston with such preconceived notions are likely to have them confirmed for all time by the sight of a gentleman crossing the Common carrying a green bag, or a lady emerging from the New England Historical and Genealogical Society with her Transcript under her arm.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. Boston has its share of intellec- tuals, its share of culture, its share of 'old families'; it still plays its part in world affairs and fills an important rôle in national politics. By no means do all its citizens, however, live serenely on the waterside of Beacon Street or the sunny side of Commonwealth Avenue, nor do they all read the Atlantic Monthly, or spend their summers with relatives on the North Shore and eternity with their ancestors in Mount Auburn Cem- etery.
As for the legend of ethnic homogeneity, that is so much pernicious twaddle. Boston has greatly changed from the city of which President Timothy Dwight of Yale wrote in 1796: 'The Bostonians, almost without an exception, are derived from one country and a single stock. They are all descendants of Englishmen and, of course, are united by all the great bonds of society - language, religion, government, manners and interest.'
Today five minutes' walk from the State House will take the visitor to any one of several sections of the city where English is a foreign language. A social statistician has said that every third person whom you meet on the street in Boston today is foreign-born and three out of every four are of other than English descent. The old New England stock still largely controls leading banks, numerous business enterprises, museums, hos- pitals, and universities, but numerically it is insignificant. The con- temporary scene is decidedly more cosmopolitan than Calvinistic. The 'New Canaan' of the English founders is now a political new Canaan for the Irish. Celt outnumbers Saxon.
The modern fable, however, that Boston is an 'Irish city' is no better founded than the Puritan myth. The largest number of Boston's 229,356 foreign-born come from Canada (45,558). Three groups closely follow the Canadians: the Irish Free State (43,932), Italy (36,274), and Russia, chiefly Jews (31,359). Great Britain and Ireland have contributed 22,653, and Poland, Norway and Denmark, Germany and Lithuania have sent sizable quotas in the order named, with many Jews in the Polish and German groups. There are also in Boston 20,574 Negroes.
Equally without foundation is the frequent impression that Boston is still the old peninsula plus the Back Bay; bounded on the north by the North Station, on the south by the South Station, on the east by the
I37
Boston
Atlantic Avenue wharves, and on the west by Copley Square with an extension along the Esplanade. This area, which the visitor usually thinks of as 'Boston' contains, it is true, Boston Common, the Public Garden, Beacon Hill and both State Houses, the old graveyards, the waterfront, the market, the business district, the main shopping area, and most of Boston's historic houses and shrines, but it shelters actually less than one-sixth of Boston's residents. Outside its confines Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue stretch along parallel to the Charles River to the vast Brighton-Allston area (annexed in 1874) in whose modern hive of apartment houses and small homes live Boston's professional and clerical workers to the number of 67,000 - a fair-sized city in itself. East Boston, an island across Boston Harbor to the northeast, has been a part of the city since 1636 and houses about 62,000 persons. South Boston has a population of more than 55,000. Charlestown, north across the inlet where the Charles River and Boston Harbor meet (annexed in 1874), contains the United States Navy Yard, Mystic Wharves, Bunker Hill, and the residences of about 30,000 Bostonians. Roxbury (annexed in 1868), West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain (annexed in 1874), and Dorchester to the south (annexed in 1874) have a combined population of approxi- mately 450,000, a large majority of them Boston's less well-paid workers. Hyde Park has over 25,000 and 'The Islands' have 2663 inhabitants.
Bearing these facts in mind, it is a mistake for the visitor to think of Boston in any single term. Boston is a composite. It is a composite of Silas Lapham's Boston - southerly Beacon Hill, the Charles River Em- bankment, Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue, all of which William Dean Howells knew so well - and the Boston symbolized by what was once Ward 8, the kingdom of Boss Martin Lomasney, densely populated, scornfully ignorant of the proprieties of the prunes-and-prisms school, but vigorously alive. It is the paradoxical city which has inspired twenty novels of the Boston scene in the past twenty-five years. It is the Boston of wide streets overarched by spreading elms, of crooked narrow streets called 'quaint,' of magnificent parks, fine public buildings, hand- some residences, and a general air of well-scrubbed propriety and gracious leisure. It is the Boston where acres of ugly wooden tenement houses line the drab streets; where ten dollars a month rents a three-room flat in a wooden fire trap without heat, lighting, running water, or indoor toilet; where along Mile End Road, on the dump, are the melancholy shacks of men who can pay no rent at all. It is the Boston of the music- lovers, centered about Symphony Hall, the Opera House, the New Eng- land Conservatory of Music; the Boston of the art-lovers, centered about the Museum of Fine Arts, the Gardner Museum, the Public Library; the Boston of the well-to-do churches and the prosperous universities. It is the Boston that produces eighteen per cent of the total goods manu- factured in Massachusetts by the toil of fourteen per cent of the workers in the State; the Boston of 2104 manufacturing establishments (1934), representing a capital investment of $227,315,188 and a total value of manufactured products to the amount of $332,176,950; the Boston en- grossed in printing and publishing, clothing manufacture, sugar refining,
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.