USA > Massachusetts > Massachusetts : a guide to its places and people > Part 31
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Main Street and Village Green
In the period immediately following the Civil War, Lynn shoe workers joined the powerful Knights of St. Crispin, but this union declined. Never since has there been a long period when the principal crafts were unorganized, but the unions in the several crafts have not always co- operated well. At present most of the Lynn shoe workers belong to the United Shoe Workers of America, affiliated with the Committee for In- dustrial Organization. A company union in the Lion Shoe Company was recently dissolved by the National Labor Relations Board.
The General Electric Company set up a system of works councils in its huge plant just after the World War. In 1934, the workers organized an industrial union, and secured recognition. This union spread to other centers, and as the United Electrical and Radio Workers is affiliated with the C.I.O. The leather workers of Lynn also belong to a C.I.O. affiliate, the National Leather Workers. The workers in a number of other trades hold charters from unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor.
Lynn's varied industries have made it possible for the city to withstand, somewhat better than single-industry communities, the tremors of economic instability. Although the shoe factories and their allied trades predominate numerically, the General Electric Company is the largest industry of the city, and in 1935 its two Lynn plants employed more workmen than any other concern in the State.
TOUR - 10 m.
E. from Central Square on Exchange St .; L. from Exchange St. into Broad St .; R. from Broad St. into Nahant St .; L. from Nahant St. into Lynn Shore Drive.
I. Lynn Beach (restaurants, amusements, municipal bathhouse), bordering on Nahant Bay, is a vast playground crowded in summer with throngs almost as brown as were the Indians who once gathered here to watch their braves in contests of strength and skill.
L. from Lynn Shore Drive into Ocean Ter .; L. (straight ahead) from Ocean Ter. into Lewis St. and then into Broad St.
2. The Mary Baker Eddy Residence (free Christian Science Reading Room; open weekdays, 10-5.30), 12 Broad St., is the house where it is thought the Founder of Christian Science (see Tour 1A, SWAMPSCOTT) wrote the major part of 'Science and Health.'
R. from Broad St. into Green St.
3. The Lynn Historical Society (open summer Wed. 2.30-4), 125 Green St., exhibits in its museum wing a collection of early furniture, household utensils, pewter, glassware, and historical records.
L. from Green St. into Union St .; R. from Union St. into Ireson St .; cross
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Lynn
Morrison Sq. into Rockaway St .; L. from Rockaway St. into High Rock St .; L. from High Rock St. into Circuit Ave.
4. High Rock is a bold promontory, from the summit of which an observa- tion tower 275 feet above sea level affords a magnificent view of the indus- trial panorama of Lynn and also of the ocean and the rocky rim of the Massachusetts Basin.
5. The Home of Moll Pitcher (inaccessible), built in 1666, stands in the shadow of this dull purple porphyry cliff. Moll's fame as a fortune- teller spread to most of the principal parts of Europe, and her memory is perpetuated in a poem of Whittier's named for her, and by a melodrama entitled 'The Fortune Teller of Lynn,' popular on the New England stage for 30 years.
Retrace on Circuit Ave .; R. from Circuit Ave. into High Rock St .; L. from High Rock St. into Rockaway St .; straight ahead into Rock Ave .; R. from Rock Ave. into Grant St .; L. from Grant St. into Rockingham St .; R. from Rockingham St. into Western Ave.
6. The Lydia E. Pinkham Medicine Company (open by permission), on Western Ave., manufactures a famous medicinal compound first made by Lydia E. Pinkham in her kitchen. Financial losses in the panic of 1873 led her to capitalize on her remedy. Once started, the fame of the cure spread rapidly through the world, and as a favorite ballad stated, 'the papers printed her face.' According to recent international advertising programs, 'although dead, she still sends her messages of hope to millions of women.'
L. from Western Ave. into Chestnut St .; straight ahead into Broadway.
7. At Flax Pond (public bath-house; boating), the pioneer women of Lynn retted flax from which to spin thread for weaving linen.
L. from Broadway into Lynnfield St.
8. The Lynn Woods, a 2000-acre park of wild natural beauty, begins at Lynnfield St. and Great Woods Rd. by the Happy Valley Golf Course (public).
On Burrill Hill is an Observation Tower, from which there is an excellent view of the Blue Hills, Bunker Hill Monument, and the golden dome of the State House. Great Woods Rd. leads to a lovely ravine, framing the long slender mirror of Walden Pond with overhanging branches of birches and elms.
Dungeon Rock is one of the most interesting landmarks in the Woods. According to tradition a group of buccaneers hid vast treasures here in a huge cave whose entrance was closed by the earthquake of 1658.
Approaching the Penny Brook entrance the trail passes Lantern Rock, where pirates once hung signal lights for small boats stealing up the Saugus River under cover of night. Near Lantern Rock is Circle Trail, with signs designating the unusual minerals and glacial deposits, and the varieties of flora indigenous to Lynn Woods. Near-by is the Botanical Garden with its multitude of rare blooms.
L. from Penny Brook Entrance into Walnut St., and, following State 129, R. from Walnut St. into Kirtland St .; L. from Kirtland St. into Boston St .; R. from Boston St. into Federal St.
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Main Street and Village Green
9. The General Electric Company occupies both sides of Federal St. in West Lynn (open by permission). Turbines, arc lights, and generators are manufactured here.
R. from Federal St. into Western Ave.
IO. The River Works Plant of the Lynn General Electric Co. (open by per- mission), together with the West Lynn Plant, employs about 10,000 workers and is the city's ranking industry. Here Elihu Thomson, one of the founders of the General Electric Company and world-famous as an inventor and electrical engineer, carried on most of his experiments.
MALDEN . Neighbor of Boston
City: Alt. 9, pop. 57,277, sett. 1640, incorp. town 1649, city 1881.
Railroad Stations: Malden Station on Summer St. near Pleasant St .; Oak Grove, 277 Washington St., for B. & M. R.R.
Bus Station: Eastern Mass. R.R. Busses for Lowell and Lawrence stop at Malden Square (opposite Baptist Church).
Accommodations: One hotel at reasonable rates; tourist camps.
Riding: Several miles of bridle paths, carriage roads, and trails in Middlesex Fells.
Information: Chamber of Commerce, Pleasant St.
FROM the summit of Waitt's Hill, Malden is seen to be both a resi- dential and a manufacturing city, tree-shaded, and girt on the north and northwest by the rugged, wooded cliffs of the Middlesex Fells. Although manufacturing is actually of prominence, it is largely confined to a limited area near the Everett border, and the main impression gained by a drive through the city is of frame dwelling houses mainly of the parvenu era, schools, churches, community centers, and a number of small but pleasant parks. The proximity of Malden to the great metropolitan center of Boston is both an advantage and a drawback to its residential appeal. Inevitably with the years, its suburban identity tends to be swallowed up in the overflowing tide from the greater city. Yet there are not many apartment houses, and if there are no preten- tiously wealthy districts, neither is there shabby poverty. Malden re- mains what it has long been, a good-sized city of comfortable middle-class homes.
The settlers of Malden, mainly Puritans, landed at Charlestown, situ- ated in a part of the grant made in 1622 to Robert Gorges by the Northern Virginia Company. However, in 1628 the Council at Plymouth
27I
Malden
disregarded this grant and the subsequent lease and sold the land to the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
After the arrival of Governor Winthrop, in 1630, Charlestown grew rapidly and extended its boundaries. Within ten years a few settlers had crossed to the north side of the Mystic River, built homes, and founded a new town. Upon the petition of a committee chosen from among these persons the General Court granted, in 1649, the charter. Malden's first free school was established in accordance with the terms of the will of William Gooden, who left a portion of his estate in trust for this purpose.
Difficulty was experienced in securing men competent to teach. More than once an hiatus occurred between the release of a schoolmaster and the appointment of his successor, so that on one occasion the town was presented at Court sessions on the charge of not maintaining a school. The first schoolhouse, built in 1712, saw only eighteen years in the service of education; in 1730 it was sold to the town bellman and grave- digger. Private homes were again requisitioned for use as schoolhouses. Not until 1783, after much discussion and long delay, was the nucleus of the present school system created.
A company of soldiers known as the Malden Band was formed shortly after the incorporation of the town. Citizens also organized a company of cavalry, which saw service in King Philip's War. On September 23, 1774, the townsmen voted to instruct Captain Ebenezer Harnden, their representative in General Court, that it was their 'firm and deliberate resolution rather to rule our lives and fortunes than submit to those unrighteous acts of the British Parliament which pretends to regulate the government of this Province.' This resolution was translated into action at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War.
Until it received its city charter Malden was regulated by five selectmen chosen from churchmen in good standing. The granting of the city charter in 1881 made necessary a different form of government, and city affairs have since been administered by a mayor, a board of alder- men, and a city council.
Malden is now primarily a manufacturing center. It is within twenty- four-hour rail delivery of three quarters of the nation's markets and has easy access to the major trans-Atlantic and coastwise passenger and freight lines. Its factories, of which there are approximately one hundred and fifty, are widely representative of varied industries.
POINTS OF INTEREST
I. The Malden Public Library, Malden Sq., was built 1879-85, and de- signed by H. H. Richardson. Characteristic of his work, it is a personal- ized adaptation of Romanesque forms. It is an excellent example of his
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Main Street and Village Green
later and more mature designs which came to be known as 'Richard- sonian Romanesque.' Its simple and well-studied masses are entirely of brownstone, and its interior is enhanced by Romanesque-Byzantine carving.
The library contains a small but distinguished art gallery, displaying works of noted French and American artists dating from Claude Lorraine to the present day. Of historic interest is Albion H. Bicknell's large group portrait, 'The Gettysburg Address.'
2. The Parsonage House (private), 145 Main St., is a two-and-a-half- story white structure built in 1724 and first occupied by the Rev. Joseph Emerson, who has been piquantly characterized by his son: 'He was a Boanerges, a son of thunder, to the workers of iniquity; a Barnabas, a son of consolation, to the mourners in Zion.' In this house in 1788 was born Adoniram Judson, the famous missionary to Burma. Judson attended Brown University and after graduation opened a private school at Plymouth, where he prepared a book entitled 'Young Ladies' Arithmetic' - presumably a gentle adaptation of the knotty subject to the young female brain. In 1808, while traveling through the United States, his mind became affected by 'infidel views' of religion and, with no decided plan for his life, he became a member of a theatrical company. In 1809, after a short but wretched period of skepticism and doubt, he joined the Third Congregational Church in Plymouth. After his ordina- tion in 1812, he married and set out with his young bride for India, but was converted to the Baptist denomination while on board ship.
3. Bell Rock Memorial Park is opposite the Parsonage, near which stood the house in which the congregation of the Church of Mystic Side gathered and where preached Marmaduke Matthews, the first pastor in Malden. The bell that summoned the people to worship, sounded the alarm in times of danger, and called the freeholders to meet for action in public affairs was hung upon a rock of which only a part now remains. In the park is a replica of a small fortress, accessible from the street by a stairway, and at its summit stands a modern Civil War Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument by Bela Pratt.
4. The Greene House (private), 51 Appleton St., is also known as the Perkins House. On what was then known as Greene Hill, James Greene built a house in 1648. The present dwelling was constructed of timbers taken from its predecessor. In 1686 a council was held in the old house to try a man named McCheever for alleged irregularities of speech and conduct. Increase Mather was the moderator, but the council, which included five ministers from Boston, could not arrive at an agreement. The upshot of the matter was that 'they left the whole matter in the hands of the Lord as an easy way out of it.'
5. Waitt's Mount, Leonard St., a small park which crowns the highest hill in the city, affords a fine panoramic view of the surrounding country. During the months of July and August a camp is maintained here for undernourished children.
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Marblehead
6. Pine Banks Tourist Camp (free), Main St., at the Malden-Melrose city line, is situated in a beautiful natural wooded park. It was be- queathed to the cities of Malden and Melrose by the children of Elisha Slade Converse, first mayor of Malden and former director of the Boston Rubber Shoe Company.
MARBLEHEAD . Where Tradition Lingers
Town: Alt. 15, pop. 10,173, sett. 1629, incorp. 1549.
Railroad Station: 97 Pleasant for B. & M. R.R.
Piers: Marblehead Neck for Eastern Yacht Club and Corinthian Yacht Club. Front St. for Boston Yacht Club. Public landing at foot of State St. The Ferry, Ferry Lane (harbor trips, 10¢).
Accommodations: One large hotel, several small first class hotels and boarding houses. Winter accommodations limited.
Information: Rotary Club, Washington St.
MARBLEHEAD, in whose narrow, twisted streets traditions linger, is built upon a rock, and everywhere through the thin garment of turf protrude knobs and cliffs of granite. Along the steep, winding ways weather-beaten houses shoulder each other, with intermittent glimpses of the harbor and the sea between their grayed walls. A mass of tumbled rocks chiseled by the sea forms the grim profile of the 'Neck.'
Reckless, hardbitten fishermen from Cornwall and the Channel Islands settled Marblehead (Marble Harbor) in 1629 as a plantation of Salem. Their rude huts clung to the rocks like sea-birds' nests. Said a Marble- header of a later day - 'Our ancestors came not here for religion. Their main end was to catch fish.' As might have been expected from such ungodliness, early Marblehead was a favorite with the powers of darkness. Many a citizen met Satan himself riding in state in a coach and four, or was chased through the streets by a corpse in a coffin. The eerie lament of the 'screeching woman of Marblehead' resounded across the harbor, and Puritan Salem hanged old 'Mammy Red' of Marblehead who knew how to turn enemies' butter to blue wool. Within a decade unruly Marblehead was without regret permitted to become a separate town, 'the greatest Towne for fishing in New England.'
The early prosperity of the fisheries was short-lived. The Reverend John Barnard, who came in 1715 to minister to the heathen, wrote, 'Nor could I find twenty families that could stand upon their own legs, and they were generally as rude, swearing, drunken and fighting a crew
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as they were poor.' Under his guidance markets were sought in the West Indies and Europe for the carefully cured fish, and a class of mer- chants began to send larger vessels to more distant ports.
As war with England approached and His Majesty's frigates lay threat- eningly in the harbor, the rafters of the Old Town House thundered to revolutionary speeches and all Marblehead blazed with patriotism. Her merchants patriotically extended shipping privileges to the merchants of Boston when Marblehead took Boston's place as the port of entry after the passage of the Boston Port Bill (1774). The Tory merchants fled for their lives, seafaring men turned to privateering with its promise of prize money and adventure or joined General John Glover's famous 'Amphibious Regiment' which was later with muffled oars to row Washington across the Delaware. The Marblehead schooner 'Lee,' manned by a captain and crew of this regiment, flew the Pine Tree flag and took the 'Nancy,' the first British prize.
Privateering became unprofitable as the British blockade tightened. The close of the war found Marblehead economically prostrate, the merchant fleet captured or sunk, the fishing fleet rotting at the wharves.
To relieve the distress two lotteries were organized and the fishing fleet was reconditioned with the proceeds, but just as prosperity again seemed assured, the War of 1812 tied up the fleet once more and embargo closed the ports of trade. After the war the fishing fleet gallantly put to sea, but the town with little capital could not compete with the more fortunately situated ports of Boston and Gloucester. The great gale of 1846, which took a frightful toll of men and ships, hastened the end.
Undaunted, Marblehead turned to industry. The back-yard shoe shops, a feature of every fisherman's cottage, were amalgamated into factories after 1840, and within a decade, trained hands and mass production methods were turning out a million pairs of shoes a year. Other factories produced glue, rope, twine, barrels, paint, and cigars. But the spider web of railroads that spun out across the country, tapping the resources of the West and concentrating manufacturing in the larger cities, spelled doom to Marblehead as an industrial center, a doom hastened by two disastrous fires.
Ultimately it was the sea that once more brought prosperity. The harbor, where long ago the high-sterned fishing boats rode to tree-root moorings, has become the yachting center of the eastern seaboard. Summer estates line the once bleak shore of the Neck and overlook the harbor where hundreds of sleek-hulled craft ride at anchor. In the yachting season more sails slant out past Halfway Rock, where once the fishermen tossed pennies to buy good luck and safe return, than ever did in the days of Marblehead's maritime glory.
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FOOT TOUR - 2 m.
E. on Washington St. through Washington Square.
I. Abbot Hall, the Victorian Town Hall and Public Library, in the center of the Square, houses Willard's 'The Spirit of '76,' the familiar historical painting.
2. The Colonel William Lee House (private), 185 Washington St., is one of the network of old houses, nearly all of them pre-Revolutionary, which form the heart of Marblehead. Colonel Lee was an early merchant prince of the town, and a Revolutionary army officer. The house dates from the mid-18th century, and has the wood-block front, popular in Marblehead's fashionable dwellings. An Ionic portico and octagonal cupola add distinction.
3. The Jeremiah Lee Mansion (1768) (open weekdays 9-5; adm. 25¢), opposite Mason St., is one of the finest examples of the second phase of New England Georgian architecture. A three-story building, rusticated over the entire surface and accented by quoined corners, it is surmounted by an octahedral cupola. The chief embellishment is a simple portico of two fluted Ionic columns. The elaborate paneling of the 'mahogany room,' the magnificent staircase, and the rich variety of detail in wood finish give the interior exceptional interest.
R. from Washington St. on Hooper St.
4. The King Hooper House (private), 8 Hooper St., which was built in 1745, is the third of three houses built by early merchant princes. The three-story front is of wood executed to give the effect of stone cours- ing. Robert Hooper, the builder of the house, was nicknamed 'King' because of his great wealth and royal manner of life.
Retrace on Hooper St .; straight ahead on Washington St.
V5. St. Michael's Church (Episcopal) (open daily 9-5), corner of Sum- mer St., was erected in 1714, and is probably the oldest Episcopal church edifice in New England. The interior has gate pews and the typical Colonial raised pulpit, reached by a winding stair and surmounted by an overhanging sounding board.
6. The Old Town House (1727) needed to be sturdy of rafters to with- stand the turbulent shouts of pre-Revolutionary town meetings. It is a pleasing example of the first phase of New England Georgian design - a two-story clapboarded building set high upon a granite walled basement, its corners flanked with quoins, its low gabled roof enhanced by a simple cornice.
7. The Marblehead Art Association (open publicly in August for an annual exhibition, free), 65 Washington St., has a membership of 400, with head- quarters at this Colonial house.
Lane
16
FORT
SEWALL
Gingerbread
CEMETERY
OLD DURIAL HILL
12
13
POND
St
St
Calthrope
Rd
RED'S
Pond
St
S
Orne
Franklin
St
15
Selman St
St
St
St
St
Peach Ave
Front
-High
St
8)
Elm
17
18
7
State
St
Mugford St
St
6
Washington
Darling St
Front
CROCKER
PARK
sodoof
Pleasant
0
Lee
Elm
MARBLEHEAD
JACK POINT
HARBOR
LIGHTHOUSE
Lane
Kimball
23
St
Harbor
St
Lanc
Ballast
Harvard
Ave
MARBLEHEAD
Ocean
20
-Castle Rock
Lane
21
TOUR
(22
GREAT HEAD
HARBOR
Pond
Glover St
Green St
Harris St
Lincoln Ave
St
St
Summer St
A
BARTOL'S HEAD
MARBLEHEAD
Washington St
St
2
Nahant St
Lighthouse
Ave
LITTLE
HARBOR
14
Norman St
Drcad
9
Pearl
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Marblehead
8. The Major Pedrick House (now a rooming house, but also open as a Colonial dwelling, 10-11 and 2-4 daily; adm. 15¢), 52 Washington St., is almost as fine architecturally as the Lee and Hooper mansions. It was built in 1756, a square three-story house, with wood front repre- senting stone coursing, elaborate cornice, and huge, square chimneys.
9. The Elbridge Gerry House (private), 44 Washington St., is marked by a tablet as the birthplace of Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814), a member of the Continental Congress, Governor of Massachusetts, Vice-President of the United States during the War of 1812, and popularly known as the originator of the device of 'gerrymandering.'
IO. The Old North Church (Congregational), opposite the Gerry House, was erected in 1824, but is the first parish in the town. The vine-covered stone church has a characteristic Colonial Georgian steeple.
L. from Washington St. into Orne St.
II. The Azor Orne House (private), 18 Orne St., was the home of Colonel Azor Orne, a member of the Revolutionary Committee of Safety which included Elbridge Gerry, John Hancock, and Samuel and John Adams.
This district is Barnegat, long ago named for the town on the New Jersey coast where 'mooncussers' lured vessels to destruction by false lights from shore, with the purpose of plundering their cargoes. (A mooncusser is one who curses the moon for its hindrance to his nefarious designs!)
12. The Agnes Surriage Well (see Tour 1C, Ashland) is at the end of the grassy lane leading (R) from Orne St. just beyond the Orne House.
13. The Old Brig (about 1720), known also as the Moll Pitcher House, on Orne St. opposite the lane leading to the Agnes Surriage Well, is the unnumbered low white gabled roof Colonial house with the big central chimney. It was the home of the famous psychic fortune-teller, Moll Pitcher, born here about 1743, and of her ancestor the wizard Dimond. Above this house, on the rocky summit of Old Burial Hill,
MARBLEHEAD MAP INDEX
I. Abbot Hall
2. Colonel William Lee House
3. Jeremiah Lee Mansion
4. King Hooper House
5. St. Michael's Church
6. Old Town House
7. Marblehead Art Association
8. Major Pedrick House
9. Elbridge Gerry House
IO. Old North Church
II. Azor Orne House
12. Agnes Surriage Well
13. Old Brig
14. Old Burial Hill
15. Parson Barnard House
16. Fort Sewall
17. Old Tavern
18. General John Glover's House
20. Gove House
2I. The Churn
22. Castle Rock
23. Lighthouse
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Main Street and Village Green
among gravestones outlined against the sky, the awed townsfolk often saw Old Dimond's shadowy form swaying in a wild northeaster, as with brandished arms he defied the gale and shouted to invisible satanic thralls his orders for the safe guidance of the Marblehead fleet.
14. Old Burial Hill, just beyond the Old Brig on Orne St., dates from 1638 and contains the graves of no less than 600 Revolutionary heroes. The low white Obelisk on the crest of the hill honors 65 Marblehead fishermen who lost their lives in a great gale in 1846. From the hill is obtained a panoramic view of Marblehead Harbor, the summer yachting center of the eastern seaboard.
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