USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Melrose > Melrose, Massachusetts, 1900-1950; commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the town of Melrose and the fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the city of Melrose > Part 10
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CHAPTER NINETEEN
THE TRANSPORTATION
In 1652 the Reading Road was laid out running east of Boston Rock, but in 1670 was changed to the present Main Street. In 1798 North Malden got its first public transportation in the Reading stage, which in 1843 was driven by Aaron Butler three times a week from Reading to Boston through Melrose, and was still the only means of public conveyance.
On July 4, 1845, the Boston and Maine Railroad began operations through Melrose on a single track, with wood-burn- ing engines, and as the population increased a station was built in Melrose. At Boardman's Crossing, named for Joseph Board- man who owned much of the land now in the Wyoming District, the passengers built a station by public subscription, but on August 25, 1900 a new station was built by the Boston and Maine Railroad and named Wyoming. In 1903 a station was built at the Highlands, but replaced by a new station on January 21, 1906. A Fells Station was also built for the convenience of the Rubber Factory, but was abandoned and demolished when the factory was vacated by the company.
In 1860 a horsecar line from the Highlands to Stoneham was established by the Stoneham Street Railway Company, and in 1886 this company, then known as the East Middlesex Street Railway Company, was allowed to extend its tracks from the Highlands to the Malden line. The first horsecar was run on these tracks October 3, 1887. At the same time spur tracks were run to Wakefield and to Saugus. The barns were then on Pleasant Street in Malden.
In 1892 the line was electrified from Melrose to Woburn and from Melrose to Chelsea in 1894. In 1897 much of this system was double-tracked.
In 1893 the East Middlesex Street Railway Company was leased to the Lynn and Boston Railway Company which had branched out from its Lynn-Boston line. The whole system came under the control of a Philadelphia syndicate and on July 22, 1901, the name was changed to the Boston and Northern Railway Company. In the same year an agreement was made with the Boston Elevated Railway Company for a five cent fare from Stoneham to Boston via Melrose and Malden. That the City was
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growing is seen by an order passed by the Board of Aldermen in 1900 forbidding the hitching of horses to trees and shrubs.
On August 17, 1901, at. 5.30 A.M. the first through electric street car was run from the barns at Franklin and Main Streets in Melrose to Scollay Square in Boston in forty-five minutes, with a five cent fare.
On April 13, 1905, the Aldermen granted permission for the Boston and Northern to double the tracks on Main Street. In 1906 the company built what was known as the East Side line running from Wyoming Station through Berwick, Grove, Sixth, Laurel, Waverley Avenue, Upham, East, Porter and Main Streets to City Hall and then on Essex Street to the Melrose railroad station.
On July 1, 1911, the Bay State Street Railway Company was formed by a consolidation of the Boston and Northern Street Railway Company with the Old Colony Street Railway Com- pany, and in June 1919, the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway Company, an independent concern, took over the Bay State property .
On July 19, 1930 it was proposed to replace the electric cars with buses from Everett through Melrose to Lawrence and Lowell. On May 24, 1931, buses were run from Franklin Street to the Elevated Terminal in Everett as a trial, the electric cars being maintained, but on April 2, 1932, all electric service was abandoned, except on the Highlands-Saugus line, pending high- way improvement. Later this was also abandoned. The tracks on Main Street were removed shortly afterwards.
A twenty-minute service by bus is now maintained between Everett Terminal, Malden, Melrose, Wakefield, Stoneham, Law- rence and Lowell, alternating with a service between Malden Square and Wakefield. A belt line also connects the eastern side of the City with the Melrose and Wyoming railroad stations, replacing the old East Side trolley line.
On October 12, 1948, an additional bus service was estab- lished by the Warwick Coach Company, Incorporated, of Malden, running between the Malden-Melrose line on Lebanon Street via Park, Linwood, Grove, and Main Streets to the Melrose Hospital and returning to Wyoming Avenue, Pleasant Street and Lynde Avenue to Main Street. Beginning on a half hour schedule, the service proved unsuccessful and was later much reduced.
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CHAPTER TWENTY
THE PRESS
Two weekly newspapers were published in Melrose in 1900, the Melrose Journal, established under another name by Joseph P. Baker on February 16, 1878, but owned and edited in 1900 by Charles H. Adams, and the Melrose Reporter, established October 8, 1887, by the firm of Dunton and Potter, originally a weekly, but issued as a daily from November 1, 1899 to January 15, 1900, at the time of the change from a town to a city government. The original Melrose Journal had been established by Henry C. Gray on December 10, 1870, with several successive owners until it expired in 1878.
The Melrose Weekly Visitor, established February 16, 1878, by Joseph P. Baker, a former owner of the Melrose Journal, sold out later to George W. Reynolds and Aubrey W. Dunton in July 1879. As the old Journal had expired, the new owners changed the name to the Melrose Journal. In the summer of 1880 Reynolds and Dunton dissolved partnership and Reynolds continued as publisher until 1884 when he sold the paper to William L. Williams. At his death in 1888 his son Leonard F. Williams con- tinued publication, but sold after a year to W. B. Howe, who sold the Journal in May 1890 to Charles H. Adams.
In 1887 Aubrey W. Dunton with Samuel G. Potter started the Melrose Reporter, and in October, 1900 Ralph Wilbur replaced Potter, and the new firm took the name of A. W. Dunton Com- pany. In 1904 they bought the Journal and discontinued it; a year later the Reporter was abandoned, the firm moving to Boston.
After dissolving partnership with Dunton, Potter began the publication of the Melrose Free Press on November 15, 1901, with George H. Dearborn as editor, William J. Eastman reporter, and Arthur M. Blackstone cartoonist. In November 1907 it was sold to George M. Haskins of Auburn, Maine, and again in October 1909 to the Melrose Free Press, Inc., a stock company of which E. Copeland Lang was president and G. E. Johnson treasurer.
The Free Press was originally issued free to the inhabitants of Melrose, being supported by its advertisements. On February 7, 1902 a charge of three cents for extra copies and a subscription price of $1.50 a year for mailed copies were established. At that time the circulation was three thousand four hundred a week.
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In 1906 the Free Press moved its printing plant to the rear of 506 Main Street, but retained its business office at 519 Main Street. In June 1928 it moved its plant and offices to its own building on West Foster Street.
In its issue for February 18, 1932, the Free Press changed its day of issue from Friday to Thursday at the request of its adver- tisers, and effective with its issue of February 3, 1944, it went on a strictly subscription basis at $2.00 a year, because of the short- age of newsprint, manpower and delivery boys.
G. E. Johnson was manager of the Free Press to the time of his death in June 1924. He was succeeded by E. J. MacLean in August, then by Arthur J. Mansfield, and he in turn by F. E. Schueler in 1931, who has remained ever since. Mr. Dearborn was succeeded as editor by Joseph Low. Miss Dorothy Raymond has been with the paper since 1930. Dr. Ralph D. Leonard is presi- dent of the corporation. The Free Press is now one of the fifty weekly newspapers in the Audit Bureau of Circulation Group having a circulation of over five thousand copies weekly.
In September 1921 the American Legion Post No. 90 began publication of the Melrose Home Sector as a monthly, changed it to a biweekly in January 1922, and then to a weekly on October 22, 1922. Later it was sold to the Melrose Home Sector Company, and under the management of Matthew F. Divver. On Novem- ber 30, 1933, it was amalgamated with the Free Press, Mr. Divver becoming manager of advertising sales until his resignation a few years later.
In March 1906 the Melrose Evening News was published by the late Frank Bayrd in a daily limited edition, and has been con- tinued by the Malden Evening News.
After leaving the Free Press, Arthur J. Mansfield began the publication of the Melrose Citizen, a weekly, on September 4, 1931, but abandoned the project in April 1932.
The Melrose Leader first appeared in 1933 as a weekly, dis- tributed free, by the Delaney Press on Main Street. Mr. Delaney sold the paper September 19, 1946, to the Melrose Leader Pub- lishing Company, of which Arthur C. Jaynes is general manager. The article in the name was dropped to read simply "Melrose Leader." The paper still appears weekly but on a paid subscrip- tion basis, three cents a copy or $2.00 a year mailed. The paper was a pioneer in the cold type process, the only other papers so issued being the Perry chain in Florida, but printing was later changed to an offset process.
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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
THE BANKS
Of the three banks in Melrose the oldest is the MELROSE SAVINGS BANK, chartered April 5, 1872, but owing to the great fire in Boston that year, did not open its first account until August 5, 1874. At that time Wingate P. Sargent was President, George A. Mansfield, Treasurer. By October 1, 1874 deposits were $17,246.05.
The Bank's quarters were first in the Town Hall, but were moved to the Newhall Block at 541 Main Street in 1891. Its President in 1900 was Daniel Russell, with Moses S. Page, Vice- President, Elbridge H. Goss, Treasurer, and John Larrabee, Clerk of the Corporation. Deposits by December 31, 1900 had grown to $1,012,700.83.
On September 17, 1906 the Bank quarters were moved from the Newhall Block to the Young Men's Christian Association building at 497 Main Street, in the same building occupied by the Melrose National Bank, but as business increased, and the Bank had purchased a lot at the corner of Main and West Foster Streets by auction on January 13, 1926, the house, store and barn on the property were torn down, and the present Bank Building constructed according to plans drawn by the firm of Adden and Parker of Boston, Chester S. Patten of Melrose being the con- tractor. The cornerstone was laid May 22, 1926 with the aid of Ives Band, Ex-Mayor Charles H. Adams, then Vice-President of the Bank, presiding. The Mayor, Albert M. Tibbetts, congratu- lated the Bank officials upon their enterprise. On December 17, 1926, the new building was opened for inspection, and the fol- lowing day for business, with John Larrabee as president.
The growth and usefulness of the Bank has been constant, and by 1949 the deposits had grown to $18,541,545.78, with Dr. Ralph D. Leonard President, Charles H. Adams, Vice-President, Stanley Ransom, Treasurer, Archer F. Thompson, Assistant Treasurer, and Willis C. Goss, Mortgager. The property on Myrtle Street behind the Bank, occupied by the Hotel Osmund, has been acquired for further extension, or for beautification.
The MELROSE CO-OPERATIVE BANK was chartered April 4, 1890, and opened for business April 20 of the same year, with offices at 160 Franklin Street, and C. W. Higgins as President.
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MELROSE COOPERATIVE BANK, MAIN STREET
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Finding a more central locality desirable, the Bank voted in September 1936 to purchase the Patten Building at 638-642 Main Street for remodeling as new quarters. This was done and the new quarters opened for public inspection January 1, 1937, and for regular business the following day.
In 1900 Levi S. Gould was President, Jabez S. Dyer, Vice- President, John P. Deering, Treasurer, and the total assets were $46,947.92. In April 1949 these had increased to $3,197,611.85, with Charles H. Adams as President, William A. Dole and Wallace R. Lovett as Vice-Presidents, and Robert L. Hutchinson as Treasurer.
The MELROSE TRUST COMPANY was chartered originally as the Melrose National Bank on July 1, 1892 and opened for busi- ness in the Town Hall July 11, 1892 with Decius Beebe as Presi- dent, John Larrabee as Cashier and Miss Annie R. Blanchard as Teller. At that time the city population was eight thousand five hundred nineteen, there were no electric street lighting, electric cars nor telephone exchange.
In February 1895 the Bank moved from the Town Hall to new quarters in the Young Men's Christian Association Building at 495 Main Street. In 1916 the Bank changed from a national to a state charter for the purpose of broadening its activities, and the name changed to the Melrose Trust Company. In 1926 when the Melrose Savings Bank moved from the Young Men's Chris- tian Association Building, the Melrose Trust Company took over the vacated quarters, and now occupy the whole of the ground floor, having been further enlarged in 1934.
In 1920 a branch was opened in Melrose Highlands at 515 Franklin Street, with two employees.
In 1900 the Bank officials included Decius Beebe as President, Seth E. Benson as Vice-President and Walter I. Nickerson as Cashier. In 1949 the Bank officials were Claude L. Allen, Presi- dent; Horace H. Feltham, Executive Vice-President; Charles C. Swett, Vice-President; Paul H. Messer, Treasurer; Raymond P. Wentzell, Assistant Treasurer; with James M. White manager of the Highlands Branch. In 1900 the total assets of the Bank amounted to $199,408.89, which had increased by 1949 to $6,942,964.01.
Two well-known figures in the Bank were Armour W. Clark, who entered the Bank in 1908 and retired as Treasurer on August 6, 1945, and Miss Grace B. Leighton, who entered the Bank in 1903 and retired as Assistant Treasurer on September 1, 1947.
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MELROSE SAVINGS BANK, MAIN STREET
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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
THE FACTORIES
As it has long been the policy of the City Fathers to main- tain Melrose as a residence community, little effort has been given to establishing manufacturing concerns in the City. Some manufacturing of boots and shoes was carried on by Captain Jonathan Barrett in 1806 and a needle factory and picture mould- ing factory also once existed.
The largest industrial concern in the history of Melrose was Factory No. 2 of the Boston Rubber Shoe Company, built on Pleasant Street in 1883, on property belonging to the Converse family. In August 1898 this became a subsidiary of the United States Rubber Company and employed about one hundred seventy- five people. On September 3, 1926, rubber boot making at the Fells factory, as it was then called, was transferred to the Edge- worth factory in Malden, and on April 11, 1929, the factory was closed indefinitely and the work transferred to the company's plant in Connecticut. Of the three hundred thirty-one employees at that time, men over sixty years of age and women over fifty- five, numbering twenty-six persons, were pensioned, one hundred five were transferred to the Edgeworth factory and the balance given termination wages. The factory building was closed in October of the same year.
The Fells factory buildings are now occupied by a number of firms, including the Heveatex Corporation, the Globe Mattress Company, the Puritan Furniture Company, the Revere Knitting Company, the National Company (radios), the American Table Manufacturing Company and the Hersey Paper Lining Company.
The telephone company has built a large garage adjoining the Fells factory and the National Biscuit Company built a large warehouse beyond that, now occupied by DuPont de Nemours Company as a paint warehouse.
The F. U. and R. H. Sircom Company, manufacturers of women's skirts and petticoats, started in Melrose in 1890 with six-foot machines in the Newhall Block. In 1893 they bought a wooden building on Corey Street, and in 1912 built a three-story brick building in which were installed four hundred machines, with salesrooms in Boston and New York. The company was later reorganized as the Franklin Company, and in 1929 passed
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into the hands of a receiver, when it was bought by William H. Veale, a company salesman, and again reorganized as the Frank- lin Wear Company, manufacturing silk and rayon underwear. This firm then moved to Connecticut, and in 1945 the building was sold to the National Company, manufacturers of radios, who later moved to the Fells factory building. The building is now occupied by the U-like Cone Corporation, manufacturers of ice cream cones. Adjoining the old Franklin factory building on Corey Street is a building once occupied by Friend Brothers, but is now occupied by L. R. Moulton, curtain manufacturers.
A half a dozen other small manufacturing concerns have been established in Melrose since 1900, but not of sufficient size to give Melrose the character of a manufacturing center.
In 1931 the financial depression and the problem of unem- ployment throughout the country became so pressing in Melrose that at the request of Mayor Robert A. Perkins, a Melrose Unem- ployment Relief Committee, with Wallace R. Lovett as general chairman, was organized for the purpose of aiding the unemployed
On November 27, 1931, the Committee opened headquarters at 463 Main Street. A city-wide canvass was made of the jobless and by December 10, two hundred fifty had been registered. This figure later rose to eight hundred sixty men and two hundred seventy-seven women.
A public drive was made for funds and the employees of all the city departments, including school teachers and executives, contributed two per cent of their wages, the employees of the Post Office doing the same. The churches helped, and the pro- ceeds of the annual Policemen's Ball were also donated. Before the situation was relieved, over $40,000 had been contributed.
In January 1933 a Federal grant of $57,700 was made avail- able for needed construction and repair, and several hundred men were employed on the Mount Hood project.
During the period from 1934 to 1940 inclusive, Federal funds expended in the City of Melrose for unemployment, under the CWA, ERA and WPA amounted to $1,996,482.10, mainly on work for the Mount Hood, cemetery and school projects. During the same period the City of Melrose expended $327,667.51 for materials, supplies and similar items covering the same projects.
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CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
THE BUSINESSMEN
In 1843 the only general store in Melrose was that of George Emerson at the corner of Main and Green Streets, in what was then known as the "Court" end of town. He also built the ice- house on Ell Pond, which was an eyesore until torn down. Later, business centers developed on Main and Franklin Streets and on West Wyoming Avenue.
The Melrose Board of Trade, later changed to the Chamber of Commerce, began on the stormy night of February 8, 1900 at a meeting in the Temple of Honor Hall, with S. G. Potter as chairman and G. W. Proal as secretary-treasurer. On February 13, 1900, the first regular meeting was held and the formal organ- ization took place in Hawthorne Hall, with forty persons pres- ent. Oscar F. Frost was elected president, Edwin S. Small first vice-president, H. J. Perry second vice-president, Victor A. Friend, secretary, and L. Frank Hinckley, treasurer. The Chamber of Commerce now has one hundred fifty members, meets monthly at Oak Manor, with Joseph T. Cefalo as president, and Mrs. Eleanor Prior as executive secretary.
A trade show "Melrose on Display" was organized by the Melrose Chamber of Commerce in Memorial Hall from April 29 to May 1, 1947, with thirty-eight exhibitors. Some five thousand persons attended, encouraged by an evening program of enter- tainment and door prizes. It was followed by a second trade show October 19 to 21, 1948, with forty exhibitors and an attendance of eight thousand. The organizing committee was headed by Joseph T. Cefalo of the Melrose Florist Company. Annual shows alternating in spring and autumn are planned for the future.
George Newhall, born February 22, 1823, learned his trade as a shoemaker when a child and an orphan, and died March 20, 1900. The shoe business he established at the corner of Main and Upham Streets was carried on by his son, J. Walter Newhall, who died August 17, 1947, as the NEWHALL SHOE STORE, and the business is continued by the grandson, George W. Newhall.
Back in 1845 William J. Farnsworth purchased a consider- able tract of land in Melrose, and sold to the Boston and Maine Railroad the lots now occupied by the Melrose and Melrose Highlands railroad stations. His son, George W. Farnsworth, carried on the business in real estate until his death in 1899,
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when his daughter, MIss MINNIE L. FARNSWORTH, took over the business and has continued it ever since from her office at 634 Main Street.
The DEERING LUMBER COMPANY was established in 1872 by John P. Deering by purchase of a small business from a Mr. Robinson shortly after the great Boston fire. The business was then located on Essex Street at the present location of the Goss Fuels, Inc., but about 1900 was moved to a site on Tremont Street at the head of Ell Pond, and the name of J. P. Deering and Company was changed to the Deering Lumber Company, Inc. It continued doing business at 44 Tremont Street until Mr. Deering's death in 1913, when the business was bought by Fred A. Perkins. The yard moved to its present location at 118 Essex Street in 1921. In 1922 the two sons, Eaton H. Perkins and Ernest F. Perkins, became active in the management, and in 1930, upon the retirement of their father, became the active managers. At the same time a wood-working mill was added to the business. In 1938 they built what at the time was the most modern lumber showroom in the country, and in 1948 Alden M. Perkins and Ernest F. Perkins, Jr. became associated in the business, representing the third genera- tion of the Perkins family.
In 1892 two young men from Brooklin, Maine, Leslie A. Friend and his younger brother Victor A. Friend, having saved a few hundred dollars capital while employed by a wholesale grocer in Portland, established a bakery in Melrose. A younger brother, Robert A. Friend, and Leslie's son, Walter A. Friend, were later taken into partnership, and still later, Robert A. Friend, Jr., joined the firm. The firm grew to a baking and canning establishment, with factories in Melrose, Malden, Lynn and Lowell, and forty FRIENDLY FOOD SHOPS Scattered about the Metropolitan district. The main office is at 407 Main Street, Melrose, at the corner of Grove Street. On January 9, 1946, Robert A. Friend died of a heart attack.
CHARLES E. BLACK succeeded Mrs. S. O. Eldridge, by whom he had been employed for eleven years, in the ownership of the grocery at 7 West Emerson Street, on February 2, 1903. In 1909 he moved the business to the corner of Main and East Emerson Streets where he has since remained.
Clement's Emporium, now known as CLEMENT'S DEPART- MENT STORE at 537 Main Street, was established by Fred Clement on Grove Street in 1890, but was moved to its present location by 1895. Fred Clement retired in 1929, when the business was taken
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over by his son Fred M. Clement, who was later joined by his brother H. Russell Clement in 1946, upon his release from mili- tary service.
Sidney D. Farrar opened a men's clothing store at 525 Main Street under the name of Farrar and Selee. An employee, John J. Keating, later took over the business and changed the name to J. J. Keating. His employee, Edwin E. Prior, then set up in busi- ness for himself in 1907, dying later in 1941. His son MELVILLE E. PRIOR has continued the business, moving to 485 Main Street at the corner of East Foster Street, with Edward E. Hatch as mana- ger since 1920.
The firm of R. H. CURRY AND SON, 472 Franklin Street, was founded by Robert H. Curry in 1888 as a plumbing and steam fitting concern. His son, Albert F. Curry, joined him in the busi- ness as a young man, and later became a partner, continuing the business after his father died in 1921. His son, Robert W. Curry, joined the business in 1931 and the business has continued under their joint management since then.
The CASEY FLORIST COMPANY, at 93 Maple Street, was estab- lished by Cornelius Casey, a Civil War veteran, in 1869. The business was continued by his sons, Neil S. Casey who died in 1934, James S. Casey who died in 1940, William E. Casey who died in 1941, and Daniel J. Casey who died June 5, 1949. Daniel's son Joseph continues the business with his sisters, Miss Mildred Casey and Mrs. Marion Simons. The firm is believed the oldest in Middlesex County run by one family.
The OLIVER E. HAWES COMPANY was incorporated as a stock company in 1913, and continues the grocery business at 421 Franklin Street at the cornerof Chipman Avenue. David Cheever, who began working for Mr. Hawes in 1893 when the firm was known as Frost and Hawes, became manager at Mr. Hawes' death, shortly before its incorporation, and has remained as manager ever since.
SMITH BROTHERS GARAGE, INC., started at 12 Essex Street, opposite the City Hall, as a boot and shoe repair shop in 1889 by two brothers, Walter E. Smith and Rufus W. Smith. They also did miscellaneous mechanical repairs and naturally drifted into bicycle repair work, installing a gas engine for the necessary machinery, enlarging the premises, and erected a mechanical sign that fascinated passers-by. In 1898 the firm purchased its first automobile, by which they won a medal from the League of American Wheelmen for the first century run made on the roads
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