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 2
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The first motor equipment was a Knox Combination A chem- ical wagon and hose cart purchased in 1912 and stationed in the Highlands. In 1914 a second Combination B was purchased and stationed at the Central Station and by 1919 the Department was fully mechanized.
"Sam," a bay horse with a white star on his forehead, was used for nineteen years on the hose cart, until sold, and then passed from owner to owner until found by the Melrose Humane Society pulling a junk cart without kindness, proper food or shelter. He was purchased for a small sum and given a home for retirement on a farm in Reading in 1925.
In 1949 the Fire Department included the Central Fire Sta- tion on Main Street with Engine No. 1, Ladder No. 1, a service car, Engine No. 4 in reserve and a Willys car for brush fires, a chief, two captains, lieutenant and twenty-three men; the High-
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CENTRAL FIRE STATION, MAIN STREET
MELROSE HIGHLANDS FIRE STATION, TREMONT STREET
lands Station on Tremont Street, with Engine No. 2 and Engine No. 5 in reserve, a captain, two lieutenants and eight men; and the East Side Station on East Foster Street with Engine No. 3, a captain, lieutenant and six men.
The Mutual Aid Association and the Relief Society were reorganized December 13, 1907, as the Melrose Fireman's Relief Association, which was incorporated May 11, 1908. Besides its relief work the Association carries on the tradition of an annual concert and ball, holding the sixty-third such affair in 1948.
On December 16, 1925, Joseph Edwards died at his home at seventy years of age. He had been a member of the Fire Depart- ment for forty-five years, and Chief for twenty years when he retired July 1, 1922. Frank C. Newman was Chief from 1922 to 1939, when he retired, and died in 1948. He was followed by Sidney C. Field, who became Chief in June 1939.
During World War II the Fire Department organized an Auxiliary Civilian Defense section, which built seven trailers, with hose, four pump units and the necessary tools for the seven city wards. This later became the Box 41 Association, with some twenty-five members, which still holds monthly meetings.
While the past fifty years have produced no fires such as occurred in 1870, when nearly all the stores and dwellings on Main Street between Foster and Essex Streets were destroyed, a number are worth special notice.
On June 13, 1913, the City Stables on Linwood Avenue were burned, together with twelve horses. On Sunday morning, Janu- ary 7, 1917, the stable and carriage sheds of the Melrose contractor Robert Philpot on Dell Avenue were discovered burning. Henry R. Philpot, age fifty, a son of the owner, and Samuel Dowden, also fifty, an employee, were suffocated and burned to death while attempting to lead horses out of the stable. Nine horses were burned and six others rescued. Fifteen tons of hay, several wagons and carriages and several sets of harness were also destroyed. The fire was caused by a defective oil stove in the front office.
On January 11, 1946, a faulty kitchen range burner exploded and fire quickly spread to the second and third floors of the twelve tenement block at Nos. 13-36 Berwick Street. A general alarm was sounded and aid was furnished by the Malden, Wakefield, Stoneham and Reading Departments. Mrs. Carl Lapham and two children, Delbert, age four years, and Carl Lapham Jr., age fourteen months, were burned in the building. The husband, Carl Lapham, and the boarder, Herbert Gibbons, escaped, with another
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child, Linda, age five years, who later died from her burns. The thirty-three other occupants of the building were safely evacu- ated and given aid by the Red Cross.
Other fires involving only property damage included the burning of the Boston and Northern Railway barns on February 6, 1909; the Melrose Theater on November 1, 1917 and again on March 12, 1931; the Melrose City Club on December 26, 1920 and again on August 24, 1931; the Chipman Block on Franklin Street on February 21, 1924, with $50,000 damage, the hydrants frozen and the Boston and Maine trains blocked for two hours; the Briry Block on Wyoming Avenue on December 16, 1924; another cold weather fire at the corner of Grove and Main Streets on December 9, 1934; a second fire in the Chipman Block on December 18, 1935; the spectacular Trinity Parish House fire on January 12, 1936; the fire in the upper story of City Hall on February 17, 1937, with $20,000 worth of damage, mainly from water; a general alarm fire on the top floor of the Fells Factory building on Sep- tember 19, 1939; the St. Mary's Convent fire on February 4, 1948; and the $50,000 fire in the Globe Mattress Company section of the Fells Factory building on September 11, 1948.
Besides assisting with the general alarm fires in Chelsea and Boston, the Melrose Fire Department also shares in a mutual aid system with the adjoining cities and towns on fires beyond the power of the local departments to handle alone.
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CHAPTER FOUR
THE POLICE
The Melrose Police Department in 1900 was under the com- mand of Captain Frank M. Mclaughlin who had held that posi- tion since 1884. He was assisted by eleven patrolmen, eleven spe- cial officers, four constables and a bail commissioner. He retired in 1909 and died June 24, 1910.
Captain George E. Kerr succeeded Captain Mclaughlin on June 6, 1910 and died May 29, 1925. He was followed by Louis B. Heaton who joined the force in 1900, was appointed Captain February 18, 1915, and Captain-in Charge December 13, 1926.
Captain Heaton was a member of the International Chiefs of Police Association, President of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, the New England Chiefs of Police Associa- tion, the New England Police Pistol League and the Police Square Club. He was a member of the Massachusetts Police Association, a charter member of the Melrose Police Relief Association, and also active in the First Methodist Church and in the Young Men's Christian Association. He died March 19, 1949.
Following Captain Heaton's retirement December 8, 1945, Lieut. William T. Fahy was in charge of the Department until George D. MacWilliams was appointed captain August 22, 1946, and sworn in as captain-in-charge August 24, 1946. He had been appointed to the reserve force November 9, 1922, assigned to the regular force February 18, 1925 and made a sergeant September 4, 1934. In 1949 the Melrose Police Force included a captain-in- charge, a lieutenant, four sergeants, thirty-one patrolmen and eleven reserve officers.
The Melrose Police Relief Association was organized Janu- ary 12, 1902, for social and benevolent purposes, and has given a ball and concert every year since. It was incorporated September 13, 1904.
Upon the establishment of the local Committee of Public Safety in the summer of 1941, the Police Department was called upon to provide an auxiliary division for any occasion of public emergency. Lieut. William T. Fahy of the regular force under- took the job, and on September 12, 1941 Melrose had the first completely organized Auxiliary Police Department in Massa-
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chusetts. Its three hundred members included businessmen, pro- fessional men, lawyers, teachers, salesmen, all appointed special officers by the Mayor, confirmed by the Board of Aldermen and sworn in by the City Clerk. This force was divided into eight sectors, using the school buildings and City Hall as sector head- quarters. The organization was on a semi-military basis, with cooperation from the regular police service, and substituted for the regular police at times on traffic and other duties.
Following the war, the organization has continued and was incorporated in 1946. In 1949 the President was Howell Baldwin, with Leo H. Norton Vice-President, Benjamin R. Vaughan Treasurer, and George A. McPheters Secretary.
In a residential community such as Melrose, crimes of vio- lence are rare, and in the past fifty years there have been but four killings reported by the police.
In June 1916 the body of seven-year-old Loretta Wakelin, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Wakelin of 85 Dexter Road, was found in the woods near Swain's Pond Avenue. She had been sent home from school for some books she had forgotten. The parents were charged with the murder, but at the trial on June 1, 1917, the father, Joseph Wakelin, was given five years in the peniten- tiary, and the mother, Sarah Wakelin, was released.
On December 6, 1923, Mrs. Robert L. Benson of 376 Berwick Street was found on Boardman Avenue in the Highlands shot in the body three times. Before she died later in the Melrose Hos- pital, she said her husband had shot her after a quarrel. She had been living for several months with her children in Stoneham. Mr. Benson was sent to the Hospital for the Insane at Bridgewater.
A Chinese laundryman, Sam Lee, was found shot to death in his laundry at 190 Grove Street on August 24, 1932, and Chin Kee, who was found working in the laundry, was arrested for the crime. He was defended by Thomas L. Thistle, and although convicted, later testimony weakened the case and his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by Governor Joseph B. Ely.
On September 9, 1940, Oscar Thomas, seventy-four years of age, reported an armed holdup at the Shell service station on the Fells Parkway near Main Street, during which he was shot. He died in the Melrose Hospital October 30, 1940. Three Malden men, James H. Nickerson, Paul Giacomazza and William Lene- han, were arrested, and at their trial Lenehan was given five years in the penitentiary as accessory after the fact, and the other two sentenced to death.
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The custom of giving tramps and vagrants a free bed in City Hall resulted in 1,649 such lodgers in 1900, and on April 16, 1902, Mayor Larrabee ordered the practice stopped.
During the month of May 1900 a petition was submitted to the Board of Aldermen signed by "three hundred of the best people of the City," asking that measures be taken to curb the disorder, noise and vandalism that marked the usual Fourth of July celebration. The Aldermen replied by allowing the discharge of firearms on June 17 and July 4, later amended to forbid noise between 12 and 4 A.M. and no cannon crackers more than four inches long.
On July 4 of that year, a disorderly crowd visited the resi- dences of several aldermen, making a loud noise, and then called at Mrs. Mary A. Livermore's house and in an insulting manner asked her to come out. This action by the crowd roused public resentment, and the Fourth of July celebrations became much quieter in later years. By 1930 there were no bonfires, no parades, no fireworks, and according to the Free Press everyone who had a car left the City.
Disorderly children seem to have been a problem about the time the parents of the present generation of children were them- selves young. The vandalism of fruit and flower gardens was declared a public nuisance by the Free Press in 1917, and on June 4, 1918, Judge Bruce of the Malden Court warned both children and parents against predial larceny.
The question of juvenile delinquency has shown great im- provement, however, especially since World War II, and the record of twenty-six cases in 1946 fell to only six cases in 1947.
During the period of national prohibition there were a num- ber of bootleg cases handled by the police, but with the repeal of prohibition, this problem has disappeared.
A more pressing problem is the increasing demand for auto- mobile parking space in the business districts, and the increasing traffic on Main Street, driving north from Maldenand Somerville. A by-pass west of the Boston and Maine Railroad tracks has been suggested, but no action taken.
To relieve the parking problem, two hundred eighty Dual Automatic parking meters, with payment of one to five cents, were installed October 13, 1948, on Main Street from Wyoming Avenue to the Livermore School, a short distance on Grove and West Foster Streets, one side of Myrtle Street between Foster and Essex Streets, and for a short distance on Essex, Upham and East
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Emerson Streets. The meters grossed over $360 the first week in operation. A proposal to make Dill's Court a parking area has been favorably considered.
The telephone building on West Foster Street, abandoned for use with the installation of dial telephones, has been pur- chased by the City, to furnish needed accommodations for the Police Department, and to allow the police quarters in City Hall to be used for other municipal departments.
The ruling of the Board of Health that hens could not be kept without a license, costing twenty-five cents a year, caused a mass meeting of some three hundred persons in City Hall November 8, 1912, to protest the order. Col. F. S. Hesseltine rose to say that he had no objection to hearing roosters crow, and that he had a right to keep hens without interference from either the Board of Health or his neighbors, adding that he would de- fend free of charge anyone prosecuted for keeping hens without a license. There is no record that he was ever called upon to do so.
MALDEN
WEEK
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MELROSE ON PARADE, IN THE GAY NINETIES
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CHAPTER FIVE
THE SCHOOLS
At the time Melrose became a separate town in 1850, there was but one public schoolhouse, built in 1845 on Upham Street, in which primary, intermediate and grammar grades were taught. This building was burned in 1874 and succeeded by the Sewall School. Other school buildings were soon built, on Lynde, Green and Foster Streets in 1853 at a cost of $1,500 each, and on Franklin and Upham Streets in 1855, all since abandoned. The school on Foster Street was succeeded by the D. W. Gooch School, built in 1886 and remodeled in 1892. The Franklin School, later named . the Whittier, on Franklin Street near Sargent, was built in 1884. The old Horace Mann School on the corner of Grove and Myrtle Streets was built in 1883. The Converse School on Washington Street at the Fells was built in 1885 and named for Elisha Con- verse who donated the land. The Ripley School was built in 1886 to accommodate the children of the Swain's Pond district. In 1891 the Mary A. Livermore School and the Winthrop School were built and in 1892 the Warren School.
By 1896 the pressure on the school accommodations had become so acute that a bond issue of $200,000 was sold to make possible the building of the Franklin School at the corner of Main and Franklin Streets, the Washington School at the corner of Lebanon and Lynde Streets, the Lincoln School on Wyoming Avenue, and a new High School.
Since Melrose became a city in 1900, no new school buildings were constructed until 1924 when the Roosevelt and the new Ripley schools were built, the new Winthrop School in 1926 and the new High School in 1933.
In 1868 the town voted $20,000 for a High School, adding $7,500 the following year, and the school was built at the corner of West Emerson Street and Lake Avenue, dedicated July 15, 1869, and had seventy-four pupils. It was destroyed by fire January 25, 1897, and when the new High School was built, it was located on the site of the Old Burying Ground on Main Street. It was dedicated September 17, 1898, and had an enrollment of two hun- dred and thirty-three. Two wings were added in 1910, followed by charges of incomplete inspection and faulty workmanship. When the third High School was built in 1933, it was renamed
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WINTHROP SCHOOL, FIRST STREET
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THEODORE ROOSEVELT SCHOOL, VINTON STREET
the Calvin Coolidge School, and given over to grades 1-8.
At a special election held September 22, 1931, there was a favorable vote on the building of a new High School to cost $750,000, with a bond issue of $650,000. The new building was located on the Fells Parkway and dedicated September 6, 1933, with some fourteen hundred persons present. On the stage were the School Committee, Board of Aldermen, city officials, school superintendent and principals. Ex-Mayor Charles H. Adams pre- sided, and after a prayer by Rev. Henry T. Secrist of the Unitarian Church and addresses by Dr. Ashley Day Leavitt of Brookline, an alumnus, and the architect, John W. Beal, the keys were pre- sented to Chester B. Allen, Chairman of the School Committee, by the Mayor, Robert A. Perkins.
The amount provided for schooling in the "North District" of the town of Malden in 1844 was $475.04, but by 1902 the City of Melrose was spending $77,089 to cover the operation of the following fourteen school buildings: Converse, Franklin, D. W. Gooch, Lincoln, Mary A. Livermore, Horace Mann, Ripley, Sewall, Joseph Warren, Washington, Whittier, Winthrop, the High School and the West Side Kindergarten, with an additional three old school buildings on Green, Chestnut, and Winthrop Streets, to a total valuation in land and buildings of $455,600.
Theschools operated, with grades and enrollment, were as follows :
Built
Name
Grades
Enrollment
1933
High School
9-12
1159
1897-1908
Coolidge
1-8
492
1896
Franklin
2-6
276
1886
Gooch
1-6
172
1896-1930
Lincoln
1-8
387
1924-1930
Ripley
1-6
81
1924
Roosevelt
5-8
217
1892
Warren
1-4
144
1896-1924
Washington
1-6
176
1884
Whittier
1-2
153
1926
Winthrop
1-6
387
3644
On January 1, 1949, the total valuation of the eleven schools operated amounted to $3,095,833. There were one hundred sixty- five teachers, including fifty-three in the High School, one hundred in the elementary schools, six in special fields and six principals
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RIPLEY SCHOOL, LEBANON STREET
ST. MARY S PAROCHIAL SCHOOL, MYRTLE STREET
and supervisors. To these should be added thirty administrative employees, making a total of one hundred ninety-five employed. Maintenance and operational expenditures amount to $740,177.35. The only parochial school in the City is St. Mary's Academy School, which reported an enrollment of 618 on October 1, 1947.
On May 10, 1927, a special election defeated the campaign for a Junior High School System on a 6-3-3 basis to replace the 8-4 basis then and since in operation. A bond issue of $600,000 was also involved.
The Mary A. Livermore School has been abandoned for school purposes for several years. It was occupied by the WPA in 1925 and later by the Red Cross until March 1948, when the Red Cross moved to 663 Main Street. Since then the building has been unoc- cupied, and would require considerable renovation should it be needed for school use again.
In June 1948 another election defeated the proposal to issue bonds for $350,000 for a school on the lot between Hesseltine and Damon Avenues. In spite of this defeat, $319,000 was appropri- ated from available funds for the construction of a two-story brick-faced building to house grades 1-8 and a kindergarten. Construction was begun on June 1, 1949, and on September 7, 1949, the cornerstone was laid by Mayor Thistle. The building is to be completed by July 1950 and will be known as the Horace Mann School, in honor of the first Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education in 1837, the older school of the same name having been demolished.
The problem of classroom space remains, however. In 1948 in the Franklin-Whittier school district there were four hundred twenty-nine children in the first six grades, and sixty had to be temporarily accommodated in the Roosevelt School. Only three of the ten elementary schools have playgrounds, and four of the remaining seven have no space that can be called a playground.
William C. Whiting was principal of the High School in 1900 and served until 1911. He was followed by Lorne B. Hulsman 1911-1916, William B. Alexander 1916-1918, William D. Sprague 1918-1942, and Howard B. Wilder 1942-1949.
Alonzo Garcelon Whitman was principal of the High School from 1874 to 1897, when he was made Principal Emeritus and served fifteen years longer as teacher of mathematics, geology and astronomy. On October 27, 1914, the Teachers' Club gave him a reception in Memorial Hall with many of his earlier pupils attending. Solos were sung by Elena Kirmes, and he was pre-
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sented with a purse of $840 in gold. He died August 1929.
On June 19, 1942, William D. and Mrs. Sprague were given a reception in the school gymnasium with some five hundred per- sons present. He was presented with a purse of $550 and a life membership in the Amphion Club of which he had been presi- dent. Mayor Carl A. Raymond presented him with a copy of the resolution of esteem from the Board of Aldermen. C. Arthur Lindstrom was master of ceremonies.
Ex-President William H. Taft was the guest of the City on May 23, 1916. He was met at South Station by Mayor Charles H. Adams, George A. Goodridge of the Federated Church Schools, and Scout A. W. Hathaway, and brought by car to the Good- ridge home where he had dinner. He then spoke in Memorial Hall on the subject of education. He said the kindergarten method of instruction was carried too far into the higher grades, result- ing in a lack of thoroughness, of mental and moral discipline, and of respect for authority, manners, and other people's property.
Vandalism at the High School involving disfigurement of walls and walks with paint was found done by four members of the graduating class of 1918, including the class president and vice-president. Arrested and brought before Judge Bruce of the Malden Court, he told them to avoid jail sentence they would be required to repair the damage done, apologize to the School Committee, and resign their positions as class officers.
The Superintendent of Schools in 1900 was Fred H. Nicker- son, who served until 1909 when he moved to Medford. He was followed by John Clinton Anthony, who served until 1922 when he went to the town of Danvers. He was followed by Herman H. Stuart, who served twenty-five years until his retirement on September 1, 1947. He was followed by Natt B. Burbank, who resigned July 1, 1949 to go to Boulder, Colorado. During his period of office he encouraged adult education, which reached an enrollment of two hundred eighty-one in ten classes, later in- creased to five hundred. He was followed by Harold T. Rand, formerly Superintendent of Schools in Rochester, New Hampshire.
High School societies were discouraged in 1908 following complaint regarding their methods of initiation. The fraternity Omicron Delta amalgamated with the Melrose Club. The two sororities Phi Theta Xi and Kappa Delta Psi continued as social clubs, but severed their school connections.
The Teachers' Club, professional and social in character, was organized in 1910 and now has about one hundred sixty-five
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members. They meet at irregular intervals with an executive committee representing all the schools in the City. Miss Esther Lyman was president in 1949.
All the schools in Melrose have some sort of parent organiza- tion, most of them being Parent-Teachers Associations, organized for the purpose of bringing home and school closer together.
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HIGH SCHOOL, LYNN FELLS PARKWAY
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CHAPTER SIX
THE PARKS
In 1856 when the greater part of the Upham and Lynde farms were being sold as house lots, the land bounded by East Foster, Sixth, Laurel and Larrabee Streets was reserved for a public park and named Melrose Common. Once used for Fourth of July and similar celebrations, it has since been improved with tennis courts and other facilities as a public playground.
In 1881 the Melrose Improvement Society was organized and did much in planting trees and clearing the streets. In 1885 the Legislative Act of 1882 authorizing cities and towns to lay out parks was accepted and a Park Commission of three members was elected.
In 1890 the Town voted to buy the Barry homestead at the corner of Main and Lynde Streets for a hose house for the Wyo- ming district, but the location being found unsuitable, the land came under the Park Commission and is now Thompson Square, named after Angus W. Thompson who died in World War I.
At a town meeting on July 7, 1891, it was voted to accept the offer of nine acres of land from the Sewall estate to be known as Sewall's Woods on condition that a road be built around it, as was provided by a vote held on April 25, 1892. Improvements were limited by the deed of gift, but in 1930 a thousand pine trees were planted, trees trimmed and some clearing done. "Sewall's Man- sion" passed into private hands and became an apartment house.
At a town meeting held November 8, 1897, it was voted to purchase the twenty-three acres to the north and west of Ell Pond for $15,000 as park property, but in 1898 when the Metropolitan Park Commission of Boston proposed to build a boulevard from the Fells to Lynn Woods via Ell Pond, a vote of the last town meeting held November 9, 1899, transferred a sufficient part of the land for the boulevard to the Commission.
On October 20, 1900, a petition signed by several hundred persons was presented to the Mayor asking the City to purchase the Littlefield icehouse at the foot of Porter Street and use the land for park purposes. No action was taken, but a few years later John F. C. Slayton and James M. Maguire purchased the ice- house and presented the land to the City, making the present park possible.
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