USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Newton > Newton : its representative business men and its points of interest > Part 2
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NEWTON AND ITS POINTS OF INTEREST.
popular men in this vicinity. He continued to dispense good cheer for more than half a century, and made so strong an impression upon the community that the field of his operations continued to be known as Angier's Corner for more than fifty years after he had passed to that region where no mixed drinks are required. The next change in the name of the corner was made by the Worcester Railroad, which began operations in 1834, and named this station Newton Corner. The name was accepted without the least objection by the residents, and was cheerfully retained until
BAPTIST CHURCH, NEWTON CENTRE.
some twelve or fifteen years ago, when the people became so weary of being cornered that they cast the corner into oblivion and began to insist upon the village and the station being called Newton, simply that and nothing more. It is somewhat singular that this refinement of the station's name should have been accompanied by a corresponding refinement in the name of one of the apartments it contains. This was originally known as the "gents' waiting room," then as " gentlemen's waiting room," then as " men's waiting room," now its doors bear the single word, " men." There seems no opportunity for further improvement.
But we cannot linger about the station, for even if we had hours at our disposal we would not have a chance to see all there is worth seeing in the representative village of the Garden City. Close by the station is what may be called the commercial square of Newton, for around this square are located nearly all the stores in the village, and in the centre of it is the picturesque building shaded by beautiful trees and occupied by the Savings Bank and National Bank. The piece of land occupied by this structure was once the site of "Bacon's Tavern," which was a most famous resort in those good old days when railways were unknown and country produce was
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NEWTON AND ITS POINTS OF INTEREST.
brought to the cities in teams. Attached to the tavern was an enormous barn, where many such teams could be taken in, the drivers of them being taken in at the hotel. Speaking of hotels brings to mind the fact that this village was once a very popular summer resort, which seems queer in these days, when most of us would never think of making a summer resort out of a place but 7 miles from a city like Boston. Yet popular it was, so popular in fact that the hotels could not accommodate half the would-be guests, and this popularity continued until about thirty years
LINCOLN SQUARE, NEWTON HIGHLANDS.
ago, when the village had become so large and the facilities for transportation to such far-off places as the White Mountains and other wild districts had reached such a stage of perfection that the summer tourists began to go elsewhere. The city of Newton is not now included in any list of summer resorts, and yet it is the summer home of hundreds who could easily go elsewhere, but prefer to visit a region where pure air, beautiful scenery, healthfulness and good company are combined with high civilization and with opportunities for enjoyment even during the longest spells of bad weather.
After looking over the business edifices of Newton village we might visit the Free Library building, which is on Centre street, between Elmwood and Newton, and is a well proportioned stone structure, covered with ivy and separated from the street by a wide and beautiful lawn that is useful as well as ornamental, for it adds to the beauty of the building and diminishes the noise heard by those utilizing this public structure as a study, and these are by no means few, for here may be found an admirable reference library, a reference room equipped with every convenience, and one is not obliged to be a lineal descendant of Myles Standish or to be personally acquainted with the librarian and the attendants in order to be used courteously and given every reasonable assistance in the carrying on of literary investigations ; or, in other words, this is not the Boston, but the Newton Public Library. It contains about 30,000 books, and agencies for their distribu- 2
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tion are maintained in all of the Newton villages, the annual circulation exceeding 100,000. Passing along Centre street from the library, a few steps bring us to the Eliot Church, a massive, extensive and very imposing building, made of granite and brownstone, and remarkable for its combination of strength and beauty, of art and convenience. It was finished in 1888, having been constructed to take the place of a building burned in 1887, and belonging to a society which for
THE NEWTON FREE LIBRARY.
many years was the only church society in this village and which has built up and steadily main- tains that great power and influence which are the rewards of long, faithful and conscientious labor. The new Eliot Church building has for an auditorium an amphitheatre capable of seating 1,100, and arrangements have been made so that seats for 700 more could be provided with com- parative ease if required. It seems probable that this requirement will be made before a great many years pass, for this church is very largely attended, and its attendance increases with the steady increase in population of the village.
Across the street from Eliot Church stands the Immanuel Baptist Church, designed by Richardson, and a noble example of the work of the greatest architect this country has produced. It is built of rough brownstone and has that peculiarly " natural " appearance, as we call it, that
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makes it look as if it had fairly " grown up " from the site on which it rests. The building was erected in 1885 and belongs to a society organized about a third of a century ago, or in 1859. Another beautiful stone building on Church Street, devoted to religious purposes is that known as " Grace Church." It is built of conglomerate stone and has a most massive and substantial appearance. The most striking feature is a grand stone spire, but it is difficult to single out points of special excellence in a great structure so artistically and harmoniously designed. This
CEMETERY GATE, NEWTON CENTRE.
church was completed in 1873, and connects with a parish house built in 1884. The Grace Church chime includes nine bells, which are exceptionally sweet in tone, and which range in weight from 300 to 2,000 pounds. The society identified with this church is of Protestant Episcopal denomination, and the " Parish of Grace Church " was organized in 1855. For some years it has been regarded as one of the strongest Episcopal congregations in the state. Very near Grace Church are the solid and attractive buildings utilized by the Channing (Unitarian) Church, which was organized in 1851 and dedicated the church building it now occupies in 1882. This is built of brownstone and ornamented by sandstone trimmings, and has a tall spire which is as beautiful as it is prominent and noticeable. What are really several buildings go to make up what is commonly referred to as the " Channing Church," and it has been warmly commended as a model of what a modern church should be. The architect was the same one who designed the Eliot Church, Mr. Geo. F. Meacham of Newton.
There are other churches in this village besides the four we have visited, but we have too far to go to be able to devote time to their examination, and we will hurry along after a hasty glance at the famous Farlow Park, which is adjacent to the Grace and Channing Churches. This was once a mere swamp, possessed of neither healthfulness nor beauty; it is now a lovely little park, containing a pretty pond, an attractive rustic bridge, and the trees, shrubs and flowers which one naturally expects to find in a modern city " breathing place." The work necessary for the reno-
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vation of this tract from an cye-sore to a suitable park for a garden city was completed in 1885, and the results attained are an honor to the liberality of Mr. John S. Farlow and to the far-sightedness of the municipal government which made the necessary grants and otherwise aided the project. It would be well worth while to ascend Mount Ida, as the high hill near Newton station is called, before continuing our tour, for this " mount " holds up many charming houses and many fine estates, and it commands a view extending from the waters of Massachusetts Bay to the inland mountains known as Wachusett and Monadnock. It would also be worth while to visit Nonantum
METHODIST CHURCH AND PARK, NEWTONVILLE.
Hill, which is about half a mile from Newton village and is interesting on account of its historic associations and the variety and attractiveness of the scene open from its summit, but in order to finish our journey through broad Newton city within the specified time, we must postpone our visit to these hills and go along to Newtonville, which is the next village to Newton on the railroad.
Here,Fas in Newton, nearly all the stores are clustered about a square near the railroad station, and here, as in Newton, the village is divided into two parts by the Boston & Albany Railroad- one of those parts being hilly and being used almost exclusively by the owners of magnificent estates, and the other part being quite level and being occupied by ordinary residences, by stores and by churches. The newest and also the handsomest building at Newtonville is the Newton Club House, which was completed in 1892 and is utilized by the swell social organization of the city. As regards beauty and convenience, and as regards elegance and completeness of interior furnishing, this has been said to be the finest club house in the state, and certainly it would be difficult to detect any chance for improvement in this establishment, from cither a sentimental or a practical standpoint. The most important establishment in this village is unquestionably the Newton high school, which was opened in Newtonville in 1859, after earnest and long-extended
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NEWTON AND ITS POINTS OF INTEREST.
contention, for as this village is young in comparison with most of its neighbors, it had to struggle hard before it could convince the rest of the town that the high school should be located here. The results attained by the decision in its favor are favorable enough to convince anyone that no better choice could have been made, for the attractions offered have drawn such a number of pupils that it has been necessary to enlarge the school buildings several times, and the quality of the instruction given is indicated by the fact that Newton's school system was awarded a diploma of merit at the Vienna Exposition and also at the Paris Exposition. While speaking of Newton
NEW CLUB HOUSE, NEWTONVILLE.
schools, mention should certainly be made of the Claflin grammar school building, which is directly opposite the Newton Club House, and is a very large and very beautiful brick structure, most admirably equipped in every respect.
Departing from Newtonville, we soon reach West Newton, which is much easier to reach than it is to leave, for it is one of those delightful places which seem to have been designed to be " home villages " and which, while having no wonderful buildings, no surpassing natural beauties and no phenomena of any kind, are yet so genially attractive that it is hard to forsake them. This village, like its neighbors along the Boston & Albany, has a "hill section " and a "level section," and the elevated section of West Newton is now developing with special rapidity, for " West Newton Hill " is an expansive, prominent and very centrally located elevation that was long neglected, so that now people are making up for lost time by erecting many buildings on this charming hill. Considerable building is also being done in other portions of the village, and the population of West Newton is steadily increasing, for, to use a somewhat hackneyed phrase, "all purses can be suited " here, as house rent ranges from $5 to $125 a month, and land from five to
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NEWTON AND ITS POINTS OF INTEREST.
seventy-five cents a foot. West Newton contains the City Hall, but, to be honest about it, this is not a City Hall to be proud of, for, although it is large, it is homely and commonplace, and it does not come anywhere near being the kind of a City Hall one would naturally expect to find in a city like Newton. Perhaps one reason why it looks sort of ill at ease and out of place is because it was used for religious services for years before it began to be utilized for municipal business. But, after all, the quality of the work done in a City Hall is of vastly more importance to the community than is the quality of the City Hall itself, and judged from this standpoint, Newton City Hall will not suffer by comparison with any in the state.
VISTA AVE., FROM WOODLAWN AVE., AUBURNDALE.
The next village to West Newton is Auburndale and the name is said to have been suggested by "Sweet Auburn, " now " Mount Auburn, " Cambridge. At all events, visitors to Auburndale who have read Goldsmith's poen,
" Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain,"
will agree that it is most appropriately named, for a lovelier village cannot be found in all of Uncle Sam's broad domain. And it has a railway station worthy of it, for this station was designed by Richardson and is so beautiful and at the same time so convenient that even the average amateur architect would not be confident that he could decidedly improve it. Auburndale is almost entirely a residential village and contains many thoroughly comfortable homes and not a few dwell- ings that are remarkable for beauty as well as for comfort.
The Riverside Station is as homely and commonplace as the Auburndale Station is beautiful and exceptional, but this difference does not extend beyond the building itself, for Riverside is a most picturesque spot and, indeed, so far as scenic beauty is concerned, may be called the leading Newton locality. This is Newton's pleasure port, the port where the thousands embark who come to Newton from Boston and other towns for the express purpose of rowing or paddling along the Charles river. Here is the house of the Newton Boat Club, and here are several public boat houses
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NEWTON AND ITS POINTS OF INTEREST.
where one can hire light or lieavy, large or small craft and go a-voyaging to his heart's content along a stream that is attractive, quiet, shaded, secluded and, in short, simply perfection from the pleasure boating standpoint ; but one won't go alone-that is, unless he is remarkably unsociable or remarkably unfortunate-for the average boating man is accompanied by his best girl; and the drooping branches along the river side, the sentiment of the scenery, and the poetical atmosphere of the much-sung Charles are so favorable to the beginning and ardent carrying on of love suits
CHARLES RIVER, FROM NOURUMBEGA TOWER.
that thousands of proposals of marriage are made in Riverside boats every season. But even if you have already found your better-half, or are so 'unfortunately constituted that you think it better not to have one, you can extract almost unlimited enjoyment from a visit to Riverside during the boating season, for the scenery is beautiful, the company is sociable as well as courteous, and the row of eight or ten miles to Waltham and back again is delightful and invigorating. Or, if you pre- fer, you can row up the river to Newton Lower Falls, but the current is apt to be just a trifle rapid up in that direction and so you must be in pretty good training in order to be sure of getting there. But whether you row, ride or walk, you will find it worth while to go to the Lower Falls, for this is a pretty village, an old village, and to those interested in mechanical affairs, a very attractive village, for manufacturing is largely carried on here, and some very elaborate and costly plants of machinery may be seen at the mills of this place, which, on account of its very valuable water power and the extent to which it was utilized. was at one time confidently expected to become the metropolis of Newton, so the only post office in the town was placed here. But the future is truly a sealed book to all men, and as the coming supremacy of steam power over water power and the development in other regions of industries that were at one time supposed to be necessarily confined to New England altered the condition of affairs, Newton Lower Falls never became so large a village as it otherwise would, but still it is a prosperous place ; a charming place to live in, and it is one of the most romantic, picturesque and attractive of the Garden City's villages. It
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NEWTON AND ITS POINTS OF INTEREST.
is connected with the Boston & Albany Railroad by the Newton Lower Falls Branch, the connection being made at Riverside Station, so that whether we made our trip to the Lower Falls by boat or by rail, we necessarily went by way of Riverside. Returning to that place and continuing our tour by the Circuit Railroad, the first station we come to is Woodland, which may be briefly described as Newton's sanitarium-that is, not the station, but the region to which it is the portal. The eleva- tion, the air, the drainage and the surroundings-all are very favorable to health and many visit
WOODLAND PARK HOTEL, AUBURNDALE.
here every fall, and not a few come here to live permanently, in order to escape Boston east winds and be assured relief from throat and lung troubles. The Newton Cottage Hospital is located in this section of the city, and the results which have been attained since its opening in 1886 speak volumes for the healthfulness of its situation, even to those who make due allowance for the ex- cellence of the buildings and their equipment, for the skill of the medical treatment and for the intelligence and devotion of the nurses.
The next station to Woodland is Waban, it being named in honor of a chief of the Nonantum tribe, who is said to have made this region his favorite hunting ground. Well, if he were hunt- ing for lovely views, fresh air and agreeable quietude, he could not have found a more favorable hunting ground than this, although it probably has changed a trifle since his days; but there is no danger of its beauty being lost by the land becoming too thickly settled or by the erection of inferior houses, for this is a sort of a " Newton Nahant " and is not exactly open to all. The ter- ritory around Eliot Station, which is a mile beyond Waban, is not yet sufficiently occupied to enable any positive predictions to be made concerning its future, but the chances are that it is destined to become a " home region " and will be inhabited principally by those who belong to what is significantly known as "the great middle class." In other words, it will be a fitting suburb, or perhaps it would be better to say an acceptable neighbor, to the prosperous and agree- able village of Newton Highlands, the railway station of which is three-quarters of a mile from
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NEWTON AND ITS POINTS OF INTEREST.
that of Eliot, and is a little ways from the junction of the Circuit Branch with the former division of the New York & New England. About twenty years ago the village that is now called Newton Highlands began to grow. It has not stopped growing since-on the contrary, it increases its rate of growth every year, and it is plainly evident that this will be a very important portion of the future Newton. In fact, it is an important portion of the present Newton, if judged by the amount and the character of its population, but the advantages it offers are so numerous and its capacity
MASON SCHOOL AND SQUARE, NEWTON CENTRE.
for the perfectly satisfactory accommodation of many more people is so great, that the Newton Highlands of to-day is but an indication of what the Newton Highlands of a few years from to-day will be. The present village has been called "a practicable and economical sanitarium," and it is fully entitled to such a description, for its healthfulness is really exceptionally great, and the ow price of land, the moderation of the house rents and the quickness and low cost of transporta- tion to Boston (which some irreverent Newtonian has named Newton's work shop), combine to make Newton Highlands almost an ideal place of residence. A great deal of building is being done here : the great majority of the structures are neither " mansions " nor " tenements," but really " homes ;"' and there are numerous " stores " and other appendages of a " home centre."
An electric street railway furnishes a quick and cheap means of transportation to Newtonville and to Newton Upper Falls, and the latter place may also be reached by steam railway, as it is on the New York & New England Railroad, the station being one and one-fourth miles from the New- ton Highlands Station.
Newton Upper Falls is considered the most independent of Newton's villages-that is, the most independent of Boston and the most capable of taking care of itself and furnishing sufficient and remunerative work to its residents. Manufacturing is extensively carried on here, and nearly all of the two thousand inhabitants of the village are directly or indirectly supported by home
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NEWTON AND ITS POINTS OF INTEREST.
industries. The valuable water powers existing here caused manufacturing to be begun at a very early period of Newton's history, a saw mill being established at the Upper Falls in 1688. Various other branches of industry were established later, one of the most prominent and successful of them being the manufacture of snuff, for some very large snuff mills were operated, the owner of them doing the most extensive snuff business in New England. But as sneezing became unpopular the demand for snuff decreased and this "infaut industry" of the Upper Falls came to an untimely
PROMENADE, CRYSTAL LAKE, NEWTON CENTRE.
end, its decease occurring early in the present century. The building up of great industrial enter- prises at this progressive village was seriously interfered with by ingenious but somewhat selfish residents of Dedham, who slyly stole (or perhaps it would be better to say unceremoniously diverted) a portion of the Charles river. As Dedham is some miles above Newton on the river, it naturally followed that a goodly portion of the stream never reached Newton, for a canal was cut to East brook, which cmuptied into the Neponset river, and the consequence was that much of the Charles reached the ocean by way of the Neponset instead of through the channel it should have traveled. Nearly a century and a half elapsed before the residents of Newton tried to have the continuance of the robbery prevented by law, and they did not entirely succeed then, for the Ded- ham people innocently said that the canal had been cut simply to drain their meadows so they could go a-haying. and if it carried away a river or two it was no fault of theirs. Finally, after expensive litigation, it was decided that Dedham could take one-third of the Charles, but that she must let the rest go. But in spite of this reduction in motive power, and in spite of the total destruction of several industries that were once of great importance here, the village is busy and prosperous and will well repay a visit even from one who has no interest in manufactures and is simply an antiquarian or a curiosity sceker, for there are solid old colonial houses here that appeal strongly
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NEWTON AND ITS POINTS OF INTEREST.
to antiquarians, and there is a euriosity here in the shape of that portion of the Boston Water Works known as "Eeho Bridge " that is simply unparalleled, for it talks as profusely (also as sensibly) as a stump speaker, and is as sure to have the last word as is the wife of any other man but you.
This massive stone aqueduct was built in 1876 and is used for the purpose of carrying water
ECHO BRIDGE.
from Sudbury river over Charles river and the Charles river valley, on its way to Chestnut Hill reservoir in Boston. It is made of great granite blocks, is 500 feet long, and contains half a dozen arehes besides the great arch of 130 feet span by which it crosses the river. There is no use in trying to make people realize what this bridge is by figures or by verbal description-you must see it in order to appreciate it, and you must hear it, too, for when one speaks sharply under the big arch eighteen echoes are heard, and the report of a fire-arm is echoed twenty-five times.
One man, who has often tried the echoing ability of this arch, declares: "A shout of moderate intensity is reverberated back with so many and so distinct repetitions that all the neighboring woods seem to be full of wild Indians, rushing down from the hills, and with their terrible war whoop ready to dash into view and annihilate all traces of the surrounding civiliza- tion." Well, it may seem so to some, but it depends upon what you are in the habit of reading- and drinking.
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NEWTON AND ITS POINTS OF INTEREST.
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