USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Newton > Tercentenary history of Newton, 1630-1930 > Part 39
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One of the most active social agencies in the city in recent years is the West Newton Community Centre, which in 1925 was created as successor to the West Newton Neighborhood House and the earlier Day Nursery. Its centre is at the Davis School while some of its twenty-two classes and clubs meet in the community room of the Li- brary. The Centre enjoys the cooperation and financial help of the playground department of the city, while the clubs are partly self-supporting. The groups at the Centre practise domestic crafts, wood carving and other arts, and indulge in folk dancing, basket ball and dramatic activ- ities. The program is gauged to a ten-months season, when the head worker and fourteen part-time assistants find themselves busily occupied, while the summer changes
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POST-WAR EXPANSION
the character but does not interrupt the work of the Cen- tre. The clubs enroll three hundred members.
The benevolence of philanthropists found expression in certain homes which were located in Newton during this period. It was in 1920 that the trustees of the New England Peabody Home for Crippled Children purchased the Bigelow estate at Oak Hill, the site of the former Turner studios, and erected a large building, which was subsequently enlarged. Rooms were provided for several grades of instruction and for industrial practice in weaving baskets, cane-seating chairs and carpentering, with domes- tic science for the girls. The Home was among the first to try the method of sun treatment for physical ills.
The poor children of Boston and their mothers, who had been guests of the Mothers' Rest Association for nearly thirty years, were provided with new quarters at Oak Hill in 1925. Eleven acres of land with pine groves provided ideal space for the purpose, and twenty guest rooms besides living rooms, dining room and kitchen took care of the guests indoors. Here from early June until late in Septem- ber a pleasant home welcomed the less fortunate people of the neighboring metropolis. A nurse cares for the babies and advises the mothers about feeding them. Religious services are held every Sunday afternoon. Each party is given an evening entertainment. Every summer one hundred and fifty mothers and twice as many children relax and are refreshed as guests of the one thousand mem- bers of the Association, assisted by the Junior Mothers' Rest Club, by churches and by various societies in the city. Nor did Newton people forget the children farther away for whom they had been contributing since the disturbed days that followed the war. Reverend James L. Barton, D.D., well known in his home city as the secretary of the American Board, the missionary society of the Congrega- tionalists, was the organizing genius of the Near East
504
HISTORY OF NEWTON
Relief. Through that organization many millions of dol- lars found their way to save the lives of thousands of Arme- nian and Greek refugees. So philanthropy tied together in a bond of sympathy the unfortunates of our own metropo- lis with the victims of world disorder far away.
The Swedish home at West Newton looked forward to a new building which would cost twenty-five thousand dollars, and made merry when the Crown Prince and Prin- cess of Sweden and the Governor made a visit. In 1928 the Baptist Home for aged men and women, which for many years was located in Cambridge, was moved to New- ton, where a well-equipped brick building was constructed on Commonwealth Avenue, near the Lake Street transfer station.
Newton had reason to be proud of its hospital, but its accommodations were inadequate to the increasing de- mands of a growing city. Its trustees began to plan for material enlargement, and in 1924 the Sears property was bought between the Hospital and Beacon Street. An inci- dent of interest to those who knew the history of the insti- tution was the unveiling of a bronze tablet to William Claxton Bray, who as president of the Hospital gave him- self lavishly to its care and development. Mrs. Josiah E. Bacon of West Newton donated twenty-five thousand dol- lars, and with the opening of the year 1926 a campaign was launched in the hope of adding a million and a half dollars to the resources of the Hospital. More private rooms were needed, and new operating quarters were a necessity. The institution was treating thirty-five hun- dred patients a year, yet its endowment fund was less than half a million. Before summer the drive netted more than a million dollars, to be supplemented later. The next year construction was begun with a plan to build a building of brick, granite and limestone, which should rise five stories besides having basement and sub-basement. It was to
505
POST-WAR EXPANSION
house the administration offices, the operating rooms and the laboratories, and provide for the maternity and service departments, besides the general class of patients with a total capacity of one hundred and thirty-four beds. Con- struction continued through the next year, and in the spring of 1929 it was ready for inspection. It might be expected that the growth of the city would require addi- tions to the plant in the future, but the new unit provided for the needs of the present and furnished the nucleus about which a still larger plant might cluster at a more distant day.
While these interests were engaging the attention of Newton citizens and they were rejoicing over success and progress, individuals were leaving behind the scenes with which they had been familiar to be mourned in the circles in which they were known best. Obituary lists lengthen as the years increase. No profession or station in life was immune. In school circles Miss Susan C. Aiken had been the first public kindergarten teacher in the city, and Miss Sarah Fuller had been the conspicuously successful head of the Horace Mann School for deaf pupils in Boston. In church groups were Mrs. Francis B. Hornbrooke, a popu- lar lecturer as well as minister's wife, Drs. Jaynes, Calkins and Butters among former Newton pastors, and Drs. Clark and Peloubet, whose reputation had gone around the world. Fathers Danahy and Kelliher were missed from the Catholic ranks. Dr. William H. Cobb, for thirty-five years librarian of the Congregational Library in Boston, and Darius Cobb the artist, were among those who passed on. Death invaded the ranks of the legal profession and took John Lowell and Endicott P. Saltonstall, whose brother Richard had died shortly before, Thomas Weston, and Judges W. F. Dana, Frank M. Copeland, and Robert F. Raymond. Among the men in political life were the veteran Congressman, Samuel L. Powers, who lived to the
506
HISTORY OF NEWTON
age of eighty-two, Secretary John W. Weeks, and former mayors Edward B. Wilson and George Hutchinson, Col. Isaac F. Kingsbury, who was city clerk for twenty-five years, Senator Abbot B. Rice, and Bernard Early, one of Newton's representatives to the Legislature. While on duty Leonard D. Jackson, city inspector of milk, was killed with five others in the explosion of an illicit still in the Gorgone Building, West Newton. Dr. George H. Talbot of Newtonville visited his last patient, and Dr. Henry P. Talbot of West Newton taught his last chemistry class at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In business circles Frederick M. Crehore, Joseph Colby, Arthur C. Walworth, Col. E. H. Haskell, Henry J. Ide, George S. Smith, A. C. Jewett, Grand Commander of the Knights Templars in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, Theodore C. Nickerson, and G. Fred Simpson were fa- miliar figures, some of them active in Newton for fifty years. Major Fred P. Barnes, founder of the Claflin Guard, was a resident of Newton for fifty-five years. Miss Grace M. Burt, one of the organizers of the Newton Com- munity Club, was for nineteen years recorder in the New- ton Graphic of the activities of the woman's clubs of the city.
Other men and women were gaining in reputation and winning plaudits in their chosen vocations. Dr. Arthur Hudson was congratulated on the completion of fifty years in business in the city; thirty years of that time he was city bacteriologist and milk inspector. Reverend George C. Phillips and his wife received the felicitations of their former parishioners at Newton Highlands on their sixtieth wedding anniversary. A concert and reception marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of Everett C. Truette as choirmaster and organist at the Eliot Church, and the same decade brought a substantial check to Charles N. Sladen, forty years choirmaster at Grace Church. Dai
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POST-WAR EXPANSION
Buell gained recognition as a concert pianist in Europe as well as in America, and Dorothy Speare added to her fame as an opera singer by writing four popular novels. Among recent events to be recorded are the appointments of Fred T. Field of Newton to be one of the justices of the Supreme Judicial Court, and the election of Leverett Saltonstall of Chestnut Hill to be speaker of the House of Representa- tives of Massachusetts.
The period brought rapid strides in the development of commercial recreation. The moving picture house sup- planted the cheap theatre, and before it had lost its novelty it was experimenting with sound as well as motion. The automobile made it convenient for patrons to run in to Boston or to other suburbs than Newton for entertain- ment, but the demand brought its local supply in due time. At Newton the Community Theatre improved its offerings and drew audiences from all parts of the city. In local drama and music the villages of Newton could count on local talent. The Players, the Highland Glee Club, and the occasional amateur plays and revues given under woman's club auspices never failed to get an enthusiastic response.
From time to time Newton had enjoyed concerts by various local musical organizations. Most of these were singing societies, with the Highland Glee Club as the latest and best. The young people of Newton Centre organized the First Church Orchestra under the leadership of Ralph D. McLean, the efficient director of the Highland Glee Club, and its fifty-five members studied and practised to such good effect that they were able to render six or seven symphony concerts in a single year. The Newton Choral Society was organized under the leadership of William L. Bates, the organist at the West Newton Congregational Church, with the aim of encouraging the use of choral music in the community.
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508
HISTORY OF NEWTON
Various organizations presented their entertainments for the benefit of neighbors and friends, such as the Mardi Gras of the Elks at the Armory in the year 1926. Society had its own annual garden exhibits and glimpses of the beautiful estates on which they were grown, attended horse shows at Chestnut Hill, and when the big tennis tourna- ments were on patronized the Longwood Cricket Club. The Middlesex Kennel Club staged a dog show on the grounds of the Young Men's Christian Association, and three years later five hundred dogs were entered in a similar exhibition. Not to be outdone by these publicity meas- ures, or by the better heralded human exhibitions in the large cities of the country, the Newton Catholic Club held a beauty show.
Among the boys marbles and tops had their brief hour of popularity in the spring of the year; the playgrounds drew their crowds in the summer time; baseball and tennis had their devotees; in the fall footballs appeared on vacant lots, and prospective college champions rushed about in proper playing togs if not in proper championship form. Among adults the art of walking seemed to have passed with the universal ownership of automobiles, and if one would exercise he must visit a gymnasium or swimming pool or bowl for a while at the Club.
One might think that everyone owned a car in New- ton, but convenience required public conveyances. The trolley cars had had their day; one by one they were taken off the streets of the city, and wires and tracks removed. In their place were motor buses, reminders of the omni- buses of forty years ago. Far more comfortable than those antiques and more so than the electric cars, though less stable when in motion, the buses were independent of movement and made as good speed as the cars. The rules of travel denied the commuter the privilege of hanging on to a strap as he staggered about to maintain his footing;
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POST-WAR EXPANSION
the bus must not take more passengers than it could seat, and on many trips the patronage was slim. A new line was introduced by the bus company extending between New- ton and Waban by way of Newton Centre and Newton Highlands, which proved convenient for certain people, but did not warrant half-hourly trips except at morning and night. A distinct highway improvement was the one hundred thousand dollar bridge of stone and concrete across Charles River at Lower Falls, which was completed late in 1929.
To some people it might seem as if the bus were a sign of urban decadence, a reversion to rural ways. But it was not so. Signs of progress were evident to those who sensed the significance of certain incidents. One was the new fire regulation which decreed that henceforth bell alarms should not be sounded at the first call, because motorists hurrying to see where the fire was obstructed the move- ment of firemen. The curiosity of the motorists was a sur- vival of ruralism, but the still alarm was a city custom. Another straw which indicated city tendencies was the ex- periment of the Newton Graphic with a semi-weekly edition. The experiment failed of success, but it was a trial balloon, a periscope for observation, and the editor could afford to bide his time for a few years and keep his faith in the future of Newton. Still another evidence, either of local popula- tion or of the popularity of routes of travel, was the neces- sity of traffic signals at certain congested village squares and street crossings, and the restriction of movement on one way streets. By degrees parking rules became stricter, and a driver needed full possession of all his faculties if he was to avoid an officer's reprimand or escape collision. Traffic signals of various kinds were tried at dangerous points, and presently expensive automatic signal towers were placed in certain of the public squares. It was a motor age and the traffic light was king.
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HISTORY OF NEWTON
Although horses were becoming a rarity in the streets and the city had built a garage, the city still had use for many animals and an ornate stable was built to house them. But the neighing of a horse was as rare on the city streets as the call of the whippoorwill. The clang of the trolley had yielded to the honk of the automobile, and both were outdone by the whine of the airplane. At first the sight of an airplane overhead appealed to the adult as to the small boy, but the rapidly increasing number of fliers along the route which led over the city soon accus- tomed people to the novel sight, and they did not deign to lift their eyes. Only an earthquake could surprise the sophisticated inhabitant of the Garden City.
It took time to fill the gaps where vacant lots were numerous, but they were lessening steadily. It needed patience to wait for a new city hall of which the city might be proud, but the city fathers agreed to place it, when they could afford to build it, on the triangle of land bounded by Commonwealth Avenue, Walnut and Homer Streets, at the geographical centre of the city, and they purchased title to the land. By the state census of 1925 Newton boasted a population of 53,364, distributed by wards as follows:
Ward One
5,734
Ward Two
10,224
Ward Three
7,826
Ward Four
5,303
Ward Five
9,996
Ward Six
9,182
Ward Seven
5,099
This made a total gain of 7,310 over the population accord- ing to the United States census of 1920.
The city budget had increased with equal rapidity. As recommended by the Mayor for 1925 the items were as follows:
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POST-WAR EXPANSION
Schools
$1,024,844.54
Streets
845,647.50
Treasury
431,495.67
Police
256,461.98
Fire
225,661.89
Police Building
188,600.00
Playground
85,801.38
Library
74,510.00
Accounting
72,118.15
Charity
67,468.00
Health
52,275.00
Engineering
32,890.00
City Clerk
30,530.00
Assessing
25,750.00
Executive
9,125.00
Law
7,450.00
General
3,540.00
Sealer, Weights and Measures
3,239.00
City Messenger
2,875.00
$3,440,283.1I
Three years later this had become four million dollars.
Newton turned a new leaf in municipal history in 1930 with the inauguration of Sinclair Weeks of West Newton as the mayor of the city. An intensive campaign against a divided opposition had resulted in his triumphant election. He had had an honorable record in France as captain of B Battery, One Hundred and First Field Artillery, Twenty- Sixth Division. He had served his apprenticeship in city government on the Board of Aldermen for seven years, and was its president for the last three years. He was trusted as the son of his honored father, Senator John W. Weeks. He commenced his term of office under the hap- piest auspices, and with an expressed purpose to give the city an efficient business administration.
More than a half century had passed since James F. C. Hyde was elected the first mayor of the new municipality. The cluster of villages had expanded, as widening ripples
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HISTORY OF NEWTON
on a pond merge into a complex whole. Unity from diver- sity had been in process. In that process the mayors of Newton have had a prominent part, and they deserve to be remembered.
James F. C. Hyde
1874-75
Alden Speare
1876-77
William B. Fowle
1878-79
Royal M. Pulsifer
1880-81
William P. Ellison
1882-83
J. Wesley Kimball
1884-88
Heman M. Burr
1889-90
Hermon E. Hibbard
1891-92
John A. Fenno
1893-94
Henry E. Bothfeld
1895
Henry E. Cobb
1896-98
Edward B. Wilson
1899-1900
Edward L. Pickard
1901
John W. Weeks
1902-03
Alonzo R. Weed
1904-05
Edgar W. Warren
1906-07
George Hutchinson
1908-09
Charles E. Hatfield
1910-13
Edwin O. Childs
1914-29
The story of three hundred years in Newton is ended. It is a far cry from the Indian paddling his canoe on the river to the motorist flying over a highway as smooth as the unruffled stream. The wigwam on Nonantum's slope long since vanished to make way for the stately mansion. The beaver and the deer are gone. The farmer retains but a few acres on the community frontier. The city is here, expanding, consolidating, growing more self-conscious of its present strength and of its probable future as a part of the most metropolitan district in New England. Comfort, wealth, culture, prestige, these are the assets of Newton after three centuries of development. On this foundation the future community will build.
The Puritan colonist had none of these assets. He
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POST-WAR EXPANSION
endured the privations of the frontier to make a home. He labored with his hands to make a meagre living. He planted schools here and there, but they could not equal the cen- tury-old establishments from which he had come. He was a nonconformist and an emigrant disliked and sometimes ill-treated. But he had virility, courage, a belief in his manhood, and faith in God. On that foundation he built a commonwealth which has endured for three hundred years. He had handicaps. He had to learn to be tolerant, to temper his individualism with social concord, to find out by experience the way to build a better church and state. But he made good.
The Puritan claimed individual rights, but he also recognized personal obligations. By his self-denial and thrift he became a capitalist. In part at least business suc- cess in America is due to those qualities. The Puritan was impressed by the serious side of life, and would have been shocked at the thought of giving most of his time to recrea- tion. But he was not the ogre that he had been painted, and he had the sturdy qualities that were necessary to the pioneer. Time has softened the rigor of Puritan discipline but it has made us less ready to accept the challenge to live up to the highest standards that we know. Newton in the future must find a way to conserve what was valuable in Puritanism and what has been achieved in the growth of civilization in New England, and by a wise and enduring synthesis blend the two into a profounder, richer and stronger life. With confidence in the values of the present must go belief in the worth of the past, for the spirit of Puritanism is the future safeguard of New England.
INDEX
Accidents, 371, 386 Acquaintance Club of Auburndale, 379 Adams, E. C., 499
Adams, John, 92
Adams, J. Coleman, 148
Adams Nervine Asylum, 148
Adams, Seth, 148
Adelphian Library, 103, 143
Aetna Manufacturing Co., 79
Aiken, Susan C., 505
Airplanes, 510
Albemarle Golf Club, 322, 465 Alcock's Swamp, 5
Aldermen, 178
Aldrich, G. I., 344
Allen, George, 140
Allen, George E., 178, 293
Allen, James, 140
Allen, James F., 260
Allen, James T., 125
Allen, Lucy E., 358
Allen, Nathaniel T., 120, 140, 188, 373
Allen, Phineas, 200
Allen School, 99, 131, 140, 141, 164, 186, 200, 328, 357
Allen, Misses, School for Girls, 357 Allison Park, 349
All-Newton Music School, 353
All-Newton Welfare Conference, 502
Ambulance Service, 429
"America," 294
American Board, 142
American Canoe Association, 467
American Cooperative Union, 342 American Legion, 447
American Temperance Society, 103 American Unitarian Association, 109, I26
Americanization Service, 402 Ames, Fisher, 289 Ames, Oakes, 265 Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, 84 Anderson, F. L., 395 Anderson, Galusha, 203
Andrews, C. H., 190
Andrews, E. B., 203, 493
Angier, Oakes, 63
Angier's Corner, 63, 94
Apartments, 273, 372
Appropriations, 116, 156, 157, 179, 198, 199 Aqueducts, 167
Arbuckle, C. N., 485
Archery, 405, 412
Argonne, 441
Arlington, 4
Armistice, 443
Armory, 430
Armory Hall, 300
Arrests, 180
Art Exhibits, 298, 472
Assistants, 20
Associated Charities, 394, 399, 400
Associates Hall, 204, 213, 220
Associations, 149, 221, 230
Athletics, 230, 290, 353, 356, 405, 406, 407, 467 Atkinson, F. W., 354 Atlas Cement Products Company, 461
Auburndale, 5, 10, 11, 80, 81, 121, 122, 132, 142, 145, 165, 189, 240, 258, 264, 275, 287, 297, 490, 500
Auburndale Book Club, 122
Auburndale Club, 478
Auburndale Congregational Church, 133, 325, 374, 482
Auburndale Review Club, 324, 470 Auburndale-Riverside Canoe Asso- ciation, 413
Auburndale Village Improvement Society, 226, 368 Auburndale Woman's Club, 325, 407, 471, 472 Automobiles, 371, 382, 384, 388, 390, 508 Avery, C. F., 367
Bacon, B. F., 393 Bacon, Daniel, 35, 63 Bacon, Joseph F., 118
515
516
HISTORY OF NEWTON
Bacon, Joseph N., 306, 307 Bacon, Mrs. Josiah E., 504 Bacon Farm, 459 Bacon's Corner, 63
Baden-Powell, Sir R. P., 409
Bailey, A. E., 328
Bailey, Mrs. A. R., 394
Bailey, Henry, 235
Baker, D. E., 187
Baldpate Hill, 5, 16
Balls, 361, 440
Bird clubs, 412
Birds, 15, 168, 361, 412, 460
Bishop, R. R., 181, 383
Bishop, Mrs. R. R., 246
Bixby, H. L., 223, 283
Bixby, Jonathan, 36, 85, 87
Black Crook Boat Club, 258
Blake Place, 66, 81
Blakeslee, Erastus, 326
Blanchard, A. J., 393
Blockhouses, 24, 66
Blocks, 169
Blood, Caleb, 51
Blue Triangle Club, 475
Board of Public Works, 269
Barrows, Sarah B., 136
Barstow, E. H., 101
Boardman, H. H., 206
Bartholomew, W. N., 236, 298
Boat clubs, 258
Bartlett, David, 72
Boat races, 148
Bartlett, Joseph, 72
Boston, 1, 2, 4, 15, 165, 232, 295
Barton, James, 32
Barton, J. L., 503
Baseball, 148, 261, 365, 405, 499 Bassett, Abbot, 337
Bates, James, 69, 98, 107, IIO
Bates, W. C., 301
Bates, W. L., 507
Bathing, 260
Boston Chamber of Commerce, 392
Boston College, 491, 492, 493
Boston Post, 295
Boston Tea Party, 54, 74
Bedford, 4
Boston University, 382
Beecher, Catherine, 12I
Bosworth, Pliny, 115
Beecher, Lyman, 103
Bell, A. D. S., 278
Bellows, H. P., 187
Boulevards, 277-299
Boundaries, 7 Bounties, 15, 57, 61, 156
Bourne, Benjamin, 178
Bemis, Isaac, 77
Bowen School Centre, 40I
Bowling League, 366
Bemis, Seth, 78
Bemis, Seth, Jr., 79
Bemis Manufacturing Company, 79
Berry, C. L., 397
Bethel, Maine, 53
Bicentennial, 264, 265, 266
Bicycles and Tricycles, 261, 262
Bigelow, H. F., 155
Bigelow Memorial Chapel, 155, 205
Billerica, 4, 10
Billings, Henry, 114 Bilson, Ebenezer, 66
Bilson, John, 66
Bands, 126, 366 Banks, 118, 119, 208, 285, 286, 385, 391, 392
Baptist Home, 504
Baptists, 51, 63, 69, 70, 72, 73, 86, 101, 108, III, 119, 129, 201 Barber, John, 95
Barden, Frederick, 115
Barker Estate, 273
Barn Studio, 470
Barnard, Charles, 188
Barnes, F. G., 178
Barnes, F. P., 232, 506
Barnes, L. C., 213
Board of Trade, 464
Boston and Albany Railroad, 88, 94, 120, 165, 226, 239, 279, 283, 284, 290, 370
Boston and Worcester Railroad Com- pany (See Boston and Albany)
Boston and Worcester Street Rail- way, 282, 37I
Baury House, 419
Beach, Isaac, 23
Beals, J. N., 137
Bothfeld, H. E., 283, 284 Bothfeld, J. F., 393
Bemis, 82, 13I Bemis, Daniel, 37 Bemis, David, 77
Bemis, Luke, 37, 78
Boy Scouts, 402, 408, 409, 410, 435, 440 Brackett and Son, A., 385
517
INDEX
Brackett estate, 274 Brackett, Nathaniel, 66 Bradley, Dwight, 484 Bradstreet, Simon, 7, 8, 9 Braeburn Country Club, 322, 365, 387 Bragdon, C. C., 140, 186 Braislin, Edward, 213, 22I Bray Block, 247, 272, 372 Bray Hall, 272, 289 Bray, Mellen, 272, 321, 372, 468 Bray, W. Claxton, 402, 480, 504
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