USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Wakefield > Town annual report of the officers of Wakefield Massachusetts : including the vital statistics for the year 1941 > Part 11
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Mrs. Harry M. Wheeler has given a set of andirons for the fireplace in the Children's Room and has also furnished new upholstery for the furniture in the staff room.
Mr. Cyrus M. Dolbeare and Mr. Gardner E. Campbell have been generous as always in giving space in the Wakefield Daily Item for the column, Your Public Library.
This year the Ashton H. Thayer bequest has become available for the first time. The Harris M. Dolbeare fund raised by public subscription in his memory has also become available.
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161
REPORT OF LIBRARY TRUSTEES
In June the American Library Association held its Convention in Boston, and arrangements were made whereby all members of the staff could attend as many of the meetings as was possible. The Trustees were also represented at many of the meetings. The opportunity to attend conferences, to hear noted members of the profession and to discuss library problems with others engaged in the same line of work, brought to those attending many new ideas and much inspiration.
For the first time in several years there has been no change in the member- ship of the library staff, a fact which has contributed much to the efficiency of the service to the public.
Some necessary work has been done both inside and outside the building. In the spring the shrubbery was thoroughly trimmed and some new plants were added. The staff room has been repainted and some of the chairs in the Reference Room have been reupholstered.
Of the total books borrowed (201,630 books, magazines and pamphlets) 144,096 were adult, and 57,534 were juvenile. In noting these figures it must be remembered that the boys and girls in the eighth grade are permitted to take one book from the adult department. Of the loan, 137,212 were from the Main Li- brary; from Greenwood Branch Library, 55,865; from the schools, 7,852; and from The E. Boit Home, 701.
From the picture collection in the library, 5116 pictures were borrowed.
Respectfully submitted,
HERVEY J. SKINNER, Chairman, FLORENCE L. BEAN, Secretary, RICHARD DUTTON, M. D. ARTHUR L. EVANS, WALTER C. HICKEY,
ALBERT W. ROCKWOOD, JOHN J. ROUND, ALICE W. WHEELER, FRANK T. WOODBURY, M. D.
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TOWN OF WAKEFIELD
LIBRARY EXHIBITS
Main Library:
Arts and decorations of China Audubon bird prints
Christmas greens (Greenwood Home Garden Club loan) Dolls (loan from Georgia Smith) Finland and the Kalavala
Flower arrangement
Gardens House and Garden flower prints Indian life
Lincoln and Washington pictures
Madonnas, including Medici prints
Making of a book (loan from Houghton Mifflin Company)
Mineral specimens from Mt. Washington (loan of Frank Tredinnick, Jr.) Miniature figures (loan from Marianne Piazza)
Needlework designs Paintings of Donald Witherstine (loan) Tengrenn illustrations of famous hymns Westward expansion
Greenwood Branch Library:
Antique Noah's Ark and animals (loan from Mrs. Edith Barton) Christmas displays Christmas greens (Greenwood Home Garden Club loan) Hobby horse (loan from Lee Merrey)
Special project displays:
Winter displays Story on the willow plate Wynken, Blynken and Nod Sonny elephant School days Hallowe'en Pilgrims Little engine that could
Outside of Libraries:
Book posters, at Wakefield Public Schools Garden Books, at Wakefield Garden Club Show
163
REPORT OF LIBRARY TRUSTEES
DONORS OF GIFTS
American Legion
Miss Anne Balch Mrs. Edith Barton Mr. and Mrs. Ralph C. Bean Lucius Beebe
Mrs. Henry A. Behnke
Clinton Bonney
Ernest L. Brown
Lawrence Bruehl
Mrs. Ambrose Burton
George L. Carpenter
Christian Science Church, Reading
Mrs. Clyde H. Coburn
Daughters of the American Revolution
Rev. Charles Davis Chester Deering
Joseph D. Desmond
Cyrus M. Dolbeare
Mrs. Richard Dutton William E. Eaton
Mrs. Frank L. Edson
H. B. Enwright
Mrs. Arthur L. Evans
Mrs. J. D. Fraser
Mrs. Clara J. Floyde
Greenwood Home Garden Club
Hoover Library on War, Revolution, and Peace Frank Jordan Kosmos Club Elliott W. Lyon Mrs. Hubbard Mansfield
Mr. and Mrs. Ralph A. McDowell Lee Merrey New England Council
New England Sanitarium and Hospital Mr. and Mrs. George A. Packard Mrs. Emily F. Paul William Philbrook Mrs. Anthony Piazza George G. Potter, Jr. John J. Round Mrs. Albert W. Rockwood
Mrs. Ray E. Shedd Mr. and Mrs. Hervey J. Skinner Mrs. Robert Smith Clifton Spear
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TOWN OF WAKEFIELD
H. A. Taylor Capt. George M. Thompson George J. Toth Mr. and Mrs. Frank A. Tredinnick Frank A. Tredinniok, Jr.
Marcus W. Waite Wakefield Daily Item Wakefield Garden Club Wakefield Rotary Club Mrs. Harry Wheeler Mr. and Mrs. J. Frank White Arthur Whiton Miss Ruth A. Woodbury
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165
REPORT OF LIBRARY TRUSTEES
FINANCIAL STATISTICS 1941
INCOME
Town appropriation Dog Tax
$18,500.00
1,820.79
Income from Library Funds:
Julius Beebe Fund
$684.91
Marcus Beebe Fund
541.68
Decius Beebe Fund
503.05
Katherine Beebe Fund
181.09
Eleanor H. Beebe Fund
158.77
Frederick Beebe Fund
356.04
Charles S. Beebe Fund
38.30
John H. Beebe Fund
94.50
J. Oliver Beebe Fund
182.11
Alice B. Carpenter Fund
171.62
George O. Carpenter Fund
38.17
Sylenda B. Stearns Fund
73.26
J. G. Aborn Library Fund
33.95
Cyrus Gilbert Beebe Fund
50.31
Frederic Beebe Library Fund
25.15
Robert Parker Dolbeare Fund
10.05
Willard Donnell Fund
10.05
Milledge Elliot Fund
20.10
Rev. Thomas A. Emerson Fund
10.05
M. W. Gove Library Fund
10.05
Melvin Hill Fund
10.05
Dr. F. P. Hurd Library Fund
62.89
Franklin Poole Library Fund
12.58
Flint Memorial Fund
25.15
Mary H. Pratt Library Fund
4.02
Ashton H. Thayer Library Fund
10.05
Cyrus Wakefield Library Fund
12.58
$3,330.53
$23,651.32
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TOWN OF WAKEFIELD
EXPENDITURES FOR YEAR 1941
Books
$4,601.85
Periodicals
427.36
Binding
1,201.92
Salaries, Library service
11,800.00
Printing and supplies
983.77
·Light
358.22
Heat
651.22
Furniture, maintenance
1,038.33
Salaries, janitor service
2,200.00
Telephone
122.36
Miscellaneous
257.52
$23,642.55
Unexpended balance
8.77
$23,651.32
Returned to Town: Dues, payments for lost books, et cetera
926.74
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REPORT OF LIBRARY TRUSTEES
CLASSIFIED TABLE OF BOOKS BORROWED IN 1941
Main Library Greenwood Branch Schools
Deposits Boit
Home
Adult
Juvenile
Adult Juvenile Adult Juvenile Adult
Reference Works
209
47
20
13
11
Philosophy
1,164
20
154
10
4
Religion
656
213
94
68
10
79
Sociology
2,626
1,414
404
500
68
200
Philology (Language)
220
38
2
78
Natural Science
1,134
707
131
383
4
270
Useful Arts
4,506
1,080
710
563
31
132
Fine Arts
4,073
576
692
482
42
54
Musical Scores
659
Literature
4,532
660
887
474
204
209
History
2,438
971
707
560
6
199
Travel
2,967
1,056
841
659
56
272
Biography
2,902
778
683
344
158
211
Fiction
74,326
11,325
24,851
11,762
334
4,144
701
Little Folks' Readers
8,601
5,541
1,154
Current Periodicals
6,089
859
2,971
817
Pamphlets
361
5
458
6
Totals
108,862
28,350
33,605 22,260
928 6,924
701
137,212
55,865
7,852
Total loans for the year 1941-201,630
Number of pictures loaned during 1941-5,116
LIBRARY BORROWERS REGISTERED
Main Library Greenwood Branch Library
6,707
1,388
Total number of registered borrowers
8,095
Borrowers of school and deposit collections are not registered.
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TOWN OF WAKEFIELD
LIBRARY RESOURCES
Volumes belonging to Library, January 1, 1941: 63,129
Volumes purchased : 3,273
Gifts:
77
Bound volumes of magazines: 65
3,415
Volumes withdrawn, 1941
2,297
Net increase in volumes 1,118
Volumes belonging to Library, December 31, 1941
64,247
Magazines currently received at Library in 1940-155 titles 195 magazines
Pictures belonging to Library, December 31, 1941 61,524
Pamphlets belonging to Library December 31, 1941 3,548
169
REPORT OF PARK AND CEMETERY COMMISSIONERS
Report of Park and Cemetery Commissioners
To the Citizens of Wakefield:
The Park and Cemetery Commissioners of your town herewith present their annual report for the year ending December 31st, 1941.
As stated in our report a year ago, the members of our board believe that the people of Wakefield have one of the best park systems of any town or city of its size for many miles around. This is due partly to the natural topographical advantages of the section and more especially to the care the town has taken in preserving, developing and maintaining those advantages. Nature gave us a good start and the citizens of the town, in their wisdom, have continued the good work. Your Board, having been chosen to take charge of the matter in detail esteems it not only a matter of pleasure and of honor but of responsibility as well. We have endeavored to be faithful to the trust placed in our hands and have at all times expended the town's annual appropriation for our department (and other receipts) as carefully as possible and as economically as circumstances would permit. That no complaint of a serious nature has come to us is a matter of deep satisfaction and we hope, most sincerely, that matters will so continue.
This park system of ours dates back very nearly to the early settlement of the town. It originated with the Common, eight years after pioneers from Lynn had made their way through the inland forest and, struck by the natural beauty of our land and lakes, decided to build here their homes and their church. About the year 1647, when the first general division of land was made among the sturdy settlers, when acreage was assigned in what is now Wakefield, a goodly stretch of land was set apart and reserved for the use of the community in general-for their use in common-hence "the Common," and that term has continued to this day, here and all over New England. Our "Common," in its earlier years, extended from a point near the present corner of Main and Albion streets to the south shore of "The Great Pond" and part-way up the pond's east and west sides. In the course of years the old-time Common has become triangular as we now see it and its southern point gradually cut off as far up as Crescent Street. Not long after the original Common was set apart it became divided by the con- struction of a road squarely across it, directly through the middle; this was the old colonial highway from Salem to Woburn, and as it passed the ancient church in this town it naturally became known, here, as Church Street. The Common as we know it today never had a building on it except a little old school-house about opposite the foot of the present Pearl Street, erected in 1799, used also for town-meetings though not for all of them, and removed in 1834 when the large wooden Town Hall was built near by on the opposite side of Church Street.
The north part of the original Common, after the division by Church Street, finally became the business and civic centre of the town, having on the north
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TOWN OF WAKEFIELD
side of Church Street the historic old First Parish church, a parsonage, the wooden Town Hall, including the "lock-up," the fire department's brick engine-house (erected in 1859), the Library in the Town Hall, and the old Jeremiah Bryant blacksmith shop-to say nothing of the three-story brick and wood business block, store, hall and dwelling house of Lilley Eaton near-by on Main Street at the junction of Church and Salem Streets. The ancient first burial-ground in the rear of some of these buildings (in the vicinity of our present bandstand) had been given up about 1700. Other parts of the old reservation of 1647 were sold, piece by piece, to private parties, and finally the word "Common" ceased to be applied to the section north of Church Street. We now call it-properly speak -. ing-the Park (Lakeside Park).
About 1871, according to the records, the town re-purchased most of the land it had previously sold between Church Street and the Lake, and a paltry sum of money was appropriated each year, which together with the meager sum derived from the sale of grass was deemed sufficient to give "the Common extension," as some called it then, a fair and presentable external appearance. This was what might be termed the Town's first park appropriation.
During the next few years the town removed the last vestiges of the almost obliterated first grave-yard (a few headstones only) to the second-oldest burial- ground on the other side (west) of the Congregational Church. The old Town Hall was sold in 1873 and removed to the corner of Main and Salem Streets, the former parsonage went to the same neighborhood, the old blacksmith shop disap- peared, and a few years later the brick engine-house was demolished. Our public park system was getting well under way.
In 1883 the venerable Cornelius Sweetser of Saco, Me., a native and former resident of old South Reading (now Wakefield), in his will bequeathed the town the sum of $10,000 to be used and expended in "furnishing and beautifying a public park"; one of the conditions under which the gift was bestowed was that the Town should raise and appropriate an equal sum to be devoted to the same use and purpose. The town later voted to accept the gift and also appropri- ated the additional $10,000.
And so goes the story of Wakefield's park system.
At a special meeting held in January, 1884, the Town voted to accept an Act passed by the Massachusetts Legislature of 1882 authorizing towns and cities to lay out public parks within their limits, and at the annual meeting, held April 7, 1884, Messrs James H. Carter, David H. Darling and James F. Emerson were elected as the Town's first Board of Park Commissioners. The care of cemeteries (those owned by the town only) was added to the duties of the Board later.
We, their successors now fifty-eight years after, desire to pay tribute to that first Board. They did their work well. Under their supervision the remainder of the land once sold by the Town along the east shore of Lake Quannapowitt as far up as Aborn Avenue was re-purchased, for $3,800. The Common (mean- ing the section south of Church Street) was graded, new-gravelled in places and also concrete walls and walks laid out, fences constructed and old ones improved, and a thorough system of drainage established. This treatment, year by year,
REPORT OF PARK AND CEMETERY COMMISSIONERS 171
also was applied to the Park, the section north of Church Street and bordering on the Lake. The Rockery (Capt. Carter's idea, from what he had seen in his European travels), with fountain and basin at its base, also was built, at an ex- pense of several thousand dollars, opposite the Baptist Church, and the splendid band pagoda was erected not much later. During that first year a total of $13,830.23 was expended. A granite curbing was constructed on the south and east borders of the new section and a public drinking fountain was installed on the old Common section.
And since then, year after year, Wakefield people have enjoyed their modern Park system and the old Common, besides taking pride in showing both to out- of-town visitors-and Board after Board has cared for both with due and proper faithfulness. In recent years the work of the Board has been increased by the addition of the new (Forest Glade) Cemetery in Montrose, the five playgrounds (Hart's Hill, Church Street, Moulton on the West Side, Mapleway in Greenwood, Nacella on Water Street) and sixteen or seventeen formerly uncared-for triangles, odd bits and corners at street intersections in various parts of the town.
This past year (1941) the Commissioners were granted an appropriation of $6,540, to be expended for salaries, labor, supplies and equipment, care of lake, bath-house maintenance, care of playgrounds and various incidentals.
The Common (Church Street to the Rockery inclusive) has been taken care of as usual. It contains-beside the Civil War Soldiers' Monument, the First World War Soldiers' Memorial (stone boulder and bronze plaque) and the tall flagpole-three round flower beds, one diamond and one oval, the latter being new this year. In accordance with the usual custom the trees have been trimmed and sprayed, and, as is done every year, ten new benches with immovable cement bases have replaced ten of the older wooden seats. The customary Metropolitan band concerts have been given and were received with pleasure.
The Rockery has been duly cared for, also, together with its "Hiker" monu- ment in memory of the Spanish War dead. The Board took especial pleasure at Christmas time, 1941, in co-operating with the Wakefield Chamber of Commerce and the Municipal Light Plant in the realistic display of "The Nativity," with the Rockery for a background, which attracted many people from far and near and was the most elaborate outdoor Yuletide presentation ever seen in this town.
The Park proper, from Church Street to the lake, during the past year has been given special attention. Its handsome beach, extending from the foot of Lawrence Street to the boathouse, has been cleansed, re-sanded and made more attractive than ever; about twenty-five years have elapsed since the beach was similarly treated .- The bandstand has been repainted, and also the iron railings on the fence along the street (Lake Avenue) leading down to the water. -Your Board has received assurance that during the coming season (1942) a granolithic (cement) sidewalk, with granite curbing, will be constructed the en- tire length of the east side of Lake Avenue, next to the Park fence; this has long been needed, and will be done by co-operation of the Selectmen, the Highway Department and the Park officials .- The trees on and near the Park have been sprayed, trimmed and the dead wood carried off, a work in which the town's Tree Department and our Board have co-operated .- Also, since our last report,
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TOWN OF WAKEFIELD
we have secured from the Municipal Light Board increased lighting in and near the Park, with underground wire connections. Some of the lights on the Com- mon have been rearranged and strengthened. The children's games and sports on the Park, under direction of the town's recreation committee during the Sum- mer vacation, have been attended more than ever before.
Following the line of the shore along Lakeside, on which the granolithic sidewalk has lately been extended as far as the former A. G. Walton estate (now Christopharo's), the traveler will find that the outlet at the head of Lake Quanna- powitt has been widened and cleansed and the adjoining beach taken due care of. The work in that vicinity has been done with the co-operation of the town's Water and Sewerage department, while the sidewalk extension has been attended to by the Highway Department.
The Church Street Playground, now a well-established and permanent in- stitution, has been resorted to more than at any time in its history. Wind-swept from old Lake Quannapowitt, of which it commands a fine view east and north, this area, a few years ago merely a grassy meadow, bog land and ice-house lo- cations, has fast come to the front as the town's foremost pleasure ground. A gentle slope on the south side and running around to North Avenue imparts a bowl-like aspect to the place and affords a most convenient location for spectators to witness athletic events (mostly soft ball) on the diamond below. The fairway and granolithic steps also afford excellent seats for lookers-on, and possibly room may be found this year for a few removable wooden seats. For the second season, flood-lights (overhead electric) have been used for evening soft-ball games. Wakefield was one of the earliest towns to adopt the practice; as a consequence the attendance at the night games "under lights" has grown enormously, hundreds of spectators coming regularly from far and near. Some of the lights have been turned on the near-by Hartshorne's Cove in the winter months for the convenience of night-skaters. A little progress has been made in grading and smoothing the upper end of the playground, and a few flower-beds have been laid out in various spots and spaded for development this (1942) season. The tennis court, open to Wakefield residents free of charge, has continued popular and fully as well used as in the past few years. A low wire fence has been constructed along a part of the beach, a few feet from the water's edge and not in such a way as to incommode people fishing along the shore.
Moulton Playground, located on our West Side, between Albion and Gould Streets, has been taken care of like the others, and increases in popularity every year. For the past two years our Fourth of July celebrations, fireworks and all, have been held there, transferred from the Lake Park, with the West Side Social Club in charge. The Moulton Park has a good baseball ground, a tennis court, and a convenient place for quoits (horse-shoe throwing). A noticeable feature is the large naval gun presented by Arthur G. Lane of Summit Avenue; it is an object which attracts special attention nowadays when our Navy is engaged in active war service.
Mapleway Playground, near High Street in Greenwood, with its much ad- mired entrance gate of massive fieldstone, is decidedly a major asset in that part of the town. Its diamond has this past year been the scene of many games-the real thing, baseball, being favored over softball. A strong backstop of chain-link
REPORT OF PARK AND CEMETERY COMMISSIONERS 173
has done good service and has been enlarged. Seats are there for the "fans" and everybody else. Also among the Mapleway attractions is its lawn-tennis court, and several rock fireplaces and outdoor ovens ready for use at all seasons of the year. There are hopes that a toboggan slide and possibly a swimming-pool will be provided in the future if finances permit, but the ball diamond, the tennis court and the facilities for outdoor picknicking seem to be sufficient for the present.
Nacella Playground, on Water Street near Melvin, has a growing patronage but is capable of further development. It is named, as is well known, for a local youth who gave his life in the World War more than twenty years ago, and it is one of the largest tracts of land in town which has been assigned for recreational purposes. There is, at present, a baseball diamond, and a bandstand which is used occasionally; the stand has been repainted during the past year. Swings for children are another feature of this reservation. With the increase of the Italian population in our town the Nacella Playground apparently has a great future before it.
Forest Glade Cemetery, on the north side of Lowell Street near Vernon, in the Montrose section of the town, has become one of the Commissioners' leading objects of care, and they have continued Charles M. Lynch, a former assistant- superintendent, in full charge. With recent additional filling and grading the cemetery has reached thirty acres, 15 for Protestants and 15 for communicants of the Catholic faith. The number of interments has been growing, especially in the Catholic section, during the past five years. Since our last report new tarvia covering has been put on the road ways in half of the cemetery and the other half will be attended to during the coming season; another improvement planned for 1942 is removal of the tool-house to a less conspicuous position in the rear of the tomb. The trees and shrubbery in this comparatively new burial-ground are continuing to make good growth and in a short time will add much beauty to the place; and many of the lots have been improved with plants and flowers pro- vided by the owners and by the Board. This cemetery has become self-support- ing during the past three years and undoubtedly will continue to be an asset for the town for a long period to come.
The "Old Cemetery," so called, on the north side of Church Street westerly as far as Hartshorne's Cove, is a place of special interest, containing, as it does, the graves of many of early (but not the first) dwellers in the old First Parish, now Wakefield. Their tombstones, mostly, date from the late 1600's up to 1860; since the latter year comparatively few interments have been made, mainly of de- scendants of the earlier families and lot owners. Two of the graves still remaining in fairly good order considering their age are protected by the old-time flat, red sandstone slabs on which are chiselled the names, ages and virtues of the individuals sleeping their last sleep beneath; one of these large flat gravestones is that above the remains of the Rev. John Mellen, from Lancaster and Sterling, Mass., father- in-law of the Rev. Caleb Prentiss, the latter having been the seventh minister of the old First Parish in our own town; the Rev. Mellen died in 1807 and his tombstone now is quite illegible by reason of the corrosion of time and weather. The other flat gravestone in this historic burying-ground is above one of the Bryant family, for many years leaders in the old town. Also, there are the graves (with upright slabs of slate) of the two Capt. Nathaniel Cowdreys of Revolutionary
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TOWN OF WAKEFIELD
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fame; and a white marble upright monument erected sometime after 1860 to the memory, jointly, of the Rev. Reuben Emerson, eighth minister here, and his seven predecessors. Much older dates can be deciphered on many of the stones, some of them previous to 1700, at which time this second graveyard began to come into use. There is, also, a large family tomb in this ancient ground, near the lake end, a massive granite structure built in 1843 for John Sweetser (1760-1847), and a commodious but little used receiving tomb nearer the church. Few burials are made in the cemetery nowadays but as it is town property it devolves upon the Board of Park and Cemetery Commissioners to care for it. The entire grave- yard is cleaned up, cleared of debris, and grass cut (twice every season) and mowed, by hand because the exceeding unevenness of the ground does not permit the use of machine); the trees are trimmed and sprayed every year, ancient gravestones looked after and kept upright, fences kept in repair and repainted when necessary, and a considerable number of individual lots cared for by yearly income from trust funds, of which the latter are 17 or 18 in number. There also is the Flint Memorial fund of $2,000 the income from which goes to the general upkeep of the grounds. In the rear of the church which stands in the southeast corner of the cemetery is the grave of the parents of Cornelius Sweetser who gave the Town $10,000 toward a public park, together with a fund of $1,000 for care of the grave.
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