USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Newburyport > Waban, early days, 1681-1918 > Part 10
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"Waban, June 9, 1892.
"Memorandum of prices recommended by the Hall Committee to be charged for the use of Collins Hall.
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Forenoon or afternoon, $3.00
Evening until 10 o'clock, 3.00
Afternoon and evening until 10 o'clock, 5.00
After 10 o'clock P.M., $1.00 per hour
For the Committee,
(Signed) Wm. Saville, Chairman."
In 1896, Mrs. Everett Conant started her greenhouse on Montclair Road; the place smelled of warm, damp, steamy earth and spicy "pinks" and the children of the village loved to walk through the aisles. Then in 1897 the new brick block was built on Beacon Street by Mr. William C. Strong; Bacon & Hill, architects (L. H. Bacon and Clinton Hill, both Waban men). Into the new block moved Erasmus Moulton & Sons, to be succeeded in 1897 by E. W. Conant. The middle store was occupied by our first butcher, Oscar L. Heinlein (later Neu- schafer, then Christopher McHale, who also ran an express business). The drug store was established in the third store by Jacob Green; manager, Gordon H. Rhodes, who succeeded him. George W. Hawkes ran a milk business in Waban as early as 1897.
In 1901 the Waban School for Boys was established in the first of the Collins houses. About 1902 or 3 Miss Henrietta Blood started a dry goods store in the shop vacated by Moulton in the Collins Block. In 1902 the pharmacy was taken over by Gordon Rhodes. At that time Arthur Kellaway started in on his long, useful career as the local carpenter. Around 1905 three nurseries were doing business in the village; besides Mrs. Conant's, Dick Kimball had a greenhouse on Woodward Street and Wheeler & Co., orchids, on Beacon Street. The next year the Boston Market Gardening Company was started. Also, about this time, Billy Usher replaced Patsy Kruze and took over the depot carriage; a sleigh in winter, very musty. In 1911 the Gleason Bros. succeeded to the taxi stand and did expressing and mail work.
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WABAN SQUARE
In 1904 a little office was built for Dr. Lawrence W. Strong on the corner of Beacon Street and Windsor Road. Here our first medical man maintained his headquarters. In 1910 Dr. John B. May succeeded him; three years later Joe Congdon, the father of Congdonville, used the house for his real estate office. Also there at the time was George Kerr, plumber; Charles Alexander, cobbler (1915) and Henry Luff- man, tailor; the latter followed by Eddie Kahn in 1919. (This business became the present Waban Tailors and Cleansers. )
In 1912, Earle Besse started a sanitarium where Mr. Pillsbury had maintained the Waban School for Boys. John J. Hurley became the local butcher. In 1917 Dick Whight bought out Mr. Conant, later sold out to Mr. Brayton. Dick
DR. STRONG'S OFFICE
Courtesy of Miss Isabel L. Strong
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Whight was as well-beloved as Mr. Conant; he used to go about the village every morning to take orders with a pencil over his ear and behind his glasses a quizzical full-of-newsy smile of affectionate interest in all the village doings. At the store every child in town went to be weighed by patient Mr. Conant on the old scales at the back of the store, which smelled of the molasses barrel, kerosene and chicken feed. Eggs came in bags in those days and many a Waban child fell down on the dirt roads with same. There were to be bought at the two stores in the square enormous peppermints and winter- greens which one never sees now, and with this reminiscent note we end this brief account of the growth and development of Our Square.
A PLAY AT WABAN HALL, DECEMBER 29, 1905 "A FAIRY FANTASY," written by Catherine Oakes Left to right: Blanche Farrington, Evelyn Comer, Catherine Oakes, "Jock" Oakes, Dorothy Winchester, Irene Davidson, Justine Davis Courtesy of Mr. William H. Oakes
REMINISCENCES of the CONANT FAMILY
DELLA CONANT STANLEY
My father, Everett William Conant, born in Boston, a veteran of the Civil War of 1861-65, went to work in his uncle's general store in Zumbrota, Minnesota, a little town bordering the prairie. There he saw, met and married my mother, Abbie S. Dam, who was quite a horse woman, and the first time he saw her she was riding full speed, with her hundred golden curls blowing in the wind. It made no difference to her whether she had a saddle or not and the horses she handled were so lively that her father was warned many times for her safety. She was born in Maine, moved with her family first to New Hampshire and then again to Zumbrota at the age of six years.
After father and mother had been married a year or so, father came to Leicester, Massachusetts, where he bought and carried on a grocery business for twenty-five years. He was also the postmaster. They had three children, Virginia, Herbert and Della. In 1895 mother developed a cough and thought if she worked in the soil she might get rid of it, so she studied the growing of carnations, her favorite flower, and English vio- lets. In order to market her products in the Boston Flower Ex- change, then situated in the basement of the Park Street Church, she must find a suitable location near Boston. After quite a long search, she found Waban.
However, father was not willing to sell his business and move to a new locality unless mother could prove that she could support the family, but he was willing for her to try it. She bought an acre of land from Mr. William C. Strong in 1896, and built a greenhouse 150 feet long with three little
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INTERIOR OF THE STORE-E. W. CONANT AT THE PHONE
Courtesy of (Mrs.) Della Conant Stanley
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REMINISCENCES OF THE CONANT FAMILY
rooms next the furnace in which to live with Herbert during her experiment. Mr. Strong took a mortgage on the land and was both surprised and pleased that she was able to pay it off before the year was up. To do this she had to take the 6.00 A. M. train almost every morning during the busy season, and she carried on this business for about twelve years with the record of losing money on only two charge accounts. She was the first woman grower to rent a stall and sell her flowers in the Boston Flower Market.
One beautiful June day, when the greenhouse was being built, our whole family came from Leicester to get a glimpse of the place which was to become our future home. After eating a picnic lunch, all five of us walked over the country dirt road towards the "grove" on the knoll where Fredanna Road it today. Mother was so in love with "beautiful Waban," as she always called it, and was boasting to us about it and its people - never a swear word heard in Waban, etc. ---- when all at once a boy's voice came through a megaphone from up Windsor Road hill, saying, "Who in hell are you?"
Mrs. Flint, Mr. Strong's daughter, admired my mother's courage, ability and personality. She wanted mother to fill her window boxes when she lived in the apartment on "the block." All the time she worked, Mrs. Flint's parrot kept up a steady talk like this: "You don't know anything about it. You don't know anything anyway. You can't do anything," etc. Mean- while, poor Mrs. Flint kept trying to quiet it down by answer- ing it back, saying, "Yes, she does. Keep still. She knows all about it. She knows everything," etc.
One thing I do remember was that for all my mother had so much ability in business, she could never put her hat pin twice in the same place, and many's the time two or more of us would thrash wildly around hunting for the hat pin while train time crept slowly but surely near and John Perry, her green- house man, would drawl out, "There's time enough."
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MR. AND MRS. EVERETT W. CONANT Courtesy of (Mrs.) Della Conant Stanley
One week-end I spent in Waban (before we moved here) with my mother and brother. On Sunday we attended church in Waban Hall, where Mrs. Parker now lives over Fyfe's store. Rev. Edward T. Sullivan of Newton Center officiated. In the store where Mr. Fyfe is now, although it wasn't as large then, Lee Quon the Chinaman had his laundry, and the little store on Woodward Street was a small grocery store owned by Mr. Moulton of Newton Highlands. In it was a branch of the Newton Highlands Post Office with old Mr. Thompson in charge. Every afternoon quite a crowd would gather to get the
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five o'clock mail and the boys did much to bother Mr. Thomp- son, calling him "the monkey in the cage," and helping them- selves to apples, etc.
Lee Quon was a fine man. He kept track of everybody and everybody's children, and when he left Waban he presented the Waban Neighborhood Club with a beautiful red flag, all spangles, etc., which is now on the east wall of the reception room. It is quite a valuable Chinese gift and a token of his wonderful affection and respect for the Waban people.
Then,' in May 1897, father sold his business and home in Leicester and we moved into the few rooms left by fire at the old Pine Farm School for Boys at the corner of Chestnut and Fuller Streets where now stands a beautiful home. We could reach the greenhouse via a little path through the woods in almost a straight line, coming over a little wooded hill where beautiful trees and wild flowers grew and where a part of Brae Burn Country Club and Caroline Park are now. I can remember hurrying over this path to the greenhouse, where the family was, every time I thought a thunder storm was coming up, for I was afraid of them in those days. Once dur- ing a spell of cloudy, muggy weather, we were all gathered in the large living room and Herbert got up and started to dance around the room with an imaginary partner singing, "And the lightening crashed while the thunder flashed," and as he said this there came the sharpest flash of lightening followed by a terrific crash of thunder, almost stunning us all. He stopped short and turned as pale as a ghost.
The winter that mother and Herbert lived in the green- house, a stray cat came to them and made her home with them. They called her Jane. She would follow after them to Newton Highlands when they called on friends and they always found her back at the greenhouse when they got home. They usually walked over to and back from Newton Highlands. When she had kittens later on, she would carry them in her mouth to and
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from Pine Farm, except when Herbert would help her out by putting them in his overall pockets and ride on his wheel.
The large room that was the dining room in the school days, we used as combination kitchen and dining room with a long table at the back end. Mother had bought something new for our new house which was being built - the same house we live in now. This "mystery" was contained in a two foot, square wooden box and placed under the long table with the strictest orders "not to be touched." It would be opened the first time when our new house was finished. We talked about it, guessed and pondered, much to her enjoyment, until one noon while we were eating dinner, we heard some beautiful new chimes ring- ing and to our joy we knew our "mystery" to be a lovely new French clock. But we didn't see it until the box was opened and the clock placed on our mantel over the fireplace in the living room.
I remember the appetites we had, caused by our moving near the ocean. We simply were hungry all the time. Mother would bake numerous pies, cakes, etc., and in one meal we ate them all in addition to our regular dinner. Then we would
4
THE BLOCK, SHOWING THE BIKE RACK
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REMINISCENCES OF THE CONANT FAMILY
watch for a passing bake cart and when it appeared we children would dash to the street and procure almost all he had because this was the end of the route. Sometimes we raided two bake carts the same day. These appetites lasted about three weeks before we settled back to normal. We used to get into gales of laughter over it.
Father and our water spaniel, Brown Pete, were both very homesick. Father didn't like the florist business and the dog missed the school children. In the fall of that year father bought the store which was then located in the block on Beacon Street, and he was appointed postmaster, the first postmaster of Waban. When he resigned he had completed forty-five years of service, twenty-five years in Waban and twenty years in Leicester, Massachusetts. An interesting fact about his being postmaster was that once he overpaid the government one cent and in due time received a check for one cent from the government as refund.
In about the year 1898, we had a very heavy snow storm. There was a lot of it and it was very heavy so that father and Herbert shovelled all night to keep the snow from standing on the glass of the greenhouse and at about 9.00 A. M., while mother was getting the breakfast, Herbert sat down to the piano to play and sing just to rest a bit, when all at once the doorbell rang and there stood Mr. Strong. He said, "There you sit strumming the piano while the snow is breaking down your greenhouse. Why don't you do something about it?" and he walked away. Mr. Strong lost his greenhouse that night. It stood where the Jenricks and Stevens houses are now.
Alice Wood lived on Windsor Road where the Trainors live now. Her sister and children and parents lived there, too. The little girl had a large doll and one day she left it in a sliding posture on the side of the doll carriage on the piazza. Mr. Strong was passing the house, and when he saw the doll he hurried to the front door and rang the bell. When Alice's
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sister answered the bell, he said, "Your baby is falling from its carriage," and the answer he got was, "Oh, yes," and she went back into the house. Mr. Strong walked home much be- wildered at the carelessness of some people. I think he never knew it was a doll.
Mr. Blatchford and his cousin lived in the house which is the rectory of the Episcopal Church. For years he held the office of treasurer of the Diocesan Missions in Boston and was also treasurer of our St. Thomas Church in Leicester. Mother was pleased to meet the man to whom she had sent her church donation for so many years. He was a very formal, aristocratic gentleman of the "old school," and resented the growth of Waban. Even in those days, he felt Waban was too crowded. One day a young boy who was very friendly and rather free in his manners met Mr. Blatchford on the street and said, "Hello, Mr. Blatchford." Mr. Blatchford drew himself up with
MOFFATT ROAD - HOUSELESS Courtesy of (Mrs.) Della Conant Stanley
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REMINISCENCES OF THE CONANT FAMILY
great dignity and answered, "What right have you to speak to me?"
June 17, 1902, my husband gave me the first automobile ride I ever had. We went to Wellesley and into the Hunnewell estate. We came to the end of a drive and as the engine wouldn't reverse, Newton picked up the front end of the car and turned it around.
On October 14, 1907, we were married in the Episcopal Church and it was the first wedding in Waban to have auto- mobiles used. It was called the First Automobile Wedding in Waban.
When Mrs. Marshall Scudder and her cousin, Mr. Blatchford, resided in the Strong house on Beacon Street, this very proper couple contributed to the legend of Waban. Mrs. Scudder wore nothing but white both summer and winter. If one met Mr. Blatchford on the street, he teetered back and forth on his toes and said endlessly, "I find this a beautiful morning. Yes, a very beautiful morning. " Meanwhile the accostee missed his or her train. He often referred to his throbbing heart. "Only my thumb pressed over the bunghole keeps it from burst- ing." Once the two heard a noise downstairs in the dead of night. They went to investigate, but on their way down the stairs they paused so long to admire a star that the burglar - and it was a burglar - became frightened and fled. But they dismissed the incident with, "Oh, well, he left enough silver for breakfast."
Clitheroe Parker in Conant's store: "I'd like some nice fresh marshmallows." Dick Whight: "Oh, yes; we have them," and started to weigh them. Clitheroe: "Come to think of it, I'd like hard ones. They are for marshmallow fudge and hard ones won't melt away." Dick: "Oh, yes, we have stale ones." And he kept right on taking them from the self-same box; they were all hard.
Mr. Conant to Janie Bacon when she took her fiancé into the store to show him off: "Why, Janie, how did you ever get such a nice looking young man !"
THE WABAN POST OFFICE
JOHN AND THOMAS MULLIGAN
The first record of a post office in Waban is on January 1st, 1891. Mr. Erasmus Moulton was the postmaster. The office was rated as fourth class. The salary of the postmaster was based upon the number of cancellations of the office. The post office at this time was located on Wyman Street in the old wooden block which also accommodated the kindergarten on the upper floor. This old block was also the home of the first Chinese laundry in town, that of Lee Quon.
The post office was in a grocery store owned and operated by the postmaster. Being fourth class, this office was not en- titled to carrier delivery. Residents of Waban were obliged to call at the post office for their mail.
The first change in the postal service in Waban was in 1897, when a new block of stores was built. This provided for three additional stores consisting of a grocery store, meat market and drug store. The new grocery store, owned and operated by Mr. E. W. Conant, was located at 1641 Beacon Street, at present occupied by Guy L. Harvey, hardware store. Mr. Conant, a Civil War veteran, came to Waban from Leices- ter, Massachusetts, in the Cherry Valley. In 1897, he was named postmaster of the town succeeding Erasmus Moulton.
In 1900, agitation by the townspeople for an independent post office was started. The Department in Washington, D. C., did not look with favor on this petition, on the grounds that similarity in names between Woburn and Waban would cause confusion in the minds of the postal clerks distributing the mails at the terminals.
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THE WABAN POST OFFICE
The Department in Washington suggested that in order to obtain the post office, the name of Waban be changed to some other that would not be in conflict with Woburn, Massa- chusetts. At a meeting of the then prominent men of affairs in the village, it was agreed that the changing of the name Waban to some other name was too big a sacrifice and refused to consider it, even to obtain the needed post office. However, as a result of pressure being brought to bear on official Wash- ington, the post office was finally granted without a change in name.
The first carrier delivery in Waban was started in the year 1902. The first carrier was Harry A. Preston, who delivered all the mail by horse and carriage, similar to our country R.F.D. delivery of the present day. Later, Carrier Preston was trans- ferred, and served for many years in the same capacity in Weston, Mass., still having a mounted delivery.
To fill the vacancy caused by the transfer of Mr. Preston, a new carrier was assigned to the Waban post office, Mr. Cornelius Mehigan. Mr. Mehigan delivered the entire town, beginning in 1907, by the use of two small ponies and a carriage. In the winter time he used an open sleigh. The two ponies, named "Punch" and "Judy," were great favorites with the school children.
This was the method of delivery in Waban for a good many years. Gradually, with the growth of the town, it was not practical to deliver mail by the ponies and the Post Office Department established two foot routes. Mr. Mehigan re- mained as one foot carrier and an additional man was appointed to Waban. This carrier remained in Waban for a short period and was then transferred, the vacancy being filled by Mr. James T. Prendergast.
The work inside the office was taken care of by the Post- master, Mr. E. W. Conant, and his wife. They were also assisted in the receipt and dispatch of mail by Mr. Richard
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Whight (familiarly known as "Dick"), who was a clerk in Mr. Conant's grocery store. Mr. Whight, while not a member of the postal service, was bonded and sworn in as a postal em- ployee so that he could be permitted to assist in the handling of the mails. This was a great relief to Mr. Conant, as it allowed him to be free at lunch time and the office was then cared for in his absence by his clerk.
In 1908, Newton became a part of the Boston Postal Dis- trict. This made all the Newton offices, including Waban, first class offices. It also changed the method of computing the postmaster's salary, which was no longer based upon the num- ber of cancellations, but became a yearly salary.
At this time all the Newton post offices, including the Waban office, were connected with the R. P. O. (Railway Post Office), the mail being worked in transit on the mail cars by a regular crew of railway postal clerks. The Highland Circuit of the Boston & Albany Railroad had established R. P. O. runs that connected with the Newton Circuit of the main line at Riverside. In this manner all mail received and dispatched from Waban was taken directly on or off the R. P. O. mail cars. After awhile the R. P. O.'s were discontinued and the mails in and out of Waban were worked at the Boston terminals. This, with minor changes, is the practice today.
All during this period, from 1897 when Mr. Conant be- came postmaster, the office was confined to an area of 96 square feet. This would be an area of one half the size of the public lobby of our present office. With the increasing growth of the town, it became necessary to provide more space for the post office needs. This was a difficult task as there were no office buildings or vacant stores available that would answer the purpose. The community kept on growing and with it the postal activities, thus making it more and more apparent that the post office quarters were wholly inadequate.
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THE WABAN POST OFFICE
Between the years 1912 and 1918 there were two distinct moves by the Department to abolish the Waban post office on account of the lack of proper quarters, but each failed be- cause of the pressure brought to bear on official Washington. Here we include a note from Mr. Herbert R. Lane:
"At one time, Waban was to lose its Post Office identity and the order had gone forth from Washington to this effect. Everything was to be handled in Newton Highlands and poor little Waban felt very much adrift and out in the cold. Sud- denly it occurred to somebody that Mr. Frank Hitchcock, the then Postmaster General in Washington, being a bachelor and without a definite home, made his legal and voting residence in Waban with his sister, Mrs. George V. Wendell. She and her husband lived in the house at the corner of Chestnut and Plainfield Streets. She wrote her brother, backed up by a letter from the Waban Improvement Society, and immediately a new order came forward from Washington that Waban was to maintain its Post Office identity and we have never lost it." (This was about 1905.)
At the peak of the last agitation to abolish the office, Mr. Conant resigned from the postal service. (January 31, 1919.)
February 1, 1919, John W. Mulligan was appointed super- intendent of the Waban office to succeed Mr. Conant. The pre- vious year, Mr. Mulligan had been appointed a regular clerk in the main office at Boston. This appointment in charge of the Waban office gave him the distinction of being the youngest superintendent of a post office in the entire Boston Postal Dis- trict at the time of his appointment.
This continued until 1922 when the Strong Estate built three more stores on Beacon Street. The stores were started primarily to give Waban an up-to-date post office. The new stores were the Waban Branch of the Newton Trust Company, a tailor shop, and the Waban Post Office.
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On July 1, 1922, the post office moved to its new quarters. This was supposed to take care of the town for a good many years. All new equipment was furnished and accommodations were made for five carriers. At the time of the opening of the new office, Thomas F. Mulligan, a regular clerk attached to the West Newton office, was transferred by the Department and made assistant superintendent of the Waban office.
The next change in the postal service of the town was in 1934, a change again made necessary on account of the lack of adequate room for the postal activities. This change resulted in the post office going back to its original site in the town, 93 Wyman Street, in "Fyfe's Block." This afforded more room and better working conditions for the time being, but a survey of the town for its postal needs by postal inspectors in 1943 showed the Department that it was imperative to build. As a result of this survey, and the subsequent recommendations to Washington, a new building was erected. This building, at 83 Wyman Street, one block below the old location and con- venient to the trains, was occupied by the post office on March 1, 1944. It is a modern building, built by experienced post office builders, and will answer our postal needs for some years to come.
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