I Seek Newton, Part X: Newton Centre (Section 2)

From Dave Brigham:

It's not often on the Backside of America blog that I get to feature an actual backside.

Located in the window of a carriage house on the Sumner Street property of artist Hank Kearsley, this painting caught just enough of my eye as I walked past. I stopped, zoomed in with my camera, and was pleasantly surprised to see it was what I thought it was: a bum.

While this painting appears to be perhaps somewhat whimsical, Kearsley does address racism and oppression in his work. Kearsley studied under Hale Woodruff, Esteban Vicente, Helen Frankenthaler and Louise Nevelson, per his web site. He has exhibited at the Museum of the National Center for Afro-American Artists, Goddard College, Long Island University, the NJ Center for Visual Arts, the Newton Arts Center, Vermont Studio Center, Westfield State College and New York University, among many others. Kearsly, who is in his early 90s, was included in a Boston Globe article last year of Newton artists over age 75.

How's that for a welcome to the second installment in my three-part series on Newton Centre? As regular readers know, for nearly six years I have chronicled the backside of my adopted hometown of Newton, Mass. For links to the previous posts, see the bottom of this one.

From that auspicious beginning, let's move on to a truly quirky bit of graffiti. From there, I'll talk about a variety of things and places that caught my eye for one reason or another, from the artsy to the architectural, the offbeat to the historic.

On a chimney at the back of a one-story retail building housing Subway, Tango Mango and TD Bank, I spied this low-key tribute to poet and playwright e.e. cummings, the only such shout-out to a literary figure I've ever seen.

From tagging in support of literary icons to a historic painted advertisement, Newton Centre has it all!

On a wall along a driveway between the former Murray's Liquors (what's ever going to open in that spot?) and Bill's Pizzeria, this Mohawk Tire sign most likely dates to somewhere between the 1920s and the 1950s, the heyday of such outdoor advertising. The driveway takes you to J&K Auto Services, which is located in a building that dates to 1903 (!), according to the Newton assessor's database.

Just around the corner from the Mohawk Tire sign is the fantastic neon sign below.

Established in 1933, Bigelow Cleaners is in a building at the corner of Langley Road and Sumner Street that dates to 1925. I'm not sure whether the company has been at this location for all those years. I hope the sign lights up....

From beautiful paintings, spray-painted literary tributes and historic neon signs, we move on to an architectural dichotomy.

Located on Chase Street, the non-descript brick duplex dates to 1960. But look at that garage! It's been beautifully restored, with a fantastic color combination, and has that wonderful cupola on top. I'm happy someobody saved it, although I wish the house that used to match it was also still standing. I haven't found out anything about this property, but I'm guessing a) the matching house probably dated to the 1860-1890 range, based on others nearby listed on MACRIS, and b) the inside of the garage must be equally amazing.

On the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Centre Street is the striking building below.

This place at 630-638 Commonwealth Ave. is home to Heartbreak Hill Running Co. and other small businesses. The property was built in either 1921 (MACRIS) or 1930 (Newton assessor), and is part of the Commonwealth Avenue Historic District. A MACRIS document about the historic district indicates this building and others in the area "have housed a variety of small convenience shops such as hairdressers, food stores, drug stores etc." over the years.

On the opposite side of Commonwealth Avenue, heading east, is the property below.

This building is unremarkable on its face, although it does stand out architecturally amid beautiful old Victorians and low-rise retail buildings dating to around World War I. I'd driven past it countless times before noticing it. I took a picture of it, stuck it i the "Newton Centre" file and forgot about it. When I got about to writing this post, I thought, "This place is an oddball. What's its story?"

I got quite an answer.

Now home to a realty agency, this place has surely had other such uses over the past century. A MACRIS search turned up that the building, designed in what is known as the Spanish Eclectic style, dates to 1914 and is known historically as Vitalait Laboratory. A search for that business name brought me to an online listing in The Newton Graphic indicating that the estate of Joseph B. Moors sold this property to the Vitalait Laboratory of New England, Inc. (Earle L. Ovington, treasurer) in February 1914. With the names Vitalait and Ovington, I searched and found that Earle authored books including Our Invisible Friends and Foes (1916), about digestive health via cultured milk. So I guess Ovington and a small staff manufactured yogurt products out of this funky, yet unassuming little building. I love when the Internet works! Final note of interest: Vitalait is the name of a company out of Tunisia that today manufactures yogurt products. Not sure if there is a connection.

Walk around and look at enough older buildings, and you notice their quirks, their personalities, their histories showing through. The place below on Beacon Street in the heart of Newton Centre, is one such place. I'm not sure if the bricked-over part used to be a door or a window.

Located at 790-794 Beacon St., this building is home to, among other businesses (or at least was pre-pandemic), Puzzle Break, an escape room outfit, and Lymbr, a personalized stretching joint.

The building dates to (here we go again) either 1925 (MACRIS) or 1930 (Newton assessor) and is known historically as the Chandler-Levy Hardware Store. Here's a photo of that store taken during the blizzard of '78.

Next is an old brick building tucked in behind a beautiful apartment building (about which more below) and a one-time social club that is now home to retail space (more about this below, as well).

The smoke stack makes me think this place was once a power plant or workshop of some sort. The Newton assessor's office lists this building as a shed, so it is likely used for storage these days. Part of me wants more for this building. It has the look that makes me wonder if it was part of a small factory. I find no information about such a place located here. But...Mellen Bray, who developed a fair amount of Newton Centre, and who was an inventor and tubular rivet manufacturer, per MACRIS, built the apartment building that this "shed" sits behind, as well as the commercial block across the street. Perhaps he had some sort of business here. I'll talk more about Bray and his commercial buildings in the third and final Newton Centre post.

Anyway, let's get to the apartment building in question.

Bradford Court was erected in 1913, and was the first apartment building in Newton Centre. As I mentioned, it was built by Mellen Bray, who was a real estate developer and big donor to local charities, per MACRIS. Located just steps from the train station, this shows that Bray was an early adopter of what today is called "transit-oriented development."

One of the lovelier spots in the Centre is the tiny, curved green space where Sumner and Willow streets meet, not far from the fire department headquarters.

Maintained by a group called The Sumner Street Neighbors through the Adopt-a-Space program, this quiet and peaceful area provides a bench for reading or chatting, as well as a bird feeder and wonderful plantings.

Over at the corner of Beacon and Centre streets is a former oasis of a different sort.

This ostentatious flower planter was once a horse and dog trough, according to a Historic Newton brochure.

Steps away from the old trough is Piccadilly Square, which is home to businesses including Rosenfeld's Bagels, which has been around for nearly five decades; Pink Domino, which sells girls' and womens' fashions; and investment company Bay Boston.

This place was formerly home to the Newton Women's Club; the small building with the smokestack is located behind this place.

Another spot where folks used to gather is located along Langley Road, hard by the Green Line trolley tracks.

On the left is 74-78 Langley Road, which dates to 1921 (Newton) or 1906 (MACRIS) and is known historically as the Edgar Brown Commercial Building. Currently home to a salon/day spa, a realtor's office and other businesses, this property may have been built on the site of a former coal yard operated by Horace Cousens, per MACRIS. Edgar Brown was the editor of the Newton Circuit newspaper in 1907, per MACRIS. The building is also known historically as Circuit Hall. This building hosted groups including the Crystal Lake Court of the American Order of Forresters, per the Internet.

On the right is 80 Langley, which dates to 1920 (Newton) or 1907 (MACRIS). It is home to an insurance broker and a nail salon.

While you might walk past that building and have no clue of its history, if you were to stroll along Lyman Street, you would surely notice, on a small rise overlooking the Newton Fire headquarters, a monument for the city's former powder house and training field.

The powder house, where the town would have stored gunpowder and munitions, stood at the east end of the training field from 1799 to 1849. The training field was where local militias ran drills.

The marker below, located at 1181 Centre Street, indicates the site of the former home of Samuel Francis Smith, who wrote the hymn "America" (aka "My Country Tis of Thee").

Smith resided here from 1842 until his death in 1895 at age 87. While living in Newton, Smith, who wrote more than 150 other hymns, was the editor of the Christian Review and other publications of the Baptist Missionary Union, per Wikipedia. He served as pastor of the First Baptist Church in Newton Centre. After 12 years as pastor of the church, he became editorial secretary of the BMU and served there for 15 years, according to Wikipedia. The house suffered two fires in the 1960s, the second one dealing a fatal blow.

Smith was alive long enough to see the construction of a historic train station and a curious little building in its shadow.

Opened in 1891, the Newton Centre railroad station was designed, in part, by the esteemed H.H. Richardson, whose most well-known work is Boston's Trinity Church. Richardson died in 1886 while working on the station; the design was completed by his successor firm, Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge, per Wikipedia.

For years the old station -- which is still the location of the Newton Centre stop on the D branch of the MBTA's Green line -- was home to a Starbuck's franchise. In 2010, the Deluxe Station Diner, operated by the folks who run Watertown's Deluxe Town Diner, opened. That eatery, which featured a strange, steampunk-esque interior, closed a while ago. Currently, the space is occupied by Jamie's on Union, which I believe is run by the Deluxe folks.

Across a small parking lot immediately east of the old station sits a squat, relatively unremarkable building that is home to Holden's Tax Service and other businesses.

Not much to look at, right? But check out that lower right corner. What's up with the stonework there, which doesn't match the drab slabs of the rest of the building? That section is all that's left of the former Baggage and Express Building used by the long-defunct Boston and Albany Railroad Highland Branch, according to Wikipedia.

Here's a write-up and photo of the building before it was mostly demolished.

The station and old baggage building are two of the four buildings in Newton that are "the only extant stations of thirteen designed by H.H. Richardson and his successors Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge in Allston/Brighton, Newton, and Brookline for the Boston and Albany's Newton Circuit between 1881 and 1894," per Wikipedia.

Pretty cool, eh?

Switching gears...

Bullough's Pond, the borders of which are formed by Commonwealth Avenue, Walnut Street, Dexter Road and Bullough Park, is a lovely spot to sit and chat, or perhaps birdwatch. At one time, this body of water was much bigger, and served as a power source for a grist mill, and an ideal location for ice skating.

In the photo above, we're looking north from the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Walnut Street. At the bottom of the photo you can see where the pond drains under the roadways and into the smaller ponds on the grounds of City Hall (seen in part one of this series). The pond once covered the area where that municipal complex now stands.

Originally known to colonial settlers as Spring's Pond, the waterway began its work as a power source for a grist mill in 1664 when John Spring dammed the Smelt Brook, according to the Bullough's Pond Association web site. The mill was run well into the 19th century by Spring's descendants. An ice-harvesting business stood on the banks of the pond, as well. Additionally, locals enjoyed ice skating for decades, until the 1980s, when silt build-up made it impractical.

Up until fairly recently, the old ice skating warming hut still stood (see October 5, 2017, "On Thin Ice"). That building was eventually torn down; in its place is a nice overlook.

(You can see the tower of city hall in the background.)

I'll wrap this segment up with a few houses built in the 1870s by a deacon of the First Congregational Church that I think are just beyond fantastic.

This is 120 Pleasant Street, a Gothic Revival beauty that dates to 1874, per MACRIS. "Its main decorative feature is the elaborate barge board, here composed of semi-circles which surround two full circles for a trefoil effect," says the expert at MACRIS. This is one of a handful of similarly styled "cottages" built by Charles S. Davis, who owned quite a bit of land in this part of Newton Centre. Davis, who in addition to his position with the First Congregational Church also was superintendent of its Sabbath school, owned this house, in addition to one around the corner on Bracebridge Road.

Right next door is another cottage/home that looks like something out of a fairy tale. And finally, the "mini-me" house below, which is on Lake Avenue, just steps away from the Pleasant Street homes.

This adorable tiny house is located next to a single-family house that MACRIS dates to 1870, but which is likely older. Per Historic Newton: the house "may have originally been a boathouse located on nearby Crystal Lake. It was moved to this site in the 1870s to serve as a stable for the large Gothic house at 921 Beacon Street. The building was later converted into a single-family residence." I'd love to know the story behind the small house.

In the third installment of the Newton Centre series I will cover retail and restaurant sites, a squash/tennis club, a former factory site, a walking path and an old aqueduct gatehouse, among other things.

Below are the links to all of the previous posts about the villages of Newton.

I Seek Newton, Part X: Newton Centre (Section 1)

I Seek Newton, Part IX: Nonantum (Section 3)

I Seek Newton, Part IX: Nonantum (Section 2)

I Seek Newton, Part IX: Nonantum (Section 1)

I Seek Newton, Part VIII: Upper Falls (Section 3)

I Seek Newton, Part VIII: Upper Falls (Section 2)

I Seek Newton, Part VIII: Upper Falls (Section 1)

I Seek Newton, Part VII: Thompsonville

I Seek Newton, Part VI: Chestnut Hill

I Seek Newton, Part V: Oak Hill

I Seek Newton, Part IV: Waban

I Seek Newton, Part III: Highlands

I Seek Newton, Part II: Auburndale

I Seek Newton, Part I: Lower Falls