Free-forming in Ashland

From Dave Brigham:

The times are rare that I explore a new town, city or neighborhood without a plan. I like to prepare ahead of time by zooming in on Google Maps/Street View, and doing a bit of research online to get some ideas of where to explore in a given place. This helps me maximize what is usually a somewhat tight schedule.

Recently, I had a plan to explore Norwood, Mass.** I had completed my online inquiries and found several places that I knew I wanted to make photos of. But when my daughter asked to go to the Natick Mall, I realized that I wouldn't have time to travel from there to Norwood and back and satisfy my curiosity, so I called an audible and ventured into nearby Ashland for the first time ever.

I found some great places, none better than the first building to catch my eye.

Known historically as the Abner Greenwood Block, this place on Front Street, as you can probably guess, is a Masonic Lodge, the North Star Lodge A.F. & A.M., to be exact.

I've made photos of many Masonic Lodges, but I've never seen one with the fraternal organization's logo rendered to large and obvious. Built in 1882, the Greenwood Block "is the only example of Panel Brick design observed in Ashland, and a major late 19th-century business block at the town center," per MACRIS. Greenwood was a blacksmith by trade. "One of his first contracts was the sharpening of spikes for the Boston & Worcester Railroad," MACRIS reports. "He remained in the blacksmith business for twenty-one years [and] subsequently established a large business selling coal...dealing in anthracite coal exclusively, and handling one thousands (sic) tons annually. He also sold hay, lime, and cement."

"From 1884 to 1920, the North Star Lodge, A. F. & A. M. (Ancient Free and Accepted Masons) occupied the building’s upper floors," per MACRIS. "Following a change in ownership that forced the lodge to vacate the Greenwood Block, the Masons returned and acquired the building in 1923, undertook a thorough renovation, and dedicated the building as a Masonic Home, serving the North Star Lodge as well as its sister organization, the Olive Branch Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star."

The building is also currently home to Ashland Reiki and Wellness Center and Anthony's Barber Shop.

Around the bend on Main Street, in front of the Needham Bank branch office, is a plaque and a clock recognizing Henry Ellis Warren, inventor of the self-starting, synchronous electric motor to power clock and timer devices. Warren held 135 patents.

"Warren's early career started as an engineer for Nathaniel Lombard, designing water-driven machinery for the N. Lombard Improved Governor Co. in Roxbury, MA," per Wikipedia. "He worked his way up to Plant Superintendent, eventually purchasing the company in 1937, at which time it was renamed Lombard Governor Company. He was owner and president of Lombard up until his death in 1957."

The Lombard Governor Co. eventually moved to Ashland, which I will discuss below. Concurrently, Warren founded Warren Telechron Company in 1912. That business was acquired by General Electric in 1943, and went out of business in 1992. "Just between 1916 and 1926 the company sold 20 million clocks," according to Wikipedia. "The clocks remained popular into the 1950s. In 1940 he also invented the 'singing clock' which instead of a pendulum had a vibrating metal string." I will talk about that company below, as well.

Walking south-southeast along Main Street, I spied a nicely restored train station, as well as a large complex further down Homer Avenue that I knew I had to check out next.

Ashland Station was built in 1887 for the Boston & Albany Railroad. "The Ashland station represents a major construction campaign undertaken by the Boston & Albany Railroad between 1881 and 1894, when over thirty new passenger stations were built on the line," according to MACRIS. "Nationally known Boston-area architect Henry Hobson Richardson designed nine stations before his death in 1886, after which his three chief assistants continued the firm as Shepley Rutan & Coolidge, designing another twenty-three stations consistent with the architectural program Richardson had established."

I have written about some of these other stations, including ones in Natick, Newton and Wellesley. While trains pass by this historic station, they no longer stop here. There have been businesses located in the station over the years, but I believe it is currently vacant.

From the station, I looked due east down Homer Avenue, and I saw a large brick buildilng looming in the distance. "Probably an old factory," I said to myself. Despite the rising heat and humidity, I knew I had to walk the quarter-mile or so past an auto service center and a bunch of nice houses that I cared not a whit about, and hope the short trek would be worth my time.

It was.

This is part of the complex where Warren Telechron Company once operated. Known as Building #3, it was erected in 1937. Warren started the company in 1916 in a barn in Ashland, per MACRIS. "By 1927, he employed 150 people; in 1930, there were 250 employees in the Ashland plant plus others throughout the United States and Canada. By 1942, Telechron had 1,500 employees."

(Close-up of clock on the old Warren Telechron building.)

(Former Warren Telechron buildings.)

The old clock-making facility is currently home to several companies, including BioSurfaces, which makes "devices and coatings out of FDA-approved polymers via electrospinning"; medical device maker NuVascular Technologies; Encompass Fitness; gourmet chocolate maker Dulce D Leche; and other companies.

Across Union Street from the old Telechron complex is a sad sight indeed....

...a shuttered Dairy Queen. No more soft-serve pineapple sundaes?! No more Blizzards?! No more, gulp, Dilly Bars?!

So very sad. This building, with its ridiculously oversized roof, sits on a fairly large lot, and I imagine the site will be redeveloped before too long. But what the hell do I know.

I headed back downtown, said "Good morning" to a postal worker outside the post office even though it was mid-afternoon, and then spied the fantastic mural below on the side of Main Street Wine & Spirits.

This work was done by Jared Goulette.

Just north of the liquor store is Stone's Public House, which has a long history of hospitality...and ghosts.

"When [John Stone] heard that the railroad was to be built through the center of town (on his own land) he decided to build a hotel right alongside the tracks," according to the restaurant's web site. "The Railroad House (the property also included a barn and a cow-yard and later a home for his family) opened on September 20, 1834, to an enthusiastic crowd of (some say) 300 people.

"John operated the Railroad House for less than two years (though he continued to live on the property), then leasing it to a long list of innkeepers. John died in 1858, and W.A. Scott bought the business in 1868," the web site continues. "Over the years the building fell into disrepair and disrepute. The man credited with helping to return the building to its former glory is Leonard 'Cappy' Fournier, who bought the building in 1976. Cappy is also the man credited with first exploring the paranormal side of the building."

I'm listening...or rather, reading.

The web site quotes from a newspaper article written in 1984: "Bizarre happenings at John Stone's Inn 'began seven years ago when Fournier bought the old inn' with doors that will not remain bolted and lights that turn themselves on. A number of psychics and mystics poured through the 152-year old inn sniffing out spirits after Fournier went public about strange events at the inn five years ago. While Fournier said the stories of each expert vary wildly, they all detected one thing in common. 'When I bought (sic) them to the upstairs function room they all felt the strangest feelings in the back half of that room,' he said. 'Every single one said the same thing in that upstairs room. That's what made a believer out of me.'"

Spooky.

North of Stone's, across the railroad tracks, is Lunker's.

Started in 1995 as a small bait and tackle shop, the store now offers sales and installation services of fireplaces, stoves, grills and fire pits, and much more. Named for a word that means an especially large fish, Lunker's is located in the John West-Arnold Bean Block, which is known historically as the Ashland News Store, per MACRIS. Built in 1835, this place has housed a number of businesses in the ensuing centuries, from a general store to a boot shop, a tailor shop to a news stand.

Next is the wonderfully restored Ashland House, part of the town's affordable housing stock.

Known alternately as the Rev. James McIntire House, the James Jackson House and the Henry E. Warren House, this fantastic Federal style home dates to 1836. "The James Jackson House is significant for its associations with the development of Unionville, as this section of Hopkinton was known prior to its incorporation in 1846 as part of the new town of Ashland," per MACRIS. "...James McIntire appears to have been the first resident. McIntire, a Maryland native who then resided in Framingham, was a student in the senior class at Andover Theological Seminary [when] he began, reportedly in April 1834, to conduct Congregational worship services at Unionville....His father-in-law, Edmund Bartlett of Newburyport, a manufacturer, built this house for McIntire and his new bride, Lydia Coombs Bartlett, directly across the street from the church (now the Federated Church of Ashland...). Following the untimely death of his wife in August 1837 at age 27, McIntire sold the house to James Jackson in 1838 and returned to Maryland.

"Jackson came to Unionville from Sutton...to serve as superintendent...of the Middlesex Manufacturing Company cotton-cloth mill that preceded the granite mill buildings on the site of 10-60 Main Street," per MACRIS. From 1944 to 1957, Henry E. Warren, the aforementioned inventor and clock manufacturer, used this house as an office."

Just up the street, at the intersection of Main, Pleasant and Cherry streets, is The Corner Spot.

Billed as "a place in downtown Ashland where businesses can test-drive their market and residents can come together," the Corner Spot features a small "pop up" store front where local entrepreneurs can test the market for their ideas; hosts events for kids (gymnastics, parachute parties) and grown-ups (shopping, beer garden) alike. Owned by the Town of Ashland, the site is open for folks to enjoy during daylight hours, and is also available to rent for events.

Across Main Street from The Corner Spot is a newer building from the old Lombard Governor Company complex, which manufactured water regulating devices that controlled the irregularities of free-flowing water to produce a constant power source, according to the Ashland Historical Society.

I'll get to more of this complex, and the company's history, in a moment. I made this photo because I was intrigued by the variety of purposes this building now serves, including as church space. Listed on signs around the doorway are: Middlesex Mattress Outlet; Professional Furniture Services; Cascao Brazilian jiu-jitsu training; Grace & Truth Chapel; and a Foursquare Church.

Attached to this building is a mill complex unlike any I've seen in my travels for this blog.

I dubbed it the "Mansard Mill" before I got home, did my research and learned this was the home of the Lombard Governor Company, which relocated here from Roxbury, Mass., in 1904. The buildings housed other manufacturers over the past 150 years. Today, tenants include a cosmetic dentistry office, a home audio store, a pest control business, a boxing club and other operations.

"While the Dwight Printing Company constructed the oldest buildings on this site in 1869-1870, the site has supported industrial activity since the early 19th century, after the Middlesex Manufacturing Company purchased the property in 1811 for the production of cotton cloth," according to MACRIS. "A four-story mill was built ca. 1816, later acquired by Boston parties and incorporated in 1828 as the Middlesex Union Factory Company. The presence of industry on this Sudbury River site contributed to the growth of the village of Unionville, as this section of Hopkinton was known prior to its incorporation in 1846 as part of the new town of Ashland."

Dwight Printing was founded in 1868 as a bleaching, dyeing and printing business for cotton cloth. One of the original three stockholders was Jordan, Marsh & Co., the Boston department store established in 1851 by Eben Dyer Jordan, per MACRIS.

"[T]he Dwight company would be processing cloth for the department store. Dwight Printing acquired several parcels in Ashland between 1868 and 1871 and began construction of a substantial complex of granite mills. The complex was not completed and the business never opened."

Wow.

More from MACRIS: "There is disagreement in period sources as to whether the 1872 land takings in Ashland to create the metropolitan Boston water supply system precipitated or followed the company’s decision to suspend construction. The Metropolitan Water Commission maintained that Dwight Printing had depleted its financial resources before the land takings occurred."

Warren Thread Company occupied some of the buildings in the 19th century. The Lombard Governor Company moved here in 1904, as was previously noted. At that time, the company employed Henry Ellis Warren, he of the Warren Telechron Company mentioned earlier. Upon founding that company, he moved it into some of the space here at Mansard Mill.

"In the early 1910s, the Angier Corporation, manufacturer of waterproof paper products, occupied other buildings immediately to the south of Lombard’s," per MACRIS. "A fire at Angier mills destroyed their complex in 1922, and the company subsequently moved to Framingham."

The Lombard operation was here into the 1960s before it was acquired and moved to Toledo, Ohio.

Check out the video below for more information, and some drone footage of the complex.

Directly across Myrtle Street from the portion of the mill shown in the photo above, is Mill Pond Park. I decided to take a stroll around here to take advantage of the cooler temps the shade offered.

(Dam of Sudbury River at Mill Pond.)

There are some nice walking trails here, and a fantastic foot bridge.

Before getting back in my car near the Masonic Lodge, I spied something that brought a smile to my sweaty, weather-beaten face.

Christmas is right around the corner!

**I eventually made a few trips to Norwood; stay tuned for a few posts about that town.