I Finally Get Near the Middlesex Canal

From Dave Brigham:

"There are bits and pieces of it scattered throughout the area like the aqueduct in the Shawsheen River on the Wilmington/Billerica line. There's also a nice section in the woods behind the Wilmington Town Park on Main street running back to Butters Row."

For years, those two sentences sat under the heading "MIDDLESEX CANAL" in one of the handful of places I keep notes about places to explore for the blog. I can't remember when I first learned about the canal, which stretched 27 miles, from Lowell to Boston's Charlestown neighborhood and operated from 1803 to 1851.

I grew up near a long-abandoned stretch of the Farmington Canal, in Weatogue, Connecticut. Boats began using the canal, which connected New Haven to Northampton, Mass., in 1828. The canal was eventually replaced by railroads. I used to explore the abandoned part near my house, and occasionally played hockey along it in the winter.

So when I heard about the Middlesex Canal, I decided I wanted to find some part, any part, of it, to explore. According to the Middlesex Canal Association, "much of the Middlesex Canal is buried under roads and parking lots - even its southern end at Sullivan Square, formerly at the head of Prison Point Bay, is now close to a mile inland. Many traces of the old waterway remain only as dirt-filled paths through suburban backyards, and at the MDC's Sandy Beach Reservation in Winchester. Boston's Canal Street is where the route once extended from the Charles River to Boston Harbor."

I've bumped up against the canal a bit here and there over the years -- a stone marker in Somerville, mentions of it in historical acounts about Medford -- but it was only recently that I actually saw honest-to-God remnants of it in Woburn (make sure to check out my other recent Woburn posts: February 24, 2024, "Woo Woo! It's Woburn Time," and March 2, 2024, "Woburn's Lanna Thai Diner is Adorable").

I started my short walk at the intersection of School and Merrimac streets, just east of a CVS. Heading south, I followed the old canal towpath, which horses used to pull the canal boats; on my way back, I took the path running along an old rail bed. From MACRIS: "This section parallels the Boston & Maine Railroad Woburn Loop embankment, and was restored for horse-drawn canal boat rides in the late 1960s and is still watered year-round." I wish someone was still running those horse-drawn boat rides.

(Looking south - the rail bed is on the left, the towpath on the right.)

Near the northern end of the canal segment, I spied some quarried stones.

According to MACRIS, "This segment of the canal...includes a significant historic archaeological site, the Baldwin's Farm/Carter's Bridge Abutments (ca. 1803)....Located several hundred feet north of the Loammi Baldwin Mansion, this resource consists of partially-collapsed fieldstone abutments flanking the canal trench. Some stones show drill marks from blasting."

As for the Baldwin Mansion, it is located at the southern end of the canal segment, fronting Alfred Street.

Loammi Baldwin grew up in Woburn in the middle of the 18th century. A soldier in the Revolutionary War, he eventually turned to surveying and engineering (Wikipedia says he is considered the father of American civil engineering). In 1794, at age 50, he and his oldest sons began digging what would become the Middlesex Canal, which opened in 1803. The house shown above was built in 1661 by Henry Baldwin, Loammi's great-grandfather. Loammi enlarged the house in 1803.

From Wikipedia: "All told, six generations of Baldwins lived in the house....After leaving the family's ownership it became a boarding house, within which resided Baldwin family members until the 1930s." Eventually the place was converted to a restaurant. Today it is home to the Baldwin Bar, which is located within Sichuan Garden, a Chinese restaurant.

The canal was used to transport all types of goods. One of the products that made its way to Woburn was tree bark, which was used in the leather-tanning process, according to this article at the Middlesex Canal Association web site. "It changed life in Woburn," said Thomas Smith, one of that city's members on the Middlesex Canal Commission, in the article. "Having access to the bark made it possible for the leather industry to grow" in what had been a rural agricultural community.

There is another historic house located along the canal segment here. I didn't get a shot of it, but Google Street View has the goods.

This is what's known as the 1790 House, and, as you might expect of a 234-year-old house, it has an interesting history. The Federal style home was built for Woburn lawyer Joseph Bartlett, but Loammi Baldwin purchased the place before construction was completed. According to MACRIS, this was "one of several stately homes on Baldwin's 212 acres (sic) estate." The engineer used this place for entertaining, evidently, as MACRIS indicates Baldwin held a Centennial Ball here on January 1, 1880; a ball to celebrate the opening of the canal in 1803; and "many others" over the years.

MACRIS also indicates the house was allegedly part of the Underground Railroad for escaped slaves prior to the Civil War. The 1790 House was also used as a private school for boys in 1815, according to Wikipedia. As well, the North Congregational Church of Woburn used the house for Sunday school.

The house was originally closer to Main Street, but it was moved toward the canal to make room for a hotel. From 1981 to 2014, the 1790 House was owned by the Woburn Daily Times. It is currently being used for office space.

So, there you have my first official visit to part of the Middlesex Canal. I hope to explore others in the near future.

For other mentions of the Middlesex Canal on the blog, see:

November 4, 2023, "Cisterns Are Doing It for Themselves"

October 28, 2023, "Why Does Medford Square Have a Shipyard? And Other Questions"

April 8, 2023, "East Somerville, Part I: The Main Drag"