A Towering Discovery in Tobacco Country

From Mr. Nutmeg State:

For years I've passed this old water tower on the way to and from my mother's house in Windsor, Conn., the top just visible above the tree line as I zoomed along Route 291. I planned to check it out in November, but was having car trouble and didn't want to risk stopping for a look and finding out my car wouldn't start again. But earlier this month, the stars aligned and I made the side trip on my way back to Massachusetts, and boy was I glad I did.

I expected to find the tower in the middle of a field, where I would take a nice shot under a beautiful sky, and then mosey on back to the highway. What I discovered, instead, was that this striking rural spire sits next to a beautiful shingled building located in a historic district that I instantly fell in love with.

The Windsor Farms Historic District "is a 2-1/2 square mile area on the east bank of the Connecticut River which comprises the historical center of South Windsor," according to this web site. "Main Street, the principal street in the ...[d]istrict, runs in a generally northeasterly direction, bisecting open fields under cultivation by the tobacco farmers of this rural village for several centuries."

This property sits on the corner of Main and North King streets, a few steps from a small farm selling pasture-raised beef, lamb and pork. Heading north along Main Street in this historic district, there are several beautiful old homes and other small farms, some of which still grow tobacco. South Windsor is located in the Connecticut River Valley, long known for its tobacco crop.

For more about this tobacco-growing region, check out these posts: February 27, 2020, "Shoot It If You Got It"; September 20, 2017, "One-Stop Barnstorming Tour"; and July 19, 2016, "Tobacco Road".

As you might imagine, tobacco farming in the valley has decreased signficantly in recent decades. "In the 1930s, Connecticut had 30,000 acres of farmland dedicated to tobacco production; by 2006 this acreage had dwindled to less than 2,000 acres," per this Connecticut History article. "Much of the former tobacco farmland is now used to grow nursery stock or has been developed into residential communities and shopping centers."

So it's cool to see some small farms still in operation in South Windsor. As I've noted in the previous articles linked above, I grew up in Simsbury, Conn., which was also a tobacco-growing town, so I feel a connection to this shrinking industry. When I was young, there were still a few old barns located at the fringes of my neighborhood. Those are long gone, but there are still some scattered througout my quiet hometown.

I'm amazed at how well preserved this building is. I'm not sure its former use: perhaps a dormitory for migrant workers, as one friend suggested when I posted a photo on Facebook. More likely, though, is a warehouse. That's what the article about the historic district that I linked to above suggests, without mentioning this building specifically.

Doesn't matter to me what this building was used for; I'm just happy it's still standing in such great shape.

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

From Dave Brigham:

Welcome to the third and final installment about Nonantum in my series covering the backside of my adopted hometown of Newton, Mass. In the first two posts, I covered historic plaques, statues, parks, murals, former mills (Part I) and funky buildings, bars, restaurants, stores and backside elements (Part II). In this one, I'll take on churches/synagogues (both current and former), social clubs, historic homes, funeral homes, former schools and more. I have a few extra nuggets tacked on to the end, as well.

For links to the previous 10 installments (covering eight villages) in this series, see the bottom of this post.

I'm gonna kick it off with houses of worship, in particular the most impressive complex in Nonantum, and perhaps the entire city of Newton: Our Lady Help of Christians (here is where I mention that I don't understand the name of this parish....). The congregation is known locally simply as Our Lady's.

The church's web site says the building was dedicated in 1881, and that parishioners originally met in the basement of the church that stood here prior. The first Our Lady's congregants were Irish immigrants; in more recent decades, Our Lady's has skewed more heavily toward Italian-Americans.

In 1887, the rectory (above) was built on a lot slightly to the west of the Gothic Revival church. The rectory provides living space for the parish priest and perhaps others (I'm a heathen; I have no clue about these things). Also on the property are a high school (below) and a former nunnery (second photo below).

Built in 1924, this building was once home to Newton Catholic High School. It is currently home to Dearborn Academy, a special-needs school serving elementary, middle and high-school students. There is additional educational space in the rear (formerly a Catholic elementary school), which is home to a preschool and a program for substance-addicted mothers and their children.

Constructed in 1893, the convent replaced a building that was just three years old, per Wikipedia.

The Our Lady's compound is impressive, but it can't overshadow the Adam Street Shul, home to the city's oldest Jewish congregation.

"The Adams Street Shul was founded by Jews who came to Newton primarily from Ukraine at the turn of the 20th century," according to the synagogue's web site. "By 1901, at least half of the Jewish families arriving in Newton had settled in the Nonantum section of the city.

"After many years of davening in people's homes and in other larger and rented spaces, it became clear that the community required a formal synagogue. On October 6, 1911, Congregation Agudas Achim Anshei Sfard was granted an official charter by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. On December 15, 1912, three days after the end of Chanukah, the building itself was officially opened on Adams Street and formally dedicated with great fanfare and celebration."

By the 1950s, the shul needed to limit its services, due to declining membership, as Jews moved out of Nonantum, per the web site. "In 1986, 75 years after its founding, however, a new history of the shul began. A few young families began to move into the neighborhood and helped spark over the ensuing years a gradual renewal of synagogue life. By 1995, the shul was fully renovated. Against all odds, this little shul has survived and it continues to thrive a century later."

Gotta love this story of survival....and also the wonderful simplicity of the design, the bright, welcoming doors and the window with the Star of David telling the world what religion is practiced here.

On Chapel Street is the lovely Evangelical Baptist Church.

Located just down the street from the former Saxony Mill complex I wrote about in part one of this Nonantum review, the church dates to 1873. It was built for the North Evangelical Church after a fire destroyed the original chapel the prior year. The church was founded to bring the Holy Ghost Power to mill workers. In 1967, the Evangelical Baptist Church of Cambridge moved to this building. In 2006, the International Baptist Church of Boston merged its congregation with the members of Evangelical Baptist Church, per the church's web site.

Designed by Charles Edward Parker, the Gothic Revival church is on the National Register of Historic Places.

On Watertown Street, just short of the eastern border of Nonantum and Newton are the former school and rectory from St. John the Evangelist (aka St. Jean l'Evangeliste).

(The old St. John/St. Jean rectory.)

(The former St. John/St. Jean school.)

The parish was organized in 1911 for the French Canadian population of Nonantum, under the Reverend Joseph E. Robichaud, per MACRIS. I'm unclear on where the church was located. In 1916 the rectory was built; in 1925 the school was erected. St. Jean's began with only grades 1-3 and by 1931 had expanded through eighth grade. The school was shuttered in 1982 and sold to developers in 1985. It is now apartments. I believe the old rectory is also a private home or apartments.

(Close-up of the former St. Jean's School.)

In addition to the nunnery on the Our Lady's property, there was one on the old Aquinas College site along Walnut Park and Waban Street, near the Lincoln-Eliot Elementary School.

For more than 40 years, the convent was the home of Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston (see January 31, 2015, "Get Thee to a Nunnery"). I'm not sure whether the sisters had anything to do with Aquinas College, or merely rented the building to the school. In 2015, the Sisters sold the property to the City of Newton, along with a former school building. At the time of the sale, the City announced plans to consolidate municipal preschool programs here, as well as move the Lincoln-Eliot School to this site. I don't know the status of those projects.

The former Aquinas College buildings are located at the northern edge of a rather large property with a religious education mission, and ties to Newton's first Colonial settler. Stay with me on this: the site is bounded by Washington Street, Walnut Park, Waban Street and Jackson Road. In addition to the former convent/Aquinas buildings, the site includes the Jackson School and Walnut Park Montessori, which are run by the Sisters of St. Joseph, as well as an administrative building, a small house and a barn.

Above are two shots of the current administrative building, which was the original convent on this property. Below is a shot of a statue at the side of the building.

This, as you have probably guessed, was once a private home. Known historically as the John C. Potter Estate, the American Victorian building dates to the 1860s. It was built by John C. Potter, a Boston merchant, whose family lived here until 1893, per this 1997 document prepared by the Newton Historical Commission. The property was originally part of a large estate owned by John Jackson, the first permanent European settler of Newton (the nearby Jackson Homestead and Museum is what remains of the estate). In the 1840s, William Jackson hired landscape architect Alexander Wadsworth -- known for designing Cambridge's Mount Auburn Cemetery -- to design a portion of the property for residential redevelopment. The Potter Estate was one of those residences.

The estate included a caretaker's cottage and a barn, below.

This is where William Jackson's candle and soap factory once stood, I think. The two buildings above are part of the Sisters of St. Joseph's school operations, I believe. The estate also included a carriage house, below, which is now the home of the Montessori School.

In between the former convent and the one-time carriage house is a new building.

This place houses a student center.

On the corner of Washington Street and Walnut Park, below, is an empty lot where I'm pretty sure another estate building once stood. These days it serves mostly as a place for the City of Newton to dump snow during big storms.

Let's move along to one more holy-ish place.

The Andrew J. Magni & Son Funeral Home on Watertown Street has been in business since 1971, with the current owners living in an apartment above the business. The buildings date to 1880, per the Newton assessor's database. Presumably they were private homes upon their construction.

OK, let's get to social clubs, one of my favorite places to speculate about. Below is the former home of the Newton Soccer Club.

Located along Adams Street, this place used to be what I considered the heart of The Lake. There were always guys hanging out front, in a collection of lawn and old office chairs, chewing the fat, calling out to people driving by. I imagined plenty of late-night poker games and time spent watching the Sox, the Pats, the Celts and the Bruins. Trucks parked outside ranged from contractor pickups to tile and marble box trucks, City of Newton vans, and the like. I'm guessing the members raised money for a variety of good causes in the neighborhood, but they also joked around with the idea of themselves as being like gangsters.

"PRIVATE PROPERTY" the sign in line with the flags says. And then, below that: "GoodFellas." As in, you know, the mob movie directed by Marin Scorcese. There is a garage in the back of the property.

This place is empty, or at least the ground floor club space is. There might still be people living in the apartments above. The property was acquired in 2018, I believe, by a party looking to knock down this circa-1900 place and build an 18-unit apartment building. I don't know the status of that proposed project.

Directly across the street from the House of GoodFellas is the Sons of Italy hall.

Real welcoming, eh?

Officially, it's the Ambrose D. Cedrone Lodge #1069, Order Sons of Italy in America. Through charity and education, the lodge "is dedicated to the preservation of our Italian-American heritage in order that future generations will recognize and appreciate the great contributions that have been made by our forefathers." Founded in 1920 as the Umberto Primo Lodge, the club is available for event rentals. When writing about social clubs and dive bars, I always need to mention that I like to imagine these places are populated by skinny old guys drinking cheap beer and eating boiled eggs from a plastic, 5-gallon jug.

Along California Street is the American Legion Post 440....which I've been to a few times for events for my kids' school, and once for a wedding reception.

Chartered in 1952, the post welcomes veterans from all branches of the military.

At the corner of Watertown and Bridge streets sits a former public library branch that has been turned into the Ciociaro Social Club of Massachusetts.

Founded in 2001, the club serves to unite "the large Italian-American community in the Boston area through social, cultural and philanthropic activities for its members and their families," per its Facebook page.

Lastly, another former club space.

Built in 1925 and damaged in a 1978 fire, this building at the corner of Adams and Watertown streets is known historically as Columbus Hall. When the hall rose, "Nonantum's Italian community was beginning to prosper, a number of its members by now being able to work their way out of laboring jobs in local factories, with construction companies or on city maintenance crews; and, in addition, a few of the children of turn-of-the-century immigrants had been able to obtain degrees in several professions," per MACRIS. "The principle occupant of the building, and owner, was the Nonantum Investment Company, bankers, and the Columbus Realty Corporation."

Other original tenants included the Burrows Furniture Company, Economy Grocery Stores, Inc., Lombards Pharmacy, Newton Auto School, and the offices of Dr. Alfred Amendola and John Finelli, attorney, per MACRIS. "Also an important part of the building, located on the second floor, was Columbus Hall, which was regularly rented out for years to neighborhood organizations of all kinds and for wedding receptions and other community and family festivals."

Speaking of city maintenance crews....

Built in 1896 on Crafts Street as a city stable housing municipal horse teams, wagons, and other equipment, this brick building is now used as a public works garage and storage facility. It's part of a large city-owned complex that includes other buildings and storage yards. Part of the public works property has been floated as a possible site of a new police headquarters, with Mark Development, LLC, offering to buy the current HQ on Washington Street from the city, and offering in exchange "certain property adjacent and contiguous to" the Crafts Street site. That 2018 offer was considered by the mayor; I'm not sure if the offer is still on the table.

I'm going to finish with something that's a bit different from what I usually cover in backside posts. As regular readers know, I generally stay away from historic homes, as I feel there are just so many in the area to try and cover. Plus, I'm just more drawn to industrial sites, cool commercial/retail/municipal architecture, old things in the woods, etc.

The Celia B. Thaxter House on California Street, which Wikipedia says is in Newtonville, but which the City of Newton claims for Nonantum, dates to 1856. The Italianate home was where the poet for whom the house is named lived from the building's first year until 1880. Thaxter was renowned for her poems about the seashore and woodlands, per Historic Newton. She was a member of the literary circle that included Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne, James Russell Lowell and John Greenleaf Whittier. The house, which is spitting distance fromy my own, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

...now for a little housekeeping. When I posted a link to the second Nonantum installment on Facebook, a few locals asked about things I'd missed. The first was the building housing D&A House of Pizza, Alla Tailoring, Newton Hair Company and Soka European Boutique.

Located at 302-306 Watertown Street, across from the low brick building housing Steamers and the Quick Stop, this building dates to 1880, per MACRIS, and is known historically as the Patrick Farrell House. Farrell was a carpenter who owned other properties in the village, according to MACRIS. "This Mansard-roofed commercial block [is] one of few from the Victorian-era remaining in Nonantum."

The other site somebody inquired about is Adams Court, a glorified back alley that runs between Adams Street and Hawthorn Street, behind Dion's Liquors, Central Drapery and a massage business located in a former restaurant space.

Here's the back of the building, which is an intriguing mish-mash of architectural styles and dates. When I posted this shot on a Newton-related Facebook group, I got a TON of comments. Sifting through the information, here's what I gleaned: there is a house underneath this, as you can tell. I believe it dates to the late 1800s or early 1900s. The beautiful stonework was added after the fact, most likely in the 1940s. There was a store, Bunny's Market, at the front of the building for many years. At some point, a restaurant, JB's Steakhouse, went in on the second floor of the addition that was built. After that eatery closed, a place called Capricio's filled the space. After that joint closed, the place was known as Farley's, and then Gabriella's. Eventually, Yerardi's Restaurant opened in 1990; it closed in 2008.

There are apartments on both of the floors, with a massage business on the first floor in the front. Or at least there was; not sure if if's still in business.

The one time I ate at Yerardi's was many years ago. A friend threw a party on the back patio, where some folks were playing bocce, roughly in the middle of the photo below.

Just steps aways from the former Yerardi's is the awesome building below:

This is where the folks who run DePasquale's Market (mentioned in part 2 of this series) sell their locally famous sausages during the annual Italian festa each July.

And I'm giving you a bonus shot of a fantastic mural that was added to the side of the Shaking Crab since I took a photo of the restaurant earlier this year, and featured it in the second Nonantum post. The work is by local artist Johnny in Paris.

Well, there you have it: the chronicle of another village. I have four more to go: Newtonville, Newton Corner, West Newton and Newton Centre. I believe the latter will be next.

Here are links to previous posts in the series:

Part VIII: Upper Falls (Section 3)

Part VIII: Upper Falls (Section 2)

Part VIII: Upper Falls (Section 1)

Part VII: Thompsonville

Part VI: Chestnut Hill

Part V: Oak Hill

Part IV: Waban

Part III: Newton Highlands

Part II: Auburndale

Part I: Newton Lower Falls

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

From Dave Brigham:

Welcome to the second installment in my three-part series about the Nonantum village of my adopted hometown of Newton, Masss. In the first post, I covered historic plaques, statues, parks, murals, former mills and more (see September 24, 2020, "I Seek Newton, Part IX: Nonantum (Section 1)"). In this edition, I will take on funky buildings, bars, restaurants, stores, backside elements and other things.

For links to the previous 10 installments (covering eight villages), see the bottom of this post.

There's a lot to cover, so let's get to it....

Like most of Newton's villages, Nonantum has a commercial strip, and a pretty good one at that. Stretching along Watertown Street from Hawthorn Street to the west to Faxon Street at the eastern end, are dozens of shops, restaurants, small businesses, service stations and other outfits, many of them in buildings dating to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Per a Historic Newton brochure, Watertown Street at the beginning of its commercial period "was crowded with trolley lines, horses and delivery wagons." The merchants included a tinsmith, a grocery, a druggist, a barber, a tailor, a tavern and stables, among others, per the brochure.

I'll start from the eastern end, hitting most of the buildings. But first, a caveat: I'm not sure whether all of these places are still in business as we battle the pandemic.

The Boston Jewelry Co. at 291 Watertown Street is squeezed between a house next door and Faxon Street. The Newton assessor's office lists the two buildings under one heading; a Zillow listing for the the house indicates it was built in 1897. I assume the storefront was erected a little later than that. I'm a bit frustrated that the city doesn't separate these sites and provide information about the commercial property. Oh well....

Heading west, across Faxon Street, is a low-rise brick building housing a convenience store, a nail salon, a computer repair shop, a sub shop and Steamers, a highly regarded seafood market. The assessor's database indicates this building dates to 1920; MACRIS says 1910.

The next stop is across Dalby Street from the Steamers building. The anchor tenant at 317-319 Watertown Street is Antoine's Pastry Shop, which has been baking and selling Italian and French pastries -- and making the locals fat and happy -- for at least 57 years (their web site might be out of date, I'm not sure). This building also dates to 1920, per the assessor.

Next to Antoine's is an empty storefront (right in photo above) and the legendary DePasquale's Market (left), which is known locally for its amazing sausages. The company dates to the 1920s, when Nicola DePasquale opened a market elsewhere in the neighborhood, according to this Boston.com article. As for the building, it dates to 1885.

The building at the corner of Watertown and Chapel streets, above, home to a bridal alterations store and a salon, may not look like much, but it has a long history. Built in 1870, per MACRIS, the structure is an old wooden barn from which "James B. Murphy ran a general store," per the Historic Newton brochure. I don't know how long that store was in business, or how many businesses have used the building since, but I'm impressed at the makeover of this place, which, as far as brick renovations go, doesn't look that bad. Digging a little into the MACRIS listings for Watertown Street, I discovered that Mr. Murphy lived in the house next to the Boston Jewelry building.

Continuing west...across Chapel Street from James Murphy's old general store we are at 337-363 Watertown Street, below.

Businesses here include Busy Bee florist; high-end home goods store, Greentail Table; Tommy Doyle's, an Irish bar/restaurant; and Swartz Ace Hardware store. Built in 1905, the long, low building offered a new concept in retail: stores without the owners' apartments above, according to the Historic Newton brochure.

(Bricked-up door and old, empty sign from the side of 337-363 Watertown Street.)

Let's hop to the other side of Watertown Street, working our way west to east. On the corner of Adams and Watertown streets stands a building housing a few restaurants, offices and other businesses. I'll cover this place, known historically as Columbus Hall, in the next installment of this series.

(Columbus Hall is visible at the right of the above photo. The building in the center of the photo no longer stands.)

Currently, the lot adjacent to Columbus Hall is a hole in the ground. A very sad pit, where once stood one of my favorite takeout joints: Johnny's Pizza and the Brick Smokehouse. Next door was Salvi's Barber Shop. The scissor masters moved around the corner, but Johnny's has gone the way of the dodo bird. The building's owner announced a plan to knock the place down, erect a new structure with a level of apartments above retail/restaurant space. The guy who owned Johnny's told me he hoped to move back in once the space was available. Well, I don't know what's going on, but there's been nothing happening in this gaping wound along Watertown Street for quite some time. As you can tell, I ain't happy.

Continuing along, we come to 382 Watertown Street, below. The building dates to 1890, per MACRIS.

The building is currently home to a realtor, among other businesses.

Next door the businesses include Vape Daddy's and Baseball Etc., which sells baseball cards and other hobby-related products.

This place has an interesting past, per MACRIS, having served as an American Legion post, in addition to featuring storefronts and apartments. The building dates to the early 1890s.

Next door is the building that currently houses La Sposa Bridal.

It was built in the 1880s as a residence.

Across West Street from La Sposa, along Watertown Street, is the visually striking building above. Built in the 1890s and designed in what MACRIS calls the Victorian Eclectic style, this place was home in the early 20th century to a dry goods business, a baker, a clothier and a sailmaker, per MACRIS. Currently, tenants include The Antique Shop, Avani Salon and a RE/MAX realtor.

Continuing east, we come to Colonial Drug.

Established in Harvard Square in the late 1940s, Colonial Drug moved to this location in 2013, in a partnership with Stoddard's, a cutlery specialty shop that was founded in 1800. Stoddard's closed in late 2017 or early 2018, but Colonial, which specializes in fine fragrances in addition to offering pharmacy services, continues on. The store has great little statues out front.

Next to Colonial Drug, on the corner of Chapel Street, is a building known historically as the Morgan Mahoney Commercial Block, below. Mahoney was a dry goods merchant in Nonantum; I believe he lived on the second floor of this building.

Built in either 1910 (Newton Assessor) or the 1890s (MACRIS, which I tend to believe), the Mahoney block was home to Silver Lake Liquors and Maria di Napoli restaurant when I moved to this area 17 years ago. In recent years those businesses have shuttered, and Moldova Restaurant has taken over the spaces.

Below is a picture of the former liquor store sign, taken before the restaurant expanded into the space.

There are other commercial establishments along Watertown Street, as well as a post office and a service station. None of them particularly caught my eye. What did stop me in my tracks as I walked around many months ago was the small building below at the back of a residential lot.

The sign above and to the left of the door says "Upholstery Today." I don't know if this little shop is still in business, but even if it isn't, there's still a great story here. Built in 1895, the house is named after John Beale, who was the original occupant...and also a tailor. So perhaps this little workshop behind the house has been used to mend and make clothes and textiles for more than a century and a quarter.

Off the main drag, I found plenty of bars, restaurants and other businesses, as well as oddball spaces that once were home to small ventures.

West Street Tavern opened in 2008, and is a place I've been to many times. It's small, but in the olden times it was always jam-packed with revelers. I've seen a few bands here -- squeezed into the space by the front window. Once I was there to celebrate a neighbor's birthday and a police bagpipe and drum band walked in at full blare.

Anyway, the building dates to 1930. When I moved to Newtonville this bar was something else, the name of which escapes me now. I'm not sure if it's been a saloon since birth, but it certainly has been for quite some time. Unfortunately, this place seems to have closed down.

Along Adams Street, which is the heart of "The Lake" (see part one for more on this nickname), there are some interesting old buildings. One of the newer businesses in Nonantum, pizza-and-pasta joint The Landing/L'Approdo, below, is located in an early 20th century structure at #223 that was added to a circa-1880 home.

At 203 Adams Street is Shaking Crab, below, a restaurant specializing in hands-on boiled seafood, fried food and sandwiches. Opened in 2016, this eatery succeeded Francesca's, an Italian restaurant that had been here for a few decades.

The building dates to 1930, per the assessor's database.

The last place I want to showcase on Adams Street is DePasquale's Deli.

Squeezed onto a lot featuring a circa-1895 apartment house, the market has been around since 1972, I believe. I'm not sure when the building was erected; I'm guessing the 1930s.

Now for something a little bit different.

As soon as I saw this building on West Street I knew it must have an interesting history, as it didn't't look as though it was built as a residence, it looks like nothing else around it. I put the question out on Facebook. One person said it may have been a meat processing plant at one point. Another said it was a meat market and grocery. A third person said in the '80s it was used as a karate studio. According to the Redfin realty web site, this little place is now a home, with one bedroom and two bathrooms in 880 square feet.

Nonantum is the type of village where little shops like this are still in use, but there aren't as many of them as they're used to be. There's another intriguing little building on West Street, directly across from the former butcher shop.

Located on the corner of West and Green streets, this structure is listed in the MACRIS database as the Richard Dunbar House. "This large end-gabled double house has undergone several changes," per MACRIS. "Apparently a house owned by Richard Dunbar, a mason, stood on this lot as early as 1873. This double house, probably constructed in the late 1880's, evidently replaced the earlier building. A single-story, cement block store was then added in the 20th century." Two stores across the street from each other, both of them now residences. I'm not sure if the Green Street property is a separate apartment or part of the main house.

This neighborhood still maintains a fair amount of its Italian flavor, which includes well-tended garden plots.

Located on Adams Street, this plot is larger than most in the village. In these gardens, folks grow fruits and vegetables, sunflowers and other beautiful plants. And some, as with this one, are decorated for various holidays.

Before moving on to more commercial establishments elsewhere in Nonantum, I want to highlight two apartment houses out of the many in the village, as well as two random properties that stand out for me.

As I noted in the first installment in this series, Nonantum was home to several factories. Much of the housing stock in this village reflects the population, many of them immigrants from Italy, that worked in the industrial sites. On the corner of Hawthorn Street and Murphy Court is the building below.

The place dates to 1915, per the assessors database, and currently contains three apartments. Not too far away, on West Street, sits a more traditional type of factory worker housing.

This six-unit row house dates to 1890, per MACRIS, and is one of very few examples of this building type in Nonantum. These types of buildings aren't what most local folks think of when they think of Newton, which is a very well-to-do town overall. A neighbor who grew up in the wealthier southern part of the city in the 1980s told me that when he came to Nonantum as an adult, he thought he was in neighboring Waltham or Watertown. He was unaware that Newton had an industrial past with blue-collar housing stock.

Shifting gears....

Along Crafts Street, sandwiched between a municipal heavy equipment facility, a junkyard and several body shops, is the former service station below.

For many years, the right side tenant was an antique store called Trinkets & Treasures. Currently a limo service occupies at least part of this building. I make note of this property because, like many older industrial sites in Newton, it is a potential development site. Mark Development, which over the last few years has purchased, cleared and redeveloped a site at the corner of Walnut and Washington streets in nearby Newtonville, has designs on this area of Nonantum, as well as many other sites in West Newton and Newtonville. While not currently on Mark's wish list for redevelopment, this site sits just outside a proposed site that would include many new apartments and retail/office spaces.

Back over on Watertown Street, tucked at the back of #421, is an old barn that I've wondered about for quite a few years.

The house on the property dates to at least the 1880s, per MACRIS. But with its pinkish stucco and modern facade, it looks nothing like it did more than 100 years ago. There have been offices in the main house, and perhaps apartments. As for the outbuilding in my photo, it was a carriage house that was converted to commercial use. For a long time, it has appeared to be too dangerous for occupation of any kind.

Directly across Watertown Street from the old carriage house property is Central Drapery and Dry Cleaners.

Per MACRIS, the building dates to 1947; per the Newton assessor's database, 1940. I don't know what was here, if anything, before the dry cleaning business. There is a large vault directly behind the front counter, where you conduct business. Maybe there was a bank here at some point.

I'm going to finish this post by looking at several commercial establishments along California Street, at the northern edge of Nonantum. I will work west to east.

The building at the corner of California and Bridge streets, and its trash-strewn empty lot aren't much to look at. Home to catering company La Bonne Maison (and prior to that, other similar businesses) and the Grocery Garrison convenience/liquor store, the building at 367 California Street was erected in 1971, per MACRIS (I was quite surprised to see a listing for this rather new, ugly building). I haven't found anything on old maps indicating anything was here prior to the '70s. Perhaps, given its location across Bridge Street from the Bemis Mill complex, and next to the Charles River, it was a spot for local workers to eat lunch and take in the views, or do some fishing.

Next on the tour is the former headquarters of event planner Hopple Popple, which is no longer in business.

Owned by the landscaping company whose buildings surround the property, this site dates to 1940, per the Newton assessor. I'm sure there have been a variety of stores and businesses here over the last 80 years.

Two doors down, on the corner of Faxon Street, is another building that looks a bit like an Old West storefront.

This place is quite a mystery. It is #274, but sits on the property of #268, which is listed in MACRIS as the John Shorton House. Shorton was an employee of the Silver Lake Company, per MACRIS. Neither MACRIS nor the Newton assessor's database mentions a second building on the property. I assume it was once a store or perhaps an office (a quick search found a modern-day John Shorton, an attorney with an office approximately at this location); it could also be a residence.

Continuing east, on the south side of the street:

Home to Koko Bakery and the Sakanaya fish market, this building dates to 1950. That's all I got on this place.

Directly across the street is a circa-1930 building whose businesses include Signs by Tomorrow, Tail Waggerz and Arsenal Cabinets.

I'm not sure what businesses have been here over the years. Next door is the home of Kickspace, Inc.

This place also dates to 1930, according to the Newton assessor.

Last, but certainly not least, on this tour of retail space, is the home of the Chung-Shin Yuan restaurant, at the corner of Los Angeles and California streets (I don't know how this area of Newton ended up with streets named after California, Los Angeles, Nevada and Wyoming).

The assessor's office says this building dates to 1900, which, as I've said before, is an oft-used default date. So it could be older, although I doubt it. Could be newer. The restaurant has been there for many years. I'm guessing another eatery was here before that. I'd love to find out what was here when the place was built.

This restaurant is across the street from the LA@CA condominiums mentioned in the first post in this series, and perhaps 100 yards from another apartment complex set to rise on Riverdale Avenue.

OK, thanks for making it this far! Come back soon for part three, in which I will cover churches, social clubs, funeral homes, municipal buildings, former schools and more.

Here are links to the previous posts about Newton's villages:

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