From Dave Brigham:
I hope that people who live in the Bemis neighborhood of Watertown, Mass., call it "Beavis" at least once in a while. I know I do. Heh heh heh.
Anyway, let's not butt heads over terminology. Let's get to it!
Part of this area in the southwestern corner of Watertown, which every day loses more of its industrial identity, lies in what a friend long ago dubbed the Lost City. That term described a corridor crowded with rotting factories, squat industrial spaces, auto body shops, faceless corporate office buildings, a car dealership and more. I wrote about some of these places many years ago (see August 10, 2016, "More Action in the Lost City," December 8, 2014, "Another Lost City Ghost: UPDATE," and March 2, 2013, "Rebuilding the Lost City: SECOND UPDATE").
I feel I should refrain from calling that corridor -- along Pleasant Street, from Bridge Street in the west to Myrtle Street in the east -- the Lost City anymore, seeing how it is filling up with apartment buildings and for the last few years has featured a Tesla service facility. I noticed recently that one of the new developments has a sign in the window announcing a new restaurant to open soon (not sure if the pandemic has put those plans on hold).
As for the entire neighborhood, per Wikipedia it was named after Seth Bemis, who in the late 18th century and into the middle of the 19th ran mills on both sides of the river near Bridge Street, including the Bemis Mill, which is located in Newton, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places (see September 24, 2020, "I Seek Newton, Part IX: Nonantum (Section 1)," which features the mill).
Let's start with Seth Bemis's former mills and the former Lost City zone, and work our way outward.
Bemis built his Watertown mill on the site of a Colonial-era grist mill, per the 2015 Watertown Comprehensive Plan. "Transitioning the business from raw cotton processing to fine combed cotton, owner Seth Bemis made Watertown a popular source for sail cloth," the report continues. "In 1862, the mills were purchased by wool manufacturer Aetna Mills, which stayed in business and continued to add buildings to the mill complex well into the 20th century."
(I'd driven past this building countless times and never noticed this ghost sign. All it took was one stroll with my camera in my hand....)
The mill was converted to office space in the middle of last century. For 20 years, medical device maker Boston Scientific was headquartered here. Commercial real estate holding company Farley White purchased the site in 2010 and named the complex Riverworks. Current tenants include Eyepoint Pharmaceuticals, Healthcore, Normatec and Markforged, among others. I'm not sure who owns the property now.
(Cool old Aetna Mills sign in front of the complex, at the corner of Bridge and Pleasant streets.)
(Clock tower in former Aetna Mills complex.)
(Rear of the old Aetna Mills complex, with Charles River in the foreground.)
Heading east on Pleasant Street, across Bridge Street, is this odd site, which, by the time this post runs, will likely be gone.
I considered shooting the former Field Companies building for a long time, but it struck me as a fairly pedestrian structure while it was still in use. Once it was partly demolished, however, I found it a wonderful subject.
The partial building stands amid a row of new and under-development apartment buildings. Known collectively as The Aver, this collection of small, funky/modern apartment buildings sits across the street from two other new apartment/retail developments. I'm assuming that the former Field Companies building site will be turned into more of these apartments.
(Looking east along Pleasant Street at one section of The Aver complexes on the left, and other new buildings on the right.)
A little further past those apartment buildings is the humble headquarters of Rooney Trucking.
While Pleasant Street has seen more than its share of development of late, there's a small industrial cluster just north of Rooney Trucking that to some degree looks as it must have 50 or 75 years ago.
Located at the corner of Waltham Street and Rosedale Road, the squat brick building above is one of two properties that Central Rock Gym operates in this area. Built in 1930, this property is listed at online realty web sites as "light industrial." A former owner was Bacon Industries, which also operated in another property further east on Pleasant Street, which was demolished and turned into condos. The company specialized in the field of adhesives, bonding, potting, impregnating and special dielectric systems, per this web site.
Interesting side note: Bemis Associates, Inc., which was formerly located along Pleasant Street where now stands the Riverbend Lofts building, develops specialty films and adhesives. Now based in Shirley, Mass. the company's partners include apparel makers such as Polartec, North Face and Nike.
Central Rock also operates the building below.
Located along Acton Street, this property was formerly home to a series of buildings built during the 1920’s to the 1940’s, housing the Metro Ice Company, the Ice and Coal Company, and Jack Pack Hamburgers, per a Watertown Historical Commission document I found online. Those buildings were demolished when Central Rock built its facility.
That provides a nice transition to J.C. Cannistraro, an industrial mechanical contractor in business for nearly 60 years. Founded around the corner in a small garage on Pleasant Street (perhaps the current Rooney Trucking building?), Cannistraro in 1984 purchased an old ice house from the Jac-Pac Company, a frozen meat distributor, according to the Plumbing Museum web site (more about this in a moment). So, is it Jack Pack or Jac-Pac? Anyway, Cannistraro added on to the building and redesigned elements, as well as providing a home to The Plumbing Museum beginning in 2007.
"In the 1950s, Charles Manoog began collecting antique commodes, claw-foot tubs, ornate sinks, and other plumbing items,"per the museum's web site. "In 1979, his son Russell established the American Sanitary Plumbing Museum for these items in Worcester, Massachusetts. After their retirement, Russell and his wife Bettejane went in search of a family organization to carry on the stewardship of the museum.... In 2007, the vision and design of J.C. Cannistraro, combined with the operational help of the PHCC of Greater Boston, brought [the] Plumbing Museum to the newly renovated ice house."
There's a fantastic sculpture outside the museum's front door, which is part of the organization's commitment to art.
Through the Manoog Family Artist in Residency Program, the Plumbing Museum "provides resident artists with resources and support services to pursue independent projects right here at the Plumbing Museum," per the museum's web site. "Artists are asked to create a body of work that reflects the relationship between art and industrial technology."
(Garage at the back of the Cannistraro/Plumbing Museum property. The sign on the door says "#MANOOGARTISTS.)
Check out a profile of artist-in-residence Jeff Chandler here; you can find links to other artists at the site.
(Side view of a Cannistraro building.)
Across Rosedale Road from the Plumbing Museum is Charles Contracting, which has been in business since the 1950s, I believe.
Attached to that building is Eurocraft Motorsports, which, you know, takes care of European cars.
Adjacent to the Cannistraro/Plumbing Museum complex are some buildings where Architectural Graphics & Signs, Inc. (AGSI) makes signs of all sorts, as well as awnings. The company also does repairs.
Founded in 1971, AGSI has an operation in Needham, Mass., as well. I'm unsure of the company's status; a Google Maps image of the building below shows an AGSI sign in roughly the spot where the plywood is below, above the scaffolding.
Below are some shots of the quonset hut that is part of AGSI's operation.
Steps away from the AGSI complex is painting/drywall/wood refinishing operation, M.L. McDonald Co., below.
The main part of this building appears to date to the late 19th/early 20th century, but I've been unable to find anything online to confirm that.
I want to highlight one last Lost City building.
Olympia Storage is located at 17 Bridge Street, a stone's throw from the old Aetna Mills complex. I don't know how old this big warehouse/storage facility is, but there have been similar businesses here, as well as construction outfits, for at least 40 years.
Let's get out of the Lost City, and on to other features of the Bemis backside. Behind the aforementioned Riverworks restored mill complex is Sgt. Thomas Cannalonga Memorial Park.
The park is dedicated to "the first Italo-American from Watertown killed in action while a member of the armed forces of the United States," during World War II, per the plaque. In addition to tennis courts, the riverside park features tree-lined walking paths.
The park is also behind, coincidentally, the Watertown Sons of Italy.
Below are what I believe are bocce courts behind the Sons of Italy.
Next to the park is the John A. Ryan Skating Rink, which dates to 1972.
Next to the skating rink is Russo's, a market locally famous for its amazing produce, bakery, prepared foods and garden departments. Founded in the early 1900s by Watertown farmer Antonio Russo, the family-owned business has long been a proponent of buying local produce. It's interesting, then, that in the 1990s the company moved its store next to several industrial buildings that were constructed on a former landfill.
(Front view of Russo's.)
From 1890 to 1910, the McNamara and Bemis families operated an industrial dump on both sides of Pleasant Street, according to this Immediate Response Action Status Report produced by Action Environmental in 2009 in response to the release of oil or hazardous materials in a building close by Russo's, at 586 Pleasant Street.
Below are some of the other buildings on the south side of Pleasant Street near Russo's.
The landfill accepted waste products such as ash, glass, ceramics, brick, metal, rubber, and construction waste. Companies and organizations that likely contributed to the toxic mess of the former landfill included Raytheon, which was just over the line in Waltham (see May 2, 2010, "The Ones That Got Away, Part I"); the U.S. government's Watertown Arsenal (which I will cover eventually in a separate post); Haartz Mason, which was located in the Lost City (see August 10, 2011, "Rebuilding the Lost City: UPDATE"); and Quincy Cold Storage, which was located where currently stands the Watertown Mews apartment complex.
(On the left, Repton Place; on the right, Watertown Mews.)
The Town of Watertown acquired the site in 1910 and used it as a municipal dump until 1961. The town sold 9 acres on the south side to Perini Construction, which developed the industrial buildings that are there now. I'm not sure when the Town cleaned up the north side of Pleasant Street.
Watertown still operates a recycling center in this area, between Stanley Avenue and Green River Way, immediately adjacent to the old dump's footprint.
There are, as you might imagine, several industrial buildings in the vicinity of the recycling center. And of course I checked them out.
Those three shots are of 44 Green River Way, near the recycling center. Built in 1960, this building and one other on the site appear to be available for lease. I'm not sure what was most recently at this location.
Just north of these buildings, facing Waltham Street, is the former F.D. Sterritt lumber yard, the buildings of which date to 1950.
Last year, Nordblom Development submitted an application to the Watertown Zoning Board of Appeals seeking approval to build a six-story, 253-unit apartment building, with ground floor parking, on this site. Nordblom has completed numerous residential projects, in addition to mixed-use/retail, office and life science developments.
As I mentioned earlier in this post, Watertown in general, and the Lost City in particular have witnessed rapid growth in apartment units (and office/lab space) in recent years. There are still vacant lots in and near the former landfill property; I wouldn't be surprised to see further biotech or other development here in the near future.
(Vacant lot located along Waltham Street, a short distance north from the former lumberyard.)
In a future post, I will write about -- and feature LOTS of amazing photos of -- one of these vacant properties, which was once part of a Raytheon Company complex.
Here's a teaser photo:
One of the things that new Watertown residents will be able to enjoy is the Watertown-Cambridge Greenway. Parts of this biking/walking path have been constructed; I believe the section that runs through Watertown Square will eventually extend to Howard Street, which is right near the M.L. McDonald Company building referenced above. The greenway runs along the former Watertown Branch Railroad, which once serviced many of these old industrial properties.
The Bemis neighborhood is defined at the northern end by Main Street. Part of the historic Gore Place mansion and grounds is located between Main and Waltham streets. Part of the estate is located in Waltham. Below are some of the grounds.
Gore Place dates to 1806. It was built by Christopher Gore, a lawyer and diplomat who served as Massachusetts governor and senator during his career.
(The Gore estate is used for all sorts of indoor and outdoor events througout the year.)
The smaller house on the grounds, near the farm stand, was relocated from the former Cookson Farm across the street. That property became part of what is now the Gore estate in 1834. In the 1960s, the Raytheon acquired the old Cookson land in order to add to its complex, and so the Gore overseers moved the old farm house, below.
The Raytheon buildings were torn down earlier this century for construction of a BJ's Wholesale Club.
Along Main Street, not far from the Waltham line, is a neat old service station.
Bazarian Motors has been here for many years. I'm not sure how old the building is.
To wrap things up, let's check out a historic home more than 300 years old that represents the first fully documented restoration in America.
The Browne House was erected between 1694 and 1701 by Capt. Abraham Browne, the grandson of the property's original owner, who had the same name. Descendants of the Browne family lived in the house until 1897. In 1919, William Sumner Appleton, founder of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, now Historic New England, acquired the house. Beginning in 1924, a succession of caretakers lived in the residence and maintained a tea room and gift shop on the property. The house is still owned by Historic New England.
To learn more about Watertown, check out the two recent posts I wrote about Watertown Square: February 13, 2021, "Making Things Right in Watertown Square, Part I" and February 20, 2021, "Making Things Right in Watertown Square, Part II."
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