I Seek Newton, Part XI: Newton Corner (Section 1)

From Dave Brigham:

(Images courtesy of Digital Commonwealth.)

When I see old photos of commercial buildings that once stood in Newton Corner, I get sad, and I didn't even grow up there. Every neighborhood, village, town and city changes over time, of course, but it seems that Newton Corner has lost more character than perhaps any other village in Newton, Mass. There are still vestiges of the old days, of course, and that's what I'm here to discuss.

Welcome to Part One of the 11th installment of my survey of all the villages of my adopted hometown. Links to the previous posts are located at the bottom of this one.

One of city's largest villages, Newton Corner was the site of the city's first settlement. The village grew up around what are now Washington and Centres streets in the late 1600s. In 1646, John Eliot, the 'Apostle of the Indians,' came to Newton Corner, winning over the local chieftain, Waban, and converting several members of his tribe to Christianity, according to Newton's 19th Century Architecture: Newton Corner and Nonantum, published by the City of Newton Department of Planning and Development and the Newton Historical Commission. "Eliot established a small village of 'Praying Indians' at Nonantum Hill, which disbanded in 1651 and moved to Natick." Nonantum Hill is located where the Newton Commonwealth Golf Course is currently. I'm unclear whether Newton Corner blossomed out of that community.

In the second post about Newton Corner, I will discuss a monument to John Eliot located on a small patch of land just over a fence from the public links. There will also be a third installment.

Until the arrival of the railroad in the 1830s, Newton Corner (known at various times as Bacon's Corner and Angier's Corner), had been a quiet rural area. "In the first few years after the railway was built, Newton Corner enjoyed great popularity as a summer resort for Boston families," per the above-referenced document. Suburban developments, commercial buildings, stables, houses of worship, schools and other structures that support a community inevitably rose. Eventually, Boston's streetcar system expanded to Newton Corner, bringing further development. The Watertown Line (aka A Branch) ran from Watertown Square, through Newton Corner and on into Brighton and Boston's Kenmore Square, from the late 19th century until 1969.

The biggest change to the Corner came with the extension of the Massachusetts Turnpike in the early 1960s. "The turnpike, which follows the route of the old Boston & Worcester railroad tracks, necessitated the destruction of entire residential neighborhoods along Hunnewell Hill and Mount Ida," according to the city document mentioned above. "Its major impact was in the commercial area, where the Newton Corner interchange destroyed most of the village's business district."

So let's take a look at older buildings that still exist in the commercial corridor, which runs along Centre Street on the south side of the Pike, as well as along Washington and Centre streets on the north side of the highway. Then I'll share photos of the newer buildings that took the place of the old commercial structures. Further down, I'll showcase some cool old homes and apartment buildings, as well as an interesting monument to the days of Old Newton Corner.

This is the rear of 427-443 Centre Street, home to Marathon Physical Therapy and Elks Lodge #1327. Below is the front of the Elks club.

Built in 1895, this building was formerly home to Hubbards Pharmacy, which I learned when I spied just a bit of lettering peeking out from the rug at an old entrance to the building. I pulled it aside and - voila!

After posting about the former pharmacy on Facebook, I learned from some former and current Newton residents that the family-run business had a soda fountain/ice cream parlor, an old wooden phone booth and a penny candy counter. Also, a machine that checked the tubes on your TV (!!).

Next to the Elks Lodge and Marathon Physical Therapy is The Cobbler Shop.

I'm not sure how long this place has been in business.

On the other side of the Mass. Pike, along Centre Street, is the Abram B. Fox Commercial Building, where is painted one of the few ghost signs in Newton.

I don't know what store this sign advertised, or whether it was located in the building (284-292 Centre St.). Currently the building is home to Newton Dental Group, Neighborhood Barbers and a psychic advisor. Next door is a Brigham & Women's healthcare facility, in a building that dates to 1925.

According to my old friend MACRIS, this place is known as the Louis Ross Commercial Block. It was designed by S.D. Hayden.

Across the street from the Ross Commercial Block is Bertucci's Italian restaurant.

MACRIS indicates this building dates to 1937, and was used as a market or grocery store at some point.

Around the curve from Bertucci's, along Washington Street, is a classic one-story commercial building, which dates to 1920.

(327-331 Washington St., on the left, is home to Max & Leo's Pizza and Panorama Hair Salon.)

In the background of that photo, you see 303-321 Washington Street, home to, among other businesses, the world-renowned (well, maybe) Buff's Pub. It is also pictured below.

This building dates to 1910, according to the Newton assessor's database. As you can tell, it has been drastically overhauled in the intervening 110 years. MACRIS calls it the Aetna Insurance Corporation Building, and says it was built in 1928. I don't know which date is correct. MACRIS has no further information about the building, and my online search came up empty. For a long time, I figured this building was much newer, like many of the structures I will show below. One of the most difficult parts about writing for this blog is that I have no prior knowledge of buildings like this, as I didn't grow up in Newton. So I rely on MACRIS and other historical resources, as well as the input of former and current residents of Newton, or whatever town I happen to be exploring. I recall hearing that there used to be a bowling alley in Newton Corner, and I think it was in this building.

I'm hopeful that somebody will tell me more about this place, and other places in this post.

OK, moving on....

I want to showcase two more old buildings before getting to the newer, and much more hideous buildings in Newton Corner.

The former Evans Hotel (aka Vernon Court Apartments) counts as both an old and a new building. Erected in 1905, the Classical Revival brick building was incorporated into the Evans Park at Newton Corner senior living community more than a quarter-century ago. The new portion of the complex stands where the village branch of the Newton library stood until 1992. The development is located across Centre Street from the Elks Lodge.

Just up Vernon Street from the senior living complex is a wonderful holdover from olden times.

Built in 1848, the Rosedale-Chaffin House is a Greek Revival/Italianate hybrid. "Known as 'Rosedale', it was long associated with the Chaffin family, although apparently built before the Chaffins acquired the house," MACRIS reports. "John C. Chaffin, who worked in 'men's furnishings' in Boston, helped purchase property for the nearby Newton Free Library and contributed toward its construction cost. A reading room was named in his honor and his house now serves as the Boys' and Girls' Library," the report from 1976 reads. Nowadays, the house is still owned by the City of Newton and serves as a parks and recreation office, I think.

OK, let's get this over with...the buildings that rose on the ashes of 19th-century Newton Corner homes and buildings.

First, a bit of history. In the early '60s, after the State sold the final bond for construction of the Mass. Pike, "[h]omes and businesses [from West Newton through Newtonville and into Newton Corner] that generations of families had built together were to be obliterated, and they were notified by a straightforward letter in the mail from the Turnpike Authority," Allison Carter writes in this Newton Patch article. "Business owners were given only two months to close up shop and move elsewhere, and homeowners were given just four months to relocate."

There was more demolition up through at least the 1980s. "In the spring of 1980, a developer purchased property beside the Massachusetts Turnpike at Newton Corner and announced plans to demolish five turn-of-the-century buildings. In their place was proposed a high-rise development that would include offices, retail businesses, and a combination of market-rate and subsidized apartments," according to the fantastic web site that Jon Chase set up to promote his book, The Fight for Newton Corner. "Commonly known as the Nonantum Block, the old buildings were home to a small but tightly knit neighborhood of 125 people and 21 corner stores."

I believe the buildings that were demolished included the Paramount Theatre, which opened in 1922. Businesses that fell to the wrecking ball include George's Bar, Mac's Smoke Shop, Cottage Donuts and HiLo Market, according to a posting I found online many years ago that no longer exists.

Long story, short: the developer's plan was shot down by the then-Board of Aldermen (now known as the City Council), but a backup plan of erecting only office space was still on the table. And that's what the Corner ended up with. I'll request that you take a good long look at Chase's web site. It provides great documentary photos from the old Nonantum Block, as well as commentary about the community.

So what replaced the Nonantum Block?

One Newton Place.

Sigh...this place has no character, which I think you can tell despite my less-than-optimal photos. For years it served as the headquarters of Cahners Publishing. It's now home to several offices and perhaps a restaurant or two (COVID has been tough on these businesses, as we all know). Honestly, it's hard to tell what's in this place. There's just no personality here, no sense of this building wishing to engage with the neighborhood, with pedestrians especially. It's very cold and distant and unwelcoming.

Across Centre Street is Two Newton Place, home to The RMR Group, an asset management company.

Not very original in its design, is it?

One Newton Place rose in 1985; Two Newton Place was built in 1988, according to the Newton assessor's database.

It gets worse. Across Washington Street from One Newton Place and the Buff's Pub building is One Gateway Center.

This compound hard by the Mass. Pike and the railroad tracks also includes a parking garage and a hotel, which currently is a Four Points by Sheraton.

I'm no fan of Brutalist architecture, and honestly, I don't understand why anybody likes this style. These buildings, which bring to mind Russian government sites, rose in the late '60s; I'm not sure what they replaced.

Across from the parking garage is The Warren, an apartment building that dates to 1902 and which brings us back to our tour of older sites.

While it's nothing special, this place helps this somewhat forlorn stretch of Washington Street retain a bit of Old World dignity. As does The Marion apartment building, located a little further west along Washington Street.

This gem dates to 1903.

Back around the corner from The Warren building is a peach-colored office/residential building that might look more at home along a beach in Florida.

The Newton assessor's database says this building rose in 1930. There are three apartments at the rear of this building. MACRIS has a listing for this property -- 31 Channing Street -- showing a Second Empire-style house built in 1870 known historically as the Francis G. Barnes House. The write-up indicates that front and side wings were added, as was siding.

I'm not sure whether the Barnes house was completely made over, or if it was torn down.

Around the corner from here, at the intersection of Pearl and Thornton streets, is a former variety store/residence that nowadays is all residence.

Back in the days before I knew about MACRIS, I noticed a marker of some sort on this building. I made a note to check it out on another drive-by, but by the time I did, the marker was gone, removed during a renovation and not replaced. I was so bummed! But in preparing this post, I searched it on MACRIS, and bingo!

"A variety store was located in the ground floor of this long, narrow corner building by 1895," reports MACRIS. "It housed a series of commercial ventures, including a Chinese laundry. Salvatore Simeone, who operated a grocery business here, owned the building in 1907 and lived over his store....It stands near the site of Joshua Jennison's soap company, which operated until about the 1880s."

It's not unusual to find old apartment buildings like the ones I featured above along and just off of main drags. But the next such building is a little off the beaten path.

Known as The Russell, this place dates to 1905 and is located on quiet Orchard Street, which is tucked in between the Mass. Pike and Charlesbank Road. "The Wilson family, which lived at 11 Orchard until their residence was moved to the rear of this lot, owned the building in 1907," according to MACRIS. "The building may have been named after the Russell family, who owned this lot on Orchard Street for several years in the mid-19th century."

Heading south along Centre Street on the other side of the Pike, is 8-14 Mount Ida Street.

These apartment buildings date to 1938, and were designed by Saul Moffie in the English Revival style, according to MACRIS. Moffie specialized in apartment buildings and public buildings, according to this brief bio. He designed many buildings in Boston's Back Bay, Dorchester and Mattapan neighborhoods.

Mount Ida rises behind the West Suburban YMCA. Streets on the hill include Newtonville Avenue, Summit Street and Bellevue Street. At the intersection of these latter two, the Mount Ida School for Girls once stood. The school eventually moved to the Oak Hill village of Newton and was renamed Mount Ida College. In 2018, the University of Massachusetts Amherst acquired the campus and renamed it Mount Ida Campus of UMass Amherst.

I want to wrap up with two sites that say a lot about old Newton Corner vs. new.

This is Sunrise of Newton, an assisted living/skilled nursing facility for seniors. It opened earlier this year on the site of a former car dealership. I took pictures of the old dealership a few years ago once the "demolition is coming" fences went up.

The new facade couldn't completely disguise the fact that the dealership complex dated pretty far back. According to MACRIS, Stuart Chevrolet was here about a century ago. More recently, this was Clay Chevrolet. I love the Chevy symbol ghost sign, below, that my wife clued me into one morning when she was coming back from working out at the YMCA.

Across Hovey Street from the senior living facility is a Walgreens that occupies another former auto dealership building, which I didn't shoot. That building was home to Anderson Cadillac-LaSalle at least as far back as 1929, according to what I've found online. Not sure what dealer was there most recently.

Finally, an odd site tucked away on an island of sorts.

There's a bell inside this cupola; they both were originally on a fire station that was demolished when the Mass. Pike was built. A new station rose not far away. This memorial, which thousands of people drive past on any given day and most likely ignore, is located on a crescent-shaped spit of land enclosed by railroad tracks to the south, Washington Street to the east and north, and an on-ramp to the highway to the west. There's a sidewalk, but you have to be a daredevil to get to it.

That's it for the first part of Newton Corner. Be sure to check back for the second installment, in which I will cover more memorials and plaques; churches both past and present; a cemetery; a Quonset hut and much more.

Here are links to previous posts in the series:

April 10, 2021, "I Seek Newton, Part X: Newton Centre (Section 3)"

April 3, 2021, "I Seek Newton, Part X: Newton Centre (Section 2)"

March 27, 2021, "I Seek Newton, Part X: Newton Centre (Section 1)"

November 15, 2020, "I Seek Newton, Part IX: Nonantum (Section 3)"

October 29, 2020, "I Seek Newton, Part IX: Nonantum (Section 2)"

September 24, 2020, "I Seek Newton, Part IX: Nonantum (Section 1)"

March 14, 2018, "I Seek Newton, Part VIII: Upper Falls (Section 3)"

March 8, 2018, "I Seek Newton, Part VIII: Upper Falls (Section 2)"

March 1, 2018, "I Seek Newton, Part VIII: Upper Falls (Section 1)"

March 7, 2017, "I Seek Newton, Part VII: Thompsonville"

December 5, 2016, "I Seek Newton, Part VI: Chestnut Hill"

September 26, 2016, "I Seek Newton, Part V: Oak Hill"

June 3, 2016, "I Seek Newton, Part IV: Waban"

March 23, 2016, "I Seek Newton, Part III: Newton Highlands"

September 20, 2015, "I Seek Newton, Part II: Auburndale"

May 21, 2015, "I Seek Newton, Part I: Lower Falls"