A Ghostly Discovery in Tobacco Country

From Dave Brigham:

I've been meaning to get back to Connecticut's Windsor Farms Historic District ever since exploring that rural area in December 2020 (see December 17, 2020, "A Towering Discovery in Tobacco Country"). And if you're reading this, and you have half a brain, you probably realize that I fulfilled that goal with another visit to South Windsor.

There are dozens of beautiful old homes in the district, which is located between the Connecticut River and John Fitch Boulevard, also known as Route 5. Main Street bisects the area, which is dottted with farms. As a general rule, I don't make photos of old houses, even gorgeous historic ones. And many of the privately owned farm buildings in the district are inaccessible to folks like me. So my destination was a nicely restored barn/warehouse building that I'd spotted ahead of time on Google Maps.

As I mentioned in the previous South Windsor post, the historic district has been home to tobacco cultivation for roughly 300 years. While many other Connecticut River Valley towns that were once engaged in the shade tobacco business have seen that activity wane in recent decades, the Windsor Farms Historic District "is one of the few farming villages remaining in Connecticut still devoted to tobacco agriculture," according to this Living Places document. "Unlike the more typical historic rural areas of the state where the historic components are widely scattered, the Windsor Farms Historic District is a highly concentrated, cohesive entity," the article continues. "Not only does it contain a significant group of farmhouses, barns, and other specialized buildings related to tobacco agriculture, it also encompasses approximately 1,500 acres of contiguous historic farmland."

According to the South Windsor assessor's database, the barn/warehouse above was built in 1910. The ghost sign across the top says, "ADLER & DOBKIN."

While researching tobacco companies in my native state in the past, I haven't found a lot of information. The same is true here. I discovered that Adler & Dobkin was a cigar-wrapper business based in Manchester, Connecticut. I have no idea when the company was founded, or whether it went out of business or merged with another entity. This building is currently owned by the J.E. Shepard Company, which was founded in 1888 and was at one time (and perhaps still is) the largest grower of broadleaf tobacco in the Connecticut Valley, according to an obituary for a former company executive.

The Shepard company has extensive real estate holdings in South Windsor - nearly four dozen properties by my count in the assessor's database. These include farm, industrial and commercial sites, as well as open land. Perhaps homes, too. Among the company's holdings are at least two golf courses, Willow Brook, which closed abruptly in 2020, and Topstone; Nomad’s Adventure Quest, which includes Revolutions Bowling and Red’s Tavern; and Nomad’s Outdoor Adventure, which closed last year.

Since the warehouse I'm featuring here is in such good shape, and the property includes a barn that also appears in good repair, AND there are large fields located behind them, I'm guessing that J.E. Shepard still grows tobacco here and elsehwhere.

Walking Around Belt-Bottom

From Dave Brigham:

If you live in the Boston area, you know about the Mass. Pike, which cuts through Chinatown, Back Bay, the Fenway, Allston/Brighton and Newton on its way out to Route 128/95. And you're familiar with the Southeast Expressway, which is often a nightmare of traffic as it wends its way under Government Center, the Financial District and the South Station area on its way toward Braintree. But did you know there was once a plan to connect these highways by way of a six-lane, circumferential route running from what is now the Mass. Avenue connector in the South End, through parts of Boston, Brookline, Cambridge and Somerville to Inner Belt Road in Somerville?

The proposed Interstate 695 would have been a social and environmental nightmare tearing up neighborhoods and displacing homes and businesses perhaps like no other highway project in the Bay State. First proposed in the late 1940s, the auxiliary highway -- also known as the Inner Belt -- was finally scotched in the early 1970s, after vociferous opposition by everyone from a handful of city planners with the Boston Redevlopment Agency (now the Boston Planning & Development Agency) and the Cambridge City Council, to the Black United Front and countless residents in each of the affected cities.

"It would have displaced some 7,000 people from their homes, created what opponents at the time called a 'Chinese wall' dividing long established neighborhoods, and gutted large parts of the city of Cambridge and the Boston neighborhood of Roxbury," according to Wikipedia. "There was also speculation that the construction of the Inner Belt would essentially bypass Downtown Boston completely, resulting in economic stagnation in a city that was already having considerable financial problems. Unresolved traffic problems resulting from the cancelation were among the factors eventually leading to Boston's Big Dig highway project, decades later."

Today, there is an Inner Belt district of Somerville, which abuts the Brickbottom neighborhood that today is known for its artist gallery/studio/residence buildings off McGrath Highway. Brickbottom is named for the brick industry that once thrived in the area. While today these two neighborhoods are known for industry, bus lots, auto body shops and webs of train tracks, there were once homes mixed in between the manufacturing plants. Frankly, I was surprised to learn this.

(Buildings along Joy and Poplar streets in the Inner Belt. While there are plenty of industrial and utility sites like this, change is coming.)

"In 1855, Linwood, Chestnut, Joy and Poplar Streets were platted over brickyard land and developed for workers' homes," according to "Trends in Somerville: Transportation & Infrastructure Report, September 2009," a report issued by the City of Somerville as part of its SomerVision 2040 planning effort.

"In its early years, the Brickbottom District was a major site of brick making due to its clay-rich land," according to this Social Web article (which was probably published elsewhere first). "By the late 19th and through the first half of the 20th century, the District was a vital neighborhood of immigrants from all over the world. The residents worked, lived and played together in a cohesive and intermingled way. It was an urban place of houses, parks, factories and streets named after the trees that lined them."

Having spent a few hours walking around this area, I find it hard to picture that version of this neighborhood. And that's because, according to Wikipedia, "housing in the Brickbottom neighborhood and the adjacent neighborhood to its east between the MBTA Lowell Line and I-93 was cleared in the 1950s for an urban renewal plan to create a Somerville Industrial Park that would benefit from the anticipated highway network," aka the Inner Belt. "The purpose of the renewal plan was to destroy the existing neighborhood grid pattern and reorganize the area to accommodate the Interstate, provide automobile circulation and parking, and establish single-use zoning."

Currently, this area is a treeless expanse that has little personality and few residents playing together. That's not to say there aren't interesting sites here, especially for Backside fans. And the neighborhood is starting to change, like so many parts of Somerville.

Below is a Google Maps view of part of the Inner Belt/Brickbottom areas:

Yeesh, that's a lot of words. Let's look at some photos and see what's what, both old and new, in the Brickbottom and Inner Belt areas, which I have dubbed Belt-Bottom.

I started at the former Jackson and Newton Door and Sash Manufacturing Company building, on the east side of McGrath Highway, across from Twin City Plaza.

From MACRIS: "No. 51 McGrath Highway was built sometime between 1900 and 1908. It was probably constructed as a manufacturing facility for the Jackson and Newton Company who are listed at the address in 1908. Jackson and Newton manufactured doors, sash, and blinds....Jackson and Newton operated until 1927, and between 1927 and 1933 the building was vacant. In 1933 the building was occupied by a furniture manufacturer and a radiator company. Prior to the construction of the present building, the site had been the location of W.K. Lewis and Brothers, pickle manufacturers."

The building is currently home to a LifeStorage facility.

To the right of the white addition shown in the above photo there used to be a mattress store, a liquor store and a car wash. Those buildings have been cleared, and construction has begun on a hotel, which will straddle the Somerville/Cambridge line. This is the sort of development I knew was coming. In fact, I wrote about it in May 2018 while profiling the adjacent Superior Nut Company facility, "Can Superior Nut Stand the Heat?"

As for Superior Nut, the company is still a going concern.

I continued northwest on McGrath Highway, over the tracks for the new Green Line Extension that goes to Union Square. In the photo below you can see the viaduct that carries the trains, with the Brickbottom Artists Association complex in the background.

According to the association's web sites, "In 1984, a group of artists came together, in search of a stable and affordable working and living environment. They eventually purchased two semi-abandoned buildings which were originally erected in the 1920's as the cannery and bakery of A&P stores. The community, named after the section in Somerville for the clay deposits used for brick making, has become a well-known model for other artists' live/work developments throughout the country. Today, the nearly 150 condominium spaces, each of a unique size, shape and design, serve as both home and work space to BAA member artists and non-artists alike."

(Psychedelic Volkswagen spotted outside Brickbottom.)

I first learned of Brickbottom when I was living in Somerville in the mid-'90s, when some friends and I went to an open studio event there. I was quite taken by this idea and this place, as well as the entire neighborhood. I attended a party at one of the condos a few years later.

As the artists association web site indicates, these buildings were originally used by the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A&P) supermarket chain. The buildings rose between 1920 and 1923. From MACRIS: "The grocery warehouse provided space for the temporary storage and canning of food products. Baked goods were produced as well as stored within the bakery. To insure that the goods were delivered as expeditiously as possible to the Company's stores an auto repair shop for trucks was constructed on the northeast side of this distribution center."

The site was also home to King Arthur Flour during the 1940s and '50s, according to MACRIS.

During my 1990s visits to this area, I recall a large buiding fronting onto Chestnut Street, perpendicular to the Brickbottom buildings. It's no longer there. In reading about the large building that is replacing the former large building, I couldn't find anything about the history of the site. Then I asked myself, "Does Google Street View have a time machine?"

Lo and behold, it does.

This image dates to 2020, I believe. It shows the former All-Safe Archives, which was housed in a mammoth building. Wish I'd swung by here a few years ago. Anyway, the archives were torn down, and rising in its place is a project called 100 Chestnut (All-Safe's address was 28 Chestnut Street). You can see the new building in the photo below, looming behind the James A. Kiley Company complex, which I will address further on in this post.

Being developed by a joint venture called North River Leerink, 100 Chestnut when completed later this year will offer 200,000 square feet of laboratory and office space, according to the project's web site. It is located within walking distance of the new East Somerville Green Line Extension station. The developer has acquired other properties in this area, which it is calling its new Brickbottom District. That's how it will be known to new folks; old-timers will still call it the Inner Belt.

(View of 100 Chestnut seen from an Eversource "spoils yard.")

As you can see in this photo at North River Company's web site, North River Leerink has plans for 14-20 Chestnut Street, as well as the adjacent 86 Joy Street. According to MACRIS, 14 Chestnut was the former location of Somerville Smelting. Currently it is home to a school-bus lot.

Let's talk about what's at 86 Joy Street and adjacent addresses.

Next to the bus lot is one of the buildings used by Neon Williams, "one of the oldest and most established neon sign shops in America, having made tens of thousands of neon signs since 1934," per its web site.

The company's roots go back nearly 90 years, when Wally Croft established the W. M. Croft "Long Life Neon Tube" Company at 91 Broadway in Cambridge, per the web site. In 1968, Charlie Williams, who was an employee of the company, bought the shop. The glass-bending company was family-owned until 2018, when they sold it to Dave and Lynn Waller and Tony Dowers.

The names Dave and Lynn Waller might sound familiar to you. The couple purchased Graves Light, a lighthouse located on a small, barren island in Boston Harbor, in 2013. The couple has been restoring it ever since. Dave Waller, who runs digital production studio Brickyard VFX, is legendary in the neon sign business. He has been collecting, restoring and displaying the brightly lit signs for decades.

I've written about the Wallers' efforts a few times (see August 9, 2018, "Backside, Out In the Open," about a display of their signs on Boston's Rose Kennedy Greenway, and March 22, 2010, "Gettin' My Kicks," in which I write briefly about the time I met Dave Waller at the restored firehouse in Malden where he and his wife live.)

The main Neon Williams office is at 64 Joy Street, just steps away from the shop pictured above. In front of that building, I found a sign in the middle of being restored.

I'm not sure what business this sign is for. With the imminent redevelopment in this area, Neon Williams is outfitting a new home around the corner from its current shop, according to its Facebook page.

Below is an old fire hydrant outside 64 Joy Street.

The rest of this building is home to a variety of small businesses, including Art School No. 99, Melissa Luella Photography and 617 Fight Sports. When I lived in Somerville, from 1995-1997, my landlord was a guy who called himself Joe Soap. I believe his business was located in this building.

"That's great, Dave," I can hear you saying. "But what's the history of this place?"

Built in 1919 for the New England Baking Company, the long building -- 380 feet long by 100 feet deep -- this place had a siding in the rear for railroad car access, per MACRIS. The baking company occupied the building until at least 1933. Later in that decade, into the 1940s, Hall Baking Company was the tenant.

The Green Line Extension tracks run directly behind 68-86 Joy Street. To access the East Somerville station, passengers need to head out to Washington Street.

After finishing along Joy Street and hitting Washington Street, I headed southeast along New Washington Street, which runs alongside a set of railroad tracks. An office building for Keolis Commuter Services, a division of French transportation conglomerate Keolis S.A. that operates the MBTA's commuter rail service, sits along this street. This area of the Inner Belt features large warehouses and industrial buildings, as well as an MBTA carhouse and maintenance facility.

I first traveled this road in the early days of the blog, and made some photos of some old freight cars on a side track (see June 14, 2011, "Graffiti Train").

More recently, I drove around here with my train-loving son. During the pandemic, we had to take a break from riding the subway, so we did a few drives to spot trains and check out MBTA-related facilities. I was quite taken by the underpass for the MBTA's Lowell commuter rail line.

While it's got a very cool and distinct look, the Inner Belt Road underpass provides no bike/pedestrian space. Thankfully, this area isn't very busy, especially on weekends, so I walked through and got some cool shots.

The "tubes," as they are known locally, were apparently a makeshift infrastructure effort. The City of Somerville for years has expressed to the MBTA its concern for the safety of the tubes. "Trends in Somerville: Transportation & Infrastructure Report", a September 2009 document issued by the City of Somerville's Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development, found that the underpass doesn't meet current standards and needs to be replaced. More than 13 years later, the tubes still stand.

With new development cropping up all around this area, I suspect a new, stronger and code-compliant underpass will be built before too much longer.

Heading north on Inner Belt Road, I spied some old freight cars behind Metropolitan Pipe.

Continuing to where Inner Belt Road meets Washington Street, I spied a memorial in the front yard of a Holiday Inn.

On his famous ride on April 18, 1775, Paul Revere was captured by British officers near this spot, but managed to escape.

I love stumbling across historic markers like this one. It was paid for by the hotel.

Steps away, just over the line in Boston's Charlestown neighborhood, I dug the sign for Alex Autobody & Glass, with its early 20th-century car.

And a little further east into Charlestown, I spied a great mural on the rear of the Tavern at the End of the World, an Irish-style pub with an Airbnb above it, known as Top of the World. This is the first time I've heard of a pub with its own Airbnb.

I haven't been able to learn who painted this great piece. I'm pretty sure it depicts Jenny Lind, a Swedish opera singer popular in Europe and the United States in the mid-19th century. Known as "the Swedish Nightingale," Lind performed across America, including several times in Boston. She was married in the Hub in 1852, and honeymooned in Northampton, Mass., before returning to Europe. There is a statue of Lind inside the Tavern, according to one of my Instagram friends.

From there, I headed back into Somerville and slogged all the way back down New Washington Street, along Washington Street and over to McGrath Highway at street level (as opposed to the elevated section). There I made a photo of Mercedes-Benz of Boston, a member of the Herb Chambers dealership family.

The building dates to 1987. As I walked by, I figured I'd shoot it just in case it had an interesting history. I wasn't too taken by the dealership at first, but I like the way it looks in this photo. Try as I might, I've been unable to figure what, if anything, was on this site prior to 1987.

Walking on the backside of the dealership, on Linwood Street, past a UHaul facility and an Eversource yard, I peeked through a fence into a large, mostly empty parking lot and spied very unusual bus.

I guessed, correctly as it turned out, that "WMI" on the fence was for Waste Management, Inc., an "environmental services" company that previously used this lot. I wondered about the bus, and a few minutes later, after checking out some other stuff, I came back around to the front of the lot, where I got a better shot.

Zooming into the photo on my computer at home, I noticed an official Massachusetts license plate, which means its the property of the state or a municipality. "What the hell is that bus?" I wondered, "With the crazy color scheme, the animal nose and, are those EARS?!"

The word "MUSCRAT" on the front is the key to the mystery.

Owned by the Somerville Arts Council, the MUSCRAT Bus -- for Multi Use Somerville Community Roving Art Transport -- makes the rounds to various events in the city. At the annual ArtBeat festival, for instance, it was used as a storytelling bus. Muralist Jeff McCreight painted the MUSCRAT.

On Google Maps, this lot is labeled "Poplar Street Pump Station Park." "What's the deal with that?" I wondered, since this vacant lot was formerly used by a trash-hauling company and evidently was also home to pump station for God-knows-what purpose. Currently, small pieces of art hang on the fence around part of this property. Future plans call for this site to be the permanent home of the Somerville Arts Council's ArtFarm. That group plans to "activate a site in transition by creating a platform for programs and solutions that harness the creative energy of our City: arts, green technology, culinary entrepreneurship, urban agriculture, and community-building activities to enrich the experience of living in Somerville and the greater metropolitan region," according to ArtFarm's web site.

I'm not sure when the groundbreaking is. The project has been in discussion among city and group officials since 2015.

A little way up Linwood Street, I noticed a very small sign on the slope that leads up to McGrath Highway.

"Enjoy the view," the sign says. "This garden tended by mcgrathhillside@gmail.com." At this time of year, things are just starting to grow across New England. I hope whoever is behind the gardening has returned by now to foster the springtime growth.

Directly across the McGrath Hillside Garden is James A. Kiley Company, a heavy equipment company that's been in business since 1890 (!).

Founded as a wagon building, painting and repairing shop, the Kiley Company today is "dedicated to sales, service and installation for utilities and utility-related industries," per its web site. "We stock a complete line of aftermarket parts for Terex Telelect Digger Derricks & Bucket trucks as well as parts for Hi-Ranger Buckets."

After documenting the Kiley buildings, I hoofed it up a staircase back to McGrath Highway. On the side of the bridge over the train tracks, I spied a band sticker amid the graffiti.

Arugula Oglethorpe is a Boston-based musician and artist. I would describe his music as hyper, psychedelic wonder pop. It's not my jam, but I'd say click Arugula's Bandcamp link and listen for yourself. Albums include Songs for Gay Dogs, Lick My Guacamole Fingers and one about "Rebecca-Lynn, a normal high schooler who just happens to be Richard Nixon's granddaughter, [who] goes on a crazy adventure through Nevada."

The last spot on our tour is yet another in my ongoing chronicle of Buildings Soon to Be Replaced by Gleaming Towers Producing Scientific Wonders.

Hub Glass Services moved from its location at 200 McGrath Highway to a location in Medford. The company has been around for nearly 100 years, so I'm glad it found a new spot. The remainder of the triangular site hemmed in by McGrath Highway, railroad tracks, and Medford Street is home to F.W. Russell, a waste management and disposal company that's been in business since 1977.

So, what's going to rise here?

Gateway Innovation Center, which will feature close to 1 million square feet across two buildings, including laboratory, life science/technology, research and development, office and supporting retail/restaurant spaces. I'm not sure when the project will break ground.

Make sure to check out my other recent looks at Somerville:

East Somerville, Part II: The Other Stuff

East Somerville, Part I: The Main Drag

Square Dancing Around Somerville

The Pros and Cons of Winter Hill and Gilman Square

East Somerville, Part II: The Other Stuff

From Dave Brigham:

In my first post about East Somerville, I discussed Broadway, the main commercial strip running from Foss Park to the Charlestown line (see April 8, 2023, "East Somerville, Part I: The Main Drag"). Today, as you may have guessed, we're going to learn about other stuff situated around this neighborhood, which is bounded by Route 28/McGrath Highway, Interstate 93, Washington Street and Crescent Street, which is where Boston begins.

Let's start with the place that shocked me the most when its pin popped up on Google Maps.

The Charles Williams, Jr. House on Arlington Street is a lovely old home with a large addition. I assumed it was a multi-family dwelling, but according to Zillow, the "center-gable Italianate (c. 1858)... [with] extraordinary original interior and exterior detail, including parquet and inlaid wood floors; hand-carved woodwork; Italian tile fireplace hearth; antique light fixtures; ornate hardware; high ceilings; butler's pantry; carved plaster moldings...[is still] used as a single family home." It has 10 bedrooms and four baths.

Sure, that's nice to know. But there's so much more to this place.

"The Charles Williams, Jr. House...is the location of the first residential telephone line," according to Atlas Obscura. "The phone inside the house connected to Mr. Williams’ office at 109 Court Street in Boston, about 3 miles away. These two properties had the first telephone numbers – 1 & 2."

Hello? How wild is that?!

Williams wasn't just some rich dude who bought his way into this bit of telecommunications fame, though. He was a manufacturer of electrical telegraph instruments, according to Wikipedia. "Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Watson experimented with the telephone in Williams' shop, and it was there that they first heard indistinct sounds transmitted on June 2, 1875."

For more on Alexander Graham Bell and his nifty little invention, check out my June 8, 2019, post, "UPDATE: Strolling Among the L7's in Kendall Square," in which I mention a plaque on Main Street in Cambridge (a little outside Kendall Square, but oh well) memorializing the "site [where] on October 9, 1876, the first two-way long distance conversation was carried on for three hours."

A short walk away, on Rush Street, is another place that made my heart skip a beat, although I may have been gaslighted.

I happened across this place and thought, "What an amazing ghost sign!" "GEO. ROTH MARKET," it says. And the building looks like it could've been a small grocery store at some point. But the assessor's office uses the words "service shop," "industrial" and "factory" to describe this building. And the building is currently home to Kevin Jackson Custom Architectural Woodwork, which leads me to believe he made this sign or salvaged it from another site. I'll hold out the possibility that the sign is genuine to this site. Obviously the sign is real, no matter where it's from, so it's cool.

(Side of Kevin Jackson shop.)

Half a mile away, on Mount Vernon Street, is a place that stuck out for me in a MACRIS search.

"What on Earth is the Webcowit Club?!" I wondered while scanning through the East Somerville listings. "The house at #64 was first owned by Charles S. Powers who was a local grain dealer," MACRIS indicates. "In 1885 the house, still owned by Powers, became the clubhouse for the Webcowit Club, a men's social club established to promote social discourse (read: drink alcohol -- DB). Webcowit Club membership was constituted primarily of prominent citizens of East Somerville."

Webcowit (also sometimes spelled "Webcowet") was the second husband of a Native American woman known as Squaw Sachem (her actual name evidently being lost to history), who in the early 17th century owned a large portion of land that encompassed much of present-day Charlestown, Arlington, Medford, Malden, and Winchester. Mount Vernon Street is right on the Charlestown border; Somerville was originally settled as part of Charlestown.

Squaw Sachem was the widow of Chief Nanepashamet, who died in 1619. She, her sons, and other leaders in the area struggled to live peacefully with the massive influx of Puritan settlers after 1630, according to this Arlington Historical Society article. "In 1639 she deeded the land of what was then Cambridge and Watertown to the colonists, an area that covers much of what is now the Greater Boston area, including Newton, Arlington, Somerville, Malden, and Charlestown," per Wikipedia. "She lived her last years on the west side of the Mystic Lakes near what is now Medford, Massachusetts, where she died sometime between 1650 and 1667."

As for Webcowit, he has been "described variously as his local tribe’s pow-wow, medicine man, or wizard," according to this Wicked Local article. "He is mentioned in the historical record primarily because he was a co-maker with Squaw Sachem in the 1639 deed conveying today’s Arlington and vicinity to English settlers, in exchange for 'twenty and one coates, nineteen fathoms of Wampum, and three bushels of Corne.' Nothing was separately granted to Webcowet in this transaction, but in a similar deed executed for control of Concord, Webcowet specifically received 'a new suit of cotton cloth, a linen band, hat, shoes, stockings, and a great coat.'"

Fascinating history.

Along Washington Street is a diner that also has a nice bit of history.

Situated at this site since 1951, it was known originally as Buddy's Truck Stop. The diner, however, began life in 1929 as Worcester Lunch Car Co. #624, and was located in Leominster, Mass., according to MACRIS. "Buddy's Truck Stop diner is notable as a rare surviving roadside diner of early 20th century design in the Boston area, intact with original interior features," MACRIS continues.

Buddy was the father of former longtime owner John Barrett, according to diner guru Richard Gutman, who relayed that info when I posted a photo of Buddy's on Instagram.

Below is a great video featuring a young woman who bought the diner several years ago, with no plan or experience. I'm not sure whether she still owns it.

Next up on this tour are two examples of a well-known Somerville icon: bathtub Mary.

Located on a side street not far from Buddy's, these two ladies are part of a tradition of creating shrines to the Virgin Mother by utilizing old bathtubs or similar small structures. This trend allegedly came about in post-World War II America as more folks upgraded their bathrooms and pitched their old claw-foot tubs, according to this Dusty Old Thing blog post. While the tradition "is said to have originated in Fall River, Massachusetts, a city on the border with Rhode Island....[T]he greatest concentration of them can be found today in Somerville...which boasts around 600 of these shrines!" the blog continues.

In my travels around Somerville, I have certainly spotted plenty of them. They're so ubiquitous, in fact, that there are photographers out there who have dedicated time and resources to document as many as they can. Deb Pacini, a retired anthropology professor who lives in Somerville, showcases bathtub Marys and other front-yard shrines on her web site. Cathy Piantigini, Somerville's library director, runs the Bathtub Marys of Somerville photo blog. The site is filled with more than 350 such statues. And finally, photographer Gary Duehr, who manages Bromfield Gallery in Boston's South end, has a page devoted to Saints on his web site. "In some statues the chipped plaster and peeling paint show the passing of time," Duehr says on his web site, "while in others the lush gardens and elaborate displays attest to the owner's care."

On the western side of the multiple train tracks that cross above Washington Street, I made a few photos of an old railroad siding warehouse on Alston Street.

Google Maps indicates this garage door leads to a business called The Drain Cleaning Company Plumbing, but the web site for that business in inactive. Below is the entrance to Costume Works, which since 1996 has been making custom theatrical costumes. It is on this company's web site that I learned this building was once a railroad storage facility.

Finally, below is the door into Flagraphics, which was founded in the early 1980s. The company's "product line has expanded to include grand format printing, dye-sublimation, digital graphics, awnings and canopies, signs, flagpoles, and flatbed printing," per its web site. Flagraphics works with "national sports venues, colleges and universities, museums, shopping centers, lifestyle centers, medical institutions and everything in-between."

At the northern end of Alston Street, where it intersects with Cross Street, is Mr. B's Italian Restaurant, which may be closed. If it's not, it sure looks close to death.

The building dates to 1940, per the assessor's office.

Mr. B's abuts the Cross Street Bridge, which dates to 1928.

Known as B&M Railroad Bridge #194, this span was built by the American Bridge Company, which was founded in 1900 "when J.P. Morgan & Co. led a consolidation of 28 of the largest U.S. steel fabricators and constructors," according to Wikipedia. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, American Bridge has completed thousands of projects across all 50 states and in 60 countries, per its web site. B&M, or the Boston and Maine Railroad, was chartered in 1835 and became part of the Pan Am Railways network in 1983. Most of that network was purchased by CSX in 2022, per Wikipedia.

Parallel to the Cross Street Bridge, just to the north, is a larger bridge.

The McGrath Highway Bridge over B and M Railroad, as it is known historically, was erected in 1926 by Boston Bridge Works (to see some of the company's work, check out this Flickr album).

Encompassing four lanes of traffic, the bridge features a camelback truss that is the only known example of that style in Massachusetts, according to the National Register application filed by the State of Massachusetts in 1987. "A Camelback truss is a variation of the Parker truss that has a polygonal upper chord of exactly five slopes," according to the North Carolina Department of Transportation. "This provides some saving of material with the greatest depth of truss where it is most required, at the center of the span."

Now you know.

Back on Cross Street is a building that's been altered quite a bit, and that has a very interesting history.

I assumed from the hulking brick facade that this was at one time a factory. As you can see in the bottom photo, a newer addition was tacked on at some point. I figured perhaps the building was home to a high-tech business of some sort. But the windows should have been a clue to me: this structure was built in 1869 as a church! "The earliest portion of this property is a monumental, two-story, gable roof brick building which was constructed in 1869 as the First Universalist Church," per MACRIS.

Wikipedia picks up the rest of the story: "The congregation was established in 1854 as the First Universalist Society of Somerville. That same year local businessman and philanthropist Charles Tufts donated to the new society a lot in East Somerville, at what is now Cross and Tufts Streets....Money was raised for a chapel, and this building was completed in 1855. It was replaced by a larger building constructed in 1859-60. This in turn was destroyed in a fire in January 1868. The congregation rebuilt the church, this time in brick, in 1869."

In 1915, the congregation moved to the church it currently occupies at 125 Highland Avenue. Again, from Wikipedia: "After the move, the former building was remodeled into a theatre, the Orpheum, by Nathan Hoffman. After the theatre closed in the 1950s, the building was used for warehouse purposes for many years. In 2001 the former church was renovated into a residential development now known as the Sanctuary Lofts."

I haven't been able to find anything about the Orpheum or Nathan Hoffman. Again, I never would have guessed that this place was once a place for live events and perhaps movies. In the MACRIS listing, there are photos showing that at some point this building was a Kohler Plumbing Showroom.

It seems this place isn't entirely residential. Among the businesses listed here are Steve Marsel Studio and Atomik Design Studio.

Northeast on Cross Street, at the corner of Pearl Street, is a circa-1885 Italianate building known historically as the Ceramic Arts Center of Somerville, according to MACRIS. Evidently, East Somerville was a hot spot for brick and pottery making (in previous posts I mention both Mudflat Studio and Mudville).

Currently, this place is home to Jaxon Golf, which sells custom-made golf clubs.

Lurking behind 67 Cross Street is the Perkins Street Baptist Church.

Known historically as Grace Baptist Church, this Romanesque Revival beauty dates to 1892. According to MACRIS, "The Neck Village Baptist Church was organized in 1845, by the Rev. John R. Grow. It was located in East Somerville, which was undergoing rapid growth as a center for pottery making and brickworks. The church was later known as the Charlestown and Somerville Baptist Church, before being renamed the Perkins Street Baptist Church in 1853. The meetinghouse on Perkins Street burned in 1866 and was rebuilt and later enlarged in 1873 to seat 1000. The church split in the 1880s, and the new parish used the Franklin Street Congregational Church for meetings, until they built the current building on Cross Street."

It is currently the home of Monte Sinai SDA Church.

The last stop on my East Somerville tour is, unfortunately, a shuttered restaurant at the corner of McGrath Highway and Pearl Street.

Some'Ting Nice served Caribbean cuisine for four years before closing in 2017, according to this Boston Eater article. When I saw this building, I knew it had something else in its past besides a restaurant, and I had a hunch...that turned out to be correct.

This place is known historically as Griffin Florist Shop. It dates to 1925 and is "the only such horticultural structure in Somerville," according to MACRIS.

Well, that wraps up East Somerville. Up next are the city's Inner Belt and Brickbottom areas. See the links below for other posts in my Somerville series:

April 1, 2023, "Somerville Junkyard Will Be Scrapped"

March 25, "Square Dancing Around Somerville"

March 11, 2023, "The Pros and Cons of Winter Hill and Gilman Square"