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"
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