Finding the Fascinating Ford's Folly

From Dave Brigham:

After easing into the parking lot for Nobscot Conservation Land in Sudbury, Mass., I hiked down a relatively easy path, stones and tree roots here and there adding a small degree of difficulty. Stone walls ran along the path and through the woods, marking off long-ago property lines for farms. I passed a friendly middle-aged couple and their two dogs, as well as an unfriendly youngish dad and his young daughter. The occasional acorn fell through the leaves, bouncing its way to a short-lived freedom. Birds chirped lazily. Critters skittered through the underbrush.

In less than 15 minutes I'd made it from the parking lot on Brimstone Lane, which sounds like it was named by a craggy-faced Colonial minister, to a failed dam built nearly 100 years ago by the man who revolutionized factory production with his assembly line schemes.

In a somewhat posh neighborhood in the southwest corner of town, located in the middle of the woods on the opposite side of Boston Post Road from the famous Wayside Inn, stands the 900-foot-long, stone-and-concrete wall that has come to be known as Ford's Folly. It is named for the industrialist and namesake of the Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford, who had a long and ultimately frustrating relationship with the area.

The dam, which has a fence on each side of a walking path along the top, seems shorter than 900 feet, but is nonetheless quite impressive and such a shock to the mind to see it in the middle of the woods that its length hardly seems to matter. Hop Brook, which Ford had hoped to trap behind the dam to create a reservoir for the nearby village, trickled along on each side of the dam, a pleasant sound of nature that nevertheless likely came to drive Ford mad.

So how did the man who founded and based his car company in Detroit, end up in rural Massachusetts paying for the construction of this damnable dam?

From the Town of Sudbury's web site about the Nobscot land: "In 1923, Ford stepped in to protect the Wayside Inn as a 'splendid example of colonial America.' He purchased nearly 1,500 acres surrounding the Inn and built a traditional New England style white chapel and a field grist mill...in the Wayside Inn area. Ford had a dam built to attempt to create a reservoir for firefighting for the Wayside Inn area....Obsessed with historic authenticity, Ford made sure all construction and renovations were accomplished in 'the traditional manner' using only man and oxen power."

In the early days of the blog, I wrote about my brief visit to the Wayside Inn. But me being a consummate backsider, I didn't write about the inn or even the impressive grist mill on site, but rather a somewhat homely old barn on the property (see October 24, 2011, "Love Barn"). Below are some photos I made at that time of the grist mill.

Anyway...back to the failed dam, again from the Town of Sudbury web site: "It succeeded in holding back only enough water to form a wetland. The reasons given were that the soil is too porous behind the dam, and the feeding stream has very little water most of the year."

I'd love to know who coined the term "Ford's Folly," which I imagine came about many decades ago. Per Wikipedia, a folly in architecture is "a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose."

According to Atlas Obscura's write-up about the dam, "Ford’s property manager, John Campbell, spent 16 years, from 1930 to 1946, attempting to fix the dam so it would hold water. His efforts can be seen in several large blocks of concrete on the left side at the bottom of the dam. None of them worked and he was forced to abandon the project."

I haven't found a good explanation for why Ford decided to buy the Wayside and so many surrounding acres. The inn's web site offers this: "In 1923, Henry Ford purchased the Wayside Inn....The move was striking for the famous industrialist who just seven years earlier declared that 'history is bunk.' Over the next twenty-four years, Ford not only preserved the Inn, but also moved additional buildings to the site and constructed new ones. Later, he opened the Wayside Inn Boys School where the instructors blended the pedagogical methods from Ford’s childhood with the more progressive 'learning by doing' approach."

I'd read on the Atlas Obscura site that "a wrecked car or two" could possibly be seen at the bottom of the dam, "because local teenagers used to push them off the top." Well, I HAD to check that out.

So I looked over the edge and lo and behold....

...there was a lemon-yellow Dodge Something-or-Other resting in the brook, pulverized from its fall from the top of the dam, a small collapsed tree adding insult to injury.

If there's another car at the bottom of the dam, I didn't see it. My sources who know cars better than I do tell me this one is a Dodge Colt, which Mitsubishi Motors manufactured for Dodge from 1971 to 1994.

A Sharp Old Factory in Collinsville, CT

From Dave Brigham:

Before exploring Collinsville, CT, earlier this year, I think the last (and only) time I'd been there was in the early 1980s when my sister lived in an apartment in the village. Hard to believe, considering that I grew up a 15-minute drive east-northeast from this part of Canton, hard by the Farmington River.

As you can tell from these photos, each of the two times I swung through the 'Ville, it was gloomy. Raining the first time, cool and cloudy (with rain later in the day) the second. Nevertheless, I was quite charmed by the village, which I'd seen pictures of in various places online over the years, leading to my decision to finally get off my duff and check it out.

While there are many great buildings with local businesses along Main Street and the side streets, I focused on the former factory of The Collins Company, which for 140 years manufactured axes, hatchets, machetes and other sharp tools.

The company’s founders, brothers Samuel and David Collins, were born into a wealthy family, according to this ConnecticutHistory.org article. "Their father, Alexander Collins, was a lawyer in Middletown and their mother Elizabeth was from the well-to-do mercantile Watkinson family of Hartford. When Alexander died in 1815, his widow moved the family to Hartford. Samuel was 24 years old and David age 21 when they decided to open an axe factory with their cousin William Wells. The Collins & Company factory opened in 1826 with the purchase of an old gristmill and a few acres of land along the Farmington River in Canton."

The company thrived for decades, selling its products around the country and the world. The brothers built dams along the Farmington River, expanded the number of buildings in their manufacturing plant, constructed worker housing, a Congregational church, a bank and other buildings for the community. The company also "secured a rail line for Collinsville to transport [its] goods and material by offering the railroad company a right of way through company land, a depot, and $3,000," according to the ConnecticutHistory article.

As you can see, the former factory's buildings are quite photogenic. The company was in business until 1966, having suffered a tough business environment after the devastating 1955 flood that hit Connecticut.

These days, there are businesses in some of the old mill buildings, including Antiques on the Farmington, a multi-dealer shop; TOOWi Wellness; a hair salon called Milkweeds; Almost Home Studio, which specializes in family and pet portraiture and landscape paintings; and Downright Music, a music school.

The old factory complex spreads across multiple buildings along the Farmington River. You can get great views from the bike path that runs through part of the complex, located along the old railroad right-of-way.

There are opportunities aplenty for urbexers who want to trespass and risk life and limb. But you know me - that ain't my thing.

Whenever I explore around an old mill complex, I wonder whether there's a redevelopment plan. A company called Ranger Properties indicates on its web site that it has reached an agreement to buy the old Collins factory. "The restoration plans for the historic site [call for] more than 200 apartments and a commercial hub that dominates the Collinsville section of Canton on a 20-acre river-front property," per the web site. "The plan is to refurbish 23 of the 25 decaying brick buildings, construct several new apartment buildings, add a partly underground parking garage, and create a public river walk and plaza along the Farmington River."

Stay tuned....

Cape Cod Lobster Joint Can't Claw Its Way Back to Life

From Dave Brigham:

Lobster shacks and Cape Cod go together like Cape Cod and lobster shacks. But the unimaginatively named American Lobster Mart has slathered its last lobster roll with mayo and has gone to Restaurant Heaven.

Located at the Bourne traffic circle, the eatery was in business for a few decades, I believe, before closing in 2020. The 928-square-foot building was sold in 2021 for $575,000, according to the Internet.

(Nice little boat decoration outside the old lobster mart.)

On my visit last fall, I noticed that quite a bit of land behind the lobster mart, as well as the All Seasons Inn next door along Trowbridge Road, has been cleared. Changes are coming to the traffic circle. Earlier this month, the Town of Bourne moved an old tourist information booth to make way for a new Cumberland Farms convenience store/gas station complex.

I Finally Get Near the Middlesex Canal

From Dave Brigham:

"There are bits and pieces of it scattered throughout the area like the aqueduct in the Shawsheen River on the Wilmington/Billerica line. There's also a nice section in the woods behind the Wilmington Town Park on Main street running back to Butters Row."

For years, those two sentences sat under the heading "MIDDLESEX CANAL" in one of the handful of places I keep notes about places to explore for the blog. I can't remember when I first learned about the canal, which stretched 27 miles, from Lowell to Boston's Charlestown neighborhood and operated from 1803 to 1851.

I grew up near a long-abandoned stretch of the Farmington Canal, in Weatogue, Connecticut. Boats began using the canal, which connected New Haven to Northampton, Mass., in 1828. The canal was eventually replaced by railroads. I used to explore the abandoned part near my house, and occasionally played hockey along it in the winter.

So when I heard about the Middlesex Canal, I decided I wanted to find some part, any part, of it, to explore. According to the Middlesex Canal Association, "much of the Middlesex Canal is buried under roads and parking lots - even its southern end at Sullivan Square, formerly at the head of Prison Point Bay, is now close to a mile inland. Many traces of the old waterway remain only as dirt-filled paths through suburban backyards, and at the MDC's Sandy Beach Reservation in Winchester. Boston's Canal Street is where the route once extended from the Charles River to Boston Harbor."

I've bumped up against the canal a bit here and there over the years -- a stone marker in Somerville, mentions of it in historical acounts about Medford -- but it was only recently that I actually saw honest-to-God remnants of it in Woburn (make sure to check out my other recent Woburn posts: February 24, 2024, "Woo Woo! It's Woburn Time," and March 2, 2024, "Woburn's Lanna Thai Diner is Adorable").

I started my short walk at the intersection of School and Merrimac streets, just east of a CVS. Heading south, I followed the old canal towpath, which horses used to pull the canal boats; on my way back, I took the path running along an old rail bed. From MACRIS: "This section parallels the Boston & Maine Railroad Woburn Loop embankment, and was restored for horse-drawn canal boat rides in the late 1960s and is still watered year-round." I wish someone was still running those horse-drawn boat rides.

(Looking south - the rail bed is on the left, the towpath on the right.)

Near the northern end of the canal segment, I spied some quarried stones.

According to MACRIS, "This segment of the canal...includes a significant historic archaeological site, the Baldwin's Farm/Carter's Bridge Abutments (ca. 1803)....Located several hundred feet north of the Loammi Baldwin Mansion, this resource consists of partially-collapsed fieldstone abutments flanking the canal trench. Some stones show drill marks from blasting."

As for the Baldwin Mansion, it is located at the southern end of the canal segment, fronting Alfred Street.

Loammi Baldwin grew up in Woburn in the middle of the 18th century. A soldier in the Revolutionary War, he eventually turned to surveying and engineering (Wikipedia says he is considered the father of American civil engineering). In 1794, at age 50, he and his oldest sons began digging what would become the Middlesex Canal, which opened in 1803. The house shown above was built in 1661 by Henry Baldwin, Loammi's great-grandfather. Loammi enlarged the house in 1803.

From Wikipedia: "All told, six generations of Baldwins lived in the house....After leaving the family's ownership it became a boarding house, within which resided Baldwin family members until the 1930s." Eventually the place was converted to a restaurant. Today it is home to the Baldwin Bar, which is located within Sichuan Garden, a Chinese restaurant.

The canal was used to transport all types of goods. One of the products that made its way to Woburn was tree bark, which was used in the leather-tanning process, according to this article at the Middlesex Canal Association web site. "It changed life in Woburn," said Thomas Smith, one of that city's members on the Middlesex Canal Commission, in the article. "Having access to the bark made it possible for the leather industry to grow" in what had been a rural agricultural community.

There is another historic house located along the canal segment here. I didn't get a shot of it, but Google Street View has the goods.

This is what's known as the 1790 House, and, as you might expect of a 234-year-old house, it has an interesting history. The Federal style home was built for Woburn lawyer Joseph Bartlett, but Loammi Baldwin purchased the place before construction was completed. According to MACRIS, this was "one of several stately homes on Baldwin's 212 acres (sic) estate." The engineer used this place for entertaining, evidently, as MACRIS indicates Baldwin held a Centennial Ball here on January 1, 1880; a ball to celebrate the opening of the canal in 1803; and "many others" over the years.

MACRIS also indicates the house was allegedly part of the Underground Railroad for escaped slaves prior to the Civil War. The 1790 House was also used as a private school for boys in 1815, according to Wikipedia. As well, the North Congregational Church of Woburn used the house for Sunday school.

The house was originally closer to Main Street, but it was moved toward the canal to make room for a hotel. From 1981 to 2014, the 1790 House was owned by the Woburn Daily Times. It is currently being used for office space.

So, there you have my first official visit to part of the Middlesex Canal. I hope to explore others in the near future.

For other mentions of the Middlesex Canal on the blog, see:

November 4, 2023, "Cisterns Are Doing It for Themselves"

October 28, 2023, "Why Does Medford Square Have a Shipyard? And Other Questions"

April 8, 2023, "East Somerville, Part I: The Main Drag"

Woburn's Lanna Thai Diner is Adorable

From Dave Brigham:

When doing research ahead of my trek through downtown Woburn, Mass. (see February 24, 2024, "Woo! Woo! It's Woburn Time!"), I followed what has become a regular practice: I poked around to see if there was a diner or old theater in town. Yes to the former, no to the latter. So after checking out the area around Woburn Common, I headed due north under I-95 to Lanna Thai Diner.

From MACRIS: "The only diner in Woburn, Main Street Diner is important architecturally in Massachusetts as one of the first diners the Worcester Lunch Car Company produced with a stainless steel exterior. Custom-built in 1952 for this site, Main Street Diner (formerly known as Stella's Diner and originally known as Jack's Diner) is quite small given its period of construction and the fact that it was built to seat thirty to thirty-two people. The diner is also distinctive for combining a largely stainless steel exterior with largely wood finishes on the interior."

This place has been Lanna since 2011, according to Wikipedia. The MACRIS report dates to 1999.

Isn't Lanna just adorable? I hope it lasts a long time.