An Update on the Charles River Speedway

From Dave Brigham:

When last we talked about the Charles River Speedway -- nearly 15 years ago! -- I learned that the historic but long-abandoned buildings at the intersection of Western Avenue and Market Street in Boston's Brighton neighborhood had been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. As well, I reported that the State of Massachusetts had committed $132,000 to do some restoration work at the site. But at that point, there was no master plan for redeveloping the old horse track complex.

I first wrote about the Charles River Speedway a few weeks prior to the post linked above (see September 6, 2010, "UPDATED: Horsing Around At the Old Barracks"). Here's a bit of history: "In the 1890s, the Commonwealth created the Charles River Reservation, transforming a polluted stretch of tidal mudflats into a beautiful riverside promenade, a mile-long harness racecourse, and two-mile long bicycle track. Administration buildings were built to support the Reservation in 1899, providing necessary space for offices, housing, storage, horse stables and a cow barn. Designed in the Shingle and Colonial Revival styles by renowned local architect William D. Austin, the complex looks more like the high-style seaside 'cottages' of Newport than a municipal building. This was likely intentional: Austin’s thoughtful design projected dignity and permanence, while also implying that access to nature and recreation was not an upper-class privilege, but a public right."

That description comes from the web site for The Speedway, the hipster destination that grew from the redevelopment of the the complex in a joint effort by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation and the Architectural Heritage Foundation. The "vibrant and welcoming marketplace, home to a brewery and biergarten, dynamic food and drink purveyors, and small-format shops," as well as an event space called Garage B, opened in 2021.

I've been to The Speedway three times in the last 18 months or so, and I absolutely love it. Walking through the gate from Western Avenue into the open-air patio for the first time, I was transported to a magical world.

Just steps away is the very busy Soldiers Field Road, but sitting at a long wooden table under a bright blue sky, drinking a tasty beer from Notch Brewing and grooving alongside millennial hipsters, I couldn't hear cars or trucks at all.

On that first visit, I went with two friends to see Margaret Garrett, the singer and guitarist from Mr. Airplane Man, play with a different band. All around us people were drinking, eating from the handful of small food shops, playing board games, dancing to the music. I couldn't believe this was the same place I'd driven past for years, wondering, "When the hell is someone gonna fix up that eyesore?!"

I returned more recently with my wife and the same two friends, once again on a wonderful afternoon, to see more live music. And shortly after that, my wife and I returned after hitting a Brighton Bazaar event nearby. When the weather is crappy or cold, Notch has an indoor space for boozing.

Even if you're not into pizza, beer, live music or small-biz shopping, you'll find it worth visiting The Speedway for the restoration work on a fantastic property.

I love the nod the designers have given to the Speedway's history as a race track.

Finding Easthampton in Tip Top Shape

From Dave Brigham:

When my friend Jim asked in late January if I wanted to take a road trip to Easthampton, Mass., I jumped at the opportunity. And once I realized that our initial destination was located in a former mill complex, I got pretty excited.

Jim did the driving, so I plopped into the passenger seat of his Prius and enjoyed the 85-mile ride, which was a nice change of pace for me, as I often complete 60- to 90-minute round-trip backside drives on my own. He wanted to visit a wine shop operated by the partner of one of his high school friends. I was happy to accompany him to the 01027.

Located in Hampshire County, about halfway between Holyoke and Northampton, Easthampton, like so many towns in New England, made the transition from farming to manufacturing during the Industrial Revolution. Our first stop was the former West Boylston Manufacturing Company complex that stretches for quite a distance between Pleasant Street and Lower Mill Pond.

The West Boylston Company was founded in 1814 in -- you guessed it -- West Boylston, Mass. In 1897, however, the State of Massachusetts selected a large section of the town, along with parts of neighboring Boylston, Clinton and Sterling, to create the Wachusett Reservoir. "[T]he Nashua River in the town of Clinton was impounded by the Wachusett Dam, causing 6.5 square miles to be flooded," per Wikipedia. "Over 2,200 acres of West Boylston's land was used for the reservoir, the most of any town. This disrupted the center of town and most of the industrial base. Many buildings were moved to the unaffected parts of the town but the majority were demolished and filled by the reservoir."

But the West Boylston Company did things a little -- okay, a lot -- differently. "Instead of abandoning the mill, the company dismantled it brick by brick and shipped it by train to its new home in the Pioneer Valley, where it was rebuilt on the banks of the Lower Mill Pond," according to the web site for The Boylston Rooms, a wedding venue located in the former mill complex. "Between 1899-1907, the West Boylston Company built the huge complex of mills on Pleasant Street."

That's amazing!

After the demise of the West Boylston Company, "the building finally became the property of the Lesnow Manufacturing Company, manufacturers of clothing, who operated the factory for many years until their demise in 1985," per MACRIS. "The building was acquired by the adjacent Kellogg Brush Manufacturing Company, a growing manufacturer of household brushes. A small semi-attached office building was originally the West Boylston plant superintendant's (sic) office, later became the offices of the Lesnow Company."

Today the old mill complex is home to commercial, office, artist and warehouse space. After parking in the front lot, Jim and I wandered aimlessly both outside and in (including a much-needed trip to the bathroom for two middle-aged guys) for a bit. Below is the first (and likely last) photo I've ever made inside a bathroom. I just couldn't resist the ol' piss trough.

After a few minutes, we realized we needed to walk down back to the side of the mill facing the water. I enjoyed the scenery, from the Abandoned Building Brewery....

(Wish we'd had time to stop in for a brew.)

...to the wonderful urbex paradise in one of the yet-to-be-developed areas of the complex.

I really wanted to explore more, but this wasn't my expedition.

In short order, we found ourselves in front of Tip Top Wine Shop.

I love the sign in the top photo, and was pleasantly surprised by the tile entryway. I asked one of the owners about it; she said a local artisan created it for the shop.

The store isn't large, but it's got a great selection of wine, beer, non-alcoholic beverages and chocolates, snack foods and other treats. Jim and I had a nice chat with his friend's partner and her co-owner, but didn't overstay our welcome. We asked for a lunch recommendation and then were on our way.

I made a few more photos around the mill before we got back to the car.

(Spring Action Electrical is no longer in business.)

(The Invisible Fountain is an art gallery and event space, I think.)

(Old loading dock.)

Another luxury of riding shotgun through an old mill town is getting to make photos out the window of a slow-moving car.

D&D Auto Parts & Machine is no longer in business. The building dates to 1930, per the local assessor.

We parked downtown and walked around for a little bit. I liked the feel of the area and the old buildings. At the corner of Union and School streets, on the side of Razor's Edge barber shop, I spied a ghost sign that's been partially covered by a fire escape.

I have no clue what business this advertised.

I'm going to finish up this post with two restaurants, one where we ate, the other where I'd like to meet the person responsible for the outdoor decor.

Guess which one this is?

Galaxy is open for dinner Wednesdays through Saturdays, so we were out of luck being there in the middle of the day. The restaurant serves salads, small plates, delicious-sounding entrees and more. According to the eatery's web site, "Galaxy grew out of [owner/chef Casey Douglass's] dream of opening his own restaurant. After many years of working for others, gaining notoriety in helping develop establishments such as Icarus in Boston, Del Raye in Northampton and the much missed Squires, Casey finally realized that dream by opening the once beloved Apollo Grill, which ran from 2001 to 2015. Casey is now focused on Galaxy, a restaurant born of the same dreams as the Apollo was, to serve its community using fresh ingredients with our own twist."

We ate across the street, at The Silver Spoon, which the Tip Top owners recommended.

This place serves up diner food in a cozy space poppular, from what I can tell in my limited experience, with hipsters. I had the cinnamon raisin French toast, which was delicious.

Tales of Paper, Beer, Soda and Ice Cream

From Dave Brigham:

On a recent foray into Somerville, I crossed the line into a section of Boston's Charlestown neighborhood I've chronicled before (see March 16, 2019, "Where Am I? Somertown? Charlesville?"). I wasn't planning on making photos of any of the same places I'd shot for that prior post, but my love for old buildings got the better of me. And I'm glad it did, because I learned more about one building I'd shot before, and took photos of a few buildings I'd missed, all of which have great histories.

Longtime fans of the blog will recognize the location in the top photo from the previously mentioned 2019 post (the photo at bottom is of the same place). At that time, I wrote, "I've been unable to find out anything about when [Boston Paper Board] started or when it went out of business." There was a time when I didn't rely on MACRIS quite so heavily. Now that I do, I can tell you much more about these buildings and others along Roland Street, which back up to a set of sidetracks used by the MBTA.

While the company's name is on the facade of this building, Boston Paper Board wasn't the original tenant. The company moved here in the 1950s, according to MACRIS, when its property was taken for the construction of the Southeast Expressway, which is located about 250 feet due east. "Founded about 1916 as a converter, the company [supplied] newsprint to the Boston Globe and other local customers," MACRIS reports. I'm not sure when Boston Paper Board got torn up as a business, or perhaps merged with another firm.

The original purpose for these buildings (there are at least two on the site) was as a brewery. This site "provides the only surviving evidence of Charlestown's important 19th [century] brewing industry," MACRIS indicates. "Architecturally, it is significant as an essentially intact turn of the century Boston area brewery. The nucleus of this brewery complex is a massive brick towered segment to the rear of a 2-story cartellated structure (1912) facing Roland St."

For more about Boston's beer brewing history, see June 4, 2022, "Brewing Up Memories of Boston's Past," in which I focus on erstwhile beer businesses in Jamaica Plain and Roxbury.

(Rear of the old brewery/paper company site.)

Again, from MACRIS: "Boston Bldg. Dept. records indicate that a 3-story brick structure was given a bldg. permit for this site on June 25, l897 -- the owner is listed as Syndicate Brewery. Less than two weeks later, on July 7, 1897, Puritan Brewing Co. was granted a permit to build a 1-story wash house/packing room. The architect was Hettinger and Hartmann and the builder was D.J. Gillis. The plant was completed in the Spring of 1898.

"According to Peter Stotl [author of A Guide to the Industrial Archeology of Eastern, Mass.], 'the brewery, before it closed in 1908, had an annual production of about 8,000 barrels....By 1912, this concern was known as the Commercial Brewing Co. In that year the 2-story castellated bldg. facing Roland St. was constructed....The building was to be occupied as a bottling establishment. In 1914, a pump house was erected on the premises.'"

Commercial Brewing remained in business until 1940, minus the Prohibition Era. By 1950, Savage and Co. Bakers Supplies was located in the front portion of the complex, according to MACRIS, with W.H. Flickinger Plumbing supplies located to the rear. And then Boston Paper Board moved in and we're up to date.

Just down the street from the old Puritan Brewery is the Puritan Garage, which dates to 1920.

So, you may be asking yourself, is there a plan afoot for this old brewery/paper company site that's been abandoned for years and which sits within a city where there are more construction cranes in the sky than there are Dunkin' shops on the streets?

Does Ben Affleck order "iced coffee, milk, and two sugars, sometimes Splenda"?

"The Proposed Project consists of approximately 767,723 gsf of new lab/office, residential and retail development. These uses, including 122 residential units, are proposed in four new buildings ranging in height from six to nine stories, along with 327 vehicle parking spaces and 441 bicycle parking spaces," states a project description filed with the Boston Planning & Development Agency by a group known as Sullivan Square Holdings, LLC and a company called Rise Together.

The pair also has plans for other sites in this area of Charlestown.

Three doors down from the old brewery/paper company site, just over the city line in Somerville, a residential-and-hotel project is being built. These sites are at the northeastern edge of the Inner Belt district of Somerville, "a historically industrial zone...with factories, warehouses, distribution centers, railroad connections, regional maintenance facilities, MBTA and Amtrak offices," per Wikipedia. I wrote about the Inner Belt and the adjacent Brickbottom district recently (see April 22, 2023, "Walking Around Belt-Bottom").

Next door to Boston Paper Board, at 52 Roland Street, is another former bottling operation that was known by various names.

MACRIS doesn't have a full write-up on this property, which dates to 1908, but does indicate that its historic names are Wirth's Bottling Co. and Hanover Bottling Co., and it is commonly known as Bay State Group - Prospect Hill Bottling Company.

Hanover Bottling moved to Alford Street in Charlestown in 1924, I believe. I'm not sure if the company was the original tenant at 52 Roland. As for Wirth's Bottling Company, I'm wondering whether it was related to the former Jacob Wirth Restaurant in Boston's Theater District. The German-American eatery was Boston's second-oldest restaurant, after the Union Oyster House, until its demise in 2018. I ate there a handful of times and it was always quite the scene, with the German-themed decorations, music and beer. And the sausages. Oh, the sausages.

Some Internet sleuthing led me to a listing for "Jacob Wirth Bottling" out of Providence, as well as "Jacob Worth, soda water manufacturer" in Boston. These could be the same company, with a spelling error in the latter case leading to confusion. Wikipedia indicates that Jacob Wirth Restaurant "was the first distributor of Anheuser Busch products," which means beer, so it would make sense that the restaurant might have had a soda bottling operation as well as a beer distribution arm.

Prospect Hill Bottling offers our strongest story.

"Domenick, Giuseppe and Felice Cusolito founded Prospect Hill Bottling and Soda Water Co. during 1914 in Somerville, Massachusetts," according to the company's web site. "When Domenick went to register his new company, which would be producing Prospect Hill Ginger Ale, the Clerk at the Secretary of State’s office suggested that they use a shorter name and asked, 'Isn’t that where the Tower is?' Tower Ginger Ale was born."

Brilliant!

The web site continues: "The fast growth of the company was curtailed by the stock market crash of 1929; however thanks to the early success of the new company, Prospect Hill Bottling and Soda Water Co. was able to survive even when the bank that held the company’s working capital could not." Check out that web site linked in the previous paragraph. I'm pretty sure the second photo, of a two-story brick building with a one-story addition, is 52 Roland Street.

Long story, short: "By the 1950’s, Tower Root Beer was known across all the New England states....However, in 1969 the company was sold to a conglomerate of soft drink companies and the family business was dissolved. [Founder Domenick Cusolito's son] Richard reacquired the rights to the trademark in 1970 and operated as a franchise company for eight years. In 1978 Richard decided to dissolve his franchises and remove Tower Root Beer from the market....For over thirty years, Tower Root Beer's recipe sat under lock & key until Richard's son (Dominick's grandson) Larry Cusolito decided to re-establish the family soft drink business and reintroduce Tower Root Beer to the New England region. He located his grandfather's original hand written recipe with his grandmother's birth certificate."

What a story! The company's sodas can be found at dozens of locations throughout Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

52 Roland Street is currently home to Piaggio Fast Forward, which makes, um, robot butlers.

OK, I've covered the paper, beer and soda promised in the headline. Let's talk about ice cream!

At 56 Roland Street, I spied an old sign that I'd missed on my first swing through there a few years ago.

Founded in 1846 in Charlestown by Harvey Perley Hood, the dairy company known today simply as Hood was originally known as HP Hood Milk. Once HP's son, Charles Harvey Hood, joined the company in 1880, the name was changed to HP Hood & Sons, according to this Dairy Processing article.

The article continues: "Around the turn of the century, the first Hood Ice Cream was produced in Hood Creamery retail stores. In the 1940s...New England’s beloved Hoodsie Cups were introduced. In 1969, the company introduced Nuform low-fat milk, becoming the most extensive line...of low-fat dairy products in New England. Three years later, the company changed its name from HP Hood & Sons to HP Hood Inc. and invented Frogurt, the first frozen yogurt in the United States based on a request for a low-fat frozen dessert from Bloomingdale’s department stores. In 1991, Hood produced its first non-dairy product, Hood Non-Dairy Country Creamer."

Today based in Lynnfield, Mass., Hood has in recent years acquired many companies, giving the dairy outfit a reach well beyond New England. Among its brands is one near and dear to my, er, stomach: Brigham's Ice Cream.

For decades, Hood was based a 13-minute walk from Roland Street, along Rutherford Avenue in Charlestown. The iconic "HOODS MILK" smokestack still stands on the site, which is in the midst of being converted to Hood Park, a 20-acre mixed-use campus that will eventually include retailers and restaurants; office/lab space; outdoor event spaces; and, of course, apartments.

I'm not sure what Hood used 56 Roland Street for, but I'd like to think it was to make ice cream. Currently, the building is home to Accion International, which "works to empower families, small businesses, and communities overlooked by the global financial system"; Blue Pearl Pet Hospital; and UMass Extension School.

Somewhere Near Twin City

From Dave Brigham:

I'm not big on revisiting neighborhoods I've already photographed and written about. With all the redevelopment in the Greater Boston landscape, though, I feel it's important to chronicle as many old places as I can before they get torn down. And often when I check back in on a place, I come across things I missed the first time around.

Recently, after exploring Somerville's Inner Belt district (see April 22, 2023, "Walking Around Belt-Bottom"), I found myself in the area near Twin City Plaza, on the border of Somerville and Cambridge, and started wandering some more. I'd tromped through part of this area back in 2019 (see "East Cambridge-ish Randoms"), so I made it a quick hit this time. But I still found some stuff. I can always find some stuff.

Passing under the bridge carrying the new Green Line Extension to Union Square, I quickly spotted a place that I at first assumed was out of business.

Carroll & Sons Roofing has a much better-looking web site than it does a headquarters, that's for sure. In business since 1962, the company is now under second-generation ownership. The building dates to, uh, 1900.

The roofing company is just a bottle cap's throw from the former Somerville Brewing Company facility on the corner of Horace and Ward streets.

Founded in 2011, Somerville Brewing opened a brewery and taproom at this site in 2014. "In December 2017, the company expanded with American Fresh Brewhouse at Assembly Row," according to this Boston.com article. "When the coronavirus pandemic hit, American Fresh Brewhouse closed and its Somerville headquarters, like so many other local breweries, began selling beer to go."

In 2020, the company's financial taps ran dry, and Somerville Brewing went out of business. I mentioned this site in my previously cited East Cambridge-ish post, and talked about how the brewing company had filed for bankruptcy a few months prior. What I didn't know at the time was the history of this place.

The old brewery started life in 1903 as George W. Norton Soap Works, according to MACRIS. "Adjoining the 3-story factory were engine room, stables, and storage sheds," MACRIS indicates. "The company manufactured laundry soap and a specialty, 'Norton's Tidy Soap,' 'one of the purest and best laundry | soaps made.' The rendering of tallow and the production of soap was a natural offshoot of the huge meat-packing business in Somerville, the largest of whose firms, Charles H. North & Co., was located about a block distant."

Below are some shots of the rear and side walls of the old soap-making company.

The complex is now home to Typhoon HIL, which makes marine power systems, battery energy storage systems, microgrids and, I don't know, maybe bars of titaniium cryptocurrency; and Science Research Laboratory, which definitely doesn't sound like a CIA front. Not at all.

I'm often looking up when I'm on a Backside walkabout -- at buildings, signs, murals, graffiti. But I lower my gaze, too, on the lookout for entryway mosaics and manhole covers and the like.

The "METER" cover in the photo above is located in front of the former home of previously cited North Packing & Provision Company on Medford Street. I wrote about that building in the above-linked post from 2019. My effort can't compete with Daniel Fireside, who runs the Iron Covers Instagram page.

Across from the old packing plant is a building that pops up as Fedele's Fish Market on Google Maps, although there is no sign on the building and little information online. Google Street View features an old business, Executive Auto Body, which opened in 1999 and closed fairly recently. The assessor's office says the building dates to 1960.

Finally, a sign of the times in Somerville.

The parcels that most recently contained Somerville Gas and Cubby Oil, at the intersection of Medford, South and Warren streets, have either been sold or will be soon. The buildings aren't old, dating to the 1950s, but the properties are valuable, because they are close to the new Union Square Green line station, as well as the growing Boynton Yards life science/residential/arts complex.

According to this Berkshire Hathaway listing, this site features 21,344 square feet of land, and holds the possibility of being redeveloped with a total of 27 residential units or research and development space.

For more of my recent work on Somerville, check out:

April 15, 2023, "East Somerville, Part II: The Other Stuff"

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

March 25, 2023, "Square Dancing Around Somerville"

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