A Historic Life Change on Cape Cod

From Dave Brigham:

I vacationed on Cape Cod for many years with my wife and kids, as well as my wife's family, renting a variety of houses in Pocasset. Inevitably, each summer, someone raised the idea of buying our own house in the small village that is part of Bourne. I mostly ignored these conversations, as I wasn't interested in owning a second home.

During the summer of 2020, spurred in part by the pandemic, the conversation about owning a vacation home intensified between my wife and her sister. When they learned that a small cottage was about to hit the market, they decided to put in an offer. I didn't want to stand in the way, so I gave them three conditions: I don't want my name on anything, I don't want to have to do anything for the house, and I don't want to be expected to be there every time my wife wanted to go.

I can be quite the curmudgeon.

Long story, short: their offer wasn't accepted. But they persisted. Before long, my wife found a listing in the town of Sandwich. Long story, short: they bought the house, which is located in the Jarvesville Historic District, which is "centered on the site of the former Boston and Sandwich Glass Company factory," per Wikipedia.

Suddenly, I was excited to own a second home! I realized that my issue wasn't with buying a vacation property, but with doing so in Pocasset, because not much goes on there. But when my wife told me the house in Sandwich dates to 1858 and is a former tenement house for the glass factory, AND had a workshop in the back that had been converted to a guest house, AND that the bustling village I'd been to before was a short walk across Route 6A, well I was all in.

I became instantly hooked on our house, as well as the surrounding historic district. So naturally I have taken a lot of photos and done some research into the historic area.

So, let's check it out.

This is the workshop in our backyard. As you can see, the previous owner hung some cool old signs on this little guest house. There are neat touches like this throughout the property, although my wife tells me there were a lot more such flourishes when she and her sister first looked at the house. Many of them were sold at a yard sale prior to our closing.

There is a large shed on the property, as well as an old camper, below, that was used to store a lawnmower and other gardening stuff, I think.

I am somewhat obsessed with this little gem (OK, diamond in the rough). The inside is somewhat of a disaster, so restoring it for use as a sleeping quarters would require a mammoth amount of sweat equity and time. And I'm about as handy with tools as Roseanne Barr is with singing, so there's no way I can take this project on and finish it before I die. So what to do? Hire someone? Chip away at it with my wife and her sister and brother-in-law? That sounds like a good plan.

Railroad tracks cut right across our street; trains go by once in a while, more so during the summer. I knew the stars had aligned on this place when my wife told me about the rusty old train car you see below.

What better neighborhood oddity for the guy who runs the Backside of America blog?!

On my first stroll around the neighborhood, I spied the beauty below.

(Late '60s/early '70s Oldsmobile Cutlass wagon.)

Right around the corner from our place is Sandwich Auto Parts.

(Vintage Dodge Dart that I hope to one day see driving through the neighborhood.)

Hard by the railroad tracks, the auto parts building dates to 1850 and is known historically as the Keenan and Daniels Store. Perhaps this is where factory workers used to buy their groceries.

Across Church Street from the old store I found the garage below, which sits on a lot by itself, and may be part of the auto parts business.

As for the Boston and Sandwich Glass factory, it was torn down ages ago, but on the site where it stood from 1825-1888, there is a cool plaque, below, that features a map of the complex.

Built by Deming Jarves -- hence the name of the historic district -- the factory was one of the earliest in the nation to produce pressed glass, per Wikipedia. Jarves "chose Sandwich [for the factory] because of its proximity to a shallow harbor and the possibility of a canal being built through Cape Cod that would allow for the shipment of goods," according to the Sandwich Glass Museum web site. "The local availability of timber could be used to fuel the glass furnaces. Even the salt marsh hay and grasses could be used for packing material." The factory closed in 1888 amid disputes with a newly formed glassmakers' labor union, per Wikipedia. Below, a detail from the plaque map.

Jarves brought with him to Sandwich master glass blowers from the New England Glass Company in East Cambridge, Mass., where he previously been an executive. For more on the New England Glass Co., see October 19, 2018, "Through the Looking Glass." Jarves left Boston and Sandwich Glass in 1858 and started a competing company, Cape Cod Glass Works, close by. He ran it with his son, but both men were dead by 1869, and the company shuttered.

I aim to find out in the future whether that old factory site is accessible.

A short distance away from the glass factory plaque stands a Liberty Tree Monument, below.

"This American Liberty Elm was named after 'The Liberty Tree: Our Country's first Symbol of Freedom,'" the plaque reads in part. To quote myself, from a June 2018 blog post about the former Brigham's Hotel & Restaurant and a Sons of Liberty plaque located in Boston's current Chinatown neighborhood, "By 1765 the tree had become integral to the burgeoning revolutionary movement in Boston, and effigies of those who supported the Stamp Act were hung here. That year, the tree was dubbed the Tree of Liberty and from that point on many important meetings were held here."

Currently, there are several trees rising above this plaque located in a small park along Jarves Street in Sandwich. None of them, to my non-arborist eyes, are majestic Liberty Elms. The plaque was placed by the Elm Research Institute of Keene, NH, which was founded in 1967 to "develop the research to save the American Elm from Dutch Elm Disease," per its web site.

Many of the houses in this historic district are former homes of glass factory workers, and are quaint as all get-out.

As you can imagine, preservation of these historic homes is a priority for neighbors and for the Town of Sandwich. Sometimes, however, people want to tear these wonderful old homes down, or need to because they are in such disrepair. One house in the area has been the subject of teardown talk for quite some time, as the owners claim several contractors have walked away from the possibility of restoring it. Two years ago, the Sandwich Historic District Committee encouraged the owners to hold off on demolition; to date the house still stands.

Another house in the historic district has an "X" on it that indicates demolition is in its future.

I just love how that pink door sets off against the darkened shingles. The inside, I'm assuming, must be in rough shape, as the outside doesn't look too bad to my untrained eye.

Among the reasons that Jarves built his glass factory in Sandwich were the marsh grasses and hay his company could use as packing material.

Just down the road from that lovely marsh scene is the Sand Hill School Community Center, which has been doubling as the town library. Built in 1885 as a school for children of the glass factory workers, the building has been used over the decades as an American Legion hall, the office of the school superintendent and a community center.

There are commercial properties in the historic district, too. Below is the sign on side of the Sandwich Antiques Center, at the corner of Jarves Street and Route 6A.

The sign reads, in part, "On this site in the early 19th century stood dry and fancy goods stores and a barber shop." After a fire in 1869, the property was rebuilt and "became the home to the Victorian photograph studio of Miss Minnie Cook. For most of the 20th century these buildings housed the Yankee Clipper," a popular restaurant. The antiques center has been here for more than 20 years.

Across 6A, heading southwest, behind MacDonald's Sandwich Emporium, is a beatifully restored barn known historically as Quail Hollow Barn.

Built in 1845, this shingle-covered barn is one of the few buildings of its type and age still left in the area. I believe it is owned by the emporium.

Steps away on the same side of the street is an apartment building known as the 1883 Block.

Constructed on the site of a former hotel called Harpers (and also the Sandwich House), this place used to have retail on the ground floor. Around 1960, it was converted to all apartments, per MACRIS.

Next, a couple of related places that I look forward to patronizing whenever life returns to something approximating normal.

The Next Door Burger Bar is located in the former Corpus Christi Roman Catholic Church Rectory. Built around 1880 as a private home, this Victorian Gothic Revival treasure has undergone significant change over the years. Many years ago, it was the first building of the complex that is now known as the Belfry Inn and Bistro. Opened in 1995, the place has changed names and layouts since, and today has guest rooms above the first-floor restaurant. Next door to Next Door is the former church for which the rectory once housed the priest and other church staff.

The Corpus Christi Roman Catholic Church rose in 1901, after its predecessor was damaged in a storm. In 1998, Belfry owner Christopher Wilson acquired this property from the New Bedford Diocese and began transforming it into the inn and bistro it is today. The resort is completed by the adjacent Village House.

Let's finish with a place that I plan to visit countless times over the next few decades.

The Sandwich Package Store sits along Route 6-A, within view of our house. I don't know what you call the architectural style, but I refer to it as Western storefront. The building dates to 1940, per MACRIS, and was formerly known as Arnold's Package Store.

A Towering Discovery in Tobacco Country

From Mr. Nutmeg State:

For years I've passed this old water tower on the way to and from my mother's house in Windsor, Conn., the top just visible above the tree line as I zoomed along Route 291. I planned to check it out in November, but was having car trouble and didn't want to risk stopping for a look and finding out my car wouldn't start again. But earlier this month, the stars aligned and I made the side trip on my way back to Massachusetts, and boy was I glad I did.

I expected to find the tower in the middle of a field, where I would take a nice shot under a beautiful sky, and then mosey on back to the highway. What I discovered, instead, was that this striking rural spire sits next to a beautiful shingled building located in a historic district that I instantly fell in love with.

The Windsor Farms Historic District "is a 2-1/2 square mile area on the east bank of the Connecticut River which comprises the historical center of South Windsor," according to this web site. "Main Street, the principal street in the ...[d]istrict, runs in a generally northeasterly direction, bisecting open fields under cultivation by the tobacco farmers of this rural village for several centuries."

This property sits on the corner of Main and North King streets, a few steps from a small farm selling pasture-raised beef, lamb and pork. Heading north along Main Street in this historic district, there are several beautiful old homes and other small farms, some of which still grow tobacco. South Windsor is located in the Connecticut River Valley, long known for its tobacco crop.

For more about this tobacco-growing region, check out these posts: February 27, 2020, "Shoot It If You Got It"; September 20, 2017, "One-Stop Barnstorming Tour"; and July 19, 2016, "Tobacco Road".

As you might imagine, tobacco farming in the valley has decreased signficantly in recent decades. "In the 1930s, Connecticut had 30,000 acres of farmland dedicated to tobacco production; by 2006 this acreage had dwindled to less than 2,000 acres," per this Connecticut History article. "Much of the former tobacco farmland is now used to grow nursery stock or has been developed into residential communities and shopping centers."

So it's cool to see some small farms still in operation in South Windsor. As I've noted in the previous articles linked above, I grew up in Simsbury, Conn., which was also a tobacco-growing town, so I feel a connection to this shrinking industry. When I was young, there were still a few old barns located at the fringes of my neighborhood. Those are long gone, but there are still some scattered througout my quiet hometown.

I'm amazed at how well preserved this building is. I'm not sure its former use: perhaps a dormitory for migrant workers, as one friend suggested when I posted a photo on Facebook. More likely, though, is a warehouse. That's what the article about the historic district that I linked to above suggests, without mentioning this building specifically.

Doesn't matter to me what this building was used for; I'm just happy it's still standing in such great shape.

A Walk Through Weston's History

From Dave Brigham:

This historic home is the gateway to the Kendal Green Historic District in Weston, Massachusetts. Known as the Hobbs-Hagar House, it was built in 1786 by Isaac Hobbs Jr., one in a long line from that family to live, work and employ folks in the old farming town that more recently has become a swanky Boston suburb.

"In 1729, Josiah Hobbs purchased 122 acres along North Avenue at the heart of the Kendal Green Historic District, including water rights to what is now known as 'Hobbs Brook,'" according to the Weston Historical Commission. "The Hobbs Tannery, which may have been established as early as 1730, was among the first tanneries in the Massachusetts colony and was so well-known that it was a custom in early days to locate houses and people in Weston by their distance from the tannery."

Across North Avenue (aka Route 117) from the Hobbs-Hagar House sits the Isaac Hobbs House, built in 1758 by Isaac Hobbs Sr.

(Isaac Hobbs House.)

Down the backyard slope is Hobbs Brook, where the Hobbs family operated its tannery for more than 100 years. Members of the Hobbs clan also operated a slaughterhouse and a factory making shoes, belts, boots and other leather products, according to the Weston Historical Commission.

"Probably because of the presence of the tannery, boots and shoes were the principal articles manufactured in Weston by the late 1830s, according to John Warner Barber’s Historical Collections. Barber reported that in 1837, 5,606 pairs of boots and 17,182 pairs of shoes were manufactured in the town, a figure thought to represent about the peak of the leather industry here. The firm of Hobbs and Hagar continued the shoe factory until about 1850 and the tannery closed shortly before the death of Nathan Hagar in 1860." -- Weston Historical Commission

(Approximate location of old Hobbs tannery.)

Over the past two years, I've driven through the Kendal Green Historic District hundreds of times, on my way to and from my son's school. The area was named in 1885 by a Hobbs relative, Gen. James F.B. Marshall, commemorating his grandfather, Rev. Samuel Kendal, according to the Town of Weston web site. Driving by is all well and good, but you know my mantra: get out and walk! So I recently did just that and found more than I'd expected.

A few doors down from the Isaac Hobbs House is a house that served as the area's general store and post office for decades.

(Former general store/post office -- the sign by the door on the right indicates as such.)

A quick jog past the general store once sat the Drabbington Lodge (later known as the Westonian Inn).

(Former circa-1899 inn, now an assisted living facility.)

Across Route 117 (most of the district sits along this road) from the old inn sits a building that confounded me for years.

All concrete, with wooden doors and locked up tight, this building sits more or less in the front yard of a really nice home with an in-ground pool (thanks, Google Maps!), separated by a small grove of trees. Initially I figured it was an old garage for a house that had been torn down, or was perhaps hidden behind trees across the street. But after a Google search I learned that this is a fire station erected in 1908. I can't find anything online about what's inside, or why this building was saved. Since it's concrete, I imagine it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to move it somewhere else.

Back across North Avenue is the beautiful Whitney Tavern house.

(Whitney Tavern house.)

Even the Weston Historical Commission doesn't know much about the tavern, stating on its web site, "18th and early 19th century travelers may have stopped for refreshment at the Whitney Tavern at 171 North Avenue, reputed to have been built for William Whitney, who married Martha Pierce of Weston in 1706. Little is known of the early history of the tavern except for a brief caption in Lamson’s History of the Town of Weston, which says that Mr. Whitney, who owned and occupied it as a tavern, once kept the famous 'Punch Bowl' tavern in Brookline."

(The lot next to the Whitney Tavern house is empty, but judging from this wall, I'm sure there was a nice house here at some point.)

Hopscotching to the other side of Route 117, we see this wonderful Shingle-style home. It was built in 1890 by Francis Henry Hastings, who had recently overseen the construction of the Hook & Hastings organ factory just up the road.

When I learned there had once been an organ factory -- three stories high, with an 80-foot-long center section and two 100-foot wings -- amid the farm houses and regal Colonials on Route 117, I knew I had to walk this district, take photos and do a lot of research. I relished the opportunity.

Unfortunately, there is nothing left of the old factory, which was demolished in 1936 after Hook & Hastings went out of business. Homes have been built on the former site, so suburbex enthusiasts can't even walk the grounds looking for clues of any sort. Hastings Hall, a building near the factory used by employees and the public, is long gone, as is a one-room schoolhouse that Francis Hastings attended. For a great history of the factory, read this article by the Weston Historical Commission. To see a photo of the factory, along with other pictures of the Kendal Green Historic District, and to read more about the area, check this link.

Nevertheless, I found plenty of remnants of the organ factory days, and other leftovers from days gone by.

(126 Viles Street, a duplex, and one of two houses built in 1897 for workers of the organ factory that still stand in this location. The entrance to the factory was close to this spot, I believe, which is why my focus was on the driveway rather than the house.)

(The former Hook & Hastings factory playing field, near where Hastings Hall stood. The hall was demolished in 1944; the field now belongs to town of Weston. I walked around in the woods behind the field, to see if I could cross Stony Brook and poke around the edges of the neighborhood of expensive houses that replaced the factory. No dice.)

Across from the field sit six houses that were built in 1895 for factory workers, and a seventh that Hastings purchased for same. I was impressed by how well maintained these cottage-style houses are. While these homes are much smaller than the typical Weston house (median home value in this tony town: $1.465 million), the residents obviously have pride of ownership in these historic and somewhat unusual homes.

(Houses on Brook Road that were once factory worker homes.)

While many of the houses in the historic district are beautiful and maintain a sense of history about them, there are some that are simply average, and one that is quite rundown.

(Large shed/small house on property with a circa-1880 main house that is also in poor condition. I went to a yard sale here some time ago. The people were quite nice, but it seems they have a bit of a hoarding problem.)

Not only did Weston have an organ factory a long time ago, but the town also was home to the Weston Dog Ranch. This is the kind of fact I love digging up, er, well, finding online thanks to the Weston Historical Commission. A German immigrant named A.A. Lederhos, an ornamental iron worker by trade, began boarding dogs during the Depression to earn more money, according to this fantastic article, which I highly recommend you read (there are great photos, too). Lederhos designed an iron archway with the words "Weston Dog Ranch" and workers at his company, E.T. Ryan, built and installed it on the property, at 248 North Avenue.

Well, you know how the story goes, don't you? The house, garage and dog runs stayed intact and in business in one form or another, through a few owners, for many decades. In 1994, however, a developer bought the property, bulldozed everything, subdivided it and built 10 homes that back up to the railroad tracks.

(The approximate location of the former Weston Dog Ranch.)

Once I'd hit the northern end of the Kendal Green Historic District, I doubled back to the corner of North Avenue and Church Street, where the Hobbs-Hagar House is located, and took a short walk to the west to find this quaint old train station.

I've been unable to find much information about this place, which appears to be a private residence, despite sitting adjacent to an active commuter rail platform. The Weston Historical Commission indicates the station, now known as Kendal Green but formerly called Weston Station, was built in 1901.

The outer reaches of the historic district feature another old train station.

This station was also once known as Weston, but was located on a spur that split in nearby Waltham. Built in 1881 and closed in 1971, the station was once part of the Massachusetts Central Railroad. I believe this building is also privately owned, and may have been a home at one point. For more on this part of the Mass. Central Railroad, specifically the tracks going through Wayland, Mass., see August 1, 2016, "I Rail Against Trails (Not Really, But I Don't Want Every Set of Abandoned Train Tracks Converted for Cyclists and Roller Blades)."

Finally, there is the Church Street bridge going over the long-abandoned tracks next to this station.

At some point I hope to walk along this railroad right-of-way, as I know there is an old trestle heading toward Waltham, and who knows what else going westward. Stay tuned....