Having a Whale of a Time in New Bedford, Part I

From Dave Brigham:

New Bedford, a former whaling industry powerhouse located on the south coast of Massachusetts, wasn't really on my backside radar - until it was. Don't get me wrong: I was well aware of the city on Buzzards Bay, and figured it would be a cool spot to check out, along with Fall River (stay tuned...). But I knew it would be a long slog from my house outside Boston, so I never considered going there. But then one day, I was on the Cape with my son, realized I had a morning to kill, and well, the rest is history.

I will break down my visit into three installments, divided into relatively equal parts of about two dozen places each, posted in the order in which I visited them. I started my adventure at a great old theater, which I'd found while doing some online research.

The Zeiterion Performing Arts Center was opened by the Zeitz family in April 1923 as the last new theater in the city's downtown. "Designed by Frank Leary and Frank Walker, the two-story tapestry brick building is an adaption of the Georgian Revival style," per the theater's web site. "Inside, décor included marble-columned walls, the Zeitz family 'Z' shield accentuating the proscenium, silk tapestry on the walls, a frieze of gold leaf Grecian dancing muses, a large oval sunset scene on the ceiling, an orchestra rail of solid gum wood, and a $7,000 cut glass Czechoslovakian chandelier. The total project cost more than $12 million in today’s dollars."

The Zeiterion is the only vaudeville theater remaining in the city, according to MACRIS.

The new theater didn't thrive at first, so later during its first year, it reopened as a silent movie house, The State. As time went on the theater showed "talkies" and occasionally featured live performances. In the early 1970s, the owners renovated and updated the theater. By the end of that decade, per MACRIS, the theater had been abandoned and was "in a state of deterioration and disrepair. Paragon Travel, the building owner, planned to demolish the theatre portion of the building to make a parking lot. The Waterfront Historic Area League (W.H.A.Le.) convinced the owners to donate the theatre portion of the building, to W.H.A.Le., under a condominium arrangement, which allowed the travel agency to retain ownership of their space and maintain their operations. W.H.A.Le. began planning for the restoration and operation of this last downtown New Bedford theatre as a full performing arts center."

"Thanks to the dedication of many, the Zeiterion was ultimately restored to its original grandeur," per the theater's web site. "Its original Mighty Wurlitzer Organ was discovered in a private residence, rehabilitated, and returned. Each frieze repaired so the muses could dance around the ceiling once again. The project was a challenge to complete, and some corners were cut, including second-hand seats in three different sizes."

W.H.A.L.e transferred the building's title to the City of New Bedford, and the theater was reopened in 1982. Renovations have continued at various points across the ensuing four decades.

On the corner of School and Purchase streets, behind the Zeiterion, I was entranced by what I dubbed the Peace Building (zoom in to see why).

Looking like something Charles Dickens would write about in a novel, 636 Purchase Street is currently used by the Pilgrim United Church of Christ located across the street. Built in 1883 as a public school (I think), it was used by the Trinitarian Church before the UCC took over the space.

I headed north on Purchase Street, then went west on Spring Street, where I was rewarded almost immediately with a ghost sign.

The sign is for the long-gone A.E. Coffin Press, which was located, oddly enough, in the A.E. Coffin Building. Founded in 1890, the company's "main income was derived from business advertising and calenders," according to MACRIS. "It also had modern linotype presses and bookbinding equipment. It was known all over New England and the Mid Atlantic States for its fine work," MACRIS continues. A.E. Coffin's wife, Carrie, was a direct descendent of Myles and Barbara Standish - he being one of the original signers of the Mayflower Pact, per MACRIS.

Below is the main entrance to the Coffin Building, which dates to 1911. Zoom in to check out the sidewalk detail.

More than a decade ago, this building and others in the area were rehabbed and turned into studios, apartments and retail space as part of a project to create a 24/7 neighborhood.

On South 6th Street, near the intersection with Union Street, I spied a very charming building housing Sixes & Sevens, a "bar and food joint."

"The stone building, as it is presently known, is the only building in the Center District with this particular type of granite facade with its round headed door and windows," according to MACRIS. "John F. Vinal built the structure in 1852 as a stable and woodworking shop. It was later used soley (sic) as a shop."

The building dates to 1852.

Right next door, at the corner of South 6th and Union streets, I was captured by the look of Cottage Antiques, which is located in a circa-1891 building known alternately as the George Emerson Building, the Dartmouth Club and American Legion Post #1.

I shoot a lot signs of all sorts when I'm out and about. Below are two that caught my eye, right across Union Street from each other.

(Downtown Smoke Shop.)

(Minerva Pizza.)

After Minerva Pizza, I continued walking west along Union Street, past numerous beautiful, old homes. I spied a smokestack in the distance and, figuring it marked an old mill, continued walking in that direction. Before long, I realized that the stack didn't signify a factory of any sort, but rather a prison. I wasn't expecting that.

I have stumbled across a few former jails and prisons in my years of wandering the backside, but nothing like the Bristol County House of Correction. The oldest part of this big house dates to 1829. The most recent additions date to 1895. Known today as the Ash Street Jail and Regional Lock-Up, the facility "holds over 200 prisoners who are awaiting trial," according to the Bristol County Sheriff's Office web site. "Approximately a dozen sentenced inmate workers are also housed at the facility."

Directly across Court Street from the prison is Union Baptist Church.

Built in 1899, the Shingle Style church is located in a neighborhood once known as New Guinea, an area populated by African-Americans in the 19th century. "The Union Baptist Church was organized on April 18, 1895 as a result of the union between members from the Second Baptist Church and the Salem Baptist Church," according to MACRIS, naming two primarily (or perhaps exclusively) African-American congregations.

Just up the street, at the corner of Cottage and Court streets, is one example of the many great old houses in New Bedford.

Built in 1856, this three-family home is located in the County Street Historic District. From MACRIS: "The residential area reflects the historical and architectural growth of New Bedford from the years 1780-1890. The oldest homes remaining in this area were the residences of the city's wealthy men from 1780-1820."

Next, I headed north on County Street, where I saw a somewhat dilapidated church.

The church dates to 1858, according to the City of New Bedford Department of Planning, Housing & Community Development, and was known most recently as the Centre Trinity United Methodist Church. A brick exterior was added in 1924 covering the original facade.

The church sold the building in August 2018 to Southcoast Grecian Marketplace. That organization applied for rezoning from residential to business, and indicated potential uses included a performing arts/convention/events center, offices and/or apartments. I'm not sure of the status of any of those proposals.

A little north on County Street is the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church.

Built in 1915 as the First Christian Science Church of New Bedford, this building is the only stucco-covered, Romanesque church in the city, according to MACRIS. I'm not surprised by that, because I can't say I've ever seen a church anywhere that looks like this one. Bethel AME took over the church in the 1970s. The congregation traces its roots in New Bedford to 1822.

Continuing in a religious vein, I scooted west down North Street to make a photo of the former Holy Family School.

Not a great photo, but I wanted to chronicle the fact that this circa-1914 Catholic high school has been redeveloped into apartments.

At the corner of County and Hillman streets, I was enchanted by the small commercial building housing a florist shop, Bloomtopia.

This place dates to 1930. Nearby is a less-than-enchanting former civil defense building.

Constructed in 1892 as a fire station, this place was decommissioned and became a civil defense center in the 1950s, according to this November 2019 SouthCoast Today article. At the time that article was published, the building was in pretty rough shape -- "rotting wood, holes in the roof, drooping ceilings, and a mismatched array of vintage furniture and dusty arcade games with an unknown history," per the article -- and it doesn't look like much has changed, except perhaps for the worse.

The aforementioned W.H.A.Le purchased the building and plans to renovate it. I'm not sure of the status of that project.

OK, back to enchanting.

Dillon's Restaurant has been in business for more than 30 years, in a building that dates to 1920.

Below are two more great old homes. Located along County Street they are situated in what's known as the North Bedford Historic District.

At the intersection of County and Smith streets is a fantastic mixed residential-commercial building.

This big blue building looks well taken care of. It dates to 1896.

Across County Street is Mark's Beverage, which didn't appear to me to be open.

The building dates to 1920. I don't know anything about the store.

(Rear of Mark's Beverage.)

Heading east on Sycamore Street, I came across the New Bedford Army National Guard Armory, at the corner with Pleasant Street.

"The New Bedford Armory was constructed in 1904 to serve as a training, meeting, administrative and equipment storage and maintenance facility for the Massachusetts Army National Guard," according to MACRIS. "The New Bedford Armory is...typical of the medieval-influenced armory architecture first developed in the 1880s, which was also prevalent in armories constructed in New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut and other states."

At the corner of Willis and Pleasant streets I made a photo of yet another great house.

Just steps away on Willis Street is a simple old building with a cool history.

Built in 1850, the building served as a watch house for the New Bedford Police Department, according to a plaque on the facade. I believe the building functioned as a neighborhood station. Perhaps prisoners were kept here on a short-term basis.

This place is currently home to Dr. C.E. Burt Chapter 7 of the Disabled American Veterans.

At the eastern end of Willis Street, I began heading south on Purchase Street. I was tempted to make my way to the waterfront (along the Acushnet River), but decided to save that for a future visit. The first place I saw was the former Glaser Auto Glass complex.

The family-run glass operation was founded in 1921; the company merged with JN Phillips Auto Glass in 2019. The building dates to 1949, and is (or will be) the home of New Bedford Research & Robotics, a non-profit organization that hosts entrepreneurs, businesses, students, researchers, creatives and community members, per its web site.

The final stop for this installment is the former New Bedford Textile School.

The school was established on August 1, 1895, according to MACRIS. The first building was constructed starting in 1898, and the first classes began in October the following year. "During 1918 New Bedford Textile became a state institution by an act amending the State Constitution, and became financially supported by the City of New Bedford and the State of Massachusetts," MACRIS continues. "In 1947 the name of the school was changed to the New Bedford Textile Institute.

"From the 1950's to the 1970's the school went through many changes. In 1953 the school purchased property located on the east side of Purchase Street, directly across from the existing facilities. The purchase came about due to the rapid increase in the student enrollment year after year. Later in the fifties the name of the school was once again changed to Southeastern Massachusetts Technological Institute (SMTI). The name change came about with the combining of Fall River Textile School with New Bedford Textile Institute."

The old school is owned by the City of New Bedford, which operates the Quest Center. The center provides "entrepreneurial training and a supportive environment for startup activity," per its web site.

Make sure to check back next week for part two of this three-part series, in which I will feature a landlocked lighthouse, two funky little art galleries, ghost signs, murals and much more.

Doing Time on the Reformatory Branch Trail

From Boxcar Willie:

Like a 19th-century murderer sent up the river to Concord for a long hitch, I've had the Reformatory Branch Railroad on my mind for quite some time.

OK, that's a terrible opening sentence, something worthy of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, which challenges participants "to write an atrocious opening sentence to the worst novel never written." Still, my point stands: since my buddy Chris DeBarge, owner/operator of Bird in Hand Tattoo and a fellow explorer, mentioned the old railroad line in Bedford and Concord, Mass., many years ago, I've wanted to get there. And boy am I glad I did - I loved the trail and the history and the reformatory and found so much more than I'd expected.

Let's hop this freight!

I'm going to start not where I started, nor my point of completion, but rather somewhere in the middle.

The sun was setting on the former Billerica and Bedford Railroad Engine House as I wrapped up my hike along the old right-of-way for the Reformatory Branch, which I will get to shortly. I had no idea that this nicely restored building, the adjacent Boston and Maine Railroad engine and the Middlesex Central Railroad Passenger Depot were located in the heart of Bedford.

This area marks the northern terminus of the 10.1-mile Minuteman Bikeway, which also runs through Lexington, Arlington and Cambridge. The trail was built by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on an inactive railway bed in the early 1990s. The old freight/engine house, which dates to 1877, now serves as an information center, museum and gift shop.

The train set on tracks right outside the engine house door is "Rail Diesel Car #6211, which was one of 110 purchased by the Boston & Maine Railroad from the Budd Company to be used for commuter and branch line service," per MACRIS. It is available to rent for meetings or special events.

As for the depot, it was restored in 2014, five years after the freight house was given the same treatment. Both buildings had been under private owneship for decades prior. The Stick Style building dates to 1874. I believe there are small businesses located here. The old depot has some great details.

OK, now let's get to where I started my adventure, at the eastern end of the Reformatory Branch Trail, which is located just south of the John Glenn Middle School, a short distance up Railroad Avenue from the old depot complex.

"The Reformatory Branch Trail was originally a railroad right of way of the Middlesex Central Railroad which opened in 1873 running from Lexington to Bedford and Concord," according to the Town of Concord's Reformatory Branch Trail Guide. "In 1879, the railroad was extended 2.5 miles west to Elm Street near the Concord Reformatory (now the Massachusetts Correctional Institution facility), with a connection to other rail lines at Concord Junction in West Concord. The railroad was taken over by the Boston and Maine Railroad in 1887. Passenger service was maintained by the B & M Railroad until 1926 and remaining freight service until 1962 when the entire branch was abandoned."

I saw some nice trail-side details on this portion of my hike.

(Old fire hydrant.)

(Old concrete signal posts.)

(Kinda spooky, kinda heavenly.)

The trail was pretty muddy at certain points, which was no surprise, given the wet winter we had.

I briefly considered a detour into the Mary Putnam Webber Wildlife Preserve, but I had limited daylight and wanted to get as far down the trail as I could.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a view through the trees open up to the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.

The refuge is accessible by car via a road that crosses the trail.

I ventured on a little longer, eventually turning around at Great Meadows Road once I'd crossed into Concord. I wanted to get back to my car before dark. I hiked for nearly two hours in boots that aren't great for my bad feet. But I was happy. Little did I know that after my trek, I'd stumble across Depot Park and two beautifully restored buildings and train car that I wrote about at the top of this post.

I resolved to complete as much of the Concord portion of the trail as I could, and so not long after my initial adventure, I did just that. I started where the trail hits Lowell Road near The Concord Market, and worked my way east toward Great Meadows Road.

A short distance in, I spied this old hunk o' junk in the woods just off the trail.

A friend tells me this is a rotary sifter of some type, perhaps for sifting gravel from sand for making concrete aggregate.

I also saw another signal post, this one a victim of edaphoecotropism.

I took a side trip to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. But again, I didn't want to tarry, as I was on a mission and needed to double back in order to complete it. Below are some shots of the side trails I took to and from the graveyard, which is where some of Concord's most eminent folks are buried.

Since the bridge that once carried the Reformatory-bound trains over the Sudbury River was washed out by the 1938 hurricane, I returned to my car behind the market, and made my way toward Egg Rock.

To access Egg Rock, which is where the Assabet and Sudbury rivers come together to form the Concord River, I had to park on Nashawtuc Road and walk down Squaw Sachem Trail (a private road) and take the narrow path between two houses (#50 and #80).

And that opened up to -- tada! -- the Reformatory Branch Trail.

I headed east toward the confluence until I could go no further. Below is a photo showing where the bridge used to be.

I turned back west, figuring the trail might be blocked or overgrown as it ran along the Assabet, behind some very nice houses. But I was wrong! So I trudged forward.

My original plan was to return to my car, drive to MCI Concord, where the Reformatory Branch once led, make a few photos and try, probably half-heartedly, to find the trail. But since the trail kept going, so did I. Eventually the trail curved south and I ended up on a quiet road near a relatively new housing development. I didn't feel like bushwacking at the curve point to see if the trail continued, so I headed out toward Elm Street.

At this point, once again, the sun was heading toward the horizon, and my dogs were barking. But I'd come all this way, walked way more than I'd anticipated, and was determined to make it to the prison.

On the west bank of the Assabet River, hard by Route 2, I spied what I guessed might be a remnant of the railroad right-of-way.

And just past that, I made a photo of a house along Route 2 that may at one point have been affiliated with the prison, which is located across the road.

And then, at last, I found myself standing in front of the Second Empire building that I'd driven past countless times over the last few decades, the place that looks like a Victorian mental hospital.

Known alternately as the Massachusetts State Prison Warden's House and the Concord Reformatory Warden's House, this brick building at the Concord Rotary was once a residence and offices for prison personnel. MACRIS has an interesting take: "By far the grandest building in West Concord, the Superintendents' House uses the power of the French-inspired Second Empire style to assert its authority over both the prison behind it and the area around it."

It was built in 1878 as the main entrance to what was then a new prison. Over the years, older buildings were torn down and new, less architectually significant ones went up. Once the prison opened, development in West Concord increased dramatically.

From MACRIS: "From the mid-1880's on, much of the building boom, and the social and organizational structure of West Concord as well, was guided by the residents of this building, both before and during their tenures as Reformatory Superintendent and Deputy-Superintendent. Most influential was Joseph Scott, who, with George Russell, developed the Riverside Park neighborhood northeast of the reformatory while Superintendent in the early 1890's. In 1896, with Loring Fowler, he formed the two major Concord Junction real estate syndicates of the later 1890's — the Concord Junction Land Co. and the West End Land Co."

With the announcement earlier this year that the state plans to close MCI Concord -- as the prison has been known for quite some time now -- this summer, this area of Concord is slated for more big changes. The prison has been operating at less than half capacity for some time.

There is no definite plan for the site yet, but the possibilities are tantalizing. "The potential for the prison site situated on the dreaded Route 2 Rotary is enormous," per the Boston Globe article linked above. "For starters it should spur discussion of a reconfiguration of one of the state’s most fearsome traffic circles. But beyond that, 'It’s perfect for housing,' state Senator Mike Barrett, whose district includes Concord, told the Globe editorial board. 'It’s walkable to West Concord [center]' and its train station. 'It could be a whole new neighborhood.'"

I imagine a mix of housing, retail and office space will spring up here eventually. And I certainly hope that the old warden's house will be saved and restored and turned into something useful for the community.