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"

Bourne On the 7th of July

From Dave Brigham:

Ah yes, I am Bourne again!

No, I haven't accepted Jesus Christ as my savior, folks, but rather I have discovered another corner of the westernmost town on Cape Cod. I vacationed in Bourne's Pocasset village for many years, and have written posts about that area, as well as other parts of the town (see bottom of this post for links). Although I now spend my Cape time in neighboring Sandwich, I still drive through Bourne, and recently shot some photos along Route 6A in the Sagamore section.

Years ago, I fell in love with the Shingle Style church along Sandwich Road (Route 6A), at the corner of Westdale Park. On July 7th, I finally made some photos.

Dedicated on June 6, 1926, St. Theresa of Child Jesus served a parish filled with Italian immigrants, many of whom worked at the Keith Freight Car Manufacturing Company, which was located in the area. "In the 1880s, the various departments and plants of the Keith Car Works spanned approximately one and one-quarter miles and employed 968 people, not including office or management personnel," per MACRIS. There was company housing nearby, as well.

The freight car outfit closed up just a few years after the church was built, putting hundreds out of work. In the 1930s, the U.S. Government bought the plant and tore it down to make room for widening the Cape Cod Canal to 540 feet, MACRIS continues.

The Fall River Diocese closed St. Theresa on November 23, 2008, citing "the expectation of fewer priests, declining vocations for the priesthood, rising diocesan expenses and limited financial resources," per the above-linked article. In recent years, it was home to a thrift shop. Currently, it sits empty. I hope a new community will find its beauty irresistible.

A short walk away is the Sagamore Cemetery.

"Although the Sagamore Cemetery wasn’t incorporated until 1889, its first recorded burial took place in 1803," according to this Vacation Cape Cod article. "The plot is the final resting place for numerous Civil War soldiers and at least 29 former sea captains, making it a historically significant facility, even without the ghost stories."

Ghost stories, you say?

"In 1909, when the Cape Cod Canal was still under construction, 17 bodies from the Collins Farm Cemetery and 45 bodies from the Ellis Cemetery were moved to Sagamore to make room for the project," the article continues. "Officials marked the caskets with chalk, but a storm washed the names away before a reburial could proceed. As a result, officials had to guess at some identities, and there’s a non-trivial chance that some caskets are under the wrong headstones. The thought is that the spirits that continue to roam the cemetery can’t rest until the proper names are attached to the gravesites. Their restlessness is driving the ghost sightings."

I was there for just a few minutes, in broad daylight, and didn't seen any spectral beings. Darn.

The word "Sagamore" means chief, or leader, in various Native American languages. In addition to this area of Bourne, the word is also used for the one of the two bridges that spans the Cape Cod Canal.

"The bridge and its sibling the Bourne Bridge were constructed beginning in 1933 by the Public Works Administration for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates both the bridges and the canal," per Wikipedia. "Both bridges carry four lanes of traffic over a 616 feet main span, with a 135 feet ship clearance. They opened to traffic on June 22, 1935.

On the opposite side of the road, I spied the top of the faux windmill that marks the location of an outlet of the Christmas Tree Shops.

Founded in the 1950s in Yarmouthport, on the Cape, as the Christmas Tree Gift Shop, the company grew to include several stores in Massachusetts and New England, per its web site. In 2003, Bed Bath & Beyond bought the local chain and grew it outside New England. "In 2020, a new chapter began, as CTS became an independent company owned by Handil Holdings. Under our new leaders, Pam and Marc Salkovitz, we operate 80 stores in 20 states with plans to introduce ourselves to new communities."

The few stores I've seen locally have these fake windmills, alongside buildings that look like Swiss chalets. I'm not sure if all the stores share that motif.

Now for a random photo.

I don't think I've ever seen a repurposed traffic sign, a ghost sign, if you will. The original message was SPEED LIMIT 20, but it's been covered with NO PARKING COMMERCIAL VEHICLES. Municipal finances must be tight in Bourne.

OK, another random one.

I wonder if this King Cab Chevy still runs. Looks pretty good.

Next is the Harlow Pope Inn, a classic Greek Revival Home dating to 1835 that was renovated in 2004 and turned into a charming vacation spot.

As bed and breakfasts go, the Harlow Pope is small, with just two bedrooms and a common room.

There is a "For Sale" sign outside the Quaker Process Printing Company building.

Established in 1950, the business produced letterheads, envelopes, business cards, announcements, wedding invitations, and attorney stationery for customers throughout New England, per its Facebook page, which hasn't been updated in more than two years.

I want to wrap this up with a place that is still in business, and whose sign I have had my eye on for years.

Dr. Gregory Bodrie works out of a large former home (or perhaps part of it is still a residence) right on Route 6A. According to this CapeCod.com article from 2015, he also regularly does rounds at several local hospital and nursing facilities.

For more about Bourne, see below:

August 11, 2020, "What You Find When You Go Down Depot Road"

July 19, 2020, "Kickin' It Old School-house"

July 20, 2017, "Circling Buzzards Bay"

October 3, 2016, "Bourne Identity"

August 5, 2010, "Dark Side of the Motel"

July 28, 2010, "Two Hearts Beat As One"

What You Find When You Go Down Depot Road

From Dave Brigham:

After checking out the Cataumet Schoolhouse in Bourne, Mass., (see July 19, 2020, "Kickin' It Old School-house"), I drove past Depot Road. I pulled a quick U-turn, as I figured a road must have that name for a reason, a reason that I'm probably interested in.

I was right. Cataumet station opened in 1927, two years after a fire destroyed the much more attractive gingerbread structure that had risen here in 1890. Check out the photo of the original station at the Wikipedia link.

The line that ran through here in the 1920s was the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, per the plaque in the above photo. It was last used as a railroad station in 1988 by the Cape Cod & Hyannis Railroad, per Wikipedia.

The tracks are dormant, but extant, and run over a nice bridge in the quiet village of Cataumet.

For more about the town of Bourne, see July 20, 2017, "Circling Buzzards Bay," October 3, 2016, "Bourne Identity" and August 5, 2010, "Dark Side of the Motel."

Classic Food in a New Boston Neighborhood

From: He Who Cannot Be Named

With all the development in Boston's Seaport District, from high-rise condos and hotels to glass-curtained pharmaceutical and high-tech headquarters, it's easy to forget that this part of the city used to be a working waterfront that was served by a railroad. There are still some maritime activities afoot here, although for the most part they are hidden in areas that are difficult to photograph. There are some food industry reminders of the times before the neighborhood blew up into the hottest real estate market in the Hub. I present here two such reminders, as well as a bridge that nobody seems to know what to do with.

Long before the arrival of foodie destinations such as Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse, Legal Harborside, Chickadee and Ocean Prime, there were Jimmy's Harborside, the No Name and Anthony's Pier 4. And that's about it. Oh, and a dance club called Polly Esta's (or probably Polyester's, my memory is fuzzy and I like to think it was spelled with a Boston accent). Jimmy's dated to the early 1920's; the building was demolished in 2007 to make way for Liberty Wharf. The No Name closed recently after more than 100 years in business.

As for Anthony's, where I ate only once, it was known as the place to see and be seen for celebrities and locals alike. Opened in 1963, the restaurant became one of the highest-grossing eateries in the U.S. by the 1980s. It closed in 2013; the site is now condos, natch.

But amid all the shiny newness and sameness of the Seaport (and close environs), you can still find some old-school.

Open since 1994, the Barking Crab isn't ancient, but for the Seaport District, a 26-year-old restaurant is a relative graybeard. Located right on the Fort Point Channel, close to the Joseph Moakley Courthouse, the restaurant has become a destination for tourists and locals alike. I ate there once and it was damn good.

It's got a great kitsch quotient.

Looking at the eatery from the Seaport Boulevard bridge, you can see the the glass-walled buildings that have come to define this area.

While all the gleaming newness dominates the Barking Crab's view to the east, to the west customers get a glimpse of the past.

This is the Northern Avenue Bridge, which once spanned the channel. As a matter of fact, when I worked in the Seaport District -- back in the early '90s, when it was known as "the mud lot and artist warehouse district" -- I used to walk across the bridge to get from my temp job at the World Trade Center Boston (now known as Seaport Boston Hotel & World Trade Center) to downtown. Cars were allowed on the bridge back then, too. Auto traffic was discontinued in 1999; pedestrians were barred in 2014. I wrote a little about the bridge last year and featured a photo of it along with a former floating firehouse nearby.

Built in 1908, the bridge also "carried a single track for the Union Freight Railroad," per Wikipedia. The railroad "was a freight-only railroad connecting the railroads coming into the north and south sides of downtown Boston," per Wikipedia. I'm not sure when the tracks were taken out of service.

Here's the view of the bridge some of the Seaport's gleaming towers in the background, including the world headquarters of Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

The bridge's middle span was swung open a few years ago, as the Coast Guard informed the City of Boston that the span was a hazard to navigation. The city held a competition three years ago, soliciting ideas for just exactly what to do with the bridge. The ideas ranged from replacing the bridge with a more modern span to turning the century-old bridge into a walkable park with lots of greenery.

The Northern Avenue Bridge used to make land right next to the James Hook & Co. seafood wholesaler. A Boston institution since 1925, James Hook suffered a catastrophic fire in 2008 but has bounced back. Below you can see the pier where the lobster company's main facility once stood; the Northern Avenue Bridge is in the background.

Boston being a hot development market, naturally there is a plan afloat to plop a new building on the pier where Hook's distribution facility once stood. At least in this case the developer isn't some corporate behemoth, but rather the Hook family, which owns the property. The family plans to build a 22-story building designed by Elkus Manfredi Architects, per this Bldup article. "The Hook Wharf building will feature a new ground-floor seafood restaurant with residences on upper floors....The [Municipal Harbor Plan] guidelines will require the Hook family to contribute $1.5 million towards the construction of a new continuous Harborwalk connection linking Hook Wharf to the other side of the Moakley Bridge."

Below, you see what's holding up the pier.

I'm not sure if the small buildings below escaped the fire or were built after the fact.

Here's a detail from one of those small buildings.

The new Hook restaurant mentioned above would replace the family's current takeout trailer.

No word on when that project might get off the ground.

For more about the Seaport District, see February 1, 2017, "Bon Voyage, Lady," about the former Chapel of Our Lady of Good Voyage.

Casting About in Lancaster, Mass.

From Dave "Least Heat" Brigham:

Any town with a house friendly to hobby horses is a nice town.

Lancaster, Mass., was incorporated in 1653, thereby making it the oldest town in Worcester County. A quiet town with many lovely old homes and a now-vacant college campus (see August 26, 2018, "You Have Been Un-Matriculated"), Lancaster has a population of around 8,000. I visited one recent day and here's what I found around the town center.

As I said, Lancaster is lousy with beautifully restored old houses. This is the Abby Carter Lane House on Main Street. Built around 1870, the house was occupied by Mrs. Lane for some time, before becoming a funeral home called Queen Chapel, according to Digital Commonwealth. It is a private home now, and likely has been for quite some time.

This place, known as the Dr. J.L.S. Thompson house, was built in the late 1840's and was damaged by a fire several years ago, according to the 2011 Annual Report of Officers and Committees, Town of Lancaster.

A short distance away sits the Mary Whitney House, circa, 1851, named for a lifelong Lancaster resident and former town librarian.

I love the stories old houses like these have to tell. There are of course the family histories in each of them, but also tales of former lives. The house above that was formerly a funeral home. The doctor's house that surely saw its share of patients. And the one below, which, if you are able to zoom in on the sign by the front door, was in a previous life Matthew Woods Store.

Directly across from this place is a barn.

Did Matthew Woods maintain this as a warehouse for his store? Or for equipment, animals and products from what must have been a fair amount of farmland? Both? The location is perfect, as both the store and the barn are adjacent to railroad tracks.

Both the Boston & Maine and Worcester, Nashua & Rochester railroads sent trains through Lancaster back in the day, connecting the town to Worcester to the south and Portland, Maine, to the north.

Lancaster's quaint town center is anchored by a complex that includes the town hall, a community center, the Thayer Memorial Library and the First Church of Christ, Unitarian.

Built in 1816, the church is the fifth meeting house to stand in or near the town center. The first two were destroyed during Indian raids in 1676 and 1704, according to the First Church's web site. The third church -- Massachusetts law in the 17th century decreed that a town could not be established without a church and a minister -- went up in 1706, and a fourth replaced it in 1743, per the church web site. The current house of worship was designed by well-known architect Charles Bulfinch (the Massachusetts State House, the Old Connecticut State House, remodel and enlargement of Boston's Faneuil Hall).

Behind the church sits this beautiful carriage barn:

I've been unable to find out when it was built. These days it's used for storage.

This monument on the town green to horticulturist, scientist, humanitarian and native son Luther Burbank has just the right amount of patina, I think. "He developed more than 800 strains and varieties of plants over his 55-year career," per Wikipedia. "Burbank's varied creations included fruits, flowers, grains, grasses, and vegetables. Burbank's most successful strains and varieties include the Shasta daisy....the 'July Elberta' peach, the 'Santa Rosa' plum, the 'Flaming Gold' nectarine, the 'Wickson' plum (named after the agronomist Edward J. Wickson), the freestone peach, and the white blackberry."

Last, certainly not least, and arguably the most well-known aspect of Lancaster, is the former Rowlandson property.

From Wikipedia:

"Mary Rowlandson....was a colonial American woman who was captured by Native Americans during King Philip's War and held for 11 weeks before being ransomed. In 1682, six years after her ordeal, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God: Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson was published. This text is considered a seminal American work in the literary genre of captivity narratives. It went through four printings in 1682 and garnered readership both in the New England colonies and in England, leading it to be considered by some the first American 'bestseller'."

I walked just a few yards up the dirt road. While it is private property, history buffs and others are welcome to walk on the land. Metal detectors, littering and motorized vehicles, however, are not allowed.

So there you have just a little bit of Lancaster, Mass. I've compiled profiles of other towns in this general area of Massachusetts -- between highways 190, 290 and 495. Here's a list:

From November 8, 2015, a feature about Maynard, "This Town Ain't Big Enough...."

From November 30, 2015, a post about Sudbury, "Walking Dead Tracks."

From December 9, 2015, a look at Hudson, "Scenes From An Old Shoe Town."

From December 17, 2015, a peek at a cemetery in Harvard, "Bring Out Your Dead."

From December 29, 2015, a short piece about a former church in Stow with an uplifting name but a confusing pedigree, "Gravity Can Lift You Up."

From January 27, 2016, a review of Clinton, "Finding Hope, But Losing a Mainstay, in Clinton."

February 17, 2016, a fascinating trek to a former ammunition bunker complex in Sudbury, "Bunker Buster."

March 30, 2016, a post about Littleton, "Big Walk in Littleton."