Collapsing Old Buildings to Make Way for Shiny Apartments

From Dave Brigham:

This post is all about playing the long game.

For more than five years I'd driven past the dilapidated house above, which is in Sudbury, Mass., just over the Concord line on Route 117. No, the windows weren't missing until recently, but this place definitely had that creepy-old-house-from-"Scooby-Doo" vibe going.

At first, the house seemed to be in OK shape, but the barn I spied up the hill through the woods was definitely in a major state of disrepair, although still partway vertical.

Over time, however, I noticed that the house and the trees and garage and yard looked worse and worse, like a rotting corpse. I saw an old pickup truck in the driveway, so I figured somebody lived there. Eventually, the barn collapsed completely. I wanted to shoot this place so badly, even though I don't normally care much for such places.

In late December or early January, I realized I hadn't seen the pickup in quite a while. And then, one day, contractors erected a fence around the house and marked the house with a red "X." I knew my time to check out this property was short, as both of those things meant demolition was imminent.

So, with my dog waiting in the car, I pulled off Route 117 and walked around, shooting quickly, all the while concerned that I would be busted for trespassing. I'm such a chicken when it comes to that. I was surprised at the condition of the barn.

But what really shocked me was the back of the house, where somebody had been living perhaps a year ago.

The house is listed online as dating to 1955; I'm guessing the barn was older. The property was sold in April 2020 for $845,000. In many towns outside of Boston, when a place like this gets demolished, one of two things happens: a McMansion goes up, or the developer crams as many townhouses onto the site as is allowed by law.

Because this property abuts a former quarry that was once owned by the Town of Sudbury, the plan here is larger. Much larger.

Let's start from the beginning. I'll try to keep this brief.

In February 2016, developer Chris Claussen submitted to the Town of Sudbury a Chapter 40B proposal to build a massive apartment complex in the center of town. Chapter 40B is a state statute that enables local Zoning Boards of Appeals to approve affordable housing developments under flexible rules if at least 20-25% of the units have long-term affordability restrictions, according to the Mass. Housing and Community Development web site. The goal of the statute is to allow developers to override local zoning bylaws in order to increase the stock of affordable housing in municipalities where less than 10% of the housing stock is defined as affordable, per this web site.

"The project proposes 13 buildings, some as tall as 50 feet and four stories high, 250 residential units, and 500 parking spaces," according to the Oppose Sudbury Station web site. Sudbury is a town with a deep Colonial history and a largely white, fairly well-to-do population. As you might imagine, people were up in arms over this housing proposal, right in the center of the historic town.

There was a lawsuit and, I imagine, protests and angry letters to the editor. Folks were surely in high dudgeon.

Fast forward to late 2018. The Board of Selectmen voted to do a switcheroo, giving Claussen and his development team the former town-owned quarry along Route 117, in exchange for the nearly 40 acres of land where Sudbury Station would have risen in all its metropolitan menace.

Earlier in 2018, the Town had "put out a request for proposals to develop the Melone property," aka the quarry site, per this Metrowest Daily News article. In addition to Claussen and his Quarry North group, San Diego-based EDF Renewables submitted a proposal for a solar farm and Sudbury-based Cavicchio Greenhouses Inc. put forward plans for an agricultural project.

Quarry North secured the former town property in late 2018. I'm not sure how things shook down for Claussen to buy the old house and barn. Judging by how run-down the property was, perhaps the owner died and the sale was made quite easily with his or her estate. It's conceivable that the owner of the house was holding out and once Claussen received the quarry property from the town, he or she got what they wanted and moved out.

Either way, it's all done now. The new development -- which will be known as Cold Brook Crossing, and which will also include property in abutting Concord -- will include 274 units, a small retail component, recreational facilities and more. The developer applied last year to install a private wastewater treatment plant on the site, as there are wetlands on the property.

This will be quite a change for this area, which still contains quite a bit of farmland, but not unprecedented. A quarter-mile from the proposed Cold Brook Crossing is an office complex (where my son's school is), as well as a few condo developments, all built on a former farm.

For more posts about Sudbury, check out: February 20, 2019, "Finding Some Cool, Mostly True, Memorials in Sudbury"; August 30, 2016, "The Tavern of Death"; and February 17, 2016, "Bunker Buster."

A Revolutionary Cemetery in Watertown

From Dave Brigham:

Established in 1754, the Common Street Cemetery in Watertown, Mass., is nestled right up tight to the small city's high school. You can see the brick building in the background of the photo below.

(Beautiful white headstone with solar-powered light.)

At nearly three acres, the graveyard sits just outside Watertown Square. There are approximately 500 headstones located here. In addition to serving as a burial ground for Watertown, which was the first inland town settled by English colonists in 1630, this site was once the location of the town's second meetinghouse, which played a role in the American Revolution.

From my old pal MACRIS: "During the Revolution, most of the military action took place elsewhere, but Watertown was a focal point for organizing resistance against the British. The Provincial Congress met at the meeting house on Common Street from April 22, 1775 to May 29, 1775. On May 19, 1775 a Committee of Safety was appointed to assemble, dispose and discharge the militia and to direct the army. It included John Hancock, Doctor Joseph Warren and eleven others. On July 19, 1775, the third Provincial Congress, consisting of 206 delegates, dissolved and organized as the General Court of Massachusetts, holding sessions until November 19, 1776 when it moved to a townhouse in Boston."

In 1836, the meetinghouse was torn down, and cattle that had been grazing on this property were moved to other pastures, per MACRIS. It was then that the cemetery was enlarged. I cruised through here quickly, and never saw the plaques for the meetinghouse that are on the grounds somewhere.

The abutting high school was built in 1925. I'm not sure what, if anything, that institution replaced on the site. As I mentioned, the school bumps right up against the boneyard, with no barriers between the two whatsoever.

And at some point somebody, presumably a male student/class clown, decided to make his mark for graveyard enthusiasts to admire (below).

Anyway, included among the several hundred tombstones and burial vaults are "the graves of a number of the town's founding families and of those who contributed significantly to Watertown's history," per MACRIS.

At least two of those interred here have seemingly turned over in their graves, perhaps due to the antics of their next-door neighbors at the high school.

Considering that I live in the town next to Watertown, I haven't written much about it over the last decade. Below are links to a few things I have written. I am presently working on a long post about Watertown Square, and will try to cover more of the town in 2021.

March 2, 2013, "Rebuilding the Lost City: Second Update"

July 23, 2011, "This Old, Decrepit House: Update #2"

May 19, 2010, "Nuclear Dump Playground?"

Jack's Smoke Shop Has Been Extinguished

From Dave Brigham:

Jack's Smoke Shop in Watertown, Mass., was in business for about a thousand years, selling cigars, pipes, lighters and related products. There was also a "sitting area for Keno," according to one customer description I found online. I never set foot in this place, and now I never will.

I polled some folks on Facebook, most who said the shop was around since sometime in the '70s. One person, however, recalled it being in business in the 1950s.

There was a flower shop in the retail space to the left of this photo. Now, a place called La Guanaquita Market is slated to open in that space. I'm not sure whether it will also take over the former smoke shop space. Rough translations of "guanaquita": a small llama; or possibly a word used for Salvadorans that relates to guanacaste trees. Either way, this market will cater to the growing Latinx population in the area.

Stay tuned for an upcoming post about a cemetery in Watertown Square, as well as a more all-encompassing post covering the neighborhood from end to end.

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.

I Seek Newton, Part IX: Nonantum (Section 3)

From Dave Brigham:

Welcome to the third and final installment about Nonantum in my series covering the backside of my adopted hometown of Newton, Mass. In the first two posts, I covered historic plaques, statues, parks, murals, former mills (Part I) and funky buildings, bars, restaurants, stores and backside elements (Part II). In this one, I'll take on churches/synagogues (both current and former), social clubs, historic homes, funeral homes, former schools and more. I have a few extra nuggets tacked on to the end, as well.

For links to the previous 10 installments (covering eight villages) in this series, see the bottom of this post.

I'm gonna kick it off with houses of worship, in particular the most impressive complex in Nonantum, and perhaps the entire city of Newton: Our Lady Help of Christians (here is where I mention that I don't understand the name of this parish....). The congregation is known locally simply as Our Lady's.

The church's web site says the building was dedicated in 1881, and that parishioners originally met in the basement of the church that stood here prior. The first Our Lady's congregants were Irish immigrants; in more recent decades, Our Lady's has skewed more heavily toward Italian-Americans.

In 1887, the rectory (above) was built on a lot slightly to the west of the Gothic Revival church. The rectory provides living space for the parish priest and perhaps others (I'm a heathen; I have no clue about these things). Also on the property are a high school (below) and a former nunnery (second photo below).

Built in 1924, this building was once home to Newton Catholic High School. It is currently home to Dearborn Academy, a special-needs school serving elementary, middle and high-school students. There is additional educational space in the rear (formerly a Catholic elementary school), which is home to a preschool and a program for substance-addicted mothers and their children.

Constructed in 1893, the convent replaced a building that was just three years old, per Wikipedia.

The Our Lady's compound is impressive, but it can't overshadow the Adam Street Shul, home to the city's oldest Jewish congregation.

"The Adams Street Shul was founded by Jews who came to Newton primarily from Ukraine at the turn of the 20th century," according to the synagogue's web site. "By 1901, at least half of the Jewish families arriving in Newton had settled in the Nonantum section of the city.

"After many years of davening in people's homes and in other larger and rented spaces, it became clear that the community required a formal synagogue. On October 6, 1911, Congregation Agudas Achim Anshei Sfard was granted an official charter by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. On December 15, 1912, three days after the end of Chanukah, the building itself was officially opened on Adams Street and formally dedicated with great fanfare and celebration."

By the 1950s, the shul needed to limit its services, due to declining membership, as Jews moved out of Nonantum, per the web site. "In 1986, 75 years after its founding, however, a new history of the shul began. A few young families began to move into the neighborhood and helped spark over the ensuing years a gradual renewal of synagogue life. By 1995, the shul was fully renovated. Against all odds, this little shul has survived and it continues to thrive a century later."

Gotta love this story of survival....and also the wonderful simplicity of the design, the bright, welcoming doors and the window with the Star of David telling the world what religion is practiced here.

On Chapel Street is the lovely Evangelical Baptist Church.

Located just down the street from the former Saxony Mill complex I wrote about in part one of this Nonantum review, the church dates to 1873. It was built for the North Evangelical Church after a fire destroyed the original chapel the prior year. The church was founded to bring the Holy Ghost Power to mill workers. In 1967, the Evangelical Baptist Church of Cambridge moved to this building. In 2006, the International Baptist Church of Boston merged its congregation with the members of Evangelical Baptist Church, per the church's web site.

Designed by Charles Edward Parker, the Gothic Revival church is on the National Register of Historic Places.

On Watertown Street, just short of the eastern border of Nonantum and Newton are the former school and rectory from St. John the Evangelist (aka St. Jean l'Evangeliste).

(The old St. John/St. Jean rectory.)

(The former St. John/St. Jean school.)

The parish was organized in 1911 for the French Canadian population of Nonantum, under the Reverend Joseph E. Robichaud, per MACRIS. I'm unclear on where the church was located. In 1916 the rectory was built; in 1925 the school was erected. St. Jean's began with only grades 1-3 and by 1931 had expanded through eighth grade. The school was shuttered in 1982 and sold to developers in 1985. It is now apartments. I believe the old rectory is also a private home or apartments.

(Close-up of the former St. Jean's School.)

In addition to the nunnery on the Our Lady's property, there was one on the old Aquinas College site along Walnut Park and Waban Street, near the Lincoln-Eliot Elementary School.

For more than 40 years, the convent was the home of Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston (see January 31, 2015, "Get Thee to a Nunnery"). I'm not sure whether the sisters had anything to do with Aquinas College, or merely rented the building to the school. In 2015, the Sisters sold the property to the City of Newton, along with a former school building. At the time of the sale, the City announced plans to consolidate municipal preschool programs here, as well as move the Lincoln-Eliot School to this site. I don't know the status of those projects.

The former Aquinas College buildings are located at the northern edge of a rather large property with a religious education mission, and ties to Newton's first Colonial settler. Stay with me on this: the site is bounded by Washington Street, Walnut Park, Waban Street and Jackson Road. In addition to the former convent/Aquinas buildings, the site includes the Jackson School and Walnut Park Montessori, which are run by the Sisters of St. Joseph, as well as an administrative building, a small house and a barn.

Above are two shots of the current administrative building, which was the original convent on this property. Below is a shot of a statue at the side of the building.

This, as you have probably guessed, was once a private home. Known historically as the John C. Potter Estate, the American Victorian building dates to the 1860s. It was built by John C. Potter, a Boston merchant, whose family lived here until 1893, per this 1997 document prepared by the Newton Historical Commission. The property was originally part of a large estate owned by John Jackson, the first permanent European settler of Newton (the nearby Jackson Homestead and Museum is what remains of the estate). In the 1840s, William Jackson hired landscape architect Alexander Wadsworth -- known for designing Cambridge's Mount Auburn Cemetery -- to design a portion of the property for residential redevelopment. The Potter Estate was one of those residences.

The estate included a caretaker's cottage and a barn, below.

This is where William Jackson's candle and soap factory once stood, I think. The two buildings above are part of the Sisters of St. Joseph's school operations, I believe. The estate also included a carriage house, below, which is now the home of the Montessori School.

In between the former convent and the one-time carriage house is a new building.

This place houses a student center.

On the corner of Washington Street and Walnut Park, below, is an empty lot where I'm pretty sure another estate building once stood. These days it serves mostly as a place for the City of Newton to dump snow during big storms.

Let's move along to one more holy-ish place.

The Andrew J. Magni & Son Funeral Home on Watertown Street has been in business since 1971, with the current owners living in an apartment above the business. The buildings date to 1880, per the Newton assessor's database. Presumably they were private homes upon their construction.

OK, let's get to social clubs, one of my favorite places to speculate about. Below is the former home of the Newton Soccer Club.

Located along Adams Street, this place used to be what I considered the heart of The Lake. There were always guys hanging out front, in a collection of lawn and old office chairs, chewing the fat, calling out to people driving by. I imagined plenty of late-night poker games and time spent watching the Sox, the Pats, the Celts and the Bruins. Trucks parked outside ranged from contractor pickups to tile and marble box trucks, City of Newton vans, and the like. I'm guessing the members raised money for a variety of good causes in the neighborhood, but they also joked around with the idea of themselves as being like gangsters.

"PRIVATE PROPERTY" the sign in line with the flags says. And then, below that: "GoodFellas." As in, you know, the mob movie directed by Marin Scorcese. There is a garage in the back of the property.

This place is empty, or at least the ground floor club space is. There might still be people living in the apartments above. The property was acquired in 2018, I believe, by a party looking to knock down this circa-1900 place and build an 18-unit apartment building. I don't know the status of that proposed project.

Directly across the street from the House of GoodFellas is the Sons of Italy hall.

Real welcoming, eh?

Officially, it's the Ambrose D. Cedrone Lodge #1069, Order Sons of Italy in America. Through charity and education, the lodge "is dedicated to the preservation of our Italian-American heritage in order that future generations will recognize and appreciate the great contributions that have been made by our forefathers." Founded in 1920 as the Umberto Primo Lodge, the club is available for event rentals. When writing about social clubs and dive bars, I always need to mention that I like to imagine these places are populated by skinny old guys drinking cheap beer and eating boiled eggs from a plastic, 5-gallon jug.

Along California Street is the American Legion Post 440....which I've been to a few times for events for my kids' school, and once for a wedding reception.

Chartered in 1952, the post welcomes veterans from all branches of the military.

At the corner of Watertown and Bridge streets sits a former public library branch that has been turned into the Ciociaro Social Club of Massachusetts.

Founded in 2001, the club serves to unite "the large Italian-American community in the Boston area through social, cultural and philanthropic activities for its members and their families," per its Facebook page.

Lastly, another former club space.

Built in 1925 and damaged in a 1978 fire, this building at the corner of Adams and Watertown streets is known historically as Columbus Hall. When the hall rose, "Nonantum's Italian community was beginning to prosper, a number of its members by now being able to work their way out of laboring jobs in local factories, with construction companies or on city maintenance crews; and, in addition, a few of the children of turn-of-the-century immigrants had been able to obtain degrees in several professions," per MACRIS. "The principle occupant of the building, and owner, was the Nonantum Investment Company, bankers, and the Columbus Realty Corporation."

Other original tenants included the Burrows Furniture Company, Economy Grocery Stores, Inc., Lombards Pharmacy, Newton Auto School, and the offices of Dr. Alfred Amendola and John Finelli, attorney, per MACRIS. "Also an important part of the building, located on the second floor, was Columbus Hall, which was regularly rented out for years to neighborhood organizations of all kinds and for wedding receptions and other community and family festivals."

Speaking of city maintenance crews....

Built in 1896 on Crafts Street as a city stable housing municipal horse teams, wagons, and other equipment, this brick building is now used as a public works garage and storage facility. It's part of a large city-owned complex that includes other buildings and storage yards. Part of the public works property has been floated as a possible site of a new police headquarters, with Mark Development, LLC, offering to buy the current HQ on Washington Street from the city, and offering in exchange "certain property adjacent and contiguous to" the Crafts Street site. That 2018 offer was considered by the mayor; I'm not sure if the offer is still on the table.

I'm going to finish with something that's a bit different from what I usually cover in backside posts. As regular readers know, I generally stay away from historic homes, as I feel there are just so many in the area to try and cover. Plus, I'm just more drawn to industrial sites, cool commercial/retail/municipal architecture, old things in the woods, etc.

The Celia B. Thaxter House on California Street, which Wikipedia says is in Newtonville, but which the City of Newton claims for Nonantum, dates to 1856. The Italianate home was where the poet for whom the house is named lived from the building's first year until 1880. Thaxter was renowned for her poems about the seashore and woodlands, per Historic Newton. She was a member of the literary circle that included Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne, James Russell Lowell and John Greenleaf Whittier. The house, which is spitting distance fromy my own, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

...now for a little housekeeping. When I posted a link to the second Nonantum installment on Facebook, a few locals asked about things I'd missed. The first was the building housing D&A House of Pizza, Alla Tailoring, Newton Hair Company and Soka European Boutique.

Located at 302-306 Watertown Street, across from the low brick building housing Steamers and the Quick Stop, this building dates to 1880, per MACRIS, and is known historically as the Patrick Farrell House. Farrell was a carpenter who owned other properties in the village, according to MACRIS. "This Mansard-roofed commercial block [is] one of few from the Victorian-era remaining in Nonantum."

The other site somebody inquired about is Adams Court, a glorified back alley that runs between Adams Street and Hawthorn Street, behind Dion's Liquors, Central Drapery and a massage business located in a former restaurant space.

Here's the back of the building, which is an intriguing mish-mash of architectural styles and dates. When I posted this shot on a Newton-related Facebook group, I got a TON of comments. Sifting through the information, here's what I gleaned: there is a house underneath this, as you can tell. I believe it dates to the late 1800s or early 1900s. The beautiful stonework was added after the fact, most likely in the 1940s. There was a store, Bunny's Market, at the front of the building for many years. At some point, a restaurant, JB's Steakhouse, went in on the second floor of the addition that was built. After that eatery closed, a place called Capricio's filled the space. After that joint closed, the place was known as Farley's, and then Gabriella's. Eventually, Yerardi's Restaurant opened in 1990; it closed in 2008.

There are apartments on both of the floors, with a massage business on the first floor in the front. Or at least there was; not sure if if's still in business.

The one time I ate at Yerardi's was many years ago. A friend threw a party on the back patio, where some folks were playing bocce, roughly in the middle of the photo below.

Just steps aways from the former Yerardi's is the awesome building below:

This is where the folks who run DePasquale's Market (mentioned in part 2 of this series) sell their locally famous sausages during the annual Italian festa each July.

And I'm giving you a bonus shot of a fantastic mural that was added to the side of the Shaking Crab since I took a photo of the restaurant earlier this year, and featured it in the second Nonantum post. The work is by local artist Johnny in Paris.

Well, there you have it: the chronicle of another village. I have four more to go: Newtonville, Newton Corner, West Newton and Newton Centre. I believe the latter will be next.

Here are links to previous posts in the series:

Part VIII: Upper Falls (Section 3)

Part VIII: Upper Falls (Section 2)

Part VIII: Upper Falls (Section 1)

Part VII: Thompsonville

Part VI: Chestnut Hill

Part V: Oak Hill

Part IV: Waban

Part III: Newton Highlands

Part II: Auburndale

Part I: Newton Lower Falls