Steps Away from An Eyesore, a Quaint Town Common

From Dave Brigham:

I recently spent a little bit of time in Troy, NH, something I'd wanted to do for a while. I pass through that town a few times a year on my way to play music with friends in the Granite State, and stumbled across an old mill complex a while back. That place, the abandoned Troy Mills, proved to be a fantastic photo opportunity (see June 21, 2021, "Covering a New Hampshire Blanket Mill"). Unfortunately for the people of Troy, it has been an eyesore for nearly 20 years.

After checking out the mill, I strolled through the quaint area around the town common. Here's what I found in Troy, which was incorporated in 1815, made up of parts of the towns of Marlborough, Fitzwilliam, Swanzey and Richmond.

Troy's town hall stands at the head of the common, which is an island in the middle of the bisected Route 12. Completed in 1815, this quintessential New England building was originally a meetinghouse, as I'm sure you guessed, where religious services and town meetings were held, according to this excellent Living Places article.

During those early years, both a local branch of the Congregational Church, as well as the First Congregational Society of Troy, used the meetinghouse. I'm not sure when the building became town hall.

I love the contrast of the red-brick house with the bright-white town hall. According to the Living Places article linked above, the house, at 12 Central Square, is known as a side-hall home. It was built by Stephen Wheeler, who operated a store and staging business. In later years, James Stanley, the cemetery sexton, ran a barbershop and later an undertakers' shop behind this house.

In the background of the photo above you can see an old barn. Below are close-ups of the one you can see, as well as a second one behind it.

Those buildings were built by Troy Mills for storage in 1901.

In the middle of the aforementioned common is a lovely little bandstand.

The bandstand is a newer addition to the common, although there was one located here previously. There was once a Troy Brass Band, which likely played at the old bandstand.

Just off the southern end of the common, behind Troy Deli & Marketplace and the Thai Bamboo restaurant, sits the wonderful Kimball Hall.

Originally home to the Odd Fellows fraternal club when it was built in 1901, Kimball Hall is currently home to the Troy Historical Society. I'm guessing that in the heyday of the mill, this place was jumping with dances, weddings, social club meetings and other events. From the historical society's Facebook page: "Folks who would like to tour the Cheshire Railroad Depot may stop at Kimball Hall to request it be opened."

I love that. Speaking of the depot....

Located just steps away from Kimball Hall, the station is known officially as the Troy Cheshire R.R. Depot. This fantastically restored place dates to 1847. During the latter half of the 19th century and well into the 20th, the station was kept busy by deliveries for Troy Mills and a nearby quarry, as well as by visitors to Mount Monadnock, located a few miles away in neighboring Jaffrey.

Passenger service along the rail line ended in 1958, freight service in the late 1960s, according to the web site above. Eventually the station was converted to a private home; the abandoned rail bed was maintained by the New Hampshire Department of Transportation for recreational purposes, and is now part of the Cheshire Recreational Rail Trail.

In 1998, the Town of Troy acquired the station and in 2002, restoration began. Check this photo gallery of the restoration.

Across the former rail bed from the station is an old barn/storage building that I'm guessing was once part of the railroad.

Folks visiting Troy via train might've stayed at the Kimball Hotel and Residence, below, which was built in the 1870s.

The former hotel is Troy's only example of a mansard-roof structure, according to this walking tour document.

I'm going to wrap up with a few shots from the Village Cemetery (formerly known as the Old Cemetery), which dates to 1785.

(I've never seen a gravestone age to this color.)

East Watertown: Plenty of Cool, Old Stuff Amid a Changing Landscape

From Dave Brigham:

Like much of the city of Watertown, Mass., the east end is undergoing significant change. This is especially so because the neighborhood borders Cambridge and Boston's Brighton neighborhood, which are also witnessing growth. Many of the changes in East Watertown are centered around the former Watertown Arsenal complex, which is split between the Arsenal Yards retail/restaurant/hotel development, and the Arsenal on the Charles site, which comprises office and arts space. I recently covered the former arsenal extensively (see June 28, 2021, "From Munitions Factory to Suburban Mall and Office Complex...and Beyond"). In addition to new places to shop, live, stay and play, this area is increasingly home to lab space for biotech firms that have been priced out of Cambridge's Kendall Square (see June 8, 2019, "UPDATE: Strolling Among the L7's in Kendall Square").

The Watertown Arsenal was a huge part of the city for more than a century, but it wasn't the only industrial behemoth in East Watertown. The land where the Watertown Mall (which features a Target store) now stands, directly across from the former arsenal, was once home to the Hood Rubber Company. Incorporated in 1896 by rubber-industry veterans and brothers, Frederic and Arthur Hood, the company built its facility along Melendy Avenue, located just northwest of the Watertown Mall site. Over time, Hood Rubber expanded its footprint across the railroad tracks (now a bike path) and onto the site where the Mall now stands. The rubber plant used water from the nearby Sawin's and Williams ponds to cool its equipment. As you might expect, those bodies of water shrank and became incredibly polluted over the life of the factory, which closed in the late '60s after having merged with B.F. Goodrich in 1929.

At its height, Hood employed roughly 10,000 people and produced rubber products including sneakers, boots and tires. The company for a time was Watertown's largest employer; many of those who worked at the factory were immigrant Armenians. To read more about the Hood plant, check out Alfred Glidden's A Brief History of the Hood Rubber Company; for more about the two ponds, and the battles between the landowner and the city, read Brian LeBlanc's opinion piece in the Watertown Tab.

Below is the Watertown Mall parking lot, looking from the eastern end near Target.

The mall was recently acquired by Alexandria Real Estate Equities, a major developer of lab space in and around Boston. There is speculation that the developer may erect new buildings in the large parking lot, while keeping some of the stores, especially Target, in place for the time being.

Below is part of the boggy remnant of Sawin's pond, which is totally polluted and gross.

I'm hopeful that as more development occurs in this area, this wetlands area will finally be cleaned up.

In my rambles through other parts of the east end, I was happy to find plenty of cool backside stuff that doesn't involve boring old parking lots and nasty water features. For links to other recent posts about this city, see the bottom of this post.

Alright, let's get to the good stuff!

I'll start in the immediate area surrounding Arsenal Yards and the Watertown Mall. The Arsenal Street corridor, as I said, is undergoing changes, and there are surely others to follow. On the north side of the street there are several small businesses -- a restaurant, an oil change place, a furniture retailer, a service station -- that have either gone under in recent years, or appear on their last legs. I imagine many of these sites will be redeveloped in coming years, as the area becomes a high-tech and retail hot spot.

Directly across from one of the entrances to Arsenal Yards is Zaven's Furniture

The dichotomy between the company's building and its web site is shocking. Based on Zaven's Internet presence, one would think the company was located in a sleek, modern space that may even include a coffee bar. Based on its Arsenal Street site, one could be forgiven for thinking there was a serial killer living in the basement. There isn't much about this company or property available online. I have no idea if it's still in business.

On the south side of Arsenal Street, just past the western edge of Arsenal Yards, is the former site of VFW Post 1105.

I was psyched to see the old neon sign hanging along the side of the building.

What will become of this site? The club has since moved to a new location on Mount Auburn Street, below.

Along Arsenal Street just past the Watertown Mall is Sarris Auto, below.

The company services, buys and sells cars. Located two doors down from a relatively new hotel, and across the street from Home Depot, this site seems ripe for redevelopment. I love the old-school antenna on top of the Sarris building. I wonder if it was once used to dispatch cabs.

North of the Watertown Mall, along Nichols Avenue and surrounding streets, I easily found evidence that Watertown is home to the third-largest population of Armenians in the United States.

The Hairenik Association (enlarge the photo to see the organization's name inscribed across the bottom of the building) is a publishing and media company that is, according to Wikipedia, "owned and operated by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation," a political party that operates in Armenia, Lebanon, Iran and other countries. I can't vouch for that information.

Across the Hairenik back parking lot is the Armenian American Social Club.

Next door to the club is Shiraz Persian Cuisine, whose chef is originally from Iran.

According to Wikipedia, the Armenian diaspora includes Iran, which the online encyclopedia refers to as Eastern Armenia.

Just down the street from the restaurant is a cool old building known as the Mugardichian Block.

Designed by architect E.E. Eisenberg, this building rose in 1915. I haven't found out much about this building, but I'll pass along a conjecture: the family that grew the Star Market grocery chain into a regional powerhouse is named Mugar. Upon their arrival in America from Armenia in the early 20th century, they shortened the family name from, you guessed it, Mugardichian. The first Star Market was located not too far away from this building, on Mount Auburn Street. The family bought the store in 1915. I'm guessing that the building in the photo above was originally known by another name, but that the Mugar family eventually owned it. Someone please tell me if you know more.

Just up the street from the Hairenik Association is the Iranian Association of Boston.

In a future post, I will cover more of the Armenian community that is centered in and around Coolidge Square in Watertown. For now, I'll move along to other stuff in this area that caught my eye, before moving on to other parts of East Watertown.

Heading west along Nichols Avenue I spied this nice old retail/apartment building.

All I've been able to find out about 109 Nichols is that it was built in 1921.

Next to the Mugardichian Block is the sad-looking building below.

Looks like B&G Heating & Air Conditioning has been out of business for quite a while. I can picture a small apartment building rising here.

Across Bigelow Avenue from the Hairenik site is an older brick building that's home to the Abaka Dance Academy. The dance school seeks to "enrich the Armenian cultural life of youngsters in our community, creating a small corner of Armenia in America," per the organization's web site. So I guess I'm not done with the Armenian community yet....

The other half of that building, which dates to 1930, is home to catering company Sensational Foods. That company also has space in the amazing building next door.

Abutting the purple palace is Donahue's Bar and Grill, which has been around since 1998.

Arguably one of the funkiest restaurant spaces in Watertown is located along Nichols Avenue.

Yes, that's an old train car attached to a building at Lo Bodega by Salts, a Uruguayan eatery opened in 2018 by Gabriel Bremer and Analia Verolo. The pair formerly operated Salts in Cambridge. La Bodega serves "farm-to-table cuisine with influences from Uruguay and the Basque region of Spain," according to this article. The train car dates to the 1950s, per the article, and was a dining car on the Congressional Line linking Boston and Washington, D.C. I'd like to try La Bodega's food sometime.

Just up the street is the former Matilda's, a sandwich shop that got great Yelp reviews.

Just up Coolidge Hill Road from the Matilda's site is Gerry's Custom Cabinet, which was established in 2007.

I love that sign, with Gerry carrying a tool box and whistling while he works.

Continuing up the road, I came across Bon Ton Cleaners.

The building dates to 1927, but the company has been cleaning and repairing rugs and carpets for more than 100 years, per its web site.

Across the street from Bon Ton is the former Minas Kondazian and Sons Men's Suit Factory.

Now home to Eastern Clothing -- in business since 1937 and formerly the clothier (possibly still, not sure) of Boston Red Sox legend Jerry Remy -- the building dates to 1924. The property was developed by Minas Kondazian, "a member of Watertown's large Armenian community," per MACRIS, who began business in 1903. The factory eventually employed 300 workers, many of them Armenian.

The building was purchased in 1963 by Eastern Clothing, per MACRIS. The company was founded in 1937 by "Peter and John Aerasian, brothers who came to this country in 1912 around the time of the Turkish genocide of the Armenians," according to MACRIS. "They made boys topcoats and sportcoasts for retail outlets such as Sears Roebuck & J.C.Penny."

In between Eastern Clothing and the Watertown Mall, along Elm Street, is a branch of the School of Rock.

I'm not sure if there's anything significant about this building, beyond the fact that my son took drum lessons here about 10 years ago. I loved hanging out in the lobby during his lessons, eavesdropping on the awkward teens there talking about music and their lives. It seems like a neat community.

Next door to the school, on Arlington Street, is the International Natural Bakery.

Again, I love the sign on this place, with its depiction of two bakers doing what they love. I'm not sure how long they've been in business, but judging by the wear on the sign, seems like quite a few years.

Continuing north on Arlington Street I spied a partial ghost sign on the side of the Therma-Flow/Everhot water heater company building.

I think I see the first half of the word "peerless" up there. How about you?

Across the street is the Watertown Evangelical Church, which may be small, but it has a great origin story.

Founded by Armenian immigrant Vartan Bilezikian in 1920 when he began preaching in private homes, the church was based in Boston during most of the 1930s. In 1938, "Yeprous Bilezikian, Vartan's sister-in-law, sells her jewelry to start a building fund and encourages other women to do the same. Although the average salary at the time is a mere $12 per week, other members generously donate to the fund. In 1938, the church's foundation is laid in Watertown, Massachusetts. As a community, the church raised a grand total of $15,000 to make the church building a reality," according to the church's web site.

Just up the street from the chuch is the Canadian-American Club.

The club "has its roots in Boston politics of the 1930’s. In 1937, when James Michael Curley was mayor of Boston, many felt that Canadian-Americans would also soon advance politically , and the Canadian-American League was chartered," according to the group's web site. "Over time, it evolved into a social and charitable organization and became one of the most prominent and active clubs in New England. During World War ll, however, the organization nearly ceased to exist. In 1950 a small group of the League’s original members came together to reestablish the Canadian American Club." The organization purchased its current building in 1969.

Nearby on Arlington Street is the Italian-American Club building.

I'm pretty sure this place is vacant. I wish its back-story was as cool as the Evangelical Church's. Built in 1890, it was home to Charles and Edward Stearn, brothers who were electricians, according to MACRIS. "There was, by the 1920's an extensive Italian community located around Arlington Street. In 1946 the Italian-American Social club bought this house."

Over on Calvin Road is one of my favorite local buildings.

Located behind the main office for P & M Brick and Block, this place is three buildings in one: the lower level seems to be a cinder-block garage; the second tier is shingled and looks almost like a barn; the topper appears to be a shed. I can't figure out what the hell is going on with this place. What's in there? The Internet isn't giving up much info about the age or history of this place. The brick and block company's main building has been around since 1976, according to the Watertown assessor's office. But no details are given about this place.

I'm going to wrap up this post with some beauty of a different kind.

These shots are from the southwest quadrant of the world-famous Mount Auburn Cemetery, part of which is located in neighboring Cambridge. I could spend hours walking through this place, taking photos and just soaking up the amazing landscaping and fantastic gravestones and the Washington Tower, whicn provides sweeping views of Watertown, Cambridge and Boston. Among the luminaries buried in Mount Auburn are Buckminster Fuller, Julia Ward Howe, Isabella Stewart Gardner and, ahem, Peter Bent Brigham.

For more Watertown posts, see:

March 20, 2021, "Shining a Light on Watertown's Bemis Neighborhood".

February 20, 2021, "Making Things Right in Watertown Square, Part II" and February 13, 2021, "Making Things Right in Watertown Square, Part I".

August 31, 2012, "I Wanna Walk".

Former Chemical Compound Has Deep History

From Dave Brigham:

This is the third and final post in my short series about former industrial properties in Waltham, Mass. As with the other two (see here and here), the former Atlas Chemical Company factory is a place I'd been past countless times without thinking about shooting photos and doing some research.

Located on one-way Calvary Street, across from a large Catholic cemetery, with its backside facing the Charles River and a multi-use path that I've walked and jogged along on dozens of occasions, this property isn't as large as the former Boston Manufacturing Company and Waltham Watch Factory sites I wrote about previously. But the site has an industrial history stretching back roughly 140 years.

As with those companies, Atlas Chemical came into being in the 19th century, as the Industrial Revolution rolled across America. From MACRIS: "The Atlas Chemical Co. was founded by H.B. & W.O. Chamberlain in the early 1880's. The firm manufactured sulphuret of antimony, a chemical used in the making of rubber. The founding and rapid growth of the Hood Rubber Co. in Watertown led to significant growth in the business of the Atlas Chemical Co. (I will talk about the former rubber plant in a future post about East Watertown). After this time, about 1930, the plant was vacated and remained so for most of the decade. Before World War II the R.B. Lados Co. (fertilizer manufacturers) and the Davenport Abrasives Corp. took over the factory."

In more recent years, the buildings were occupied by various industrial operations, including manufacturers of chemicals, woolens, machine tools, and screw machine products, per MACRIS. Today, the buildings house a handful of transportation companies (JSC Transportation, Veterans Taxi and Harrison Global) and other businesses.

The site is also home to Apex Centerless Grinding, as seen in the photo above.

This small complex is located across the Charles River from the River City Plaza, home of Shaw's grocery store, Ocean State Job Lot and several smaller businesses. That site has quite the industrial past, as well.

River City Plaza is the site of former Waltham Cotton and Wool Company, according to a Waltham Land Trust article I found online. "Incorporated in 1812, the factory employed over 200 workers. In 1818, a larger mill was built next to the Cotton and Wool Company, which became the Waltham Bleachery and Dye Works."

This area of Waltham is still referred to as the Bleachery. This is a business that you just know was horrible for the environment, especially the adjacent river. "The Waltham Bleachery and Dye Works remained in business until 1951 when the buildings were taken over by Raytheon," per a Waltham Museum article. Founded in nearby Cambridge in 1922, Raytheon built death rays and weather-changing supercolliders at its Waltham property. Seriously, though, the defense contractor built everything from missile-guidance systems and magnetron tubes to microwaves. I knew that the company's former campus sprawled across sites on the north side of Pleasant Street in Watertown (which becomes River Street in Waltham), but I didn't know that River City Plaza was part of its operations as well.

For more on the former Raytheon site, check out April 17, 2021, "The Honey Hole."

Prior to the doomsday, cotton and bleachery businesses, there was a paper mill on this site, constructed in 1794 by Christopher Gore, who also built a dam on the site, according to the web site for Gore Place.

From Munitions Factory to Suburban Mall and Office Complex...and Beyond

From Dave Brigham:

Boston-area locals might recognize the building in the two photos above as the Watertown Home Depot (previously an Ann & Hope retail clothing outlet), part of the shopping destination known over the years as the Arsenal Marketplace, Arsenal Mall and the Arsenal Project. Now dubbed Arsenal Yards, the complex is undergoing major changes, which I will discuss a little later in this post. The Home Depot and another massive building in the Yards development, along with several other buildings on the south side of Arsenal Street, were once part of the massive Watertown Arsenal. There, for nearly 180 years, the U.S. Government stored and manufactured gun carriages and artillery pieces and even operated a nuclear reactor for the Army. I believe the Home Depot building was erected between 1890 and 1928, and was used to construct mobile gun carriages.

Below is a not-so-brief history of the arsenal, excerpted from the web site for The Arsenal on the Charles, which sits directly west of Arsenal Yards. The Arsenal on the Charles is where the majority of the former gun-carriage manufacturing-related buildings are situated; tenants include athenahealth, the Mosesian Center for the Arts, Boston Sports Club and Panera Bread. The development's web site also features a photo retrospective of the complex, and offers a virtual walking tour.

"In 1816 the U.S. Government selected and purchased 40 acres of land on the northern bank of the Charles River in Watertown as the site for a new regional arsenal...The original Arsenal was composed of a group of 12 brick and stone buildings arranged in a quadrangle around central parade grounds, connected with a 15 ft. high brick wall. They included two arsenals for storage of arms and ammunition, officer’s quarters, barracks for soldiers stationed at the post, and workshops for maintaining and repairing the artillery and ammunition.

"From 1830-55, the Army had added 13 acres to the grounds, a new entrance connecting the complex to Arsenal Street, two new storehouses, and a new laboratory. The...Civil War transformed the Arsenal into an important military production center. [A] new manufacturing complex consisting of a large u-shaped machine shop and smith shop were built to meet the wartime demand.

"A natural gas works and small iron and brass foundry would be constructed on the banks of the Charles River in 1865 and 1867 respectively. The last two decades of the 19th century witnessed the transformation of the Watertown Arsenal into a major manufacturing and research center within the Army’s arsenal system. This process began in earnest in 1888, when the Watertown Arsenal was chosen as the site of the Army’s new gun carriage manufacturing plant.

"The importance of the Arsenal as an early 20th Century military manufacturing center is reflected in its most dramatic period of growth from 1917-1922. In just five years, a total of 23 new structures were erected on over 44 acres of previously undeveloped land, and a 7 mile network of railroad tracks connected the buildings of this sprawling industrial complex.

"The production demands of World War II pushed the Watertown Arsenal to its pinnacle as a military manufacturing site. During the war the Army purchased an additional 7 acres of land that included a former Simmons Mattress factory, doubled the size building 311, and built a massive additional building at the far eastern end of the property. After the war, the primary mission of the Arsenal shifted away from manufacturing and towards research. In 1959, the Army constructed the Horace Hardy Lester experimental nuclear reactor on western end of the Arsenal grounds. The Lester reactor was the first and only experimental reactor of its kind ever to be operated by the U.S. Army.

"The Army...closed the Watertown Arsenal in 1967. It turned over 55 acres on the eastern end of the property, including the original Arsenal site, to the General Services Administration, which, in turn, sold the property to the Town of Watertown for commercial and residential development. The buildings on the 37-acre western end of the former Arsenal were taken over by the newly created Army Materials and Mechanics Research Center. Changes to the campus under AMMRC ownership included the demolition of three buildings, and extensive renovations to the remaining structures to create additional laboratory facilities and increase energy efficiency.

"The Army closed its research facilities on the western portion of the Arsenal in 1995. After an extensive Federal environmental clean-up process, the property underwent significant redevelopment for commercial use, including rehabilitation of the remaining 10 buildings, and the addition of new roadways and a parking garage."

Harvard University acquired the property in 2001, with an eye toward using it as for educational purposes. That never came to fruition. In 2013, medical technology company athenahealth bought the site, after having been a tenant the prior eight years. In late 2019, Alexandria Real Estate Equities acquired the complex.

Alexandria is a well-known player in Greater Boston's growth as a high-tech and laboratory destination (see June 8, 2019, "UPDATE: Strolling Among the L7's in Kendall Square").

For the last few years, both the Arsenal Yards and Arsenal on the Charles sites have been undergoing major renovations and additions. The latter project includes office and lab space, as well as arts facilities, restaurants and open space. Arsenal Yards, which is owned by Boylston Properties and The Wilder Companies, is adding a hotel, apartments, a movie theater and many stores and restaurants.

OK, let's get to some pictures. I'll do my best to figure out just what we're looking at in each of these. I'll run through them in roughly the same order that I encountered them.

Located along North Beacon Street, this is the former locomotive repair house. From the Arsenal on the Charles web site: "Building 97 was constructed in 1920 to house and repair the Arsenal’s fleet of locomotives, switch cars and cranes, which moved freight and equipment around the grounds over seven-and-a-half miles of railroad tracks. In 1959, Building 97 was transformed into a materials testing laboratory and equipment facility supporting the Horace Hardy Lester Nuclear Reactor."

I'm not sure what, if anything, is located in this building currently. The nuclear reactor building, which was directly east of Building 97, no longer stands.

Above is the rear of building 311, known as the New Erecting Shop. I'm pretty sure this is the largest building on the site, at 462 feet. A steel-framed building, it was considered at the time of its construction in 1917, to be one of the largest of its type in the U.S., per the Arsenal on the Charles web site. Below is a front view, along Arsenal Street, featuring a great sign from the arsenal's latter days of operation.

Below is a side view of Building 311.

Heading east across Kingsbury Avenue and some green space, I next shot Building 43, the Smith Shop, below.

As you can see, this building, which dates to 1861 and is among the oldest in the complex, is getting new gutters and other updates. From the Arsenal on the Charles web site: "From 1892 to 1900 the smith shop was equipped with huge 2 and 3.5 ton steam hammers and other equipment for forging steel castings as large as 8,000 lbs. During World War I, a rail crane and 5 ton steel hammer were added to support production of even larger components for 14 and 16-inch seacoast gun carriages. After World War II, building 43 supported the Arsenal’s ongoing research activities with experimental and specialty forgings up until the closure of the Army Technical Materials Laboratory in 1995."

Just south of Building 43 is the U-shaped Building 313, the Carriage and Machine Shop, below.

(The Carriage and Machine Shop comprises the buildings on the left and center in this photo. At the far right is the West Timber Storehouse.)

The Carriage and Machine Shop dates to 1862. From the Arsenal on the Charles web site: "After WWII, Building 313’s machine shops were redirected for use in studying new types of metals, ceramics and other synthetic materials. Research included testing new types of metallic, composite and synthetic armor, which led to the use of Kevlar in body armor and helmets, and the design of specialized armor for presidential limousines and helicopters."

How cool is that?!

Next is the Old Erecting Shop, below.

"Significantly wider and taller than it’s [sic] predecessors, the Erecting Shop provided the space and the equipment necessary to assemble new, larger carriages for 8, 10 and 12 inch guns and field mortars," per the Arsenal on the Charles web site. As you can see, Building 312 is now home to the Dorothy and Charles Mosesian Center for the Arts. The 30,000-square-foot center features a 380-seat main stage theater, a 100-seat black box theater, exhibition galleries, two rehearsal halls, classrooms, and resident artist studios."

Below is Building 60, the Powerhouse.

"For over 80 years, Building 60 served as the central source of power and heat to buildings across the Arsenal," according to the Arsenal on the Charles web site. "The oldest part of the building was constructed in 1913. Steam engines on the upper level produced electricity. Three boilers on the lower level generated steam for heat and to power large steam hammers in the smith shop....By 1919 cheaper electricity rates led the Arsenal to shut down its electric power production, and the old steam-powered generators were sold off in 1926. At the start of WWII, a second 150-foot chimney was built next to the building. In 1953, the original chimney was taken down, and six boilers were replaced with three more efficient models. Building 60 supplied steam heat to buildings on the Arsenal until the closing of the Army Materials Technical Laboratory in 1995."

Below you see what I assume are former officers' quarters. The building at the far right of the photo was built as a cow barn in 1906, per the Arsenal on the Charles web site. It was converted to the warrant officer's quarters in 1936.

Next is Building 131, the Administration Building.

"The building’s location on Talcott Avenue, near both the Arsenal’s manufacturing complex and the research labs, is a testament to the critical roles that both activities played in the Arsenal’s operations in the first half of the 20th Century," sez the Arsenal on the Charles web site.

(I love the juxtaposition of the elaborate War Office plaque with the plain sign on the door behind for Enanta Pharmaceuticals.)

I love the cannons lined up on the administration building's lawn.

A tree-lined drive takes you to the only spot on the former arsenal campus where you can get married: the Commander's Mansion.

Built in 1865, the mansion has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1976.

At the bottom of the road running north past the mansion stands a former guard house.

Just steps from the guardhouse is a locked entrance to some sort of underground passage.

I've driven past here many times over the years and wondered about this tunnel. I finally have my answer. "Mr. Magoon said the two metal doors in the earth at the bottom of the Commander’s Mansion property are bunkers," according to a 2014 Town of Watertown Zoning Board of Appeals document I found online. "Mr. Schreiber added that they are connected to the tunnel system. Boats would pull up and unload there."

Well, that's pretty much what I'd hope was going on behind those doors!

Across from the mansion is Arsenal Community Park and Skate Park, a great resource. When I was there I saw an outdoor yoga class, some guys playing soccer and other folks just strolling around. There is also an amphitheater.

The skate park is below.

The park is behind one of the buildings of the Arsenal Yards shopping complex. Below is a Watertown Arsenal insignia on the side of that building, which I believe was the materials and mechanics research center.

I'm going to interrupt the flow of my tour here to talk about the building at the eastern end of the Arsenal Yards complex, which I shot on a follow-up trip.

Mount Auburn Hospital occupies the easternmost portion of the building. The other half is a combination parking garage and former restaurant space. Most recently, Miller's Ale House filled that slot. Prior to that it was a Bugaboo Creek Steak House, where I went once with my family.

While set apart from the main campus of Arsenal Yards, this building will also be redeveloped. The plan calls for life science lab space to be added here, according to this Wicked Local article.

Across Arsenal Street from this outlying building is the former arsenal's nuclear waste dump site.

I've written two posts about this site, where for decades the Army dumped radioactive material from the nuclear reactor (see April 5, 2013, "Nuclear Dump Playground: UPDATE" to read the most recent post, and find a link to the first post).

In 2014, the U.S. General Service Administration (GSA) announced it would transfer the old dump site back to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation said it planned to use the site for "passive recreation," which I believe means walking paths. As of June 26 of this year, however, the sign posted on the fence shown in the photo above indicates that it is federal property.

I've been unable to find an update on progress for this site.

OK, back to the Arsenal on the Charles property.

Below is the facade of the West Timber Storehouse, mentioned above. It "is the oldest standing industrial building in the Watertown Arsenal Historic District," per the Arsenal on the Charles web site. "It was built in 1851 for storing and drying lumber used in wooden field and siege gun limbers, carriages and caissons. By the 1890’s iron had replaced wood as the primary material for gun carriages, and building 37 was converted into an iron and brass foundry."

The last building I want to discuss is Building 43, the Smith Shop.

"Built in 1861, Building 43 is one of the oldest buildings in the Watertown Arsenal Historic District," according to you-know-which web site. "[I]t was a part of the original Seacoast Gun Carriage Complex. While most buildings at the arsenal would be adapted and changed to meet the evolving needs of the Army’s ordnance department, the smith shop was the only building that would retain its original use throughout the arsenal’s history."

I love the details on this building.

In front of the old arsenal complex are two old cannons.

As with the other cannons on the grounds, I'm not sure if they were manufactured at the arsenal, or are more recent replicas.

Well, that wraps it up! Make sure to check back for an upcoming post about the rest of East Watertown.