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March 24, 2007
Project 351: Salute Your Librarian
Is it mean to say that the southern suburbs of Boston are freaking boring? It isn't? Good.
First of all, the one thing that looked notable in Randolph, I took a picture of the wrong thing. Apparently, there's an 18th-Century house that belonged to colonial governor John Belcher, and a prosaic 19th-Century house that belonged to another guy with a similar name. And I screwed that one up.
Second of all, all roads in the area seem to lead to Stoughton, but none of them show much of anything worth taking a picture of. I was going to go the IKEA route and have a meatball lunch, but the crowds were...well, crowded, and I fled after taking only one picture, which I don't really count.
So where did I get pictures? Only four towns, and for two of them I had to go to the library for ideas. In Holbrook, I was going to settle for the Town Hall, but the nice lady at the library sent me down the street to the Little Red Schoolhouse, which is cute and now houses the Holbrook Historical Society.
And at the Avon Libary, the two nice ladies really racked their brains for ideas before coming up with Blanchard's Tavern, which was Town Hall, then restored, and may or may not be haunted. If only I could have gone in and settled it one way or the other. They also mentioned a cemetery I should check out. Avon...a little morbid.
Next stop was Brockton; I only passed through downtown (but I saw enough that I want to check it out again; in my defense, I was hungry) but did a little walking around D.W. Field Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. There's an observation tower, which was locked up. I have crummy luck with observation towers. Olmsted also designed The Rockery, which is Easton's unique take on the town common. Probably the coolest thing I saw all day.
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Comments
I have a couple of book suggestions which might help you in your project. The WPA Guide to Massachusetts which was published in the 1930s has a wealth of information about interesting historic sites. Because it was written before the major highways were created, it takes you into the heart of small town Massachusetts. It was republished in paperback not too long ago and should be readily available. Abandoned New England, which was published in the 1970s, is filled with old mills, town pounds, bridges, canals, and other places worth exploring. It is harder to find, but has the virtue of giving fairly precise directions on how to find the places mentioned in the text.
Posted by: Charles Swift | March 25, 2007 08:18 AM
Those are great ideas - thanks! Now to check on my connections in the used book biz...
Posted by: michael | March 25, 2007 09:50 AM
You might be able to find those books at your local LIBRARY. I'm just saying...
Good luck.
Posted by: Marjorie | March 25, 2007 10:45 PM
I'm a big fan of Blanchard's Tavern. It's a lot of fun and there's good, cheap food.
Posted by: Rhea | March 26, 2007 10:16 AM
Glad you found the historical society. Yes, the town (where I grew up) is rather, well, friendly but not too forward-thinking. The historical society now has a web site -- we beat the town to the web -- that's how um, fusty, it can be.
Thanks for thinking we are worth the photo!
http://holbrookhistoricalsociety.org.
Posted by: Kate | June 13, 2007 12:05 AM
