Belmont History – Belmont Citizens Forum

Profile in Belmont: Wendy Murphy

Historic Preservation, History, September/October 2024 Comments Off

Aug 232024

By Elissa Ely “What is that house?” Wendy Murphy thought the first time she saw the mansion at 661 Pleasant Street: elevated, magisterial, remote, uninhabited, yet somehow alive. “Is it haunted?” The William Flagg Homer House is neither inhabited nor haunted, though it is alive with architecture and art. As president of the Belmont Woman’s Club, Wendy became one of its protectors. Her decade-long tenure exceeds term limits, though not for lack of a successor search. “I’m like a general contractor,” she says ruefully, “and the problem with being productive is that no one wants to be that busy.” The [READ MORE]

Stewards Keep Ogilby Farm Traditions

Environment, Historic Preservation, History, Newsletter, Plants, September/October 2023 Comments Off

Sep 012023

By Judith Feinleib Henry Ogilby thinks of himself, his siblings, and Mike and Hermik Chase as stewards of the last remaining farmland in Belmont, part of the Richardson Farm Historical District. They are stewards in the classical sense of the term—people whose code of ethics requires them to engage in responsible planning and management of resources. In this case, these resources are the land and houses that have been in the Ogilby family since the 17th century. For the last 11 years, the Chases have cultivated the land of Belmont Acres Farm where they grow and sell vegetables and keep [READ MORE]

Historic Clock Project Seeks Donations

donations, Historic Preservation, History, March/April 2022, Newsletter Comments Off

Mar 032022

By Michael Flamang The First Church in Belmont Unitarian Universalist is seeking funds and a qualified contractor to restore the historic clock in the church’s tower on the town green to functioning condition. In December, the Community Preservation Committee approved a grant application for the repair funds and included it in the projects to be considered by Town Meeting. (See “CPC Recommends Funds for Seven Projects,” in this issue.) There is a great deal of precedent in our area for cities and towns successfully using Commonwealth-designated Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds to implement this type of project in religious buildings. [READ MORE]

Belmont Was Once a Town of Farms

Historic Preservation, Newsletter, Open Space, Plants, September 2021 Comments Off

Aug 232021

By Jane Sherwin Until the mid-20th century, agriculture was a significant part of Belmont life and economy. Three hundred years ago, it would have been unusual to find a family in this area with no engagement at all in growing things. Even a shoemaker would most likely have a few chickens, or a milk cow, or a small garden for vegetables. The settlements on the land that is now Belmont go back nearly four hundred years. In 1630, Sir Richard Saltonstall led a group of families inland from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, to the area we now call Watertown, to [READ MORE]

Belmont Once Had a Cooperative Market

Historic Preservation, History, July-August 2021, Newsletter Comments Off

Jun 252021

By Jane Sherwin Many people are aware that Belmont was a town of farms until the mid-twentieth century, but fewer may know that we also had a cooperative grocery: the Belmont Cooperative Society Market, which opened in 1911. The Market, the earliest commercial building in Cushing Square, was located on the southwest corner, where the Bradford development now stands. A second store stood in Belmont Center. In his wonderful Footsteps Through Belmont, the late Richard Betts, town historian, wrote that among other things the market sold spring water from a nearby well, and later, gasoline for horseless carriages. A 1905 [READ MORE]

Belmont’s Last Pandemic: the 1918 Flu

History, May/June 2020, Newsletter Comments Off

May 032020

By Vincent Stanton, Jr. Thought you could escape coronavirus news in the pages of the BCF Newsletter? You are safe, but there is a catch. If you can tolerate more grim news, consider taking a trip back to the last global pandemic, the so-called “Spanish Influenza” of 1918. The story of how Belmont responded is replete with both striking similarities to the 2020 coronavirus response and sharp differences. A weekly record of the influenza pandemic as it swept through Belmont in the fall of 1918 can be found in the pages of the Belmont Patriot. However, before diving into the [READ MORE]

Lydia Ogilby Remembered

Newsletter Comments Off

Mar 022020

By Neal Winston Lydia Phippen Ogilby passed away on November 1, 2019, at age 98 at her historic John Bright House on Washington Street, adjacent to the 10-acre Belmont Farm. Living in Belmont from a young age, she was known by townspeople as a spirited preservationist of its heritage and land. Lydia’s strong and generous opinions embodied the Belmont spirit of independence and industriousness of her forebears. Her portrait by Belmont photographer Richard Cheek hangs in Town Hall. She is seen standing in her field, seemingly growing out of the earth, ever vigilant, defying the pressures of development around her. [READ MORE]

Community Path Began Decades Ago

Bicycles and bike paths, Bike Paths, History, March/April 2020, Newsletter Comments Off

Mar 022020

By Vincent Stanton, Jr. It has taken over two decades of stop-and-start development to bring the Belmont Community Path to its current state of planning and formal design, but a timeline for construction of the path is finally in sight. The design and engineering of Phase I of the Belmont Community Path, from Brighton Street to the Clark Street Bridge, started last fall and should take about two years to complete. In the next two years, path plans will progress through three major milestones: 25, 75, and 100 percent design, as part of a Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) guided [READ MORE]

Belmont CPC Supports Four Projects

Arts & Culture, Historic Preservation, March/April 2020, Newsletter, Open Space, Town Committee Meetings Comments Off

Mar 022020

By Margaret Velie This year, Town Meeting will be considering four projects for Community Preservation Act funding. By law, Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds are limited to projects for affordable housing, historic resources, open space, and outdoor recreational facilities. Last fall, the Community Preservation Committee (CPC) received seven preliminary applications for funding. Since then, one project was deemed ineligible, and two others were withdrawn. The committee reviewed the remaining four applications and is recommending all four for funding. Affordable Housing Feasibility Study for the Redevelopment and Creation of New Affordable Housing Units at Belmont Village The Belmont Housing Authority is [READ MORE]

Belmont Timeline

Bicycles and bike paths, Bike Paths, Board of Selectmen, Historic Preservation, History, January 2020, Newsletter, Open Space, Parking, Sewers, Traffic, Water Quality Comments Off

Jan 062020

Belmont Timeline Featuring events significant to the Belmont’s history and Belmont Citizens Forum issues. 1654 The John Chenery house, 52 Washington Street, is built. The Chenery house is the oldest surviving house in Belmont. 1760 The Thomas Clark House is built on what is now Common Street. “Local tradition maintains that the Clark family witnessed the beginning of America’s War for Independence from the hill behind this house, seeing smoke and hearing the sounds of war breaking out on April 19, 1775.” —Joseph Cornish, BCF Newsletter, January 2011. It was moved in 2012, and finally demolished in 2014. 1805 “Ice [READ MORE]

Clay Pit Pond Progresses from Eyesore to Asset

Environment, Historic Preservation, History, Newsletter, November 2019, Open Space, Stormwater, Water Quality Comments Off

Nov 042019

Clay Pit Pond Progresses from Eyesore to Asset

By Michael Chesson Clay Pit Pond on Concord Avenue was once the site of Belmont’s largest industrial enterprise, a brickyard run by John H. and Robert A. Parry. The brothers bought 20¾ acres of land in 1888 on Concord Avenue and Underwood Street, with its valuable blue clay that turned an attractive reddish color when fired, and their yard produced 200,000 bricks a week. Just as the oil, steel, and railroad industries consolidated, the Parry brothers’ business in 1900 merged with the New England Brick Company, which owned three dozen other brickyards in the region. The firm installed new dryers, [READ MORE]

Copper Beeches Grace Belmont Grounds

March 2015, Newsletter Comments Off

Mar 122015

By Elizabeth Gourley “There is no finer specimen tree; so beautiful that it overwhelms one at first glance,” states Michael Dirr, University of Georgia professor and author of Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, on the merits of the European beech (Fagus sylvatica). One of the most striking cultivars of European beech is the copper beech (Fagus sylvatica ‘Cuprea’). A lovely specimen can be found in the small park adjacent to The First Church in Belmont Unitarian Universalist where Concord Avenue and Common Street intersect. This majestic tree has been overseeing our comings and goings for over 150 years. Tom Walsh, [READ MORE]

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