My latest obsession continues … while perusing my copy of the 1889 Kings Handbook of Newton, in the chapter on Waban, after reading about Beacon Hill in Waban, I came across this passage:
Beacon street cross the line of the Circuit Railway <now the T Riverside line>, near the exquisite Waban station and only a little way from the spacious Almshouse, built about 50 years ago, and now about to be abandoned. Then it traverses the dull marshlands of Cold-Spring Brook, and the populous but architecturally unfortunate Hibernian settlement of Cork City; and so on into Newton Centre …”
This led to the 1900 Annual Report of the Mass Department of Health
About ten days ago information was received at this office that an unusual number of cases of dysentery had occurred in Newton Centre, and an inquiry was made among the local doctors to see if there was any common origin.
All of the cases seemed to have occurred in the three weeks preceding the report and as the cases were investigated they were apparently limited to two locations viz,: (1) a district known as Cork City and (2) a limited number of cases along the Boulevard in Newton Centre …..
… Cork City is a district in Newton Centre in the rear of the power station of the street railway company, comprising a small number of houses. Back of these houses is a small brook, the water of which is used by some of the inhabitants to wash both dishes and clothes. The conditions about the houses were also unsanitary, and in view of the present number of cases of the disease existing here, the board of health took measures to have them improved.
From the first excerpt, it sounds like Cork City was somewhere in the vicinity of Four Corners (i.e. Walnut and Beacon).
Has any of you ever heard of Cork City, know where it was, or have any other details?
Jerry, this publication by the Newton Historical Commission puts Cork City (aka Cold Springs City) closer to the cemetery. Four Corners was known as “Kerry Cross.”
FWIIW, as an youngster with Irish heritage growing up in Newtonville, I was interested to hear that the small community of North Street and Cummings Road (across Commonwealth Ave. from Lowell Ave.) was Cork City. It was there because it once housed the Irish gravediggers, who worked in the cemetery. I took the story to be true; I do not guarantee its complete accuracy.
Jerry, I live on Cummings Rd; and I’ve learned a bit about the history of the street from random web sites and talking with neighbors. While the King’s Handbook identifies the neighborhood as Cork City, from the old maps I’ve seen on the internet, the neighborhood (comprised mostly of North St. and Cummings Rd., as Patrick suggests) was once called Cold Spring City. The western part of the square that is home to City Hall was also part of Cold Spring City. The home across from me has been owned by the same family for generations. The current owner explained that the house was once located on the City Hall square but was moved to the end of Cummings Rd. when City Hall was constructed. The old maps also show that about half of Bullough’s Pond once sat on the western side of Walnut St. and from what I’ve read, typically flooded much of the land where City Hall stands now. Bullough’s Pond is labeled “Pearl Lake” on the old maps. On the old maps, Cummings Rd is labeled as Cemetery Ave and it ran directly into Newton Cemetery (a fence now stands in the way). There is a pond on the other side of the fence that is labeled “Crystal Lake” on the old maps whereas the present Crystal Lake is labeled “Baptist Pond” on the old maps. Lastly, another web site indicated that the original settlers of Cork City were Irish immigrants, most of whom worked on the construction of the Sudbury Aqueduct. Unfortunately, I did a poor job logging the URLs but it was fairly easy to find the old maps and they are fascinating!
It’s true. “Cold Spring City” or “Cork City” is clearly labeled on page 25 of this 1874 atlas of Newton. The street names were different, as was the name of Bullough’s Pond (“Pearl Lake”). But you can make out the names of Donahue, Coghlan, Kelly, Murphy, Callahan, Harrigan and Collins on what are now Cummings Road and North Street.
Here are a couple more items I found. The land where Newton Cemetery sits may have been home to Newton’s first chemical company. http://www.newtonma.gov/gov/historic/research/history/bemis.asp
Also, this excerpt from Nason and Varney’s Massachusetts Gazetteer, 1890, refers to Cork City as one of the villages of Newton.
http://capecodhistory.us/Mass1890/Newton1890.htm
David Olson did a great walk/talk on the history of Newton City Hall grounds a couple or three years ago. He showed a picture of when there were a few triple deckers along the Walnut Street side I think. Also street level billboards along Comm Ave. Very strange! I’d love to hear that talk again.
Julia, yes the house across from me looks like a triple decker so it was probably one of the houses along Walnut Street. Very interesting. How they moved a house that size a 1/4 mile down a narrow road, I don’t know.
Great stuff Kevin and Ted. I notice in that list of villages it looks like Waban was then Angiers Corner
And Angier’s Corner was where the Almshouse was.
And by 1900 a new Almshouse with 25 acres for farming was built on Winchester Street, the area we know as Nahanton Park http://www.nahantonpark.org/images/Almshouse.pdf
@Julia. David Olson’s NEWTV special was fascinating and a real eye opener. I never heard a word about Cork City growing up here. In addition to the triple deckers and the trolley lane, Commonwealth Avenue was graced or cursed with a number of large, generally tacky billboards. And, in addition to Cork City, there were also small Irish enclaves and neighborhoods spread throughout the City. Every Saturday morning at 6 AM, I join a number of friends for coffee over in West Roxbury. I travel East on Route 9 from the Highlands and take a right on Dudley Road. Just before I turn right on Dudley, there’s a strange almost spooky looking back road called Hurley Place, also on the right. From Route 9, it looks like a throwback to an earlier time. Anyone have any information about it?? I’m going to check it out next Saturday.
I see that the Patch website has a house on North Street as their “Home of the Week For Sale”. Does anyone want to buy a piece of history? It was built in 1850.
Here’s a story, sent to me by Maureen Reilly-Meagher, about the power station mentioned above. The power station is still there today between the library and Comm Ave on Homer St.
Most notable quote:
Moving buildings may not have been so unusual in the nineteenth century. Many decades ago when we first moved to Newton, we were told by an elderly neighbor, long since gone, that our house was built around 1900 on the site that used to be occupied by Newton Centre’s Episcopal church. (This much we’ve confirmed on old maps.) When the church became too small for its congregation, it was moved a couple of blocks to the playground, where it’s now The Hut, and Trinity Episcopal was built on Centre Street to accommodate a larger congregation. I don’t know how true any of this is–Trinity is a good fifteen years newer than our house, so the chronology of the story sounds iffy–but I’d like to think it is. Baptist Pond was so called, by the way, because the Baptist church in Newton Centre used it for baptisms. When it began to be used as a commercial ice pond later in the nineteenth century, its name was changed to Crystal Lake, which the ice company evidently thought sounded more sanitary.
I grew up on Cummings Rd and we knew it as Cirk City along with North St.