Ask ten randomly selected Newtonian’s where the village of Thompsonville is and the answers are likely to go something like this:
3 will say “I’ve never heard of it”
2 will say” is that really a village”?
3 will tell you “its at the corner of Langley and Rt 9”
1 will say “I’m not sure but I think I may live there”
1 will say “I think it’s out near Worcester”
Ask ten people to name the 13 villages of Newton and they’ll either never come up with “Thompsonville” or it will be the last one on their list.
Adam Peller posted an item here, last year, about the boundaries of the village of Thompsonville. From the comments, nobody seems to know nuthin’ about where T’ville begins and ends.
Until now, I assumed T’ville used to be a more prominent village and that over time, with Route 9 turning into a highway it sort of faded away. While perusing the 1889 Kings Handbook of Newton I noticed that they list ten “villages” and five other areas of note in Newton – none of which was Thompsonville.
There is a mention of “the hamlet of Thompsonville which straggles across the crossroad and is party occupied by German families, living in small and prosaic houses.” That same paragraph also mentioned “Johnsonville”.
So how did Thompsonville ever become one of the officially recognized villages of Newton. There wasn’t much to it 1898 and there’s not much to it today. What happened during those 100 year? How did the tiny hamlet make it to the big leagues of village’dom while it’s brethren hamlet Johnsonville faded into obscurity. When was Thompsonville first called a village by the city and how did that happen? Inquiring minds want to know.
I think technically (from what I’d always been told), T-ville begins just past the top of the hill on Langely road, down to Rt. 9 – all on the mall side of Langely. At least, that’s what people I knew from there would insist. It’s bounded on one side by the Webster Conservation Area and what was once simply “Chestnut Hill.” Something like that.
Huh, though it’s not entirely clear on this, apparently it also includes some of what’s across Route 9 from there.
Found this at the Newton.gov website: http://www.newtonma.gov/civica/filebank/blobdload.asp?BlobID=39223
And who was the Thompson it was named after?
@ Julia – The King’s Handbooks says “Thompson was a laboring man, who lived in these woods as a hermit for several years, and as a reward had his name attached to this region”
As Ted Hess-Mahan said on a previous thread “It’s the only village named after a homeless guy” .. unless you count Chief Waban
You mean we have homeless in Newton???
No, he was waiting for the 59 bus.