It was a sad way to start this beautiful morning. Like every other morning, my daughter and I walked up High St then up a neighbor’s driveway to get to the shortcut to the school bus stop. We ran headlong into a makeshift barricade and a construction guy made clear that there would be no more cutting through the property by the neighbors.
Bruce Marcy, the former owner of the house, had welcomed everyone to use the shortcut for many years. Bruce was an Upper Falls old-timer who grew up in the house. His father had cut the hole in the Emerson Playground’s chain link fence many many years ago when it was first erected and ever since the whole neighborhood used it as their shortcut to the playground with Bruce’s blessing.
Bruce moved to South Carolina about a year ago. The house has been sold and a contractor is rebuilding the house and adding a unit. At the moment the workmen say that they have to block the path for safety reasons since its a construction site. That’s perfectly sensible but nobody in the neighborhood is betting on the path being re-opened once construction is complete. It may sound silly, but it does feel like the end of an era to me. I hate to lose this neighborhood ‘back way’.
Meanwhile, the rest of the neighborhood is also buzzing with construction everywhere. We’ve got five active construction sites going this week within a block or so of our house. A few doors away is the old Moon & Sixpence site at the corner of Chestnut & Winter. That project has been dragging on forever. The half built site was idle for many months but a crew’s now back on the job there.
Just behind us, two houses at 80 High St are being gutted and rebuilt. One of those houses is the one with my water meter in it. That crew just began work this week.
Over the weekend a neighbor stopped by with a photo of the construction site at 45 High St. They’re digging a new foundation in the backyard to add a unit to that house. While the crew was digging they uncovered a big brick tunnel, maybe 4 or 5 feet across that appeared to be headed towards a neighbor’s yard. Nobody’s quite sure what it is but there’s no shortage of theories in the neighborhood – everything from a culvert, to a hiding place for the underground railroad, to a prohibition era stash.
If anyone can prove that this has been they have been using this as a “regular and particularized route” since 1994, then they can be granted a right-of-way easement under Massachusetts law.
http://masscases.com/cases/app/59/59massappct265.html
Here’s one for you. All the streets near my home end at the Charles River. When they built the river walk a home owner at the end of Wyoming St. piled tree limbs to block the pathways so people couldn’t access the river walk near his home. I keep clearing the path. He keeps adding bigger logs to block the path down to the river.
Michael – Very interesting. Thanks
…and actually the assessors’ map already shows some sort of easement on the south side of 59 High, from the street to the park.
I was wondering if there was any legal precedent to declare a regular cut-through to be an easement. From a community standpoint it makes sense, I just don’t know if there are legal ways around it.
As a kid in Tewksbury, I remember when certain houses changed hands, all of a sudden new owners were calling the cops to keep people from cutting through or accessing the local pond (I got harassed once walking home from school). Success varied, but it’s an interesting question.
@Colleen – I was involved with a similar cat-and-mouse game with an unknown local resident who was doing the same thing on a path in public parkland in our neighborhood. I eventually wore him/her down and they eventually gave up.
Kudos Colleen, its very easy to lose those paths if people don’t push back.
A few extreme cases of that happened on Cape Cod near where we camp in the summer. In the middle of the night a massive boulder suddenly appeared in the middle of a public right-of-way to the beach next to a homeowner who didn’t like people going past his property. The homeowner feigned ignorance “I have no idea where it came from. I woke up and it was there”. Because it couldn’t be moved without heavy machinery, there it stayed. The homeowner got their way and the right-of-way is effectively closed now and is overgrown.
@Michael – I believe that’s a gas line easement.
@Jerry – It would have been great if the city had shown more foresight in providing safe pedestrian passageways between neighborhoods, especially where there are dead end streets and abutting parks. On the other hand, if there’s no public right-of-way then I can understand how the new homeowner probably wouldn’t want people cutting across their yard, for privacy and liability reasons.
It’s a bit off topic, but ever since I moved to Newton I’ve been trying to figure out a pedestrian-friendly way to get from Oak Hill to the new Wegman’s, given that there are no sidewalks on Dudley Rd. or Hammond Pond Parkway. There’s a nice city-owned slice of land just east of Newton South between Brandeis Rd. and Dudley Rd., which connects up to Kennard Park, but it’s completely overgrown and impassable. So I guess that my only option is to either take my chances walking down the gutter of Dudley Rd. or to buy a Lexus SUV like everyone else and drive a mile and a half each time I want some milk.
Having grown up in Needham where there are well-maintained dual sidewalks on nearly every street, I’ve always been a bit baffled by the lack of sidewalks on major streets in Newton. Dudley Rd. and much of Dedham St. come to mind. And it seems as though the City of Newton is in cahoots with Needham to prevent any safe pedestrian passage between the two towns – Nahanton St. has never had any sidewalks, Needham St. leads into the automotive wasteland of Exit 19, and somebody has even put up a lovely fence on the western end of the Upper Falls Greenway.
Jerry, one day last summer I was clearing the path down to the river and the abutter came out of his house and told me to stop moving the branches. He pulled out his phone and told me he was going to call the police, even though the path is MDC land. A bit of yelling followed and I walked away.
The last place any change like this should be occurring is on High Street. The houses and lots on that street come closest to having the feel of the old Newton I grew up in. My family and a friendly neighbor on Woodward Street have kept a path open between our two properties so kids are still free to walk through the two yards from Woodward to Dickerman near the aqueduct where the school bus stops to pick up students in the morning. Young kids seem almost dumbfounded that it remains open. It’s the only corridor left on this side of Dickerman Road and the only two houses without fences of any kind. There was a time when kids could roam at will through most yards in this neighborhood and talk with the owners who might be doing things around the yard. No longer. We are completely surrounded by high fences and enclosed lots and we hardly know most of the new neighbors that have built these enclosures. Very few people do their own yard work, so that form of contact is also dead for all intents and purposes. The security search lights at night are a final nail in the coffin of civility and community. It’s amazing how many people stop to chat when I’m working in the front of the house because it’s so uncommon to see owners doing this sort of thing. Gibbon talks about some similar things occurring in Rome in the twilight of the Empire. Hope it’s not a harbinger of things to come here.
@Bob – I was a bit disappointed this morning about the path but I’m not quite ready to draw parallels with the fall of the Roman Empire 😉
It’s great to hear that you keep a similar path available for your neighbors Bob. Good man!
@Jerry. I sense Alaric with his Visigoths are right on the border with Brookline.
Nasty bunch they were.
Could the hidden underground room/tunnel be a bomb shelter?
Did the backhoe destroy this? Is the Upper Falls Historic District Commission or the Newton Historical Commission aware of the discovery? Seems quite interesting
@Hoss – funny you should mention that. I just took a look myself and snapped this photo on the way back from the bus stop ten minutes ago.
The next door neighbor is on the Upper Falls Historic Commission. He’s already forwarded a photo to the city in case it’s something someone wants to get a more detailed look at. Technically I don’t believe it comes under the jurisdiction of the Historic Commission since it’s not visible from the street.
It would be nice to learn more about what it is before it’s covered up again. “Historic Newton, can you hear me? Would anyone like an Upper Falls field trip on a lovely spring day?”
Also, one curious detail that may not be obvious from that photo. It’s not round. The sides flatten out.
Seeing the proximity to the foundation, two further guesses would be a root cellar or a coal storage area.
I’m concerned that there appears to be little hope of saving the historic Wetherell House on Elliot Street, home to some of Upper Falls’ prominent early families. A developer plans to demolish it. Upper Falls is one of the Newton villages with a very special character. I hate to see this part of village history destroyed, when restoration is an option.
Speaking very generally, in order to establish that this was an easement you would need to prove that it was adverse to the owner, that is, without permission. These types of issues are very fact bound and contentious. Let me just also add that in my experience, disputes between neighbors rival the nastiest of divorces as they have the ability to disrupt entire neighborhoods and create animosities that can linger for years.
Does the path from Pettee street still run to Thurston road, at the corner of the playground?
@Christopher – yes. I think you’re talking about the path from the Thurston Rd corner of the playground to Rockland Place. It’s still there and well used.
That would be the one, yes. Good. Though I haven’t walked down it in close to 40 years, at least it still exists.
Christopher – Here’s a photo of it.
@Jerry – Just wanted to let you know I’ve had Supertramp stuck in my head for the last 2 weeks. Thanks.
Ouch! My apologies.
Here’s one for the next two weeks – Archies “Sugar sugar”.
You’re welcome
“It’s a Small World”, Jerry. Go. Have fun.
Chris Steele – grrrrr