Jim Morrison wrote an article in this past week’s Newton Tab about the last remaining building connected with Newton’s Almshouses.
Local resident Mike Clarke has compiled a fascinating 40 page history about Newton’s almshouses. I knew the word “almshouse” but never knew the details. The first Newton almshouse (aka “poorhouse”) was built in 1817 in Auburndale, roughly on the location of the now defunct Turtle Lane Playhouse. Previous to this, the city more or less auctioned off the poor folks to individuals for their labor through a process called “vendue” so the almshouses were a definite step forward. In 1840, the city built a 2nd almshouse in the backwater of Waban.
After the railroad arrived in Waban in the 1880’s, serious development began, property values started to rise and pressure mounted to move the poorhouse out of Waban. In 1900 a new replacement almshouse opened on Winchester St. That house ran continuously until it was shuttered in 1964 and soon after demolished.
The only remaining building in the city with a direct connection to Newton almshouse history is a small 1 1/2 story brick building at the site of the Winchester St almshouse, that was used to store vegetables. It’s now in the hands of the Parks and Recreation Dept, and they’re trying to decide what to do with it. It’s an important piece of history but it’s of limited utility and will be expensive to rehabilitate.
Says Mike – “ The remaining almshouse structure was solidly built in 1938, probably as a WPA structure. It has a 12 foot high, 20 inch thick stone foundation topped by a one foot thick brick structure. While it was used as a carpentry shop by the Public Buildings Department for about 50 years, it was not well maintained and now needs costly maintenance and improvements. As part of the deal for providing a site for temporary Fire Station 10 in Nahanton Park, the building will be turned over to Parks and Rec, which has yet to find a use for it. The committee searching for a use is soliciting suggestions consistent with a park or recreation use. Ideas can be sent directly to the Parks & Rec Commission ([email protected]) or to [email protected]. “
Aside from the details of this building, Mike’s entire history of Newton’s almshouses is full of all sorts of amazing and fascinating details.
* The 19th century institutional names – “The Mass School for Idiotic and Feeble Minded Youth”, “The Home for Crippled Children”
* Insanity and the poor – Prior to 1830, the insane and the destitute were lumped together and housed together
* The story of the Blind Hermit of Nonantum
* Roads and almshouses – the common arrangement, followed in Newton, where the Warden of the Almshouse was also the Superintendent of Roads since the almshouse residents performed much of the labor on the roads
*Poor foreigners – Edwin Fowle, Newton’s 1883 Overseer of the Poor floating the idea that the city should stop collecting poll taxes from the incoming foreigners so that the city would avoid the legal obligation of looking after its foreign born indigent.
Many thanks go to Mike Clarke for becoming a local historian and delving into this almost forgotten history of Newton.
The nexus between firehouses and housing for the poor and homeless appears to be a recurring theme in Newton. Jim Morrison sent me the following excerpt from an article published in a local newspaper in 1899, which was attached to the Minutes of the Overseers of the Poor 1892-1905:
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
Does anyone else find irony in the following statement from this article?
“After the railroad arrived in Waban in the 1880’s, serious development began, property values started to rise and pressure mounted to move the poorhouse out of Waban.”
In 2014 it seems history repeated itself when Waban residents successful prevented the old Fire Engine building from being re-purposed as a home for impoverished homeless people. We haven’t evolved very much since the 1880’s it seems.
I find it interesting that two posters stereotyped people based on one aspect of their identity.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
Jane Frantz-How many homeless people do you know personally? Can you name one homeless person that you know who isn’t impoverished? Anyone who lives in a homeless shelter does so because they have no money and or no ability to live anywhere else. Would Waban have allowed the Fire Engine building to be used for housing for wealthy homeless people? Wealthy homeless would have been good for the economy of The Waban Village I would think?
It’s sad that many of the cruel, selfish and nasty stereotypes about the poor that were so prevalent in the 19th century are back in fashion with a vengeance. Folks that have been spared the traumas of mental illness, depression, addiction, broken homes, poor educational opportunities etc. too often can’t picture themselves ever winding up at the bottom of the economic ladder and homeless. The irony is that a lot of the people now at the bottom never thought they would be there either.
@Bob Burke –
Here’s a story from Mike Clarke’s history”
“Miss Bridges had been brought up in luxury, but through unwise investments lost her entire fortune. Having no means of earning a livelihood, she entered the almshouse when she was 39. Her misfortunes preyed upon her mind, and by 1905 she had become somewhat demented, but remained active and was a great favorite with the other inmates”
It doesn’t even have to be “unwise investments” now. The fraudulent foreclosures, the loss of many middle income jobs, the prices of goods and services continuing to rise while income/minimum wage stay the same, the ever growing cost of healthcare and the ever widening income gap have brought many to a place they never imagined possible.
People in their 30’s and 40’s making $50 to $100 thousand a year cannot live the lifestyle their parents did making the same amount and neither can seniors trying to live on social security. As incomes stagnated, 2 parent families could keep up when both adults worked (many 2 jobs), then as time passed many turned to loans (including predatory payday loans) and credit cards to keep up. But at some point there becomes no way to keep up. The threat of homelessness is a real one for many Americans.
But even with so many working hard and still not making a living wage, as Bob says, the old “attitudes are back with a vengeance” and what a shame that is.
Alison – I was referring to the stereotyping of people who live in Waban, not homeless people.
I’ve known Jane and enjoyed talking with Jane for many years. She’s the last person I know who would disparage the poor whether they live in Newton or elsewhere.
Sorry if I misunderstood what you were saying Jane. It appears as though other comments that were posted in this thread have been removed quietly most likely by Greg Reibman. It is funny how he didn’t make such a big deal of the removal of these comments as he does of other people’s comments like mine and Josh Norman’s. Pretty creepy and weird.
@Alison: Speaking of “creepy and weird” it feels as if you’re talking about me as if I were dead. You do realize that I read Village 14? If you have a question for me, why not address it to me?
@Alison Haran – A commenter can always ask that their own comment be taken down and that was the case in this thread.
“How many homeless people do you know personally?”
Quite a few, I work in that field with them.
Trust me, they frequently aren’t what people would think, not by any means. I have known Homeless Network Engineers and Nuclear Physicists, and that’s not a joke. There are so many reasons people go homeless it isn’t funny; it’s not all the oft-repeated “oh they must be alcoholics or drug addicts” meme.
Anyways, just throwing in here; pray continue.
@JerryReilly- Thanks for explaining that Jerry. It has always bothered me that there is no way to edit my comments after they have been posted on here so it is good to know that I can ask for them to be removed if I post something that I later decide to retract or want to edit and re-post. I noticed that Greg has copyrighted The Village 14 blog. Is there any particular reason for him doing so? Does that mean that he is the sole owner and principal of this blog?
I guess if there is an “owner” it would be Greg Reibman and Sean Roche since they founded it. The concept of “ownership” doesn’t count for much when talking about an entity that has no revenue and who’s only value is the collective writings of all the contributors, which of course includes all of those who comment too.
As for the very occasional rule making or decision making, that’s always been done pretty informally and collectively via off-line email amongst the dozen+ regular contributors, with neither Greg nor Sean wielding any veto power.
As for any copyright issues – I have no idea.
@Greg Reibman-I found it strange that comments were removed from this thread without a notification being made that the comments were being removed. In the past when you have removed comments that I made or that Josh Norman made you made a very specific point to state that the thread had been altered or cleaned up which was not done in this case. When you edit the content of threads without notifying the people who are reading it that the content has been edited it skews things and results in comments that I made based on now deleted comments irrelevant. I would also like to know if you know who the anonymous posters are on this blog? I would assume that you have a listing of everyone’s email and IP address? Is that a correct assumption? The reason that I would like answer to that is because there are some technologically naive people out there who might actually believe that they are anonymous to you when they use a pseudonym on here when in reality they are not.
A list of ip addresses? Oh, come on. And an email address only reveals someone’s identity if it includes their actual name or other identifying information, which is not the kind of email address anyone wishing to remain anonymous would use. Even the most technologically naive.
But I do agree that some notes should be made when comments are removed – tthrethread made no sense to me, and now I know why.
Also, for the record, only one comment was removed from this thread. As Jerry noted it was done at the author’s request. None of the comments that followed were in response to it. I don’t think too many people even read that particular comnment since it was removed pretty quickly.
I agree that this thread is confusing (even before Alison hijacked it) but it’s not because of the missing comment. I suspect Jane’s comment here was referring to comments on another thread but you’d have to ask her.
Generally speaking, whenever we remove a comment here that impacts the conversation, we note that we’ve done so. Does this always happen? Maybe not always but, again we’re volunteers here. Sometimes we’re busy and it’s simple for us to remove a comment from, say, one’s iPhone and slightly more time consuming to post a comment saying we’ve just done so.
OK now back to our regularly scheduled disagreements.
@Tricia-There are tons of websites that for $3 will tell you exactly who a person is based on their email address. There are even several free ones. Check out spokeo and pipl’s websites if you do not believe me. I feel that whomever owns and or moderates this website should so so with an even hand and they should be fair and uniform in their policies and practices for running this blog. I do not feel that this is always the case as was represented in this instance by the very stealth removal of comments on here. This bothers me because I made follow up comments to the comments that were removed and as you stated the thread no longer flows nor does it make a lot of sense.
@Greg Reibman-I would like to know if you feel that you are impartial enough to be moderating this website that you created? In a recent thread you bent over backwards and ran with your tail between your legs to apologize to some bloggers on here for your use of the word “hysterical” in a thread. I have never seen you cower like that before and it only made me wonder who the blogger “Joanne” was that intimidated you so much to apologize so profusely over such a silly matter?
@Alison: Yes, not only do we have your IP addresses but access to your web camera, even when your lap top is off!
@Everyone else: I’m joking above. Yes we can see your IP address. But frankly we’re busy people and we don’t care that much. Plus, it’s 2015 and anyone who thinks they are entirely anonymous anytime they go online is more than a little naive.
More to the point, why the paranoia Alison? What do you think we’re going to do with your IP address?
And to clarify, by “we” I mean all of the editors here, not just me.
This is a volunteer run blog. This site has been up for three years. We haven’t outed a commenter, sold their names or showed up at their doorstep once. Participants aren’t forced to comment here.
Then you have the nerve to ask if I’m “impartial” enough? My first response is, “If you don’t like the it here, why the heck do you spend so much time here?”
And then I wonder: “Impartial about what?” It’s true I’m passionate about Newton. But this site would be pretty darn boring if everyone agreed about everything. We want — change that — we thrive on differing views. But no one is forced to come here.
I apologized to Joanne for a poor word choice. And you hammer me for owning up to a mistake? I happen to think you owe me an apology for challenging my motives here. I don’t care if I get it or not but, really, you’ve hijacked what could have been an interesting thread to warn people that the Village 14 bloggers might discover that a person commenting lives in Newton?
Geesh.
@Greg Reibman-Thank you very much for answering my question in a direct and decise manner. I appreciate that. And for the record I have a piece of tape covering my laptop camera so there is no way that anyone can be watching me unless they are peeping in my windows with drones. Have a good day.
Well since this thread is now officially hijacked and since we’ve now had three references to things “creepy and weird” in this thread…. did I mention that the final two performances of the Nomadic Theater’s ghost story, The Turn of the Screw are this weekend 😉
I do hope that everyone who’s been wandering so far afield on this thread, as we all do from time to time, did take the time and trouble to read Mike Clarke’s account of the Newton Almshouses. It’s well worth the read and definitely has direct connections to issues today. As some guy once said “the poor you will always have with you”.
Alison, in the past comments have been removed that cross a line into insulting or demeaning others by name whether commenters or not. It appears that a comment or two that are removed for “rule breaking” are generally handled personally by email as Greg says, by anyone who is a contributor who sees the problem. Continued abuse and multiple abuses are the only ones I’ve seen posted as “removed” for any length of time on the thread, such as Josh Norman. Sometimes if the surrounding comments continue in that vein, they are “quietly” removed too. I don’t see a more fair way of moderating. It is a time consuming “job.”
And most copywrites are to obtained to discourage others use of what is copywriten, that’s what mine are for. I would assume Greg simply doesn’t want V14 used except in reference to this blog. (See Marvin Gaye’s family vs “Blurred Lines'”Pharrell and Robin Thicke ” which just resulted in the former being awarded $7.9 million from the latter. http://youtu.be/ziz9HW2ZmmY) Great mashup. An example of income generating copywrite infringement.
Have you read the commenting rules. If you use two email addresses you are breaking them. But it was you who mentioned it on the blog, not anyone else.
I don’t think anyone would venture onto a town blog without knowing that many would know who they are, including the moderators. If they don’t, I’d be surprised. Afterall Josh Norman googled commenters to get info, so could anyone else.
Other posts have been removed for blatantly hijacking a thread so I think this discussion is only left here because it would provoke some to call “conspiracy” because the hijacking is about the moderators. But it would be just great if you personally get in touch with Greg, or another moderator, for answers to questions about procedure.
For the record, a comment here has been removed from here and I emailed the author to explain why.
Jerry, I’m sure this weekend’s performances will follow in the great success of previous shows. As a college student I was fascinated by Henry James and particularly The a Turn Of The Screw. (Of course in my late teen angst he and other authors like Somerset Maughn, were tailor made.) I wrote theses on both after studying them in Philosophy as well as literature. When I saw you were putting on the Turn, I tried to remember why I was so enthralled by it so I reread it. It’s a short, but great Victorian ghost story but I’m still puzzled as to my almost obsession with it. I planned to go to the performance in Sudbury, but ending up not making it. That must have been a great setting. Unfortunately I’m out of town and won’t be back for a while so I’ll miss it. So sad.
On topic, I have read the history of the Almshouses, along with other similar histories of Newton and agree it is definitely a must read. Newton has been significantly involved in almost all of the history of this country, along with Virginia, and these works provide a thorough cross section of how history repeats itself over and over again.
My, my, go away for a day and look what happens.
This is the real live sequence of events: two posters made comments that included the common stereotype that Waban residents are uncaring and self centered. I presently live in Waban, and have found my people here to be generous, neighborly, and friendly people, just as my neighbors in Newtonville and Auburndale were. So I made a quick comment in which I meant to indicate that the two posts reinforced a stereotype of people in Waban. I was misunderstood and a poster thought I was making a disrespectful comment about homeless people.
That’s pretty much what began this tempest in a V14 teapot. The first three posts are still up, so you can at the very least see for yourself how the sequence of events began.
Just to clarify, because it’s important to be clear – that should have read, “I have found people here,” and not “my people…”. Imagine what someone might do with that careless edit!
Dear Fane – You need to spend more time editing your posts. I often suggest to my students that they slow down a bit so that they express themselves clearly or, at the very least, spell their names correctly.
I also think you Need to take this blog Way MORE Seriously!!