From Wikipedia:
Howard J. Whitmore Jr. (May 9, 1905 – June 19, 1998) was an American politician who was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1947–1953 and Mayor of Newton, Massachusetts from 1954–1959.
Whitmore graduated from Harvard College in 1929, where he was a pitcher for the Crimson baseball team. His political career began in 1940 when he was elected to the Newton Board of Aldermen. From 1947-1953, he was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, where he was the Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means. He left the House in 1953 after being elected Mayor of Newton.
For years, the field at the corner of Winchester and Dedham Streets was called the Harold Whitmore Field, and there was a prominent sign with his name on it. (He lived in Newton Highlands.) After the field was renovated recently, the sign disappeared, and Parks & Rec now designate it as Newton Highlands Playground and/or the Joseph Lee Playground.
Does anyone know why Mr. Whitmore’s name was removed? I had a chance to have a lovely conversation with him back in the 1990’s, and it seems a shame to strip his name from this park.
And who is/was Joseph Lee?
Meredith,
Joseph Lee of Newton is either:
1. Apparently born into slavery became prominent Newton restaurateur, hotelier and inventor of bread crumbling machine,
or
2. Dentist currently practicing in Newton.
The Lee designation existed first. You can see mentions of it in the Newton Graphic in 1943 [1] and 1969 [2]. I haven’t been able to track down the history of when the Whitmore name was added.
[1] https://archive.org/details/NewtonGraphicAug_1943/page/n19?q=%22joseph+lee%22
[2] https://archive.org/details/NewtonGraphicJun_1969/page/n69?q=%22joseph+lee%22
Also, apparently this Joseph Lee was not the prominent hotelier/inventor (or the dentist). According to content on the city website [1, 2] he was the “father of the playground movement”.
[1] http://www.newtonma.gov/civicax/filebank/documents/56948
[2] http://www.newtonma.gov/civicax/filebank/documents/57176
Thanks, Jeremy!
Thanks!
On a bit of a research kick now… I hope nobody minds… still trying to get to the bottom of this Whitmore business but there’s a limit to what can be done from the computer…
I did come across something else interesting: In 1974 the MDC voted [1] to designate the fieldhouse at Daly Field (between Daly Rink and Community Rowing) in honor of the same Howard Whitmore. In 2016 Daly Field was revamped in a partnership between the City of Boston and Simmons College. I have not visited the revamped site, but I would definitely be curious to know if Mr. Whitmore’s name has persisted there or met the same fate as in Newton Highlands.
[1] https://archive.org/details/metropolitandist40mass/page/186?q=whitmore+field
The juxtaposition of the two historic Joseph Lees’, only one named in connection with the Winchester-Dedham Street Playing Field, is most interesting.
That Playing Field, upon the further findings, does appear to have been originally named for Joseph Lee (1862-1937), the “father of the playground movement” to promote what he saw as the “American way of life”. That same Joseph Lee, born into great Boston wealth and practicing philanthropy, was also a leader of the Immigration Restriction League, promoting policies and restrictions on their belief that immigrants from southern and eastern Europe were ethnically inferior to Anglo-Saxons, threatening what the League saw as the “American way of life”.
While the other Joseph Lee (1849-1908), attending high school in Newton and Harvard College and buried in Newton Cemetery, was born an impoverished African American slave in South Carolina, rising to becoming a famed Massachusetts hotelier in the late 19th century — Newton’s upscale Woodland Park Hotel expanded to great beauty with expansive grounds and athletic facilities (at Washington St. & Woodland Rd.) with distinguished guests as Presidents Harrison, Arthur and Cleveland and others, as well as owning/operating the top-quality Abbotsford Hotel in the Back Bay, and the South Shore’s summer resort Squantum Inn, and restaurants including the Pavilion at Norumbega Park and catering and food service companies. And finally he was the inventor of the patented bread kneader — performing the work of 6 persons, more hygienically, the basis for machines used today as well as innovating therefrom the use of bread crumbs for frying and numerous other types of dishes (transforming stale bread into useful ingredients).
Perhaps the second Joseph Lee’s name can be attached, as well, to the Winchester-Dedham Street Playing Field.
@Jeremy, thanks. He was Commissioner of the MDC for a while, too.
@Jim, fascinating! Not sure the first Mr. Lee would be so well regarded in town today!
Howard and Henrietta Whitmore were neighbors and friends of my parents despite the fact that they were staunch Republicans and my folks were fervent New Deal Democrats. Their son, Howard III and I were in the same grade at Hyde and Weeks and were good friends, particularly in our earlier years. Howard was an open and very tolerant man who never let political differences stand in the way of friendship and I know he always put the best interests of Newton front and center when he was mayor.
What hasn’t been mentioned was his run against Ted Kennedy in the 1964 U.S. Senate election. The Republican establishment was looking desperately for a moderate to take on the hopeless task of beating Kennedy because they didn’t want a Goldwater enthusiast at the top of their ticket for fear it would sink John Volpe who was going to be their candidate for governor. Henrietta feared that Howard would be asked to take on this thankless task at the upcoming Republican state convention. She made him promise he would not accept the offer. Howard attended the convention and the powers that be quickly pressured a reluctant Whitmore in making the run. When he was wavering, one of the fixers asked if Whitmore’s reluctance was due to the fact he was “scared” of Kennedy to which Whitmore responded, “the hell with Ted, what am I going to tell Henrietta”.
I was coming home from the Navy just as the campaign was getting into high gear and I immediately offered to give Whitmore a helping hand. It was never much of a campaign, but Howard Whitmore helped set in motion a chain of events that would put moderate Republicans in the catbird’s seat here and in parts of Washington for many years. Volpe edged out his Democratic opponent by less than 10,000 votes and it was clear he would have lost if someone like Whitmore hadn’t been at the top of the ticket. Volpe went on to become Nixon’s Secretary of Transportation and Frank Sargeant, his successful Lieutenant Governor went on to serve two terms as governor here.
Thanks for the stories, @Bob. People often forget, now, that the Republican party was often the more progressive one for several decades, at the forefront of environmental protection and civil rights at both the state and national level. The Hatch Act, for example, introduced state protection of wetlands. Frank Sergeant stopped the construction of the Inner Belt, which would have been an extension of I95 into Cambridge, saying it was time to invest in mass transit instead. And Eliot Lee Richardson, as U.S. Attorney General, resigned rather than obey President Nixon’s order to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox. And earlier, John Wingate Weeks, alderman from 1899–1902 and mayor from 1903–04, for whom the school was named, later went to Congress and introduced the bill that enabled the creation of national forests in the eastern United States.
Paul, yep, and don’t forget Lincoln was a Republican, the GOP far more favored and voted for the Civil Rights Act in the 1960’s than the Dems, Nixon launched the EPA and was behind the landmark Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 and the Clean Air Act, and even today Trump pushed enactment of the most major Criminal Justice Reform helping primarily Blacks as well as brought policies creating the lowest unemployment/highest employment of Blacks in American history by far.
Oh, @Jim, a big difference is that the folks I mentioned had personal integrity and always spoke in civil language.
(V14, sorry about national politics, but this is in reply to the above)
Paul,
I’m reluctant to take the bait since I assume you are referring to POTUS Nixon and POTUS Trump; suffice to say stand by. Within the next 3 months the attempted coup d’etat to take out the current duly elected President by the Deep State, Democrats and main stream media will soon be clearly revealed. Talk about personal integrity?, try treason, making Nixon’s Watergate look like kids play. I can imagine you and other readers are chortling now by what I say — so I’d invite anyone to re-address this after the indictments.
(BTW Trump has done more for African Americans in 3 years than their being 30 years on the Democrat Plantation.)
For now, the only “conspiracy” I’m focused on is why Howard’s name was taken off the park. Let’s try to get back to that.
Paul, I agree the only “conspiracy” is removal of Mayor Howard’s name (to put closure on your national discussion, simply see this, https://www.zerohedge.com/political/horowitz-report-will-be-damning-criminal-referrals-likely ).
This post comes from Historic Newton: To return to the subject of the two men named Joseph Lee, the one who was a chef and owner of the Woodland Park Hotel did indeed receive a patent for a bread baking machine and another for a bread crumbing machine. In the 1880s, he was listed as one of the richest men in Newton. However, it was his son who attended school in Newton and then Harvard College. The other Joseph Lee was the playground advocate. We’re glad to see people discussing local history here.
Hello,
My name is Nancy Miller. My father was Howard Whitmore. How interesting to come across this information. I have been wondering why my father’s name was removed from the field for quite a while. I was at the dedication ceremony and remember it well. I am hoping, when this virus pandemic passes, I will pursue an explanation to the renaming of the field. Thank you.
Nancy Miller