For Week #3 of the Newton Photo Scavenger Hunt, here are five more photos of objects in Newton that are odd or charming — and rather unique, rather permanent, and visible from public property. Can you identify them?
The first person to write in the comments below the correct (and sufficiently precise) location of the object will win one point per object identified. Separately, the first person to take a photo of the object and email it to [email protected] will win two points per object. At the end of the summer, whoever has the most points will win a $50 gift certificate for the Newton restaurant of the winner’s choice.
So far, in both Week 1 and Week 2, four out of 5 photos have been identified, leaving two waiting to be found: “2. Until Security Returns” and “9. No Trespassing.” Let’s raise the bounty to 3 points each for those two.
11. Gnome
12. Insect Hotel
13. 1834 Bell
14. Discarded Masonry
15. Chicken Farm Truck Pad
#15 is on the Green Line between Chestnut Hill and Newton Centre – I think it’s the only grade crossing outside of a station on the D branch. When the trolley slows down and rings its bell our 3-year- old actually says “Here comes the Chicken Farm Truck Pad!”
The abandoned chicken coop structure was still there until fairly recently, maybe five or ten years ago, and nearby Houghton Garden is one of our favorite places although because it’s fenced in with gates, dog owners seem to believe that it’s an off-leash park.
Other neighborhood highlights include the “Parking for Red Sox Fans Only” signs that are on the street over on Suffolk Road, rather incongruously given the area poshness.
13: bell tower from old firestation, in the Circle of Death just north of the Pike
14: In Cold Spring Park, off Beaconwood Rd, possibly a prop from the film The Cardinal
#2 “Until Security Returns” is on the gate at the Newton Centre Cemetery.
@Michael: Correct! When I see that sign, I imagine a line of chickens trucking down the Green Line, but I haven’t seen that yet.
@Adam: Correct on both counts! #13 is the bell from the Newton Corner fire station. It’s not very accessible to pedestrians, and I wonder how that small rock got there. #14 is indeed in Cold Spring Park, placed there about 100 years ago, when the area was (officially or unofficially) a dump. Dave Brigham tells the story of it in his wonderful blog, Backside of America. According to the essay he quotes, this masonry is an incorrect rendering of the coat of arms of Cardinal William Henry O’Connell. It has three fleur de lis instead of three shamrocks. So off to the dump it went, apparently.
@LisaP: Correct! 3 points for identifying this stubbornly unidentified photo. I’m looking forward to when security returns. 😉
Bruce I love this entire series. Keep them coming.
I know what #11 is but I’m staying mum since I put it there. It’s one of 5 gnomes, the only remaining one, that I put around the city. The other four didn’t last long and quickly succumbed to vandalism. This one has remained for years though.
@Jerry: Now that you mention it, I think that the shoes on #11 Gnome look suspiciously like the shoes in #6 Cement Shoes. Could it be that the latter is all that remains of one of your other four gnomes?
Yes indeed. #6 Cement Shoes under the bridge at Bulloughs Pond was the first gnome that was installed and I think it lasted maybe 48 hours. They are made of a very tough resin material but it was snapped right off. Over the years I’ve become ever more impressed with the destructive abilities of idle teenage boys – that would be my guess.
Here are a few additional footnotes. The “gnomes” were inspired by the Tour de Newton. After five years of the Tour De Newton we decided to revamp the whole event and turn it into the Magical Mystery Tour de Newton. The concept was that along the various routes the riders would encounter various random “mysteries”.
One of my favorites was – as each group of riders got to that Bulloughs Pond bridge, their leader would have them dismount and have the whole group walk through the gate and down the path into the woods alongside the stream. Off in the woods a brightly colored object would catch their attention up ahead, and then suddenly behind them, from under the bridge, a troll would start screaming at them for walking on his bridge. We borrowed the troll costume from the Free Puppet Library. It was quite startling and scared the hell out of the kids – which has always been a lifelong avocation of mine.
After the event it occurred to me that having a permanent troll under that bridge would be kinda great. I actually tracked down Newton artist Nancy Shon, who created the iconic bronze Make Way For Ducking sculptures in the Boston Public Gardens, to talk to her about it. She was wonderfully approachable and loved the idea but we pretty quickly realized it wouldn’t be financially feasible – bronze scuptures take a lot of time and materials to make, the installation isn’t simple, etc. It didn’t make sense for a hidden statue under a bridge.
I then lowered my sites from a life sized custom made bronze troll to a small manufactured resin gnome and a tube of epoxy. Since they were cheap, I ordered five of them. A few days later a package arrived and my co-conspirator and I went out and installed them all in a few hours.
#11 Gnome is the only one that withstood the test of time.
Note that after a few years of guarding the library, Gnome #11 recently disappeared.
@Jerry, thanks for that explanation. I can now retire my earlier supposition, which was that #6 Cement Shoes might be an art installation inspired by a six-word story. Yours, while scary for the kids on the Magical Mystery Tour of Newton, is a much more comforting image.
Loved the “six word story”. I had never heard of that before.
Still though, no one has yet come up with the very public location of #11 gnome.
Isn’t #11 Gnome the resident of the drain pipe at the library side entrance? Is “lower left as you enter” a precise enough answer for points?
At least he’s there when the racoons are social distancing . . .
@David Wallace: Correct! That is certainly precise enough. 😉 I love the expression on that gnome as he observes those crossing the bridge from the parking lot to the library.