For Week #8 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. NOTE: Comments will be closed until 8PM Tuesday (8/25) to give everyone some time to explore and ponder before answers start arriving.
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…and a V14 commemorative mug. After seven weeks of the scavenger hunt, the current totals are: Michael 7; Dave Brigham 5; 3 each for Adam, LisaP, and Fignewtonville; 2 each for David Wallace and Dalek; and 1 each for Nanci Ginty Butler, Bob Burke, Sean Roche, Maureen Reilly Meagher, Michael’s son, Chuck Tanowitz, Newton Highlands Mom, John Q Public, and Patrick M. Still unidentified — and available for finding — are 22. Phone Booth, 23 Ceramic Sculpture, and 32 Dog or Lion?.
36. Masked Statue
37. Ceramic with Message
38. Rooster
39. Danger Will Not Clear Man
40. Scary Guy
36 Masked Statue – Newton Free Library near the corner of Walnut Street and Homer Street.
38 Rooster – at a private residence on Homer Street corner of Manor House Road.
#38 the Rooster is at the corner of Homer and Morton streets.
@LisaP: Correct and Correct! Here’s an article about the rooster and his flock of chickens.
@Dave Brigham: So close, but LisaP beat you to the buzzer… and got the closer cross street (Manor House, not Morton, which is very close by). 🙁
We had a good time scavenger hunting this afternoon – we also visited the rooster and his friends on Homer Street, which was very eggciting. We asked the mailman if he’d ever seen the phone booth but he hadn’t.
We also had a picnic at Auburndale Park, which is where we though #37 might be, but it’s not there.
Then we walked the Upper Falls Greenway because I thought that #39 was at the site of the old Clark’s warehouse, but it turns out that #39 is actually over on the other side of Needham Street, off Christina.
@Michael: Correct about #39. I thought that would be found quickly, since Jerry Reilly wrote about its discovery last December. As I was collecting photos back then, it nearly broke my heart that he posted about one of the best candidates for this Scavenger Hunt.
Bruce- thanks for the article. I have so admired the growing rooster family over the years. So charming and something I go out of my way to see every year. Now about that red phone booth… I’m so intrigued!
And of course, we are blessed to have so many beautiful statues at the library.
Lisap, judging by the terrain in the phone booth photo, my guess is that it’s near the northern edge of Newton’s Roxbury puddingstone deposit, somewhere along the line between Waban Village, Cold Spring Park, and the Newton Centre Playground. I’ve probably shown that photo to 20 people, mostly police officers and postal carriers, but no luck so far!
My theory for this week is that #37 is somewhere along the Charles, based on the greenery and the light. I know the shoreline across from Needham pretty well and I don’t think it’s there, unless it’s a new addition to Wells Ave. During our picnic in Auburndale Park today we met an extremely kind Wellesley librarian who knew that area pretty well and she’d never seen it up there. And last week we walked the Newton side of the Charles River path from Watertown Square to Russo’s and back, but don’t recall having seen it there either.
Congrats to Lisa for her quick draw and mastery of geography!
#39 has gone, removed a few weeks ago from my secret way home. Had I known it was going to be removed, I would have offered to purchase it.
That’s unfortunate, Marie Jackson. That sign was historic and evocative. You still may find an opportunity to buy (or otherwise acquire?) a similar sign elsewhere.
So many of these seemingly “rather unique, rather permanent” objects are becoming not one or the other!
There was also one of the #39 signs at the old Clarks’ warehouse, but a couple of days ago during our Upper Falls Greenway walk, we confirmed that it’s gone.
Over by where the actual sign in the picture was, the abandoned Christina Street railroad bridge along those same tracks was always the most stress-free way to cross between Needham and Newton, especially during the reconstruction of the Highland Ave. interchange, but in June of 2019 a new CEO took over at the Price Center and locked the gate to the bridge so you can’t get across now, despite my pleas to both him and the city to reopen it. It turns out that the MBTA sold them the right of way through their parking lot for (if I recall correctly) a few thousand bucks, so they’re free to do what they see fit. A feasibility study has supposedly been funded to turn the bridge into a path once Northland opens, but I won’t hold my breath.
Yesterday I went out for a walk in search of numbers 22-23-32-27-40 (with a bonus ball of 99!) but I came up short again – we Needhamites are at a significant disadvantage these days because even though I left home pretty early (a little after 4pm), by the time I made my way from Needham to Nonantum (via Upper Falls, Waban, Auburndale, and West Newton), it was already dark.
I did make an amazing discovery of my own though – I sidetracked to the Auburndale boat house and for the first time in my life I came across the city park that occupies 13 acres of the old Norumbega Park – I never knew it was there! I’d always been under the impression that the entire Norumbega site was now occupied by the Marriott. The park entrance off Comm Ave. is pretty nondescript and I didn’t really have any idea where I was going, but I was fortunate enough to bump into Paul Solman, who really knows his Norumbega history.
Also, the path along the river through Auburndale Park up to the canoe culvert at the cove is one of the most beautiful walks in Newton, IMHO. But I’d recommend a true N95 mask if you venture past the cove, because the inlet across from Fox Island is filled with blue-green algae, and once you get into Waltham the Woerd Ave. bridge is out, so you need to detour past signs that say:
at the (now demolished) O’Hara Waltham Dial Co. site across from the Newton dump.
@Michael-
You absolutely must go explore Norumbega tower, though technically it is in Weston. There is an extraordinary history behind the tower and Eben Hortsford, who funded the construction of the tower as well as the statue of Leif Erickson on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. The Erickson statue was also funded by many of Boston’s intelligentsia at the time, but they followed Professor Hortsford’s lead. Norumbega tower is a cool spot to explore, and the tower engraving has been tidied up recently. Enjoy.
Lisap – good advice, I’ll check it out. Our awesome Needham historian, Gloria Greis, wrote an excellent article about Horsford and his “discovery” of the lost city of Norumbega.
I actually think a fun trip would be to kayak from the Auburndale boathouse across to Norumbega tower, and then up to that cool canoe culvert under Forest Grove Road and through to Purgatory Cove, but blue-green algae scares the bejeezus out of me after I read the (as yet unproven) claims by a doctor at Dartmouth-Hitchcock that cyanobacterial blooms might be linked to ALS clusters.