Newton Lower Falls
Special Riverside Edition
Riverside, Then and Now
The current proposal presented for development in and around Riverside Station is the latest in a long line of projects imagined, planned and sometimes even built on or near the site. As contemporary newspaper articles demonstrate, each new idea was met with a mix of enthusiastic support and vocal opposition. What can we learn by looking a little deeper into the changes in the use of this site over time?
Riverside, the recreation area - 1900
The Riverside recreation complex of the early 20th century was comprised of boathouses, ballrooms, restaurants, playing fields, a swimming pool and the Norumbega Amusement Park. The area was quite well-developed and included its own police station to maintain order in the area. (The building was later reused for canoe and kayak rental.)
Which building in this photograph is still there today?
Riverside, the recreation area - 1900
Boating was so popular that a map of the area was created for boaters in 1870. Revised in 1901, Norumbega Park has been added and a variety of recreation areas and boathouses are included. Most of the land on the Weston side of the river is open space.
Norumbega - the town
A number of older maps dating to the 1500—1600s use the name Norumbega for the New England region. Norumbega became connected with the Charles River through the writings of Eben Horsford. A Harvard professor and chemist (and the inventor of Rumford Double-Acting baking powder), Horsford believed that the name Norumbega was a variation of Norway and that the Vikings, led by Leif Eriksson, had established a settlement in Weston. Horsford erected a tower to mark the location.
Do you have this in your pantry? What does it do?
Norumbega - the amusement park
Norumbega Park opened in 1897, created by a local streetcar company to encourage ridership. Parts of the park were still open into the 1960s. The park included carnival rides, animal exhibits and the Totem Pole Ballroom, which featured big name musicians including Benny Goodman and Frank Sinatra. Visitors could arrive by streetcar and also by train, disembarking at the original Riverside Station building.
Riverside, the resort village - 1910
King’s Handbook of Newton repeatedly describes Riverside as a full-fledged village of Newton and there are suggestions that a resort village was planned and zoned for this area. This excerpt from an article in the January 1972 Newton Graphic points to zoning supporting this type of development. The commercial center of the village was to be the strip of riverbank that now hosts the Pony Truss Trail.
The original location of Riverside Station was at the junction of the Boston and Albany (B&A) main line (today’s MBTA Worcester Line) and the Circuit Railroad (today the stretch of Green Line that links Newton Highlands and Riverside). The tunnel that connected the platforms of this station remains today.
Riverside, the sand and gravel pit - 1920
Sand and gravel were used for road construction, as construction fill and in the manufacture of construction materials like concrete blocks, bricks, pipes and shingles. Founded in 1920, Riverside Sand and Gravel was a leading producer of these products in Massachusetts. It is visible near the bottom of this photo.
Test the soil in your yard. Is it very sandy? Is there gravel mixed in?
What does the “LA” at the start of their phone number mean?
Riverside, the sand and gravel pit - 1920
Note that on this zoning map dated 1921, the Riverside T Station area is designated for industrial use.
Riverside, hydro-electric power source - 1949
This article from June of 1949 describes a halting attempt by the City of Newton to build a hydroelectric dam on the Charles River as an alternative to service from the Boston Edison Company.
Boston Edison started as the Edison Electric Illuminating Company. This manhole with their logo is in Waban Square. Can you find it?
Radio station WEEI was started by Edison Electric Illuminating Company in 1924. What does it broadcast now?
Riverside, the railyard - 1949
Photo credit: Don Beal
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo=2004010916314516998.jpg&order=byyear&page=3&key=1949
Today’s Riverside station area was a storage and coal/water yard, shown in the photo to the right from 1949. This photo is looking toward Lower Falls in the background. You can see the sand and gravel operation in the background on the left hand side of the photo. Grove Street is off the left side of the image.
Riverside, the strip mall - 1951
After the construction of Route 128, the former rail yard was considered an ideal location for commercial or light industrial development. SS Pierce and Co. purchased the site with plans to build a supermarket and shopping complex (the drawing and photo below are for a similar store in Chestnut Hill.) Neighbors suggested that an access road be built from the site to Washington Street (along the train tracks through the golf course) to keep trucks off of Grove Street. This was not done.
Photo Credit: Brookline Public Library
Drawing Credit: http://natickmass.info/Chestnut%20Hill.htm
All articles from the Newton Graphic
The Jordan Marsh warehouse
Although the S. S. Pierce project never materialized, the Jordan Marsh warehouse was built next to the site during this same period. It can be seen clearly in this aerial photograph from 1955. Jordan Marsh merged with Macy’s in 1995 and Riverside Center replaced the warehouse in 2000.
Riverside, the trolley terminal - 1959
The MTA (predecessor to today’s MBTA) purchased the Boston and Albany Circuit Railroad in 1957 and turned it into the “Highland Branch” (today the D Branch of the Green Line). It relocated some stations to sites with larger potential parking lots. Woodland was moved from the still-existing stone station north of Washington Street to an area that had been cleared and leveled to store pipe sections during the construction of the Weston Aqueduct. At Riverside, the MTA purchased the still-undeveloped former B&A rail yard from SS Pierce and Co. for a park-and-ride and trolley loop. This purchase was made over the objections of the Mayor of Newton, who argued that lost tax revenue from potential commercial and light industrial development of the property was worth more to the City than the trolley station. He was outvoted by representatives of neighboring towns.
Note that in the article at right access from southbound Route 128 (and requests for direct ramps from the highway) was an issue in 1957. How was this resolved?
Newton Graphic, Oct. 10, 1957
Riverside, the trolley terminal - 1959
The 1959 Riverside Terminal did not include today’s large maintenance building or yard, but rather a small loop surrounded on all sides by parking. The photo on the left was taken in March 1960. (It is almost the same vantage shown on Slide 11.). The sand and gravel operation is visible in the background and Grove Street runs up the hill toward it and on into Lower Falls. In the aerial photo on the right taken in 1969, you can see the train loop clearly along with newly constructed apartments across Grove Street from the Jordan Marsh warehouse.
Joe Zissman personal collection
Can you walk to the pond in the lower left corner above?
Mixed use at Norumbega - 1961
In 1961 Peter J. Kanavos of Newton (who had created the Dedham Shopping Center) bought the Norumbega property and proposed an enormous construction project to include six high-rise buildings on the park grounds and several mid-rise office buildings on a small parcel across Commonwealth Avenue.
The Billboard, Oct 10, 1960
The Marriott Motor Hotel
Community opposition was strong against Kanavos’ mixed use proposal, with citizens campaigning for a public park. The hotel’s opening in 1969 marked a victory for Kanavos and The Marriott Motor Hotels of Newton, Incorporated. The Board of Aldermen denied, but then later approved, the necessary zoning change required for the four-million dollar motor hotel to be built on ten of the twenty-seven acres. They also waived the local height limit. The people sued but lost their cases in Middlesex Superior Court against the Building Commissioner and the Board of Aldermen and construction was allowed.
Text adapted from Newton Masachusetts, 1688-1988: A Celebration of Three Hundred Years,
Where would you be standing to take in this view today?
The Holiday Inn
The Flag Group of Companies, the predecessor to Flag Luxury, was founded in 1946 by Peter J. Kanavos Sr. The group has developed over $4 billion worth of assets – including some of the first Marriott and Holiday Inn Hotels; the Intercontinental Hotel, Athens; the Sheraton Hotel, Brussels; and the Trade Fair Hotel, Lagos.
Peter Kanavos was associated not only with The Marriott Motor Hotel Group, he was connected with Holiday Inn, as well. Here he had a bit more success, filling one corner of the former sand and gravel operation at the Riverside rail yard site with the hotel that remains in operation today as The Indigo. Kanavos’ company remains active in the hotel industry.
Where is our nearest heliport now?
Riverside, the stadium - 1967
“Boston University purchased the Boston Athletic Association property in 1927 and renamed it Nickerson Field. Varsity football players lived here and were given train tickets to Boston to attend classes. The field was used for BU home games until 1953, when the school purchased Braves Field in Allston.
During their last season in Weston, the football players reportedly dismantled the vacant boathouse and used the wood for bonfires before each home game. In 1967, Weston residents fiercely opposed construction of a metropolitan sports stadium on the site, which is now occupied by the Liberty Mutual office building.” Patriot Ledger, Aug 17, 2013
www.historicaerials.com - 1955 with current road location roughly overlaid in yellow
Riverside, the office park - 1971
In the early 1970s, a group of businessmen from Boston (led by auto dealer Herb Connolly) wanted to build an 11-story office tower on a commercially-zoned stretch of riverfront now occupied by the Pony Truss Trail. A 600-foot access road would have been extended from Recreation Road and the wetlands would have been filled for parking.
Part of the property was zoned for commercial use (red) in the 1921 zoning map, an artifact of the unbuilt resort village. After the Board of Aldermen delayed necessary rezoning, the planned tenant (Sun Life Insurance) withdrew and the project died.
Riverside, the office park - 1971
The land intended for the Sun-Life building had originally belonged to the MDC. It was purchased by a man named Thomas Gilligan as part of a land-swap deal that included a payment of $14,750. Gilligan held that improvements he made (including adding road access) and the land’s potential for transportation-oriented development had pushed its value closer to $750,000. It took years to sort the ownership issues out.
June 1972
November 1972
The parcel became known as Gilligan’s Island due to the popularity of the TV show which ran from 1964 - 1967.
Riverside, mixed-use development - 2008
2008
2012
In 2008, developer B. H. Normandy put together a mixed-use plan for the Riverside rail yard site. The Newton City Council approved a compromise worked out with neighboring residents, but economic and other issues halted the project.
Riverside, mixed-use development - 2020
A new proposal by Mark Development is currently being considered, again with significant neighborhood engagement. Additionally, efforts are underway to reclaim large pieces of the river’s edge for recreational use, including the Pony Truss Trail.
Riverside, the recreation area - 2020
The Riverside Greenway Working Group ( https://riversidegreenwayma.wildapricot.org/) has been working hard to rebuild trails along the banks of the Charles River. They envision a series of trails linking Lower Falls to neighboring communities.
Upcoming work on the Pony Truss Trail will restore access to the edge of the river once proposed as the site of the Sun Life Insurance building. Meanwhile, further upstream, efforts are underway to beautify the stretch of railbed that once led past the coal/oil yards off Concord Street.
Thank you, Sidney!
Riverside - Then and Now...and in the Future?
Jeffrey Hughes sent this image, a painting recently acquired by Historic Newton. He notes that it now hangs above the mantel in the Jackson Homestead kitchen. It’s full title is “The Great Curve of the Boston & Worcester Rail at Newton Lower Falls.” It was painted in 1852 by Samuel Adams Hudson for B. W. Hobart. The view is taken looking from Lower Falls over a mosty open river landscape. More information about the painting can be found at The Great Curve Painting.