The Fitchburg Line Industrial Corridor errata

[tastyanagram.livejournal.com]

Hi, everyone. I'm a Somerville resident, formerly of Davis Square, and currently living on Prospect Hill. I'm contemplating starting an LJ community for the Union Square area, if anyone's interested, but in this post I just wanted to share an extremely interesting page I've found this morning: http://pixels.furiousbees.com/somind/

The author mentions LJ in the introduction so forgive me if it's already been posted here. Here's an excerpt taken from the text at the link given above:

There are at least four large businesses that I know of occupying this little cluster of industry: Ames Safety Envelope, which occupies a dwindling share of a huge complex of buildings divided by Dane Street; the Peter Forg Manufacturing Co., which does metal stamping and fabricating right across the track from Ames; L. Bornstein Flooring, which operates a large and ugly structure north of Washington Street; and the H.D. Chasen Company, which sells industrial supplies out of a small complex on Lake Street. There's also a clutch of smaller industrial businesses or former businesses operating from smaller buildings. I've collected some information on the history of the locations on this page from the Sanborn maps available through the Somerville Public Library.

I had been meaning to photograph this area for some time, but ultimately it was an LJ friend's comment that "you are near a METALWORKING plant and I haven't seen pictures?!?!" that spurred me to action. So, beginning on a beautiful day in May, I went on a series of expeditions to explore and document some of the last working factories in Somerville. (The lighting conditions weren't always great, so I've done a fair amount of quick and dirty enhancement in Photoshop to create the final images.)

I found this page extremely informative, but I found at least one error. The author states that the Paper and Provisions Warehouse currently houses "the Somerville Boxing Club and an organ repair company", but to my knowledge it's artists' studio space. I left a comment on the associated Google map but couldn't find a way to contact the author.

If anyone has any more information, I'd love to hear about it. I absolutely love this area—there's so much to learn about its history. Did you know that Union Square used to be called Liberty Pole Square, for example?

Comments

[postrodent.livejournal.com]

Hi -- I'm the author of that web page. Thanks much for the tip about the PPW. When I go back and properly organize the page, I'll include your new information and anything else that gets mentioned in the comments to this post. Unfortunately that may not be very soon, because I'm in the process of moving to Seattle, but it'll get done someday. :) You've also spurred me to consider putting some contact information up in there...

If you want to do some of your own research on the history of Somerville land use, I can't recommend the Sanborn maps highly enough. They don't offer much more than one or two snapshots of the city in time, but those snapshots are amazing. You can access them over the web, using your Somerville library card, but it's a bit of an involved process and I'm afraid I don't remember the details, nor is a quick google turning them up. There may also be more material at the actual physical library.

Also, I should thank you for bringing my work to the attention of many more people than would ever have seen it otherwise.

[ron_newman]

Ames Envelope was sold to an out-of-state company and is in the process of closing down its manufacturing facilities here. May even have done so already. I don't know what the future holds for those properties.

Can you add a date to your photo essay, indicating when you wrote the text and took the pictures?

[postrodent.livejournal.com]

That's a damn shame. The final wave of Boston's deindustrialization, here, although I guess Second Wind and to some extent Forg are still showing the flag.

I will be updating the page and giving it a bit more structure at some point, at which time I'll put in some dates. But as I noted elsewhere, it's not the priority because my priority right now is (or at least should be) packing all my junk, fixing up my apartment, and moving to Seattle. :) I took the photos in May '08, and was sporadically writing the text and editing the photos for the rest of the year, with the page arriving in its present form around December '09. (This thread is now my notepad.)

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

The Envelope building on Park Street does have some other tenants, including the Harvard Book Store warehouse-- they do a warehouse sale there every year. Big discounts.

[ron_newman]

That might explain the mysterious "Special Event Parking" signs in one of the photos. Do you remember what time of year the sale is?

Somerville Open Studios parking might be another possible explanation, especially if the photo was taken in May.

[tastyanagram.livejournal.com]

You're quite welcome. It's a great resource you've created. And as a librarian I would like to applaud you for repping the public library. I used to work in insurance and got to visit the Insurance Library down in Boston. Talk about Sanborn maps! Fascinating.

[postrodent.livejournal.com]

I'm a fan of the PL - I spent much of my childhood in public libraries. I had never imagined the existence of an "Insurance Library", though, and it sounds amazing purely on the strength of all those beautiful, elaborate maps. Don't s'pose it's open to the public. :)

[tastyanagram.livejournal.com]

"Our collection and services are available at no charge to consumers, including students, and we are happy to help clarify what might sometimes seem to be a confusing maze to anyone not working in the business."

http://www.insurancelibrary.org/services.htm

[postrodent.livejournal.com]

Sweet, thanks!

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Oh, awesome! That is good to know.

[ron_newman]

There's a connection between 27 Village Street and that mural on the side of Ames Envelope. For many years, an artist now named Be Sargent (but then named Be Allen) lived at 27 Village, where she founded and hosted the OpenAir Circus.

Sargent painted many murals around Somerville and Cambridge, including the Somerville Immigrants Mural that you found at Ames Envelope, the First American Flag mural in Union Square, and the late lamented Wall of Respect for Women that used to be on the side of the Davis Square Rite Aid before it was painted over in 2006.

Sargent moved to New Mexico a few years ago and sold the Village Street property. I don't know who owns it now. The OpenAir Circus still thrives but no longer has its headquarters at 27 Village. It now performs each summer at Nunziato Field on Vinal Ave. instead of in the amphitheatre that Sargent had built on her property.

[meday1975.livejournal.com]

27 Village St. is now owned by the Dean of MIT's School of Architecture and Planning. She's done an amazing job on the renovation. You can check out photos of the space on her website (click the black bars to advance the slides): http://www.santosprescott.com/smallscale/cambridge-studio/

[ceo]

The Sanborn maps are available here. Login with a valid Minuteman Library Network card number.