[MassHistPres] Suggestions Requested For Interesting Historic Properties ...

[Dennis De Witt]

G.W. Whistler was also involved in the construction of the very conspicuous, altho little appreciated, 1834-35 Canton Viaduct that still carries the main Amtrak line from Boston to New York.  It was on the basis of its design and construction that whistler was recruited to Russia to build the St. Petersburg-Moscow Railway.

One of Whistler’s assistants the Western Railroad, which is considered the worlds first mountain railroad, was E.S. Chesbrough who built Boston’s 15 mile long Cochituate Aqueduct, another often overlooked but intact example of early civil Engineering.  Newton and Wellesley have aqueduct trail maps.  See also http://www.mwra.state.ma.us/projects/access/aqueducts/aqueducts-maps.html

And Whistler was for a time in charge of the Locks and Canals workshops in Lowell at the upper end of the Middlesex canal — traces of which also survive.  See http://www.middlesexcanal.org

Dennis De Witt


On Jan 29, 2016, at 5:45 PM, SCeccacci at aol.com wrote:

> Arched stone bridges built for the Western Railroad still survive.  The Western Railroad, completed between Worcester and Albany in 1842, later became part of the Boston & Albany.  Arched stone bridges in a section of western Massachusetts built in 1840 were designed by railroad engineer George Washington Whistler, the father of the noted painter, James Abbott McNeil Whistler.  Here is a wikipedia link:
>  
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middlefield-Becket_Stone_Arch_Railroad_Bridge_District
>  
> They may not meet your requirement of being structures that one passes by every day, since they are in out of the way locations.
>  
> Susan McDaniel Ceccacci
> Jefferson, MA
>  
> In a message dated 1/29/2016 11:14:11 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, hmeltsner at verizon.net writes:
> Michael Roughan has a good idea about overlooked stone bridges that might be expanded to the more than thirty stone bridges listed in MACRIS and dating between 1700 and 1956. For example, one hardly sees the Rockport’s magnificent Granite Keystone Bridge (1872) driving on Rt. 127 across it, but besides being a wonderful engineering feat, it played a critical role in the town’s thriving granite industry. 
> 
> A second source of hidden value in Massachusetts are the forty-six former Poor Houses surviving in relatively intact condition and the five Tramp House that locked up vast numbers of tramps for the night. Most citizens of the town in which they are located have little or no knowledge of their former use as central features of their municipality's now discarded welfare system.
> 
> Heli Meltsner
> 
> On Jan 28, 2016, at 1:55 PM, Susan Brauner <susanparkerbrauner at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > I have been asked by an author researching a book to request
> > suggestions from the Listserve.
> > 
> > The premise of the book is about overlooked Massachusetts historic
> > structures and sites we tend to walk by, but actually have an
> > interesting story associated with them.  A professional photographer
> > will be used in the project.
> > 
> > I will send on all replies to the author.
> > 
> > Thank you.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > Susan Parker Brauner
> > Art Preservation Officer
> > Boston Public Library/East Boston
> > ******************************
> > For administrative questions regarding this list, please contact Christopher.Skelly at state.ma.us directly.  PLEASE DO NOT "REPLY" TO THE WHOLE LIST.
> > MassHistPres mailing list
> > MassHistPres at cs.umb.edu
> > http://mailman.cs.umb.edu/mailman/listinfo/masshistpres
> > ********************************
> 
> ******************************
> For administrative questions regarding this list, please contact Christopher.Skelly at state.ma.us directly.  PLEASE DO NOT "REPLY" TO THE WHOLE LIST.
> MassHistPres mailing list
> MassHistPres at cs.umb.edu
> http://mailman.cs.umb.edu/mailman/listinfo/masshistpres
> ********************************
> ******************************
> For administrative questions regarding this list, please contact Christopher.Skelly at state.ma.us directly.  PLEASE DO NOT "REPLY" TO THE WHOLE LIST.
> MassHistPres mailing list
> MassHistPres at cs.umb.edu
> http://mailman.cs.umb.edu/mailman/listinfo/masshistpres
> ********************************

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.cs.umb.edu/mailman/private/masshistpres/attachments/20160130/5857aa67/attachment-0001.htm>