Sender: arlington-admin@bogartz.com From: swg@ralph2.mit.edu (Stu Galley) Date: Tue, Jul 25, 2000, 6:20am To: arlington@bogartz.com (arlington town list) Subject: [arlington] Wellington Diary, July 25 Reply to: galley@alum.mit.edu
WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 1900
Clear morning wind Southwest fresh. thermometer 68^. I went to Boston on 7.40 train and at 10.15 AM took Electric car for home; on the way the conductor informed me that the Baptist Church in Arlington was on fire as his car came in. Well I was disgruntled, for I knew that the church was being painted and the old paint (mixed with sand) was being burned off by naptha torches, but supposed on my examination, on Monday, that the burning was all done. Yet it seems that 2 workmen in the face of a fresh South west wind mounted to the Bell deck and commenced burning off the paint. they found they had made a fire, and without giving an alarm tryed to put it out with their extinguishers but not succeeding, then descended and gave an alarm but alas too late. The Fire Dept. were on hand promptly, but could not save the Church yet saved Houses near by. When I arrived on the spot about 11 AM the Church was gone. I felt provoked that the rules of the building committee had been ignored & as I had stated to them, I would not trust workmen, but wanted an intelligent man to be on hand during any burning, but he was not there, hence this! What a catas- trophy ignorant carelessness can cause. Well about 4 PM it commenced to rain, and Ethel had Picnick of about 150 from Boston slums by Spy Pond on land of F & D Wyman but that was all over before the welcome rain
[From _Mill _Brook _Valley: _a _Historical _and _Architectural _Survey (Arl. Hist. Comm., 1976): "The church stands on land donated by Mary Cutter in 1827. Her gift also included a privilege to the Baptist Society to use the Cutter Pond, an eight-acre pond which once lay directly behind the church and its prede- cessors on the site, for the ordinance of baptism. The present structure is the third on this site; the second, an exceptionally handsome gothic revival structure built of wood in 1851, was destroyed by fire in 1900."]
______________________________________________
arlington mailing list - arlington@bogartz.com - List Admin: - http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/arlington - FAQ: http://www.town.arlington.ma.us/enews.htm
File created - 19 Oct 2000