Needham History: Snow Day

We still have Town Meeting, but without the fistfights.

Nehoiden Street circa 1895. The Greenwood Oak is in the foreground, and the Cemetery is visible in the background, at the curve of the road.

Snow Day

I don’t generally go in for snow scenes – I am not a big fan of winter (to say the least). Even so, I love these two pictures, despite the fact that they make me want to curl up next to a warm fire with a hot buttered rum. Maybe because both pictures have a little more in them than just snow.

The first is a picture of the Greenwood Oak. The Greenwood Oak was a magnificent 250-year-old tree that grew on the property of Town Clerk Charles C. Greenwood (hence the name) on Nehoiden Street near the Central Avenue intersection. Prior to Greenwood, the property was owned by George Revere, a grandson of Paul. The Greenwood Oak, sadly, began to die and had to be taken down in 1908, after several attempts to save it. The History Center has a gavel made from its wood.

Although the Oak dominates the picture, the picture is not actually of the tree – it is of Nehoiden Street. The view looks south-southwest, away from Central Avenue and toward the Great Plain. Notice that the fields to the right of the picture are open and not built up; under the snow is farmland, and even a pond (also now gone). In the center/background the road curves at a stone wall, and against the snow you can just see the dark headstones of the Needham Cemetery. This shifts the image subtly from bucolic to a little bit creepy – the stark net of branches reaching out from the foreground, with a glimpse of gravestones behind them.

Snowball fight on Great Plain Avenue, after the great snowfall of January 1898. The scene was photographed by Needham photographer, George Abell.

The second picture is more light-hearted. It shows Great Plain Avenue after the notable snowstorm of January 1898. This scene looks west toward Wellesley, from near the Garden Street intersection. The 1898 storm was not as devastating as the epic Great Blizzard of March 1888, but it was still big enough to be disruptive, dumping around 24 inches of snow. At least the town did not have to worry about clearing the roads – vehicles switched to sleigh runners in the snow. You can already see some sleigh tracks, left by the small pung heading westward, that can just be seen in the background over the shoulder of the farthest child. Another sleigh is just entering the picture to the left.

You can also see, fading into the distance, the beautiful alley of elm trees that once lined Great Plain Avenue. Elms were street trees in the best sense – they grew fast, needed little maintenance, had a high crown so they did not obstruct the road, and their arching branches provided shade over the roads and walkways in the summer. This last was their most valued feature in the pre-air conditioning days, when men never went without a suit and vest, and women wore several layers of petticoats. These trees were planted around 1850, and lasted until they were devastated by the ice storm of November 1921; the remainders were taken down after the Hurricane of 1938.

Though everyone in this scene stopped what they were doing when the camera showed up, it seems clear that there was a fair amount of play going on. We expect this from the kids – but the adults as well? A close look at the two gentlemen to the right shows a certain amount of snow spattering their coats, which would be less suspicious if the man to the left with the inverness cape were not carrying a giant snowball. According to an article in the Needham Chronicle at the time, the man at the far left is photographer Emery Coulter, and the man at the far right is watchmaker Armand Mathey; both men had their shops a few yards away, near the Garden Street intersection. Clearly they are taking a little break from work to indulge in some high spirits. In the retreating pung were Augustus Eaton and his son Harris. The scene was photographed by another Needham photographer, George Abell.

But my real question is, who is the man on the telegraph pole, and what is he doing up there?

Gloria Polizzotti Greis is the Executive Director of the Needham History Center & Museum. For more information, please see their website at www.needhamhistory.org.