Belmont Timeline

 Bicycles and bike paths, Bike Paths, Board of Selectmen, Historic Preservation, History, January 2020, Newsletter, Open Space, Parking, Sewers, Traffic, Water Quality  Comments Off on Belmont Timeline
Jan 062020
 
Belmont Timeline

Belmont Timeline Featuring events significant to the Belmont’s history and Belmont Citizens Forum issues. 1654 The John Chenery house, 52 Washington Street, is built. The Chenery house is the oldest surviving house in Belmont. 1760 The Thomas Clark House is built on what is now Common Street. “Local tradition maintains that the Clark family witnessed the beginning of America’s War for Independence from the hill behind this house, seeing smoke and hearing the sounds of war breaking out on April 19, 1775.” —Joseph Cornish, BCF Newsletter,  January 2011. It was moved in 2012, and finally demolished in 2014. 1805 “Ice [READ MORE]

Share

Letter to the Editor: Clay Pit Pond

 Environment, January 2020, Newsletter, Open Space, Plants, Stormwater, Water Quality  Comments Off on Letter to the Editor: Clay Pit Pond
Jan 062020
 
Letter to the Editor: Clay Pit Pond

To the Editor: As a neighbor, fan, and defender of poor Clay Pit Pond, I especially enjoyed the recent article (“Clay Pit Pond Progresses from Eyesore to Asset,” Belmont Citizens Forum Newsletter, November/December 2019). I would like to add a few more details on the recent history of the pond. When we moved to Belmont in the fall of 1974 there was a shopping cart in the pond by the inlet and advertisements about the upcoming Kiwanis Fishing Derby. I found the cart and derby in great contrast. Apparently the pond was regularly stocked for the event. No one noticed [READ MORE]

Share

20 Years of Belmont Water Trouble

 Environment, January 2020, Newsletter, Open Space, Sewers, Stormwater, Water Quality  Comments Off on 20 Years of Belmont Water Trouble
Jan 062020
 
20 Years of Belmont Water Trouble

By Sumner Brown Belmont has two types of water trouble. One is flooding during heavy rains. The other trouble comes from leaking sewer pipes. Flooding Today, as I write this, there is no flooding in Belmont. Floods are rare enough that we do not make ourselves perpetually anxious about them, but parts of Belmont are vulnerable. In both Belmont and Arlington, people live in what were swamps, and there seem to be 100-year storms every 10 years. Climate change may have something to do with this. The Belmont Citizens Forum advocates for rain gardens and other measures to slow the [READ MORE]

Share

Clay Pit Pond Progresses from Eyesore to Asset

 Environment, Historic Preservation, History, Newsletter, November 2019, Open Space, Stormwater, Water Quality  Comments Off on Clay Pit Pond Progresses from Eyesore to Asset
Nov 042019
 
Clay Pit Pond Progresses from Eyesore to Asset

By Michael Chesson Clay Pit Pond on Concord Avenue was once the site of Belmont’s largest industrial enterprise, a brickyard run by John H. and Robert A. Parry. The brothers bought 20¾ acres of land in 1888 on Concord Avenue and Underwood Street, with its valuable blue clay that turned an attractive reddish color when fired, and their yard produced 200,000 bricks a week. Just as the oil, steel, and railroad industries consolidated, the Parry brothers’ business in 1900 merged with the New England Brick Company, which owned three dozen other brickyards in the region. The firm installed new dryers, [READ MORE]

Share
 Newer Entries