I like this one about “Polio Pond,” located in Frey Playground and supplied with water from Breeds Pond. According to a resident expert, broken glass often lay in wait at the bottom of the concrete wading basin for unsuspecting bare feet and the water, although naturally fed from a reservoir, was somewhat suspect after it sat for a time in the pond.
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I also like this one from Michael D. Golding, who remembers Traiman’s Market on lower Washington Street before the Lynnway was built. Wow. “My grandmother shopped there. They offered delivery service.” Golding said the store was demolished when the Monsignor Carroll Highway (Lynnway from Market Street to Nahant Rotary) was built. “The store relocated to Marblehead,” he said.
When’s the last time anyone local got a road named after them? I like how Lynnfield Veterans Services Director Bruce Siegel pointed out how Jordan Road and Jordan Park in that town are named for Marine 1st Lieutenant Allan H. Jordan.
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I’m told there were greenhouses off of Western Avenue and someone told me Mahoney’s Greenhouses were located on Holyoke Street where a small subdivision is now located. Anyone remember the dog kennels located off Western Avenue near the river? I like Stoneham Marina with its rows of boats and owners Tim and Eileen Horgan who always seems to be in a good mood when they greet customers and talk on the phone. A whiff of gasoline and the smell of the sea give it that great marina feel. Stoneham reminds me of Bridge Bay Marina where I was lucky to spend summers on my grandparents’ boat.
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It’s great Lynn is hosting the North Shore Veterans Appreciation Parade on Sunday, Sept. 16. It’s an opportunity to bring the city together and to jumpstart other projects to benefit veterans. The city has plenty of small veterans monuments tucked away across Lynn, including the one by Goldfish Pond and another at the corner of North Franklin and Boston streets honoring a World War I veteran. There are plenty of opportunities for young people to adopt a monument and pitch in to help keep it clean.
Speaking of veterans, Doug Bryant of Middleton, a Navy veteran, sent in a copy of his book and dropped a note about the USS Spinax, SS-489, a “radar picket” submarine nicknamed “the city of Lynn’s ship.” Nahant’s name graced the sides of ships including a Civil War vessel that saw action.
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Thanks to Patricia Lee for additional information about the “tunnel church,” more accurately known as the Old Tunnel Meeting House, including the historic tidbit about Paul Revere recasting the church bell after it cracked. That’s an anecdote that ranks right up with Ben Franklin’s cane residing in the Peabody Institute Library’s archives.
Lynn’s long church history always seems to revolve around the theme of a congregation or denomination aging out or leaving a worship house only to have a new congregation take up residence. Even churches that have seen their worship history come to an end are enjoying second lives as residences, with St. Michael’s the newest example of this renewal.
Once the heart of West Lynn’s Polish American community, St. Michael’s next chapter is an opportunity for new residents, or young people who grew up in West Lynn, to live in the neighborhood in much the same way St. Jean Baptiste brought new life to Franklin and Endicott streets.
