Happy Saint Patrick's Day from Natick Historical Society

We hope everyone is enjoying the surprisingly warm weather for the past few days. We've been very busy here at the museum with new programs, getting ready for our visiting school groups and designing several new exhibits. Details about our new installations will be up soon, but in the meantime here are a few postcards to celebrate Saint Patrick's day! They're both from our archives and were sent here in Natick over a hundred years ago. 

A New Look At Some Vintage Clothes

Trends come and go and so do exhibits here at the historical society. While our permanent exhibits don’t change often we do occasionally get the chance to put on a temporary exhibit that shows items normally not on display. Our collection of objects is too large for us to display everything at once, so we try to take opportunities to showcase some of the objects that visitors often don’t have the chance to see. 

For a very limited time, some special pieces from our textile collection will be on view as part of our programming for  Fashion Week. Select items from the textile and fashion collections are currently on display in the NHS museum.  Be sure to come by the museum now through February Twenty Third to see  the selection of hats, purses, shoes and fans not normally on display! We also have recently changed two of the pieces in our permanent displays so there are quite a few new things to see.  If you don't have a chance to come visit us before the temporary exhibit is taken down, you can see some highlights below! 

The 'Lincoln' dress currently on display
in our textiles case

On February Sixteenth at 6:30 pm there will be a special event at the Bacon Free Library, "Clothes Encounters" , exploring fashion and clothing from the Edwardian and Victorian eras. After the event the museum will be open to the public to view the pieces on display. We hope to see you there! 

Would You Like to Tour Carling Brewery?

Over the years, Natick has been home to a number of different businesses which have brought new opportunities and people into our community. While some would remain here for decades and become a major part of our town's history like Grandmother's Mincemeat or the Pfeiffer Shoe Factory, some businesses would only stay briefly even if they left behind impressive footprints.

Carling Brewery Beer Cans

One such business was the Carling Brewery. This Canadian Beer company, originally founded in 1818, gradually expanded its market throughout Canada and into the United Kingdom where it found significant success. Following the repeal of Prohibition in the 1930s the Carling company looked to expand its market into the United States as well with their first American brewery opening in Cleveland in 1934. Their Red Cap Ale and Black Label brands were moderately popular and were produced in the States. In 1954  the company  was looking to expand their brewing operations into New England. Twenty-one different communities around the Boston area were surveyed before Carling eventually settled on expanding their operations here in Natick. Construction on a plant soon began and they opened their new brewery, the biggest in the state at the time, in 1956.

Promotional brochure for Carling

The Carling Brewery was greeted enthusiastically by the town when it opened. The new industry meant the creation of as many as two hundred and fifty new jobs for  the people of Natick. The brewery was located very near Lake Cochituate on Route 9. To further integrate themselves into the Natick community the Carling company offered free tours of the brewery during the summer months. Unfortunately, you can no longer take tours of the brewery.  The Carling Company closed the plant in 1975, only nineteen years after opening. The building left behind was so large that it was initially difficult to find a new tenant for the site. It has now been used by several different occupants and remodeled over the years, though it is still one of the most distinctive buildings here with its mid-century modern design and prominent location.

There is, however, still a way to tour the Carling Bewery in Natick! Thanks to a promotional video put out in 1956 that was uploaded to YouTube its still possible to get to see the inner workings of one of Natick's biggest former employers. The video is embedded below and provides a very interesting look at the process of making and bottling beer that took place in Natick not too long ago. The Carling Company still manufactures beer in the United States with plants in both Ohio and North Carolina. 

For anyone interested in learning more about some local craft beers, I would encourage you to attend an upcoming event sponsored by our neighbor the Bacon Free Library. On February 11th at 7pm there will be a talk on the history of brewing as well as a tasting for visitors over 21. 

Happy Holidays 2015 from Natick Historical Society!

In honor of the holiday season I wanted to share a few of the holiday postcards that we accepted into our collection this year. The Betty Murray Collection, named after its donor, consists of over eighty holiday cards sent to Betty's ancestor, Carrie Goerke, of South Natick from 1910-1916. These charming greeting cards are not so different from the holiday cards we send today and give us a colorful glimpse into the seasonal celebrations of Natickites past. 

From everyone here at the Natick Historical Society we want to sincerely wish our readers a very Happy Holiday. We've had a wonderful past year in 2015 and look forward to what the next year has to offer!

The Natick Historical Society will be closed December 25th and 26th as well as January 1st and January 2nd. We will be open until 1 pm on December 24th and until 4pm on December 3st. Copies of our latest book, Have You Ever Wondered...? Natick Explained are still available so be sure to pick one up today. 

Henry Wilson's Shoe Shop and a New Book!

Henry Wilson's Shoe Shop

In any town as full of history as Natick, there are bound to be a number of historic sites to see and visit. One of our more well-known historic landmarks is Henry Wilson’s shoe shop. Henry Wilson, the eighteenth Vice President of the United States, lived most of his life in Natick and earned his initial success here as a shoe maker. The shoe industry was hugely important to Natick’s economy in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  Most of the shoes produced in Natick were brogans, a kind of heavy leather work shoe, often used for slaves in the American South.  Mills and factories grew exponentially in Natick, especially after the Boston/Albany Railroad came to town in 1834. For a period in the 1880s, Natick was one of the biggest producers of leather shoes in Massachusetts.

The growth of Natick’s industry did not go unnoticed outside the community. Waves of new immigrants moved into the Natick area, bringing diversity to the town. News of the opportunities afforded to young men brought in new Natickites from all over New England. One such enterprising young man was Jeremiah Colbath, who at the age of twenty-one walked just over a hundred miles from his home in Farmington, New Hampshire to seek his fortune making shoes in Natick. This humble Natick cobbler became a lot more well-known after he changed his name to Henry Wilson.

Henry Wilson entered the shoe business in the same way many young men did. He began operating his own business making shoes out of a small “ten-footer.” Ten-footers were small outbuildings used as a work spaces for a variety of purposes. They were previously relatively common throughout New England.  It was a small shoe shop like this one where Wilson learned to make leather shoes and where he paid rapt attention to his colleagues’ political discourse. Later in his life Henry Wilson would say that these early political debates were among the things that inspired him to become interested in politics and social reform.

Postcard Depicting the Wilson's Shoe Shop 

Wilson’s business and wealth grew over time. He expanded beyond his small shoe shop and eventually opened his own shoe business. This enterprise brought Wilson a comfortable level of prosperity which allowed him to formally enter politics. While the larger Wilson factory building no longer exists, Henry Wilson’s original ten-footer still does!  This building has been restored a number of times and can still be visited in Natick Center on Central Street. It has been a major point of interest in Natick since Wilson’s Vice Presidency. The interior of the building is not often open to the public, but it can be viewed from the outside year-round.  Maintenance and care of the Henry Wilson Shoe shop and the park where it is located is the responsibility the town of Natick.

To learn more about Henry Wilson’s Shoe shop and a number of other local places of interest be sure to check out the newest publication from Natick Historical Society, Have You Ever Wondered...? Natick Explained. This book explores the stories of notable people and places from around Natick. Full of vibrant photographs and wonderful pieces of history, Have You Ever Wondered...? is available now at select businesses around Natick, as online at the Historical Society’s website, and of course here in the Museum.

To purchase the book online, visit our website here. 

Lydia Maria Child

Engraving of Lydia Maria Child

“Over the river and through the wood to grandmother’s house we go…”

This famous poem, a classic of the holiday season is one of the most well remembered poems relating to Thanksgiving. Natick has a surprisingly rich literary history for a town of our size. A number of world-famous authors have called Natick home for a period of time. Harriet Beecher Stowe, the renowned author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a frequent visitor; Horatio Alger Jr. spent much of his later life in Natick and is buried here. Lydia Maria Child, the author of the famous Thanksgiving poem quoted above, spent a little over a year of her life in Natick and visited several times afterwards. Though the famous house in question is in Medford, in honor of the Thanksgiving season we thought it would be appropriate to take a closer look at the life of this extraordinary woman with an interesting Natick connection. 

Lydia Maria Child was an influential writer and activist who took on several roles that were fairly uncommon for women at the time. She was heavily involved in a number of social movements including the fight to end slavery and campaigns for women’s rights and for the better treatment of Native Americans. Her initial writing provided advice for homemakers, but over time, Child’s determined political spirit entered into her literary works which alienated some of her more conservative readers. Today she is better known for her poetry, especially the poems she wrote for children.

Born Lydia Maria Francis in 1802 in Medford Massachusetts, Child eventually married David Lee Child at the age of twenty six and moved to nearby Wayland.  She was good friends with William Lloyd Garrison, the outspoken and sometimes controversial Boston abolitionist. Her father, David Convers, also eventually left their native Medford.  Following his wife’s death in 1814, David retired from work and soon began moving around to other local towns, including Natick.  David Francis lived in Natick for about four years, between 1836 and 1840. He lived at 20 Pleasant Street and was locally known as “Daddy Francis” to his fellow Natickites.  While her father was here, Lydia Maria Child came to live with him on Pleasant Street for a little over a year, staying with “Daddy Francis” from the spring of 1836 to the summer of 1837. Child continued to write during this period and two of her published works, a romance set in Ancient Greece titled Philothea, and a guide for Home Nurses, were produced while she lived in Natick.

A Very Happy Thanksgiving From All of Us
Here at the Natick Historical Society

Child had mixed feelings about Natick. While she admired the abolitionist spirit of the preacher who spoke at the Church in Natick Center, she found that many of her neighbors couldn’t match her progressive fervor. In a letter from 1836, Child says that she found in her Natick neighbors  “an absence of all intellectual excitement.” That said, in the same letter she still seems to have found the quiet and pleasant atmosphere of Natick to be “a good place to work.” Perhaps this “good place to work” was what inspired her to produce more pieces of writing, as she hadn’t produced any new works for two years prior to her stay here.

While living in, and later returning to visit Natick, Lydia Maria Child met many of the townspeople. According to some reports she was good friends with Henry Wilson, who had moved to town just a few years earlier in 1833 and often sought her advice. Surprisingly, Child did not seem to become acquainted with the other acclaimed female author of South Natick, who stayed with her in-laws at 2 Pleasant Street. Lydia Maria Child and Harriet Beecher Stowe did not meet until 1861, at a party in Weston, after Child had left Natick. The two women got along well, unsurprising, considering they were both authors and staunch abolitionists, yet somehow their paths never crossed in Natick even though they stayed in houses on the very same street.

Hail to the Chief Elects Good Cheer

As part of our schedule of fall events, Natick Historical Society recently hosted a very special program titled "Hail to the Chief", partly funded by the Natick Cultural Council. This original musical play was put on by Boston-based theater group In Good Company. It  saluted presidential campaigns songs from throughout history by performing them with a very talented cast of twenty four actors and several musical accompanists. We were treated to a number of lively campaign songs including even the one for Ulysses S. Grant, Henry Wilson's running-mate. The performance was a lot of fun and we were glad to see so many members of our community come out and join us! For those of you who missed our program we've included some pictures from the event below.

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