Originally published in the 1985 Framingham Historical & Natural History Society Newsletter by Phyllis Waite Watkins (1909-2005)
From Arch Street looking toward the Amsden Building in South Framingham was like looking through a green, leafy tunnel as Union Avenue was about half as wide as it is now, and the branches of giant trees met overhead. Later, they were sacrificed in the name of progress for with the appearance of the trolley cars, the Avenue had to be widened. (As a young man, my Father rode on the first trolley from Boston to Newton and lived to see a man walk on the moon. Truly, an age of miracles!)
Farm Pond extended about as far as Franklin Street. The land from there to the Avenue was filled in gradually but to this day the ground will shake if a heavy truck passes by. From Newton Place to the north, it was country. Franklin Street was not extended to Main Street until about seventy years ago.
Once there was a minor earthquake and although most of the Town felt it as a very minor tremor, pictures fell from walls, glasses shattered and people were aroused from their beds around Eames Square where the Old Red Eames House was originally located. These things were told to me by Henry Stearns, a neighbor and dear friend.
Union Avenue and Main Street provided a variety of scenes. There were the trolley cars, the wagons, the buggies, the early automobiles, bicycles, riders on horseback, children on ponies, and people on foot for it was not considered much of a walk from the Centre to South Framingham.
One day a pony stopped dead on the trolley tracks and would not budge. The young rider tried every trick she knew but nothing worked. There she sat, miserable with frustration and embarrassment until along came the trolley car. Even that had no effect on the pony. There she stayed to the amusement of the passengers, until the conductor left his post, came out, and pulled the pony off the tracks. (Ed. Note, the rider was the writer!)
On Sunday mornings we children went to Sunday School, then boarded the open trolley car and rode west along Worcester Road to meet our parents at the Country Club for Sunday lunch. We were allowed to order drinks; it was a mark of great sophistication to have a “horses neck,” a mild concoction as I remember it made of ginger ale, ice and a twist of lemon. It was a small, friendly clubhouse and sometimes we were allowed upstairs and into the secret room in the chimney where, in older times, people hid from the Indians. On Sunday afternoons we went for walks. The woods near the Country Club held an abundance of wild flowers and we gathered loads of Lady Slippers to take home.
Downtown, the Elks had a beautiful club and in the dining room was an ancient black man in livery who served the children weak coffee with gobs of sweetened, whipped-cream floating on it. As a very young boy, he had the honor of waiting on the great Abraham Lincoln. That must have been the high point of his life. He was regarded with awe – truly a link with history.
In retrospect that time wasn’t so long ago though for the Fourth of July parades still had a fair representation of Civil War Veterans. Oh, the Glorious Fourth with bands playing and flags flying, and dignitaries speaking, and salmon and peas for dinner, and firecrackers!
The Masonic Lodge was an active one. Once a year they had an entertainment for the children of members. The magicians were greatly appreciated but the aging soprano who sang, Oh, If Mother Hadn’t Married Daddy – Daddy Might Have Married Me!” was not well received.
Framingham had plenty of open fields for the Millwood Hunt to run. At the end of the season the owners of the properties were properly thanked for their courtesy. It was a splendid sight to see the horses at full gallop and hear the hounds in full cry! The sound of the horn was indeed like John Gilpin, “enough to rouse one from his bed.” Millwood Hunt was one of the oldest in the country and years later, when Framingham was no longer country, the members decides to disband and agreed that the name end with them although other towns were interested in taking it for their own use. The Millwood Hunt Club House still stands on the western end of Edmands Road.
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