In the summer of 1906, a few enthusiastic golfers planned a day's play at the Worcester Golf Club, and one beautiful summer morning we assembled in Village Square, Brookline. Here the old wooden building easterly from the Engine House, called "Whyte's Block," reminds us by its name that it was on this spot that John White of Muddy River built his house in the long ago days of Massachusetts Bay Colony.

We boarded the open electric car marked "Wellesley, Natick, Framingham and Worcester" at almost the identical spot where, years ago, we would have climbed into a great, lumbering, four or six-horse coach. Probably in those days we would have preceded our departure by drinking a mug of cider or flip, or perhaps a little spiced wine, in the tap room of the old Punch Bowl Tavern, which stood on the northerly side of the square, and whose hospitable doors were always open under the sign of the Bowl and Lemon Tree.

Until the town line was reached, just beyond Hammond street, the car kept the rate of speed to which we are accustomed within city limits, but, after reaching the open country in Newton and beyond, the speed increased to express train rate and we whirled along smoothly and so rapidly that about two hours after leaving Brookline we reached the square in Worcester.

It was a most delightful ride in the fresh morning air, through beautiful scenery of hill, valley and meadow, amid surroundings of great interest, both on account of their present significance and historical associations. The return trip was under the light of a clear, bright moon, and, if anything, was more pleasurable than the outward journey in the morning. The next week the same party took another ride in the same way as far as Framingham, where the day was spent at the Framingham Country Club, whose grounds are opposite one of the recently completed basins of the great Metropolitan Water Supply system, and whose club house, directly on the line of the car route, is the old Josiah Temple house, built in 1693 by Caleb Bridges, and adapted in a most artistic manner to its present use.

These trips brought vividly to the writer's recollection an outing which he enjoyed with a schoolboy companion sometime in the seventies, when, with a horse and buggy, we drove from Brookline to Worcester, taking two days for the trip, with stop-over at Westborough, which was reached late in the afternoon of the first day. After spending some weeks on a farm a few miles beyond Worcester, we drove back to Brookline.

Going and coming we kept to the old turnpike road, which the trolley cars now follow, and, boy-like, we went prepared for adventures with highwaymen and possible savage beasts. But the journey was lacking all such excitements, and gave us only the experiences of a drive along a quiet, little-used, and in. some places almost forgotten country road, narrow and grass-grown for long stretches, over-shadowed by the foliage of the low-bending trees and bordered by vines and wild flowers.

The contrast in the manner of travelling, and the great changes along the road which have taken place in the last thirty years, emphasize the fact that the extension and improvement of the means and methods of travelling are the most important factors in the growth and development, not only of the termini served, but of all the intermediate country, and every town between Worcester and Boston has waxed or waned in its growth and progress according to its facilities far transportation.

The celebration of anniversaries teaches us history, and centennial anniversaries certainly deserve observance. It is therefore fitting at this time to attempt to tell the story of the old turnpike road, which was constructed one hundred years ago under authority of the Massachusetts General Court, which, by Act of March, 1806, incorporated the proprietors of the Boston and Worcester Turnpike. The road was not known by the name of Boylston street until it was so named in 1841, in honor of the Boylston family which lived opposite the present Reservoir site and was prominently identified with the town's early history.

Before the white man settled on Shawmut, as the old peninsula of Boston was called, the Indians had their paths or trails westward through the wilderness between the Bay and their settlements on the inland lakes and streams in the Connecticut Valley and beyond.

When the Wabbaquassets came from what is now Woodstock, Connecticut, with sacks of Indian corn for the nearly starved colonists in the fall after Governor Winthrop arrived (1630), they travelled to and fro by one of their trails which no doubt had been frequently travelled before and was easily followed by what were to them well known landmarks.

The earliest English travellers westward, so far as known, were John Oldham, Samuel Hall and two others who, in 1633, started for Connecticut to look for a good place for a new settlement, as if anywhere within twenty miles of Boston was not new enough in 1633!

Knowing of the trail used by the Indians three years earlier, they followed it from Watertown, because they realized it would be the easiest line of travel; would strike the fording or crossing places of streams, avoid bad swamps, and, what was of equal if not greater importance, would take them by the Indian villages scattered along the route, where they could obtain food and lodging.

Other pioneers started out by the same route, and little by little the original trail became recognized as an established line of travel. Followed by larger parties and by those who took their families, their horses and cattle, the faintly marked path became deeply worn and clearly defined. It was known as "the way to Connecticut," and the early records of grants of land in what are today Wayland, Sudbury, Marlborough, and other towns specify areas of more or less acres along the "Connecticut Path," as it was designated, which, after it became still more broadly marked, was named the" Connecticut Road."

In what is now Wayland, formerly a part of Sudbury, the old path forked. The northern branch, passing through Marlborough, Worcester, and Brookfield, was known as the" Bay Path," and extended straight to the Connecticut River and the settlement of Agawam, now the City of Springfield.

It would be presumption for the writer to attempt to give any description of these wilderness paths -the only lines of communication for the early colonists between the widely scattered settlements,-when the description as given by J. G. Holland in his story of Old Agawam, under the title of "The Bay Path," is available for quotation:


From the Massachusetts Colony records we learn that in August, 1633, at a Court holden at Boston, "It is agreed that there shall be a sufficient Cart-bridge made in some convenient place over Muddy River," etc.

In March, 1634, at a Court holden at Newe Towne, "It is ordered that Rich. Dumer and John Johnson shall build a sufficient cartbridge over Muddy River before the next General Court and that Boston, Rocksburry, Dorchester, Newtowne and Watertown shall equally contribute to it."

The charge for this bridge was £15 3s. 6d., and in 1640 it was thus apportioned: Boston £6, Roxbury £5, Dorchester £1 7S.3d., Watertown £1 7S. 11d., Cambridge £1 17S. 11d.

According to the old Boston records, March 16, 1640, " William Colbron and Jacob Ellyott are appointed to layout the highways at Muddy River towards Cambridge." This is the first reference to any definite road or highway in the hamlet of Muddy River.

Miss Woods (page 308) says the highway of 1640 "was laid out and trees spotted along the old Indian trail as far as the falls of the Charles River and through Reservoir Lane to Nonantum, where there was an Indian Village." This was probably the local connection between the Muddy River" sufficient cart-bridge" and the Connecticut Path where it crossed the river at Watertown. At the best it did nothing but more clearly indicate the path used by the Indians, so that those unskilled in woodcraft could follow it with little or no difficulty.

In the Boston records for 1657 we read:
This was a real highway, and was what is today our Washington street in Brookline, and its continuation through Brighton and Newton to the Watertown bridge at the falls.

Probably there was no agitation for speed regulations along this "four rod highway directed by marked trees"; the problems of sidewalks and street watering bothered nobody; but the association for good roads must have been an active force, because we read in 1661, "It is ordered yt ye surveyors att Muddy River shall forthwyth repayre ye highway to Watertown Mill which is defective."

From this time on this road was used by all those travelling east or west between Roxbury, Dorchester or Boston and Watertown or beyond to Worcester, and gradually became recognized as the principal highway by the different towns through which it passed and in which it was known as the "Connecticut Road."

In 1643 the Sudbury records designate it as the highway from Watertown to Mr. Dunster's farm and as such it was formally laid out in 1649. In 1674 Framingham laid out the old path or road as the highway to Nobscot and beyond, and a new cart bridge was built across the Sudbury River to take the place of the old horse bridge, which was ever afterwards known as the" New Bridge."

With the growth of the Colony the travel in both directions grew heavier and heavier, and in the progress of time what had been a path through forest and across clearing, faintly traced by the soft moccasins of the Indians, developed into what was termed "The King's Highway." After the Revolution, it lost its royal title, and is commonly referred to in the records as "the great road" or the" post road from New York to Boston."

Perhaps the best reference to the ancient highway can be quoted from Bond's History of Watertown:


As a necessity supplied creates another want, so the development of the old road by constant travel in both directions created the demand for stopping places at convenient points, where refreshment and lodging for man and beast could be obtained. The "ordinary" of colonial days, as it was then called, and the" tavern" of later periods, supplied the wants of travellers from Boston to all outlying points and distant places.

Many an interesting anecdote or story could be told of the part the old taverns along the great road to Worcester played in local history, in the early Indian Wars, and later in the Revolutionary period, to say nothing of their facilities and furnishings as places of entertainment for the ordinary traveler.

Some of the early laws regulating the old inns, ordinaries or taverns, make interesting reading today. To mention only a few particulars:-the law provided that "all public houses shall be on or near the high streets, roads and places of great resort"; innholders were required to be furnished with suitable provisions for the refreshment and entertainment of strangers and travellers, pasturing, stableroom, hay and provender for horses, on pain of being deprived of their license; and "no licensed person shall sell oats for more than one penny the quart" ; taverners were forbidden to have or keep in or about their houses, out-houses, yards, gardens or places to them belonging, any dice, cards, tables, bowls, shuffleboard, billiards, coyts, cales, logats or any other implements used in gaming.

Apprentices, servants or negroes were not allowed to have any manner of drink except with their master's special order, and no inhabitant of the town where the inn was located, or from any other town, except travellers or persons upon business or extraordinary occasions, was to be permitted to sit drinking or tippling for more than the space of one hour. Taverners were strictly forbidden to entertain Pedlars, particularly if they were selling indigo or feathers, and no drinking or tippling was to be permitted after nine o'clock in the night. Singing, fiddling, piping or any other Musick, dancing or revelling were not by law to be suffered or exercised in any tavern. If the Inn-holder saw fit to give credit, the law passed in 1726 said that all above ten shillings should be forfeited, and action to recover any such debt was barred. All these and many more regulations were intended to carry out the declaration of the law-makers of long ago,-that, "Forasmuch as the ancient, true and principal use of inns, taverns, ale-houses, victualling houses and other houses for common entertainment, is for the Receipt, relief and lodging of travellers and strangers and the refreshment of persons upon lawful business, or for the necessary supply of the wants of such poor persons as are not able by greater quantities to make their provision of victuals and are not intended for the entertainment of lewd or idle people to spend or consume their money or time there,-therefore, "Be it enacted, etc."

Each tavern or inn was also required to have a sign affixed to the house or in some conspicuous place near the same, and if for any reason the license was revoked then the sign should at once be taken down.

The tavern was usually the only public place in town -except the meeting house on the days of worship -where the people were accustomed to congregate. Therefore the publishment board, the pillory, the stocks, and all other features of public interest centered about the tavern. If any amusement came into town or was arranged for by local citizens, it was at or near the tavern if possible. For example, this advertisement appeared in the Boston Evening Post of January 11, 1773:


There were two other taverns in Brookline, besides the Punch Bowl. Dana's Tavern stood facing the present Harvard square, approximately where Rhodes Brothers' store now is. It was burned in 1816 (Woods, p. 49-51). Richards Tavern, or Richards Hotel, as it was sometimes called, was built by Elhanan Winchester, Sr., father of the famous preacher, about 1770, with the assistance of his brethren of the" New Lights," as they were called. It was a large house and had a good-sized hall or room for their meetings. The house passed through the possession of Ebenezer and Joseph White to Ebenezer Richards, who kept it as a public house. It faced Heath street, near where Hammond street now crosses. The Worcester turnpike passed close by and just to the rear of the house, where was located one of the turnpike gates with the toll house for the gate-keeper.

It continued as a tavern until about 1830. It then passed to Henry Pettes of Boston, and afterwards was owned by Mark W. Sheafe of Portsmouth. As the Sheafe House it is shown on the town map of 1844 and 1855. The old house is still standing, and a photograph taken in 1904 accompanies this paper.

Miss Woods gives quite a full account of the old Punch Bowl Tavern, which was kept as a public house from previous to 1740 to 1839. The Brookline Selectmen held their meetings either at Dana's or the Punch Bowl. The Town Treasurer's cash book shows that from 1787 to 1800 the patronage was given Dana. After William Laughton became the landlord at the Punch Bowl in 1800 or 1801, he evidently secured the business. Payments were usually made annually for the previous year's meetings.

To quote several entries in the cash book:
It must have been a busy place in front of the old tavern in Punch Bowl Village with all the through travel from the towns to the west. We can imagine the crowd of the idle, the curious, the news-gatherers and those with some definite purpose gathered about the tavern, in tap room and on the benches outside, watching for what was the event of the day, the coming, stopping and driving away of the New York stages.

But we must leave the old taverns, which were hospitable and comfortable, with their landlords, who were the newsmongers of the community, and, in many cases, the most prominent and influential men in the town, and get back to the road from Boston to Worcester.

By this time more or less regular communication had been established. Post riders first travelled the road on horseback with the mail stowed in their saddlebags, and the post riders were in turn succeeded by mail and stagecoaches. Lincoln's History of Worcester, published in 1836, tells the story quite completely, from which the following abstracts are taken:

Prior to 1755 a letter from Boston to Philadelphia took three weeks. In that year (1755) great reforms accelerated the speed, so that only fifteen days were required. The first stage line was advertised in the Boston Evening Post, July 6, 1772, as from New York to Boston by J. & N. Brown, whose announcement read, "Gentlemen and ladies who choose this new, useful and expensive undertaking may depend upon good usage and that the coach will always put up at houses on the road where the best entertainment is provided." These coaches were scheduled to take thirteen days from New York to Boston.

But the line of the Messrs. Brown did not continue until the Revolution. In 1774 there was a post once a week between Hartford and Boston, through Worcester, by post riders who took six days for the trip.

In 1783 was established the first stage line which succeeded and continued until the days of railroads. Levi Pease and Reuben Sikes, then of Somers, Ct., and Suffield, Ct., respectively, began business October 20, 1783, and announced that they had furnished themselves "with two convenient wagons." One of these wagons left Boston at the" Sign of the Lamb" every Monday morning, stopped for the night at Martin's in Northborough, and the next day passed through Worcester and so beyond to Hartford, taking four days for the trip. The other wagon left Hartford for Boston at the same time and stopped at the same taverns en route. Passengers were carried at 4d. per mile. After a discouraging beginning, the line soon grew popular and profitable, and the proprietors did their best to please the public by increasing the speed and giving more accommodations. In 1786 the running time in summer had been reduced so much that a traveler could leave Boston Monday morning and reach New York the following Thursday evening, so that, as the advertisement reads, "by this unparalleled speed, a merchant may go from Boston to New York and return again in less than ten days, which is truly wonderful," and adds further for the information of the travelling public, "it is the most convenient and expeditious way of travelling that can be had in America, and in order to render it the cheapest, the price is lowered from 4d. to 3d. per mile, with liberties to passengers to take 14 pounds of baggage."

With the steady and profitable growth of their business, Pease and Sikes constantly improved their equipment from the "convenient wagon" with its pair of half-starved horses, to the palatial (Concord) stage coach with its great leather braces and springs, with seats inside and out, its team of four or six powerful and well-fed roadsters, all of which, together with improvements in the way of better roads, left nothing to be desired in the way of travelling facilities; or, to use the exact words of the historian of 1836, "the speed of travelling and its facilities were increased almost beyond measure."

For over one hundred and fifty years the "great road" was the trunk line to Worcester, but the zenith of its glory was reached just one hundred years ago, when, so far as" rapid transit" was concerned, it was rendered quite out of date by the building of the Worcester Turnpike in 1806 and 1807.

It was supposed that this turnpike would give the maximum speed in the minimum time because it was laid out on the simple mathematical principle that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points. The turnpike engineers paid little attention to grades, and seemingly forgot that the actual distance travelled may be as long over a hill as around its base, to say nothing of the greater effort to the traveler climbing up one side and holding back when going down on the other.

Turnpikes had been built in other states and in various parts of Massachusetts before the Worcester Turnpike was proposed. The first one in the country, it is believed, was from Alexandria, Virginia, to the lower Shenandoah. In Massachusetts, the Act of June 11, 1796, incorporated a turnpike from Western (now Warren) to Scott's Tavern in Palmer, and in the following decade the General Court passed many acts incorporating turnpikes in different parts of the state. During this period each incorporation was authorized by a special act which detailed the conditions of laying out, the rates of toll and all other particulars.

In 1805, Chapter 125 was passed, which was entitled "An Act defining the general Powers and Duties of Turnpike Corporations," and when the Worcester Turnpike was incorporated the following year (1806), it was under the provisions of this general act.

The principal provisions of this act required the route proposed for any turnpike to be viewed by a committee at the expense of the petitioners -perhaps an old-time junket,-public notice of the proposed route had to be advertised in the county papers; the corporation was liable for land damages, but was given authority to purchase and hold lands over which to make the road. Every such road had to be not less than four rods wide and the travelled part of same not less than twenty-five feet in any part. No gate could be erected on any county or town road previously established, and no gates on the turnpike itself where full toll was demanded could be erected, except said gate was ten miles distant from any other turnpike gate on the same road, unless otherwise specifically provided.

The proprietors were authorized to demand and receive at gates where full rates were charged, the following tolls:
In case the carts or wagons had wheels with fellies or tires six inches broad or more, the rates were half what otherwise would be charged.

Certain exemptions were made by which no tolls could be demanded from foot travellers; from those driving to or from their usual place of public worship; from those passing on military duty; or from those living in the town where the gate was located, unless they were going beyond the limits of the town: and one could also go without charge to and from the grist mill, or on the common and ordinary business of family concerns.

The proprietors were not entitled to demand toll at any gate unless there was erected in some conspicuous place, exposed to view, a signboard with the rates of toll fairly and legibly written or printed in capital letters.

The earliest map of Brookline, drawn in 1728 to find the center of the town, so as to locate the schoolhouse, shows only the Cambridge road, the Newton road (Watertown) and the Sherburn road. Of the three, the last is generally believed to be the oldest, dating from as early as 1640, when laid out by Eliot and Colbron.

In June, 1658, a highway was laid out "through land of Jno. White att Muddy River and so by Thos. Gardners land to the farm of Isaac Stedman," and later in the same year Ensign Jno. Hull, Jos. Cotton, Mr. Jacob Sheafe, Thos. Lake and Wm. Davis declared it to be the town's highway and further that "ye other way in ye law is hereby relinquished." This 1658 laying out was the old Sherburn Road, and took the place of the highway of 1640 which preceeded it, although probably on the same general lines. The Sherburn road is frequently referred to later as the "old road," Jno. White's land was in our present Village Square and westerly. Thomas Gardner's land was where is now the corner of Boylston street and Sumner road, and in 1806 was the property of Benjamin Goddard. Isaac Stedman's farm was at the corner of Heath and Hammond streets, and later was owned by Elhanan Winchester and Ebenezer Richards.

Jackson's History of Newton mentions the existence of this road from Boston (Brookline) bounds through the farms of Wiswall and Haynes and other small plots to the wading place across the Charles River at the Upper Falls, as early as 1671, and on the map showing Newton in 1700, this road is marked as the" Sherborn and Boston Road."

In the Brookline records of 1713 and 1715, it was called the "roadway leading to Roxbury," and also "the Country road that leadeth from Roxbury to Newton through Brookline along by Leftenant Gardner's House."

Chapter 67, Massachusetts Acts of 1806, incorporated the Worcester Turnpike and authorized Aaron Davis, Luther Richardson, Samuel Wells, Charles Davis and William H. Sumner, Esquire, to layout a turnpike from Roxbury to Worcester, "commencing at or near Roxbury street and running near the house of Stephen Higginson, Jr., in Brookline, thence near Mitchell's Tavern in Newton, thence crossing Charles River near General Elliott's Mills and running near the house of Enoch Fiske in Needham (this part of Needham is now Wellesley), thence to the Neck of the Ponds, so called, in Natick; thence near the house of Jonathan Rugg in Framingham; thence near the house of Deacon Chamberlain in Southborough; thence near Furbush's Tavern in Westborough; thence near the house of Jonathan Harrington in Shrewsbury; thence crossing Shrewsbury pond and running north of Bladder pond to the street in Worcester near the Court House; with power to erect four toll gates thereon, at such places, not being on any old road, as the committee appointed by the Act shall determine."

In the records of the Court of Common Pleas for Norfolk County is the report of Bezabeel Taft, Nicholas Tillinghast and Silas Robinson, the committee under the Act of Incorporation to layout the Worcester Turnpike. This report is technical, full of references to soakes, and piles of stones, small oaks or crotched apple trees, but lacks -what would be of greatest interest today the names of the owners of the lands through which it was laid out, except in a few instances.

Until 1844, that part of Brookline between Pearl street and the Parkway belonged to the town of Roxbury. This portion of the old road, and as far as the Newton line, is described as follows, omitting the technicalities:


From a study of the old valuation and tax lists of Brookline from 1796 to 1808, the following were probably those from whom land was taken when the Turnpike was laid out:


The Turnpike location followed the "old road" from the brick schoolhouse in Roxbury to the Punch Bowl Tavern, but after the committee had stopped and refreshed themselves for awhile with Landlord Laughton they must have become decidedly optimistic, for they paid no further attention to the" old road" which had served the public for a hundred and fifty years between Boston and the Upper Falls in Newton.

They paid attention to nothing but the compass, and, standing under the sign of the Lemon Tree and Punch Bowl, they laid the line a few degrees south of west and began to drive stakes and run lines straight away for Richards' Tavern, regardless of the steep grades over Walley's Hill.

As they began to climb the slope of this hill, they crossed the "New Lane", as it was called (now Cypress street), which was laid out in 1720 and 1721, as"a way for the North End inhabitants to go to the meeting house." On the other side of the hill they struck the old Sherburn road in front of Benjamin Goddard's land and absorbed it into the turnpike as far as Ackers corner, in accordance with the written agreement made with the town. At Ackers corner the old road was abandoned again, as the compass pointed straight for the high hill belonging to the Hon. Jonathan Mason, (now Lyman's Hill,) and to go around instead of over a hill was not to be thought of. From Ackers corner the road to Little Cambridge (now Chestnut Hill avenue) had been staked out in 1796 over lands of John Lucas and Isaac S. Gardner.

Down grade from Mason's Hill, the pike soon came in sight of Richards' Tavern, which stood facing the old Sherburn road. At this point there branched to the right an old highway, which long before 1700 extended through the lands of Vincent Druce and various members of the Hammond family towards Watertown. This old highway, which was called Cross street in the Brookline records and map of 1844, has been known as Hammond street since 1855.

With fresh courage imbibed with the hospitable welcome of Landlord Richards, who foresaw the great prospective increase to the patronage of his house, and with his words of encouragement to urge them on, the committee took another look at their compasses and started into the thick woods, across the swamps near the great pond belonging to Col. Hammond, over hills and through meadows straight for the river at the point where the Indian fish weirs and wading places existed before ever Boston was settled, and to which the Sherburn road came by a more circuitous route.

Drake's Roxbury (page 304) says:


This portion of the original laying out was discontinued as a turnpike by Chapter 76, Acts of 1826 (Feb. I5, 1826), which provided -"That from and after the passage of this Act, so much of the location of the Worcester Turnpike as was over the old road, or ancient highway, in the town of Roxbury, be discontinued and annulled; and that the easterly end of said turnpike shall hereafter be at the arch, in Brookline, where said turnpike leaves the ancient highway; provided the said turnpike corporation pay to the town of Roxbury the sum of $250.00 on or before the first day of May next. "The Arch in Brookline" where said Turnpike leaves the ancient highway," stood at where now is Burns' blacksmith shop, at the corner of Washington, High and Boylston streets.

Referring to the points specified in the legislative act which authorized the turnpike laying out:

Stephen Higginson, Jr.'s, house was on Heath street, near the corner of Pound Lane. His father gave the bell when the new meeting house was built in 1806.

Mitchell's Tavern in Newton was located at the present junction of Centre and Boylston streets in Newton Highlands. The landlord was Edward Mitchell, who went from Brookline and kept this tavern which had formerly been owned by Lieut. John Marean (d. 1788), who probably was of the old family who lived both sides of the line between Brookline and Newton in the early days.

General Elliott's Mills. (From Smith's History of Newton.) In 1768 Simon Elliott, a tobacconist of Boston, purchased about 35 acres of land with dwelling house, barn, malt house, and the saw-mill, fulling-mill, grist mill, and eel-weir, which were already established. He erected snuff mills in addition to the other industries and it is said "that the business carried on here in the manufacture of snuff and tobacco was the most extensive in that line in New England."

Elliott's son, Simon, a Major-General in the Militia of Suffolk County, (who died in 1810,) was very active in the business in Newton and hence the name- "General Elliott's Mills." In 1814, the property, including screw factory, wire mill, four snuff mills, annealing shop, etc., was sold to the " Elliott Mfg. Co." In 1799, the Newton Iron Works Company purchased from Bixby, who owned just below the falls, and erected a rolling mill in 1800. In 1809, a new factory was added to manufacture cut nails, and this building was afterwards used as a paper mill. In 1813, a 3000 spindle cotton mill was built, which was burned in 1850.

In 1809, the Worcester Turnpike passed directly by the nail and rolling mill, bridging the river at that point.

Forbush's Tavern. (From History of Worcester County, 1889.) Very early in its history we find references to various inns and taverns in Westborough. The house now standing near the corner of the Turnpike and Lyman street, the old Forbush Tavern, seems to have been the first one which in any sense was like our ideas of a tavern. This was already built when the turnpike was run so near it that it was almost at the door, and was immediately utilized as a place to change horses, rest and feed passengers, get and deliver mails. The stages with their two, four or six horses and rumbling wheels rushed up and down the steep hills. The usual number of passengers in one of these coaches was four and the fare, Boston to Worcester, was $2.00 .

The Neck of the Ponds in Natick means Lake Cochituate. (From Temple's History of Framingham.) " This pond (Cochituate) originally presented the appearance of two bodies of water united by a narrow strait. This strait was an Indian fording place and fishing place, and by dumping in large quantities of small stones the early settlers made a passable roadway." From this lake, which took its name from the Indian village located on it, the water was taken for the supply of Boston in 1846.

Shrewsbury Pond was what was later named Lake Quinsigamond.

-The other places and persons mentioned in the laying out were all well known in their day, and are referred to in the local histories of the respective towns.

The first meeting of the incorporators of the turnpike was held October 30, 1806, at Concert Hall in Boston, east corner of Court and Hanover streets. The stock consisted of six hundred shares of the par value of $250 -a small amount of money to build forty miles of road.

The building of an air line road from Boston to Worcester brought a new era to all the country tributary to it, and what it meant to the towns along the line is well told by a few quotations from some of the local histories.

From Lincoln's History of Worcester (1836):
From Temple's Framingham:
From the History of Westborough:
The morals of the community one hundred years ago, so far as honesty goes, were no better than they are in the present generation. We often think we have made a great saving if in some way we are overlooked when the conductor collects the fares in a crowded car, and few of us, I fear, put ourselves out to see that the railway company gets every nickel to which it is entitled. Human nature is much the same in all generations, and the law passed in 1809 (Chap. 71), is sufficient commentary on the tendency of the church-going New Englander in the first years of the last century.


By which authority was given for such sub-division of toll, with the necessary gates and signs, but no more toll could be taken in the whole, on any ten miles, than provided by the original act.

Although of great benefit to the travelling public, the Worcester turnpike did not prove a profitable enterprise to its proprietors, even with sub-divided tolls. It paid few dividends, never six per cent, and finally the whole capital involved was totally lost. After it had been travelled for say twenty years, it probably was not in the best of condition, for, at the town meeting in Brookline, March 5, 1827, Benjamin Goddard, Ebenezer Heath, and Elisha Penniman were appointed a committee to see that the contract between the town and the turnpike corporation was at all times fulfilled, and that the road generally, so far as it passed through Brookline, was kept in repair; and the said committee were given authority to prosecute for any breach of contract.

According to the County Commissioner's Records of 1832, a committee authorized by a legal meeting of the turnpike corporation petitioned "that that part of said turnpike between Kimball Tavern in Needham and the Punch Bowl Tavern in Brookline be laid out and established as a common and public highway, -that the incorporators were desirous of abandoning and relinquishing their franchise in that part of the turnpike road."

The Commissioners held several meetings at the Punch Bowl Tavern for the purpose of hearing all those interested, and viewing the location. At the meeting January 8, 1833, there was not a quorum and on March 6, 1833, no business was done because "the roads were so blocked with snow as rendered the location of said road difficult or impracticable."

Finally, on April 9, 1833, the Commissioners did adjudge that "common convenience and necessity require that the road should be laid out and established as a public and common highway," etc.

"Beginning at the northeasterly corner of the house and store formerly occupied by Thomas White and now occupied by George W. Stearns, the line runs 17 rods to a heap of stones in land of said Stearns; thence 201 rods 11 links to a heap of stones on Walley Hill; thence 31 rods to beginning of land of Benj. Goddard and so on to the intersection of a town road near the house of Ebenezer Heath, Esq." Beyond that point the abuttors mentioned are Ebenezer Guild, Esq., Ebenezer Richards, Jr., and Ebenezer Richards, Senior, at the boundary line between Brookline and Newton.

Except through the home lot of Benjamin Goddard, where it was "contracted to thirty feet as the side walls and fences now stand, " the road was laid out four rods wide, and the description sets forth specifically that the lines, courses and width of the road as laid out "correspond exactly with the lines, courses and width of the Worcester turnpike within the said termini, excepting through the land of said Goddard."

Brookline objected to this proposed laying out. The town did not fancy the idea of being burdened with the expense of keeping the road in good condition, to say nothing of the great amount of repairs which the committee of that day reported as absolutely necessary. As a result of this objection, after conferences and consultations a written agreement was made between the town and the turnpike corporation, whereby the latter was to pay $500 to be used in making the necessary repairs, and on these terms the town no longer opposed the laying out. (The original manuscripts of the agreement, the report of the committee and the notification of the County Commissioners' hearing are in the Town Clerk's Office.)

At the Brookline town meeting of March, 1837, the Highway appropriation was divided among the different highway districts. The Worcester turnpike from Newton line to the Brighton road near William Ackers' house was allowed nine per cent, and from said Brighton road to the eastern end sixteen per cent annually, or twenty-five per cent from the Village to Newton line.

Votes passed at the March meeting in 1838 throw a side light on the tendency of human nature to get all that it can for its own, even if it comes to boldly appropriating land for private purposes by fencing in the public highway.


If these conditions were not observed, the Selectmen were to revoke the license and remove fences.

In 1839, a petition was presented to the County Commissioners by Jabez Fisher, 2d, and others, for certain changes in the side lines of the street near the lands of Benjamin Goddard, where, in 1833, the width was contracted to 30 feet.

Certain exchanges of land were made so as to straighten the line, as a result of which a strip on the southerly side of the road was discontinued -8 1/4 feet wide and 98 1/3 rods long, from the land of Thomas W. Sumner to the New Lane, so called.

In 1841, the proprietors of the turnpike petitioned to surrender their charter, and Chapter 62 of the Acts of 1841 accepted their petition, whereby after September 1st of that year all the turnpike road except such portions as had been laid out as town or county highways was discontinued, and the turnpike corporation formally discharged from all liability. The same act provided for a continuation of tolls over Long Pond Bridge (Lake Quinsigamond) provided it should be laid out as a highway by the towns of Shrewsbury and Worcester.

In the same year (1841), at the March town meeting a committee was appointed to name the streets and avenues in Brookline. The description and names of those at the time connected with the turnpike road were as follows:

• Road from Roxbury to Brighton -Washington street.
• Washington street to Mr. Fisher's corner -Cypress street.
• Worcester turnpike -Boylston street.
• From Post Office by Dr. Pierce's Church to Boylston street
• Walnut street. From Worcester turnpike or Boylston street by Mr. Heath's to Newton line -Heath street.
• Heath street to Boylston street by Mr. Penniman's-Pound street.

The description of Boylston street by Deacon Elijah F. Woodward of Newton, who completed the survey and made the drawings for the new town map in 1844, gives the following names of principal abuttors, and locates them very accurately.

	Rods
From Newton line to the house of T. W. Wellington	56 1/2
thence to J. Clark's	8
to J. W. and S. Warren's	204
to Gen. Lyman's avenue	8
to Mrs. Penniman's	27
to Guide Post, junction of Heath and Boylston streets	59 1/2
	423
From Guide Post to Acker's gate.	12
to Hammond's avenue.	17
to Hayden's gate	46
to Perkin's do	59
to Goddard's brook	20
	154
From Brook to B. Goddard's lower gate	33
to F. Gerry's	18
to centre Cypress street	75
	126
From C. street to Dr. Shurtleff's	36 2/5
to Artemas Newell's.	26 3/5
to Thomas Kendall's	3
to Hay scales	78
to Elm tree near junction of Boylston and Walnut streets	8 3/5
	126 3/5
Total	855 3/5

The total length of Boylston street was a little more than one sixth of the total length of all the streets in the town supported at public expense.

The name of what previously had been called Walley's Hill was changed about 1845. In that year Nathaniel Pulsifer requested the lowering of the road where it crosses "Bradley's Hill." The town acknowledged by vote that" an improvement of the roads in any part of the town is always a public benefit", and gave permission to Pulsifer and his associates to lower the road in the place described in his petition, provided the expense was defrayed by subscription, and the work was done under the direction and supervision of the Selectmen. The new name was given to the Hill out of respect to Capt. Benjamin Bradley, sexton, constable, collector of taxes, and in many ways a picturesque character, who ruled over the heterogeneous collection of little old wooden houses which he built on the hill, and which were removed about 1870.

During the period from 1833 to 1870 there were many changes in Brookline along the line of the turnpike road, made by the town in accordance with the votes passed in town meetings. There were widenings, relocations, changes in grade, and other improvements, but none changed essentially the original character of the road.

The Selectmen of the present day are struggling with the problem of what to do in Village Square. The town faced the same question in 1847, but under conditions decidedly different from those of today, as we learn from the report of a committee to consider and report on the claim of Samuel A. Walker to the land on which the hay scales were located, and his petition for the filling up of a portion of Boylston and Washington streets, which report contains the following:


The report of the committee gives this description of Village Square streets at that time:


The town adopted the majority report of the committee, which saw neither necessity nor expediency in granting the petition which would require an expenditure of several hundred dollars without adequate public benefit.

In building the Reservoir for Boston's water supply from Lake Cochituate, certain land was taken from the road as laid out by the County Commissioners. At the March town meeting, 1848, this question, and the equally important one of lowering the grade over Bradley Hill, was referred to a committee consisting of Benjamin Goddard, Charles Heath, James Bartlett and Jesse Bird, with authority to contract with the Boston Water Commissioners on certain conditions, one of which was that the finish of the top of the road through the excavation should be done with stone or chips of stone and gravel to the width of thirteen feet and the depth of twelve inches.

The grade of the road was reduced six feet, and was widened on the northerly side by building abutments of stone wall. The Water Commissioners paid $1000, private subscriptions $760, and the town appropriated $1,371.97 and agreed to hold the city harmless for the land taken from the road for the Reservoir.

In 1853, the street for a distance of 17 rods in front of Henry Lee's was widened, with a culvert, water course and new railing. In 1859, at the adjourned annual meeting a motion was offered to appropriate $8,000 for lowering the grade of Bradley's Hill, making and repairing Boylston street. This motion did not prevail, but was referred to the Selectmen for future report.

In 1860, the abutment wall in front of the estate of John S. Wright was relaid.

In 1862, the grade was improved along that part of the street opposite the estates of Francis and Francis K. Fisher, Charles Heath and Henry Lee.

In 1866, a petition was presented to the Selectmen by a large number of citizens praying that that part of Boylston street between Cypress street and the west line of the estate of Benjamin Goddard, which was included in the location of the street but had never been made use of, should be graded and occupied. The Selectmen reported in substance that if anything was to be done it should be well done, and recommended a lowering of the grade over Bradley Hill eight feet, and building the street to the full width to which the town was entitled by the record. This, however, required the building and rebuilding of heavy retaining walls. The necessary great expense, in view of the high prices of labor and the large debt of the town, both of which they hoped soon to see abated, caused the Selectmen to recommend the postponement of the improvement. At the annual meeting the next year, the necessary appropriation was made.

In accordance with the order of the County Commissioners, the street was relocated from Cypress street to the Newton line and widened to full width in front of Benjamin Goddard's estate in November, 1870, for which purpose the town appropriated twenty seven thousand dollars. To quote from the recorded location:


Not until the next century was the street seriously disturbed again, but in 1900, under authority of the vote of November 9th, 1899, passed at probably the largest meeting, exclusive of elections, the town has ever had for transacting public business, work was again begun on another, and let us hope the final, widening of the street from Cypress street to the Newton line, an improvement which required an appropriation of $300,000 for land damages and cost of construction.

History is the story of successions and the causes thereof.

As the Indian trail merged into the path and the path grew into the road, as the road became the" King's Highway" to be in turn succeeded by the straight-away turnpike, -so, in the evolution of transportation facilities, the turnpike, travelled night and day by the express stage-lines, filled its place in the history of that evolution, and, with some spasmodic resistance, succumbed before the iron horse, puffing and whistling along the steel-railed right of way.

Stagecoach and tavern days reached the high level of their development along the line from Boston to Worcester from 1830 to 1835, after which the once popular route took its place in history as the" Old Worcester Turnpike," its usefulness almost entirely taken away by the completion of the Boston and Worcester steam
railroad.

In I831 and 1832, there were one hundred and six stagecoach lines running out of Boston in different directions, and time-tables of the various lines were published regularity. How many stage lines passed through Brookline, the writer cannot say definitely; but it was estimated that in 1831 the average amount of travelling between Boston and Worcester -the bulk of which passed through Brookline over the turnpike -was equal to 22,360 passages per annum, for which the lowest fare was two dollars and the shortest time six hours.

In 1905 the electric lines over almost the same route -exactly the same until some distance beyond Framingham -carried 10,279,303 paying passengers, of which 401,478 were through travellers between Boston and Worcester.

Radiating from Worcester, connecting with the Boston stages, were many other lines, and they continued for years before the steam railroads supplanted them. The owner of the most important of these radiating lines, with one hundred and fifty horses and controlling stage routes aggregating two hundred and eighty-six miles, was Ginery Twichell, who later resided in Brookline on Kent street, and became a member of Congress. He started as a postrider and stage-driver and gradually became one of the great men, not only in that business, but in the steam railroad business, which took its place. A lithograph was published in 1850 picturing a man galloping along the road in a driving snowstorm, entitled, "The unrivaled express rider Ginery Twichell, who rode from Worcester to Hartford, a distance of sixty miles, in three hours and twenty minutes through a deep snow January 23, 1846."

Although the many changes in Brookline have been noted, the turnpike road received little attention in the towns beyond after the proprietors surrendered the charter and it became a public highway. It suffered the usual vicissitudes of the ordinary country road and repairs were made only when necessary. Other roads which avoided the steep grades and long hard climbs made true the old saying that "the longest way round is the shortest way home."

There was little if any through travel, and except for short stretches through the populous sections of towns, it retained not a shadow of its former popularity. Moss-covered stone walls or dilapidated weather-beaten fences marked its bounds; with here and there a turnout to enable the thirsty horses or cattle to drink from some clear-watered brook which flowed lazily under the roadway. The quiet and peacefulness along the way was undisturbed except by the clatter of the bell on some cow's neck as she fed along the faintly marked side-path on the way to and from the nearby pasture.

For over fifty years, the old turnpike dozed and nodded in this sleepy sort of a way, until in the first years of the twentieth century its slumbers were disturbed by the sudden shock of the electric current, which, revolutionizing nearly every form of industry, has affected the problem of transportation in particular. Again the engineers and contractors covered the ground, and when they had finished their work the old road was so altered in appearance that never again can it be recognized, even by itself.

Today, the "broom-stick trains leave ye ancient highway in Brookline where the arch stands" for "the street in Worcester near the Court House" every half hour or less, and carry thousands of coach-loads of passengers at high' speed, without dust, cinders, or other similar discomfort. Every seat is an outside seat in pleasant summer weather, and in cold or stormy weather the easy-riding cars are well warmed and comfortably furnished. In 1906, we might repeat the words of the historian of seventy years ago, when he said in regard to the stage coach lines of 1836," the speed of travelling and its facilities have been increased almost beyond measure."

[Read before the Society December 26, 1906, by Edward W. Baker.]