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Photo of the Week

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

This week’s photograph is of Den Rock, a popular hiking spot since the 19th century.  Den Rock straddles two parks, one owned by Andover and the other by the city of Lawrence, both named Den Rock Park.  The Lawrence park, which was originally planned to be a city cemetery in the 1970s,  includes over 80 acres of land.  The Andover park became town property in the late 1990s after a number of companies started to scout the land for industrial use.

Den Rock itself features caves to explore and the big rock to climb.  Rumors and tales of hauntings in The Park abound.  Stories of Indian burial grounds mix with tales of the Salem witches coming to the site for secret rituals or those accused of witchcraft taking refuge from their accusers in the caves.  In the 1910s, Lawrence historian Maurice Dorgan wrote that, “The devil is said to have visited the place” in a dark and stormy night local legend.  The story is told that the devil was seen sliding down a side of the rock, which became know as the Devil’s Slide.  (From an undated article in the Eagle-Tribune found in the Society’s research files.)

Follow this link to learn more about the many hiking trails in and around Andover.

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Photo of the Week

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

This week’s photograph celebrates baseball, “The American Pastime.”  From the 1880s through the early 1900s, Andover boasted a number of local baseball teams including Andover’s Union Team, the Andover Blackstockings, and the Vale Nine.  Neighborhoods, factories, and schools often sponsored local baseball teams.  Many familiar family names appear in the ranks of local baseball teams including, Cronin, Poor, Dearborn, Collins, and Abbott.  The Andover Townsman ran a series of photographs of “old-time baseball teams” from “Auld Lang Syne” in the 1937.  Copies of the Townsman are available at the Historical Society library if you would like to take a look back at Auld Lang Syne yourself.

We don't know the names of the players in this photograph of the Vale Nine.

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Photo of the Week

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

This week’s photograph is of an anonymous bicycle club gathering behind the Town House.

Bicycle clubs were popular during the 1880s and 1890s after the safety bicycle was introduced.  Before the invention of the safety bicycle, cycling was considered a dangerous sport for adventurous young men only.  The Society has in its collection both a “velocipede,” an early bicycle without pedals that the rider propelled by sitting on the seat and pushing off on the ground, and a high wheel bicycle, that featured a very large front wheel and a small back wheel.  The safety bicycle, which featured a low seat, a drive chain, and pneumatic tires popularized cycling with men and women alike, and set off a “bicycle craze” that lasted into the early 20th century.

Sadly we know nothing about the bike club assembled for this photograph, but here’s an interesting article on the history of bike clubs that appeared in the New York Times, June 30, 2010.

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Photo of the Week

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

Andover has a long history of patriotic celebrations.  Fourth of July features the Horribles Parade and other events, including fire works.  Memorial Day, Veteran’s Day, Flag Day, and war memorials for those who served in World War I, World War II, and Korea are all celebrated by the Town’s Patriotic Celebrations Committee.  In addition, Andover has a lively history of celebrating its own anniversaries, the 250th in 1896, 300th in 1946, and 350th in 1996 were all celebrated in high style

Today’s photograph is of a road race that was part of Ballardvale’s Fourth of July celebration in 1909.

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Photo of the Week

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

Staying with our summer recreation theme, this week’s photo is of “Parker’s on the Shawsheen” in Ballardvale.  Parker’s was one of many businesses along the Shawsheen River in Balllardvale that offered canoeing, dancing, and swimming.  Parker’s was located close to the center of Ballardvale.  Parker’s rented canoes and other boats, and, on the second floor, a ballroom for dancing.

Parker's on the Shawsheen was a popular site for summer recreation

Other recreation areas along the Shawsheen River in Ballardvale included the Pole Hill picnic grove and Serio’s Grove.  Serio’s Grove was known locally for the “Miami Boat House.”  Mr. Serio offered canoes to rent, each one named “Florida.”  Serio’s Grove is a new Andover Conservation Commission park.  You can still see the remains of the old diving board along the water’s edge.  Looking at the level of the river now, diving doesn’t seem to be such a good idea.  To create the deep pool for swimming and diving, Mr. Serio put planks of the dam at Ballardvale to raise the water level.

Click here to read about Pole Hill, summer recreation in Ballardvale, and a murder that took place at Pole Hill, and here for Andover Conservation Commission contact information.

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Photo of the Week

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

This week’s photograph is a staff favorite.  This image is part of a collection of photographs of these children and their families enjoying an outing at Haggett’s Pond.  Given that public swimming was outlawed in Andover as late as 1895, it’s not surprising that the children are not dressed in swimming attire.  All of the other people in the party were similarly dressed.  Today it’s hard to imagine keeping children this age completely dressed and out of the water!

Children enjoying the beach at Haggett's Pond at the turn of the last century.

Haggett’s Pond has had many uses over the past 150 years.  For many years it was the home of Bailey’s Grove, a private recreation area that included dining areas, a dance floor, boating, and even for a time, a world-renown boxing camp!  Little is known about the camp beyond this news article that describes George Dixon, the “famed Boston pugilist,” coming to the Grove for training.

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Photo of the Week

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

This week, we have another view of Boy Scout Camp Manning on Pomp’s Pond.  The caption at the bottom of the photograph reads: “EATS  Enough Sed!  Camp Manning B.S.A. Andover, Mass”.

Dining Hall of Camp Manning in the 1920s or 30s

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Photo of the Week

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

For the next few weeks, we’ll feature scenes of Pomp’s and Haggett’s Ponds.  One side of Pomp’s Pond is now a Town of Andover recreation site and town beach.  The other side of the Pond is now Girl Scout Camp Maude Eaton.

This view is of Boy Scout Camp Manning in the 1920s, “Our location on Indian Ridge.”   Camp Manning closed in the early 1950s, and in 1963 the Town purchased the spot for a recreation area.  The town beach now occupies this space.

Boy Scout Camp Manning, in the early 1900s

Pomp’s Pond was named for Pompey Lovejoy, who came to Andover as a young child, the slave of Captain  William Lovejoy.  Lovejoy gained his freedom when he was 38; he lived to the ripe old age of 102.   During his lifetime, Lovejoy was a soldier during the Revolution and lived on the bank of the Pond with his wife Rose.  Lovejoy and his wife are buried in the South Church burial ground.  His tombstone reads, “Pomp Lovejoy, born in Boston, a slave; died in Andover, a free man, Feb. 23, 1826; much respected as a sensible, amiable, upright man.”

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Photo of the Week

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

This week’s photo is a look back at Shawsheen Plaza as it was fifty years ago.  Even as many in Andover bemoan the loss of the Market Basket that recently closed, this photograph is a reminder of how simple, familiar landmarks, streetscapes, stores, and byways change in just a short period of time.  This photographs shows Elm Farm, Liggett’s Pharmacy, Grant’s, and Woolworth’s.

I remember W.T. Grant & Company and Woolworth’s from my childhood through my early 20s.  For me, the sound of Woolworth’s was always the sounds of the parakeets chirping.  It didn’t matter if it was the store in Lowell that we visited when I was young, or the store in Cooperstown, New York, when I was in school.  I could always depend on the chirp of the parakeets at Woolworth’s.

What memories does this photograph bring back for you?  Write us a comment and let us know!

Advertisement for Shawsheen Plaza from the 1960s. Thank you to Jim Batchelder for sharing this with the Society!

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Photo of the Week

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

This falls more in the category of odd notes found in the collection, similar to the ADEPT team’s findings among the three dimensional collection.  Library and archives volunteer Viggie Johnson has found many conflicting and puzzling notes attached to photographs in the collection, and we enjoyed reading this minor “battle of the photograph notes.”

The front of the photo is clearly inscribed with “BAXTER’S CORNER AS IT APPEARED IN 1930.”  Seems reasonable enough, but on the back of the photograph was found “Baxter’s Corner as it appeared in 1930.  Gulf gasoline station is now on this vacant lot and the Post Office is on the site of the Andrews house the background.”  Ok, that all makes sense, there is still a Gulf station on this corner of Chestnut and Main Streets (#65 Main Street), and a Sovereign Bank (that once was the post office at #71 Main Street) now stands where the “Andrews” house stood in 1930.

All well and good, but the note on the back of the photograph continued, “It was never known as Baxter’s corner although when the gas station first opened it was run by Mr. Baxter. ”  Other photographs in the same file also emphasize that “’Baxter’s Corner’ is a misnomer.  Charles Baxter started the Gulf Station.”

Apparently, there was at least one person, the one who labeled the front of this photograph…..perhaps Mr. Baxter himself?…..who did refer to this as Baxter’s Corner.

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