Weston

Weston
Author: Lee Marsh
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2003-08-12
Genre: Photography
ISBN: 1439628866

Established in 1713 as a Puritan town, Weston, Massachusetts, has been a center of farming, industry, estates, and now, suburban life. Weston traces the changes in the city from the colonial period into the 20th century, with emphasis on the developments of the Progressive era (19001920), a time in which the areas most admirable features were established. At the turn of the century,Weston was a community enjoying peace and prosperity while addressing the changes brought about by the transportation and industrial revolutions. Roads and railroads connected Weston to the greater Boston area, and the Hews Pottery, Hobbs Tannery, and Hastings Organ Factory gave the town some experience with the effects of the industrial revolution. Industry virtually disappeared from the town by 1935, but during the estate era, which lasted from the 1880s to the 1950s, estates and land were sold to build housing for the new suburbanites. Photographs from the Weston Historical Society as well as private sources illustrate the changes in town life and landscapes; memoirs from residents and the Weston Column of the Waltham Free Press tell the story of a community that has maintained its independent and unique character for more than 200 years.

Puritan Family and Community in the English Atlantic World

Puritan Family and Community in the English Atlantic World
Author: Margaret Manchester
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2019-05-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 0429619901

Puritan Family and Community in the English Atlantic World examines the dynamics of marriage, family and community life during the "Great Migration" through the microhistorical study of one puritan family in 1638 Rhode Island. Through studying the Verin family, a group of English non-conformists who took part in the "Great Migration", this book examines differing approaches within puritanism towards critical issues of the age, including liberty of conscience, marriage, family, female agency, domestic violence, and the role of civil government in responding to these developments. Like other nonconformists who challenged the established Church of England, the Verins faced important personal dilemmas brought on by the dictates of their conscience even after emigrating. A violent marital dispute between Jane and her husband Joshua divided the Providence community and resulted, for the first time in the English-speaking colonies, in a woman’s right to a liberty of conscience independent of her husband being upheld. Through biographical sketches of the founders of Providence and engaging with puritan ministerial and prescriptive literature and female-authored petitions and pamphlets, this book illustrates how women saw their place in the world and considers the exercise of female agency in the early modern era. Connecting migration studies, family and community studies, religious studies, and political philosophy, Puritan Family and Community in the English Atlantic World will be of great interest to scholars of the English Atlantic World, American religious history, gender and violence, the history of New England, and the history of family.

Historic Powder Houses of New England

Historic Powder Houses of New England
Author: Matthew E. Thomas
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2013-11-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 1625847203

In the turbulent history of colonial New England, more than two hundred powder houses were built to store gunpowder, guns and armaments. Even the spark from a metal shoe nail could ignite their contents, so they often sat in remote sections of town. These volatile storehouses played a vital role in earning and preserving American independence. It was, after all, to a powder house in Concord, Massachusetts, that the British army marched in April 1775 to seize colonists' gunpowder. The British were thwarted, and the colonists' defense of the powder house ignited the Revolutionary War. Add to this the duels, murders, public hangings and tragic explosions that checkered the history of these structures, and the reader will discover a fascinating and forgotten aspect of our New England heritage. Using meticulous research, Matthew Thomas narrates the colorful histories of New England's powder houses as he resurrects their historical significance in early American history.

Puritan Village

Puritan Village
Author: Sumner Chilton Powell
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2019-02-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 0819572683

Pulitzer Prize Winner: “A meticulous and remarkably detailed account of the early government and social organization of the town of Sudbury, Massachusetts.” —Time In addition to drawing on local records from Sudbury, Massachusetts, the author of this classic work, which won the Pulitzer Prize in History, traced the town’s early families back to England to create an outstanding portrait of a colonial settlement in the seventeenth century. He looks at the various individuals who formed this new society; how institutions and government took shape; what changed—or didn’t—in the movement from the Old World to the New; and how those from different local cultures adjusted, adapted, competed, and cooperated to plant the seeds of what would become, in the century to follow, a commonwealth of the United States of America. “An important and interesting book . . . to the student of institutions, even to the sociologist, as well as to the historian.” —The New England Quarterly

Rooted in the Land

Rooted in the Land
Author: William Vitek
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 308
Release: 1996-01-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780300069617

This book is dedicated to the notion that human lives are enriched by participation in a social community that is integrated into the natural landscape of a particular place. The writers explore the loss of community, the philosophical foundations of communities, Amish communities, and the current renewal of community life.

The Hub's Metropolis

The Hub's Metropolis
Author: James C. O'Connell
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 341
Release: 2022-06-07
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0262545861

The evolution of the Boston metropolitan area, from country villages and streetcar suburbs to exurban sprawl and “smart growth.” Boston's metropolitan landscape has been two hundred years in the making. From its proto-suburban village centers of 1800 to its far-flung, automobile-centric exurbs of today, Boston has been a national pacesetter for suburbanization. In The Hub's Metropolis, James O'Connell charts the evolution of Boston's suburban development. The city of Boston is compact and consolidated—famously, “the Hub.” Greater Boston, however, stretches over 1,736 square miles and ranks as the world's sixth largest metropolitan area. Boston suburbs began to develop after 1820, when wealthy city dwellers built country estates that were just a short carriage ride away from their homes in the city. Then, as transportation became more efficient and affordable, the map of the suburbs expanded. The Metropolitan Park Commission's park-and-parkway system, developed in the 1890s, created a template for suburbanization that represents the country's first example of regional planning. O'Connell identifies nine layers of Boston's suburban development, each of which has left its imprint on the landscape: traditional villages; country retreats; railroad suburbs; streetcar suburbs (the first electric streetcar boulevard, Beacon Street in Brookline, was designed by Frederic Law Olmsted); parkway suburbs, which emphasized public greenspace but also encouraged commuting by automobile; mill towns, with housing for workers; upscale and middle-class suburbs accessible by outer-belt highways like Route 128; exurban, McMansion-dotted sprawl; and smart growth. Still a pacesetter, Greater Boston has pioneered antisprawl initiatives that encourage compact, mixed-use development in existing neighborhoods near railroad and transit stations. O'Connell reminds us that these nine layers of suburban infrastructure are still woven into the fabric of the metropolis. Each chapter suggests sites to visit, from Waltham country estates to Cambridge triple-deckers.