AMST 335
Professor Gieseking
Corey Wise
Research Project Statement
In putting together the Listicle for the concept of the New England Village, it suddenly dawned on me that my hometown of Wayland, Massachusetts, has all of the elements of the concept of the New England Village. This realization excited me and spurred me to learn about my hometown in greater depth. I already knew some facts about Wayland that I learned over the years, having never moved from our home there since in-utero. However, I learned so many more interesting facts about my hometown. Wayland is truly a microcosm for the concept of the New England Village.
I wanted to show and describe a little bit of Wayland’s pre-Colonial and Colonial history in my timeline. This is the era that I learned the most about in my excellent history classes in Wayland, so I felt the most comfortable researching and re-learning it. The first settlement of Sudbury Plantation was established in 1638 in what is now the town of Wayland. Residents of Watertown wanted more land and less crowding and were granted this land east of the Sudbury River. Sudbury Plantation separated into Sudbury and East Sudbury in 1780, with the Sudbury River acting as their border. The decision to separate was largely due to the difficulties of citizens in the western part of Sudbury to cross the river to get to church and town meeting, especially in the spring. Until the Industrial and Transportation Revolutions of the mid-1800s, Wayland was a sleepy, inland farming community.
The next main time period I was trying to display about Wayland, was their industrial period. Initially, I did not know that much about this period of Wayland’s history, so it was fascinating to learn about the industrial and manufacturing history of my hometown. It was also interesting to learn about how long the north-south divide in town has been prevalent. In the 1830’s, the Bent brothers, James and William, expanded their small shoe shop into a manufacturing powerhouse. Numerous shoe factories were built in the southern part of Wayland, which was renamed Cochituate at this time. Modern amenities, such as streetlights and streetcars, were brought into Cochituate, as this southern part of town prospered. There is also a separate post office for Cochituate residents to this day, while North Wayland remained a quiet, farming community. Eventually, the building of the railroad through North Wayland helped this area greatly, allowing farmers to bring their produce into Boston to sell to a larger market. This helped northern Wayland to catch up to the rapidly advancing southern Wayland.
The last time period I tried to display in my timeline, was suburban Wayland. This was another time period in Wayland’s history that I did not know that much about, although I had familiarity with the school system, since I had attended Wayland schools my entire life before coming to Trinity. This time period saw an absolute explosion in population after World War II, due in part to 3 events: 1) the Baby Boom, 2) the construction of Rte 128 (I-95), and 3) the construction of the Mass Pike. According to the U.S. census, the population of Wayland surged 137% in the 1950s from 4407 to 10, 444. To accommodate the school-aged children, 3 new elementary schools were built, as well as a new Middle School and state-of-the-art, Walter Gropius-designed mid-century modern High School. Wayland had the foresight to preserve some of its farming heritage through preservation of conservation land in conjunction with housing development, so that now 25% of Wayland land is conservation land.
Little did I realize when I first produced my Listicle for the concept of the New England Village that I was basically writing about my hometown of Wayland, Massachusetts. It was fascinating to learn about all of the history that I’ve been surrounded with literally my entire life. The history that I’ve learned about the town explains so many of the details of Wayland that I have always wondered about, but never knew until now. So many of the towns in New England share this similar history, however it is also interesting to note that some have also struggled, largely left behind recently when the infrastructure of the interstate system drove opportunity to other New England villages. I am proud that so many of the trends in American life occurred on a smaller scale within my small hometown.
Timeline Bibliography
“About Us: Town Hall.” Wayland Massachusetts. January 01, 2014. Accessed April 09, 2018. https://www.wayland.ma.us/about-us.
Capriani, Christine. “Days Numbered for Midcentury-Modern School by The Architects Collaborative.” Architectural Record. February 25, 2011. Accessed April 9, 2018. https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/2120-days-numbered-for-midcentury-modern-school-by-the-architects-collaborative?v=preview.
Carter, Allison. “A City Divided: The Building of the Mass Turnpike Extension in Newton (Pt. 1).” Newton Patch. September 13, 2011. Accessed April 09, 2018. https://patch.com/massachusetts/newton/a-city-divided-the-building-of-the-mass-turnpike-exted81c1af1db.
Dame, Jonathan. “Eversource to Begin Rail Trail Work in Weston and Wayland.” The Metro West Daily News. August 1, 2017. Accessed April 9, 2018. http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/20170801/eversource-to-begin-rail-trail-work-in-weston-and-wayland.
Dudley Pond. “History of the Pond.” Dudley Pond Association. Accessed April 09, 2018. http://www.dudleypond.org/history-of-the-pond.html.
Eastern Roads. “Historic Overview.” Massachusetts Turnpike (I-90). Accessed April 09, 2018. http://www.bostonroads.com/roads/mass-pike/.
Emery, Helen Fitch. The Puritan Village Evolves: A History of the Town of Wayland, Massachusetts. 1st ed. Phoenix Pub, 1981.
The Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston. “1950s–1975: Impact of Rte 128 & Rte 495.” Historic Shift Explicit to Implicit Policies Affecting Housing Segregation in Eastern Massachusetts. Accessed April 09, 2018. http://www.bostonfairhousing.org/timeline/1950s-1975-Suburbs.html.
Foster, David R., Brian Donahue, David Kittredge, Glenn Motzkin, Brian Hall, Billie Turner, and Elizabeth Chilton. “New England’s Forest Landscape: Ecological Legacies and Conservation Patterns Shaped by Agrarian History.” 2008.
Hogan, Dan, and Will Engel. “Cold War Wayland: Raytheon.” Wayland High School History Project. Accessed April 09, 2018. http://whshistoryproject.org/1950s/missiles.html.
Islamic Center of Boston. “About IBC.” Islamic Center of Boston, Wayland, Massachusetts. Accessed April 09, 2018. http://www.icbwayland.org/.
Labaree, Benjamin. “New England Town Meeting.” The American Archivist 25, no. 2 (1962): 165-72. doi:10.17723/aarc.25.2.a41x928626p71t16.
Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System. “Hopestill Bent Tavern.” MACRIS Details. Accessed April 09, 2018. http://mhc-macris.net/Details.aspx?MhcId=WAY.116.
Ogletree, Andrew, and Ben Peterson. “Old Meets New: Dudley Pond.” Wayland High School History Project: Main Page. Accessed April 09, 2018. http://whshistoryproject.org/1950s/pond.html.
Raytheon. “Site Background.” Raytheon. Accessed April 09, 2018. http://raytheon.erm.com/home.htm.
Reich, Robert B. “Secession of the Successful.” The New York Times. January 20, 1991. Accessed April 09, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/20/magazine/secession-of-the-successful.html?pagewanted=all.
Renschler, Catherine. “Hopestill Bent.” Catherines Corner. February 23, 2015. Accessed April 09, 2018. http://catherinescorner.net/?p=107.
Richard, Bay. “Cars, Trucks in Big Parade on New Pike.” The Boston Daily Globe (Boston), May 16, 1957.
Rotker, Drew, and Jarrett Lerner. “Cold War Wayland: The Nike Missile Site.” Wayland High School History Project. Accessed April 09, 2018. http://whshistoryproject.org/1950s/missiles.html.
“Route 128: Boston’s Road to Segregation.” Patricia A. Morse, Others, and Massachusetts State Advisory Committee to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. January 1975. Boston, Massachusetts.
Strum, Beckie. “A Feast for the Eyes: 4 Pilgrim-era Mansions on the Market.” Mansion Global. November 24, 2016. Accessed April 09, 2018. https://www.mansionglobal.com/articles/46856-a-feast-for-the-eyes-4-pilgrim-era-mansions-on-the-market.
Temple Shir Tikva. “Shir Tikva: About.” The Temple Shir Tikva. Accessed April 9, 2018. http://www.shirtikva.org/about.
Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1854.
Unitarian Universalist Community. “First Parish: Our History.” The First Parish in Wayland. Accessed April 9, 2018. https://www.uuwayland.org/.
The Wayland Depot. “History.” The Wayland Depot. Accessed April 09, 2018. http://thewaylanddepot.com/about-us/history/.
Wayland Historical Society. “TOWN HISTORY: A SHORT HISTORY OF WAYLAND, MA.” Wayland Museum. Accessed April 9, 2018. https://www.waylandmuseum.org/history-of-wayland/.
Wayland Public Schools Foundation. Lt. Col. Martin W. Joyce Papers. Accessed April 09, 2018. https://www.ltcoljoycepapers.org/.
Wolfson, Evelyn, and Dick Hoyt. “‘A to Z’: ‘S’ Is for ‘Shoe Industry’.” Wicked Local. January 28, 2010. Accessed April 09, 2018. http://www.wickedlocal.com/x1090822482/A-to-Z-S-is-for-Shoe-Industry.
Zarracina, Javier. “How the Post Road Wrote New England’s History.” Boston.com. Accessed April 09, 2018. http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/graphics/10_17_10_postroad/.