The Bridgewaters Project

Bridgewater Film Festival - Part I - Knight and Day

2011-12-20T06:17:00.000-08:00

Back in the summer of 2009 Bridgewater, Massachusetts was all a-twitter because Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz were in town to shoot the airplane crash scene for the movie that was then only known as "Witchita". Knight and Day is not the kind of film we normally watch - an action flick with one implausible scene after another, strung together by a flimsy love story. However, in the interest of "The Bridgewater's Project" we felt we had to see it. It was pretty much as expected. We did recognize the field where the plane crashed, even though the filmmakers did an admirable job of making it look like it was really in the mid-west. Bridgewater really has range. I bet it could even disguise itself as the Pacific Northwest if necessary. We didn't much like this movie, although I can't say it was disappointing. It was, in fact, exactly what I expected. It did provide a bit of a diversion, and lasted under 2 hours, which is my threshold for crappy movies.

Bridgewater, New Jersey November 13, 2011 - Exit 13

2011-11-14T07:35:00.000-08:00

So That's What Flag Day is!

We made our visit to Bridgewater, New Jersey as a side trip from picking up our daughter from visiting her camp friends who live in West Windsor (that's exit 8 for those of you who were about to ask!). Bridgewater has several claims to fame including the site where the American flag was first flown on June 14, 1777. A flag of the 13-star variety is displayed at the Middlebrook encampment 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

We went searching for the location, but gave up after a while, as it had been a long day of driving already. We are pretty sure we were closing in on it when we noticed a large plywood board with the pledge of alligience written on it, but never zeroed in on the flag itself, giving us a good excuse to return some day.

Where to Eat?

We had no choice but to look for a diner for lunch when we arrived in town. With over 500 diners in this rather small state, New Jersey is well known for this special kind of dining establishment, which has spawned its own episode of "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives", on the food network and was the topic of the New Jersey book (Jersey Diners, by Peter Genovese) Pam read during our year-long "Celebrating the States" project. New Jersey native, Jerry O'Mahony, is credited with inventing the pre-fab diner in the early 20th century.

Shortly after arriving in town we spotted the Bridgewater Diner and knew we had to look no further.

Find Bridgewater Diner on Google Maps

Diners are meant for travelers and it seems especially appropriate that a diner in New Jersey would be not simply along the highway but in the highway. It is especially appropriate in Bridgewater; even in a state known for highways, Bridgewater is particularly rich with divided highways and exit ramps. We looped and looped through and around the town, and the Bridgewater Diner is within a square-mile patch that includes four federal highways!

Our selections were typical diner fare: an open-faced hot turkey sandwich with gravy for Pam; Reuben for James (an indulgence a couple times a year, and almost the only way James eats sauerkraut); and grilled cheese and mashed potatoes for our daughter, Paloma. Her new friend James (xará!) lives in New Jersey and had joined us for the ride back to school. Much to Paloma's chagrin (and embarrassment!) this meant letting a friend in on her parents' painfully nerdy habit of Bridgewater-collecting. The waiter was an paragon of unctuous service: his pad and sharpened pencil were held close to his face as he briskly and intently gathered our orders. Service was fast -- not regular fast, but fast like a Roadrunner cartoon -- and the food did not disappoint.

What Else is in Bridgewater

Bridgewater, New Jersey also boasts the Bridgewater Commons mall, one location used in the filming of the movie North

Bridgewater Commons was in full holiday mode. This gigantic 3 story mall is actually listed as among one of New Jersey's smallest! Of course it doesn't matter how big a mall is, they all look pretty much the same, and have the same stores no matter where you go. This mall, like all others, exhibits the 600-foot rule described in the "Sprawl" section of James' Environmental Geography home page. Our only purchase was a cookie.

The Sri Venkateswara Temple is a beautiful Hindu Temple. Shortly after James wondered aloud "I wonder where that temple is" its presence became impossible to miss.

How Many Companies Called "Bridgewater Overhead Door " can there possibly be?

Well, at least two.

When Pam mentioned to one of her co-workers that New Jersey was the next stop of our Bridgewater's Project she said that her husband's company, Bridgewater Overhead Door, sometimes gets bills for a Bridgewater Overhead Doors in New Jersey. We did not find the latter. Again, a good excuse for another trip!

Bridgewater, Maine (or, the Hayes-Bohanan's Take the Solar System) June 6-8, 2011

2011-06-08T13:27:00.000-07:00

"Is that a globe?"
"No, it's just a blue sphere on a stick."

Uranus at the Bridgewater, Maine American Legion Hall

In fact, it is Uranus!

We saw this model shortly after we passed the "Welcome to Bridgewater" sign. It was not until we noticed models of Saturn and Jupiter a bit farther along Route 1 that we realized that it must have been a planet. As it turned out, the model for the sun, a big yellow arc, is located at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, which was just across the street from the Presque Isle Inn and Convention Center, where we were staying.

We really had no choice but to take the entire tour of this orrery, which is located along a 40-mile stretch of Route 1.

We actually stopped at each planet including Pluto, which has not been demoted for purposes of this project. Rather, some of the smaller planetary bodies have actually been added -- one much farther south -- so we need to return. Pluto is located at the Houlton Visitor Center, which was originally the end of the tour, and served as such for this time. Photos of each of our stops are included among our Aroostook photos on Flickr, as are various artsy contributions by Paloma.

Paloma experiments with sepia, to good effect

As the photo above illustrates, the afternoon light at this time of year and latitude (nearly 47 degrees) lingers and glows. Sunset was a few minutes later than at home, with sunrise much earlier. At higher latitudes, the sun sets at an increasingly oblique angle, so that twilight lingers. The effect of the light is at times mesmerizing, particularly as it interacts with the region's many commercial windmills.

As it turned out, Uranus was about the most exciting thing in Bridgewater. We did stop at a barrel store, and attempted, on two occasions, to visit the Wood Prarie Farm, but both times we tried we never saw any people, or anything that looked like a farm stand. We had hoped to buy some potatoes to support the local economy, but ended up not spending any money in Bridgewater.

After touring all the planets up to Uranus we headed east the Canada. Our destination? Potato World!

We visited the museum and learned some cool stuff about potato farming. I never knew potato plants flowered! We had lunch at the Potato World Cafe - Baked Potato soup for Pam and the curliest, skinniest curly fries we ever saw for James and Paloma (who described them as "beast," which apparently is a good thing). The very helpful and friendly guide at Potato World took our picture and let us know about the zipline across the St. John River Gorge in Grand Falls. Paloma took the bird's eye view tour of the falls and saw a rainbow in a complete circle below her feet!

We did enjoy our stay in Presque Isle, though next time we will pack our own coffee and brewing equipment. The hotel coffee was bad, as we expected, and although we enjoyed a very nice breakfast at Governor's Restaurant and Bakery, the coffee was only slightly better than at the hotel. We had hoped to visit the Sorpreso Cafe, which had been reviewed by one of James' students, but its was not open during our visit.

On Sunday we visited the last two planets, Neptune and Pluto. Of course Pluto has since lost its planetary status.

Our return to Bridgewater, Massachusetts featured a traffic crawl on 93 through Boston reminscent of our return from Bridgewater, New Hampshire. Even on a Tuesday and even with the HOV lanes, congestion seems to be inevitable on the misnamed expressway.

Plus, we almost forgot to mention the moose!

~~ post by Pam with some help from James

The Bridgewater Veterinary Hospital

2011-05-17T06:22:00.000-07:00

Located just north of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in Bensalem, we are not sure where the name for this one came from, but it gets a post on the blog nonetheless.

Bridgewater, Vermont

2011-03-07T07:28:00.000-08:00

Bridgewater, Vermont was established in 1761 as part of New Hampshire, but it is distinct from the town of Bridgewater, New Hampshire that we visited at the beginning of this blog project. (It is about 40 miles to the west if one is flying; 65 if flying along the shortest paved route.)

The Vermont town has about twice the areal extent of "our" Bridgewater in Massachusetts but with about 1/20th the population. It encompasses four hamlets: Bridgewater Village, Bridgewater Corners, West Bridgewater, and Bridgewater Center, the last of which was once incongruously known as Briggs. In Massachusetts, the three "Bridgewaters" are incorporated as separate towns (each with its own government), but all of the places bearing the name in Vermont are legally part of the same town.

Image of all four hamlets; click image to enlarge.
CLICK HERE to browse on Google Maps

Bridgewater, Vermont was named for Francis Egerton, Duke of Bridgewater (England) while that noble was still alive. According to an article on VirtualVermont, the naming was meant to honor Egerton's contributions to transportation works in England and and possibly also to curry favor with the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which had named Bridgewater, Massachusetts for John Egerton, Earl of Bridgewater, in 1656. (Thus the earlier town was named for a recently-deceased Earl while the newer town was named for a Duke who was very much alive at the time.)

Readily available online sources provide more historic than contemporary information about this Bridgewater, aptly reflecting its greater relative prominence in the past. From 1820 to 1830, its population doubled to 2,320; at 980, the population is now less than it was two centuries ago. An excerpt from Hayward's New England Gazetteer of 1839 also reveals that sheep were even more numerous, with an ovine population of 6,000! A decade or so later, overgrazing by sheep was a key factor leading George Perkins Marsh -- of nearby Woodstock -- to write Man and Nature: Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action. This book -- considered to be the first modern geography book -- sparked the first conservation movement in the United States. His home a few miles downstream from Bridgewater is now a National Historic Park dedicated the study of conservation. I have written a brief article about that park and have enjoyed bringing students to it.

Although I have passed through Bridgewater a few times -- at least once with Pam and Paloma -- we did not make any deliberate attempt at a visit until this past weekend, as an outing during a delightful stay at the Golden Stage Inn, which our Bridgewater (MA) friends recently purchased. It was once an actual stage coach stop and is now a delightful B&B on five acres in the tiny village of Proctorsville.

On previous drives through Bridgewater in previous years, I remember noticing only some declining and even defunct properties. Just a few minutes of research, however, revealed what must have registered -- however dimly -- on my consciousness from reading beer bottles over the past decade or so: Bridgewater Corners is home to Long Trail Brewing, one of the premium breweries in the Green Mountain State. The brewery is named, by the way, for the Long Trail, a north-to-south transect that inspired -- and is partly conterminous with -- the Appalachian Trail.

The brewery provided all we had hoped for -- good pub food (including jalapeno poppers!), a nice variety of beers, and a furtherance of our brewing education. Because the somewhat crummy, wet weather (about 10 degrees too warm) had driven many skiers inside, Long Trail was quite crowded. When we return -- and we certainly will -- I would like to spend a bit more time exploring the brewery and less time waiting for a table. We would also like to spend some time on the Long Trail itself. From what I can tell (online maps are not very detailed), the trail does not go through the brewery itself, but the trail certainly inspires the company and many of its customers.

Since we began brewing our own beer (mainly IPAs so far) in September 2010, we have been trying to learn what we can, and we found the brewer on duty at Long Trail to be knowledgeable, helpful, and very welcoming to us as novice fellow brewers. We have no delusions of adequacy in this area, as we are very much amateurs working from kits, but I have found that the men and women who brew beer (and ale, et cetera) are very generous, and the young brewer at Long Trail was no exception. During the course of our brief conversation, he described how he had gotten from our kit-only stage to his current role, and also mentioned several competing commercial breweries where we could see particular practices or techniques.

Herewith, a few photos (click each to enlarge):

We have one of these, too. But ours is plastic and sits on the counter.

This one at Long Trail is about 20 feet tall.

We do not usually wait in restaurants, even special ones.
But in the interest of blogging and beer education, we made an exception.
Despite the long wait, we ended up happy campers. It was good
to be in a brewery with a vexillogical bent.

Not only did we finally get seated:
We got seated by Long Trail's pin map. Oddly enough,
I forgot to post a pin, but I did enjoy basking in the glory of the map.

The pin map at Long Trail is no ordinary visitors' map.
It is a special "projection" that wraps a flat map around the wall --
putting a right angle relatively close to the
all-important hundredth meridian. A close look at the image of me
(above) shows reveals the pins sticking out at this edge.

Even greater than seeing the pin map was hearing a couple of young
guys speculating about the reasons for the patterns they noticed.
They concluded, for example, that the cluster around Denver
has to do with the importance of beer in that town.
I should have gotten up so they could see the world map that was
tucked behind my seat, so that they could engage in even more
geographic analysis!

For me, the availability of a 6x4 beer sampler clinched the decision
to make Long Trail Brewery the focus of our Bridgewater visit. I have
seen this offered all-too rarely since I first encountered it
at Padre Island Brewery about 15 years ago. At Long Trail, a card accompanies
the little muffin tin of samples, so that it is easy to compare by
ingredients (hop and malt varieties), bitterness units, and so on. These beers
were presented in order of heavier body, with the
blackberry beer (Pam's favorite) at the light end and
Traditional IPA the heaviest. I was surprised that the latter was
not my favorite, as it was the hoppiest, and I really wanted to like the
Scottish Hibernator (being Scottish). My favorite is the one simply called Pale Ale
-- fairly high in hops but also balanced.

My final Bridgewater photo is not from Bridgewater at all,

but from nearby Woodstock. It is one of those places made

rare by errant zoning regulations in the era of sprawl -- a nice

townscape with a variety of retail and residential uses that is

delightful for a stroll.

Scenes of rushing, just-melting streams were emblematic

of the entire weekend stay in the area, as the transition from snow

season to mud season was underway, and many rivers and

streams exhibited simply amazing

patterns of intertwined motion and stillness.

The Other Bridgewater State

2010-12-05T21:01:00.000-08:00

Prior to 1997, I had only been in Massachusetts twice: once to visit a friend in Boston in 1985 or so, and then in 1995, when I attended a conference in Providence, and my boss drove me to some of his old haunts in New Bedford and on Cape Cod. He may, in fact, have taken me through Bridgewater, where his wife had attended college. Honestly, I cannot be certain. I do know that when I saw a job announcement in Bridgewater in the AAG newsletter a couple of years later, I was not thinking of that connection. All I noticed was a geography department in a mid-sized college that was seeking someone to teach environmental geography and the geography of either Latin America. The rest is history, as they say.

Because these were the early days of the internet, online information about small towns was scarce. Bridgewater State College had its own web site, of course (at the forever-truncated bridgew.edu, as I've mentioned elsewhere), but the town had no web site of its own, and this was not exactly a tourist Mecca. In fact, most of the pages I found were related to the Bridgewater State Hospital: describing either the death of its most famous inmate (the Boston Strangler) or Titicut Follies, the notorious documentary about conditions there.

This all came to mind early yesterday, as I was listening to the only sports show that ever gets my attention: Bill Littlefield's Only a Game. In the middle of a discussion with director Frederick Wiseman about his new boxing film, I heard the words "Bridgewater, Massachusetts." Although Littlefield records his show just 20 miles from here, I rarely hear the town mentioned on his station, so my attention was piqued. Not surprisingly, the words "Titicut Follies" soon followed, and I learned that it had been the first film Wiseman had directed.

I did not realize that Titicut Follies was the first in a long string of movies, many of which have been controversial or disturbing to some degree, but none quite like his first. The film was banned in Boston, not for the usual reasons of obscenity or national security, but because of the extreme invasion of the privacy of its subjects.

Although the 1997 internet told us little about Bridgewater besides this unfortunate claim to fame, our own reality upon moving here was very different. Settling into the center of the town, surrounded by the college itself and many of its students and employees, we usually gave little thought to the prison complex (the State Hospital is actually part of a complex with several different kinds of correctional facilities). In fact, we probably lived here a decade before personally meeting any employees of the second-largest employer in our town.

My connections to the complex were limited to my work on the board of a local land trust to provide long-term protection for some of the farmland belonging to the prison complex and to developing a park-management plan for the Titicut Conservation Area, located just south of the prisons. Deriving its name from the Wampanoag name for the Taunton River, the Titicut area was an important ship-building site two centuries ago and is an important recreational site today.

We eventually decided to watch the film, but turned it off halfway through, for exactly the reason cited in its censorship. We felt as though we were some place we did not belong; the camera did not respect the dignity of the prisoners/patients, and by extension it just felt wrong to keep watching. This was especially true because Titicut Follies is the kind of documentary that does not rely on narration. Nobody was interpreting the scenes we saw; we were simply looking into a most disturbing place and being left to draw our own conclusions. Viewing it decades after the fact, our conclusions were not of any tangible importance, so we could not justify continuing to watch. At the time it was produced, however, the film did make a difference, and of course this was through the reactions of people who saw it. The case can be made, in fact, that the censorship was motivated more by an intention to protect the prison's managers than to protect the inmates and prisoners themselves. The film is widely credited with instigating much-needed changes in the way mental illness is treated, and was the beginning of the end of warehouse-style facilities for people who really need treatment.

Whatever one thinks of the Bridgewater State Hospital, one thing became clear to us over the years: the name adds to the stigma that some students already feel, regarding their choice of a public college in a state dominated by private schools. It does not help that media stories about the most bizarre and hideous crimes end with the phrase, "and he was taken to Bridgewater for evaluation." Students who come to Bridgewater are careful to emphasize Bridgewater State University (or College, until recently), because friends back home are likely to complete the phrase for them if given the chance.

Inspecting the Sprouts from Boston's Seeds

2010-10-28T12:19:00.000-07:00

Boston Globe's Peter Mandel recently got the idea to visit places called Boston, and wrote about it in Sunday's paper. His journey took him as far as Michigan, but he only traveled for one week, and did not visit all the places he identified, one as far away as Texas. Perhaps he should start a blog, too, and update as he is able. I am very happy to see he visited a librarian at the Massachusetts Historical Society in order to do some research before his trip!

Welcome to the Bridge

2010-09-22T09:08:00.000-07:00

East Bridgewater resident Dan "Wambo" Spector raps about growing up in the 'burbs. Read all about it in The Enterprise

Bridgewater State...University

2010-08-03T12:35:00.000-07:00

As of Wednesday July 28 Bridgewater State College is now Bridgewater State University. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed a bill that changed the names of most of Massachusetts State Colleges. So far it looks as if the State Universities will not be run as U-Mass branches. Time will tell.

1000 Places to visit in Massachusetts includes two Bridgewater sites

2010-07-14T05:53:00.000-07:00

Many were nominated, many were chosen...

Bridgewater State College and Bridgewater Historic District are listed among the 1000 Great Places to Visit in Massachusetts by the State Tourism Agency.

“The commission sought a geographically diverse tally of places that are important for their cultural or historic significance, or simply their natural beauty.”

Of course, any good tourist destination needs a cafe, and these two sites -- which abut each other -- have a selection that is good and likely to improve. In the Bridgewater Historic District, the Rockin' K Cafe offers fair-trade, organic coffee and family-style service at 14 Summer St (new location) every day of the week, 8-5. Also in the historic district, on the historic town common, is the Better Bean, which is open in the evenings (closed Sunday).

On the campus of Bridgewater State College are the usual assortment of campus coffee outlets, but with the possibility of a truly world-class cafe opening on campus upon completion of the new Science & Mathematics Center. If approved, the Benjamin Linder Cafe will feature fair-trade, organic coffee and a variety of educational projects around coffee, sustainability, and justice.

Village of Bridgewater, New York July 4, 2010

2010-07-05T15:07:00.000-07:00

As we were driving our daughter to camp in upstate New York yesterday, James asked "is there a Bridgewater, New York?" I thought probably there was, so I checked the atlas, and there it was, due south of the camp. We decided to take a different route home than usual and stop in our town's New York "xará" (xará is a Portuguese word meaning one who has the same name).

The Village of Bridgewater is located at the junction of routes 8 and 20, just south of Utica. It is quite a small town with under 600 residents. Nevertheless the town has a library (with hours comparable to our own), a municpal building, a park, and a highway department.

Blogger and librarian, Pam, poses in front of the Bridgewater (NY) Free Library

As we took in the driving tour, which took about 3 minutes, we noticed the Bridgewater School. No longer a school, it now houses an antique store, indoor skateboard park, and the cleverly named Cafe'Teria - all run by Ron and Linda Inger. We had a wonderful experience meeting Ron, who was happy to show us around the school, chat, and make his signature iced espresso drink - his secret is to put half the ice directly in the cup, and the other half into the blender.

Cafe'Teria logo

Indoor Skateboard park in what had once been the gymnasium/auditorium. Ron points out that while the Bridgewater, New Jersey skateboard park allows bikes, his does not!

Interior shot of Cafe'Teria

Blogger James (aka Dr. Java) poses with his new coffee friend, Ron.

We took Ron up on his suggestion to eat at Dominick's Italian Bistro, right next to the old Bridgewater, New York train station. Our waitress, Pam (my xará!) was attentive and friendly, and the food was quite flavorful. James had chicken lightly breaded with a delightful mushroom sauce over fettuccini, and Pam had the baked lasagna. Normally we do not get appetizers, unless jalapeño poppers are offered, in this case they were, so we had plenty of leftovers of our main course to enjoy after we returned home.

Old Train Depot -- with a milk-crate basketball court

Good Unitarian Universalists that we are, we stopped for a photo op at the Bridgewater Universalist Cemetery, the print at the bottom of the sign reads "Site of the Universalist Church." Little did we know it was the 200th attainment day of famous Universalist P.T. Barnum.

On leaving Bridgewater, we decided to follow U.S. 20, a delightful transect which we describe in more detail on our Celebrating the States blog.

Bridgewater, Virginia

2010-06-26T08:07:00.000-07:00

Bloggers pose in front of entrance to Bridgewater College

We visited Bridgewater, Virginia on June 16 while driving from Charleston, South Carolina to Fairfax, Virginia. On this summer day it seemed to be a sleepy little town. It is a college town though, home to Bridgewater College, and I imagine that in the fall it will become a bustling place. We stopped at the College and pulled into a parking lot that had a sign clearly indicating "College Information". We went into the closest building, which turned out to be the fitness center, and asked the young woman there about the sign. She seemed to have no idea there was a sign there, nor did she appear at all interested in the fact that we were from Bridgwater, Massachusetts, and worked at a college with a similar name. She did however, direct us to the admissions office for more information. We picked up a copy of a special section of the Daily News-Record from Harrison,Virginia dated May 14, 2010 which is a tribute to retiring College President Phillip Stone.

One unfortunate connection we made between Bridgewater State College and Bridgewater College is the proclivity to keep large screen televisions on in various lounge areas even when no one is around to watch them. These use a lot of energy, and BSC has been installing them in quite a few places, even as they build a Sustainability Center on campus. During the last winter break James and I noticed one on in one of the dorm lounges every time we walked by, even though the dorm appeared to be closed otherwise.

Pam poses with large screen television in an otherwise empty room at Bridgewater College

We did notice some cool sculptures on campus including this one:

We did not stay long in Bridgewater, but what we saw reminded us of our former home in Oxford, Ohio - home to Miami University. We also noted the following businesses or organizations that used the name Bridgewater:

Bridgewater Retirement Community

Bridgewater United Methodist Church

Bridgewater Fire Department

Bridgewater Pharmacy

(it was good to see an independent pharmacy going in this age of CVS and Walgreens)

Bridgewater Coin Laundry

Bridgewater Exxon

(possibly the only time I've seen this company with a separate franchise name)

Bridgewater Town Center

Bridgewater Plaza

Bridgewater Car Wash

Additionally we noticed the Dayton Mennonite Church, just after we saw a woman in traditional Mennonite dress ride her bike by us

Marshall's Distribution Center is located in Bridgewater, Virginia

The Library is called the North River Library.

Sacco & Vanzetti

2010-03-08T10:41:00.000-08:00

For years I've heard of Sacco and Vanzetti, often as a punch line in a bit of dark humor about injustices of one kind or another. I had heard that they were political prisoners who were executed solely for their points of view. I had never heard anything terribly specific, though, and had no idea how close to home -- literally -- their story would eventually become.

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed on August 23, 1927 for a crime that took place on December 24, 1919 in Bridgewater, a half-mile north of what would eventually become our home. On Valentine's Day this year, in fact, we took a walk -- in an icy wind -- to the scene of the crime. Thanks to the research of local historian Christopher Daley, we know that the armored-car robbery of which they were convicted took place at the corner of Hale Street and Broad Street, where today one can find a barber and a Friendly's restaurant. Hale Street runs parallel to the tracks in what was the industrial heart of this once heavily industrial town. Remnants of the old factories can still be found along both sides of what is now primarily a commuter rail line. The L.Q. White shoe factory at which the truck was delivering payroll is long gone, however, its remnants buried beneath a parking lot for Bridgewater State College commuters.

For me, what is most fascinating about the case is what it reveals about a Bridgewater that is fading quickly from memory. Today it is known for its college -- on almost half a square mile in the center of town, with over 10,000 students and over 1,000 employees (including both authors of this blog) -- and as a bedroom community for thousands who commute to white-collar jobs in Boston on the revived train line or the straight, dangerous shot up Route 24. A third major factor is the state prison complex on the south edge of town (old "State Farm"), but I lived here for a decade before I met anybody who works there, and it only comes up in conversation if there is a prison break or someone is remembering the 1967 Titicut Follies movie.

For many who have lived in the town for decades -- or generations -- the town has a different identity: a working-class, industrial town. At least three of the town's major park sites, for example, were once home to industries ranging from bricks to iron to ship-building. Where newcomers such as myself see second-growth forest, older neighbors remember their fathers working at furnaces. Where we see empty lots today, some neighbors remember active freight yards.

My brief research into the case has raised more questions than it has answered. Even the locations of many of the factories extant at the time are difficult to determine despite the availability of very detailed Sanborn maps. (Sanborn insurance maps are a great resource for historic and environmental research; they show industrial and commercial buildings at 1:1200 scale for almost every town in the United States between the late 1800s and the early 1900s. Bridgewater State College has a subscription to the Massachusetts maps; most public libraries have copies of maps for their own towns.)

For example, the 1921 Sanborn map shows the White shoe factory between Spring Street and the rail lines, but almost everything on that part of the map has now changed, as a current satellite image of the same area shows. The robbery itself was just off the edge of this map, where Hale Street meets Broad Street, which is a main road toward Boston.

View Larger Map

Police were first led to Sacco and Vanzetti as suspects in the murder because a witness indicated that the perpetrators appeared to be Italian. The entire area to the northwest of the crime scene was a tight-knit Italian community, focused around the mills. In fact, the neighborhood surrounding Wall and High Streets, about 2000 feet away, remains something of an enclave to this day, surrounding the old Stanley Iron Works site, at which iron was forged for centuries. The satellite image below is centered on the old mill pond, and immediately to east and west are private clubs that continue to operate -- each sporting its own bocci court!

View Larger Map

To this day, the case of Sacco and Vanzetti stirs debate. From the hundreds of thousands of people who protested their sentence at the time, to the governor who pardoned them decades later, to books and articles that are still being published, their guilt or innocence remains uncertain. A Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society meets twice each month in Cambridge, Massachusetts. An article by Robert D'Attilio at the University of Pennsylvania summarizes some of the legal debate, as does an article on the web site of Torremaggiore, Sacco's hometown in Italy.

It is unclear whether Sacco or Vanzetti ever even visited Bridgewater -- a gang who were holed up in a shack in nearby West Bridgewater eventually confessed to the crime -- but their association with the town reminds us of several important aspects of its identity and history.

Update

2010-01-09T05:33:00.000-08:00

The inmate who walked away from the Bridgewater State Hospital (mentioned in the December 4 post) was captured in Georgia. He was recognized after being featured on the television program America's Most Wanted.

Bridgewater, New Hampshire

2009-12-31T13:19:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we took our first trip to a Bridgewater outside of Massachusetts. After checking distances for the Bridgewaters in Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire, we determined that New Hampshire was the closest and took a drive north.

Bridgewater, New Hampshire is on Newfound lake and the drive along 3A was gorgeous. The road goes right along the lake with mountains on the other side. There was an abundance of cute cottages, as well as bigger homes along the road. The town itself is rather small and appeared to be more of a summer place, although clearly skiing and snowmobiling were important to its wintertime economy.
We found three places to have lunch, The Pasquaney Restaurant, The Bridgewater Inn, and The Newfound Grocery. It was this last place where we eventually decided to eat. The restaurant at the Bridgewater Inn was only open on weekends. The Pasquaney Restaurant appeared to be open, but the Grocery looked more our speed.

The restaurant inside the grocery was homey and had a Harley-Davidson theme. There were about a half dozen tables with mismatched chairs, plus a counter with stools. The menu was typical sandwich fare. Pam had a tuna melt, James enjoyed an open-faced turkey and our vegetarian daughter ordered the grilled cheese. I believe there was one other vegetarian option (a veggie wrap) on the menu. The meals were filling and came with delicious salt and pepper chips that were made on the premises.

(James adds: In this establishment only a few miles from Laconia, the Harley theme is manifest in a collection of mounted Harley jigsaw puzzles.)

While we waited for our food, Pam, the librarian, checked out (no pun intended) the free book exchange shelf and selected a book for each of us. After our meal we did a little shopping. The "Grocery" included local crafters works and a local wines, so we purchased a handmade corner shelf for our daughter's bedroom, and a bottle of Diamond wine from Candia Vineyards, plus we bought a homemade biscuit for our dog, Clover, who waited for us in the car.

Newfound Grocery boasts free Wi-Fi. We didn't try it ourselves, so we will take it on faith. We also filled our gas tank there. All in all a fun day trip. During the drive home, however, we encountered absolutely the worst Boston traffic we have ever experienced! It took us 2 hours to go 10 miles. All Pam could think while snaking through the tunnel was that this is what we have come up with after spending $14 billion on traffic improvement in the city.

(James adds: We have decided that we will do what we could to support local business in the "Bridgewaters" we visit. For example, I looked online ahead of time for places to eat and find coffee in the area, but we determined to set those search results aside until we explored the local businesses on-site. I love Yelp!, but "windshield surveys" are still often better. I was glad that we were able to make our local purchases in cash, given the destructive impact of credit-card fees on small businesses, particularly independent gas stations.)

The Dirt on Bridgewater

2009-12-25T12:24:00.000-08:00

This post is not about dirt, actually, but about soils -- that thin, complex layer of organic and inorganic material that separates us from oblivion. Soil covers most of the earth's land surface in depths from a few centimeters to a few meters, a thin film on the planet that makes terrestrial life possible. Soil differs quite a bit from place to place; not only have a dozen or so major categories been described in general terms, but thousands of very specific soil series have been described in detail. Most of the series have common place names, and are easily searchable on the Natural Resource Conservation Service web site. (Try your own first or last name to see if a soil has been named for you!) Incidentally, NRCS is a part of the United States Department of Agriculture; for decades it was known as the Soil Conservation Service, but its mission has broadened.

The Bridgewater series is found in places far different from our own Bridgewater in Massachusetts. It is located in arid locations at relatively high elevation in the tri-state area of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.

Bridgewater Festival of Lights

2009-12-23T06:42:00.000-08:00

Pam has a very fond memory of her father holding her up to the back window of the second story of their home on Crosby Rd. in Catonsville, Maryland as she marveled at the Christmas lights on two houses on Rowe Ct. It was probably 40 years ago and they were the only houses in the neighborhood that were lit up. She had never seen anything like it. They were right next door to each other and one, a ranch house, was completely outlined in red lights, and the other was a two-story home framed with bright blue bulbs. To this day, looking at Christmas lights is Pam's favorite part of the holiday season. To be sure some of the light shows have become much more extravagant than those simple one-color bulbs. Something extra special in Bridgewater is the annual Festival of Lights - a ginormous light display at a private home at 55 Alexander Drive. With over 200,000 lights, it is not something to just drive by. The whole yard is open to walk through with dioramas and music. On weekends hot chocolate is served and it is also a great place to see Santa. Donations are taken for local charities. None of the money collected goes toward the upkeep of the display, that is sponsored by local businesses.

The Bridgewater Triangle

2009-12-15T12:58:00.001-08:00

Like most other places, Bridgewater, and its surrounding towns, have thier own legends and ghost stories. Of course there is the ubiquitous ghostly hitchhiker - in the case of the Bridgewater Triangle she haunts a stretch of route 44. There is also some sort of big bird or birds that hang out in Hockomock Swamp. This link provides an overview of some of the other paranormal activities in and around Bridgewater. More information can also be found it the book Weird New England by Joseph Citro

Letter from Bridgewater England to Bridgewater Massachusetts

2009-12-15T12:54:00.001-08:00

This is the first thing I have found making a Bridgewater, England/Bridgewater, Massachusetts connection. It is a letter dated September 1846 from the people of Bridgewater, England to thier counterparts in Massachusetts on the topic of slavery in the United States. This document also includes the reply from the Massachusetts contingent dated February 1847. A note at the end indicates that "at an adjourned meeting on...February 10, the Committee presented...the...Reply, which, after a good deal of warm and animated discussion, was, with great, unanimity, adopted."

Town meeting in Bridgewater still continues. I attended a meeting on Monday night which put in motion the means to end the Town Meeting type of government here. "Warm and animated" are not words I would use to describe discussions at Town Meeting. Boring and contentious are more accurate.

Bridgewater Avenue

2009-12-14T05:15:00.001-08:00

While driving around looking at Christmas lights on Saturday James and I noticed a street we hadn't known about - Bridgewater Ave. It was off of a main road we frequent so we were surprised we had never seen it before. It turns out it is rather new. There are only two houses on it, and it dead ends at the driveway of the second one. When we pulled in we saw someone inside the house looking out. I think she was surprised to see someone there.

A Town Called Douglas

2009-12-07T12:58:00.000-08:00

A man in Edinburgh, Scotland has named 20 cities as benefactors in his will for the simple fact that they share his last name - Douglas. Each town or city will receive £11,000. Five of the towns are in the United States, but I noticed Douglas, Arizona (the only place with such a name that I've visited) was not on the list.

East Bridgewater and West Bridgewater, Massachusetts

2009-12-04T11:56:00.000-08:00

As James mentions in his post about Brockton (the city formerly known as North Bridgewater) the smaller towns of East Bridgewater and West Bridgewater also border Bridgewater. We go to these towns quite often. Pam takes recorder lessons in West Bridgewater and we almost always attend its annual Park Day celebration at War Memorial Park in the fall, which features hayrides, magic shows, music, food and a duck race. West Bridgewater also has a great playground that we used to take our daughter to, back when going to a playground was all it took to make her happy.

Our forays into East Bridgewater usually involve getting our hair cut at Salon Esprit, or visiting our friends Rob & Lisa who own one of the oldest homes there, which they have been working on "fixing up" since they bought it 17 years ago. We have seen a lot of progress in the 12 years we have known them and can only imagine what it was like in the first five years. Every year they have a Saturday-after-Thanksgiving Thai-food fest at their house, during which we order carry out from one of the two decent restaurants in Bridgewater -The Chatta Box. The other good restaurant is Crispi's which serves good Italian food. We like to sit on the north side of the restaurant when we go there because it is closest to the train tracks. When the commuter rail passes by we can see, hear, and feel it from there.

Our favorite East Bridgewater restaurant is Johnny Macaroni's. This unassuming place has fresh Italian food and a full bar. There is not a lot to recommend in the way of food in West Bridgewater. We sometimes go to Good Days, which is a good family place with a '50s theme. The prices are good and the atmosphere is fun. The service can be slow though.

photo of War Memorial Park courtesy of ruthiedee http://www.flickr.com/photos/ruthiedee/2973418904/

Bridgewater State...What?

2009-12-04T10:14:00.000-08:00

The two largest employers in Bridgewater, Massachusetts are both called Bridgewater State. One is Bridgewater State College and the other is Bridgewater State Hospital - which is really a correctional facility. The Boston Strangler was sent there in 1964, and escaped in 1967. After turning himself in he was transferred to a maximum security facility in Walpole, Massachusetts.

The day after Thanksgiving this year an inmate walked away from Bridgewater State Hospital and is still at large.

North Bridgewater -- a.k.a. Brockton

2009-12-03T16:22:00.000-08:00

Bridgewater stands at what was once the Western Frontier of English settlement in the United States. A "frontier" is the boundary between the area that is considered civilized and the "wild" lands beyond. The notion to "Go West, Young Man!" originated as population grew in the original Plymouth colony, setting off a land grab that moved slowly and eventually gathered speed, until the closing of the frontier in the Great Plains around 1870. Had the original pace continued -- Plymouth 1620, Bridgewater 1656, the English would probably just now be reaching the Pennsylvania Turnpike, but of course things eventually did start to change much more rapidly.

That original purchase took place at a rock in what is now East Bridgewater, and included all or part of what are now seven cities and towns. The very northernmost parts included Rockland, Whitman, and Avon, which were dropped early. By 1716, the remaining town divided into four pieces: North Bridgewater, South Bridgewater, East Bridgewater, and West Bridgewater -- arranged more or less as quadrants of a diamond. Those boundaries were originally drawn so that each of those areas could have a Congregational Church. Eventually, the names evolved, with South Bridgewater becoming simply Bridgewater and North Bridgewater becoming the City of Brockton -- famous first for its shoes and later for its boxers (pugilists, not underwear).

Early in my time in Bridgewater, I noticed some interesting patterns -- for example, the four original towns have roughly the same areal extent, but East and West have small populations, South a bit more, and North more than double the other three combined. This is reflected in the density of street networks -- I first noticed this on a realtor's map of the region -- and has implications for water, taxes, and a host of other matters.

I eventually taught an entire course on the Geography of Brockton, in which I learned at least as much as the students. I taught it in 2007 and 2008, and look forward to doing so again in the future. These days, Brockton is a frequent destination for my Project EarthView visits; I am always amazed by the rich diversity of children and teachers who participate. Five miles from our home is a virtual United Nations!

What is Bridgewaters Project?

2009-12-02T12:16:00.000-08:00

Inspired by the NPR series Main Street USA, in which reporters travel to different cities and towns in the United States and report what is happening on Main Street, Pam and James Hayes-Bohanan, a librarian and geographer respectively, have decided to embark on a similar project in which we shall visit places called Bridgewater.

Twelve years ago we moved to Bridgewater, Massachusetts to take jobs at Bridgewater State College. One of the first things we noticed about the College's website was its web address, http://www.bridgew.edu/, seemed to be truncated. Why wasn't "water" spelled out? In those crazy pre-Google days we wondered who would ever find the College that way? We soon discovered that Bridgewater College in Virginia had beaten BSC to the punch and taken the http://www.bridgewater.edu/ domain. An additional consequence of working for the College that missed the boat is that now neither of us can type the word "bridge" without adding a "w" to the end. An occupational hazard that several of our colleagues share.

Anyway, we have since found out that Bridgewater is a pretty common name for a town, especially in New England. We know there is a Bridgewater, Vermont; a Bridgewater, Maine; a Bridgewater, New Hampshire; a Bridgewater, Connecticut; a Bridgewater, New York; and a Bridgewater, New Jersey. Additionally we know there is a Bridgewater in Nova Scotia, Canada and Bridgwater (that's right, only one "e") in England. We hope to visit all of these someday. If there is a town, village, burg, building, geologic feature called Bridgewater (or some variant thereof) where you live, let us know and we will put it on our list.

Just after we decided to take on this project we heard this story on NPR about a filmmaker visiting places called Belgrade.