The Swellesley Report

Since 2005: More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.

Happy birthday to Wellesley’s own Katharine Lee Bates

by

Katharine_Lee_Bates
Photo: Wellesley College

Happy birthday to Katharine Lee Bates (b. August 12, 1859; d. March 28, 1929). Bates was a graduate of Wellesley High School, class of 1874, and is the namesake of Bates Elementary School.  She is widely known as the author of the patriotic song America the Beautiful. The prolific writer published nonfiction, fiction, and poetry in newspapers and magazines including the New York Times and the Atlantic Monthly. Bates taught at Dana Hall School before landing a job as a professor of English literature at Wellesley College.

The Scarab, former Katharine Lee Bates house at 70 Curve St. in Wellesley
Katharine Lee Bates moved into her newly constructed home at 70 Curve Street, which she named, “The Scarab,” in 1907. She lived there until her death in 1929. She and Katharine Coman, a professor of history and political economy at Wellesley shared the home until Coman’s death in 1915.

Katharine Lee Bates

Born August 12, 1859, in Falmouth, Mass.

Died March 28, 1929, in Wellesley, Mass.

2024 marks the 160th anniversary of Bates’ death.

Her ashes are buried at Oak Grove Cemetery, in Falmouth.

Bates Elementary School, 116 Elmwood Rd., was named for her.

Wellesley High School class of 1874.

Wellesley College, class of 1880.

Taught at Dana Hall School until 1886.

Authored the poem that inspired the patriotic song America the Beautiful in 1893.

Moved into 70 Curve St., Wellesley (“The Scarab”) in 1907.

Was a professor of English literature at Wellesley College until 1925.

The Shining Sea Bikeway, was named in her honor. The 11-mile paved and level bike path stretches on Cape Cod from Bates’ birthplace of Falmouth, to Woods Hole,  A 3.3-mile section of the Bikeway was dedicated on Nov. 9, 1975. An extension was completed and opened to the public in summer 2009.

Was commemorated by a series of “O Beautiful” USPS postage stamps on July 4, 2018. Each of the 20 stamps features a photograph that helps illustrate one of five phrases from the song’s famous first verse: “Spacious Skies,” “Waves of Grain,” “Mountain Majesties,” “The Fruited Plain,” and “Sea to Shining Sea.”

Katharine Lee Bates, Shining Sea Bikeway
Cyclists on the Shining Sea Bikeway, named in Katharine Lee Bates’ honor, can enjoy beautiful vistas of Vineyard Sound, Little Sippewisset Marsh, Great Sippewisset Marsh, Buzzard’s Bay, and other beauty spots.

MORE…

Famous Wellesley poets

We take a spin on Katharine Lee Bates’ very own ‘O Beautiful’ Cape Cod Bikeway

Katharine Lee Bates has her very own U.S. postage stamps

Advertisements

Linden Square, Wellesley
Dedham Country Day School

10 years ago this August in Wellesley: Water warnings; car crashes into restaurant; mini-golf comes to town

by

Looking back at Wellesley stories on The Swellesley Report from August, 2014:

wellesley water warning reidy field

 

More “10 years ago…” posts

Please help to keep Swellesley going another 10 years, or something, by contributing what you can

Advertisements

Page Waterman, Wellesley
London Harness, Wellesley

Advertisements

State election 2024

A patriotic story: Wellesley’s Memorial Grove featured in book on World War I memorials

by

It was late last year when The Swellesley Report fielded an intriguing email request from the Pritzker Military Museum & Library, a Chicago-based non-profit organization that wanted to feature Wellesley’s own Memorial Grove in an upcoming World War I-themed book titled, 100 Cities 100 Memorials. Did we happen to have any pictures lying around for inclusion in the book?

Um, yeah. Just a few (dozen).

Memorial Grove, Wellesley
The bench in its entirety reads, “Memorial Grove. Honoring Wellesley residents who gave their lives and those those who served in the Great War, World War I, 1917-1918”

Pictures of Wellesley’s Memorial Grove were essential for inclusion in the book, we were told by a Pritzker representative, because the Grove had officially received a national designation as a World War I Centennial Memorial, along with 99 other such memorials across the country. It was a chance to showcase the beauty and history of Memorial Grove, which honored the 326 Wellesley citizens who served, and the six residents who died in the Great War, as it was once called.

Not ready for its close-up

Memorial Grove looks good today, but not long ago the area wasn’t ready for inclusion in a glossy coffee-table style tome. Funds that had been appropriated at Special Town Meeting in 1919 for the creation of Memorial Grove were long gone, of course. Most of the six elm trees planted over 100 years ago to honor the six Wellesley men who did not return home from the war had themselves fallen long ago due to disease. A boulder inscribed with the names of those who died during the war had been placed in town, but it was grimy and sad-looking, and inexplicably wasn’t even part of Memorial Grove. Indeed, the meaning of the area was so forgotten that the Grove narrowly avoided the fate of becoming a parking lot in the latter part of the 20th century.

Memorial Grove (April 2018)
Interpretive plaque that tells the story of Memorial Grove. Members of the Wellesley Celebrations Committee and Wellesley American Legion Post #72: l. to r., Tory DeFazio, John Saunders, Carl Nelson, Peter Jones and Lindsay Ellms in front of the new granite bench in Memorial Grove honoring all who served in World War I. Photo via Wellesley NRC. April 2018

It was time for an intervention. So when Army veteran and member of the Wellesley American Legion Post #72 Tory DeFazio heard in 2016 about the 100 Cities/100 Memorials Program, created to help draw attention to WWI memorials across the United States, his curiosity was piqued.

When he learned that the Priztker Museum would award grants of $2k to successful applicants to improve memorials and commemorate the 2018 centennial of World War I, DeFazio was in, along with a group of the town’s movers and shakers.

A glimmer of hope

The Pritzker Military Museum & Library gave the grant application the green light, plans were made, and by 2017 refurbishment of the Grove was complete. As part of the project, Memorial Grove along with 99 other memorials across 37 states, received a national designation as a World War I Centennial Memorial, and inclusion of the park in 100 Cities, 100 Memorials, published this year.

Memorial Grove, Wellesley
The names of the Wellesley residents who died in World War I are engraved on the boulder. They are: Texas Burton, James Glencross, James Hickey, Franklin Ingraham, Raymond Moore, Patrick O’Donahue.

A few other memorials Wellesley joined out of the 100 in achieving national landmark status include Chicago’s Soldier Field; San Francisco’s War Memorial Veterans Building and Opera House, and Washington, D.C.’s National World War I Memorial at Pershing Park, where “A Soldier’s Journey” sculpture wall will be installed in 2024. The sculpture wall is part of a larger effort to honor the 4.7 million American Veterans who served.

“More than 4 million American families sent their sons and daughters to serve in uniform during World War I,” said Terry Hamby, commissioner of War One Centennial Commission. “116,516 U.S. soldiers died in the war and another 200,000 were wounded. These memorials represent an important part of remembering our past and preserving our culture.”

Memorial Grove, Wellesley
100 Cities, 100 Memorials, by Jennifer Wingate. Hardcover, 232 pages, published by Pritzker Military Museum & Library; publication date May 21, 2024. Widely available online and in some local bookstores for about $40.

The town celebrated the re-dedication of Wellesley’s World War I Memorial Grove on Saturday, May 19, 2018 as part of Wellesley’s Wonderful Weekend. In 1919 Katharine Lee Bates of “America the Beautiful” fame wrote a special poem, “Welcome,” on the occasion of celebrating the veterans’ return. That poem was read at the original dedication of Memorial Park. In 2018, Wellesley College President Paula Johnson read the poem at the memorable re-dedication event.

Wellesley cleans up good

Today the Grove, located on State Street off of Washington Street, adjacent to the Fuller Brook Path, features a large granite boulder (all cleaned up now) inscribed with the names of the six Wellesley residents who died during WWI. Six trees have replaced the elms that once honored those who died. A granite bench overlooking the State Street pond bears remembrance to all 335 residents who served (out of Wellesley’s population of 6,000 at the time). An historic information plaque on the path through the Grove tells its story.

There’s even an amazing Wellesley Media video about the history of Memorial Grove narrated by Tory DeFazio, and including a reading of Bates’ poem by Marianna DeFazio.

As it turned out, Swellesley didn’t come to the attention of the non-partisan patriotic organization all on its own. Wellesley resident Tory DeFazio gave us a plug during the application process, bringing to the committee’s attention a story we had done about the area. And the project as a whole certainly wasn’t a one-person show.

“The more I looked into it, the more my interest was provoked, and I learned even more at the Wellesley Historical Society. Then more and more people became interested,” DeFazio said.

Memorial Grove, Tory DeFazio, Wellesley
Tory DeFazio seriously knows how to keep records. Every piece of correspondence, copies of grant applications, magazine clippings, and more related to Memorial Grove resides in two massive binders.

Civics 101

In the end, it took a cast of many to ensure the continued memory of a part of Wellesley’s heritage including:Town Historian Beth Hinchcliffe; (American Legion Post 72 members Richard Dillon (died 2019), Pete Jones and John Saunders; Town Executive Director Meghan Jop; James Joyce from Wellesley Media; Barbara McMahon from the Community Preservation Committee; Brandon Schmitt from the NRC; Royall Switzler, chair, Celebrations Committee; the Wellesley Park and Tree Division; the Wellesley Townsman; the Select Board; the Wellesley Historical Society; and many others.

Other New England awardees

Massachusetts: Adams, Mount Greylock Veterans War Memorial Tower; Harvard, World War I Memorial; Springfield, Godfrey Triangle WWI Monument; Worcester, Memorial Grove

Maine: Portland, Jacob Cousins Memorial

Rhode Island: Newport, Miantonomi Memorial Tower Park

You can see the entire list of 100 awardees at ww1cc.org/100Memorials.

Spot on Speech Therapy, Wellesley

Register of Deeds holds Wellesley office hours, clears up our self-manufactured drama

by

As part of the Norfolk County Registry of Deeds Community Outreach Program, William P. O’Donnell, Register of Deeds for Norfolk County, came to town along with his colleagues Second Assistant Register of Deeds Ed Wheeler, and Director of Support Services Jonathan Thomas.

The three set up a command center of sorts in the Kingsbury Room of the Wellesley Police Station. They’d brought computers and a printer, as well as brochures and folders full of informational papers.

Registry of Deeds
William P. O’Donnell, Register of Deeds for Norfolk County (center), came to town along with Second Assistant Register of DeedsEd Wheeler (left), and Director of Support Services Jonathan Thomas (right).

Their goal: to assist residents with any questions or concerns regarding real property records or land documents. The team stood ready to provide information about the Massachusetts Homestead Act; the status of mortgage discharges; print-outs of deeds; and to demonstrate how the Registry’s on-line Land Records Database works.

Massachusetts is divided into 21 registry districts, each with an elected Register of Deeds. The Norfolk County Registry of Deeds serves Wellesley, along with 27 other communities.

But it’s all about me

I showed up not just to cover office hours, but to straighten out a longtime document concern. It was about my Declaration of Homestead.

A Declaration of Homestead is a written legal document that allows homeowners to protect their family home from certain creditors, up to a particular amount. Massachusetts state law provides for an Automatic Homestead on all principal residences, protecting the home to the extent of $125,000.

According to the state website, “While this automatic protection may be sufficient to protect a deposit made upon your estate, it’s not likely enough coverage to protect the full value of your home. To protect the value of your property up $500,000 per residence, per family, you must file a document called a “Declaration of Homestead”.

Upon the advice of our attorney, we did just that soon after buying our house. I guess Bob and I didn’t bother applying our professional editors’ skills to our private life, because it was years before we noticed the document’s typos. So for a long time, I’ve been deeply uneasy about my Declaration of Homestead paperwork.

First off, I didn’t like that the zip code had been left off the Declaration document, then “corrected” by hand—to the wrong zip code. There was also the matter of our street name being legally changed at some point. The name was merely tweaked, but still, my Declaration didn’t reflect the change. The upshot—this important paperwork contains two facts that aren’t, strictly speaking, facts. The warning bells in my head were loud.  Not loud enough to get me down to the Norfolk Registry of Deeds in Dedham, mind you. But if the Registry is going to come all the way to Wellesley to pay a call on me then sure, I was ready to air my concerns.

Over the years I had visions of being hauled into court by some smug plaintiff who somehow discovered my Declaration’s dark secret. He’s trying to squeeze $500k out of me, and he looks confident. His lawyer asks, “Well, Mrs. Brown is this your true zip code? Is this your true street name?” Because I must tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, I’m forced to admit the zip code and street name are but lies. The judge can see that I’m getting screwed on a technicality, but her hands are tied. The judge finds in favor of the plaintiff. I weep as I transfer a massive settlement number to my enemy’s bank account.

Not a thing, Second Assistant Register Ed Wheeler assured me, looking up from his computer. If the title number has been registered in the Norfolk Registry District of the Land Court, and the title number is correct on the Declaration of Homestead, I could retire my manufactured drama. Wheeler found that the number was, indeed, registered and correct, leaving me free to invent other concerns.

The digital age

Moving records into the digital age is what O’Donnell is most proud of as Register of Deeds. In 2015, the Registry started working with Xerox Services to take over 250,000 hand-written deeds from 1793 to 1900, scan them, and transcribe them. Once they got up to the year 1900, it was on to the next century. The transcription process was taken on to ensure that historical records will be legible to future generations, and the information on them will be read correctly.

The mission of the Registry of Deeds is the same as it was in 1793—to record, preserve and provide access to real property records and land documents. “But we deliver the services in a more modern way now,” O’Donnell said. “It didn’t happen overnight, but all our records back to 1793 are online. I remember back in 2002 when we didn’t even have email at the Registry.”

Please support your local news source, The Swellesley Report

 

 

An election year

O’Donnell has been Register of Deeds since 2002, and has gotten the thumbs up from voters four times, unopposed during each 6-year election cycle except for 2004. And now in the upcoming 2024 election. On Sept. 3, the Norwood resident will face Quincy Councilor-At-Large Noel DiBona, who last month announced his candidacy for Norfolk County Register of Deeds. The election will take place during the Democratic Primary.

O’Donnell isn’t taking his winning record for granted. “I was outside at Wellesley Town Meeting in March getting signatures,” he said.

Watch out for money-making schemes

Don’t ever let any outside company “search” your deed for you and provide you with an official copy for a mere $75 (or more). Although not illegal for companies to do this, it’s a total waste of your money, and feels a little scam-like.

The Registry of Deeds has particular scorn for a California company that for the past several years has been aggressively preying on unsuspecting homeowners by sending a direct mail solicitation asking them to send a check for $112 in order to receive a copy of their deed.

“If a consumer knew that they could print a non-certified copy of their deed for free from our website www.norfolkdeeds.org or obtain a certified copy of their deed for a charge of only $1 per page plus an additional $1 for postage, they would never agree to pay such an outrageous fee for service. The average price for a mailed homeowner’s certified deed copy by the Registry (usually two pages) is $3,” O’Donnell said.

The Registry office asks that if you receive such a deed solicitation notice, contact the Registry’s Customer Service Center at (781) 461-6101 or by email at registerodonnell@norfolkdeeds.org.

General information

[Read more…]

Flag Day ceremony in Wellesley will be June 14, 2024

by

Wellesley will hold its annual Flag Day ceremony on Friday, June 14, at 2pm, at Woodlawn Cemetery (148 Brook Street). Flag Day is tradition held since 1937 to honor the U.S. Flag, and to retire flags that are no longer in usable condition.

The community is invited to attend a brief program honoring the American flag. The event also provides an opportunity to retire and properly dispose of worn and unserviceable flags. Worn and damaged flags from the community and the cemetery will be appropriately retired during a later controlled burn by the Wellesley Fire Department.

September 11 event, flag, WEllesley
September 11 remembrances, Wellesley.

The ceremony will also include brief remarks from local Veterans and a salute from the Wellesley Police Department.

MORE:

Wellesley 9/11 monument and flag: here’s the story

Wellesley librarians get to the bottom of the Wellesley lake monster legend

by

Thanks to Greg Peverill-Conti from Wellesley Free Library Information Services for this story—part investigative journalism piece, part plug for The Library of Things—about the Lake Waban Wiggler, Wellesley’s very own lake monster legend. Almost 90 years ago, multiple news agencies including The New York Times reported in all seriousness about a monster, 6o-feet in length, swimming about in the 40-foot deep lake on the campus of Wellesley College. As it happens, just one year earlier, the iconic “head and neck” photo of the legendary monster who reportedly inhabited Scotland’s Loch Ness, was first published. Perhaps the Nessie pic engendered monster envy at Wellesley College?

Greg thought it all sounded fishy and decided to do a deep dive into the story. We’ll turn it over to Greg from here so he can tell you what he reeled in.

On a warm August evening in 1935, five people saw something they could not believe and would never forget: a sixty-foot sea serpent gliding through the still waters of Lake Waban. Astonished, the group raced to the shore at Tupelo Point but the monster had vanished. Fanciful? Perhaps, but soon, the story appeared in major newspapers in Boston and New York. 

Lake Waban Wiggler, Wellesley
Newspaper headline from the Boston Evening Transcript.

What newspapers said about the Lake Waban Wiggler

  • “A sixty-foot, brownish-gray reptilian monster, similar in description to the legendary sea serpents, was seen by five Wellesley persons . . . in Lake Waban, near Wellesley College.” —New York Herald Tribune, August 20, 1935
  • “‘The animal’s neck appeared to be rough, but not scaley,’ a spokesman for the group recounted, ‘We were walking down by Tupelo Point and the thing just reared up out of the water . . . the eyes gave off sort of a blueish gleam as it turned in the water.’”—Boston Evening Transcript, August 20, 1935 
  • “The animal, with a knobby, horselike head and a sinuous body, emerged from the water off Tupelo Point shortly after 11 o’clock, swung around and disappeared into the darkness in the direction of the other side of the lake.” —New York Times, August 20, 1935 

Wellesley Free Library dips a toe into the mystery

After an initial flurry of interest, the story faded out of memory and was almost lost. Until the Wellesley Free Library caught wind of it . . . 

In June of 2023, while considering ways to promote a new pair of night vision goggles from the Library of Things, we immediately thought of monster hunting. Of course, the Dover Demon came to mind, but we wondered if there was something even closer to home. That’s when we discovered the Lake Waban Wiggler. That wasn’t the “official” name of the serpent, but it worked for us! 

Lake Waban Wiggler, Wellesley
Greg Peverill-Conti  (Information Services) and Rachael Hobson (Acquisitions and Cataloging) of the Wellesley Free Library search high and low for the Lake Waban Wiggler

We traveled to Lake Waban with a slew of items from the Library of Things: night vision goggles, electro-magnetic field detector, thermal camera, a decibel meter, and more. We had a swell time at the lake and even produced a fun little video about our adventures. Fun as it was, we found no answers. 

Lake Waban Wiggler, Wellesley
A selection of Library of Things items used to hunt the monster.

Undeterred, we shared the story with library patrons. One, whom we’ll call “Bob” to protect his privacy, thought he might know who was behind the original incident: Ward Fearnside, a Wellesley resident, World War II veteran, and UU Wellesley Hills member. We explored the theory, but the trail quickly grew cold. A few months later, however, Bob returned with some fresh clues. “There’s an old boathouse,” he said, “that belongs to the Wellesley Boat Club, where Ward Fearnside kept his canoe, I’ll bet it’s still there.” 

Intrigued, we found our way to the boathouse, but learned nothing from the outside of the building. Before calling it quits, we asked around the neighborhood and were eventually connected to the Captain of the Boat Club. He confirmed that Ward had been a member and offered to introduce us to his granddaughter, Libby, who is now the club’s vice president. 

It was with mounting excitement that we followed this new lead. A meeting at the boathouse was suggested. We leapt at opportunity! 

 On a raw and rainy January morning, we arrived at the boathouse where we met Libby, and her mother Wendy, the daughter of Ward Fearnside. After a few preliminaries, Wendy cut to the chase. “Yes,” she confirmed, “that was my father and his brother horsing around on Lake Waban that night in 1935.” 

Lake Waban Wiggler, Wellesley
A canoe from the period of the Lake Waban Wiggler sighting.

Reformed prankster Ward Fearnside breaks his silence

Although Ward died in 2011, thanks to a family oral history project, the story lives on. Here is the story, in Ward’s own words: 

“When I was about 16, I was swimming with my brother Thomas off Tupelo Point from quarter of nine to quarter past nine p.m. We had a canoe with us which we tipped over, and one of the things we used to do with the tipped over canoe was to get a good air bubble enclosed in the canoe, then duck under the gunwale and come up into the air bubble inside the canoe. We were doing this off Tupelo Point at nine o’clock in the evening.

“As we learned later, three people came down to Tupelo Point and saw the bottom of the canoe in the faint evening light. They concluded it was a “sea monster” in the lake. They hastily retreated, reported the story, which came out on the front page of the Boston Herald, two columns wide at the bottom of the page, “Sea Monster Sighted in Lake Waban!” We never let on that we were the sea monster. Today, with my desire to debunk the supernatural, I would have exposed the nonsense.”

While some of the details do not match the media accounts, Rachael and I believe there is no doubt that they are describing the same incident. 

It was an unexpected journey, and a mystery solved after nearly 100 years. We are happy to have fulfilled Ward Fearnside’s desire to “expose the nonsense.” It was also a great opportunity to share our Library of Things collection. If you have a Wellesley mystery, please, let us know. The Wellesley Free Library is a unique resource and we’re happy to help in any way we can. 

Subscribe to Swellesley’s free weekday email newsletter

* indicates required