Watertown News (https://www.watertownmanews.com/page/398/)
The cover of the Watertown Visitors Guide, produced by the City of Watertown.
Watertown’s history, activities, dining and more have been highlighted in the new Watertown Visitors Guide. The City of Watertown produced the four-page booklet in anticipation of a busy summer in Greater Boston.
The City Council approved 36 items from the Capital Improvement Program for the Fiscal Year 2027 budget, including road repairs, some money for the Middle School project, park projects, and requests from the Fire and Police departments.
Dr. Bernard Lafayette and Watertown Kingian Nonviolence Trainer Holly Cachimuel, who is a former Watertown teacher.(Photo by Chuck Dickinson)
The death of legendary civil rights icon Dr. Bernard Lafayette on March 5 resonates deeply throughout the city of Watertown. “Doc” first came here for several days in 2016, at the behest of former Watertown Middle School teacher Ruth Henry. Henry had trained in Kingian Nonviolence Conflict Resolution under Dr. Lafayette. Lafayette had promised Martin Luther King, Jr. before his 1968 assassination that he would spread King’s nonviolence teaching and practice around the world.
A vision of what a new Watertown Middle School could look like created by Ai3 Architects and presented to the School Committee in June 2025.
Architects have started creating detailed designs for a new Watertown Middle School to determine how much a new school would cost, and that information will be used by the City to see whether Watertown’s budget can handle a project expected to cost significantly more than $100 million.
As he prepares to hire the next Watertown Police Chief, City Manager George Proakis heard the priorities of the members of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee as well as the public on Monday night.
Coolidge Tavern (Photo courtesy of Watertown Free Public Library)
By Linda ScottWatertown Resident
Part 5: The Roaring 1700’s
By the 1700’s, Watertown was hopping. There were stage coach lines coming through town and a lively lumber business floating up and down the Charles. Besides the mills, there were hotels, stables, blacksmiths, and horse boarding establishments. (Burke)
Situated right in the middle of Watertown Square, Galen Street was proving to be kind of a problem.
The Marshall Home Fund sent out the following job description:
Fund Administrator for Watertown Non-profit Foundation
The Marshall Home Fund (MHF) is a private, non-profit charity that provides annual program grants to Watertown organizations that serve older adults, as well as modest individual grants to persons 55 and older experiencing financial need. We support a wide variety of efforts to build and maintain an age-friendly community for older adults.
The following announcement was provided by the Watertown Cultural Council:
The Watertown Cultural Council (WCC) seeks new grant proposals from organizations, schools, and individuals who wish to provide arts, humanities and interpretive science programs for the Watertown community in 2023-24. Proposals for community-oriented arts, humanities, and interpretive science projects are due October 17, 2023 at 11:59 EST.
Live Well Watertown, a program of the City of Watertown, will host several activities to get out and about this fall, including a Walk along with River with the man who wants to start a shuttle on the Charles River, and Qigong classes at the Library.
One of the benches around Watertown made from recycled plastic bottle caps. (Courtesy of City of Watertown)
Scattered across different parts of Watertown are colorful benches with a surprising element to them, they are made out of recycled plastic bottle caps.
Map of the Original Allotments of of Land and the Ancient Topography of Watertown, By Henry Bond, MD (Photo courtesy of the Watertown Free Public Library)
By Linda ScottWatertown Resident
Part 3: Grist for the Mill
So, the Watertown colonists have lots of fish to eat [See Part 2 to read about the fish weir]. What else does any decent English town in the 1600’s need? A grist mill, of course! (If you’d like to see a still functioning grist mill, take a ride out to the Wayside Inn in Sudbury).
The old Watertown High School building. (Courtesy of Watertown Public Schools)
A public forum will be held about the old Watertown High School building, will soon begin the process of demolition and construction of the new school building in its place.