Around Town
LETTER: Looking Back, Moving Forward in Watertown Square
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We often talk about “The Good Old Days” and the nostalgia of how things were better in the past. While Watertown’s past had great things, “The Good Old Days” had the same issues we face today. For instance, The Historical Society of Watertown has a fantastic resource: Watertown Newspaper Headlines from 1880-1941. Below is a sampling of 20 headlines along with the dates they appeared:
7/14/1880 “Galen St Dangerous for ladies after dark”
11/8/1882 “What Watertown Needs Most – housing for rent”
10/21/1892 George E. Priest said he had heard that the Newton & Waltham Street Railway desires to extend its Watertown-Waltham line to Mount Auburn
8/1/1893 “controversy between horse drawn vehicles and electric cars between Cambridge and Watertown”
1/6/1893 “Plans for electric railway cars from Watertown to Newton up Galen Street”
11/1/1901 “Cyclists warned not to ride between streetcar tracks, dangerous”
7/4/1902 “Horse and buggy accident between Mr. & Mrs. James Milmore and 2 men on horseback – Fred Rankins and Frank Haynes”
9/26/1902 “Another suggestion for improving the center (illustration and map of a proposed new Watertown Square)”
12/9/1904 “Save the trees”
3/17/1905 “Arsenal streetcar route extended to Scollay Square”
12/15/1905 “New Plans for Galen Street Bridge and Delta”
7/19/1907 “Watertown murder case: Charles Reed shot by Antonio Zeccolo”
7/30/1909 “10,000 riot at band concert near Watertown Square”
1/20/1911 “ Progress Being Made on High School Building (East Jr.)”
2/7/1924 “Common Street Widening meets great protest”
12/24/1933 “Town votes $135,000 for addition to High School, $35,000 for Main Library”
11/8/1934 “Subway tunnel proposed for Watertown Square (to relieve traffic!)”
12/26/1935 “Arsenal Street most dangerous piece of road in town”
9/4/1941 “ Watertown Starts to Abolish Worst Traffic Bottleneck (widening Watertown St. at Galen”
6/29/1945 “Mt.
