Historic Newton has been working with community groups around the City developing educational signs about the history of the particular location. They are currently in the process of developing a comprehensive plan for a series of these interpretive signs in 20 locations around Newton.
On Monday, the Parks and Recreation Commission received a presentation about proposed signs for the Village of Waban. The Waban signs will combine narrative and maps with historic and contemporary photographs. The signs will have a URL and a QR code to access more information, via more detailed articles and background information on Historic Newton’s website.
According to Lisa Dady, Director of the Newton History Museum (see Memo), former Parks and Recreation Commissioner Bob DeRubeis, former Senior Preservation Planner, Katy Hax Holmes, former School Committee Chair and Board member of Historic Newton, Anne Larner, and Lisa Dady, first discussed this concept in 2019. Similar signs have been installed in West Newton Square and at the Hyde Community Center.
Since April 2021, Waban residents from the Waban Improvement Society, Waban Area Council and Waban Common, Inc. have been collaborating with Historic Newton. One of the goals of the markers is to enable people to read about the village history and then look up and actually see them. Waban historic buildings include:
- The 300-year-old Staples Craft farmhouse – now the Suzuki School of Newton (Landmark)
- The Strong Block – the first commercial building, listed on the National Register September 4, 1986
- Angier Elementary School
- The Waban Library
- Waban Hall – the first village school, now Starbucks
- Waban Train station – built by the H.H. Richardson firm, torn down in the late 1950s
- Parish of the Good Shepherd
- Union Church
There is information about key historical figures and recent developments including the Waban Common, a park that was created when two traffic islands were combined. It is a challenge to fit meaningful narratives into 350 words, and “every picture, line and paragraph was debated and fought over,” said Project Manager Laura Foote to the Parks and Recreation Commission during their review.
Lisa Dady, who also heads up the City’s Seal team review had several conversations with the Waban group regarding research that separated mythologies from facts about native American Waban and Reverend Elliot. One example is that the very meeting as depicted on the Newton seal most certainly never happened. The meeting would have occurred in a longhouse, as was then the native American custom, with Elliot as a guest. Elliot never learned the region’s native language, and it was Waban’s son who had learned English and acted as an interpreter for their meetings.
— Christopher Pitts is President of the Waban Improvement Society,
Vice President of the Waban Area Council,
and a member of the Waban Marker committee