Onomichi Townscape

Bye Onomichi for a while. Bye bye to the kitschy mock samurai castle. See you next time.

The Landscape of Yasujiro Ozu: Onomichi, Hiroshima

Just for a week, I went back to my home in Hiroshima. It's been for five years? since last time I went back. Well, I don't like an airplane trip. Wish I could afford a business class or something. Twelve hours in a sardine tine is asking too much for me. What could I do if I wanna get out and breath some outside air? No, obviously.

Enough gripe. I know, I know.

Onomichi cats are slim and have big eyes and ears!

Quabbin Park Cemetery, Ware

More than a thousand structures were dismantled — homes, barns, churches, schools, stores. Workers painstakingly removed 7,613 graves and re-interred the dead in a new cemetery.*

Before the completion of the Quabbin Reservoir in 1938, towns of Dana, Greenwich, Prescott, and Enfiled as well as the numerous villages and communities prepared for the day their memories would sunken into the bottom of the reservoir.  More than seventy-five thousand graves in those communities were dug up and relocated to the Quabbin Park Cemetery in Ware.
 

You might be interested in my past post about the abandoned town of Dana: The Vaughn House, Dana

Locate Quabbin Park Cemetery: Map

*Mass Moments: Quabbin Reservoir: http://www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=182

Railroad Bridge over the Connecticut, Hadley - Northampton

About a month ago, I introduced an abandoned Boston & Maine Railroad bridge over the Deerfield. Today, I'll introduce you another disused Boston & Maine Railroad bridge over the Connecticut.

The railroad was built in 1887. Used as a passenger and freight line, the Central Massachusetts Division connected the Connecticut Valley region with Boston. The passenger service ceased in 1932, and the freight service ended in 1979.

Urban obscurities

Montreal, Northampton, and Greenfield

Railroad Bridge over the Deerfield, Deerfield-Greenfield

Disused Boston and Maine railroad bridge over the Deerfield River

Google Map

Water towers, Easthampton

While I was exploring an abandoned textile mill in Easthamtpton, I found those two water towers by a rail-trail!

To be precise, three water towers: 

Abandoned in Montreal II - Silo No. 5

This is the king of silo, period.

As I mentioned in the previous post about abandoned structures along the Lachine Canal, this 14.5 km long canal opened in 1825 used to be a bustling hub of industry and transportation until the opening of the St Laurence seaway in the late 50's.

Refereed as the "bread basket of the world", Canada was the major source of grains just after WWII.  The major beneficiaries of the export were European nations whose agricultural industry was left with little recovery.

Abandoned in Montreal I - Lachine canal

The Lachine Canal is a riverway goes through the southeast of Montreal. Connecting St Laurence River and Lake St Louis, this 14.5 km canal began its operation in 1825. Through the several extensions and a deepening, it became the transportation artery and attracted various forms of industry and manufacturing.

Crane Ltd.: a plumbing company. This used to be a part of an iron plant built in 1918. (Source: Crane Plumbing Co.)

Quonset Hut, Newton

A Quonset Hut is always in an unexpected place. The first one I came across is an abandoned hut in my neighborhood which used to store Emerson Iron Lungs. The Iron Lung might look like the horrifying symbol of Polio, but it helped saving countless children and adults from the acute paralysis of respiration muscle. Without an Iron Lung, no breathing was possible.

Hillcrest Cemetery (Grafton S. H. Cemetery), Shrewsbury 2-2

From Hillcrest Cemetery, Shrewsbury 1-2

So, why is there an abandoned tower in the state hospital cemetery property? There is an interesting discussion about the original purpose of the tower speculating it was: a Civil War era watching tower, Irish tower commemorating Irish immigrants held in the hospital, water tower for the hospital, etc.

What you can see through the broken window

Norberg Greenhouses (now demolished), Cambridge MA

For more about these demolished greenhouses, please refer to my past posts: http://reversedview.blogspot.com/2011/01/wittemore-ave-greenhouse-cambridge.html
http://reversedview.blogspot.com/2011/10/update-on-wittemore-ave-greenhouse.html

Update on Whittemore Ave. Greenhouse

Please refer to: Whittemore Ave Greenhouse and Emerson's Iron Lung and Quonset Hut

Just yesterday, I received a letter from the City of Cambridge. I opened the envelope jokingly thinking "What? Did they finally decide hiring me as ... god knows what...wait, wait, did I pay too little tax?" Instead, it was a letter from the mayor regarding the redevelopment plan of the Fawcett Oil site.

Mercantile Wharf Building, Boston

Mercantile Wharf Building is one of the creations of Gridley James Fox Bryant. Prolific in the mid 19th century, he represented the Boston Granite Style thorough Charles Street Jail (1851), Washington Tower at Mt Auburn (1854), and the Cambridge Poor Farm(1851).

Hoffman Building, Boston

Hoffman Building, Lovejoy Wharf, Submarine Signal Building, Schrafft's Candy Factory Quincy Cold Storage... I don't know which name rings a bell to you, but it's that abandoned loft just before you go deep under the Big Dig. When you are on I-93 south, maybe you are preoccupied by being on the Zakim Bridge or by the sight of TD Bank Garden on your right. If you turn your head opposite from the Bruins... that's the one I'm talking about. If you still don't get it, forget about it. Just drive safe.   

Echo Bridge & Elliot Manufacturing Co., Newton-Needham

Continue from: Echo Bridge, Newton-Needham

Former Elliot Manufacturing Company 

The construction of Echo Bridge completed in 1876 as a part of the Sudbury Aqueduct. The waterway began operating in 1878 to transport water from Framingham to Chestnut Hill for the purpose of supplying drinking water to the Metropolitan Boston area. 

Echo Bridge, Newton-Needham

Echo Bridge is a part of the Sudbury Aqueduct. The aqueduct connects the Sudbury Reservoir in Framingham and  the Chestnut Hill Reservoir by Boston College. The linear distance between the two is about 20 miles. The construction of the Echo Bridge finished in 1876, and the aqueduct began operating in 1878 . The Sudbury aqueduct was active until 1978 and currently utilized as a backup waterway. This well maintained, beautiful bridge is currently open to public as a part of  Hemlock Gorge Reservation.

Stuck in the Emerson Iron Lung

(a follow up of: Emerson's Iron Lung and Quonset Hut, Cambridge)

Recently, I visited the Public Health Museum at Tewsksbury Hospital and came across an object I mentioned in my past post.

I live close to the former main office of J.H. Emerson Co. in North Cambridge. The company was the leading manufacture of a negative pressure ventilator a.k.a Iron Lung during the polio outbreaks between the 40's and 50's. It was a temporal measure for the majority of the patients, but some remained to rely on an Iron Lung permanently.

Bear Hill Tower, Stoneham

Bear Hill Tower

Few weeks ago, I went to Wright's Tower in Medford, the tower looking down the Medford section of I-93. The tower sitting on a hill at the Middlesex Fells Reservation was built as a part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects during the 30's to ease the unemployment. I personally call those towers as "job creation towers". Quite amount of job seemed to be created by stacking Massachusetts stone into towers.

Wachusett Aqueduct, Northborough

The Wachusett Aqueduct was completed in 1905 to carry water from the Wachusett Reservoir to the Sudbury Reservoir*. The majority of this 10-mile route is in underground, and a few elevated crossings are visible from us. The crossing I introduce today is on the Assabet River by Hudson Street.

*The route changed when a new water treatment plant in Marlborough was constructed in 2005.