BRIGHTON-ALLSTON HERITAGE MUSEUM

 

The Museum (which opened in Feb., 2007) has one permanent exhibition (Brighton Transformed), one temporary exhibition (Bull Market, which ends March 28th) and a couple of smaller temporary exhibitions (Cenntennial/Bicenntennial, and New Donations). A new main temporary exhibition in the Winship Gallery will go up in Late May related to Women’s Heritage. Let start with the Brighton Transformed Exhibition. This exhibition reveals the many changes that have occurred in Brighton and Allston since the area was first settled in the 17th century. Starting with 6 main themes (Early Cambridge, Western Gateway, Agriculture and Horticulture, Industry and Commerce, Suburbanization, and Landmarks). Each of these themes has a separate information panel that visitors should be encouraged to read, especially the ones they are most interested in. Each panel has four smaller photographs that give the highlights of that theme in pictures. The framed photos all relate to the specific theme in the center. You can also give them a very brief summary of each:

 

LITTLE CAMBRIDGE

 

Brighton-Allston formed part of the town of Cambridge from 1632 until 1807. Known as Little Cambridge prior to 1807, Brighton-Allston was a prosperous but sparsely settled farming community of less than three hundred residents.

WESTERN GATEWAY

 

The development of the network of roads, bridges, railroads, and public transportation facilities allowed Brighton/Allston to be linked to New England’s great metropolis of Boston, as well as the more distant points north, west, and south. This development profoundly influenced Brighton/Allston’s development and character.

 

AGRICULTURE and HORTICULTURE

 

For most of the 19th century, vast stretches of Brighton-Allston were devoted to agricultural pursuits. Brighton-Allston was also especially notable as a significant horticultural center.

 

 

INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE

 

Brighton-Allston served as the center of the New England cattle trade for almost 200 years. The cattle and slaughtering industries were the engine of Brighton-Allston’s 19th century economy.

 

The Boston & Albany Railroad and the location on the Charles River also served to create other major industrial enterprises.

 

SUBURBANIZATION

 

Brighton-Allston transformed itself from a market town into a commuter suburb in the years after 1870 as a result of large industrial and commercial enterprises and emitters of pollution and rank smells being relocated to the northern edge of the community. Also the infrastructure (roads, lighting and sewerage) was installed and new first-rate public facilities were provided.

LANDMARKS

 

Brighton-Allston has many architectural and historical landmarks. This panel features both surviving landmarks and landmarks that have been lost.

 

BULL MARKET Exhibition (Summary)

 

This exhibition traces the rise, prominence and decline of the cattle industry in New England, with special emphasis on Brighton as the center of that industry. This exhibition also raises the issue of cruelty to and suffering by the bulls, cattle, hogs and sheep being herded and slaughtered

 

BULL MARKET (FULL)

 

This exhibition traces the rise, prominence and decline of the cattle industry in New England, with special emphasis on Brighton as the center of that industry. This exhibition also raises the issue of cruelty to and suffering by the bulls, cattle, hogs and sheep being herded and slaughtered.

The cattle trade started in Brighton in 1776, when the Winships bought and slaughtered local cattle for sale to George Washington’s Continental Army. The 19th century saw the industry rise to become all pervasive and extremely profitable. Due largely to the success of the cattle business, magnificent hotels were erected, major train routes and stations were established, state-wide agricultural auctions and fairs were conducted and the local economy thrived. During this period, the founder of the Swift meatpacking company established one of the many local slaughterhouses, before settling in Chicago and establishing a world-wide meat-packing empire.

 

This western trend coincided with public health and safety concerns caused by cattle slaughtering and meatpacking. This outcry led to the consolidation of slaughtering and meatpacking into a single Brighton abattoir in 1872. Although the industry continued to experience success due to strong demand for beef, operations began a steady decline due to heavy competition from the mid-west. The Brighton abattoir eventually closed in 1957.

 

Over the years federal laws were tightened for inspections and handling of the animals before slaughter. The novel The Jungle is generally credited with promoting the passage of the first Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906. Eventually in 1958, the Humane Slaughter Act required that animals be stunned before being killed. The 21st century Fast Food Nation also changed public opinion regarding the care of and compassion for the animals.

 

 

FULL VERSIONS

 

LITTLE CAMBRIDGE

 

Native Americans migrated from interior villages to Brighton-Allston locations on a seasonal basis in the years before European colonists settled here.

In 1646 the Reverend John Eliot of Roxbury, the so-called “Apostle to the Indians” converted a band of local natives under the Indian leader Waban to Christianity. In the valley where Chandler’s Pond now lies, Eliot founded the “Praying Indian” village of Nonantum, the first Christian Indian community in British North America.

Brighton-Allston formed part of the town of Cambridge from 1632 until 1807. The first families to locate here permanently were the Sparhawks, Danas, and Champneys, who crossed the river from Cambridge proper in 1647.

Known as Little Cambridge prior to 1807, Brighton-Allston was a prosperous but sparsely settled farming community of less than three hundred residents. A number of elegant country estates were established here, belonging to such prominent mercantile families as the Cunninghams, Apthorps, Olivers, and Faneuils.

Little Cambridge and its residents played an important role in the Revolutionary War. On April 19, 1775, a force of 800 Redcoats rushed across the only bridge on the Charles, the Great Bridge in Little Cambridge, to support British troops retreating from their historic encounter with Minutemen in Lexington. Local politician and military leader Colonel Thomas Gardner, a major figure in the early stages of the Revolution, was killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill. A key development in the history of the community was the establishment here in 1776 of a stockyard to feed the Continental Army, then headquartered across the river in Cambridge.

 

 

 

 

WESTERN GATEWAY

 

 

The development of the network of roads, bridges, railroads, and public transportation facilities linking Brighton/Allston to New England’s great metropolis of Boston, and more distant points north, west, and south, profoundly influenced Brighton/Allston’s development and character.

 

From the building of the Great Bridge across the Charles River in 1663, to the construction of the Boston and Roxbury Mill Dam Road in 1822, to the extension through the community of New England’s first railroad, the Boston & Worcester, in 1834, transportation facilities have been critically important.

 

Controversies over transportation have a long history here. In fact, it was a heated debate over road and bridge construction that lead to Brighton’s separation from Cambridge in 1807. Similarly, Brighton’s 1873 decision to allow itself to be annexed to Boston was a direct by-product of a huge town debt generated by large-scale road improvements.

The introduction of reliable and inexpensive public transportation – a horse car line in 1857 and two electric street car lines in 1889- was the major reason for Brighton/Allston’s amazing transformation from a raucous market town, dominated by cattle yards and slaughterhouses, into a sedate streetcar suburb.

 

In the 20th century, and especially after World War II, the proliferation of automobiles on the streets of this western gateway to Boston engendered the traffic jams and parking problems that continue to threaten the quality of life in Brighton/Allston to this day.

 

AGRICULTURE and HORTICULTURE

 

For most of the 19th century, vast stretches of Brighton-Allston were devoted to agricultural pursuits. As late as 1850, its fifty-seven farms encompassed two-thirds of the land area of the town.

Between 1816 and 1839, the oldest agricultural society in the state, the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, held the earliest state fairs on Agricultural Hill, just south of Brighton Center.

Brighton-Allston was especially notable as a horticultural center. The oldest of its celebrated nurseries was Winship’s Gardens in North Brighton, established by Captain Jonathan Winship in 1820 on a forty- acre plot overlooking the Charles.

Other prominent local horticulturalists included James Lloyd Lafayette Warren (later to become the “Father of California Agriculture”); Horace Gray (who helped establish the Boston Public Garden), Joseph Breck, whose seed company is still a major horticultural concern, the Scott Brothers in North Allston, and nurserymen William Chamberlain Strong and William Elliott on Kenrick Street. Breck and Strong both served as Presidents of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.

 

INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE

 

Brighton-Allston’s first major industry was its cattle trade, founded in 1776 to provision General Washington’s Continental Army. Brighton-Allston served as the center of the New England cattle trade for almost 200 years. A slaughtering and meat packing industry arose alongside the Brighton Center stockyards. By 1866, forty-one slaughterhouses dotted Brighton-Allston’s highly industrialized landscape. The cattle and slaughtering industries were the engine of Brighton-Allston’s 19th century economy.

 

Two other factors that fostered industrial development in Brighton-Allston were its relationship to the Boston & Albany Railroad and its location on tidal Charles River, a major commercial artery prior to 1908. The largest industrial concerns in Brighton-Allston lay adjacent to the railroad and the river.

 

This tendency became even more pronounced in the late 19th century, as industry came to be almost entirely concentrated at the northern edge of the community. These facilities included the massive Brighton Abattoir, established in North Brighton in 1872; the Brighton Stockyards, which moved from Brighton Center to North Brighton in 1884; extensive Boston & Albany Railroad structures built along the B&A tracks in the after 1870; the railroad’s Beacon Park Freight Yard in North Allston, dating from 1890, the massive Sewall & Day Cordage Works on Western Avenue, dating from 1899, and the Rivett Lathe & Grinder Company plant on Riverview Road, founded in 1889.

 

SUBURBANIZATION

 

The character of Brighton–Allston was radically transformed after the Civil War, as demand increased for housing within convenient commuting distance of the commercial heart of Boston.

 

A reluctance on the part local taxpayers to pay the significantly higher taxes these building projects entailed led residents to decide on October 7, 1873 to allow the Town of Brighton to be absorbed by the City of Boston.

LANDMARKS

 

Brighton-Allston contains many architectural and historical landmarks. This exhibit features both surviving landmarks and landmarks that have been lost. Some of the surviving structures are relatively intact, while others have been significantly modified.

Our local architectural landmarks fall into three main categories---government buildings, structures associated with private schools and colleges, and religious edifices. Long the headquarters of Boston’s Roman Catholic archdiocese, Brighton-Allston contains a particularly rich collection of ecclesiastical buildings.

Many of these landmark structures were designed by prominent architects. Information about the architects and their careers has been provided wherever possible, along with information about the architectural styles of the buildings.

Some of these structures have been designated City of Boston Architectural and Historical Landmarks. Others are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Our surviving landmarks are the most impressive historical artifacts of Brighton and Allston’s fascinating past. It is hoped that this exhibition will enhance the public’s understanding and appreciation of importance of these key monuments to our past, as well as foster a determination to preserve and protect them for future generations of Brighton-Allston residents to appreciate and enjoy.