The town of Belmont took its name from Bellmont, the magnificent 50-room mansion built by the China trade merchant John P. Cushing between 1836 and 1840 on a 150-acre estate between Common and School streets. After Cushing’s death in 1862, the estate and mansion passed through several owners and uses until it was finally razed in 1929 after a fire. One item salvaged from the ruins was a beautifully made curved wooden bookcase that had been designed and built specifically for Cushing’s library. The Belmont Historical Society obtained the remaining pieces of the bookcase years ago and kept them in “temporary” storage that had no climate or insect control provisions. With the wood deteriorating and no suitable place to display and use the bookcase even if it were restored, the Society
Only people of a certain age will remember or relate to what a real letter is or was. I don't mean those "appeal" letters,chain letters or flyers posted on lamp-posts searching for a lost Fido. It could have been one from Grandma on your birthday.Perhaps the two crisp folded dollar bills made the letter more interesting. A real personal letter was something you could read over & over again. I remember, while in the sixth grade, the class had an assignment to write a letter to an imaginary friend. What a dumb idea, I thought, writing about yourself to a complete stranger.
This is a painting from the Belmont Historical Society's collection of images depicting people, places, and things from the town's history. This particular picture shows the railroad and railroad station in Belmont Center in 1882, before the underpass was built to eliminate the grade-level crossing.
Joe Cornish has provided this link (http://www.janewentzell.com) to an extensive collection of recent pictures of the historic Thomas Clark House at 59 Common Street. Jane Wentzell is the photographer. The Clark house is the subject of an intensive effort to preserve it from demolition.
The Belmont Historical Society invites you to participate in the Belmont Challenge!This interactive event will test your knowledge of local history while highlighting items from our archival collection. Come join the fun on Wednesday evening February 22nd from 7:30 to 9:00 in the Assenbley Room of the Memorial Library on Concord Avenue.
“The story of Belmont begins in the 1630s, when a group of Englishmen ventured up the River Charles to an area now called Fresh Pond, settling there on land occupied by the Pequosette Native Americans and know as Pequosette Plantation. In search of good soil, those men were rewarded with abundant crops, which could be carried from field to market on horseback. The colony thrived despite the increasing discontent with its
I grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii. Generally, Hawaii is regarded as an ancient place - the legends and lore and culture all speak to a place with a long history. But aside from the stories and the artifacts on display in the Bishop Museum, the physical evidence of truly *ancient* human activity in Hawaii is limited to a few heiau (temples) in remote locations. When it comes to history you can see and touch on a daily basis, Hawaii's history began in the late 1800s, and the vast majority has been constructed since the 1960s.
