Lucius Beebe Memorial Library, Wakefield, Mass.

Title

Abraham Sweetser House & Joseph Hughes Garage, Corner of Armory and Main Streets, circa 1920

Description

"The Abraham Sweetser house, at left, was the first home of Cyrus Wakefield. The house was built in the early 1800s by Sweetser himself, probably on land owned by his father, Paul Sweetser, a man who the Providence Rhode Island Journal said was 'the first to engage in the business of bringing ladies fine shoes from Boston to Providence.' The elder Sweetser was a 'considerable orchardist; he raised abundantly the best apples that were raised in the town. He owned a part of 'Walk Hill', a ridge of land then extending from-the-river, by the late Leonard Wiley's, southerly on Main Street, and easterly on Nahant Street, and all along its base, where, owned by Mr. Sweetser, was a continuous row of apple trees, which bore choice fruit, among which was a plentiful supply of the old 'Ben' apple.' The house was typical of the large, well-built dwellings of the period, with wide stairways, a large fireplace and brick ovens. Abraham was a shoemaker as were many of his neighbors, many of whom ran 'one-man shoe factories' in their homes. The house was razed in 1922 to make way for an addition to the garage. The Joseph Hughes garage was built around 1909 by Hughes who owned a small repair shop on Center Street. The garage, which measured 42' x 75' was determined to be inadequate when David Barry purchased it in 1919. It was Barry who razed the house and was responsible for building the tapestry-brick structure in 1922. Several more additions were added beginning in 1925. In later years it was home to W.T. Walker Oldsmobile, Sylvania's Semiconductor Division, and Verizon. The structure was recently razed to make way for CVS."

Image from the Wakefield Municipal Gas and Light Department annual calendar, 2013

Photo courtesy of the Wakefield Historical Society.

Contributor

Institution: Lucius Beebe Memorial Library

Wakefield Municipal Gas & Light Department (Wakefield, Mass.)

D'Onofrio, Jayne M.

Coverage

Massachusetts--Middlesex (county)--Wakefield

Armory Street (Wakefield, Mass.)

Main Street (Wakefield, Mass.)

Date

ca. 1920

Format

image/jpeg

Publisher

Wakefield, Mass. : Wakefield Municipal Gas & Light Department

Subject

Architecture, Domestic

Joseph Hughes Garage (Wakefield, Mass.)

Type

still image

Photographs

Original Format

1 picture: b & w

Extent

25 x 19 cm.