A Walk around Arlington

I find you all have been sorely neglected.  It’s been nearly 2 weeks since you’ve heard anything of the house!  I’m afraid I have started many projects and finished none.  To top it all off, I’ve been occupied for several weekends in a row and the coming weekend is no exception.  On top of all that, our camera broke making it impossible for me to take decent pictures of anything regardless of the fact that they haven’t been finished!

As I walked back from dropping the poor damaged camera off at the post-office, I thought I’d take the chance to take you on a iPhone tour of Arlington center.

The post office is on a side-street from the main drag.  It’s a neat old brick building.  It was curiously built in 1935 perhaps as some depression era work project.  It has big old wooden doors and a grand granite stoop.  There is always a nice flag outside which I always appreciate.

I took this rather bad iPhone photo but Wikipedia has a better one. The building is listed on the National Historic Registry but my cursory web search yielded no more details than that. Perhaps I will do some more detailed portraits on some of the neat old buildings but for now, just a tour.

Once we come back onto Massachusetts Avenue, the main route in town, we can see the spire of the town hall.

Another royalty free photo on Wikipedia:

The town hall building was built in 1913 with a large annex added in 1955. It has a large and gorgeous hall inside and Stefan and I applied for our marriage license with the town clerk on the second floor. A nice article on the Town Hall and Robbins Library is available at this link.

Next to the town hall separated only by a nice park is the Robbins Library. First built in 1807, the original structure was torn down and replaced in 1872 with a size-doubling addition in 1994. It is now under construction again as some roof repairs are being done.

An interesting anecdote about the library. In 1835 a donation was made to start a children’s section at the library. This donation allowed for Robbins Library to be the longest continuous free children’s library in the nation.

If we continue on down the road home, we see a rather out-of-place clock tower. This tower belongs to the modern and frankly rather ugly Unitarian Universalist church. The clock does chime every hour as do some of the decidly prettier churches in town.

Across the street from the ugly church, there is a nice old bank building.

Red brick and pretty, the building is old but not super grand or ornate. What is cool are the banners flying in the street. Town Day is happening in just a couple weeks! The whole of Arlington Center is blocked off and there is a nice street festival right in the square. I’ll be sure to do a post on the Town Day since it just has such an idyllic small-town charm to it.

I should point out that thus far, all the sights of interest except the bank are on the south side of the street. Directly to the north of the ugly church is a row of neat storefronts.

To the north of the red-brick bank is an old house which is now an art museum with a neat little park out front. Once upon a time the train ran right through that park and there was presumably also some sort of train station in the vicinity. The rail path is now the Minuteman Bike Path and provides a direct route from Arlington Center into Lexington to the north and Alewife Station (on the Red Line) to the south.

I mention is little park because it has this sign:

Click the image to take you to the Wikipedia page regarding the hero.

Past another 2 blocks of restaurants and a cross streat which claims a used book shop and a cinema, you get to the firestation on a triangle bordered by Massachusetts Ave, Broadway, and Franklin St.

The fire house is octagonal and rather cool looking. The grounds of the station also have a veterans memorial with a revolutionary monument, civil war monument, and vietnam war memorial.

From Central Fire Station, we are just a stones throw from home. I pass an arts and crafts supply store, a baby boutique and a hair salon before I am greeted by houses. It’s a nice walk from the post office and it’s been nice to share it with you.

Sarah