Category: Washington Street

Honoring Norwood’s Veterans

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Norwood has a long history of proud military service, and the town and townspeople have done an excellent job of paying tribute to those veterans.

United States Marines from Norwood march through South Norwood in this late 1960’s 4th of July Parade Photo. My grandfather Russell H Webber is the Marine in the center.

Downtown Norwood

Located in the center of town is the Norwood Municipal Memorial Building. Also known as the Town Hall, this building stands as a tribute to the veterans of Norwood. It was dedicated ninety years ago today, on November 11, 1928.

Just outside Memorial Hall are plaques with the names of all those Norwood veterans who served from all conflicts and wars up until World War I.

 

On Veteran’s Day 2002, the town dedicated four more wooden plaques inside Memorial Hall, commemorating the 101 Norwood veterans who died serving in WWI, WWII, The Korean Conflict, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf War.

Outside the Town Hall is a cannon captured from German forces in World War I.

On the northwest corner of the Norwood Town Common is a beautiful 20 foot high statue, “Protector’s of the American Way”  which pays tribute to all of Norwood’s veterans. Created by Woburn artist Robert Shure, it was made possible by a donation from Norwood resident and veteran of two wars, Frank Simoni. The statue was dedicated in a grand ceremony on September 15, 1991, and depicts our military guarding an American family.

 

Here is the statue in 2018.

 

This monument, also located on the Norwood Town Common on Washington street reads:

“Dedicated to the heroic valor and patriotic spirit of the men and women of the town of Norwood who served in the armed forces of the United States of America and all its wars.”

Heading East from the Town Common on Nahatan St, you will pass under the George T. Lee Memorial Bridge.

Col. Lee, a Norwood High graduate, was a fighter pilot in World War II who flew an impressive 258 combat missions in Europe and became the youngest Colonel in the air corps at that time. He died on active duty at the age of 35 in 1954. In 1988, the Bridge was named in his honor.

Aaron Guild Park Area

South on Washington street around a quarter of a mile away from the Town Common in Aaron Guild Park, there are several monuments to Norwood veterans.

This monument was dedicated by the Norfolk County Marine Corps League in 1957 to recognize and salute the service of United States Marines.

 

The inscription reads

In Memory of

All Marines of Norfolk County

Who Gave Their Lives

For Our Country

This beautiful bench was donated in 2007 by the Norwood high School Class of 1948.

Dedicated to Those

Men and Women who

Served in the Armed Forces

During the Korean Conflict

There’s also a stone marker commemorating the 5 Norwood men who fought in the Siege of Louisbourg in 1745.

 

Around the corner heading west up Guild street from Aaron Guild Park in front of the Morrill Memorial Library is a stone marker marking the spot where Aaron Guild dropped his plow when he received news of the Battle of Lexington and Concord. The story of Aaron Guild making it to Lexington in time to fire upon retreating British soldiers is often repeated in Norwood.

Near This Spot Capt Aaron Guild On April 19, 1775 Left Plow In Furrow, Oxen Standing And Departing For Lexington, Arrived In Time To Fire Upon The Retreating British

Aaron Guild an his oxen on the Norwood Town Seal.

The town seal bears an image of Guild and his oxen,and both Guild street and Guild park are named after him.

Highland Cemetery

There are over 4000 veterans buried at Highland Cemetery in Winter Street, mostly in private or family lots. In 1973, the Town of Norwood converted a plot of land in the center of the cemetery adjacent to the cemetery office as a Veteran’s section. Over 170 veterans are buried in this section today.

The annual Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day parades both end near this section every year.

American Legion Post No. 70 dedicated this bronze memorial tablet to Norwood’s WWI soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines in 1921. It sits just West of the Veteran’s section.

In Memory Of Their Comrades

Who In The World War on Land and Sea

Fought Valliantly, Suffered, Endured,

Gave All In Service And Gained

Through Death Immortal Life

 

 

In 1896, The House of Representatives authorized the Committee on Naval Affairs in Washington to donate a “condemned cannon and 4 pyramids of cannon balls” to George K. Bird Post, No. 169, Grand Army of The Republic to be placed in Highland Cemetery. The monument is dedicated to the South Dedham soldiers who died in the Civil War (1861-1865, a decade before South Dedham became Norwood).

 

 

Directly in front of the cannon is a memorial to the unknown dead from that same conflict, donated by the Grand Army of the Republic’s Women’s Corps in 1905.

 

In the newer area in the rear of the cemetery, at the top of the hill, sits this beautiful tribute to Norwood’s 154 Lithuanian war veterans and the 7 who lost their lives. The monument stood outside St George’s church in South Norwood from 1949, until the church was closed in 2005 when it was moved to Highland Cemetery.

 

Norwood Memorial Airport

In 1946 the War Department in Washington gave the airport to the Town of Norwood. The facility was officially named the Norwood Memorial Airport, in memory of Norwood residents who lost their lives in World War II, but no formal dedication ceremony was performed until 2003, when Norwood’s Veteran’s Agent Ted Mulvehill rectified the oversight.

Disabled Veteran’s Memorial Park

This triangular park, bounded by Walpole St (Route 1A), Chapel Street and Berwick street, is a memorial for all Norwood’ disabled veterans.

Street Signs

For the past 20 years, plaques have been placed on corners near almost 60 fallen veteran’s homes, to recognize those Norwood residents who bravely gave their lives while serving their country.

This sign is on the corner of Railroad Ave and School st was placed to honor my great uncle, Horace Webber, who served in the 117th Infantry Airborne division. Horace died during the Battle of the Bulge in November 18, 1944. The family resided at 286 Railroad Ave.

Lance Corporal Richard Murphy was killed on June 15, 1968 in Quang Tri Province, Vietnam. His plaque stands at the island at the intersection of Prospect St and Winter Street across from Highland Cemetery. He grew up at 193 Vernon street.

Parades

Norwood holds parades annually on Veteran’s Day, Memorial Day and the Fourth of July and people turn out in droves to thank them for their service.

 

July 4th, 2003

Memorial Day 2015

We owe an enormous debt to all our veterans, so please take the time to thank them whenever possible.

Downtown Norwood Center Aerial View – Norwood Then and Now

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This is a great aerial view of downtown Norwood Center then (probably early 1960’s) and now (2018). Moving left to right at the top of the photo, you can see the Norwood Municipal Building (Town Hall) and the old Fire Station (now the Olde Colonial Cafe) with a dry cleaner to the rear in both photos.

Norwood Municipal Building – 566 Washington St – October 2017

Top center right is the State Armory (now the Norwood Civic Center), and in the top right corner was an apartment building, torn down in 1968 to build a Goodyear Tire store, which was replaced in 1984 with a bank. A Santander bank stands there in 2018 although the bank has changed names several times.

The old Armory, Now the Norwood Civic Center

 

The right side of the photo shows the Norwood Theater, renovated in 2012 and flanked on both sides by retail shops.

Norwood Theater – 109 Central St – March 2018

 

At the bottom right you can see the corner of the Folan block. Moving around to the left side, The United Church appears to have been changed very little.

United Church of Norwood-  595 Washington St

A few modifications have been done the commercial retail buildings at the bottom left.  most notably to the building at 615 Washington St that housed the Apollo restaurant for many years. After 10 years on Vaderbilt Ave, the Heritage Baptist Church bought and renovated the building in 2015. The spire is visible in the bottom 2018 photo across from the center of the Town Common.

Heritage Baptist Church – 615 Washington St

The Norwood Town Common itself has changed a bit in the 50+ years since the top photo. The spoked paths remain the same, but the pine tree in the center has been replaced with a Gazebo Band Stand, erected in the 1990’s. Weddings, concerts and other special events use the gazebo throughout the spring and summer months and well into the fall.

The Gazebo Band Stand in the center of Norwood’s Town Common, August 2017

Washington Street Looking North from Cottage Street

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Cottage Street and Washington Street, Norwood Massachusetts Then and Now

 

This postcard looks North from the intersection of Cottage and Washington streets in Norwood. The trolley tracks ran down the center of Washington Street starting in 1896. On the left you can see one of Norwood’s earliest brick commercial buildings, the first Talbot block, built on the site of Allen Talbot’s house. Norwood House, formerly the Norwood Hotel, still stood on the current site of the Town common when the postcard photo was taken. It was removed with all the other buildings in that area when the Norwood Town Common was constructed.

Washington St And Nahatan St

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This postcard shows the intersection of Nahatan st and Washington Street, looking Southeast. The left side of the postcard shows the location of the current Norwood Municipal Building (Norwood Town Hall), completed in 1928. Standing opposite on the right side of the postcard is the Norwood Town Common, which still had a stone gazebo on the corner. In the foreground you can see the old trolley tracks running down the center of Washington Street, which were not removed until the early 1980’s.