This will be the first in an occasional series about Melrose buildings we have lost. We start with the strange and impressive history of construction on 19th century Chipman Avenue.
Sometime after the railroad station was built in the Highlands in 1845, an enterprising resident of what was then called the Melrose Vale section of Stoneham, possibly Winthrop Richardson, constructed a tall stone observation tower at the top of what would become Chipman Avenue. You can see it clearly marked on the Melrose map of 1852, and you can just make out the tower on the left side of the illustration of the Highlands station from 1853.
At some as yet unidentified date in the ensuing decades, the tower burned down, and by 1887 the property came into the possession of Boston businessman George W. Chipman. Because the street had such a vertical grade, Chipman had to build a stone retaining wall for his property, and you could say he got a bit carried away with the project. By 1889 he had constructed a castle at the top of street with turrets and wooden cannons, no doubt reusing many of the stones from the old observation tower.
No one lived in Castle Chipman, but it contained a bowling alley and a function hall, and began to be rented out by the Highlands Club, a neighborhood society group. In 1893 they opened up their own new clubhouse across the street, complete with three bowling alleys. Castle Chipman then fell into disuse, and by 1915 a map shows the structure as “ruins.”
By 1938, the Highlands Club was nearly defunct, and they sold their clubhouse to the Harold O. Young VFW post. Unfortunately, in 1958 the beautiful old clubhouse was burned to the ground, and the present modern hall was erected in its place.
As for Castle Chipman, part of it is still with us. While the turrets, cannons, and bowling alley are long gone, the retaining walls still lie under and around 25 and 33 Chipman Avenue.
No comments:
Post a Comment