The Upper Falls News is an email newsletter about what's going on in our village.  The Upper Falls News is brought to you by the Upper Falls Area Council but it's intended to cover any and all news in the village. 

Upper Falls Historic Trivia - Reader Larry Smith sent another great but off visual historical trivia.   Where in Upper Falls would you have seen this in the 1940's? (answer below)


Brian Yates and Violins - Alderman Brian Yates is hosting a campaign event tonight from 5:30-7:30 at Carriage House Violins (1039 Chestnut St) and the public is invited.  Carriage House Violins is probably the most interesting and beautiful commercial space in Upper Falls, so stop by and meet the candidate. 

Upper Falls On Two Wheels -  The Tour de Newton, a 20 mile, 13 village bike ride originally scheduled for Oct 6 was rained out that day.  The Tour went off without a hitch this past Sunday.  Upper Falls was well represented with a crew of 23 riders, including kids, teenagers and adults sandwiched between two Upper Falls Jims.  Leading the Upper Falls riders was Jim Lerner and taking up the rear was "sweep" Jim Purdy. They took off from The Depot and stopped at each of the other 12 villages along the way,  Meanwhile, groups of riders from around the city arrived every 10 or 15 minutes and were greeted in Upper Falls by Jen Kohl and Chris Murphy who handed out Upper Falls badges and gave the visitors a crash course on the pleasures and history of Upper Falls.  Special thanks to Dunn-Gaherins who was our village sponsor.  Thanks to them, all the riders received Tour de Newton T-shirts, route maps and village pins.

Greenway Ground Breaking - On Friday Oct 25, at 1 PM, there will be a ceremonial ground-breaking for the Upper Falls Greenway at Oak and Chestnut St.  The mayor will be there, the state's Secretary of Transportation, our local aldermen and various other dignitaries.  Iron Horse Preservation will also be there with their rail removal equipment.  Once the formalities, the handshakes, and the photos are dispensed with, the real fun will begin.  

The Newton Bicycle Pedestrian Task Force (aka Newton Bike/Ped) are the ones who first dreamed up the idea for the Upper Falls Greenway.  The folks at Newton Bike/Ped have contacted hobbyists that have self-propelled rail riding vehicles.   They're going to bring two of these rail-riders to Upper Falls for the day and the public will be invited to take the final ride on this mile of track just before its torn up to make way for the Upper Falls Greenway, our new mile long walking/jogging/biking trail and park.  So come on down and ride the rails and enjoy green tea on the Greenway, and maybe a bowl of hot & sour soup courtesy of Taam China II, our neighborhood kosher Chinese restaurant.

Politics at the Emerson - Many of the candidates for contested seats in the upcoming election will be at the Emerson Center in Upper Falls for a Candidates Night on Oct 30 7-9:30.   The three Ward 5 Area Councils (Upper Falls, Highlands, and Waban) are working to put together a Candidates Night at the Emerson Center on Oct 30. The Ward 5 Aldermen-At-Large candidates (Deb Crossley, Chris Steele and Brian Yates), and the Ward 2 School Committee candidates (Margaret Albright and Andrea Steenstrup) will all be there.   If you have a question for any of the candidates, particularly any issues that are pertinent to Upper Falls or if you'd like to help organize the event, contact Anil Adyanthaya.

If you like your car staying where you left it, be sure not to park in the residents' spots at the Emerson - they tow.  Not to worry though, there's plenty of on-street parking on Pettee St.

The Award Winning Biltmore - Congrats to Jayson Goldstein at the Biltmore Bar & Grill.  Jayson just won the 2nd annual Newton Upper Falls Village Business Award from the Economic Development Commission.  The award will be presented at a cocktail reception on Monday, Oct. 21, from 5:30- 7:30 p.m. at the Newton War Memorial at Newton City Hall and every one is welcome.  Not to pick nits but .... shouldn't they be serving pints from the Biltmore's collection of craft brew beers rather than cocktails at this event?

Disappearing House Stirs Up More Trouble - Last issue we reported on the house at the corner of Wetherell and Elliot St that was razed this summer.  Local resident Paula (Daley) Kelleher realized that the house next door is also slated to be a tear down.  This week the plot thickened.  Resident Carol McPherson sent this letter to the Newton Historic Commission chairman, raising concerns about the process around the approval of the demolition permit for the house on Wetherell Street. Did You Know ... that a crocodile can't stick its tongue out.   "Did you know ..." features an interesting and random fact every issue, collected by ten-year-old Upper Falls resident Jayla Reilly.

Send Us Your News - If you have any upcoming events, activities, news, trivia, stories, anecdotes or jokes related to Upper Falls just send them to news@UpperFallsNews.org and we'll include them in the next newsletter.  For those who prefer living in the past, back issues of the Upper Falls News are archived at UpperFallsNews.org.

"Upper Falls Historic Trivia" Answer - The answer to "Where in Upper Falls would you have seen that image in the 1940's?" says Larry Smith is "in your living room or more likely in a shop window in the block where the Biltmore is now located".  Says Larry, "That is a TV test pattern including the Indian Head. When TV first came into the homes in the 1940’s it would not  broadcast TV til  6 pm and the first item on was the test pattern which would last for about 15 minutes so that the home owner could adjust his TV set picture as good as he could to the images on the test pattern. The TV broadcast would only be on from 6pm til 12 midnight and then it would sign off by playing the national anthem.

Before we could afford a TV set, we could watch TV through the window of Bob Turners Radio Shop. Bob sold TV’s and set a TV up in the front window of his store which was part of the Biltmore complex. There would be a pretty good crowd there and some would bring their own chairs and put them on the sidewalk. We could sit through the night watching TV programs. A popular show were the Friday night boxing events from Madison square Garden New York.