Public Documents

Introduction - Respecting History, Respecting People

With post-World War I prosperity came more suburban amenities. Between 1925 and 1930, Newton added four branch libraries: West Newton, Auburndale, Newton Centre, and Waban. Newtonville, with its rapidly developing Walnut Street business district, relied on the Masonic Hall for library space. Notwithstanding its lack of a designated library branch, year after year, Newtonville residents recorded the highest library activity in the city. The village was rapidly outgrowing its makeshift library.

In 1935, despite the continued economic depression, the Newtonville Improvement Association decided to raise the funds necessary to establish a local library. To achieve this purpose, the Improvement Association established the Newtonville Library Association which was incorporated on July 3, 1935. Although Newtonville was less affluent than some other Newton villages, in June, 1936, the Newtonville Library Association launched a vigorous fundraising campaign, which raised more than 2,300 contributions ranging from $.25 to $1,500. John R. Prescott, a Newtonville resident and Library Association trustee, was the largest single benefactor, contributing the entire proceeds of the sale of his booklet: “Suburban Living at Its Best, Newton, Massachusetts”. By the summer of 1938, sufficient funds had been raised to purchase the property at 345 Walnut St. which was turned over the city.

The Library Association urged Mayor Ned Childs to support the erection of the library building by the city with the assistance of a federal grant from the Public Works Administration (PWA) which had been established by the New Deal to stimulate economic activity by funding civic buildings. Newton eventually received a WPA grant of $49,500 which funded approximately 45% of the cost of construction. The balance of the project was paid for with city funds.

In 1939, the Newtonville Branch Library opened as the largest of Newton’s local libraries. Its purposes were to serve Newtonville area residents and the 2,600 Newton High School students whose library was inadequate. Its Walnut Street location also served as an anchor balancing the Masonic Hall which anchored the other end of Walnut Street. The building was designed by Newton architect E. Donald Robb, principal in the nationally renowned firm of Robb and Little, with stained glass windows donated by acclaimed artist Charles Jay Connick, another Newtonville resident. The library was built in the popular red brick Georgian style of Depression-era municipal buildings, much like Newton City Hall. The stately library represented a reassuring and welcoming public place for people enduring the hardships of the Great Depression. Its dedication was a celebration of the joint effort of the city, the federal government and community leaders. On Dec. 1, 1939, more than 400 distinguished guests gathered for the official opening of the Newtonville Branch Library to hear Robert Frost, a friend of Charles Connick, say his poem “Mending Walls”, lines of which were incorporated in

Connick’s stained glass windows. The collaboration between an architect, a poet, and a stained glass artist is one of the more unusual features of this project.

For decades, the library offered Newton students a range of educational and recreational materials within walking and biking distance of their homes. Similarly, local adults benefitted from its collection and programs. The Newtonville branch Library was a place where people gathered, attended meetings, and found comfort and solace.

When the building was repurposed as the Newton Senior Center in 1993, architects added a fully accessible entrance from the parking lot, which would be a requirement in any renovation and new construction. While only two village branch libraries continue to function as libraries, the others have been preserved and serve their communities in different ways. The building has served Newtonville residents as well as the greater Newton community for eighty-three years. On warmer days, people on their way to or from errands, take advantage of the center’s comfortable benches in the lovely Senior Center Park in front of the building on Walnut St. The space is a favorite of Newton North students who like to congregate there after school. It was and continues to be a Newtonville community space.

Charles J. Connick was a world renowned stained glass artist who lived from 1875 to 1945. He produced many stained glass windows including rose windows for St. Patrick’s cathedral and St. John the Divine in New York City and windows in the Princeton University chapel and the Heinz Memorial Chapel at the University of Pittsburgh.

The art historian, Peter Cormack, described Connick in the following way:

“More fully than any of his contemporaries in the USA, he comprehended the essential qualities of historic stained glass and their potential for reinterpretation to modern aesthetic sensibilities...Connick kept ‘open study’ at Harcourt Street, encouraging musicians, writers, and anyone interested to view his works in progress. The poet Robert Frost was among those drawn to this vibrant center of creativity, and was the recipient of some of Connick’s most innovative experiments, made from bits of pressed glass excavated from the disused nineteenth-century glassworks at Sandwich, Massachusetts.”

The New York Times obituary in 1945 stated that “Charles Jay Connick (was) considered the world’s greatest contemporary craftsman in stained glass.”

In 1938, Newton selected the architect E. Donald Robb to design the Newtonville branch library. Robb contacted his friend and Newtonville neighbor, Charles Connick, and suggested that he design some stained glass windows as part of the library project. Correspondence between Robb and Connick indicates that Connick was delighted to do so and that these windows would be a gift to the city.

In keeping with the library environment, the subjects that Connick chose to depict were literary. He designed two windows based on lines from two New England poets: Robert Frost’s poem “Mending Wall’ and Emily Dickinson’s poem “There is no Frigate Like a Book”. In his letter to Mayor Fuller and the Newton Historic Commission, a member of the Board of the Connick Foundation, Lance Kasperian, described these windows in the following way:

“These works are among the most significant of Connick’s later career, illustrating a style which is distinct from his better known body of ecclesiastical work. They reflect his personal commitments to the Newtonville community and his friendships with the architect of the library, E. Donald Robb (1880-1942) - who was also a long-time Newtonville resident - and the American poet Robert Frost.”

Respecting Charles Connick’s Wishes

It is clear from the correspondence between E. Donald Robb and Charles Connick that they were partners in the development of the Newtonville library. Robb wanted to put Connick’s work on full display and Connick wanted his work to blend with Robb’s architecture.

Because we have not found the legal document from Connick giving his stained glass to the city of Newton -- it may have been orally -- we cannot be certain what conditions Connick attached to his gift. However, based on the correspondence that we do have, it is clear that Connick intended his stained glass to be permanently integrated into Robb’s architectural design. Removing Connick’s stained glass and inserting them into a new building would eliminate the architectural context created for Connick’s stained glass and clearly be a violation of Connick’s wishes. We contend that Newton has a moral and legal obligation to comply with Connick’s wishes if at all possible.

After many years of planning, Newton opened a newly built central library on Sept. 15, 1991. Once opened, Newton made a decision to close or convert the branch libraries that had been established in many of Newton’s villages.

The Real Property Reuse Committee of the Board of Aldermen recommended that the Newtonville branch library be converted to a Senior Center.

On March 2, 1992, the Board of Aldermen adopted an ordinance that transferred the land and building known as the Newtonville branch library “to the Human Services Department for use as a senior center.”

The Board Order included the following stipulation:

“That all feasible means be taken to preserve and/or replace the architectural elements, both interior and exterior, which give the building its historic character, including, but not limited to, doors, windows, casework and vaulted ceilings. Any necessary exterior alterations of the building or the site shall be reviewed and approved by the Historical Commission.”

The east view of the Newtonville Branch library from the outset had an attractive landscape facing Walnut St. There are photos of the main entrance from 1939 on the Dedication Program and from 1987 on page 3 of the Newton Public Buildings Survey.

In 2004, seven years after the building began functioning as a Senior Center, the city and the Senior Citizens Fund of Newton, proposed to “develop the Center’s frontscape on Walnut St.” by creating a park. The Application for Community Preservation Funding described the goal of the proposed park on page 3:

The primary goal of The Park at The Newton Senior Center project is to: provide a fully accessible, passive recreation public park for people of all ages and abilities. To begin realizing this goal, the Department of Human Services has worked with local supporters to develop the enclosed conceptual design intended to upgrade the Center's frontscape along Walnut St. with plantings, pathways, lighting and seating that will invite people of all ages to gather, rest, read, play board games, talk, eat, and generally enjoy the conveniently accessible public space.

This goal addresses the goals articulated in the City of Newton's Recreation and Open space plan:

• To address the increasing resident interest in less structured, more passive recreation opportunities,

• To provide additional small scale, passive recreational facilities for uses such as sitting areas, walking paths ... that are responsive to the specific needs of elderly and people with disabilities.
  The Application for Community Preservation Funding explained the community need for the proposed park on pages 3-4:
  Newton's Recreation and Open Space Plan intends to meet the National Recreation Association's minimum ratio of public open space/1000 residents. According to this standard Newtonville (ward 2- precinct 1) falls below this standard. It is generally recognized that the north side of the city is further from that ratio than the south side of the city. The City's plan states that: "where neighborhoods fall short of the standard efforts will be made to fill the gaps by creating "small pocket parks". The City is currently reevaluating its public land to identify potential neighborhood parks, including roadside land, that could be designated or developed as small pocket parks. The proposed Park at the Newton Senior Center will help the City fulfill the need for additional, small pocket parks. It will be both a neighborhood gem and a city treasure.
  A budget of $271,210 from CPA funds was requested.
  On Feb. 8, 2005, the Community Preservation Committee recommended that the request for $271,210 be approved by the Board of Aldermen.
  On April 4, 2005, the Board of Aldermen by a vote of 23-0, approved a Board Order appropriating “a grant for $271,210 to create a new park at the Newton Senior Center,

345 Walnut Street, as described by the Community Preservation Committee Recommendation (dated 8 February 2005) and the application (submitted on 15 October 2004).”

Paragraph 2 of the Board Order states the following:

That all feasible means be taken to preserve and/or replace the architectural elements, both interior and exterior, which give the building its historic character, including, but not limited to, doors, windows, casework and vaulted ceilings. Any necessary exterior alterations of the building or the site shall be reviewed and approved by the Historical Commission.

Protecting the Park

Massachusetts has very strong laws protecting parks. It is not impossible to build on a park but there are many hurdles to do so.

The Board Order from 2005 authorized the expenditure of $271,210 to “create a new park at the Newton Senior Center”. The Board Order included a restriction that the Historical Commission shall review and approve “any necessary exterior alterations of the building or the site...” This authority indicates how important preserving the building was to the board of aldermen.

Massachusetts has a provision in its Constitution (see Article 97), that requires that any change in use of a park be approved by a 2/3rd vote of both houses of the legislature. According to the Supreme Judicial Court’s ruling in Smith v City of Westfield, this requirement applies when “land is dedicated to the public as a public park when the landowner’s intent to do so is clear and unequivocal, and when the public accepts such use by actually using the land as a public park.”

The Board Order from April 5, 2005 clearly establishes the city’s intent to create a park in front of the Senior Center and the park has been used by the public since the improvements were authorized.

The City of Newton has not made any effort to gain the needed approvals in order to allow a community center building to be built on the parkland in question.