Town Flagstaff

Researched April 2022 by Joseph Jackson and Paul Chalifour

Wilmington: A Town that Needed a Common

At its incorporation in 1730, Wilmington was comprised of a few families spread out among farmland and marshes, and Wilmington proper didn't have a consolidated plan for land use. The main motivator for incorporation of a town was to shorten the distance necessary to attend Sunday worhship services, as the winter roads and frigid brooks were often impassable. After multiple requests, Wilmington was granted a charter upon the condition of setting up a meetinghouse within two years. A site was surveyed and selected, according to Noyes, "about where the present flagstaff is situated", but the site of the eventual meetinghouse was actually moved 50-60 rods farther down the road to its present location. (Note, Deming states that the first church's foundation in 1732 was a few rods farther north than the present structure. It was unpainted oak plank 1.5" walls, two-story, 36x46 and 20 ft high, then enlarged in 1766 Passmore). The second meeting house (1813) and third (1866) were built at the current location for the non-denominational Church of Christ at Wilmington. The second meetinghouse had burned in the Bond Cracker Factory fire of 1864, and the current meetinghouse which stands today is the third. The 1887 law abolishing the right of religious societies to assess tax on its members, basically privatizing the churches led to the end of the non-denominational aspect of the church, and it became incorporated and named the Congregational Church on 10 October 1887.

Since the industry of Wilmington (even up through the 1850s), was centered around farming, shoemaking, and baking at the Bond Cracker factory, there was no "business district" so to speak, for the first hundred years. For provisions, families would have to travel to Woburn, Reading, or Billerica. The arrival of the Middlesex Canal (opened in 1803) and the Boston and Lowell Railroad (1830) helped give a little bit of shape to the industry in Wilmington, as farmers and passengers would learn to take advantage of these forms of transportation to increase their access to ports and the markets.

The winding roads that were originally cart paths, if they traversed the pathways that people were interested in traveling, were later formally accepted as roads beginning in 1894, if their utility to the community was evident. Without centralized planning, the town literally grew up "organically", shaped by the donations and sales of properties to the town.

For example, from a Town Crier article,

"Mrs. [Sabra] Carter died in on May 8, 1881 at age 92. In her will, she directed that the executors, James Skilton and her daughter Sabra, purchase a piece of land for a park and give it to the town. The land was purchased on April 28, 1882 from Otis C. Buck, a butcher who lived on Middlesex Avenue at the corner of Adams Street. Three days later, it was deeded to the town."

With a piece of property on Church Street between the rail depot and the church, the officially had a Town Common!

We note that Church Street was called "the new road " in 1881 in the financial records below, and doesn't show up at all on the 1831 map, and looks to be an uninhabited lane (apart from Maynard Spaulding) on the 1856 map.

The Town's Flagpole on the Common

Even before it was town property, however, evidence exists that this parcel of land was already being used as Town Common as early as 1875, from both the town's financial records and the town's social history. The town's annual report indicates expenses for painting of the town's flag staff on the Common, periodically, as follows.

• 1875 John T Wild, $15 for painting flag staff in 1875 (probably at town hall?)

• 1876 Samuel B Nichols, $4 for raising/lowering the "Town Flag"

• 1879 Fred Cady, $15.25 for painting flag staff

• Sep 25 1880, Rev. Daniel P. Noyes Historical Address Remarks references "Current location of the Flagstaff" relative to the location of the transfer of the meetinghouse 50-60 rods (near the apex of church and Middlesex St), but prior to the bequest of Mrs Carter.

• 1880 Fred Cady raising/lowering flagstaff 4 times ($2)

• 1881 Frederick S White for repairing the new road (Church Street) between Ames store and the flagstaff $200

• 1883 Ropes and block for the flagstaff J Baker&Co $10.65

• 1884 Thomas Bancroft, caulking and painting flag-staff $25

• 1887, L Thompson, new rope for flagstaff $1.13

• 1887 Town Warrant, article about finishing the grading on Church Street between J O Jaquith to the Flagstaff (see also 1881). Approved, $200

• 1891 New flag, labor lowering top mast (previous pole was a two-masted pole, too!) $4.10

• 1893 E. M. Nichols, care of town hall and rope for flag ($2)

• 1893 Article 13 To see if town will set aside money for the purpose of erecting a new flag-staff. (cost $152.35 on 1894 expense report)

We note from these financial records that the flag staff that existed between 1875 and 1891 was a two-masted pole, and the one described by the Flag Staff Committee of 1893 was also a two-masted pole. The following picture, dated between 1884 and 1900 doesn't show a flagpole in front of the Town Hall (steepled building to the left, in front of the church), which supports the idea that the flag staff referred to by Reverend Noyes that is colocated with the one later seen at the apex of the Town Common, and that was the official town flag that was being maintained using town budget. Below is the view of Town Hall and the Congregational Church along Middlesex Avenue from the North (toward Federal Street). Note that the Congregational Church was painted "chocolate brown" at the time, and was repainted white in around 1900 around the time of the stained glass replacement (Under Mr Rollins's care, 1900-1906).

The replacement to this flag was a matter of town pride as well.

From the 1893 Town Report , the Flagstaff Committee spent $285.73 to select main mast and top mast from locally citizens to be conjoined as a massive 100' flag pole (two-parts, joined together) at the Town Common. As a base to the main mast, Wilmington acquired one of the mill stones that had been used in one of the two gristmills that had existed in the town's early days, when farmers could locally grind their wheat and other grains into flour. The millstone used was from the mill at Mill Brook that crosses Middlesex Ave.

The a new 100' flagpole erected on the town common lasted until 1966 (link to Town Crier), when it was taken down due to rot and in need of replacement. This "Grand" flagstaff that was selected by a flag committee was used between 1893 and 1966 (73 years!).

The town replaced it two years later in 1968 after having been approached by a Gold Star mother wishing to donate money for a town flagpole in honor of her son. The town declined the offer, but appropriated funds to erect a flagpole in honor of all veterans. The selected flagpole was a 50' aluminum pole, mounted at the center of the common. In 2022, the flagstaff and Veterans Memorial is expecting an upgrade to include flagstaffs honoring each of the branches of the armed forces.

The two-part flagpole at Lexington Green is similar to Wilmington's old flag staff (left), and the current aluminum pole at Wilmington Town Common (right)

Images of the old Wilmington flagpole are elusive, but the following images help provide glimpses of this massive 100-footer. Below, we see from a 1959 wide angle aerial shot , and a second viewpoint, that the pole was not located at the center of the common, but at the northern corner of the common beyond where the current bandstand is located (approximately in front of 162 Middlesex Ave).

1938 Aerial Photograph (left) showing a circle arrangement at the northern end of the common. The 1965 image (right) shows additional foliage, and the sidewalks and planters added to the middle of the common.

This flagpole photo is not from the common, but just across Middlesex Ave in the play yard in front of the Center School (the oldest High School next door to what became the Swain School). While not being 100 feet tall, it shares the characteristics of having a two-part flag staff. It would have been taken from this perspective from the 4th of July Building looking south down Middlesex Avenue.

Still looking for good pictures of the common, pre-1966. For now, enjoy thse pictures of sports teams from old High School Yearbooks.

1962 Baseball team (page 82) and Hockey club (page 101), and 1963 Track team (page 84).

The modern aluminum pole is not expected to rot and house birds nests!