Fitchburg Mass.

[Boston02124]

My home town! Growing up here in the 60's and 70's ,Our mile long shopping district had every store and would attract shopper's from North central Mass and Southern New Hampsire. You went to your neighborhood school and the city had it's own smaller nieghborhoods with thier own shopping district. Malls open,downtowns emptied follow by the mills, many neighborhood center's bulldoze over,typical N.E. mill town now trying to make a comeback! this thread will be done in stages as I have lot's of pix's. 1st up post cards,and old newspaper ad's. my old high school now a middle school

post office now a court house

city hall

court house

trainsta. lower main st

mid town

downtown area <a href="http://s301.photobucket.com/albums/nn80/boston02124/proposed%20and%20then%20what%20was%20built/?action=view&current=FitchburgDowntownp25_75.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn80/boston02124/proposed%20and%20then%20what%20was%20built/FitchburgDowntownp25_75.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

my old grade school 1-6th grade now condo's

old newspaper ad's

http://s301.photobucket.com/albums/...uilt/?action=view&current=Picture34239367.jpg

Whalom Park was on three town line's(Fitchburg,Leominister,Lunenburg) and was claim by all 3! but was mostly in Lunenburg but had a Fitchburg phone #

Cleghorn was the french -canadian section of town

downtown map

 

[Corey]

Very cool, sounds very new englandish indeed. I've never been through here but hear that there is a college in town. A few of those 'what colleges match me?' tests matched me up with Fitchburg State.

 

[Lrfox]

I've never been either, but i did a search on flicker for "fitchburg" and was pretty impressed with what I saw in terms of architecture. What's happening there now? Is the town still struggling, or is it working out of its problems?

 

[Boston02124]

still struggling if not dead! will post some more recent pic's soon.

 

[Ron Newman]

They have a young new mayor who wants to revitalize the place (perhaps following the model of Lowell), but I don't know how well she's doing so far.

 

[Boston02124]

more post cards

my 1st apt is on the left 3rd floor 1981!

ad

 

[Boston02124]

old pix's /pillar homes and business pix's I took in the 80's

homes

 

[Boston02124]

Fitchburg has an old rock quarry that sit's in the middle of the city with downtown on one side and the Cleghorn section on the other. these pix's are from the early 80's from my old polariod insta-matic downtown

main st another city that turn it's back on it's river

 

[Boston02124]

1980's lower half of the Cleghorn section of Fitchburg

upper main st

college nieghborhood

1882 drawing

unsure what this is?

 

[humphrey]

I live in London UK but my wife comes from this city so we go there once/twice a year to visit, its always a blast. I expect it's regarded as a dump by New England standards but I was actually impressed once I got past the inhabitant's negative attitude towards their city.

If I had a stack of cash i'd do up some of the old buildings as there is a ton of fantastic Victorian architecture being left to rot. Most of the great buildings are still standing but its a shame to look through the archives and see what it used to be (similar story all over the world i'm afraid). There are also a couple of high rise blocks which are hideous. By the looks of it the city has been in decline for some time, but the bones of it are still good, there are some very beautiful, if gritty, sections, and last time I visited in 2007 it was set for a comeback. When I visit in Christmas i'll see how its weathering the slowdown.

 

[Boston02124]

^ So true! some more post cards/pix's This bridge has been replaced

 

[Boston02124]

These are some before and after pix's of some of the improvements the city has undergone. They tore down this bridge and replaced it with this yuk!

not bad but they tore down the landmark Crescent Building! I worked in this factory

This is the Boulder,it use to be up(as shown)on top of Rollstone hill.About 100 years ago they moved it downtown?

Coggshall Park

The Crescent building once the tallest building in North Central Mass now torn down!

pix's I took in 2006 of lower main st

this is Moran Sq.Two 6 story buildings were taken down in this pix! http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn80/boston02124/proposed%20and%20then%20what%20was%20built/DSC00320.jpg[/IMG]

 

[Boston02124]

Fitchburg 2008! went back home last week-end, lot more pix's coming up!

 

[riffgo]

I have enjoyed your photo essays of Fitchburg. Thank you for doing this.

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

I love those small New England towns. This reminds me of North Adams.

 

[Boston02124]

^ Thanks These next pix's are of the Cleghorn section,I lived here as a small child,sadly to say most of the commercial and industrial areas where torn down,I remember back in the 1970s many parts of Fitchburg burning down,thats why we moved to Leominster,Then in the 80's the blight and the tear downs continued.I'll include the old post cards again to show what it was! upper Cleghorn from Rollsone Hill

lower Cleghorn

Rollstone quarries today up close!

Mt. Wachusetts from Rollstone Hill

70's papermill

[IMG http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn80/boston02124/proposed%20and%20then%20what%20was%20built/Fitchburgoct2008103.jpg[/IMG]

This is Clarendon st the buildings have survived but the stores on the 1st floors that ran up the lenght of the street are gone and all the beautifl old wood buildings are covered in vinyl siding

Cleghorn Sq buildings once surrounded it!

north of the sq.

the apt where I lived in the 1960's,only it was well kept and wood and an arch covered the 1st floor front porch where we lived

the Cleghorn fire station

most of Cleghorns downtown buildings were made with this colour brick,sadly most are now gone!

still open

some of the factories that surrvied

old Cleghorn

a pix my brother in-law gave me of the above building

these 2 pix's are of part of the Crockerville section of Fitchburg between downtown and Cleghorn, the high school stadium is located here called Crocker Field

 

[riffgo]

It is so sad to see the destruction vinyl siding has caused. It's an epidemic. I wish there were some way to stop its use.

 

[Boston02124]

Yeah it should be banned! Too many beautiful old New England homes and apt buildings have been ruined!

 

[Boston02124]

College neighborhood not much left here either! At one time it had it's own bussiness district called simply Green Street,Sadly not one of those buildings now stand,both sides of the street were cleared or burned and nothing built back on the vacant lots but a run-down playground,Fitchburg State has started to build on the fringe of this long gone nieghborhood and as it gets closer to lower main st the city has built a new fire station.

dorms

new dorms

Moran Sq. This is where the College ,Lower Main st and East side nieghborhoods meet up.As a kid I always like when I saw the rifleman momument because it meant we were going to Grandma's!

This is Summer st off the Sq. Two old 6 story hotels,The Shamrock Building and the Bernstern Building were burnt to the ground in the 70's I remember watching them both!

the other side of the Sq. did'nt fair so well either!

The Sq from Rollstone Hill

Summer st area

old hospital now an office building. These were posted before, this was the view of the college neighborhood from my 1st apartment in 1981

I lived on the top floor in the building on the left in this old post card, it also has been torn down!

FSC when it was the Fitchburg Normal School

 

[Boston02124]

the neighborhood I grew up in! Known as the Patch on one side and Tar Hill on the other,route 12 ran down the center on it's way to downtown. Back in the 60's/70's rt 12 or Water st had stores and food shops,restaurants in 2-4 story buildings lining both side's of the streets,today......... The apt building I lived in from 1968-1977,1st grade thru 9th grade,2nd floor right,funny it was still the same color but what a f-ing dump! I hope to find a photo from when I lived there it was in much better condition!

the bridge I remember now replaced

Romano's was still there, cross the bridge every Sunday to get Italion bread

At one time apt buildings lined both side of the entrance to the old bridge

Water st Fire house

this building and some smaller ones replced most of one side of Water st

part of the old st scape still standing!

some still standing but dead!

my old grade school now condo's

my catholic church I went to,St Anthony's

my old apt building again

my old girlfreinds house it to the same color from 30 years ago!

st Bernards church achored the other end of Water st

again this neighborhood had mostly been burned or torn down or just neglected! still more to come!