Thursday, March 1, 2007

Boston to NY Line cont.


At 12.2 m. on US 20 is the junction of Wellesley St. (L) and the Upper Rd., known here as the Boston Post Rd. (R), which is an alternate at this point to US 20.
(Golden Ball tavern on L)


(a number of side tour entries follow, which I abbreviate next...)


Left on Wellesley St. is the Oliver Robbins House, (private), on the NW corner of Chestnut and Wellesley, 1.2 m. It was occupied by Thomas Allen in 1698... (and) is a fine example of an early Colonial dwelling, with a large red-brick chimney.


At 1.4 m. on Wellesley are the entrance gates of the Regis College for Women, administered by the Sisters of St. Joseph. The 170 acre campus is markedly beautiful.


Right on the Boston Post Rd. to Weston, 0.3 m. in what was originally the more 'westerly' precinct of Watertown... The town counts among its noted sons the Rev. Edmund Sears, who wrote 'It came Upon the Midnight Clear'; Carlton Coon, author of 'The Flesh of the Ox'...


The Elisha Jones Place, or Golden Ball Tavern (private), 662 Boston Post Rd., was built in 1751 by Colonel Jones, and was the headquarters of the Tories during the Revolutionary War. At this house, John How, a British spy sent out in 1775 by General Gage was discovered. Though he escaped and reached Worcester, the Weston patriots so aroused the countryside that How reported to Gage that any attempt at the movement of troops in that direction would result in certain defeat - with the result that Lexington was chosen for the British line of march.

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