Finding a bridge to the past
How a bridge launched History Buzz
History Buzz got its start on Earth Day 2020, a month into COVID-19 pandemic lock-downs. Staff at the Andover Center for History & Culture missed getting together with and talking with our community….We were storytellers with no way to share stories.
On a whim, April 22, 2020, we sent out the following email. It would be the first of over 100 email stories sent out over the following year. And the response from readers knocked us off our feet. Readers sent us emails, commented on Facebook, and shared so many stories with us.
After months of emailing stories, readers started asking for an archive where they could read, share, and comment on their favorites. And so, in March 2021, History Buzz was born. You can find out more about History Buzz here.
Thank you for being a part of the journey. If you enjoy reading History Buzz stories, please subscribe, comment, share, and like. Please help share the Buzz!
Read the email that started it all below. Then read on to discover how readers worked together to find the location of the bridge.
The first email, April 22, 2020
Dear Friends,
This image of a Bridge on the Shawsheen River is one I find personally compelling. It makes me appreciate not only the natural beauty of Andover….it also makes me appreciate the talented artists who continue to find inspiration in this place. There is promise in this painting. Promise of warm sunny days. Promise of a time to be outdoors together, enjoying all that Andover’s natural places can bring.
Rachel Carson wrote in Silent Spring, “Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature – the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.”
Andover Artist Bancroft T. Haynes (1850-1929) painted scenes along the Shawsheen River, like this one. He was was born Trenton, Maine, and lived his adult years in Ballardvale. Haynes, along with his brother, kept a grocery store in Ballardvale. He took no formal lessons in paintings, yet his work is a celebration of the beauty he found in Andover.
Do you know this scene and the location of the bridge? Drop me an email at eclements@andoverhistoryandculture.org. I’d love to hear from you!
Elaine Clements, Executive Director
The response
Over the week following April 22, a dozen or more readers emailed and chatted with us on Facebook asking about the location of the bridge. They shared their ideas and leads, found what remained of the bridge, trekked to it, and sent us photos.
My guess is the end of Central Street before the train line was moved there. It looks like the Shawsheen does as you walk back toward Central after hiking along the trail.
~JS
I had the same thought, trying to figure out where the riverbank looked the same and where a bridge might have been. Maybe same location as the Central Street bridge?
~SS
At first, I thought Central Street, but I am voting now for looking upriver from Ballardvale if we assume that such a substantial bridge would still be in place, even if completely remodeled.
The river is too wide and too slow moving for Central Street. There is actually a small riffle below the Central Street bridge.
There appears to be a hill in the back right. Could this be Pole Hill?
The river appears to turn on the far side of the bridge. It is straight at Central Street.
My second guess would be looking upriver from Stevens Street before the mills.
~FG
And then the answer was revealed and the conversation continued.
This is where Greene Street in North Andover crosses the river, the stonework is still there. (It used to be Andover.)
~DD
Good call! The road is gone now, but it shows up on a 1938 map.
~FG
Google Maps show the old roadway, now cut off by I-495. Someone should go take some pictures pictures! If the painting is facing south, the hill could be at Den Rock.
~MT
I went there today. Was not dressed to fight to the waters edge and get a good view. There is an apartment building next to the old roadway. I thought I saw a stone archway in the middle of the bridge which does not appear in the painting. Best view will be from a canoe.
~JH
I have two poor pictures of part of the bridge that I think I took in 2015, they are attached. Feel free to circulate them if you wish to.
~DD
A history-mystery solved by History Buzz readers!
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