The forgotten Baker estate (Ridge Hill Farms) Needham, Massachusetts....
>
I'm somewhat familiar with that area, but refresh my memory, where exactly was the Charles River station? Where was the hotel/estate?
Charles River Station was in the Needham section called Charles River Village off South Street and Charles River Street. If you continued down Charles River Street and crossed Central Avenue you would come to the existing Ridge Hill estate, this is what was preserved for Baker's old land. His hotel was located further down just before Frog Pond on the left side of the road, Sabrina Lake is on the right.
I've been looking at Google Earth for way too long at this area and my eyes are bugging out of my skull! But it's cool. I think I may have found the ROW to the right of and roughly parelleling Chas R. St. for a couple of miles, but I loose it before Central Ave. I have a couple of questions:
Was Ch. R. Station to the left or right (west or east) of Chs. R. Street as one looks at the map?
Am I correct in assuming that the ROW would be in the "quad" north/west of the jct of C R St and the existing RR ROW? Just for some off topic fun, take a look at the intersection of Charles R and Central Ave. Now look NW of the intersection for a road that extends diagonaly NNW from the intersection into the Ridge Hill preserve. It's kinda faint and the first couple hundred feet are kinda obscure, but it actualy becomes more distinct as it enters the woods. This road opens into what looks like fields that widen out to the north. If you see the "D" shaped clearing with a pinkish blob (on Googleearth, at least,) near the top, you will be looking at: an old NIKE Missile site left over from the COLD WAR! Apparently it was to protect Boston and the Technology Belt from Commies & thier mommies. I found it back in my high school days when I lived in Westwood and my 10 speed was my freedom. Oh to have that kind of freedom now!
There is a natural glacier ridge running through the woods near the Nike site that leads back to the fields by the Ridge Hill house.
Now don't confude Mr. Baker's right of way with the old Needham & Natick trolley right of way. 1900-1904 (short lived trolley line) you can still find trolley bridge bases by the RR crossing at Charles River Street.
If you turned onto Charles River Street from South Street the station was on the left, the foundation is still there for that old RR station. Now look right across from the old station off towards the trees there you can see where MR. Baker's ROW went. It is all chopped up due to development, but once across Central Ave going down behind into the swampish area well behind Charles River Road you can still find the ROW.
The trolley crossed the Central Ave bridge and traveled in that corner of Dover to South Natick.
After retirement, Baker purchased nearly 800 acres in the southwest corner of Needham.
In the twenty years that followed, Baker filled his summer estate, The Ridge Hill Farms, with as assortment of amusements, attractions and exhibits.Although it was widely regarded as an amusement park, Ridge Hill Farms was in fact the physical embodiment of Baker's opinions often radical and always provocative on American politics and society.
In 1881, Baker petitioned the Massachusetts Legislature to allow him to secede his land from Needham and establish an independent Hygienic Village, to be called HYGERIA. He also requested tax-exempt status on the grounds that his discoveries would benefit all citizens of Massachusetts, and save the Commonwealth far more than they lost in taxes. The beneficial example of Hygeria would '...induce the people of this Commonwealth to practice such sanitary economies and household reforms as shall tend to diminish crime and disease and improve the vigor of the race.'
The Needham Selectmen opposed Baker's petition, and it languished in legislative committees for four years before it was refused. Needham was unwilling to lose Baker's estate, which amounted to nearly 6% of the town's taxable acreage. Furious, Baker accused them of 'strangling the Child of my Heart', and threatened to leave 'Suicidal Needham' and establish Hygeria in another state a threat he had not enough time to carry out before his early death in 1888.
Cooks trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Cookery were employed to cook for the guests at Baker's various hotels and restaurants. The Hotel Wellesley was the very last word in luxury accommodation, with 159 guest rooms, 12 toilets and 5 baths. The main dining room could seat 600 people, and there were smaller rooms for private parties. The Trephis Home Hotel was a health resort, where guests could enjoy hiking in the pine woods and canoeing on the Charles in an atmosphere of clean air and pure water.