February 12, 1969

THE GREAT SALE OF PROPERTIES -- THE SLATER DWELLING HOUSES

By Marion H. Norton

Does the year 2000 seem a long time into the future?

Perhaps the answer depends on whether the years 1923 and 1935 seem like only last year, or very long ago. And of course, that perspective depends on how old you were 35 or 40 years ago, or whether you were born in the years afterwards.

The query is prompted by pictures and statistics in several brochures that turned up in the Webster Assessors' walk-in safe, when Mrs. Irene Martel, clerk, was removing old materials to make space for the increasing volume of new records that this department now must keep -- some of these forms and files unknown only a decade ago.

The colorful brochures, complete with descriptions, maps and photographs, describe the great sale of properties owned by the Slater Company. The first of these auctions that made a great change in the lives of many local families was held on June 26, 1928, when most of the private dwelling houses in East Village, part of the firm's property, went on the block.

15,000 Population

If memory serves correctly, some of the houses on Pond street, Pond Court, Worcester road, East Main and Cottage street (now Hartley), were bought by the families who lived in one side or other of the duplex buildings. On the other hand, a great number were bought by investors, though not as great a proportion as when remaining properties were sold seven years later.

"The town of Webster and its immediate environs has a population of 15,000 people." So said one of the headings in the advertisements that covered four of the 16 pages in the 1928 brochure. Readers were assured that "manufacturing activities of the Slater Company in Webster will continue as it has heretofore."

Both statements were true at the time. Not many years elapsed before the name of Slater as an industrial power here was entirely erased, starting with closing of the East Village mill in 1935, and concluding with shutdown of the North Village mills in 1937. Figures of the 1965 state census indicate that there were 14,357 residents in Webster and 6960 in Dudley, whereas, if "environs" also includes Oxford, another 10,000 would be added to just about double the population of 40 years ago.

Residents Buy

Thirty-five houses were contained among the auction items, including nine double-dwellings on what is now Hartley street. Most of these were purchased by one of the families living within, and today the exteriors have been greatly changed from the "look alike" appearance of the gray-painted houses on that street, then mostly occupied by foremen or assistants of the East Village mill. These are large homes, and, according to the description, each side had either six or seven rooms, plus steam heat.

Single and double houses on Pond street, now the beginning of Thompson road, were also purchased mostly by families who lived in them. A few were single family, but most were double and smaller than those on Cottage street. A few widely spaced houses farther along Thompson road, near what had been the big Slater barn and farm, were larger and occupied by foremen or executives of the company.

The Hermitage

Three houses at the corner of East Main and Pond streets, occupied by executives, were not included in the sale, nor was the home of the resident manager, a comparatively modern home on the opposite side of East Main. At that first auction, "The Hermitage" was not offered for sale.

This fenced-in former Slater mansion on the big curve of Worcester road, was reportedly built by Samuel Slater. The beautiful brick structure, set in spacious lawns, had once been fabulously furnished when it was used by members of the Slater family during their visits to Webster.

About five years prior to the 1928 sale, the South Village woolen mills were sold by H. N. Slater to the American Woolen company. Then the Hermitage had been converted into the main office for all Slater interests in Webster, and continued as such until the East Village mills were closed. For many years past, the fence has been down, the curve widened, and the appearance changed from strictly residential to commercial. The Hermitage itself has been converted into an attractive apartment house, and on what had been spacious lawn, there are now a gas station, a diner, used cars, and even a dairy stand and restaurant.

Intersection Transformed

The modern resident manager's home, with considerable acreage surrounding it, was sold, after the mills closed, to Arthur Choiniere. Two of the large executive homes across the road were bought by Joseph A. Patenaude, and one was converted into apartments. The third house, situated on the intersection was bought with the mills by Cranston Print Works.

Thus, more than forty years ago, East Village underwent transformation from a "company village" to an area of privately owned dwellings -- the beginning of a great evolution in outward aspect and usage of the section.

It wasn't until 1935 that the store and house on the corner of Route 16 and Thompson road was sold. Originally, this store had been maintained by the Slater company to accomodate their employees, and even after it was leased to private owners, the chief commodities were groceries and yard goods. Today, the renovated and enlarged structure houses the Webster Liquor Outlet and Mohegan Restaurant.

Little Grass Left

The large fenced-in triangular plot of grass that provided two entries and exits to Route 16 is no more. For a time, a gasoline station cut into the plot, but is no longer there. A large addition to Cranston Print Works brings the outer brick walls into what had been part of the "short cut" road from Route 12 to Route 16, and also extends to within several feet of Worcester road. Only a very small "island" of grass is reminiscent of the old triangle.

The entire appearance of this major intersection at the East entrance to Webster has been altered -- a good part of the change occurring in the past ten or twelve years. The first and second Slater auctions account for some of the change; improvement to Cranston Print Works, widening of the highway, removal of several former "company" houses are other factors, but the total transformation of the East Village intersection from a residential to a busy commercial area accounts for the change from a rural scene.

Original Intent

On East Main street, the once-rolling meadows and pastures of the Slater farm are now filled with shopping centers, eating places, gas stations, automobile show rooms, drug stores, laundromats. The inner acreage where cows grazed is now crossed with many new streets and dotted with hundreds of homes and apartment houses -- even with a Nursing Home. Originally, East Main street was laid out as the chief highway, but when the railroad came in 1833, the central business area moved to the present Main street.

The second big Slater auction took place in April 1935. At that time almost all of the remaining company dwellings were sold -- a few that were left in East Village, all those on Slater, North Main, Pearl and Lincoln streets. While many of these were purchased by occupants, the greater number were bought for investment purposes, as were the many acres of land between East Main and Thompson road, some off Lincoln street, and acre upon acre between East Main and Slater street.

1935 Purchases

Apparently Assessors at that time used a map on the sales brochure to indicate the purchasers. From these penned-in notes, the following is indicated:

A. Tomasek bought the big store-dwelling with cupola that had once been the John Sullivan market, which today, enlarged is the home of the Booster A.C.; B. Jakubowski bought several homes on Pearl street, as did Peter Chlapowski and A. H. Racicot; B. Frome bought several parcels on Slater street and one on Pond street.

Largest purchaser was Joseph A. Patenaude who bought, according to the notations, at least eight dwellings in the North Village, plus five-and-a-half acres of land from the railroad tracks to the Slater Athletic Field, located along what is now Park avenue, then called South Slater street. Dr. William O'Shea purchased land on Park avenue and Thompson road that constituted the sports field, plus acreage across the way along Ray street and Park ave. as well as three vacant plots on North Main street. Timothy Toomey bought the hilly acres in the rear of the Slater athletic field and the Patenaude purchase on Park avenue down to the railroad -- where today there are several streets including Second Island road, Hillside avenue and Grandview avenue.

Housing Boom

Otto Bayer bought the plots on each side of the intersection of Park avenue and East Main street, while several individuals took over large plots in the area between Park avenue and Cody street, and from there along Morris street, Clifford D. Hall purchased plots adjacent to some land he already owned in the vicinity.

Greatest effect of the 1935 auction was the housing boom that followed. Those who bought vacant land had it sub-divided within a few years, and sold individual house lots. First of these building went up on Park avenue in the summer of 1935, and probably the first family to occupy a home there, and remain until the present is that of Earl Ziebell.

The East Main street fontage of one-time Slater land is now strictly commercial from Thrifty Market on Cody street to Iandoli's on one side, with scores of home filling almost every plot of land in the section from the rear of the stores and gas stations out to Thompson road. Perhaps even more homes dot the several streets and avenues on the other side, containing some of the town's most attractive small homes -- Brodeur, Racicot, DiDonato, Vecchia, James, Emil, Crystal, Arkwright, Normandy, and Slater street itself. Scarcely an acre of open land is left of the former pastures and meadows and rolling "mountains" where kids used to go coasting and skiing in winter.

Given to Town

In the North Village sector, the largest vacant space of former Slater property is perhaps William Slater Park on Slater street, given to the town several years ago by Miss Lydia Slater. Now better known as Little League Field, this land was not company-owned. The big land area all along Ray street between Lincoln and Park avenue is town-owned and has been since about 1923. At that time, the section that now is used for Athletics fields, the Armory, and Intermediate School, was given as a park to the town in exchange for The Knolls, the big mansion and estate on East Main street that had been a gift to the town nearly ten years earlier from Mabel Hunt Slater.

The Knolls was built originally by James Howe, who married a Slater daughter. It was used by Mabel Slater and her son as their local residence up to the time the mills were sold here. In 1937, it was sold to Clarence Paradis for a funeral home, and about a year ago was sold to commercial interests that are now tearing it down.

Individual Not Slater

Few of the old Slater dwellings today resemble the plain gray "company" houses of 1928 and 1935. Most owners have renovated, modernized inside and out, have built additions and porches, and painted the exteriors a variety of colors, so that only in a few areas does the "company village" look remain.

For the rest, the great auctions of the Slater company years ago have resulted in many transfers of land and dwellings in the past 35 years. First, they gave some of their emplyees the opportunity to become homeowners, and, through land investors, opened up great housing and commercial developments. Subdivision of the open fields and meadows saw sale of plots for hundreds of homes and business structures that not only add millions of dollars valuation to the tax coffers but have entirely changed the appearance of the town from small villages to a bustling suburban community, beginning at the entrance to East Village and down through the center of town.

If all of these vast changes could occur in the seemingly short space of three decades and within the memory of most of the local population, imagine how fantastically different Webster and Dudley will be by the year 2000 -- only 31 years hence.