History of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, USA

Journey back in time to Bridgewater, Massachusetts, USA

• 1650 - Bridgewater is settled
  
  Massachusetts City and Town Incorporation and Settlement Dates
  
  
• 1656 - Bridgewater is incorporated
  
  Massachusetts City and Town Incorporation and Settlement Dates
  
  
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  Scotland Church
  
  First organized as the Trinitarian Congregational Church of Bridgewater on October 21, 1821 in the Scotland section of Bridgewater, the congregation moved in 1836 to the center of Bridgewater where it used the Bridgewater Academy (demolished) for several months until a meetinghouse could be constructed on the site of the current church... archipedianewengland.org
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• 1839 - Bridgewater
  Bridgewater, Massachusetts
  Plymouth county. This township was formerly very large. It is now divided into four distinct towns. Not content with attaching the cardinal points of the compass to the names of three divisions of this ancient and respectable town, this remnant of the old territory is oft...Read MORE...
  
  
  
• 1845 - BRIDGEWATER. Pop. 2,131. Inc. 1656.
  The Indian name was Saughtucket, and the Ancient Town, which included North, East, and West Bridgewater, was purchased by Captain Miles Standish of Massasoit, and for several years formed a part of Duxbury. It was called Bridgewater, after the English Duke of that name.
  
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• 1854 - Bridgewater
  Bridoewater, a post-township of Ply mouth county, Massachusetts, on the Fall River railroad, 27 miles S. by E. from Boston. Population, 2790.
  A New and Complete Gazetteer of the United States: Giving a Full and Comprehensive Review of the Present Condition, Industry, and Resources of the American Confederacy ... Thomas Baldwin (of Philadelphia.) Joseph Thomas January 1, 1854 Philadelphia : Lippincott, Grambo & Company 1854.
  
  
• 1859
  BRIDGEWATER, a township of Plymouth co., in the state of Massachusetts, 25 m. SE of Boston. It is watered by branches of Taunton river, is tolerably fertile, and possesses considerable manufactories. Pop. 2,131.
  A Gazetteer of the World: Or, Dictionary of Geographical Knowledge, Publisher A. Fullarton, 1859
  
  
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  Bridgewater Academy
  
  Bridgewater Academy building, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Built 1868. Renovated in 2016 to become the Bridgewater Town Hall.
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•  1879 - The oldest ex-representative of congress living is Mr. Austin Hale, of Bridgewater, Mass., who is ninety-six years old.
  
  genealogybank.com
  Kalamazoo Gazette
  Kalamazoo, Michigan
  June 3, 1879
  
  
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  Residence of S. P. Gates
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• Bridgewater Massachusetts, 1890
  Bridgewater is a fine old town in the western part of Plymouth County, 28 miles south of Boston by the Old Colony Railroad, whose stations within it are Bridgewater Iron Works and, half a mile south of this, Bridgewater (Centre), and in the southern part of the town, State Farm. The post; offices ar...Read MORE...
  
  
  
•  1895 - THE BRIDEGROOM CAME NOT, And the Bride To Have Been Is Now Ill With Grief and Chagrin. A Church Wedding Which Failed to Come Off at Bridgewater, Mass.
  Bridgewater, Mass., June 29. - Many invitations had been issued to the Perkins-Bevan wedding at Trinity-Episcopal church this forenoon, but the young man failed to put in an appearance and the young lady is ill at her home, prostrated with grief at the sudden change in her plans.
  
  She first learne...Read MORE...
  
  
  
• 1895 - Bridgewater
  Bridgewater, a post-village of Plymouth co., Mass, in Bridgewater township, and on the Old Colony Railroad, # miles S. of Boston, and 32 miles N. by E. from Fall River, near the junction of the Abington & Bridgewater Railroad. It contains the Bridgewater State Normal School, and the Bridgewater Acad...Read MORE...
  
  
  
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  The Common. Central Square.
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  The Bridgewater Inn, Bridgewater, Mass.
  
  The Bridgewater Inn was known for its fine food, lodging and spring-mounted dance area on the second floor. The Inn was town down in the 1930s. vc.bridgew.edu
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  Albert Gardner Boyden Gymnasium (dedicated on June 24, 1905) and Unitarian Church, Bridgewater, Mass.
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  Railway Station, 1907
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  Broad Street, 1908
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  Catholic Church, 1908
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  South Side of Common, 1909
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  The Library
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  Mc Elwain School, 1929
  
  The William H. McElwain School is a historic school building at 250 Main Street in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. The two story brick Classical Revival building was built in 1912 to a design by the architectural firm of Loring & Phipps. The school was named for William H. McElwain (1867-1908), the founder of the William H. McElwain Shoe Company, a shoe manufacturer who was one of the major employers in Bridgewater at the turn of the 20th century... The building was listed ... Read MORE...
  
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  Trinity Episcopal Church
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• 1916
  Bridgewater, a post-village of Plymouth co., Mass., in Bridgewater township (town), on the New York, New Haven and Hartford R., 27 miles S. of Boston. It contains the Bridgewater State Normal School and a state workhouse. The Taunton River forms the SE. boundary of the town, which has manufactures o...Read MORE...
  
  
  
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  Carver's Pond. The Boat House, 1917
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  The L. Q. White Shoe Factory, Bridgewater, Mass.
  
  "... The largest shoe company ever to operate in Bridgewater was L.Q. White, starting in 1909. The company produced large orders of army shoes for foreign countries such as Belgium and Russia. Production during World War I may have exceeded 24,000 shoes per day. During the 1920s, L.Q. White employed more than 5,000 employees and produced 450 dozen pair of shoes a day in the main plant on Spring Street and the former McElwain plant on Perkins... Read MORE...
  
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  Tinkham's Corner
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