The Burning of the Old Moore House

As the By-Product nears its tenth anniversary, it is time to explore new visual and verbal elements in its construction. As you readers know, I have been working for the last few years to digitize and process thousands of photo images relating to myself, my personal and family history, and my environment and neighborhood. Some of the stories, facts, and personalities are known and remembered only by me, and I think it is my duty to set them down in old and new media so that they will not be forgotten.

One of these things is the burning of the old Moore House on Pine Street at the border of Natick and Wayland, Massachusetts. Most of my stories take place either in eastern Massachusetts where I grew up, or in various European settings as my family lived abroad and did a lot of traveling. This fiery event happened on a freezing winter day sometime in either 1957 or 1958. 

The old Moore House was an abandoned and decrepit barn and farmhouse in an area which was slated for clearing and building new houses. It was supposed to be taken down by wreckers but instead, it was declared a "training burn" or "controlled demolition burn" for firemen and police. They would set the structure ablaze and then practice on it. The public was invited to attend and my parents and I were among the spectators. My father had his camera and we local folk passed around thermoses of hot coffee (and probably other warming liquids too). 

The old barn burned first; you can see its blackened timbers to the left. This shot shows the cottage that went with it burning down. Police and firemen are standing by with fire hoses to make sure the demolition stays under control. Another house across the street is untouched by the fire.

Looking at these small pictures I wonder whether anyone but me remembers the burning of the old Moore House. It was certainly a big deal for our neighborhood and people talked about it for quite a while afterwards. Are there any elders near my old home who would remember this? Is it listed on Natick/Wayland town records? Are there other archives of police and fire events? Almost everyone who was at that fire is now gone, except for the younger ones. Something that would bring the residents of a whole neighborhood out in frozen weather should be remembered. And now that it's placed in digital memory, it may just last a bit longer.

Original photographic print is 3" x 2", about 1958. Click for larger view.