Watertown Free Public Library The Shick House has been located on Grove Street since the 1800s. It was home to the owners of one of the few Jewish farmers in Massachusetts.
Bob Bloomberg recalls the first time he got to look inside the Shick House. The house oozed history, but it was clear then, he said, that the home of the owners of one of the few Jewish-owned farms in Massachusetts was not in good shape.
“I was in the house twice, the first time was about a year ago, and at that point we could go to the second floor,” said Bloomberg, a member of the Historical Society’s board who has researched the history of the house. “I was able to take a lot of pictures of the interior. We got the essence of the house. It certainly was very, very old. A lot of the plaster, stained glass, flooring, marble fireplace, and staircase were original — all old. There were also some artifacts from later periods: an old 1950s television, a 1940s console radio, a few things like that.”
BB&N
Interior shots of the Shick House, showing the stairway and stained glass around the doorway.
The home, however, will soon be torn down. As a way to remember the house, the Historical Society of Watertown has arranged to have a historic marker installed.
After hearing about the house, Bloomberg wanted to find out more about the home and the Shick family.
“I talked to the grandson of the original Shicks (Larry). He lives in Florida, and is quite elderly,” Bloomberg said. “He gave me a lot of information about the house and sent me a lot of pictures, which were great.”
He also found out about a book written by Larry’s grandmother. The family immigrated to the United States from Eastern Europe, and first set up a dairy in the West End of Boston, which is also where two of Bloomberg’s grandparents came from. The Shicks then moved to Watertown into the home on the Eastside in 1914, and established the dairy farm.
“They would take the cows down to the edge of the (Charles) River to graze down there,” Bloomberg said.
Before the Shicks, the house had been owned by people who had owned the orchards on the surrounding land, Bloomberg said.
When the dairy operation became too large, the Shicks moved the farm to Wayland, but the family remained in the house until the beginning of the 21st Century.
“Larry lived there for a while,” Bloomberg said. “The last Shick that was there was the wife of the youngest of the grandchildren, and she lived there until 2002.”
The family sold the house and the land around it to the Mount Auburn Cemetery at the time, and in 2021 the land was sold to Buckingham Browne & Nichols School (BB&N). Groups led by the Historical Society of Watertown tried to save the house, Bloomberg said.
“(BB&N’s) intent was to demolish the house and turn the acreage into playing fields and a field house,” Bloomberg said. “What we wanted to do — there wasn’t going to be any way we could stop that — originally we hoped we may find a place to move it; preferably in Watertown because that was where it was located, but if push comes to shove we would move it somewhere else.”
Historical Society of Watertown
The Shick House will be torn down. It is on property sold by the Mount Auburn Cemetery to Buckingham Browne & Nichols School and the land will be used for athletic fields. The house has deteriorated since it was last occupied in 2002.
The Watertown Historical Commission approved a 12-month demolition delay on the house to allow time for the house to be saved. BB&N said they would allow anyone who wanted to save the house to have it for free.
By 2021, however, the house was in bad shape, Bloomberg said.
“The roof leaked. The mold is horrible,” Bloomberg said. “The remediation of the mold itself would be a huge cost. We couldn’t stay in there long because of mold, and the danger of floors collapsing.”
The second time Bloomberg and others from the Historical Society visited the house, the second floor had been blocked off because part of the roof had caved in and it was not safe up there.
Efforts to save the house have proved unsuccessful, Bloomberg said.
“We did a lot of research and found there is no place in Watertown to move a house of that size, also it would be prohibitively expensive,” Bloomberg said. “I figured a back-of-the-envelope cost to move the house, renovate and refurbish the house and shore it up is about $2 million. There is no way the Historical Society could afford that. The Town might have been able to help, but there is no way we could get $2 million.”
While Shick’s home could not be saved, the Historical Society wanted to find a way to remember the house and the family who lived there for so many years. They decided to put up a sign with a description of the house, the Shicks and the roles they played in the history of Watertown.
“It is very important: architecturally, historically, religiously, agriculturally — a lot of things,” Bloomberg said.
While he was researching, Bloomberg came across the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation.
“One thing they do is put up historic markers to commemorate historical places, people or buildings of importance in Jewish history,” Bloomberg said. “They funded the entire thing.”
Historical Society of Watertown
The crate holding the historic marker for Watertown’s Shick House is opened. The sign was paid for by the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation.
The blue sign arrived at the Historical Society recently, said Marilynne Roach, a member of the Historical Society Board.
“The historical marker for the Shick House location has arrived, all 300 pounds of it (including the shipping crate and pole), generously donated by the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation,” Roach wrote in an email. “The inscription honors Jacob and Mary Shick who operated a dairy in Watertown for decades early in the 20th Century, one of the few Jewish-owned farms in Massachusetts. The house itself, built in the 1850s, is in the Italianate style with elaborate interior plasterwork and a gracefully curving staircase, among other distinctive elements.”
Roach said the Shick House historical marker will be unveiled sometime in the spring at a public event.
This can only be seen as a very sad, decades long process of failure to preserve our historical heritage. There is plenty of blame to go around. The town, Mount Auburn Cemetery and BBN all have culpability. Efforts to protect this historical asset should have been taken years ago.
A marker is good, but it doesn’t make up for the failure to preserve the house. Little by little we are losing our historical heritage. Soon there will be nothing left.
Very intertwining history. Sorry it was sold & will be torn down.
Sad to see such a beautiful historic landmark coming down. Glad they are memorializing it for history!
Very nice story. Who knew!
Thanks.
Abe Shick and his sons Bob and Paul were wonderful funny guys. Bob and Paul were in school with my brothers and I and Abe was in school with my father. Abe, checking on Bobby, was shocked when he came to the high school to see my father was assistant principal. Abe was one of those unusual people who was tremendously respected by everyone. After the dairy closed they had a hugely successful used auto parts business. We went there often. My father would buy gallon bottles of the most delicious heavy cream from their Wayland dairy. Good luck to BBN in their efforts to remove the free leftover concrete Abe paved the entire yard with from McNamara concrete which was located next door. That will be very expensive. Hard for the cemetery to grow flowers there!
Will there be a place to see the photos that have been collected? At the library perhaps? Or online, even better? This would be a wonderful resource for local history for the students of Watertown Public Schools.
This house could have been saved. Fundraising, and people in the town with $$$$ could have donated it, especially if it was connected to a 5013C. Too bad with all those “college educated” residents, no one thought of this. What a sin, a historical marker. Harvard could have purchased it, as they are a school, and don’t have to pay taxes.
I worked for David at the Radiator shop then for the junk yard . great three years with both David and his father Abe were great people! lost touch and would to reconect with David. also my Condolences on your brother Paul.
Shick’s used auto parts.
I went to school with Paul and Robert. Two good friends. I met David later and he also was a good person. Who didn’t know Shick’s House. It stood tall and architecturally beautifully.
I would always look at the house in awe and wondered what it looked like inside.
Abe was a nice friendly man who would help out anyone that was in need of a car part. After he had passed, the Boys took over the family business. Occasionally I would need a car part and I would visit the parts yard and any one of the boys would help find the proper part. Always had a good experience dealing with the boys. They took good care of me. I was surprised when the yard closed. But it was the sing of the times with EPA etc.
I don’t live in Watertown anymore but when I travel to Watertown, I enter the town via Grove St. I always look to the left and check out the house. I’m going to be sorry not to see the house anymore. It certainly is a land mark.