WEBSTER, MASSACHUSETTS, 5/4/2012
Been away from Webster too long,
The Cranston Print Works is gone!
My jaw hit the floor
Seeing it was no more,
Tearing down history is wrong.
-
Perhaps it was a stinky factory
Whose time had gone past economy…
But they’ll save the clock tower,
It’s still a cold shower
For those sorrowed by this deed.
-
Old industrial buildings in these parts
Are a dime a two-dozen in carts…
And a burden emptied,
Rat-infested, in need
Of investment for vanishing arts.
-
In Webster, newer buildings in back,
Will be saved—built over train tracks
That were ripped up long ago
When the train got too slow—
Two truck garages saved the axe!
-
Industry “brown fields” remain problems
Redeveloping buildings by recobbling…
Sometimes it is true
To trash the old for the new,
Despite muted sounds of my sobbing.
-
So I’m glad despite sudden shock
That some “better” can fill this block…
Shopping we don’t need
But new parking is guaranteed,
Now I wonder who’ll be winding that old clock?
-
I hope, with the coup de grace (“graws”)
Someone documented the cause
With a full-page spread…
Special edition, well-said,
That won’t rub our history raw.
—Jonathan Caswell
how true are your words history is what made us! I get upset at times when those do not want to preserve our past. Our past is what brings us a brighter future.
By: Ron DuBour on May 4, 2012
at 1:37 pm
Thank you…but intact industrial sites have a limited use—the public will support only so many museums. I think the former “Guilford” mill over in Douglas, MA, now being used by CLASSIC ENVELOPE for manufacturing again was fortunate. A local college was looking at that mill as a satellite school location, but there was real concern over what chemicals were in the building and the foundation that wouldn’t have passed muster for that particular use.
NO…we can’t keep everything. Just a shock to see it gone.
By: Jonathan Caswell on May 5, 2012
at 8:53 am
Hello there, just became aware of your blog through Google, and found that it’s truly informative. I am going to watch out for brussels. I will appreciate if you continue this in future. A lot of people will be benefited from your writing. Cheers!
By: Dannielle Santrmire on June 4, 2012
at 4:01 pm