Looking at this ad for movie night at MacKay, my mind wandered to the address. Newfield Street. Sometimes a name carries a history and a story we walk right past.
Newfield was an early name for the part of town we now call North Chelmsford. It grew out of a common field north of Stony Brook, land shared by early proprietors for pasture. The name eventually came to describe the surrounding area, including Newfield Pond. That puts a little more history into an ordinary street address. Chelmsford Historical Society
That pond became known as Leach’s Pond, then Crystal Lake, and eventually the Freeman Lake we know today. When the dam failed in April 1970, the lake drained, and bringing it back took years. Representative Bruce Freeman helped see the reconstruction through, and in 1986 the town renamed the lake in his honor. Chelmsford Historical Commission
So there we are, heading to the library for a movie, with a piece of the old North Chelmsford still sitting right there in the address. That’s what I like about local history. Sometimes all it takes is noticing a name and wondering what came before us.