What? Fred F. Walker dairy and vegetable farm.
Where? The current Saint Margaret’s property and adjacent Memorial School property, on Winn Street.
When? Turn of the century. Here’s some news from 1918.
How much? 44 acres of mowing and tillage, 14 acres of pasture, 25 acres of wood and unimproved land.
What products? Forty cows on the Saint Margaret’s end (some Jersey cows and some Holstein cows), and vegetables on the Memorial School end. The facial expressions of Walker’s crew suggest varying levels of enthusiasm for the job. (Kevin Murphy photo)
Distinctive feature: Walker erected a windmill on the Memorial side to power a water pump for his cattle and fields. If you zoom way in to the silos, you can see the “F.F. Walker Dairy” sign.
Leftovers: Some Walker buildings are still with us, between Saint Margaret’s and Memorial.
What happened? The Walkers sold about 15 acres to the Dobbins family, who then sold to the town in 1953 for Memorial Elementary School. The town immediately sold the site’s fertile loam to offset the cost of the gravel needed to fill in the new school playgrounds. Across the street was Kerrigan Farm, which became the town’s second high school (now Marshall Simonds Middle School).
The Archdiocese of Boston bought the remaining Walker property. In 1955, Cardinal Richard Cushing blessed the construction of the current Saint Margaret’s Church. Full church history here.
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