Town of Weymouth history

February 29, 1804: The New Bedford and Bridgewater Turnpike Corporation was chartered.

1808: The first factory for shoemaking was constructed by James Tirrell.

1812: The first Fore River Bridge from Quincy Point to Ferry Point, North Weymouth, was completed.

October 28, 1818: Abigail Smith Adams died at her home in Quincy.

1822: Weymouth was presented with a proposal to bring large scale industrial development to the town by using the Back River as a source of water power.

1838: The Abigail Smith Adams Birthplace was removed from its original site on East Street and moved to Bridge Street in Bicknell Square, North Weymouth, where it was used as a bunkhouse for farmhands.

1845: Weymouth was a “mission” of Saint Mary (Catholic) Parish of Quincy.

1849: Josephus Shaw, Quincy Tirrell, William Dyer, Prince H. Tirrell, and James L. Bates were shoemakers of Weymouth who pioneered to California.

1851/52: An ecclesiastical society was formed in North Weymouth.

Later this would be the location of the first meetinghouse built in Weymouth in 1852.

Shoe manufacturing was begun in 1853.

1856: Edmund Soper Hunt began the manufacture of fireworks at what is now the site of Electroswitch on King Avenue.

1862: The first regularly employed superintendent of schools was appointed.

1863: Bradley Fertilizer Plant was established on the present site of Weymouthport.

July 4, 1864: The Hingham and Quincy Turnpike Road became toll free.

1867: The Weymouth Gazette was first published.

1869: Saint Jerome Parish in North Weymouth was established as a mission of the Catholic Church.

1876: On March 10, 1876, Thomas L. Watson, Alexander Graham Bell’s assistant, heard the first words ever spoken over the telephone: “Mr.

January 1, 1880: The Tufts Library opened in one room in a wooden building.

1881: Nathaniel Porter Keene purchased four acres of land on the Fore River in order to establish his shipyard.

1885: Stetson Shoe Company was started – the first factory in town having all operations under one roof.

1890: According to the federal census Weymouth’s population was 10,866.

1899: Weymouth adopted its town seal.

Thomas A. Watson built the first steel Fore River Bridge from Quincy Point to Ferry Point, Weymouth, in 1902.

1910: According to the federal census Weymouth’s population was 12,875.

April 20, 1912: Fenway Park, “America’s Most Beloved Ballpark”, opened.

1915: The second Saint Jerome Church was built in North Weymouth on the corner of Bridge and Neck Streets.

1920: According to the federal census Weymouth’s population was 15,057.

1928: The Weymouth Pals, a semi-pro baseball team, played their first full year and went on to become one of the leading semi-pro baseball teams in Massachusetts.

1935: The third style of Fore River Bridge, a drawbridge, was built, connecting Quincy Point with Ferry Point, North Weymouth.

School building survey and long range plan of school plant development, Weymouth, Massachusetts, 1947

1950: The Christmas tree in Jackson Square was illuminated for the first time.

1966: L/Cpl James H. Cavicchi Jr., USM and Pfc Richard J. Canova, USM, both from Weymouth, lost their lives in Vietnam.

1968: L/Cpl Paul F. Quill, USM of North Weymouth lost his life in Vietnam.

1988: The Weymouth Food Pantry was established in a 10 x 30 foot room with a few volunteers and four families on the client list.

1999: Weymouth residents voted to change to a city form of government.

In North Weymouth, on April 1 “a bolt of lightning and ensuing fire destroyed the barn of Stephen Delorey, killing a horse, a cow and a cat, and causing damage estimated by firemen at $2000 [about $32,000 today].”

Patriot Day, first observed in 2002, honors the memory of those who were lost that day.

2004: The town completed a major expansion to Weymouth South High School doubling its size and modernizing the building and its equipment.

October 2005 – The first semi-annual Shelf Bunch Brunch occurred at the Scituate Mill Wharf with only eight attendees; word spread and over the years the group has grown to over 140 “possible attendees” from throughout the country.

September 2009 – Upon the retirement of Doctor Libor Dudas, Richard Travers became the third director of the Fine Arts Chorale.

2012: Construction began on the new Fore River Bridge project.

2015: North Weymouth Civic Association and Fore River Residents Against the Compressor Station (FRRACS) began their efforts to block Spectra Energy (now Enbridge) from constructing of a natural gas compressor station beside the Fore River.

May 1, 2016 – Fine Arts Chorale, conducted by Maestro Richard Travers, celebrated its 50th anniversary with A Celebration of American Composers.

February 2018 – The town announced plans for a boardwalk to connect Wessagusset Beach to Lane Beach, which will include accommodation for wheel chairs.

February 2019 – Weymouth’s Charles Robert “Charlie” Coyle, joined the Boston Bruins as #13.