Twelve years after the devastating 1874 Mill River Flood, artist and lithographer Lucien R. Burleigh published this bird’s-eye view of the village of Haydenville, Massachusetts. These types of panoramic views were intended to show many details of a village from the perspective of a bird flying in the air. In this view of Haydenville, Shingle Hill is prominent in the background. Farm fields and forest surround the village. The streets are clearly named. Fences and stone walls crisscross the village and fields. The cemetery is included. The railroad tracks run along the Mill River and through town, with a train chugging along. And there is a key added at the bottom of the print identifying important buildings as well. Here the key notes: 1-Haydenville Congregational Church; 2-St. Mary’s, the Catholic Church; 3-public schools, including the Haydenville Center School; 4-Masonic Hall; 5-Railway Station; 6-Post Office; 7-Haydenville House (B. Loomis, Proprietor); 8-Haydenville Manufacturing Company (Manufacturers of Plumbers’ Brass Works); 9-Nonotuck Silk Company; 10-Engine House and Jail.
Lucien Rinaldo Burleigh (1853-1923), born in Plainfield, Connecticut, studied civil engineering at Worcester County Free Institute of Industrial Science (now Worcester Polytechnic) in central Massachusetts, graduating in 1875. Instead of pursuing civil engineering, he began working for a Milwaukee lithographing company, eventually founding his own lithographic publishing company in Troy, New York. As an artist, Lucien travelled widely, making bird’s-eye view pencil sketches of villages and smaller cities, primarily in New England and New York, which were then copied on stone and printed for mass distribution. His output was prolific. Between 1882 and 1899, he was the artist, lithographer and/or publisher for hundreds of bird’s-eye views, like this one of Haydenville, which capture the appearance and pattern of small-town life of the time in such detail.
Enjoy this vintage view of Haydenville. How much do you recognize: How many buildings and spaces are still with us 140 years later? The Meekins Library has facsimile copies of the 1886 Burleigh Haydenville lithograph available for a donation of $5. Daria D’Arienzo, Meekins Archivist. #throwbackthursday; #tbt.
