Dunstable Village: The Walk Home from School

by A. Donald Kennedy

Editors note "Don" Kennedy was born in Dunstable in 1912, and lived here until his death in 1988. For many years, Don raised dairy cattle on his farm at the top of High Street, where he lived with his wife, Lucy. He was the state’s youngest selectman in 1934 at the age of 22, and remained active in town politics throughout most of his life. He was dedicated to protecting Dunstable farmlands from development. In this installment, Don takes us along on his walk home from the Swallow Union school. --di

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I remember when I was in the first grade, of walking home from school on a pleasant September afternoon. I went down the same driveway from the school that is used now by the church. Then crossing Main Street onto High Street. I went between the fairly new Town Hall, or what is more properly called the Roby Memorial Building, and the Calvin Austin summer residence. The picket fence by the Austin place was always kept painted, and the grass well mowed.

Next was the Austin farm house, now the Zeller home. In front of this house there were two big chestnut trees. After the first frosts there were loads of chestnut to be picked up.

The ledge beside the road at the top of Austin's hill had recently been blasted to widen the road and was a fascinating place to climb over. From here on, the road was dirt and felt good to bare feet.

At the top of the hill was the Brow place. A big yellow house and a big red barn with a beautiful yard between. The catalpa tree that Frances Brow planted is still living in the tangled growth where the yard used to be. Across the street from the house was a Bartlett pear tree, and I remember Hazel Brow giving me some of the delicious pears.

Next was "Brow's Apple House," later the residence or Mrs. Sawyer, and her daughter Helen, who later became a famous astronomer. She was the author of a good book called, "The Stars Are For Everyone". A copy of this book is in the Dunstable Library.

No more buildings now until I came to the corner of High and Thorndike Streets. Here one side was the home of Mr. George T. Pumpelly. (member of the School Committee for several years) and across the street his farmer lived, Mr. Daniel Howe.

Now all I had to do was walk up the hill to my home. This was the house where I was born. When I got home I could look west to the mountains. By this time the train from Nashua had come down Salmon Brook Valley, stopped at Dunstable on its way to Acton and Concord Jct. The smoke from the engine veiled the hills and valleys and I loved the smell of it. I was the victim of ignorance and pollution, but I didn't know it then.

People who think Dunstable is a nice town now should have seen it in those years.

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NOTE: You can find more installments of Don Kennedy's Dunstable Village stories in the History section.