Old Saw Mill

Title

Old Saw Mill

Artist

Mark Valentine

Medium

Photograph - Digital Photography

Description

Description by:
Lois Breault and Denis Melican
http://www.rosebay.org/chapterweb/rosebay/moore_state_park.html

By l930, the last remaining working mill, the saw mill, was no longer economically competitive, and the property was sold to a wealthy Worcester family that included one of the first female degreed landscape architects in Massachusetts. This was Florence Morton, who transformed the mill village into a private country estate. Documentation of this phase of the park's history is sketchy, and only a few references and one photo are available to us of "Glen Morton." We can assume though, that it was Florence who began the mass planting of rhododendrons and azaleas at this time. Some varieties included R. maximum, R. catawbiense and R. carolinianum as well as some native and hybrid azaleas

In 1946 the property was sold to a wealthy Worcester family, the Spauldings. They were prominent in the city's business district, owning a well-known downtown department store for generations. It is said that when Connie Spaulding first saw the property in Paxton, she thought it was so beautiful that it must have been enchanted and so she named it "ENCHANTA."; Mrs. Spaulding was an active member of the Worcester Garden Club and the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. She continued planting rhododendrons, engaging Bemis Farms Nursery in Spencer to plant many more. Unfortunately, we have no written documentation of Connie Spaulding's plant orders or landscape plans at this time. We were lucky enough recently, though, to speak with the gentleman who painted the manor house in 1953, and he assured us that Connie was meticulous and knowledgeable about color, one time requesting seven different mixtures before finding the perfect shade. The patterns of color and contrasts of texture that we see today were most likely well planned by Mrs. Spaulding as she sat on her patio, contemplating the beauty here.

The Commonwealth purchased the property from the Spaulding family in 1965. The park from that time on has become a place of quiet solitude and rejuvenation of the spirit for its visitors. Tucked away from urban sprawl for many years this was the type of State Park known only to local residents and the few adventurous sorts who seek out special places. The park is being appreciated by more and more people as the years go by, and is a center for conservation and education in central Massachusetts. Many projects, some large like our map project, and some not, like a group of seven Brownies with their mothers planting daffodils, go on here, and the mission and reason for being of this park are being realized.

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August 30th, 2015

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