Weymouth, the second oldest town in Massachusetts, was established in
1622 and was a fishing and agricultural community for almost two hundred
years before becoming a shoe-manufacturing center in the nineteenth
century. Birthplace of Abigail Adams, the first woman to be the wife of
one U.S. president and the mother of another, the town has enjoyed a
long and exciting political and economic history. Through a fascinating
collection of more than two hundred images, Weymouth illustrates the
homes, businesses, institutions, and pleasures of Weymouth citizens of
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It features photographs of each
of the town's geographic areas-South Weymouth, Weymouth Landing, East
Weymouth, and North Weymouth-with chapters highlighting recreation (few
will remember Lovell's Grove, but many readers will remember the old
Fairgrounds in South Weymouth), industries as varied as shoe
manufacturing and ice cutting, tall-steepled white New England churches,
our very own Mount Vernon, the South Weymouth Naval Air Station, the
herring run, and, of course, the fire station that burned-twice.