To count down the days to the end of summer, I will be taking you on a virtual walking tour of Arlington–the same one outlined in 1937’s The WPA Guide to Massachusetts. Each entry will include an excerpt from the book about each site visited. Hopefully this will give us a little insight as to how things have changed in the past 73 years. The next stop is Spy Pond.

“Spy Pond was so christened, says tradition, when a company of white men,

seeking Fresh Pond to procure water, ‘spied’ this instead.

It also acquired some reflected glory later on from the fact that old Mother Batherick

was digging dandelions on its bank on April 19, 1775, when six British grenadiers came

along… The brave old woman took them off guard, captured them, and marched them to prison.”