Andover fragments
April 2025

I need a place to cache things I've gathered while preparing for the April 10th gig at the Andover Public Library. This particular farrago began with Stephanie Aude asking if she could use my Shawsheen 1953-1956 map (created in 1976):

two more images from that time:

Wondering how many of my 6th grade classmates stayed in Andover led me to the Andover High School 1961 Yearbook, from Internet Archive. Here are the 1961 graduates who were in the 1955 class picture:

Charlene Benedetti
Connie Becotte
Joseph Calcina [thanks Alice!}
Geoff Davis
Diane Freedman
Joan Freedman
Steve Goodman
Bob Hansen
Susan Miller
Alice Jo Mooney
Marion Morgan
Catharine O'Shea
Danny O'Toole
Barbara Pacheco
Carolyn Robertson
Kathy St. Germain
David Shanteler
Cynthia Turton

...nearly half the class. What became of the others?

My closest friends were in the graduating classes of 1960 (Meredythe Manning and Douglas Robertson) and 1958 (Gordon Schwartz), and Yearbooks for those years are available too. There's also a 'where are they now' page for the 1960 class, A-J and J-Z, updated to 2020, including decedents. Of the 180-odd graduates, only 7 are listed as still living in Andover.

Here's some of what I've found:

(Gordon died in 1986, at which time he lived in Anoka MN)

Doug's sister Carolyn was in both Shawsheen 1955 photos:

I've hunted for information on other people I remember:

Regina Cardella was a 7th grade classmate who apparently lived in Andover until the death of her second husband in 2022, but she seems now to live in Grandville MI

Susan Francis Miller (also in the 1955 Shawsheen photos) died in 2021: obituary

And these tantalizing bits from Andover Townsman 1954 list several of those 1955 classmates:

Shawsheen School itself has a pretty glorious history: Shawsheen School part 1 Barbara Bunn (2024) and part 2.
Anne Harnedy was the Principal for many years, beloved by some and feared by others.

The history of the American Woolen Company and the construction of Shawsheen Village is fascinating, and before Shawsheen it was Frye Village.

History: Shawsheen Village andoverhistoryandculture.org

Shawsheen: A Village Transformed andoverhistoryandculture.org

Sacred Heart School answers.mhl.org

William Wood, The American Woolen Company and the Creation of a Model Mill Village in Shawsheen, Massachusetts John R Mullin and Zenia Kotval

...A 1923 AWC promotional brochure made Wood's ideas and concepts quite clear. Shawsheen was to be a demonstration of a model city for the "weavers of woolens and worsteds the world over." The village was to have an "air of efficiency." It would be a settlement "where one would find a real home," where children would gain a "real education" and mix with the right people by "type and breeding." The living units would consist of "homey, artistic, charming, quaint, colonial residences." Finally, the brochure emphasized the importance of "accommodating the needs of office workers." The village was to be low-density, without tenements, in a well-landscaped setting along a clear-flowing stream. It would be environmentally clean, architecturally designed, self-sustaining, and adjacent—but not socially or culturally attached—to Lawrence.

Shawsheen River Wikipedia