Days 67-73: Next Stop--Chester

Back on the road! I'm traveling 16 miles down US 20, which brings me to Chester, MA, and a house outside of town at 272 Route 20. 

The house is fairly old (although nearly new by Massachusetts standards), having been built in 1880. In the vicinity, there are some interesting items to pay attention to.   

272 US 20 Chester, MA

Just down the street a bit, on the left hand side of the road, is a cemetery. It's called Chester Cemetery on the map, but apparently its name is Chester Factory Village Cemetery (AKA Huntington Street Cemetery). There is no public information about when this cemetery started, but the oldest grave seems to be that of Charles Bush, who was 1 year and 4 days old when he died in 24 October 1801. The stone is one of those old slate stones with the winged cherub emblem. The newest grave seems to be that of Donald Jane, who died nearly 200 years later, on 14 May 2001.

Chester Factory Village is, according to Wikipedia,

a historic district encompassing the historic village of Chester Factories in Chester, Massachusetts. Chester was settled in the 1760s, and the factory village was a location where water power was harnessed at an early time for grist mills and sawmills. The village got its name from the Chester Glass Factory, which operated in the area through the War of 1812. It benefited from the construction of a turnpike (now United States Route 20) leading to Chester Center in 1804, and was transformed by the arrival of the railroad around 1840.

Next stop: Becket, Massachusetts, about 6 miles down the road!