Author: audreyfhc

Few people have had such a great impact on the Boston sports scene as Charles F. Adams (1876-1947).   A Vermont transplant who made his home in Framingham, Adams brought the Bruins to Boston, was a major contributor to the construction of the Boston Garden, led the effort to build Suffolk Downs, and for several years was a minority owner of the Boston Braves.  All of this was accomplished while he was the treasurer, director, and eventually chairman of the board of the First National chain of grocery stores.

On October 18, 1876, Frank and Elizabeth Adams welcomed their first child, Charles Francis into the world.  The family of modest means made their home in the Northeast Kingdom town of Newport, Vermont.  Over the next eight years, the couple had three more children; Abel Vernon (1878-1968), R. Glen (1882-1887) and Josephine E. (1884-1942) (Memorial).  After completing the first twelve years of his education in the Newport Public Schools, Charles went on to study at Jenney Business College in Enosburg, Vermont (“Charles Francis…”).  

It was in Newport that Charles began his lifelong association with the grocery business.  As a youngster, he went to work at the corner grocery store doing odd jobs.  After his college graduation, his uncle, Oscar Adams, hired him to be a salesman for his wholesale grocery business called Smith and Adams.  Charles traveled up and down the East coast from New England to Virginia and as far west as Chicago selling maple syrup, tobacco, and other New England products (LeMoine 153).  He met his future wife, Lillias Mae Woollard, on a sales call in Vermont. Lillias was visiting her sister when Adams stopped by the store to pedal his maple syrup.  The couple married in 1901 in Windham County Vermont, and settled in Springfield, Massachusetts, where their only child, Weston, was born in 1904 (LeMoine 153).

Charles’ next career move was to manage the Vermont Farmer’s Co. for his uncle.  He then served as treasurer of the New England Maple Syrup Company which necessitated the family’s move to Cambridge, Massachusetts.  When these two companies merged in 1906,  he stepped away from the wholesale food business and tried his hand at investment banking.   It was while at Fitzgerald, Hubbard & Co., a banking and brokerage house in Boston, that he met John T. Connor, a grocery magnate.  Charles could not persuade Connor to purchase any of his financial products, but Connor did convince Charles to invest in his company.  Eventually, Connor hired Charles.  In 1914, Charles bought Connor’s company and its one hundred twenty four Brookside Stores.

As the company’s president, Charles began an aggressive expansion program adding eighty six stores by 1919, one hundred forty more by 1923, and two hundred fifty more by the late 1925 bringing the total number of Brookside Stores to six hundred.   It was in 1925, that the John T. Connor Company and two rival grocery store chains, O’Keeffe, Inc. and The Ginter Co., merged to create First National Stores, Inc.  At the time, this new company had over one thousand five hundred stores throughout New England.  All the existing stores would continue to operate under their old names and any new ones would be called First National Stores (Stock).  

The officers of the new company were M. O’Keeffe, president, A. F. Goodwin of the Ginter Co., chairman of the board, and Charles F. Adams, treasurer (Merger).

Boston Bruins

While Charles was building his grocery store chain into one of the largest in the country, he was at work transforming the Boston sports scene.  Having grown up in northern Vermont, he had a lifelong love of ice hockey.  At the time, there was only amateur hockey to watch in the United States.  One had to travel north to Canada to watch the professionals play.   

Attendance and interest in amateur hockey dropped in Boston after a scandal occurred between the Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets and the Boston AA. The Pittsburg Team threw a home playoff game to secure another home game at Duquesne Gardens. The controversy prompted Charles to decide that the time was right to bring a professional hockey team to Boston.    

November 1, 1924 was a memorable day in Boston sporting history. That was the day Charles  received his NHL franchise (“Charles”).  The first game for the new Bruins was played in December of that same year.  The Bruins’ loss that day was the start of a two year losing streak.  

Charles sought to change the team’s fortunes, by buying up the entire Western Canada League (“Charles”).  In the deal, he secured such hockey greats as Eddie Shore, Harry Oliver, Duke Keats and Frank Bouche for his Bruins (“Charles”).  Charles also lost money that first year due to the small crowds at the games. Through a stroke of genius,  he built a fan base by broadcasting the hockey games on WBZ radio.  Next on Charles’ agenda was to build a first class venue for his team.  He put up half a million dollars for the construction of the Boston Garden which opened its doors in 1927.  All of these changes had the desired effect as the Bruins went on to win the Stanley Cup in 1929.

Boston Braves

Charles became a minority owner of the Boston Brave baseball team in May 1927.  He was part of a small group of businessmen which bought Albert H. Powell’s shares in the ball club.  Charles was elected vice president of the club and served on its board of directors until 1935. At that time, due to his ownership in Suffolk Downs, Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis requested Charles sell his shares in the ball club (Johnson).

Suffolk Downs

Charles’ interest in sports did not begin and end with ice hockey and baseball.  He was also a horseman.  On May 1, 1922, he bought the 200 acre Wedgemere Farm at the corner of Salem End and Badger Roads In Framingham.  There, he and Lillias raised thoroughbred trotters.  Charles served as president of the Meadow Brook Club of Framingham, a club for horse enthusiasts. Charles and his neighbor, John R. Macomber, another horseman, were part of the syndicate called The Eastern Racing Association which was instrumental in the building of Suffolk Downs in East Boston.  Through their efforts, Suffolk Downs opened for racing on July 10, 1935.  Charles served as President of the race track from 1936-1937 and then again from 1939-1944. 

Around the time Charles turned 60 years old, he began to suffer from a series of illnesses.  This led to his decision to retire from his position at First National Stores (C.F. …Leader).   In 1936 he transferred his ownership in the Bruins to his son, Weston, and in 1945, sold his interest in Suffolk Downs to Alldred Investment Trust  for four million dollars.  Poor health continued to plague him, and while on a fishing trip with friends in northern Maine in late September 1947, Adams fell ill.   He was flown to Boston for treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital.  Charles passed away on October 2, 1947 at MGH’s Phillips House.  After a private funeral at the Waterman Funeral Chapel in Boston officiated by the Rev. John Ogden of the First Parish, Unitarian Church in Framingham, Adams was interred in Edgell Grove Cemetery.

 

 

Did You Know?

• Adams was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1960.
• Adams paid $15,000 for his NHL franchise
• The original colors of the Bruins were brown and gold to match the colors of the trim on Adams’ Brookside grocery stores.
• In 1974 the NHL named one of its four new divisions after the Adams Family ( Charles, his son Weston, and his grandson Weston Jr.): The Adams Division.
• Weston Woollard Adams, Sr. was  elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1972.
• Lillias Adams sold Wedgemere Estate to the Massachusetts Congregational Conference and Missionary Society in 1950.
• Lilias Woollard was born in Grenville, Ontario, Canada.
• Adams was a founder and director of Framingham Trust Company.
• Wedgemere Farm consisted of a twenty room colonial, a twelve room farmhouse, and several other buildings (“Complete”).  

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

Aero Scenic Airviews Co. (Boston, Mass.). Boston Gardens, North Station. From 800

 feet. 1929. Web. 15 Sep 2024. <https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/9593vd276>.

A bird’s-eye-view of Suffolk Downs Race Track, Revere, Mass.. Tichnor Bros. Inc., 

Boston, Mass., 1930. Web. 15 Sep 2024. <https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/1z40kt539>.

“C. F. Adams, Business and Sports Leader, Dead.” Boston Globe 2 Oct. 1947, pp. 1+  

Newspapers.com by Ancestry. 

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe-charles-adams2/154715463

“C. F. ADAMS PRESIDENT OF EASTERN RACING BODY.” Daily Boston Globe

 (1928-1960), May 08, 1936, pp. 30. ProQuest, 

https://ezproxy.bpl.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/c-f-adams-president-eastern-racing-body/docview/763026369/se-2.

“Charles Adams.”  Official Site of the Hockey Hall of Fame. 

”https://www.hhof.com/HonouredMembers/MemberDetails.html?type=Builder&mem=B196001&list=ByName

“Charles Francis Adams.” Vermont’s Northland Journal. 10 Sept. 2005.  

https://web.archive.org/web/20050910173636/http://www.northlandjournal.com/stories1.html  Accessed 2 January 2024.

“Complete transfer of Wedgemere FArm Estate as Conference Center.”  Framingham News 5 

July 1950.

 Doherty, Bob (Monty).   “The Somerville Times Historical Fact of the week – January 22.”  The

 Somerville Times, Jan. 22, 2014. https://www.thesomervilletimes.com/archives/46039

Accessed 31 Dec. 2023.

“FIRST NATIONAL STORES’ BIRTHDAY: HAS SERVED NEW ENGLAND CONSUMERS 10 YEARS.” Daily  Boston Globe (1928-1960), Apr 30, 1935, pp. 12. ProQuest, 

https://ezproxy.bpl.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical- /first-national-stores-birthday/docview/758570671/se-2.  Accessed 24 Dec. 2023.

Johnson, Richard A. “Charles F. Adams”.  The Sports Museum. 

https://www.sportsmuseum.org/curators-corner/charles-f-adams/  Accessed 31 Dec. 

2023.

LeMoine, Bob. When the Babe Went Back to Boston.

            Jefferson , NC :  MacFarland & Co., 2023.

“ Memorial page for Charles Francis Adams (18 Oct 1876–2 Oct 1947)”  Find a Grave 

Memorial ID 96097583  Find a Grave.

(https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/96097583/charles-francis-adams: Accessed 31 December 2023), 

“MERGER AGREEMENT BY CHAIN STORE FIRMS: O’KEEFFE’S, INC, JOHN T. CONNOR 

CO AND GINTER CO TO BE FIRST NATIONAL STORES, INC.” Boston Daily Globe (1923-1927), Nov 20, 1925, pp. 1. ProQuest, https://ezproxy.bpl.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/merger-agreement-chain-store-firms/docview/498645042/se-2.

O’Leary, James. “BOSON MEN BUY SHARE IN BRAVES: CHARLES F. ADAMS IS

 ELECTED VICE PRESIDENT OF CLUB HOCKEY MAGNATE, WETMORE AND

FARNSWORTH GET STOCK.” Boston Daily Globe (1923-1927), May 16, 1927, pp. 1. ProQuest, https://ezproxy.bpl.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/boson-men-buy-share-braves/docview/251064100/se-2.

 “STOCK DIVIDEND FOR GINTER STOCKHOLDERS.” Boston Daily Globe 

(1923-1927), Dec 07, 1925, pp. 17. ProQuest,

https://ezproxy.bpl.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/stock-dividend-ginter-stockholders/docview/498691349/se-2.

“STORE MERGER HAS $5,000,000 CAPITAL: FIRST NATIONAL STORES, INC, IS

NAME CHOSEN M. O’KEEFE TO BE PRESIDENT OF THE NEW CONCERN.” Boston Daily Globe (1923-1927), Nov 21, 1925, pp. 2. ProQuest, https://ezproxy.bpl.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/store-merger-has-5-000-capital/docview/498644473/se-2.

“TODAY in Masonic History: Charles Francis Adams is born” Masonrytoday.com

http://www.masonrytoday.com/index.php?new_month=10&new_day=18&new_year=2014  Accessed 10 Feb. 2023.

 

The year is sometime before 1998, you’re heading north on Prospect Street.  On the right hand side of the road you see a rustic sign reading Woodside Cottages in front of a weathered cape cod style house set on a large wooded lot. You wonder what are the Woodside Cottages: perhaps a long ago resort, vacation rental properties, or just some family’s getaway compound?  Woodside Cottages were none of the above.  They were in fact a private sanatorium established by Dr. Frank Wallace Patch (1862-1923) in 1900.

Patch was born in Wayland to Captain Samuel Patch and Elizabeth J. (Noyes) Patch on March 23, 1862.  After he  graduated from Weston High School, he went on to medical school and earned his medical degree from The Boston University School of Medicine in 1888 (Funeral).  At that time, BU School of Medicine was a homeopathic school.  Homeopathy, a popular medical trend in the 19th century, is based on the founding principle that the body can cure itself.  Homeopaths believed that disease is best cured by a drug that creates symptoms in a healthy person similar to the disease itself.  Thus, they would use small amounts of natural substances to trigger the body’s immune system to attack the disease. Homeopaths believed that large doses of drugs would aggravate the illness.  By the 20th century, the practice of homeopathic medicine fell out of favor.

Upon completing his degree, Patch began his medical career at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin, Ireland. The Rotunda Hospital was a maternity hospital dedicated to the care of women and infants established by Barthtolomew Mosse, a male midwife in 1745.   

After finishing his studies in Dublin, Patch settled in South Framingham where he opened a medical practice.   By the 1890s, Framingham was a booming center of commerce thanks in part to the railroad that ran through the town.  With more people and industries, the need for a hospital to treat illness and accidents grew.  In September 1890, a group of concerned Framingham citizens petitioned the General Court of the Commonwealth for permission to establish a hospital.  This first hospital was opened on Winthrop Street at the Sturtevant House. 

By 1894, more funds were raised and a new hospital opened on Evergreen Street.  Dr. Patch was one of the physicians who formed the medical staff for the new Framingham Hospital and was the only homeopath.   This physicians’ group established the hospital’s rules and regulations for the practice of medicine and even submitted a request for an X-Ray machine, a new and advanced piece of medical equipment. 

 In 1900, Dr. Patch opened Woodside Cottages, a private sanatorium which offered therapeutic rest for people suffering from chronic illness such as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and nervous disorders, as well as senility and old age. Woodside was located on 18 acres of land on Indian Head Hill, off of Prospect Street. The Patch family left South Framingham to live on the Woodside campus in the upper house. At the start, Patch admitted just four patients who were cared for in his home. In keeping with his homeopathic training, he prescribed treatments included massage, light therapy, a healthy diet and minimal use of medicines. Fresh air, exercise, outdoor activities such as gardening and lawn games were part of the healing process. Dr. Patch’s program also included mental therapeutics such as reading, writing and crafts.

Beside tending to his patients in his private practice and at Woodside Cottages, Patch served the medical community in several other capacities over the years.  He was a member of the consulting board for Westborough State Hospital, and a professor of Materia Medica (pharmacology) at Boston University School of Medicine.  In 1892, he joined the International Hahnemannian Association and was elected its president in 1907.  Patch was also a member of the Massachusetts Homeopathic Medical Society and its president in 1911.  

Dr. Patch was also involved in civic affairs of the Framingham community.  He was one of the founding members of the Framingham Improvement Association which was founded in 1901 and incorporated in 1904.   The Framingham Improvement Association was formed to oversee the restoration and management of the Village Hall on the Common.  The Association also undertook other projects around the Framingham Centre Common such as planting trees and shrubs, maintaining Gordon’s Corner, watering the unpaved streets to reduce dust from the automobile traffic, and collecting waste in the Centre.  For several years, Patch served as President of this group.

It would be easy to assume that Dr. Patch devoted himself to only professional matters.  But that was not the case. He married Kate Whiting, daughter of Frederick A. Whiting of Lowell on October 19, 1893.  Their wedding was held in the parlor of the Whiting home at 166 East Merrimack Street.   Kate was a writer who contributed stories, essays and poems to a variety of magazines, and also authored several books.  Her books included Middleway (1897), Rainy Days and Sunny Days (1899), Old Lady and Young Laddie (1900), and Prince Yellow Top (1903) among others.  The couple had four children: Buell Whiting Patch, 1899-1987, Frank Wallace Patch, Jr. 1904-1994, Frederic Whiting Patch, and Elizabeth Patch.  Kate died in October 1909 after a bout of typhoid fever.  Four years later on August 19, 1913, Patch married Virginia White Allen at St. Paul’s Church in Petersburg, Virginia.   

On September 7, 1923, Dr. Patch died suddenly of natural causes while visiting a friend in Boston.  He was sixty years old.  After his death, Patch’s children took over running Woodside Cottages.  In 1926, Dr. Franklin C. Southworth was appointed superintendent at Woodside Cottages.  After Dr. Southworth‘s resignation due to professional differences with the Patch family, Dr. Arthur Ward was hired to be the medical director, a position he held for the next twenty-five years.   By the time Dr. Ward was seventy-seven, the Patch family realized that they would need to begin the search for another psychiatrist.   At this time, Dr. Benjamin F. MacDonald had just completed his residency at the Institute for Living in Hartford, Connecticut and applied for the position.  In January 1961, the family sold the hospital to Dr. MacDonald.  Woodside Cottages remained in business until 1976, when the state shut it down for failing to meet building codes.  The property was redeveloped into a residential neighborhood in the late 1990s.  In homage to Dr. Patch’s hospital, the main street in this neighborhood was named Woodside Cottage Way.

Did You Know?

• According to the Town of Framingham list of residents, Patch lived at 72 Concord St. between 1891-92 and at 58 Union Ave. in 1895.
• The International Hahnemannian Association, founded in 1880, was the oldest homeopathic organization.  It disbanded in the late 1950s.
• Founding members of the Framingham Improvement Association were: Dr. Patch, Frederic A. Whiting, Mrs. E. F. Bowditch, Frank A. Kendall, Charles M. Baker and Hartley Dennett.  In 1904 Frederick B. Horne, Adnah Neyhart, Enos Bigelow, John Temple, Lucius Eastman, Charles Macomber, William Gregory, and N. I. Bowditch joined the Association (Davidson)
• Dr. Patch published The Woodside Cookbook in 1905, a compilation of vegetarian recipes for healthy living.
• When Dr. Patch built the Doctor’s cottage, he did not include a kitchen as meals were to be eaten with the patients.

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Bibliography

Davidson, Martha W. “The Framingham Improvement Association.” Framingham History. 

 Fall 2005. p. 4-5. Newsletter.

“DR PATCH OF FRAMINGHAM DIES SUDDENLY IN BOSTON.” Boston Daily Globe 

(1923-1927), 08 Sept. 1923, pp. 11. ProQuest, https://ezproxy.bpl.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/dr-patch-framingham-dies-suddenly-boston/docview/497509158/se-2. Accessed 20 Mar. 2025.

“Frank Wallace Patch, M.D. [obituary]. New England Journal of Medicine , Boston Med. Surg. 20 

Sept. 1923.  Vol. 189 no, 12, p. 423. https://www.nejm.org/doi/abs/10.1056/NEJM192309201891218  

accessed 29 Sep. 2024.

“FUNERAL TOMORROW OF DR FRANK W. PATCH: WELL-KNOWN BOSTON AND 

FRAMINGHAM PHYSICIAN.” Boston Daily Globe (1923-1927), Sep 09, 1923

4. 4. ProQuest, https://ezproxy.bpl.org/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/historical-newspapers/funeral-tomorrow-dr-frank-w-patch/docview/497500368/se-2?accountid=9675.

 “The History of the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin.  The Rotunda Hospital, Dublin.  c2024.

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Kate Whiting Patch : Obituary. Lowell Courier Citizen Evening. Oct. 12, 1909 p.10 Newspaper Archive.

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https://access-newspaperarchive-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/us/massachusetts/lowell/lowell-sun/1893/10-20/page-16  accessed 21 Nov, 2024.

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History. June 17, 2016.  https://theclio.com/entry/23674  accessed 10 Nov. 2024.

“Marriages: Patch-Allen.” Boston Post Newspaper.  Aug. 22, 1913 p. 14  Newspaper Archive.  

https://access-newspaperarchive-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/us/massachusetts/boston/boston-post/1913/08-22/page-14  accessed 21 Nov. 2024.

“Our History: Framingham Union Hospital.”  MetroWest Medical Center.

https://www.mwmc.com/about/our-history  accessed 10 Nov. 2024. 

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https://books.google.com/books?id=RmUTAAAAYAAJ&q=frank+wallace+patch%5D#v=snippet&q=frank%20wallace%20patch%5D&f=false  accessed 21 Nov, 2024.

“Woodside Cottages in Expansion Program.”  Framingham News  11 Aug. 1965.