undated
HAV-01-403-Z-L-404
GUSN-373872
Bound black paper covered album with no identifying title or labels. The album contains 43 photographs adhered to both side of black-paper pages. Photographs are all 7.25 x 9.25 inches. There are 4 loose photographs inserted at the back of the album. [sleeved for protection]. Many pages have original interleaving between photographs.
Photographs depict the exteriors of buildings and other structures on the grounds of Norumbega Park. Photographs show roads, fences, telephone poles, bridges, stonewalls, stone and wooden bridges, and water towers.
Exterior images of other built structures include band stands/gazebos, benches, bicycle racks, a boathouse, enclosures for animals with fencing and netting, swings, and an outside wooden canopied stage area set for a play. One photograph shows the exterior of a two-story building with a porch and a sign that says, "Women's cottage, exclusively for women." Other exterior images show newly planted trees, plants, and waterways.
There are several photographs of electric trolleys, trolley barns, and trolley tracks with wires above. There is one photograph depicting a large group of people around a trolley stop, possibly just outside the park. A singular close-range photograph depicts a trolley car with the words "Commonwealth Avenue Street Railway Co."
A very small number of photographs depict people, including one with a large crowd of men and women watching something outside the frame. A singular photograph shows groups of people watching a puppet show. A single photograph depicts a Native American woman, with three children dressed in traditional-style clothing and standing near a tepee made of birchbark.
streetcar systems
trolley cars
leisure
music halls
theaters (buildings)
open-air theaters
puppetry (performing arts)
canoes
bicycles
restaurants
zoos (built complexes)
amusement parks
photograph albums
black-and-white photography
1 album, 25 pages : black-and-white photographic prints ; 10.75 x 13.5 inches
PC009
Photograph albums collection
PC009.320
Bound photograph album. Spine and paper cover have no identifiying words or marks. Undated photographs depict different areas of Norumbega Park, a historic privately owned park just outside Boston in Newton, Massachusetts. The park originally had an amphitheater, amusement rides, popular canoeing facilities, a deer park, a small zoo, and later the famous Totem Pole Ballroom.
Library & Archives Purchase
7 1/4 x 9 1/4 (HxW)(inches)
Auburndale (Newton, Middlesex county, Massachusetts) [part of inhabited place]
Newton (Middlesex county, Massachusetts)
photograph albums
black-and-white photography
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
Amusements
Railway
Boat
Bicycles
Theater
animals
Restaurants
Park
Newton
Ballroom dancing
There are no restrictions on access.
Materials were rehoused for long term preservation. Loose photographs have been placed in an acid-free sleeve in the back of the album.
Item
HAV-01-403-Z-L-404
Family Vacation album
Massachusetts Towns and Landscapes
Massachusetts - Newton - Norumbega Park - Postcards
Norumbega Park opened in 1897 and was built by the Commonwealth Avenue Street Railway [now part of the Massachusetts Bay Transport Authority-MBTA] to increase patronage and revenues on the trolley line running between Boston and Newton, Massachusetts.
Norumbega Park was a recreation area and amusement park in "Auburndale-on-the-Charles," a neighborhood of Newton. The park offered amusement rides, canoeing, food vendors, gardens, a penny arcade, picnic areas, restaurants, a theater, and a zoo. Norumbega Park was located along the Charles River making it easily accessible by water, steam train, electric trolley, and eventually, automobile. The park was popular with the local, urban, middle-class population that sought affordable recreation outside the city.
In the early 1900s, the theater at Norumbega featured vaudeville acts, plays, and moving picture shows. By the 1920s, amusement rides included a carousel and Ferris wheel. In 1930, as buses and automobiles replaced the trolleys, the theater was converted into the Totem Pole Ballroom. The Totem Pole became a well-known dancing and entertainment venue for big bands touring in the 1940s. During World War II, a United States Army company was stationed at Norumbega Park's restaurant. Owners organized war bond promotions, scrap metal drives, and charity events.
After the war, the popularity of Norumbega Park and the Totem Pole Ballroom declined. Millions of automobiles and new roads brought an end of many local amusement parks. Norumbega Park closed in 1963, and The Totem Pole ballroom was closed soon after in 1964.
Today [2025], the site is the Norumbega Park Conservation Area owned by the City of Newton. It is a popular jogging and dog-walking site with hills, meadows, woods, and access to the river. Most of the physical relics of the former Norumbega Park have been destroyed.
City of Newton Massachusetts. (n.d.). Norumbega Conservation Area. Retrieved August 29, 2025 from newtonma.gov/government/planning/conservation-office/conservation-areas/norumbega
Middlesex and Boston Street Railway. (2025, June 27). In Wikipedia.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middlesex_and_Boston_Street_Railway
Newton Conservatories. (n.d.) Norumbega Park. Retrieved August 29, 2025 from newtonconservators.org/property/norumbega-park/
Norumbega Park. (2025, July 31). In Wikipedia. wikipedia.org/wiki/Norumbega_Park
Sharicz, Karl. (2021, March 11). Totem Pole Ballroom. Music Museum of New England. mmone.org. mmone.org./totem-pole-ballroom/
WVCB/5/ABC.(2022, February 10). The history of Norumbega Park and the Totem Pole Ballroom in Newton's village of Auburndale [video]. wcvb.com/article/visiting-villages-the-history-of-norumbega-park-and-the-totem-pole-ballroom-in-newtons-village-of-auburndale/39038664
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