Head to Digital Commonwealth—a statewide consortium that provides online access to cultural heritage materials—to explore all of the photos from Watertown’s history that the library has digitized: 1,500 and counting! Browse using the themed collections, or filter photographs by date using the slider on the left side of this listing.
For information on using Watertown Free Public Library photographs from Digital Commonwealth, please see this form.
Of special interest are photographs taken by Walter C. Woodman (1903-1979), a consulting mechanical engineer who lived in Watertown. He was very interested in the iron industry of New England and was instrumental in working with AISI to restore the Saugus Iron Works and having it designated a national historic mechanical engineering landmark in 1975. He was also an avid photographer with an eye for natural spaces.
Damage from a 1921 ice storm, Belmont and Avon streets.
Pleasant Street buildings from across the Charles, 1874.
Watertown High School basketball team.
First Baptist Church and parsonage (now condos).
Thomas Cullen, 1917.
Grave marker for Samuel Hastings (1723), Arlington Street Cemetery.
Edmund Fowle House, built 1772.
Electron spectroscopy system at the Arsenal, 1975.
Kelly's Hotel and D.J. Mahoney harness shop, Watertown Square, circa 1916.