HISTORIOGRAPHY OF NEW ENGLAND LINK

In Not Just Anywhere: The Story of WHALE and the Rescue of New Bedford’s Waterfront Historic District there is a definite connection to the story of Route 9 in Middletown.  It offers a narrative of the efforts of the Waterfront Historical Area LeaguE to save New Bedford’s rich history by preserving its old waterfront business district from redevelopment and most importantly, highway construction.  In the 1960s urban renewal monies were targeted at New Bedford, and as part of the project a highway (Route 18) linking the city’s South End with the Interstate north of the waterfront was proposed.  Its original path was to cut through the heart of the historic district, but that plan was successfully challenged by WHALE.  However, when the highway was shifted to save the district, it effectively cut the district off from the physical waterfront and piers.  As had happened in Middletown, access to the harbor was severely limited and its presence in downtown New Bedford was fundamentally altered.  In the image below, the white-dotted line shows where the highway was proposed, and its final path can be seen under construction on the right side of the original route.

ALL IMAGES FROM: Marsha McCabe and Joseph D. Thomas, Not Just Anywhere (Spinner Publications: New Bedford, 1995)

So the story of Route 9 and the separation of Middletown from the water is not necessarily a unique one in the New England seafaring past.  New Bedford was once the whaling capital of the world, home at various times to Herman Melville and Frederick Douglas, and a commercially-powerful urban center for textile manufacturing.  It too was severed from the waterfront, yet in a less absolute way.  The fishing industry still thrives in New Bedford thanks to George’s Banks, and the Whaling Museum, a world-class institution, keeps vital New Bedford’s sense of its past.  Perhaps New Bedford’s size and the fact that its golden age was more recent than that of Middletown’s have played a role in the city’s relative success in overcoming a waterfront highway.

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