The Berlin
Cit itiz ize en
Volume 15, Number 31
Berlin’s Only Hometown Newspaper
Thursday, August 4, 2011
A walk on the ridge Living with history on Worthington Ridge By Melissa Chicker an Daniel Jackson Special to The Citizen
The slabs of slate, that make the sidewalk on Worthington Ridge, bubble up under the rising roots of the trees that line the road. Grass crowds the cracks. Where the slate is missing, asphalt patches the walk. This sidewalk runs by houses built from the 1700s to present day. This is Worthington Ridge: a place where history mingles with the present, a place where homeowners digging in their yards unearth clay marbles and coins from yesteryear while worrying about the speed of passersbys driving the road. Worthington Ridge once was the bustling center of town. In its glory days, the street shaded with maple trees boasted a police station, a library, a school, two general stores, a church that hosted most of the town’s congregations, town hall — and a trolley, that for several decades regularly passed by homes on the ridge. According to former Mayor Art Powers, who has lived on Worthington Ridge his entire life, the street — a main travel route between New York and Boston — was full of traffic. Today, the ridge continues to offer many points of interest with public spaces such as the Berlin Free Library, Worthington Meeting House, Maple Cemetary, small parks, a church and a war memorial, to name a few. It is also a place full of unusual details that tell the history of Berlin
Photos by Daniel Jackson and Melissa Chicker
Scenes from the ridge include a Greek revival-style house, wavy sidewalks, and the Worthington Meeting House, as well as an old key still in use opening the door to the Hudsons’ home, built in 1786. for those who walk its treelined sidewalks and take the time to learn the story. Along the way, signs describe some of the people and places that make Berlin unique, from tin-peddling entreprenuers to reknowned educators. The short stretch of road is part
of the town’s historic district. “I’m living in the real main street of Berlin,” said Amy Prescher, resident on the ridge since 2008. “People walk by and admire the house and it makes us proud to live in such a beautiful
home.” She describes her house, when it stood during an earlier century, as a “white temple on top of a hill in a beautiful landscape.” Prescher’s house is built in the Greek revival style, designed in a style that copied the Greeks
preference for columns and an open feel. Building styles along Worthington Ridge reflect the thinking of Americans through time, said Prescher, who is currently pursuing a
See Walk, page 7