Street Blasting Terrifies Fairhaven Neighbors
A massive stump removal operation inside city limits wreaks havoc on local storefronts and rattles the nerves of residents.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Yesterday morning, citizens in the neighborhood of the post office were aroused by a heavy blast and the sound of falling debris. The cause was the blasting of a large stump in the middle of Twelfth street, directly in front of Mrs. Seymour’s new building. The force of the explosion shattered five or six large windows in the Seymour block, as well as windows in the post office and surrounding buildings. The local photograph gallery had one side torn out, and the furniture inside was badly damaged. Buildings in the vicinity were shaken as if by an earthquake, and falling rock was heard on roofs two blocks away. Residents expressed alarm at the danger posed by these reckless procedures, noting that previous incidents have only narrowly avoided fatalities. A new city council is urged to enact ordinances to stop such hazardous blasting immediately.
“To say that some of the residents of the neighborhood were frightened but mildly expresses the feeling they had at that time.”
In 1890, the uncontrolled use of explosives was a byproduct of the rapid, chaotic construction of Fairhaven's infrastructure. Today, the 'growing pains' of development have shifted from clearing stumps and rock to high-density real estate pressures, but the sentiment remains identical: residents feeling like their homes are collateral damage for city progress.
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