Doug Cornelius .com

Stoughton has a single entry on the list of 1,000 Great Places in Massachusetts. The Mary Baker Eddy Historic House sits on the busy Central Street, just west of the Christmas Tree Shoppes retail road.

The story of the house (from the Longyear Museum):

Having been deserted by her husband, Daniel Patterson, the future Mary Baker Eddy reverted to the name of her late first husband, Glover. In late 1868, after staying in a series of boarding houses and friends’ homes, Mrs. Glover arrived in this country home south of Boston. Her stay was a year-and-a-half respite from all the packing and unpacking.

Alanson Wentworth’s wife, Sally, invited Mrs. Glover to live here in exchange for Mrs. Glover’s teaching her the art of healing through Christian prayer — after which Sally eagerly took up the healing work on her own. It provided her with a purpose and an income for the rest of her life.

Here in Stoughton, Mrs. Glover’s treatments through prayer healed Alanson Wentworth of sciatica — healed his wife of a chronic throat ailment — healed one of their daughters of partial deafness — healed neighbors of enteritis, pulmonary disease, and addiction to medicinal drugs.

The house is only open by appointment. My visit was brief since I failed to make an appointment.

Personally, I would have preferred Town Spa over a vacant house that is usually closed.

There are very few restaurants on the list of 1,000 Great Places in Massachusetts. The ones that are on the list, as far I’ve seen so far are contained in buildings of historic significance. Somehow, Sullivan’s made the list. Castle Island was already on the list, so it seem strange that to also name Sullivan’s to the list. In large part it’s the snack bar for the visitors to Castle Island.

They do make a good lobster roll.

Castle Island is the most mis-named of the place on the list of 1,000 Great Places in Massachusetts. It’s neither a “castle” nor an “island”.

We should forgive the “island” label since it once was an island. Boston has a long historic of filling in the harbor and its rivers to create new livable land areas. That occurred here as South Boston grew bigger and bigger and finally reached the old fort. As far back as 1892 it was were connected to the mainland by a wooden footbridge. This was replaced by an earthen causeway in 1925 and an automobile road in 1932.

In 1634, Governor Dudley selected the spot for the sea defense of Boston Harbor. The first fortification were built in 1644 and consisted of a pine log fort, some earthworks, and three cannons. It eventually earned the nickname of “The Castle”. Since then, it has been rebuilt seven times. The current structure was built in 1851 with granite from the quarries in Rockport, Massachusetts.

In 1798 Massachusetts gave the fort to the United States Government. President John Adams dedicated it as “Fort Independence” in 1799. It was given back in 1962.

The park offers a great view of Boston, Logan Airport, and the harbor islands. If you visit on a summer weekend, you can take a tour of the fort from noon until 3:30.

In 1906, Oakes Ames and his wife Blanche purchased land on the border of Sharon and Easton. The country estate they named “Borderland” remained in the family for 65 years. In 1971, two years after the death of Blanche Ames, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts acquired the estate and opened it as a state park. The family’s home, a three-story stone mansion built in 1910, still stands.

Even though the park resides in Easton and Sharon, it get listed only in Easton as one of the 1,000 Great Places in Massachusetts.

I restarted my quest to visit the 1,000 Great Places in Massachusetts by visiting the Children’s Museum of Easton. The Ames Free Library was only one block away, so I needed to pay it a visit.

Oliver Ames II left $50,000 in his will for the construction and support of a library for the benefit of the inhabitants of Easton, Massachusetts. The main building was designed by Henry Hobson Richardson in 1877 and first opened its doors in 1883.

Given that they have the same architect, you probably see some similarity between this library and Trinity Church in Boston. The similarity goes deeper. The library is built of Milford granite with the same Longmeadow trim used on the church.

The children’s wing at the rear was built in 1931. The construction was funded by a gift from Mrs. William H. Ames (Fanny Holt Ames), a member of the Board of Trustees for 40 years, in memory of her husband William Hadwen Ames. The addition was designed by Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge of Boston, the architectural firm formed by three members of H.H. Richardson’s office upon his death in 1886.

In addition to getting back to writing for GeekDad, I’m also trying to continue my quest to visit the 1,000 Great Places in Massachusetts. How about combining the two?

The Children’s Museum of Easton has been on my list of places to visit for several years and I finally got around to making the trip on a rainy June day. You can read more at GeekDad Visits the Children’s Museum in Easton.

The Museum of Science was kind enough to invite me to Media Family Day and a preview of the Dinosaurs exhibit. Since The Girl has been walking around with a stuffed T. Rex for a few weeks, I assumed she would be thrilled to see more about dinosaurs. Of course, The Boy like dinosaurs.

The trip seemed like a good story for GeekDad so you can read more on Wired: Dinosaurs Walking at Boston’s Museum of Science.

At the Millers Kill Community Center, five veterans gather to work on adjusting to life after returning home from the overseas deployment. Reverend Clare Fergusson has returned from Iraq with a head full of bad memories and a drug and alcohol problem. Dr. George Stillman suffered a head wound and is trying to convince himself that it won;t affect his practice. Officer Eric McCrea has bottled up all of his rage from his stint as a guard at prison camp and his failure at anger management is affecting his life as a cop, and as a father. The young Will Ellis is looking for some reason to keep on living after losing both legs to an IED. The doomed Tally McNabb has brought home a secret. To this motley crew, add Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne who just wants Clare to marry him.

That’s the set up for Julia Spencer-Fleming‘s latest book, One Was a Soldier. It sounded interesting enough to read, so I picked it up from the stack that the publisher made available. I enjoy a good mystery.

This was an unusual mystery. The crime does not happen until nearly the midpoint of the book. There is much more focus on the the problems of returning home, the burden of guilt, and the burden war. That means there is plenty of rich character development and intrigue to keep you interested before it turns into a mystery.

Since I do quite a bit of reading on the train during my daily commute, I spent some extra time in South Station squeezing in the end of a chapter in the morning and nearly missing my stop a few times in the afternoon. Not wanting to put a book down is a sure sign of a good book.

The characters are richly drawn and intriguing. They have apparently been around for a while. This is the seventh book that has put Chief Cal Alstyne and Reverend Fergusson together. I haven’t read any of the prior books and it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the story. There seemed to be some obvious references to the prior books. You’ll notice them, but it doesn’t detract from this one.

If One Was a Soldier sounds interesting, you can read an excerpt online. You will have to wait until April 12 for it to go on sale.

After years of planning, Mrs. Doug and I have decided that we are not real estate developers. That means we have scrapped our long-running plans to renovate our house. We moved out in anticipation of the renovation. Instead, we have put it on the market for sale.

If your looking for a grand, old house to renovate in the Greater Boston area. Take a look.  There is an open house on Sunday April 3 from Noon to 1:30.

Listing on Redfin: 321 Central Street, Auburndale.

You get a 30,000 square foot, wooded lot, with long rows of raspberry bushes and four big blueberry bushes. The house is over 2,700 square feet, built in the 1870s. There are beautiful striped hardwood floors in the hallways and dining room. Great hardwood in the library and family room. There are marble fireplaces and beautiful period detail.

What you don’t get are a good kitchen or good bathrooms. They are in desperate need of gut rehab. You’ll also need to re-shingle the roof and paint the outside.

It will be a great project if you have the stamina for a renovation.

A skier with a camera filmed it. Fortunately, he made it out.

Chris Bilbao of Portland, Oregon was skiing in the Monashee Mountains in British Columbia when he was swept away by a small avalanche. Bilbao and one of his friends were wearing chest-harness cameras to capture their ski adventure.

When Bilbao finally came to a stop, his friend was able to snowboard down and help him.

No one was injured in the avalanche. I doubt the same can be said about his underwear.

• Video shows skier being swept away by avalanche
• Chris Bilbao Survives Avalanche While Skiing in British Columbia