A documentary film by Roger Hagopian
Wednesday, September 26, 2012 at 7:00PM
Watertown Free Public Library, Watertown Savings Bank Meeting Room, 123 Main Street, Watertown, MA 02472

Early in its operation the Middlesex Canal terminated at the Charlestown Mill Pond near the Sullivan Square T Station. An ingenious method of pulling the boats across the Charles River was devised using a chain marked by floats at the top and tethered by weights at the bottom. This was necessary because the boats had no keel and were 70 feet long and unwieldy. Hand over hand the scows and barges of the Middlesex Canal were pulled across the Charles River to Barton’s Point. Sometime later, a canal was dug across the causeway sand bar and boats were taken across the Boston Mill Pond to meet up with the Mill Creek coming from the ocean. Thus, Boston was bisected by the Canal.

In 1808 Charles Bulfinch devised a plan to fill in the Mill Pond, and designed the Bulfinch Triangle. At the top of the triangle is Causeway Street, the old sandbar, and through the center of the triangle ran the Canal, which is today’s Canal Street.

Mr. Hagopian is a board member of the Middlesex Canal Association A history lover since his youth, Roger is a 1972 graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Boston, where he received his degree in music.His films include: 1996 - Journey Along the Middlesex Canal, 1999 – Journey ofan Armenian Family, 2002 – Memories of Marash, The Legacy of a Lost Armenian Community, 2006 – Victory at Van, 2006 – Our Boys, Armenian-American World War II Veterans, 2007 – Memory Fragments of the Armenian Genocide, 2009 – Destination Watertown: The Armenians of Hood Rubber. 

has had film presentations at high schools, universities, libraries,community centers and private homes.

"For me, video is a way of telling history that is educational, multidimensional, and compelling."

For more information please contact Joyce at 781-899-7239 or joycekel@aol.com

All meetings are free and open to the public