hello i'm victoria hasi and today i have with me ian scully we're here at the belmont media center and we're excited to talk about recent projects that we've both produced some short films so ian is the director of culture films and together we're going to talk a little bit more about our projects so you welcome it's great to be here and glad to be able to to join you you made such a name for yourself and with all the work you've done over the years in your various positions and documenting belmont history and i just came to that story and became part of that effort just very recently so i'm very honored and pleased to be here with you and i look forward to a  conversation about your recent project and maybe i'll start first and you can follow up then by asking me some questions so far as as just mentioned then as this briefly referenced have a little bit right up here in terms of some questions for you i understand that you were the past president of the belmont historical society and that you've also coauthored two books on belmont history and more recently you served as  i question to you since i just recently met you is what is it about you and your past and belmont that prompted you to become one of the preeminent experts on and of belmont history well i  i don't consider myself an actual expert but i do enjoy the history of belmont i came here through marriage and my husband grew up in belmont i did not but when i first came to the town i the new place i came to i thought well where am i and what what makes belmont so special and what can i find out about the history of the place that i've just moved to and so just through my own curiosity i began to to go to the historical site of the have a room in the library and look up some information his family is very prominent featured he's both descended from the wellington and the underwoods family so there was a lot of information to be found on his family and just through my own interest became part of the historical society and later as you mentioned went on to be president of the organization and so that started my guess history launching me into the history of belmont so over the years now i've in that capacity of serving in the historical society mostly have been familiar as curator with the collection with the archives with the many things that we put together and take care of  on the history of belmont so it's been kind of a growing passion to just to learn about the collection but add to the collection over the years so most recently it's a well actually it's been it's been interesting belmont of course we'll talk about with your film is was predominately an agricultural community even early on from that from the very settling of it from the sixteenth hundreds a group today is belmont and in terms of is there some kind of uniqueness about it you obviously have some insights that the average average citizen about probably doesn't have in terms of so what is this is there a special meaning to you now that you've yours so much part of this research so but well i think the interesting thing is to to watch how a community has really transitioned from its early beginnings in agriculture to to become as the farms one by one sort of went under then those large tracts of land were developed into house and house lots mostly and residential areas as we know today in belmont co today is known as the town of holmes so it really was a transition from the agricultural beginnings to a residential community that now today's the town of holmes which i think will will actually learn more about in your in your one book one belmont film how agriculture is still in port and aspect of the community so in some ways do you see that as a thread there or are there other threads i know that you just i've been privileged enough to be able to present the history of belmont to many groups and organizations around town you know clubs and groups and people that you know have an interest in the belmont again the belmont history the the way it's developed over the years and so it was an opportunity to again showcase the historical societies large collection of historic photos and documentation the the the film and to put it into a visual format that we haven't in the past really done is much of so it came through from i guess my own presentations over the years first chapters called early history and so we actually tell about you know how the how the first settlers came what the land was known as because of plantation that belmont was actually incorporated in eight fifty nine and took lands from three other towns that were more established laugh and watertown and west cambridge to become its own new town of belmont in hundred fifty nine so the early parts of the history and what was going on there the early settlers that kind of information was in the first chapter talking to documenting some of the those those events then after that we have a chapter called waverley and waverly is one of the earlier settlements of belmont and so we we talk about the community there both residential and commercial maybe you haven't lived here long enough to know of the old corporate drugstore the beaverbrook right reservation the natural beauty of the landscape that attracted people to the area the railroad coming out the mclean hospital property and just some of the businesses and familiar sights of waverly the the the congregational church over there and the daniel butler school the original daniel butler school so all aspects of that community were really kind of developing early on in belmont and i think i saw that also the there waverley trail that yeah that commemorates that whole history that's also also included exactly what we also talk about the waverly trail which was just it's interesting to know that belmont was predominantly agricultural and i think in eight hundred seventy six there were there are about more than seventy five farms were the land area that we know today is belmont and many of the familiar the hidden jurors the shaw as the the houston i mean i could go on down the list of just the vast land areas now that were all agricultural based in the past it recently even up until the one nine hundred eighty s almost with the edgars greenhouses in waverley and other way fully long time we have a business so the market garden theme that covers you know the different aspects of growing the produce that was sent into the faneuil hall marketplace every morning the wagons that were loaded up and made the trip you know into the down into the marketplace with the belmont produce from from many of the farms here in the area so that's kind of interesting really it has a relationship with your particular history so i think you'll you'd enjoy that chapter next we move on a little bit we're going to talk about the next chapter is belmont center and belmont center was also early on a large farming area owned by the wellington so it wasn't developed until later in the in the one nine hundred the wellingtons the winds own much of the land that covered the belmont center area but now today it's the civic center of the town with the town hall being built in the eight hundred eighty one and establishing the home or school and then later the library and sort of geographically setting that apart is the civic center of belmont and talking again a little bit about the early business is there in the historic some historic sites in the belmont center area so that's another interesting chapter that segues into the business chapter which i mention talk about the earliest business and been belmont way back in the eighteen hundreds again and we have belmont springs water company and it was actually founded when they say that settlers followed indians up through the woods and came across springs and later on the business was born the belmont springs water company it's the oldest continuous business in belmont dating back from the eighteenth hundreds so that's featured some of the other businesses perry brothers brickyard and and so there's a lot of the old we we don't that we don't associate today bell with too many businesses but there were you know it tells a little bit of the history of some of the old businesses that were here in the past in the business center aspect of the town so that's another chapter we move into the public schools there's a whole segment on who is mary lee burbank who is the reverend daniel butler how these schools were named where they're located what happened to the pace of park school the brighton street school schools that are no longer standing in belmont little bit of history on those the kendall school the channel reschooling so we chronicle that a little bit about the history of each school and in general  class size in roman in in belmont prompting the building of new schools and as you can imagine as the the areas were turned over to residential neighborhoods the population explosion of population prompting the building of these new schools you know throughout the town and in different areas so the schools are again featured in that and that of course squishing square i mentioned before the  business areas in cushing squares an interesting story as well because the whole land area that we know today is question square was named for john perkins cushing and he owned over two hundred acres of the land  that that is that business center and had his built his mansion there which was called the belmont house from which the town took its name so the significance of that property and his coming to it to belmont  and different owners of the house and different businesses in question square like owens bakery and ben franklin winters hardware so some of the more well known businesses that continued even from the past so it's it's kind of a collection of little little themed chapters but obviously you can view it in its entirety as well you know the whole film in its entirety and then finally we have a we talk about the being the town of holmes and that again today it's prominently known as the town of holmes and so we talk a little bit about that transition from the agriculture to the to the residential we talk about what's going on in the town today of the clubs groups organizations what that make belmont such a fun place to live and to to grow up and to to be and so it's it's a it's a it's a it's a wide range of topics experiences but but hopefully really chronicles and tells from the earliest time to the present the real history of belmont and the way that people will be able to i guess what do you hope to achieve  by by doing this or do you want to you want people to get a better sense of history and place roots or well you know it's interesting because being part of the historical society i always say if you've lived here a day or a decade you're all part of the history of belmont so i think i personally became more aware of this around the turn of the century meaning when we when we crossed the line from one thousand nine hundred ninety nine to two thousand because you know in the in the future with the passing of time the ordinary becomes extraordinary just just with the passing of time and i mean just people's fascinated about cultures lifestyles change that happen even twenty five years ago fifty years ago that are that are you know fun to to understand and to to know about but so i began even what i call a history in the making meaning that encouraging people to document to be aware off to collect things that future generations will ask about and when they say what was going around that what was happening around the turn of the century they're not referring anymore to the one thousand hundreds  future they'll be referring to the year two thousand saying well what was a month and live so in a sense as being people to make time capsules which you've been trying to find from previous generations yes and to get more involved in the in the history of merit to and that will enhance our ability to see what was like to capture the sort of the essence of belmont and to make that available for future generations so just to to allow people to  participate in that and understand that they are a part of history in history in the making so to to round up this this interview i guess maybe you could share with the audience we've talked about i myself listening to you have have a question in terms of what really was what what were some of the driving forces that prompted the incorporation in the development of this town and then bridging that all the way to the future when where do you see the town going to well that's interesting well yes actually a group of citizens got together and petitioned the general court in massachusetts for five years before they won the are there the or fight to set apart a separate town belmont so a little bit of history of that and then they felt at the time that  that some aspects of the knife star were being neglected by the bigger of larger communities in the outskirts their schools weren't getting enough attention their bones these these these concerns that they had early on so on the at the edges of communities and their lives sort of on the outskirts and felt that they are there interests were being a little bit neglected so they wanted to form their own actual government and their own town from that so i think that's kind of interesting  right from the start belmont had people that were not only determined but cared really about you know children the future of this is almost the same issues that we have today it 's almost like you said what goes around comes the schools the roads you know the same issues that prompted the incorporation we find that we're still talking about i want to say that by taking a look at experience belmont you get a better grasp of the things and the issues that have been dealt with in the past how they've been dealt with and maybe provide some insights possibly even some solutions for looking out into the future that would be nice there's enough time that's gone by that that really you can see the progression of how belmont began what direction they're heading and what those choices have meant you know in other words i know one of the things that we talk about a lot belmont today is the lack of businesses you know the lack of commercial tax base but again that would those were decisions that were made in the fifty's and thirty's forty's fifty's when the town was developing when these when these large tracts of land were were put into house lots and so you know you see that you see it's not the solutions you see the consequences of some of the choices and some of the decisions that have been made and what they've course as you can imagine you know being familiar with the collection and spending some time with the other books and putting together pictures and things but being able to put it all together in this video format think it's a it's a fast moving kind of an exciting way to look at the history of belmont so i hope i hope you'll enjoy it so in terms of i guess that would conclude this part of the interview and at this point i guess we're going to in a sense trade trade see the thing about getting about getting up yet because i know that you nine holding in hosting events that celebrated hundred fifty years in belmont corporation and i know that you were participating in that by capturing the one book one belmont events which were agricultural themed and that sort of where you started with the with the connection with belmont filmmaking come to the story that way i actually saw a roundabout way and th was more for five feel that came all the way from having grown up in belmont but then living for years and in new mexico and start to get involved in agriculture in new mexico but then came to back to the belmont area and was actually doing filming throughout massachusetts agricultural related film project and that's when while i was doing that i went to the library and there i read all these fires a lot of this is incredible here i am working on all agriculture related things and there's a whole event about belmont agriculture and come to find out through that that there is actually a still viable working farm today in government that i wasn't tell you that you almost embarrassed to say wasn't even aware of when i was growing up but i didn't live right near that near then you had said that sort of your your interest in agriculture is more than just professional it's personal in a way you know and that you  are in a sense that's that's one thing but i have more what i have going for me in terms of learning about agriculture is that i already had some film background and thanks to the facilities here and the equipment and at belmont media center i was able to film a number of events but maybe to to get more to the point about the belmont's agricultural history and heritage the belmont public library put on an event i think it was their second time that they did it was called one book one belmont last year's was focused on based on the hundred fiftieth anniversary and spotlighting agriculture is the thread to fall that history as well as there was quite a bit about the present and future and all the films that i've done i try to get a grasp of the pasts the present to even be able to project out in the future and therefore i took some liberties with the one book one belmont in that there were a number of events that i that i filmed but when i went to a number of those events like for instance example the liberty i took with when about the surgery farm in particular we have the farm that produced what they sold going to a venue hall and all but then there was also a talk by the old weeds and and that and south surgery was there and that prompted me well said well you can hear him inside the library but that's not the same as going to the f you were mentioning lydia ogilvy and she's a descendant of the hill family and she still owns about a no i think it's about an eleven acre parcel see that's what i tried to capture i got an interview with the i made a point of interviewing her and sells so they both talk about they're still a little bit of a mystery to me why it's called the surgery farm because it actually belongs to a friend in the case not important not so important but i get i was able to get south family's history which is more of course more recent but it's also central to the farm but as well as the ogilvy's write history with with her telling their story and so a lot of what you mentioned earlier about the to me the names that hill family the wellingtons and and she mention also in the film yeah but it's not just that's only one part of it what i meant about projecting out into the future and how agriculture is actually becoming seems to becoming a vibrant part of belmont and who knows what may become of it in the future because there's still quite a bit of open space  is the farmer's market which is very which is noteworthy in that it's not particularly pastoral town it's very close to two point six miles from the heart of boston and it won the best of best to boston farmer's market two thousand and nine two thousand and nine so i was able to and i had the opportunity to to meet ellie ellie tom and some of her colleagues that have put together  know during the during the filming or i just basically i wasn't able to film all the events it was too much to film all the events and there were it was really kudos to the at least i think they deserve a lot of credit the  belmont library staff and especially emily reardon who coordinated putting us putting all this together because they had a wide breadth of of activities but the ones that i was i wasn't able to get to the schools but i was able to cover  roger rubles walk through the open space of much of the open space of belmont and he's just a goldmine of knowledge about nature ecology as well as the agricultural history so i included some clips from that i included some clips as i mentioned from from the surgery farm there was a presentation by gene show when francis more of the pay also gave a talk right near one of the openings i think in many been the opening of vent and then i finished off with the with the farmer's market and interspersed it with shots there so that hopefully one gets  a sense of the outdoors that's what i was trying to focus on what is what is belmont look like there's a whole part of that town of homes may not all be all that familiar with so my hope is that through this film s a history seems to be that i found out that rock betto goes back all the way to pre colonial times that it was sacred and very active place amongst the neighbor americans and originally i think part of the land holdings of mclean hospital before it was purchased by the town and now it's under the management the conservation commission in belmont which they do a nice job that you know roger like i said roger was really and he's very well spoken and he's able to articulate things very well and i think that comes across well in the film i myself was amazed to learn it everything that i learned from the different speakers who are all very knowledgeable for instance that the olmsted brothers or at least up the mclean area yes he was a landscape designer for the for the campus in the property up there on belmont hill originally well that's great so we'll be able to see sort of a little bit about the past farming and will be able to see some  freshest corner is still a favorite so those of you don't know about that it's not i guess it's no longer the best kept secret it's amazing that they you don't it's hard it's hard to find it but once you do i think people once they know where it is they don't they tend to come back so that's great so that's also when you're one book one belmont correct film well i know that's not the only film that we're going to be presenting here in the belmont media center you have three or four others i think i'll have to to you can compare it compare this way the experience belmont gives you a sense of the diversity the breadth of all the different types of activities happening as history in belmont yes my films focus strictly on agriculture but show the diversity breath and the history too of agriculture in massachusetts which is right i think least to me was it was both inspiring and also sort of i was taken aback at just to to what a central role agriculture has played in massachusetts but actually continues to my understanding is that it's the third in terms of economically it's the third most important industry or not industry or sector should we say business sector within within the massachusetts economy still because as soon as you drive outside of one twenty eight massachusetts a predominately rural agricultural  more diversified farms and small farms and local and in the way transportation has become so expensive it's actually increasing and pushing agriculture as a as a livelihood as a business and that's also  demand for local agriculture was going to say that i think there's been a growing trend over the last you know few years at least that people want local grown produce and to to buy things that but there's a problem in that there's and there's the demand there but of have the demand you don't necessarily have the supply of the people that have the know how and in this case the land to produce what the market wants and that's why it's important to have programs like agricultural education programs so i focused to the film's focus on on that very issue and also organic edge our gammick agriculture because for so many years i mean just by default agriculture was organic years and years ago but with all the introduction of chemicals and different fertilizers not that weren't particularly natural fertilizers there's a need for an education on how do we how do we sense go back to the way things were but maybe with our technological know how making it all the better sold there are some really interesting models out there that are doing just that and one of the films that i focused on was that i made a film about short film was the natick organic community farm and i would just point out to residents that they may or may have an interest in looking at just what they're doing there because they they're very successful they work with kids of all ages including adults they're truly organic and  they'd they don't just talk the talk they really walk in and do the work and grow the things that that the community wants and they do it in a self sufficient manner and that is also educational so you want to interview me fine but you're coming outside because i don't have time to sit down and so like i said they really do what they do so she's cutting the flowers doing the work while i'm leaning over you and so that's strictly sort of trying to capture the  success they've had their the teaching aspect of it getting involved aspect to it to make that available to others that might want to duplicate that kind of a model in their in their yes and i think that only it's a viable model that yeah could could be replicated elsewhere right and that ties in with the film that it's finished yet but it's mostly done and there turns out that they were both sort of started at the same time and they've been kind of  natick community organic farm what they're sort of modeled after that but turns out just by happenstance i'd lost touch with them he's somewhat younger than me but we were next door we grew up together skiing in the white mountains in new hampshire but patrick the who was the next door neighbor coring up in my ski days he is he's the director there and i think they're prospering right doing very well under his under his leadership it's all about organic education all about also interview some of the students that were there at the time kit when i say students i should say the the children's program as well as the adult program there's an adult program too so that includes to not just not just an interview with the director  feedback and of course gives you an idea of what it looks like up there with because it's very rural out there after all although it's only just under an hour from boston but it's really very rural and i know another film you had this is a mass agricultural history told by ed harris was a it's an ed hands he happens to be he used to be a high school teacher a history teacher but then he somehow i don't know why he got a strong interest in agriculture education and he's just able to he knows the agricultural history cold you can ask him and he's just able to spin off you know he'll be talking about agricultural history but he can tie in because he was a history teacher can tie in the politics the economics the social movements of the time and able to explain how and why culture developed the way it did but also how it shaped the massachusetts history of the nation in a sense the american agriculture developed in this area and then how that was either i doubted or put aside or further developed by the colonists and so you were able to sit down and actually interview him and  future and you have one other film that is about the classroom mass agriculture in the classroom that's how we actually came to two to the to this project and that was filming agriculture workshops throughout the state and that just highlighted the  the amazing diversity and breadth of massachusetts agriculture because for example there are things you can grow you can grow like you can grow peaches and plums and certain things you drive twenty thirty miles up the up over the border massachusetts and that's you can't do so we still are in a relatively temperate climate that allows for that and then we have then we have the will of the cranberry bog that you know you won't find just anywhere  and we have we still have a lot of dairy farms we have a growing community supported agriculture farms so we have a very diversified basis of farms out there that were shrinking for many years but are now coming back the only thing that's holding back masters ever culture is that there's probably greater demand for local agriculture but the land prices are higher than anywhere else in the country ye exactly so there's so a little bit of competition i guess you could say for the land as far as whether to develop it or or to put it back into natural resources and also an interesting and interesting case study and it was just written up in the of actually how how it works for both the owners in this case all of these as well as the town and to meet the local demand for food and for those of the view is that they don't know that that that lydia  were talking about now is is actually put her land i think about nine acres under under restriction of farming in agricultural restriction so that in perpetuity it will be preserved for that purpose and can't be we develop for any other any other use so that's the kind of thing you're talking about protecting open space protecting areas specifically with the idea that there will be be agricultural resources or resources throughout the state and so that's just one example here in belmont of and so the other the other component the only last thing i'd like to say is that once again education is the basis of everything is also the base of the future and there are programs throughout the country and in massachusetts called for age programs those are during the school years and the mass ag in the classroom provides what they provide is training for teachers agricultural education for teachers and that's what i was capturing at different farms different sites in those farmers were passing on to the teachers about agricultural models in terms of business models as well as teacher activities and what teachers can do with the class through make them aware and in some cases we saw school gardens too when there's a growing movement for school guards to all to operate those into the classroom and into the cafeteria into the cafeteria while well i be you know before we sort of let the cameras roll we got we got to know each other a little bit anyways and and you had told me that cultural films is basically a way that you can explore different cultures and  investigate and you consider the farming culture is something that you've done in this series of films is really taken a look at the culture of farming throughout massachusetts and made that available in these ads is it five short films so i'm with culture films and trying to focus on on the way of life and capturing that and kept capture the full breath and beauty of of that of course farming has its you know smelly dirty all the rest sighs side to it but i think we're also starting to realise as we've lost touch with our agricultural past we're starting to realise also the benefits of at least having understanding it and understanding where it's going from what it's doing to our bodies and making sure that that week that we have we build that connection with that again and that they're there by the focus also on the education side to these farms both from the historical present  future future so ties it all together very nicely well that sort of ties maybe this session together very nicely i know that the belmont media center will be showing these so probably consult your schedules and maybe we can  put that up on the screen and have those times and dates available i'm not sure if that's set yet but please look forward to that we look forward to seeing these films run in the belmont media center as far as the experience belmont project  the video is out to just recently been ready to go and so people who are interested in that we can you can purchase a copy and take a look at the history of belmont so anything you want that you want to i straw and belmont has also has an agricultural history and it's probably important to if we understand where we come from we can we know we're going to win in many aspects and obviously for  belmont resident to understand their past they can get a greater appreciation understand maybe where where the town is and where should move toward exactly and the beauty of the town which is really really took me aback when i was able to follow through all these open spaces and find out the history of them and the history that's so important so so good so we will look forward to seeing your films and also the experience of you know belmont d v d and thanks to the belmont media center for for making this  as in a sense making my films possible and and hope that it could collaboration for the town the center and i know i think thank the center for making this possible yes thank you