The Waltham Roadsters
"In the last ten years of the 19th Century, bicycling was sweeping the country and no more so than in Waltham where Bicycle Park was located. In the Sports Room of the Waltham Museum we have a 1900 picture of a men's bicycle club at Bicycle Park. We weren't able to identify these 22 men with R's on their shirt until we recently ran across a publication of the Waltham Roadsters." Here is the story:
"The Club was organized on April 29, 1896 and was first known as the Norumbega Club and later the North Star Club before they became the Roadsters. The charter members were George A. Bacon, Charles Hall, Arthur Brodrick, Clarence Hamilton, Harry Carr, Allan Mosher, William Dow, Frank Whitten and Orin Winn."
"The Roaster Club which held its meetings at the old Broom Factory at 70 Robbins Street would make frequent trips to Chestnut Hill, Revere Beach, the Chute the Chutes in Boston, and other favorite gathering spots for cyclists."
"The Roadsters developed several good cyclist racers, namely Everett Ryan, Chub Fiske and Harry Carr. Later a football team was organized and for seven years the Roadster-Quinobin football game was THE GAME for Waltham fans on Thanksgiving Day. (Note: This was before high school football was organized in 1903.)"
"The Club also expanded into other sports such as boxing, ice-polo, and bowling. However, their lady friends organized their own club called the Merry-Go-Round Club that interfered with the Roadsters program by conducting parties with games, eats , dances, and whist parties. Soon the social affairs became a large and important factor with the Roadsters."
"The Club moved to the Boat House at the Woerd Avenue Bridge on Packard Cove around 1910. Athletics at this time had taken a minor place in Club routine."
"In 1917 World War I came and with it the end of the Roadsters. Members who served in World War I were Ball Bartlett, Ralph Butler, Walter Evans, John Munroe, Waldo Richardson, Nelson Picket, Percy Reed, Dexter Winslow, Raymond Hutmacher and Harold Leach who died during the war. The Club did have annual reunions until 1946."
