Agawam, Massachusetts, USA (Feeding Hills)
1955 - Golden Eagle Returns to Duty as Weathervane
Newly Feathered With Gold Leaf, Old Landmark Is Placed on Agawam Church Spire
Agawam, Sept. 6. The Agawam Congregational Church, newly painted on the exterior and with many improvements inside, boasts a new golden eagle weathervane. The old weathervane, which had stood the brunt of storms for more than a century as far as can be determined was broken in removal for gold-leafing.
The new new golden eagle is no new part of the Agawam scene although it has been in retirement for nearly a score of years. For 55 years it swung proudly in the breeze atop the old Agawam Center grammar school and town hall. It was placed on the tower of the old building after the school was built in 1874 and remained a landmark until the building was demolished in 1939 following the opening of the present Benjamin T. Phelps Elementary School.
At that time, no one seeming to wish to adopt the discarded weather signal, Mrs. Howard Pond came into possession of it, partly for sentimental reasons. The vane was mounted on the school in 1874, the year of the birth of Mrs. Pond's mother, Mrs. Edith Crouss, widow of the late Willard Crouss, who now makes her home with her daughter. Mrs. Crouss, a native of Agawam, attended school in the Center building. Because of this, Mrs. Pond, finding that apparently no one else had any sentimental feeling for the eagle, took it and placed it in storage waiting for an opportune time to again place it in the public eye. At one time a memorial flagpole was considered and the eagle was to grace it, but the plan failed to materialize.
For a great many years Mrs. Pond served as clerk of the Agawam Congregational Church. When she heard that the old vane, removed for gold-leafing during extensive repairs to the church and steeple, had broken, she thought of the eagle long in storage. There could be no better public place for its continued service to the community.
So today, the old town landmark and weather indicator, refurbished and shining with gold leaf, tops the high spire of the church, once more telling Agawam the way the wind and who knows, perhaps pointing the way to live.
Springfield Union
Springfield, Massachusetts
September 07, 1955
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