Neighbor News
Newton Throwback: Crystal Vision for the Lake
We have ice dealers to thank for naming the body of water in Newton Centre Crystal Lake; the city built a bath house there in 1930.
The City of Newton now operates a swimming area and bath house at Crystal Lake, but swimming was
more of a free-for-all in the 19th century, leading to complaints about nudity. Debate about whether the city should operate a public bath house continued from 1916 to 1930, when the current bath house was built. The lake, once known as Wiswall’s Pond and Baptist Pond, became Crystal Lake in the 19th century, when ice dealers renamed it Crystal Lake to make the source of their ice sound more attractive.
