Mr. Jack Beveridge lived in Fitchburg, a city on the Nashua River in Worcester County of north-central Massachusetts.
Through the 19th century, Fitchburg was an industrial center.
Water power supported large mills that produced machines, tools, clothing, paper, and firearms.
Today, the city is noted for the survival of great Victorian architecture.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitchburg,_Massachusetts
Jack holds a responsible position within the Engineering Department of the Telegraph Company.
In November of a year near 1910, Jack received a postcard from Edna.
The postcard was mailed from Athol, a town in northwest Worcester County of Massachusetts – about 26 miles west of Fitchburg.
In the 19th century, Athol became a center of tool manufacturing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athol,_Massachusetts
The Vermont & Massachusetts Railroad was laid through Athol in the 1840’ s and another track on this north-south line was added in 1870.
An east-west line of the Fitchburg Railroad was added in 1879.
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The face of the postcard is a photograph of the “Rail Road Station, Athol, Mass.”
The brick building of a single floor is adorned with a tall clock tower.
(The website history at americancenturies.org informs us that there was a second floor under a mansard roof that was destroyed by fire in 1892.)
“This railway station once was a two-story building, completed in 1873. It had mansard roofs and classic Victorian styling, including cast iron filigree atop the main tower and two side towers. In 1892, a fire consumed the upper part of the building, which once had a clock tower and restaurant. Pictured here is the new building, done in a different style of architecture. The station first served the Troy and Boston Railroad, later the Fitchburg Railroad, and still later the Boston & Maine. Today, the station is the town’s bus depot, as there is no longer passenger service to Athol. The railroad tracks behind it carry freight trains owned and operated by Guilford Transportation.”
A stem engine is waiting at the tracks; a water tank stands nearby.
The station pictured here was used by the Fitchburg Railroad; I have not yet discovered if all the rail lines used the same station.
The postcard appears to have been printed in the United States.
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On the reverse, Edna greets, “My dear Jack”.
Edna’s handwriting is distinguished by unusual flourishes so that the greeting could be read as “my dead Jack”.
It appears that Edna is visiting Athol which she describes as “some burg”.
Tonight, Edna is “all prepared for a swim” as this is Ladies’ Night at the Y. M. C. A.
Edna plans to remain in Athol through Sunday, and then proceed to Greenfield.
In closing, Edna expresses her happiness that Jack enjoyed his recent vacation, and hopes that he will not need any more.
One hopes that Edna enjoyed her swim, that her travels were concluded safely, and that she and Jack maintained a long postcard correspondence.




