James F.C. Hyde

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Copy of HYDE, James F.C.The current Hyde Center in Newton Highlands used to be a school named after James F. C. Hyde, Newton’s first mayor. A native of Newton Highlands, Hyde was born in 1825, a descendant of one of the first permanent English settlers of Newton, Jonathan Hyde. He made his living as a realtor, insurance agent, and auctioneer, and maintained extensive gardens on his property. His concern for the natural environment led Hyde in 1852 to help organize the Newton Centre Tree Club "for the purposes of beautifying the roads and commons in Newton Centre". Although it lasted less than three years, the Club was the first improvement society in the country, and the predecessor of the Newton Centre Improvement Association. Hyde also became the president of both the Newton and Massachusetts Horticultural Society.

When Newton became a city in 1873, Hyde was elected mayor by a nearly unanimous vote and served two terms. After Hyde died, he became the first member of a Newton founding family to be buried at Newton Cemetery. In the 2010s, a company in New Jersey named a whiskey named after him using sorghum as a main ingredient. Hyde did pioneering research on sorghum, a cereal grain that can be made into a sweetener.

The Hyde school was built in 1893 and opened with eight teachers and 321 students in kindergarten through ninth grade. Until the 1980s, this was the oldest schoolhouse in Newton still used for its original purpose. The school closed in 1984 and the building is now used as a community center.