It might seem odd to outsiders that Nonantum’s nickname is “The Lake,” when there’s no large body of water to be found.

But that’s because there used to be one: Silver Lake, which was (mostly) filled in by the 1950s with leftover debris from Storrow Drive.

What happened?

The first mention of the lake was in a deed from 1853. People ice skated on it in the winter and cut ice from it to be saved for use in the warmer months. The Silver Lake Cordage Company, which made rope, sat on its banks beginning in 1867. It was about nine acres, one acre less than needed to be considered a Great Pond, a body of water that gets special protection from the state (Crystal Lake and Hammond Pond are both Great Ponds). Consequently, it had no protection from dumping or infill.

The loss of Silver Lake was mentioned when Newton passed its first Flood Plain and Watershed Protection Ordinance in 1971.

There’s a lot more to the history of “The Lake” than the lake itself.

Nonantum initially was the name of a village of indigenous people who had converted to Christianity, and it was located further south, near what is now Newton Corner. The present-day Nonantum had the much more prosaic name of “North Village.” Like most colonial villages, its early European inhabitants were small-scale farmers. That would change in 1778, when David Bemis started a paper mill on the Charles River. This was the beginning of North Village’s new life as an industrial community.

Factories and mills churned out woolen goods, cotton and rope. In the 1860s, the Nonantum Worsted Company purchased a hosiery mill on Chapel Street, and later gave the neighborhood its new name. The company grew as the demand for textiles did, employing hundreds of workers. Today, the location is home to Chapel Bridge Park.

The majority of the workers at the Nonantum Worsted Company, and the many other local factories, were immigrants. The rapid construction of housing for them is why Nonantum is Newton’s densest village. Today, Nonantum is known for being a tight-knit Italian-American community, with the St. Mary of Carmen Society hosting a popular Italian-American festival every July. But they weren’t the only ones.

In the early 20th century, about half of Newton’s Jewish immigrants lived in Nonantum. Nonantum was home to Newton’s first synagogue, Congregation Agudas Achim Anshei Sfard, now known as the Adams Street Shul. It struggled to hang on as Jewish families moved away during the 20th century, but today it’s a thriving modern Orthodox congregation.

Nonantum also had a French-Canadian Catholic church, St. Jean L’evangeliste (St. John the Evangelist), and an accompanying school. By the mid 20th century, it also drew Italian-Americans and Irish-Americans, another group that had moved to Nonantum to work in the mills. This house of worship wasn’t as lucky: it was one of the many parishes closed by the archdiocese of Boston in the 2000s.

Today, Nonantum is a bustling village where a lake once sat. Photo by Bryan McGonigle

Perhaps the most interesting immigrant group in Nonantum was the Roma (then known as “gypsies”). This itinerant ethnic group ran carnivals and similar activities. They also brought their language, which originally comes from India. Some believe that Nonantum’s unique dialect – known as “Lake Talk” – comes in part from the Roma language.

Things changed. The textile industry slowed, and many factories and mills in Massachusetts closed. The 1924 Immigration Act meant that far fewer immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe were permitted into the United States. No longer would Nonantum be an immigrant manufacturing village. Some people moved away to seek opportunities elsewhere, but the people who remained built a strong community, held together by people like Fat Pellegrini, the unofficial mayor of Nonantum, who sponsored numerous community events.

Like other working class neighborhoods in the Boston area, the Lake faces gentrification amid an increasingly high cost of living. For those who call it home, they would hate to live anywhere else.