Submitted
by SweAme Board Member Jeanne Rollberg:
Could Poehlers’ “Welcome to Sweden” Television
Series Remind Massachusetts of Some of Its Forgotten Swedish History?
When Burlington,
MA former resident Greg Poehler’s series “Welcome to Sweden” premiered in Sweden in
March, it was so popular that it was picked up for a second season. Welcome to Sweden Trailer
The premise is
that New Yorker Bruce Evans (Poehler) moves from New York to Sweden to follow
his Swedish girlfriend and to make a new start, doing something meaningful with
his life. Greg’s super-talented Poehler
sis, Burlington’s Amy Poehler, portrays herself on the program that humorously
explores the culture shocks and adjustments that modern immigration itself
involves.
We Americans
will be able to see the show stateside beginning Thursday (9/8c), July 10th on
NBC. “It’s time the world laughed with Sweden,” Greg told Sweden’s The Local. "I'm hesitant to say I
want the world to laugh at Sweden...
Sweden is coming out pretty well in this."
What wonderful
timing for Poehler to explore these Swedish issues when a historic Swedish
farmhouse in his hometown of Burlington sits endangered at 26 Prouty Road. It
is a little more than three miles away from the Poehler family residence where
Greg and Amy grew up.
Johnson home photo by John Goff
The house and
then 35 acre farm were owned for about 50 years by a Swedish family that
welcomed everyone to “Johnson’s Grove” for weekend outings, immigrant and
political gatherings, and religious activities. These fostered a historic kind
of community from 1911 to 1959 that helped Swedes, Italians, and Irish find
“welcome” in America. Simon and Olga Johnson and their families built their
American Dream there by the sweat of their brows and the work of their hands
and backs such as most of us avoid today.
As Salem
historic preservation architect John Goff noted, when he presented a report to
the Burlington Historical Commission last October, the house, circa 1850s, has
key architectural features. In addition to being owned by the Johnsons at a
time when Massachusetts had the fourth highest concentration of Swedes in the
country, it also was owned by town father Augustus Prouty of the Burlington
Public Library. The land itself went back to the time of Revolutionary soldier
Giles Alexander. That land and the home
have important and recently discovered stories to tell, and those stories
should be preserved. However, a demolition delay order for the wonderfully
historic old property ended in April.
It is good that
Poehler is highlighting Sweden’s special characteristics, its healthy way of
life, its less materialistic values, and its sheer beauty as he builds successful
television programming. Maybe the Town Meeting and Board of Selectmen could
find a public-private partnership that would enable the property to be
preserved and made into a multi-history farmhouse museum or some other entity
that would valorize Burlington’s past.
Amy Poehler is
well known for her program, “Parks and Recreation.” And interestingly, one of
the current MA farmhouse owners was Peggy Hannon-Rizza. Sadly, she died in
February just after Billerica named the Peggy Hannon-Rizza Recreation Complex
after her because of her outstanding service to the local community.
In “Welcome to
Sweden’s” day, it is possible for immigrants to grasp with some detail the land
to which they are going, and to learn with great detail what to expect. But when Simon Johnson arrived in Boston in
1903 with $25 in his pocket and stayed to earn his Burlington American Dream,
the risks were much greater.
His
grandchildren said that when he sold the farmhouse in the late 1950s, he
stipulated that it must not be torn down. Simon’s farm played a large and
important part in Burlington history for at least five decades. He would like
it if the old farmhouse he loved, that now sits abandoned, bereft of its former
life of smorgasbords and Swedish music, could be given new vibrancy and life.
If in some
strange way the Poehlers’ delightful show about Sweden could heighten their
home community’s appreciation of the immigrant history that sits in its midst,
that gift would be extraordinary for Burlington and for its children’s heritage.
One episode costs more to create than immigrant Simon Johnson made in an entire
lifetime of work. As Independence Day nears, let us embrace the values that
honor the long-term American Dream affluence that, after all, makes the
television show – and well, Massachusetts and America - possible.
What can you, as
a person of Swedish interest or heritage, do to help garner support for keeping
the farmhouse? You can “Like” the
Facebook web page that chronicles the Johnson Family’s contributions: Like This Facebook Page
NOTE: See SweAme’s website information on this Swedish emigrant
family: Simon Johnson.
SweAme has
co-produced a program in Massachusetts in January about the historic preservation of the
farmhouse in which the Johnson family genealogical information was
presented.
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