Remember Jamaica Plain?

Who is that street named after?

noreply@blogger.com (Not Whitey Bulger) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 23:16:00 +0000

I did my best to list the people that streets are named after. As you approach the end of the 19th Century, it gets harder to figure out who the streets are named for - I'm guessing that most of them were not long-time residents. Thus, no Sheridan, no Hall, no Dunster or Dane streets. No doubt I've missed some easy ones. Unfortunately, no one kept records of who named the streets, or how the names were chosen.

Achorn circle - Edgar Achorn, lawyer, lived along South st.

Amory st - Amory estate.

Ballard st - Ballard family owned land along South st.

Beethoven st - German composer.

Bismark st - German politician.

Boylston st - Nicholas Ward Boylston, owned land from Centre street back to the railroad tracks.

Brewer st - Sarah Brewer lived in the house at the corner of Brewer and Thomas streets.

Brown terrace - land owned by A.S. Brown, businessman.

Burroughs st - William Burroughs laid out road.

Bussey st - Benjamin Bussey - owner of the Arboretum land during early 1800s.

Call st - John M. Call had an estate near Green street train station.

Child st - probably Abner Child - owned land across South street - sold the land for St Thomas' church.

Eliot st - John Eliot, Apostle to the Indians, gave the land on either side for the Eliot School.

Goldsmith place - Benjamin Goldsmith owned a house along Centre st and a slaughterhouse set
back from the road.

Goldsmith st - Benjamin Goldsmith owned a farm along Centre street where the Arborway and the Arboretum are now.

Goodrich rd - Samuel Goodrich, author, lived across Centre st.

Greenough ave - D.S. Greenough developed the street from his family's estate.

Hagar st - Daniel Hagar was principal of the Eliot school during the mid-1800s, lived in the area.

Harris ave - Luther Harris, doctor.

Heath st - Heath family, including General Heath, Revolutionary war.

Holbrook st - Amos Holbrook had a house and farm along Centre st beside the Unitarian church.

John A. Andrews - Mass. Civil War Governor

Lamartine st - French poet, friend of Samuel Goodrich, whose estate was part of Lamartine street.

Louder's lane - Louder family.

Marlou terrace. - A portmanteau name from Marie and Louis Mahn, owners of the land later subdivided into the street.

May st - May family - John May, settled the land in the 1600s.

McBride st - deceased WW I soldier

Meehan st - Patrick Meehan, builder, developer owned land.

Mozart st - German composer.

Newsome park - George Newsome bought estate, moved the old house and developed the street.

Parley ave - Samuel Goodrich estate on site.

Parley vale - Samuel Goodrich estate on site.

Paul Gore st - Gore family owned land along Centre street at site of road.

Perkins st - James Perkins purchased Pinebank land in early 1800s along Connecticut road,
named Perkins street in 1825.

Peter Parley rd - Samuel Goodrich built a house here, but never lived in it.

Prince st - Capt.John Prince bought the old Governor Bernard estate along Jamaica Pond, developed the road between Pond and Perkins streets.

School st - land surrounding School st between Stony brook and Walnut avenue was donated to the Roxbury public school - later Roxbury Latin - by Daniel Bell.

Seaverns ave - Luther Seaverns owned land the fronted on Centre street where Seaverns ave. is now.

Starr lane - Daniel Starr, blacksmith, had a shop set back from Centre street here during the early 1800s. Starr lane was probably a right-of-way to get to his property. His wife actually bought the land in her own right.

Thomas st - Hugh Thomas and wife donated land to the Eliot School.

Walter st - Rev Walter, first pastor of 2nd Roxbury parish.

Warren sq - land formerly owned by Dr John Warren.

Weld avenue - Weld family owned Arboretum land until 1802, and much of Forest Hills after that.

Weld Hill st - Weld family.

Wyman st - Wyman family owned land here.

J.P. Historical Society Tour - Monument Square

noreply@blogger.com (Not Whitey Bulger) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 04:01:00 +0000

Come along this Saturday, July 11, for a tour of the Monument district of Jamaica Plain. The Soldier's Monument, the Unitarian Church, Eliot Hall and the Eliot School are all featured, plus some great examples of Victorian houses and stories of fascinating former residents.

The tour starts at the Loring-Greenough house at 12 South st. at 11:00 AM, weather permitting, and it's free as always.

Tour web page.

Mrs Walker's School

noreply@blogger.com (Not Whitey Bulger) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:36:00 +0000

Among the community histories recorded at the Jamaica Plain Historical Society web site is the Reminiscenses of Jamaica Plain, 1845-1875, by Miss Ellen Morse. In it is a passing mention of a Mrs. Walker's school house on Centre street. I've posted entries about some private schools (Stephen Minot, Mrs. McKeige, Mrs. Cranch) but others have been on hold for want of information. While doing a general search for new Jamaica Plain stories, I recently came upon the advertisement above. Not only are we given an address that is in accord with that described by Miss Morse in her memoir, but we also get Mrs. Walker's home address.

That home address, Elm and Walker streets, brings in another thread. I had noticed in the past that on the 1874 map below, a Mrs. Walker lived on the corner of Elm and what we now call Sedgwick street (see below). Directly opposite are a house and an empty lot owned by a G. Walker. The 1873 West Roxbury Directory tells us that Mrs. Mary A. Walker was the widow of Mr. James P. Walker, and Gideon Walker was a carpenter with a business at the Jamaica Plain train depot at Green street. There seems to be no family connection between Mary and Gideon, so we are left wondering whether the street was named for her or him. By 1881, Sedgwick street was extended to John A. Andrew street and Walker street was no more.

G.M. Hopkins, 1874 (JP Historical Society).

For more information about Mrs. Walker, we go to the 1880 census (available at FamilySearch.org). Mary Walker was born in Massachusetts in 1832 of English-born parents. Unfortunately, the online archive says of her husband only that he was born in New Hampshire. Their oldest child, a son, was born in Ohio, followed by two girls, born in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The household in 1880 also included Mary's sister, Martha A. Matthews, and a Miss Hattie F. Seager, both teachers, presumably at Mrs. Walker's school. Also in the house were housekeeper Martha H. Stevens of Maine and servent Katherine Kelley from Ireland.

Regarding the school itself, I'll quote from Miss Morse's reminiscense, which starts at the Unitarian Church at Centre and Eliot streets: " Beyond the Parsonage was the fine house occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Nathaniel Curtis. Then came the house of Mr. Moses Williams, which is no doubt remembered by some of these present.Then came the Hallett House, which was originally a very pretty two-story house. Later with an additional story it was Mrs. Walker's schoolhouse. I associate it as being occupied for some years by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Horton and their handsome daughters and sons. " There may be some confusion as to the exact location of the school-house, but I suspect that it was at the location shown below. In fact, the Moses Williams house preceeded the Curtis house, so we can't rely entirely on memories when sorting these things out.

Edit: I've done some digging at the Norfolk County Registry of Deeds that should clarify the location of the school house. Miss Morse tells us that the school was in the Hallet house, which later housed the Horton family. No Hortons owned property on Centre street during those years, so they must have been renting. The map below shows a house on the corner of Centre and Orchard streets owned by a George Cox.

Mr. Cox was a builder, and in 1869 he bought a lot of land from Dr. Benjamin F. Wing and his wife Adelaide. The land had come to Adelaide from her father, George Hallett. He also bought land from Joseph W. Balch, who had inherited it from his late wife Maria, also a Hallett daughter.

In 1832, George Hallett of Boston had purchased from a Mr. Samuel Billings 10 acres of land between "the Great Road" (Centre street) and "the road to Newton" (Pond street, or today's Jamaicaway). Just five years earlier, Billings had obtained the land from Ellen Gibbs, daughter of Crowell Hatch. Hatch, a sea captain and ship owner, had purchased it in turn from Timothy Penny of Jamaica - the island, not the Plain - in 1799.

So we've traced Mrs. Walker's school house back through it's owners to 1799. Timothy Penny listed the island of Jamaica as his address when he sold the land, so he must have returned there after having spent time in Jamaica Plain. Crowell Hatch is deserving his own entry here, and one will come in time. I know nothing of George Hallett, but while he owned the property, he must have rented the house to the Hortons, who are mentioned by Miss Morse above and show up on the 1859 map below.

Centre and Orchard sts, 1874.

1859 - Centre street runs right to left.

And finally, we can see the old house disappearing in the twentieth century.

1905 - the house still present, but new lots are planned in its place.

1924 - the house is gone, replaced by two brick apartment buildings.

So the forgotten Mrs. Walker and her private school took us back to the turn of the 19th century. What was once a ten acre estate became much of Orchard, Aldworth and Dane streets and Dunster road. The house was one of three that lined Centre street throughout much of the 19th century between today's Soldier's Monument and the Arborway, and sadly all three were sacrificed to squeeze in as many residents as could fit into 20th century Jamaica Plain.

As an added bonus, I picked up another nugget while examining deeds for this entry. The Penny-Hatch deed of 1799 puts the north boundry of the estate on "the road to New Town," that being the road to Newton, or Pond street, also our Jamaicaway. The Boston street atlas lists the origin of Pond street as 1825, but notes that it may have been a public highway previously. Now we know that the public had access to Jamiaca Pond by way of Pond street by at least 1799 and probably earlier. We might speculate - in fact I will - that Governor Bernard's estate of decades earlier may have sat on the same road. So you never know what you'll find when you dig into the details of local history. Mrs. Walker got me back to Timothy Penny of Jamaica, and perhaps to a Royal Governor as well.

Norfolk Count Registry of Deeds:

379:198 5/21/1869 B.F & A. Wing to George D. Cox

382:78 7/22/1869 J. W. Balch to George D. Cox

97:98 8/13/1832 S. Billings to George Hallett.

83:291 11/23/1827 E.M. Gibbs to Samuel Billings

11:40 8/23/1799 T. Penny to Crowell Hatch.

JP Historical Society Tour - Woodbourne

noreply@blogger.com (Not Whitey Bulger) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:31:00 +0000

The former St. Andrew the Apostle Church.

Come out this Saturday, June 20, at 11:00 AM (weather permitting) for the Jamaica Plain Historical Society's Woodbourne tour. Running south of Walk Hill street, the Woodbourne area was home to wealthy lawyers and businessmen in the 1800s. The family estates gave way to residental development, including an experimental housing project built by the Boston Dwelling House Company.

The tour starts in front of the former St. Andrew's church on Walk Hill street. And as usual, the price is right (free!).

J.P. Historical Society Tour - Green Street

noreply@blogger.com (Not Whitey Bulger) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:23:00 +0000

The Jamaica Club house - formerly at Green and Rockview sts.

Come out this Saturday, June 13, at 11:00 AM (weather permitting) for the Jamaica Plain Historical Society's Green street tour. Green st was laid out in the 1830s, soon after the railroad was built, and the combination of the two could be said to have set off the development of modern Jamaica Plain. Learn about blacksmiths and harnessmakers, schools and factories. Green st. was the home to a trailblazing professional woman and a world-class manufacturer.

For an extra added bonus, I'll be leading this tour (and it's free!), so come out and say hello. The tour starts at the corner of Centre and Green sts.

JP Historical Society tour page.

JP Historical Society Tour

noreply@blogger.com (Not Whitey Bulger) — Thu, 14 May 2009 04:19:00 +0000

House on Alveston st., Sumner Hill.

This Saturday, May 16 will be the first of three Sumner Hill tours through the season. The tour begins at 11:00 AM, weather permitting, and starts at the Loring-Greenough house at Centre and South streets. The tour combines architectural gems with historical context, and tells the stories of a variety of fascinating past residents.

Tour info.

Susan W. Fitzgerald

noreply@blogger.com (Not Whitey Bulger) — Mon, 11 May 2009 04:01:00 +0000

Susan Walker Fitzgerald was born in 1871 in Cambridge, Massachusetts to well to do parents. She attended Bryn Mawr college, graduating in 1893. After time working at Bryn Mawr and Barnard College, she married Richard Y. Fitzgerald, an attorney. His family's business interests took them west, where Susan and daughter Rebecca left San Francisco just four days before the great earthquake. An illness suffered by Richard returned them east, and after a time Susan took a paying job supervising Pauline Agassiz Shaw's social work in Boston. In 1911, they moved to Greenough avenue, Jamaica Plain.

Susan was active in the suffrage movement, serving as an officer in various local and national organizations. From 1911-1915 she wrote a column three times a week in the Boston Evening Traveller. After a failed campaign for the Boston School Board, she won election to State Representative from Jamaica Plain, being the first woman Democrat to serve in the Legislature (Sylvia Donaldson was elected the same year as a Republican). After a single term, she left politics but remained active in public life.

Boston Daily Globe December 3, 1922

TELLS WHAT WOMEN LEARN IN POLITICS

Susan W. Fitzgerald Talks on Place in Public Life

Representative-Elect Speaks Before Twentieth Century Club

Susan W. Fitzgerald of Jamaica Plain, one of the first two women to be elected to the State Legislature, representing the 22nd Suffolk District, spoke at the Twentieth Century Club yesterday afternoon on was (sic) "The Function of Women in Public Life."

Mrs Fitzgerald said that women were in political offices really to learn, as well as to serve. She emphasized the point that she wished people to regard her as representing the district as whole, and not as simply a women representing women in a district. On the other hand, she said, her interest should be that of the entire community rather than personal or sectional interests.

she said she believed women in office had really more to learn than to give, and that politics was a great school in which women might learn in a great many ways to be good sports, to take work as it comes, to seek no favors, no deference, no advantages - in short to be treated as man to man.

She spoke of the personal interest people had taken in women's work in politics, and said that in her own case that interest had strengthened a personal bond between her and her neighbors as nothing had done in the past. This bond she said was a basis for the right kind of political activity.

She stated that men voters had shown an interest in the candidacy of women for public office, and that this was a proof of the trust in woman's ability to represent people capably.

A question period followed. Samuel Hubbard presided. Dr. E.A.Winship gave a short talk on his travels in Dakota.

Source: Susan Walker Fitzgerald Papers

Church and State

noreply@blogger.com (Not Whitey Bulger) — Fri, 08 May 2009 03:16:00 +0000

J.G. Hales, 1819 (BPL)

Ward Nicholas Boylston was the son of Loyalist Benjamin Hallowell. After the Revolution and the seizure of the family homestead by the new government, Ward Nicholas, having taken his maternal uncle's name, returned to Roxbury and won back the property in a lawsuit. The house and property were on Centre street, near the corner of what became Boylston street. Read more about The Hallowells and Mr. Boylston here.

Massachusetts was the last state to go through disestablishment - the legal separation of church from state - and that did not happen until 1833. In 1802, residents were still required by law to attend and support their local church. In this case, Mr. Boylston had to get an act of the Legislature to allow him to leave the First Roxbury parish in Roxbury proper and join the Third parish at Centre and South street. Since the parishioners supported the meeting house financially, any movement among parishes could harm the fiscal health of the church, and as such was of concern to the state. In this case, Mr. Boylston got his wish. Perhaps coincidentally, when the Town of West Roxbury was cut from greater Roxbury in 1851, Mr. Boylston's land would sit just inside the northern border of the new town.

Columbian Minerva September 14, 1802.

LAWS

Commonwealth of Massachusetts

In the year of our LORD one thousand eight hundred and two.

An act to set off Ward Nicholas Boylston, of Roxbury, and his estate on Jamaica Plain, from the first to the third precinct or parish in Roxbury.

Section I

Be it enacted by the Senate & House of Representatives, in General Court assembled and by the authority of the same, That Ward Nicholas Boylston, of Roxbury in the county of Norfolk, with his estate there consisting of a Dwelling-House, and nine acres of land more or less, be, and hereby is set off from the first and annexed to the third parish in Roxbury on Jamaica Plain. Provided the said Boylston shall pay his proportion of parish charges due from his to said first parish prior to the date of this act.

June 21, 1802.

By the Govenor approved..

A Postal History of Jamaica Plain

noreply@blogger.com (Not Whitey Bulger) — Wed, 06 May 2009 04:01:00 +0000

I've already posted two entries on the Jamaica Plain post office - here's a history that adds much to the story.

Jamaica Plain News April 29, 1899

JAMAICA PLAIN POST OFFICE.

The Local Historian Traces Its Existence from 1829 to 1899 With Relative Facts that Bear on the Progress of Jamaica Plain.

The history of our local post office is a coincidence in the growth of Jamaica Plain. It bears weight in evidence of what our own district has been and assumes a position in indicating what Jamaica Plain is.

A search into the records of the Boston postal department show that in the beginning of the second quarter of the century Jamaica Plain formed a community too modest in point of numbers to justify a post-office. However, four years later this order of things was changed.

Whether by this time the place had received an impulse towards growth or the voice of these few inhabitants had been heard at headquarters, true it is, that in January, 1829, Mr Joshua Seaver was appointed post-master with the full authority of the office. Mr. Seaver was a merchant of the village, and the distinction that fell to him would imply an enterprise on his part and an esteem on the part of his fellow townsmen, two qualifications that his grandsons, of the firm of R. Seaver & Sons on Centre street, bear today.

On the site occupied by the present store of this latter firm, Mr.Joshua Seaver conducted the duties of his office with the honorarium, for propriety permits no other name, of twelve dollars per annum. In 1833, Mr.Seaver was succeeded by his son, Robert Seaver, himself later accepting the office in Roxbury which he held from 1845-49.

The records read at this time, not without uncertainty in the matter of date, that Andrew Jackson, on a visit to Boston during his presidency, called at the Jamaica Plain post-office. One is left in doubt as a result of this absence of specification on the chronicler's part whether Joshua the father or his son Robert had the honor of receiving the nation's chief executive.

The present store, of the firm that we have alluded to, being built at this time, Mr. Robert Seaver set apart a corner in the building for the purposes of the government. Evidently Mr. Robert Seaver and his office agreed, for we find him holding it 16 years, with an interval of six years, from '49 to '55, when Mr. Jacob P. George assumed the duties and temporarily removed the department to a building on the site now occupied by W.F. Fallon's fish market.

During this time the emoluments of office were keeping pace with the growth in sales of stamps. In 1839 the amount was $151.68 and in 1849 the incumbent drew, during his first year's term, the salary of $215.68.

The share of receipts received by the government for the year 1849 was $320.94.

Not until 1870 did Jamaica Plain rise in dignity from a fourth class postal division to a third class, with receipts of over $1000 per annum. Ten years later it assumed its present status of second class which demands an annual income exceeding $8000.

Upon the reappointment of Mr.Robert Seaver in 1855, the salary had risen to $452.79, and in 1859 to $495.44, with a net reserve to the government of $474.29. Here observe that the postmaster was more fortunate than the government and this became frequently the case in fourth-class postoffices now that the salary was based on the cancellation of stamps and not on their sale. Yet, in face of the advantage to the postmaster that this new order of things there have frequently been found unscrupulous enough to avail of the opportunity to increase their income by surreptitiously passing city mail through their own particular department.

With no evidence to indicate that Mr. Robert Seaver had a successor during the period covered from 1855 to 1863, we are safe in assuming that he enjoyed another eight years of postmastership in spite of his democratic principles in opposing the Lincoln administration of the last three years of this period. But by this time a change of functionary, evidently anticipated by the friends of the government, was incumbent if the principle be maintained, to the victor belong the spoils, for we find the office in 1863 passing into the hands of Dr.Marcus T.Robinson.

Coupled with his professional duties the doctor for a short time only, however, handled the mail constructing for the purpose a primitive building on Centre street, now occupied by the Dillingham Express Company. With the death of Mr. Robinson, his widow took charge, and in 1873, when Mr. Silas Poole was appointed to the postmastership, was still discharging the duties.

During the three latter years of Mrs.Robinson's term the receipts of the office exceeded $1900 annually. This now made the department a third-class office and a gift at the disposal of the President. The salary attached thereto was $1000, a comfortable income for the good widow.

As we look back it seems, as far as permanency of location is concerned, that our post office of those days fared no better than the tent of the Arab.

With the installation of Mrs. Poole came another change of locality, the government this time taking up its quarters at 725 Centre street, in the store now rented by the Messers. Libbey Bros. Two years later this growing factor in the industrial life of the community was about to assert its importance and secure a recognition it had for some time been entitled to. In 1875 the Jamaica Plain post office became a branch of the Boston general office and the advantages connected with the step were soon felt in the district. Mr. Silas Poole became Superintendent Silas Poole and a more central locality for the postoffice was a question that was started.

The following year when Superintendent Poole handed his office over to Superintendent Wilson H. Fuller, Woolsey Block became the favored location. From here, occupying one half of a store of which Mr. A Haxton occupied the other half, the office was transferred to the stores 7 and 9 Call street. Though out of the way as far as the public was concerned, and inconvenient to the officials themselves, the location on Call street served for a few years.

In April, 1887, Mr. John Lewis, who now holds the office, was appointed superintendent, and in March, 1897, Mr. M.C. Coin was appointed acting superintendent, having been transferred from Cambridge. Mr. Coin called the attention of the general office to the defects of the locality, and as a result, in October, 1897, the office was replaced to Woolsey Block, where it now stands.

On the same date the demand of the district for better service was met in the establishment of sub-station 25 at 672 Centre street, in the store of what was until recently, the New York Dry Goods store. Forest Hills was the next to be acknowledged in this respect, and in November of the same year a sub-station 28 was opened at W.H. Blake's drug store. In September 1898, Boylston station had to be considered, and as a result sub-station 38 was located at J.L. Locke's drug store, 158 Paul Gore street. The last to be established was sub-station 3(?) in the drug store of L.O. Wallace, 380 Centre street, being placed there January of this year.

The Jamaica Plain post office has kept pace with the advance of Jamaica Plain. From one officer drawing a salary of one dollar a month has it grown to a staff of twenty-five officials with a pay roll of over $1800 for the same period, ranking today as one of the best equipped suburban branches of the Boston General Office.

The staff comprises six clerks (including superintendent) eighteen carriers and a messenger boy.

From consolidation with the Boston office came the box delivery and the first carriers appointed were Mr.J.R. Dickson of 12 Harris Avenue and Mr.J.E. Page of 2 Alveston Street, who are still active in their offices.

The district covered by the delivery includes an area of some five miles, extending from Hoggs Bridge, Roxbury to Walk Hill Street, Forest Hills, and from Franklin Park to Brookline. By uniting her postal interests with those of Boston, Jamaiaca Plain gained ten years of the advantages of the free delivery. So indispensable is the system to the comfort of the community that the extension in this department should not escape notice. At the present time we find that sixteen of the routes have four deliveries daily and two each have but one less.

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A final paragraph discusses contemporary revenue numbers - not particularly interesting to us.

It's Tour Time!

noreply@blogger.com (Not Whitey Bulger) — Mon, 04 May 2009 15:43:00 +0000

This coming Saturday, May 9th begins the 2009 tour season for the Jamaica Plain Historical Society. This year's series begins with the Monument Square walk and adds a new Jamaica Pond tour, for a total of seven different walks, all repeated three times through the season. I'm scheduled to lead three tours later this year, and I'll make note of each when the time comes. So come out, bring a friend and learn the secrets that surround you when you walk the streets of Jamaica Plain.

JPHS tour schedule.

Stephen Minot Weld - Schoolmaster

noreply@blogger.com (Not Whitey Bulger) — Sat, 02 May 2009 04:01:00 +0000

Weld School - Centre and South streets, 1859 (BPL).

The Weld School - Centre and South streets (1874 map, JPHS).

This entry is less a biography than an excuse to use some information I found in the 1850 census records. Schoolmaster Weld deserves a more thorough treatment, and when I have the time I'll give it to him.

Stephen Minot Weld was the son of William Gordon Weld and Hannah Minot. The first Weld to live in Jamaica Plain was Joseph, who was granted a large lot of land in the vicinity of today's Arnold Arboretum for his service in the Pequot War during the late 1630s. Welds continued to live on the homestead until the early 1800s, and stayed in the area for another 100 years.

While William Gordon Weld and his son William Fletcher were both wealthy shipowners and traders, son Stephen Minot Weld (1806-1867) chose to open a preparatory school in Jamaica Plain. There were few public high schools at the time, so the sons of the well-to-do in Greater Boston were sent to boarding schools to prepare for Harvard College. The Weld school was one of the most successful in the area, and attracted students from remarkably diverse sources.

The 1850 census gives us a window into the schoolhouse and its inhabitants. Weld and his wife, Sarah, had three daughters and one son, aged 2-10. There were 4 domestics (women), three from Ireland and one Massachusetts native. The record also lists 4 laborers (men). The students, aged 10-17, came from many different states and countries:

Massachusetts: 6
Maine: 1
New York: 2
Maryland: 1
Tennessee: 1
Louisiana: 3
California: 3

Cuba: 4
Yucatan: 1
Mexico: 1
Spain: 1

Which tells us that the former village of Jamaica Plain was, by 1850, fully connected to the outside world. Other 1850 census records for the community list many Irish domestics, so while there were few places for Irish to set up homes in Jamaica Plain at the time, they were fully integrated into the workforce, living within the households of Yankee residents. How Stephen M. Weld attracted students from such a wide geographic area is not yet known. Perhaps it was just the proximity to Harvard that encouraged fathers to send their sons to Jamaica Plain. The school of Charles Greene at Centre and Pond streets also had Cuban students. Perhaps trade connections between Boton ship owners and captains and their far-away trading partners made Boston the popular place to send one's sons. We certainly know that the first Spanish-speaking residents of Jamaica Plain didn't arrive in the 1970s.

The Norfolk Blanket Cleansing Company

noreply@blogger.com (Not Whitey Bulger) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 04:01:00 +0000

A century ago, the Jamaica Plain News published a series of articles proclaiming the virtues of a series of local businesses. It's not clear to me whether the companies had to pay for the priviledge of being so praised, or whether it was the boosterism of the publisher at work. In any case, this article informs us that one Jamaica Plain business of the time was a national leader in its field.

Jamaica Plain News November 18, 1905

A New Enterprise.

The important transfer of real estate on Brookside avenue, near Green street, which occurred recently, whereby the J.B.Shaw factory, situated on a lot of land containing sixteen thousand square feet, became the property of the Norfolk Blanket Cleansing Company, develops an interesting addition to the industries of Jamaica Plain. There are about ten thousand square feet of floor space available in the main building of two stories, and a thorough renovation of the interior, with the installation of a sixty-horsepower engine and boiler, places a first-class factory on the list. The engine and boiler house will be an addition, situated at the northwest corner of the building. Another contemplated improvement is a large stable.

The rear land follow the line of old Stony Brook, the centre of the brook marking the line. This gives ample yard room and space for future improvements. The Norfolk Blanket Cleansing Company will install in a part of the new factory its blanket cleansing and bedding department, leaving the carpet cleansing department in the old building on Call street. Increased business makes this move a necessity, it being a somewhat remarkable fact that the largest business of this nature in America is conducted in Jamaica Plain, and by this company, and it will interest many to learn that from San Francisco to Jekyll Island off the coast of Florida, blankets are forwarded here for treatment. Add to that fact that steamship lines and parlor-car companies have everything cleansed at frequent intervals, and that this concern handles the cream of this trade, with a constantly growing local business, and it can readily be seen that more room is needed.

The balance of the space in the new factory is to be fitted up as a first-class laundry establishment, with the latest improved machinery and methods and with power and water furnished by the new owners, to a suitable tenant, or if that is not available, the Norfolk Blanket Cleansing Company will add the above feature to its regular business, and under the management of the same progressive gentleman, who for a quarter of a century was engaged in the manufacture of blankets, and as a consequence is peculiarly adapted to the business of cleansing them, there is no doubt that the new venture will prove successful.

Enterprises of this nature should be encouraged and the district is indebted to this company for its consideration in making such an important investment here, thus adding to to the commercial importance of the district, the wage earning capacity of its inhabitants, and the trade of its merchants.

Gas Lamps In Jamaica Plain

noreply@blogger.com (Not Whitey Bulger) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 23:50:00 +0000

There was a web site that hosted photos of the gas lamps of Jamaica Plain, but it seems to be down, so I've put up my set of pictures. I've got a sneaking suspicion that I'm forgetting one, but I can't figure where it would be. If you know, please give me a shout.

I've already written about the use of gas in Jamaica Plain, including Perkins Got Gas and Jamaica Plain Gets Gas (I need to be more creative about my titles). The Jamaica Plain Gas Company began producing gas from coal at the site of today's English High School in the 1850s. Only the lamp at the corner of Burroughs street and the Jamaicaway sits on a public sidewalk - the rest are on private ways or private property. Let's hope the current owners take good care of them and pass them on to posterity as they found them.

Parley avenue.

Regent circle - off Burroughs street.

Allandale street (pair).

Union avenue - in a back yard.

Meehan place - off Green street.

Ballard way - off St Joseph street.

Burroughs street and the Jamaicaway.

38-40 Burroughs street - set back from the road.

Note: Thanks to the ubiquitous commenter Anonymous, I can add two more:

Spring Park Avenue, in front of 19R and 21A Spring Park Ave.

Paul Gore Terrace.

Two New (Old) JP Gas Lamps

noreply@blogger.com (Not Whitey Bulger) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 20:11:00 +0000

I found these two gas lamps in Jamaica Plain recently, and finally stopped to take some pictures today. Do you know where they are? Leave a comment if you do.

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I left this up over the weekend and didn't get any answers, so here's the answer:

This pair of lamps sit at a driveway entrance along Allandale street. The property is used by the Boston Police for housing and training horses and dogs, and borders Allandale Farm.

Silbert Billouin - Jamaica Plain Success Story

noreply@blogger.com (Not Whitey Bulger) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 02:47:00 +0000

Mr. Sil Billouin Jr.

Sil and young daughter Angelique.

Father and daughter.

On February 13th, I posted a story about Silbert "Tink" Billouin Jr., who was voted President of my brother's Mary E. Curley graduating class. Through the magic of the Internet, I've heard from Silbert's daughter Angelique, who has been kind enough to continue the story where I left off.

After getting out of high school, I came along. My mother was 18, he was 19. He followed his dads foot steps in sales and was a top achiever in everything he did. He was commissioned sales so he made a good living and was able to send me to private school, beaver country day school, Newman prep school and Emerson college. We lived at 9 Sheridan and then moved to 41 Sheridan street in jp. When his dad died, I moved in with his mom (my grandmother ) next door and lived with her for most of my teenage years.

They packed up and moved to Navarre Florida in 1989. Him, my mom and my brother Max. Max was then 9 years old. I stayed in Boston and tried to make it on my own. A year later I moved in with them in Fla. The rest of his years were pretty significant. He started out working for Cellular One in cell phone sales. He moved his way up in the company and eventually opened his own retail store, Tri County Cellular where he sold cell phones and pagers, He was best known for his involvement with the local area optimist club and the Navarre Youth Sports Association. He was a big part of the lives of the youth in the area. When they got to Florida, he no longer went by "Tink". His professional name was "Sil" or as the kids called him "Mr Sil".

I always remember him being happy and positive no matter what. When asked how he was doing he would always reply that he was "filled and thrilled with divine power, energy and enthusiasm".

In 1998 he was diagnosed with colon cancer and battled it for 3 years. At some time in those 3 years he decided he wanted to be a motivational speaker. He never got to do a presentation, however he did get to talk at my Avon sales meeting about his life experiences and successes in sales and marketing.

When told he had 4-8 weeks to live, he got on a mad dash to get everything in order. He created his final will, and his own program for his funeral service. Hi passed away 2 days after thanksgiving 2001. The local community merchants had signs on there marques saying "we will miss you sil" My mother, Joyce Billouin and brother Max still reside in Navarre Florida.

All of the Billouins except for 2 cousins moved from Jamaica Plain to Florida. Our family was a prominent part of Jamaica Plain and I did not even realize it until reading your blog. I was always told that as a child, but was too young to understand.

General William Heath

noreply@blogger.com (Not Whitey Bulger) — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 23:06:00 +0000

Memorial to General William Heath, Forest Hills cemetery.

While driving around the west edge of Forest Hills cemetery, I came upon this monument to Roxbury's (and Jamaica Plain's) own General William Heath. It's difficult to see from the photo, but the monolith is a large one, standing taller than a man. At that size, it's quite dramatic, but unfortunately it is not particulary well located. It stands along the outer road, facing out and away from the rest of the cemetery, seen properly only by cars driving by.

The Heaths were among the first settlers of Roxbury, and farmed the land between Parker Hill (and Heath street) and today's Centre street, between Hyde and Jackson squares. General Heath was actice in the militia, and served under Washington during the war. He died in 1815, which makes me wonder where he was originally buried. Forest Hills was not opened until 1848, so if he is interred at the site of this monument, he must have been moved from elsewhere.

I left the photo full size: click on it to read the plaque.

The Boits of Jamaica Plain and Paris, France

noreply@blogger.com (Not Whitey Bulger) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 05:01:00 +0000

The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, by John Singer Sargent (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). Click to enlarge.

Above, we have one of the treasures of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. John Singer Sargent painted the four daughters of Edward D. Boit in Paris in 1882. The girls didn't live in Jamaica Plain, but their father did. Before I knew of this painting, I knew minimal details of the Boits' connection to Jamaica Plain, but the remarkable family portrait above begs attention. To tell the story, I'll go back in time, start at the beginning, and return to the girls and the painting later.

The first Boit to come to America was John, born in England in 1733 and arriving in Boston between 1755 and 1760. John Boit became a merchant, dealing in East and West Indian goods, and becoming one of Boston's leading citizens. John Boit's oldest daughter was Hannah, born in 1765. Hannah married Crowell Hatch, whose name will come up in another entry.

After a second marriage, John Boit had more children, including a son John in 1774. At sixteen, this importer's son went to sea aboard a ship owned by Crowell Hatch. The Columbia was to sail around the Horn to the Northwest coast, trade for furs, and sail on to China. He came home after four years, only to return to sea as captain of many voyages.

The second John Boit married Eleanor Jones of Newport Rhode Island in 1799, and had seven children, including five daughters and two sons. Caroline, the second child, was born in Newport and moved to Boston at an early age with the family. In time, she would move to Jamaica Plain, where she lived out her life as a widow. Daughter Harriet and her husband moved to Jamaica Plain as well, living on Centre street near Boylston street. Of particular interest to us will be Edward Darley Boit, the fifth child and second son.

Edward D. Boit was born in 1813, and spent some of his childhood living on Eliot street in Jamaica Plain. His parents bought 2 1/4 acres of land on the east side of Eliot street, just North of today's Brewer street. By this time, John Boit had retired to the merchant life, and he would die in 1829.

The following story comes from the Chronicles of the Boit Family:

"as a little boy, he (Edward D.Boit) learned to navigate Jamaica Pond on a big log, with a soap box atop of it, and with a long pole to drive it. It was his canoe and he an Indian in search of adventures that never failed him. Woods were all about the pond in those days, with only one open place on each side of it in Brookline and Jamaica Plain, where the road for a rod or two ran down into the water, giving horses a chance to drink. He was always as careful as possible to avoid these openings for fear of being seen, but one day as he was poling by the spot where the road touched the pond in Jamaica Plain, the family doctor drove down to water his horse and recognized him on his log. When he reached home that night he got a sound drubbing."

In time, Edward was sent to Charles Greene's school at Centre and Pond streets. Later, he attended Boston Latin school and Harvard College. After a trip to India as supercargo on a ship, he studied law, passed the bar, and in 1839, married Jane Parkinson Hubbard. In time, they had four children: Edward "Ned" Darley, Robert, Jeanie and John.

In 1847, the family bought a house on a 7 acre lot at the corner of Curtis and Scarborough streets (later Forest Hills and Morton streets. See the property marked with the red star on the later map at right). They called their estate Ingleside, and remained there until 1853. The property was later among those annexed for the West Roxbury Park (later Franklin Park), and sat approximately where the Forest Hills entrance to Franklin Park was placed.

After a short time in Boston, in 1854 the family returned to Jamaica Plain, this time moving to Eliot street (photo).Edward Boit left the practice of law, becoming a businessman. The house on Eliot street was sold in 1859, and the family moved again, this time to Glen road. In time the Boits moved south to Georgia, where Edward entered the cotton business. By 1874, the firm followed cotton prices into collapse, and Edward Darley Boit was ruined. Edward and wife Jane would spend their final years living in Newport, Rhode Island, with the support of their son, Edward Jr. Both died in 1890.

Finally, we get to Edward Jr., the Edward Darley Boit of the Sargent painting. He was born in 1840. He would have been seven years old when his parents bought their first home in Jamaica Plain. The next mention I find of him is his graduation from Harvard in 1863. The story has left Jamaica Plain here, and moves us - finally - towards the famous painting that attracted my attention in the first place. A year after graduating from Harvard, Edward married Mary Louisa Cushing, daughter of John Perkins Cushing. Cushing was nephew of the Perkins brothers, James (who built Pinebank at Jamaica Pond) and Thomas. While in business in the China trade with his uncles, Cushing became an extremely wealthy man, later building Belmont, the estate that was so large it gave the Massachusetts town its name. It is said that once when the town tax collectors came to see him, he asked what the total of the years' tax requirement for the town would be, and wrote a check for the full amount.

Edward did enter the bar, but did not practice for long, if it all. He and Mary Louisa, known as Iza, travelled to Europe, and spent much of the rest of their married lives there. During stays in Italy and France, Edward took painting lessons and became a painter. While travelling between Rome, Paris and Boston, the Boits had four daughters: Florence, 1868, Jane, 1870, Mary Louisa, 1874, and Julia, 1878. Edward Darley Boit is now considered more an art patron than an artist. It was his association with John Singer Sargent, who painted both his daughters and his wife, that keeps his name alive for posterity. The Boits met Sargent at a Paris art exhibit, and commissioned him to paint a portrait of their daughters. The painting now sits in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, together with the same two oversize vases that are seen in the painting.

I am not an art critic, nor even particularly interested in painting as an art, but this work is a treasure of the MFA collection for a reason. If it is a portrait, it is a strange one. It seems like a psychological study, but of the group rather than of the girls as individuals. I think the word unsettling is appropriate for the effect it gives.

The story of the four girls is well known - at least as far as it is known. None of these four wealthy girls ever married, and the two oldest are described as hovering somewhere between eccentric and emotionally or mentally disturbed. As a final note on Edward: three years after the death of his wife in 1894, he remarried. Did the constant travelling of their childhood and the loss of their mother affect the psyche of the girls? Or does their extraordinary portrait make us imagine things about them that were only on the canvas?

While the famous Boit daughters never lived in Jamaica Plain, their families did, in multiple homes over multiple generations. From sea captain to lawyer and businessman to future expatriot artist and patron, the Boits certainly deserve mention when exploring Jamaica Plain's notable residents. The famous painting, a jewel of the Museum of Fine Art's collection, just makes the story all the more interesting.

There is much more to the story of the Boit family. Here is a start for online information:

Chronicles of the Boit Family - download the PDF version to read.

Museum of Fine Arts

Edward Darley Boit

The Harvard Graduates' Magazine

The Washington Historical Quarterly - John Boit's log of his voyage on the ship Columbia. When men were men.

Norfolk Registry of Deeds:

68:45 - 9/30/1822 David Greenough to John Boit, Eliot st.

155:26,27,28,29 - Boit heirs to Anson Dexter, Eliot st.

174:85 - 7/9/1847 John Parkinson to Edward D. Boit, Walnut ave. and Scarboro st.

179:137 - 4/11/1848 G. Winthrop Coffin to Edward D. Boit, Glen rd.

232:6 - 12/6/1854 Elisha James to Edward D. Boit, Eliot st.

255:24 - 5/1/1857 Edward D. Boit to George T. Curtis, Walnut ave and Scarboro st.

276:211 - 5/19/1859 Edward D. Boit to Anne L. Balch, Eliot st.

Shadows Of The Past

noreply@blogger.com (Not Whitey Bulger) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 23:16:00 +0000

West side of Washington street, just south of Green street.

Any photo that shows trees with green leaves is appreciated right about now. These two pictures show a brick building on Washington street just south of Green Street - towards Forest Hills. The old paint job - and the bricked-in arched entrance - tell us that the building was once a garage/repair shop. As automobiles became more common on the streets, a need was created for parking garages and repair shops. Here and there, we find these kind of clues about a building's past, but only if we look for them.

Forest Hills Square - 1899

noreply@blogger.com (Not Whitey Bulger) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:40:00 +0000

Forest Hills Square, looking south. The microfilm this image is based on is lined with scratches, but the sketch is still clear and legible. Click on the image to expand.

Perhaps no part of Jamaica Plain has changed more over time than Forest Hills square. At the turn of the 19th century, a toll road was built from Roxbury south to Dedham and on to the Rhode Island line. A toll gate was placed at the valley between the hills of today's Arnold Arboretum and higher land of the Forest Hills cemetery. In the 1830s, the Boston Providence railroad tracks were put through the same valley, with a station at the same site. Over time, Morton street, Hyde Park avenue and the Arborway would all connect at the location, creating the square seen above. Horse car lines were run down Washington street, and electrified streetcars of multiple companies filled the square, as shown above. Soon after this sketch was drawn, the elevated train line was extended down Washington street to a terminal station at the square. In the 1950s, the Casey Overpass was built to relieve traffic congestion, and in the 1980s, the current MBTA station replaced the old Elevated terminal.

Jamaica Plain News October 28, 1899

The above sketch, kindly loaned to the News by the Boston Globe, gives a clear idea of the proposed plan for widening Forest Hills square. Probably no needed public improvements have received more attention in the news than this widening of the Square, and the carrying to the square of the South street car tracks. That these two things would be of incalculable benefit to many property owner and residents of all parts of this section we have always believed, and so have for years past agitated and urged some such action as is now about to be taken in these matters.

As to the Square, we have maintained that the present congestion is unbearable, and that immediate relief is not only imperative, but also much less expensive than it will be later. The present dimensions of the Square and the use made of it by the different street railway lines have many times been described in our columns. It was not until this year, however, that a united effort resulted from this agitation. The drawing up of a petition to the Street Commissioners and its circulation by Councilman Newhall and others, and the consequent hearing upon the matter, have been duly reported.

At this hearing there was practically no division as to the proper steps to be taken, although Mr. R.S. Barrows and one or two others strongly maintained that the widening to 150 feet instead of 120 would not more than provide for future increase of traffic in the Square.

The Square is already the terminus of three street railway companies: the Boston Elevated, West Roxbury & Roslindale and Norfolk Suburban. With double tracks and turnouts, the safe capacity of the Square, with pedestrians and carriages, is much exceeded. In the near future, the Elevated will have another line in the Square from South street. It will not be long before tracks are run in from Milton, and a line from the Newton direction is not an impossibility.

Altogether, it has seemed to us that 150 feet would not make too great provision for the future increase of traffic. Nevertheless the change from 60 to 120 feet will be a wonderful improvement, and the people of this section are to be congratulated on the prospect of its early realization. We hope that the time is not far distant when the financial condition of the city will allow the commissioners to go a step further and have removed the block of buildings between Washington street and Hyde Park avenue. This would solve for all time a problem which will grow more and more serious and far more expensive of solution. There is, however, a possibility that when the Boston Elevated extends the elevated tracks to Forest Hills Square this block will be taken by the company for a station. When this comes, either the city or the Railroad must take this tract, or the remaining section of the Seaver estate to the Brook, a distance of only forty feet beyond what has already been taken.

"Tink" Billouin Jr., Class President.

noreply@blogger.com (Not Whitey Bulger) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 17:45:00 +0000

I found the aging clipping above in a desk drawer at home. The caption reads:

"OVATION FOR CLASS PRESIDENT -- Silbert "Tink" Billouin Jr., of Jamaica Plain, is born triumphantly on the shoulders of his classmates as they cheered the Negro Class President at graduation exercises at the Mary E. Curley Junior High School in Jamaica Plain. With his heart full of hope for his future, "Tink" delivered a powerful message to leaders of Boston's one day school boycott."

At the top right, In the upper right corner, in pencil, is written:

"June 1963 Hurrah for Tinkey and all of us!"

My brother Jim graduated from the Curley school that year, and the writing is his. I've known of this clipping for a year, but the article that went with the photo was not saved with it. This week, I finally took the trip into the Boston Public Library at Copley Square to find the article. The photo caption notes that it appeared in the Record American, an antecedent to today's Boston Herald. The article was published on June 20, 1963, and the photo above was featured on the first page, as seen below.

Record American, June 20, 1963 (click to enlarge).

In later years, my mother told me that as a child, my brother Jim always seemed to make friends with the one black boy in a group. There was no political or social significance to it - grade school kids don't know enough to take virtuous stands. Rather than claiming any sort of positive effort towards "diversity" in his young life, it might be more accurate to say that he simply lacked the negative attribute necessary to exclude potential friends by race. Based on the inscription on the clipping, I have to assume that Tink, his Junior High School class president, was one of those friends he made so naturally.

The article that went with the photo relates to the city-wide school boycott of 1963 - the first wide-spread protest by African Americans in Boston over the conditions of the schools in predominately black neighborhoods. The boycott was very successful in the publicity it engendered, but not all African Americans favored the approach. Silbert "Tink" Billouin and his parents represented a voice often lost when the era is considered. This topic would take us away from the subject matter of this site, so I'll just say that the Billouin family lived in Jamaica Plain, and they played their part in the community.

When I finally started to write up this entry, I got to thinking that it would be great to contact Tink Billouin and interview him. An Internet search came up with the two Silbert Billouins, father and son. Silbert Sr. was born in March of 1912 and died in June of 1978. Silbert "Tink" Billouin, Jr., was born in 1948 - like my brother Jim - and died in November of 2001.

My hopes of contacting Tink and seeing if he remembered my late brother were disappointed. The photo doesn't even include my brother - it was just a memento of his, a reminder he may never have seen since it was put away with class pictures and crayon drawings in our parent's desk drawer. Be that as it may, the clipping, Tink Billouin, Jim Bulger and the Mary E. Curley Class of 1963 are remembered here one more time.

Record American June 20, 1963

Negro Boy In Slap At Boycotts

By Jean Cole

"You should be teaching Negro youth how to get out of their ghettos... not how to stay out of school."

This was the powerful message to leaders of Boston's one day school boycott, from a 15-year-old Negro boy who graduated Wednesday as president of his class from the Mary E. Curley Junior High School.

His heart full of love and hope for the future, Silbert "Tink" Billouin Jr. joined his parents after graduation exercises in an urgent plea to freedom leaders to recognize the "true problem that haunts Negroes through the nation."

PARENTS AGREE

Sometime speaking for himself, and as often letting his adored father who has reached success in work and in the community despite overwhelming odds, do the talking, "Tink" and his parents agreed:

Strikes and boycotts for Negroes do not work.

The basic Negro problem is one of housing.

Decent jobs and good education evolve when Negroes are not forced to live in ghetto.

Negro leaders should spend all of their time, their effort and their money to help relocate families of their race in communities not predominately Negro.

LIVING EXAMPLES

Billouin, parent and child alike, are living examples of what they preach.

Silbert Sr. brought his family from Trinidad, British West Indies, first to Canada, where he attended McGill University, and then to the United States, where they became citizens.

That they understand fully ghetto living is attested to by five years residence in New York City's Harlem.

"Tink" was born in Portland, Maine, where the family lived for a time before moving to an all-white street in Jamaica Plain, not far from Boston's Negro areas.

"Tink" enters Boston English High School next September and eventually wants to go to college and become a lawyer.

His father, a sales representative, expressed the belief that there can be and will be more "Tinks" taking their place in society if Negro leaders will recognize and do something about the real problems,,, jobs and homes. He said: "I'm proud of Tink. He as grown up without the strong attitudes that might have developed in a family background of active antagonistic social attitudes."

There were kind words Wednesday from Negroes for School Committeewoman Louise Day Hicks too. Although she actively tried to stop the Tuesday school stay-out, Mrs. Hicks was embraced by a Negro mother at graduation exercises at the James P. Timilty school. The woman quietly whispered "God bless you."

Urban Renewal Comes To Green Street

noreply@blogger.com (Not Whitey Bulger) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 05:01:00 +0000

Woolsey square (JP Historical Society)

I copied this article from the Jamaica Plain News, but I neglected to record the date of the paper. It was after World War II, probably during the late 1940s or early 1950s. I have yet to find the article again, so I've been holding on to the article. Rather than keep it in the files, I though I'd publish it and leave locating the date to another time.

The Woolsey block is shown above. Today it would face east towards the Green street Orange Line station. At the time, it was opposite the Jamaica Plain railroad station - see the carriages waiting for passengers on the left. It was probably the coming of the Elevated train line to Washington street that killed the Green street station. Why take the train to Back Bay station when you could take the Elevated train all the way through downtown Boston and connect with the other rapid transit lines in town. And for the railroad company, why should they stop their trains at stations so close together, like Forest Hills, Green street and Boylston street? Some time after World War I, a combination of the automobile, the Elevated line and railroad company distaste for slow commuter lines killed Jamaica Plain Station. And with the death of the station, the viability of the Woolsey square as a business district was lost.

We can wish that the old buildings had been saved for historical reasons, but the I-95 project and the later Southwest Corridor train line would have taken them in the end in any case. The business district of Jamaica Plain moved to Centre street, and the hustle and bustle of Woolsey square was forgotten.

Jamaica Plain News

Urban Redevelopment Urged On Site Of Old J.P. Railroad Station.

The Mayor's Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Rehabilitation and Conservation Committee are highly elated about the removal of the ancient four story brick structures at 6 to 10 Woolsey square, opposite the former Jamaica Plain railroad station, says Col. Paul Hines, co-ordinator of the City's rehabilitation program. Demolition of the building was started last week on order of the Building Department.

With the removal of the structures long in disuse, it is the hope of the committee, says Chairman Robert T. Fowler, that it can induce the Urban Redevelopment Authority to designate the site of the buildings and adjacent land along the side of the railroad tracks for a spot clearance renewal program.

The rebuilding of the Woolsey square section, he says, would not only check blight, but would add to the City's tax rolls several hundred thousand dollars of real estate valuations. Furthermore, it would protect the adjacent Sunset Hill residential area for 50 years to come.

The Woolsey square building now being removed, before the automobile days were the most prominent ground floor stores and office properties in Jamaica Plain. In those days all the fashionable residents of that section rode to the area daily in their carriages or came afoot to take the train to their place of business in down town Boston. The result was that for a long period of years space in the buildings were at a premium. Since World War I however, and the shift from train service to automobile, the real estate in that area has steadily depreciated in value and appearance. With the elimination of the antiquated structure, it is the belief of the members of the Jamaica Plain Rehabilitation Committee that it will be the beginning of the restoration of that area to its former value.

Working hand and glove with the Rehabilitation Committee, the building and health departments, following the recommendations of Demolition Director John A. Murray, have removed more than a dozen sub-standard dilapidated residential structures from the Jamaica Plain district during the past year. As a result in several instances the owners of neighboring properties have been encouraged to repair and paint their houses.

Farmer Curley Goes A' Plowin'.

noreply@blogger.com (Not Whitey Bulger) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:01:00 +0000

If you click on the image above, you may be able to see the famous shamrocks in the window shutters.

An earlier entry discussed the gardens of the boys of the Agassiz school during World War I. Here, we have the mayor encouraging victory gardens at his own home. Somehow, I suspect that James Michael didn't spend much time in his back yard after the picture above was taken.

Boston Daily Globe April 26, 1917

MAYOR A BACK YARD FARMER NOW

Plows Up a Lot Near His Home in Jamaica Plain Large Enough to Produce a Winter's Supply.

Dropping for a few hours the task of directing the affairs of Boston, the Mayor plowed up a lot next to his home in Jamaica Plain yesterday. Ever since the war was declared backyard gardens have occupied municipal attention. Mr Curley was an ardent supporter of the idea.

The Mayor's garden is in the rear of his beautiful residence and is a typical backyard institution. He made only one mistake in his job of plowing. He did not take off his collar. After a few minutes John C. Broadhead, supervisor of backyard gardens for the School Committee, happened to ride past just in time to see him pause, haul out a large handkerchief and begin tucking it around his neck.

Mr Broadhead roared out his greetings to his fellow-farmer and the Mayor's face expanded in a vast smile. James Junior is in for some healthy weeding this Summer, for the Mayor's garden plot is no 10 by 10 affair. The Mayor intends to raise enough produce to supply his Winter needs and the plot he plowed will give him plenty of room.

The Central School Takes a Turn

noreply@blogger.com (Not Whitey Bulger) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 05:01:00 +0000

The Central school - the "Old Agassiz." View from Burroughs street.

When I was a young sprout, the two Agassiz grammar schools sat on Burroughs street, just behind the buildings that fronted on Centre street. The building pictured above was called the "Old Agassiz," although the words Central School were carved above the door that faced the alley way known as Burroughs place that appears on the left. To the right, you can see the back of the so-called New Agassiz, which faced out towards Brewer street to the right.

Previous entries have discussed the two Agassiz schools. The construction of the New Agassiz was discussed here. My particular interest in this entry is the older building, shown above. The retirement of a long time teacher at the Old Agassiz/Central school was celebrated in an earlier entry here. Mrs. Mary Stuart began teaching at the Central school in 1866, so we know the school is at least that old. The roof line of the building shows elements of the Italianate style - a wide overhang, horizontal returns at the bottom of both sides, and the brackets under the eaves. This fits the 1866 date, but how much earlier might the school have been built?

I've found Boston school system documents that gave the construction dates of schools, but no dates were recorded for Jamaica plain schools built before the annexation of the town of West Roxbury to the city of Boston. The map below shows the two schools together on the grounds in 1896. The new, larger school had been built in 1892.

The Agassiz and Central schools, 1896 (Bromley - the Boston Atlas)

This layout remained the same until the schools were torn down after being replace by a new school between Child street and Carolina avenue in the 1970s. If we go back to 1885, we can see the old Central school sitting alone on the property, and in a different location than that shown above.

Central school - 1884 (G.W. Bromley - JP Historical Society)

To go back further, we need to take a trip to the Norfolk County Registry of Deeds (before annexation in 1874, the towns of Roxbury and West Roxbury were in Norfolk County). In February of 1849, the City of Roxbury purchased 33,300 square feet of land at the corner of Brewer and Burroughs streets from the Trustees of the Eliot school (a discussion of the earlier history of the land can be seen here). In two years, Jamaica Plain would secede from Roxbury and become part of the town of West Roxbury, and the school planned for the site would become a West Roxbury school. The first time I find the Central school mentioned in a deed is 1865, so the school was built some time between those two dates. I suspect an early date, because money would not have been available during the Civil War. That would make the school 100 years old when I attended it in the early 1960s. Did they recognize the centennial of the old school when it came around, or had the city of Boston forgotten the building's Roxbury birth? I suspect the latter.

Having done as well as I can with the date of construction, let's go back to the location of the Central school. Clearly, when the new Agassiz school was built, the old Central school was moved towards Centre street. Notice that in order to fit both school building at the site, the city of Boston had purchased land from Mrs. Joel Seaver, extending the lot towards Centre street. There is one more thing to notice here. See the little rectangular extension coming out of the side of the Central school? In the 1884 map directly above it faces up towards Brewer street. In the 1896 map, that extension faces down towards Centre street. When they moved the Central school to accommodate the new Agassiz school in 1892, they not only moved the Central school, they also turned it 90 degrees!

When I was a child, I was puzzled why the school entrance faced the back of the buildings that fronted on Centre street. A back alley hardly seemed an appropriate location for a school entrance. So why did they turn the Central school around? There is no mention of the Central school in the Boston Globe article that described the construction of the Agassiz. It is my considered speculation - that's a guess - that when the new Agassiz school was built, with its entrance on Brewer street, the old Central school was built, it was turned 180 degrees so that in case of fire in the new building, the Central school could be evacuated away from the fire. A look at the top picture shows that the fire escape of the Central school faced towards the Agassiz, but that was added during a fire safety movement after the Agassiz were built.

This entry was motivated by two questions. First, when was the Central school built. That's a standard sort of question for any building, and I tracked it down as well as I could. The position of the school is another matter. It was only with the online availability of the Bromley fire insurance maps that I was able to notice that the building seemed to have been turned around at some point. There is no mention of the Central school in the Boston Globe article announcing the new Agassiz school, but the available evidence certainly suggests that teams of horses were used to move the old school to make way for the new Agassiz, and to spin it 180 degrees at the same time. Imagine the people coming out to see their old Roxbury grammar school turned backwards to prepare for the construction of a new, improved Boston school. Both schools are gone now, and perhaps only those of us who remember them can be fascinated at the thought of that big brick building turning to face an alley-way, making way for for a new, "modern" building.

Addendum: Commenter "Anonymous" informs us of the following:

The Central School building was built by the City of Roxbury in 1849. In 1871 this building was remodelled and 2 rooms added. On Oct. 27, 1885 the Central School was renamed in honor of Louis Agassiz. The building was moved a short distance June 1892 for construction of the New Agassiz Grammar School.(Annual report of the City of Boston School Committee 1902)

I had assumed that the Central school didn't change names until the new Agassiz was built. The name comes from the scientist Louis Agassiz, who came from Switzerland to work at Harvard, and who gave public lectures at the old West Roxbury Village Hall, which sat very near the school on Thomas street. His daughter, Pauline Agassiz Shaw, lived across Jamaica Pond on Perkins street.

Addendum #2: from the Emancipator and Republican, January 26, 1849:

The new and commodious school house recently erected by the City of Roxbury, at the corner of Burroughs and Brewer streets, Jamaica Plain, for the Central School, was dedicated on Tuesday afternoon, January 16, with appropriate and interesting exercises.

Norfolk County deeds: 185:116 - 2/21/1849 Trustees of the Eliot School to the City of Roxbury.

Italianate Houses In Jamaica Plain

noreply@blogger.com (Not Whitey Bulger) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 05:01:00 +0000

Italianate villa - design by Andrew Jackson Downing.

When I put up the first slide show of Jamaica Plain houses, I didn't post any information, so I'll say something about the Italianate style here. The Gothic and Italianate styles both came to the United States from Britain. Through plan books like those of Andrew Jackson Downing, architects and housewrights were introduced to the elements of the Italianate style, with some builders using the books as an influence, and others copying designs from the books directly.

British travellers to northern Italy had taken home with them an appreciation of the rambling villas they saw in towns and villages. These houses had flat or low sloping roofs, wide eaves, and generations of additions cobbled on to the original simple house. Some had square towers added, and many had brackets under the eaves of the roof. This villa style became very popular in the United States, but is rare in Jamaica Plain.

Italianate architecture came to Jamaica Plain more often through the adaptations of Downing and other producers of design books. Downing created house designs for three classes of buyers, the well to do, the middle class, and farmers. The style he promoted for entry-level buyers was a gable-front L- or T-shaped house, with a more vertically sloped roof than the classic Italianate villa design, but present in Downing's cottage drawings. The roof brackets are always there, sometimes in pairs, as well as moulded window surrounds. This is what is most commonly seen in Jamaica Plain. Houses with 2 1/2 floors, gable ends facing the street, sometimes with an L wing on the back are found on Lamartine, Myrtle, Newbern, Holbrook streets and Atherton place among others. The Italianate style is seen in the double houses at Warren square, and two classic examples with square towers sit opposite each other near the top of Myrtle street (all displayed in the slide show).

Drawings above taken from: Cottage Residences, Andrew Jackson Downing.

Mystery House

noreply@blogger.com (Not Whitey Bulger) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:09:00 +0000

New York Public Library - Digital Gallery. (click on photo to enlarge).

This house looked familiar, but I have to confess that I had to put some concentrated brain power to work to figure out where I had seen it. . It's still around, so where is it? No cheating if you know already.