Dead Man Walking

Not history - just one of those good stories to share.



Boston Daily Globe November 26, 1916


Jamaica Plain Dead Man Comes To Life


About 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon some one called up Station 13, in Jamaica Plain, and informed Capt Harriman that a "dead man" was lying on the sidewalk on Centre st, near the Soldier's Monument. The ambulance was hastily ordered out, and one of the sergeants, assisted by a couple of patrolmen, soon found the "dead man." He certainly looked dead, and it wasn't dead from the cup the cheers, either. He was placed in the ambulance and rushed to the City Hospital.

When he got there, however, under the prodding of the physician he suddenly startled all present by sitting up and in the classic phrase demanding "Why, without asking, hither hurried whence?" in very emphatic language.

When asked his name he refused to give it. He was dumb to all entreaty, to all kindly solicitude. He wanted to go home. Where did he live? It was none of their business.

The doctor and the police informed him that he was officially dead, and he denied the calumny with indignation. He would like to know who said he was - etc. And as there was apparently nothing the matter with him, the authorities had to let him go. The "dead man" walked down the sidewalk grumbling; grumbling at the undue interference of the police, at the physician, at the thought of paying a nickel to get home again.

Columbia Hall - Hyde Square

I found the picture above in the Jamaicaplain.com photo gallery. The file is named "Columbia Hall Hyde Square", but note "Roxbury" under the picture. I believe that the building was torn down when the new Blessed Sacrament church was built, but don't hold me to it.



Bromley, George Washington; Bromley, Walter Scott, 1895 (copyright © 2000 by Cartography Associates)
David Rumsey Collection

Columbia Hall on Centre street



Boston Daily Globe May 19, 1893


Columbia Hall Dedicated. Parishioners of the Church of the Blessed Sacrament at Jamaica Plain Meet in New Quarters.


Columbia Hall, a new and elegant building connected with the church of the Blessed Sacrament, Jamaica Plain, was dedicated last evening under most auspicious circumstances and with appropriate exercises.

The building is at the corner of Centre and Creighton sts, and has a handsome frontage of 94 feet on Centre st, and is 41 feet deep. It is two stories high with a hip roof, and is built of wood. On the first floor are stores and the entrance to the hall is at the end near Creighton st.

Ascending one flight the hall is reached, which has a capacity of 600 with a gallery capable of holding 100 more. There are large windows on two sides of the hall and at one end is a fine stage.

The interior finish is in Georgia pine, and there are several exits front and back which afford every opportunity of emptying the hall. There is every facility for the holding of entertainments and it is also intended by the pastor Rev Arthur T. Connolly, to fit up a gymnasium in the hall. It will contain gymnastic apparatus which can easily be removed in case the hall is needed for other purposes.

On the upper floor is the banquet hall, which will seat 300, and equally well fitted out.

Last night the large hall was beautifully decorated for the opening exercises, and about 800 of the parishioners participated.

A reception and promenade concert took up the hour between 8 and 9 o'clock, and shortly after the latter hour the grand march was started, let by Floor Director Thomas Finneran and Miss Finneran, and followed by about 50 couples.

Immediately after the grand march Rev Arthur F. Connelly ascended the stage and made a short speech.

Dancing was then continued until midnight, with Thomas Finneran as floor director, and the following assistants; Messrs James Brandley, John J. Ryan, John J. McCarthy, M.W. O'Connell, Mark Mulvey and H.C. Cahill.

[a long list of aids and committee members followed]

Emmet Hall Opens

And earlier entry told of a fire at the Emmet Theatre on Centre street. This article announces the opening of the Emmet building two years earlier. There were several such building in Jamaica Plain, with shops on the street level and a hall or meeting rooms and sometimes apartments above. The Mason's building at the north corner of Centre street and Seaverns avenue still stands, while many more have been torn down. This building was built by the A.O.H. Of course you knew that those initials stand for Ancient Order of Hibernians, right? There was no need to "spell it out" at the time, as this article shows. That the building was named for Robert Emmet should tell you something about the men who filled the ranks of the organization - I'll let you investigate Mr Emmet off-site.

At the bottom of this 1914 map, you can see the Emmet Building at the corner of Centre street and Starr lane. This 1924 map calls it the Strand Theatre. I've been searching for information on the Strand, but I've come up empty so far.

Addendum (9/24/08): I've added more on Emmett Hall - later the Strand Theatre -in an entry here.


Boston Daily Globe October 9, 1910


Will Dedicate New Hall.

Robert Emmet Association of Jamaica Plain Has Completed Fine New Building.


The new building at 652-660 Centre st, Jamaica Plain, to be known as Emmet hall, and erected by divisions 15, 40 and 51, A.O.H., is to be dedicated with fitting exercises on the evening of Oct 13.

More than a year ago members of these divisions of the A.O.H. organized as the Robert Emmet association and purchased the property that was known as Arcanum hall. It contained 10,000 square feet of land and the new building has been erected at a cost of $75,000. It is centrally located in the heart of the business section of Jamaica Plain, and the assured rentals to date make sure its success from a financial standpoint at the start.

The building contains four large stores on the ground floor, two fine lodge rooms, with anterooms, committee rooms and one of the largest and best equipped dancing halls in this city.

The exercises of dedication will include a banquet, unveiling of a flag and addresses by prominent officials of the state, city and of the A.O.H. Among those to whom invitations have been extended to be present and take part in the dedication of the new building, are Gov Draper, Lieut Gov Louis A. Frothingham, Senators Henry Cabot Lodge and Murray Crane, Mayor John F. Fitzgerald, Mayor Brooks of Cambridge, the local congressmen, H. Regan, national president of the A.O.H.; Matthew Cummings, ex-national president of the A.O.H.; the state and county officers of the order and officials of other fraternal bodies.

The committee through whose untiring efforts the project of a new building for the A.O.H. has been worked out successfully includes these men who constitute the board of directors Francis J. Horgan chairman, Joseph H. Fallon vice chairman, Lawrence J. Malone clerk, Fred J. McLaughlin treas, William J. Burke, Brien McElroy, John J. McLaughlin, James J. Curley, Timothy Finneran, James Corvin.

[there follows a long listing of numerous committee and sub-committee members]

Mt Hope Mission - For Children

I posted an article about the Mt Hope Home for Fallen Women earlier. Someone was nice enough to comment and inform me that the property later served as a home for children. It took me a while to get around to it, but here is an article showing that the home did, in fact, serve children in later years.

Please note that the Globe puts the house in Roslindale. Not to worry - the City of Boston web site puts the Toll Gate cemetery in Roslindale as well. Doesn't anyone who works at City Hall actually live in the city any more? Or is The Bunker filled with BU kids from Long Island?



Boston Daily Globe June 10, 1902


House Finely Decorated With Daisies.

Annual Reception of the Children of the Mount Hope Home in Roslindale.


Yesterday afternoon the children of the Mt Hope home, Bourne and Florence sts, Roslindale, a branch of the North End mission, gave their annual reception.

This home has the support of many of the leading residents of the city and yesterday they gathered to the number of about 150 to witness the exercises of the children, view the excellent accommodations and observe the work done by the little ones.

In honor of the occasion the house was decorated with flowers of all kinds, daisies predominating, most of which were gathered by the children, who worked hard to show in this manner their appreciation of what is being done for them. The yard looked radiant with bunting suspended between the trees and flags scattered about.

Rev C.L.D. Younkin, the superintendent of the mission, and Miss L.J. Cann, the matron of the home, received the guests as they arrived and took a great deal of pleasure and pride in showing them around the grounds and through the house, that all might get some idea of the work the home is doing.

That all were more than satisfied with what they saw was manifest by the hearty exclamations of commendation heard.

The exercises of the afternoon opened with a prayer by Mr Younkin, followed by an address by Mr Pierce, the president of the mission, who explained the objects and the work of the mission and its branch, the Mr Hope home. The the children gave vocal selections and recitations, which were greeted with applause. Rev George F. Durgin, pastor of the Bethany Methodist church of Roslindale, made interesting remarks.

Refreshments were served.

A business meeting of the board of directors was held and the old officers were reelected.

The End Of The Jamaica Club

Well, it certainly seems that the Jamaica Club was dead by the time this article was written. I've already posted an article on the purchase of the first Jamaica Club house in 1887. The Jamaica Plain Historical Society has an online picture postcard of the building on Rockview and Green streets referred to in the article below. I knew that the K. of C. ended up with the building, but I didn't know that it was this early.

So what happened to the Jamaica Club? Did life get to hectic for private clubs like that? Fraternal groups like the Masons survived - perhaps a stand-alone club like the Jamaica couldn't survive a temporary loss of members. It's interesting to see a Catholic group replace what was probably a Protestant social club. There goes the neighborhood, no?



Boston Daily Globe July 14, 1918


Jamaica Plain Council To Have New Clubhouse


Jamaica Plain Council, K. of C., has acquired the property at the corner of Rockview and Green sts, formerly occupied by the Jamaica Club, for a Council Home. The estate comprises 16,000 square feet of land and a large frame building.

Plans are already underway for extensive alterations on the building. The interior will be thoroughly overhauled and renovated. Lodge rooms, an auditorium, bowling alleys and billiard room will be installed and when finished the committee in charge feel that Jamaica Plain, which is one of the older councils of Massachusetts, will have as fully equipped and complete a council home as is to be found in the state.

A building association has been formed with Past District Deputy Walter A. White, president; Joseph B. Kavanaugh, vice president; John F. Kelley, treasurer, and P.W.A. Maxwell, clerk. Executive, house and membership committees, comprising the most active members of the Council, have been appointed.

Carolina/Murphy Playground

Murphy/Carolina playground - panoramic view of ball field, 2008. (click on photo for much larger image).


Richards, L.J. 1899 (copyright © 2000 by Cartography Associates)
David Rumsey Collection



The map above shows the site of the Murphy playground between Carolina and Child streets. As you can see, it was quite different in 1899 that it is now. Verona street was opened in 1906, and several properties had to be taken to clear out the lower ballfield area - the current playground field. The Agassiz school was put in the upper field in the early 1970s. I don't know how much the rest of Jamaica Plain was served by the Murphy playground, but it was a center for activity in the South street area. In the 1960s I remember the two ballfields, basketball court, and a brick house that kept equipment for the city. In the summer there were programs for children, including crafts like gimp - do kids still make things of gimp? For some reason, I was at the playground one day and they were making gimp braids. Why do I remember that 40 years later? It's a mystery to me.

As the city filled in with housing, people became aware that the fields that children had long played in were being eliminated. Playgrounds were seen as a safe place for children to get exercise, and there was a movement to save the last open land available. The Goowdin estate between Carolina and Child streets housed the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood House, and was a logical place for a playground. Local boosters got their playground, but not without some controversy.




Boston Daily Globe April 25, 1911


Want Carolina-Av Site.

Citizens of Jamaica Plain Ask for Playground - Several Propose That Two Locations Be Bought.


The finance committee of the city council gave a hearing yesterday on a petition of residents of Jamaica Plain in relation to a playground. A large number appeared in favor of the Carolina-av site which Clarence E. Fitzpatrick informed the committee could be bought from the trustees of the Goodwin estate for its assessed valuation, about $36,300. The site includes two parcels and contains about 130,000 square feet.

Those who spoke in favor of the Carolina site were Mr Fitzpatrick, Mrs William C. Appleton of the neighborhood house, located on one of the parcels, Dr H.c. Ernst, Rev Charles F. Dole, William C. Appleton, George C. Mann, master of the Jamaica Plain high school, Gen Thomas Sherwin, C.E. Ordway, Joseph P. Lyons, Dr Hartwell of the statistics department, E.W. Clark, Mrs Adams of the Jamaica Plain Tuesday club and John T. Gibson, master of the grammar school.

Ex-Alderman Fred J. Kneeland, Patrick J. Brady, Representative William M. McMorrow, Jean J. Nickerson and John B. McGinty, spoke in favor of two playgrounds for Jamaica Plain, one on Washington st for the Forest Hills section, and the Carolina-av site.

Chairman Ballantine said the committee is satisfied a playground is necessary in that section and will appropriate money for that purpose, but that it is the duty of the park commissioners to select the site.



January 3, 1912


Wrangle Over Site.

Jamaica Plain citizen's Association Meets.

Votes for Playground at Zeno Park After Verbal Tilts.


A crowded and at times stormy meeting of the Jamaica Plain Citizen's Association was held in Eliot Hall last evening to decide on a suitable site for a playground, for which $25,000 has been appropriated by the city.

The sties in consideration were the property of the Neighborhood House on Carolina av and a vacant lot in the rear of Curtis st, Forest Hills, known as Zeno Park.

The association committee, consisting of Dr G.O.A. Ernst, Rev John A. Sheridan of St Thomas Church, William Ordway, William Appleton and Joseph Leonard, recently submitted its reports. The majority report, signed by Messrs Ernst, Appleton and Ordway, favored the Carolina-av site, while Rev R. Sheridan and Mr Leonard favored Zeno Park. This meeting was called to decide between the reports.

Dr Ernst, Edgar O. Achorn, Francis V. Walsh and others spoke in favor of Carolina av. Rev Fr Sheridan and Joseph Leonard believed that the older boys should be given a chance to use the playgrounds to keep them off the streets. Rev Charles F. Dole urged the meeting to look at the question broadly.

There was a tilt between P.J. Brady, Charmian of the Ward 23 Democratic Committee, and Edgar O. Achorn, son-in-law of Robert M. Morse. Mr Achorn questioned the right of Mr Brady and others present from Forest Hills to vote. Mr Brady replied that it was he that secured the appropriation for the playground, and that his mail was addressed to Jamaica Plain and not to Forest Hills. The question was settled by the chairman Mr Hartwell, who said that as it was a public meeting all present might vote.

Mr Achorn also accused Mr Brady of having "packed" the meeting with residents of Forest Hills, and Mr Brady replied in kind.

The vote was taken in favor of the Zeno Park site, 126 to 80. The final action rests with the Playgrounds Commission.



Boston Daily Globe Noverber 17, 1917


Pupils Parade For Larger Playground

Jamaica Plain Students in Big Demonstration

Petition Bearing 1000 Names Left at Mayor's Home


A demonstration was given last night by more than 800 boys from the Jamaica Plain high and grammar schools to show the Mayor and city officials the need of a larger playground in the district.

The lads formed a parade at the Carolina-av grounds and marched to the home of Mayor Curley.

Thomas McHugh with his fife and drum corps of 15 pieces from the High School led the march, and was followed by a second division, led by the drum corps of the Lowell School.

Many of the boys carried red torches and banners.

Mayor Curley was not at home, but a petition bearing the names of 1000 residents of the district who desire larger playgrounds was left at the house.

The petition and parade were the result of many requests by Mr T. Dearing the head worker of the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood House and master of the schools.

The following lines were printed on the banners carried by the boys along the line of march: "De Cop is alright if you mind your own biz; but give us a place to mind it."

"If you'll give us a place to play near at home, we'll leave all your good green apples alone."

"Why are we the only town whose plea for playgrounds is turned down?"

"Strong armies require strong men Strong men are made on the playgrounds."



November 18, 1917


Mayor Claims Boys Insulted His Wife

Calls Parade Part of Plan to Raid City Treasury

Neighborhood House Leader Says Marchers Were Orderly


Following a demonstration Friday evening in the interest of obtaining a larger Jamaica Plain Playground by more than 500 boys of that district who marched to Mayor Curley's home and left there a petition bearing 1000 names, the Mayor last evening issued the following statement:

"The action of the directors of the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood House Association, in organizing a movement to foist upon the city of Boston, at an exorbitant price, properties of questionable value in order that a certain few property owners might benefit and that an unrestricted view of the playground might be possible from the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood House, is indeed regrettable.

"That intelligent individuals, familiar with the fact that all petitions are presented at City Hall, should engage a band, print numerous banners and organize several hundred children to march to the home of the Mayor and, in his absence, insult and terrorize his wife and children, is unpardonable.

"On April 4 of the present year, a meeting was held at the West Roxbury High School to consider the question of acquiring additional land for playground purposes in the Jamaica Plain Section, and at that time I agreed that an extension of the present playground, which contains 134,159 square feet of land, would be made by me. The city in 1916 appropriated $12,000 for the grading and improvement of the Carolina-av playground, and this work has only been completed this year.

Will Not Allow Treasury Raid

"I am as desirous as any individual can be of providing proper recreational facilities for the people of Boston, and the expenditures in this direction during the past two years have been greater than in any preceding five-year period.

"It is not my purpose, however, to allow any individual or group of individuals, regardless of their station, socially or financially, to raid the city treasury for their own personal benefit, even though they cloak their real purpose with a cleverly engineered and skillfully promoted public clamor.

"Old Ward 22, which under the redistricting bill, became ward 15, and with the addition of part of Ward 23 became Ward 22, embraced a considerable portion of the Jamaicaway park lands and, in addition, the Marcella-st Playground, containing 224,200 square feet of land, to which has been added during the present year 50,636 additional feet of land on Mozart and Bolster sts for playground purposes.

"The property purchased at Mozart and Bolster sts was assessed in 1915 for $15,000 and in 1917 for $13,700. A petition was received favoring the taking of this land for playground purposes, the owner agreeing to sell it to the city for the price at which it had been assessed during 1915, namely $15,000. I informed the owner that the city would take the property in question, provided the owner, Mrs Louise W. Burkhardt, would sell the property for its present assessed valuation. to this proposition she assented, and on recommendation made by me to the Council the property in question was taken by the city.

Would Buy at Tax Value

"I am now prepared and would have been pleased to consider at any time during the past year a proposition for the taking of the properties in question provided the owners would agree to sell the same to the city of Boston at the average valuation upon which they have paid taxes during the past five years.

"It is not my purpose as Mayor to allow any individual or group of individuals, regardless of the virtue with which they may cloak the commission of a wrong act, to take advantage of the city, and if you, as a signer of one of the petitions received, are interested in promoting the public welfare and protecting the city treasury form an unwarranted raid, I respectfully suggest to you that you petition the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood House Association to urge the owners of the properties adjoining the Carolina-av Playground to sell the properties at the average valuation of the past five years. By this action you will engage in a work that is conductive to civic morality and the protection of the public treasury."

T.Deering, head worker of the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood House, last evening sent a letter to Mrs James M. Curley, disclaiming any attempt on the part of the boys who paraded to intimidate her, and asserting that the boys behaved in orderly fashion.



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On October 17, 1921, the playground at Carolina avenue was named for John W. Murphy, who died while serving in Europe.

Mary E. Stuart - Long Time Teacher

Here's a person who deserves to be remembered. Mrs Mary Stuart was born before the Civil War, and began teaching in Jamaica Plain when it was part of the Town of West Roxbury, one year after the end of the war. The "Old Agassiz" school was the Central school at that time, and it was, indeed, at the center of old Jamaica Plain village.


Boston Daily Globe January 18, 1907


Aged Teacher Dead. Mrs Mary E. Stuart of Jamaica Plain. In 41 Years of Service She Taught Children of Former Pupils.


Just as the clocks were striking the noon hour yesterday, and the pupils of the Agassiz grammar school were being dismissed, the death of Mrs Mary E. Stuart, for 41 years a teacher in that school, occurred at her home, 119 Sedgwick st, Jamaica Plain. Mrs Stuart was in her 65th year. She leaves four sisters, Mrs M.G. Rice of West Roxbury, Mrs E.R. Wilson of Dedham, Mrs J.W. Hewins of Medford and Mrs D.J. Chamberlain of Norwood.

Mrs Stuart was probably the oldest teacher in service in the Boston schools and during all of her 41 years of service had taught in the old Agassiz school. She joined the school in January 1866, and worked under the direction of master J. Billings and under the present master, John T. Gibson during his nearly 30 years in the position. She relinquished her duties only three and one-half months ago.

She was held in the highest esteem for her efficiency as a teacher, and during her long years of service had taught upwards of 2000 pupils, and had taught the children of many of her earlier pupils.

As a mark of respect to her memory the flag on the school building on Burroughs st was flown at half-staff yesterday afternoon.

Mrs Stuart was born at Medfield, and was the daughter of Cyrus Steadman and Mary Jordan Steadman. She was educated at the Thetford academy, Thetford, Vt. When 22 years old she was married to John Stuart of Natick, at Medfield, by Rev Andrew Bigelow, but became a widow within a year. Then she became a teacher in the public schools, and her first positions were in the schools of Westboro and Medfield, afterward coming to the Agassiz grammar school here.

Last fall she began the term at the Agassiz school and taught for about three weeks, when she was compelled on account of illness to relinquish teaching. A week ago she was compelled to take to her bed, because of an attack of the heart disease that proved fatal.

For many years she was a member of the Central Congregational church, Jamaica Plain, and was active in the work of that society.

Funeral services will take place at 12:30 Sunday at 119 Sedgwick st. Rev Chauncey J. Hawkins, minister of the Central Congregational church, will conduct the services and the burial will be at Medfield.

Colonial Party And A History Lesson

In the early 20th Century, descendents of the early Jamaica Plain families still lived in the district. I suspect that by the 1930s they were all gone. I wonder what the last Brewer or Curtis was thinking when they moved away from their family home. I suppose they thought of the "new people" much as my generation thinks of the "new people" of today. The families who crowded into Jamaica Plain during the early 20th Century must have been looked on as spoilers of the more bucolic past remembered by those old families. The take-home message? Things change. First you're part of the change, and then you regret the change.


Boston Daily Globe February 7, 1907


400 At Colonial Party.

Meeting Held by Jamaica Plain Fraternity of Churches Was Most Successful Occasion.


An occasion that will linger pleasantly in the memory of all who participated was the meeting last evening of the Jamaica Plain fraternity of churches. In the vestry of the Central Congregational church, and designated a Colonial party. Nearly 400 of the members of various church societies in Jamaica Plain were present.

The principals in the entertainment presented were dressed in the costumes of colonial days, which were heirlooms, many of these costumes being 100 to 150 years old. The oldest article of dress in evidence was a large yellow silk muffler, known to be at least 200 years old, formerly owned and used by one of the first settlers of Jamaica Plain. A figured silk fan, with mahogany frame, and an oval looking glass set in it, was imported from Switzerland, and is 150 years old.

The decorations were of colonial days, American flags and draperies of blue and buff.

The entertainment opened with a brief address by the president of the fraternity, Mrs Alta H. Nevons. Then the colonial chorus of 40, composed of the choir singers in a number of the churches, in costume and powdered wigs, sang the old-time song, "Northfield," "Majesty" and "Sherburne," under the direction of Mr Charles N. Snow, the accompanist being Mr Charles T. Baner, who was organist at the Central church for more than 30 years, until his recent retirement. Then followed a recitation by Miss Dorothy Adams, and two selections for piano, finely rendered, by Mrs Elsa Strauss Currier.

One feature of the program was a paper read by Mrs Clara E. Withington on "Historical Reminiscences of Jamaica Plain," which was an exhaustive recital of the history of people and places of historical interest in Jamaica Plain, in colonial times. The paper was presented in two parts, the first telling of the schools and churches, the second the prominent families and the homes they occupied. John Hancock, one of the signers of the declaration of Independence, was a resident of Jamaica Plain, and Mrs Withington surprised her audience by stating that descendents of the patriot were present in the audience. Interesting stories were told by Mrs Witherington of the Hancocks, Boylstons, Brewers, Welds, Greenoughs and Mays, descendants of all of whom are today residents of Jamaica Plain, and residing in some instances in the original homes erected by their ancestors before the revolution.

Mrs Withington held the closest attention of her audience throughout the reading of her papers, which showed careful research. She was heartily applauded at the conclusion of her recital.

The remaining numbers of the program included two duets by Mrs Anna Lohbililer[?] Mason, soprano, and Mr Robert M. Currier, baritone, who were liberally applauded, and two selections by the chorus, "Cousin Jedediah" and "Strike of the Cymbals," the solos being sung by Miss Rita Curtis and Miss Bayley. The program was brought to a close with "Auld Lang Syne," sung by a chorus and audience.

A social hour followed the company being served with old-fashioned cookies, gingerbread, doughnuts, cheese and coffee by a corps of dames, misses and masters in the costumes of colonial times. They did not forget to properly courtesy when offering hospitality to the guests.

The affair was a great success. Credit is due to the directors of the Fraternity, Mrs Emma S. Adams, Mrs Alta H. Nevins, Mrs Clara E. Withington and Rev Florence Kollock Crooker, who were assisted by members, and to Mrs Elsa Strasser Currier and Mr Charles N. Snow, who had charge of the music.

Man Killed By Horse Team

Accidents like the one described below were not uncommon in Jamaica Plain. People were stomped by horses, and crushed by the wheels of horse wagons with a sad regularity in the days before automobiles banished horses from the roads. The only thing that makes this accident noteworthy is that it is the last case I have found of someone being killed in an accident involving horses. No doubt there were more later, but I'll let this one stand for now as representing the end of an era.




Boston Daily Globe July 18, 1917


Runaways Hit Milk Wagon, Man Killed

Team Hauling Granite in Crash at Jamaica Plain

William Whitney of Roxbury Dies in Hospital of Injuries


Two horses attached to a wagon, loaded with granite, became unmanageable when the wiffletree snapped as they were passing through Amory st, Jamaica Plain, yesterday afternoon and the team crashed into a milk wagon owned by Alder Bros of Tremont st, Roxbury, causing injuries to William Whitney, living at 72 Station st, Roxbury, which caused his death.

The wagon carrying the granite, which was owned by J.N. Lombard of 47 Chapman st, Roxbury, was driven by Edmund J. Roche, 29, of 38 Green st, Charlestown.

Whitney, who was riding on the seat of the milk wagon, was thrown to the ground and rendered unconscious. He was taken to the City Hospital in the police ambulance from the Jamaica Plain Station and died soon after his arrival. Medical Examiner Leary was notified and the body was removed to the City Hospital Morgue.

Frank A. Metz of 62 Jamaica st, Jamaica Plain, who was driving the milk wagon, was thrown to the street, but escaped injury. Roche was arrested, charged with manslaughter, and later bailed at the Jamaica Plain Police Station.

Bloomers!

It appears that by 1924, Jamaica Plain was liberal when it came to the great bloomer debate. Unlike the fuddy-duddies of Hyde Park.


Boston Daily Globe May 14, 1924


Bloomers Costume For Another Parade

Jamaica Plain High Girls to March Today



Folks out West Roxbury was don't seem to object to their daughters appearing in bloomers to participate in open-air gymnastic drills.

Al least, Headmaster Maurice J. Lacey of Jamaica Plain High School has received no complaints as yet.

So this morning, if weather permits, girls of the school will fall in line behind the military companies of the High School, under the direction of Lieut Albert J. Kelley, the military instructor, and follow along the line of march to the John W. Murphy Playground on Carolina av, Jamaica Plain.

There at 9 o'clock Lieut Kelley will give the command that will open the annual military drill of the School Cadets.

Following the drill the High School girls will stage an exhibition of gymnastic work.

No students will be compelled to wear bloomers, but so far none has opposed the plan.



[from the same day]



Jamaica Plain Girls Hold Bloomer Parade Amid Cheers


With ideal weather prevailing, 750 Jamaica Plain High School students had their bloomer parade this morning.

Free from any protest or criticism, as exists in the neighboring district of Hyde Park, as regards parading in garments that terminate at the knee, the young women marched from the school to the John w. Murphy Playground on Carolina av, where they were greeted with cheers by a large crowd.

The procession was headed by the senior's pony cart, driven by Kathleen Mahoney, daughter of Jack Mahoney, the village blacksmith. The cart was prettily decorated with the school colors and contained three other seniors in addition to Miss Mahoney.

The participants were garbed in their blue bloomers, white blouses, black stockings and white shoes, and made an excellent appearance.

On the field they gave eight gymnastic exhibitions under the direction of Miss F.L. Carter, the physical instructor, assisted by Miss Katherine French.

The bloomer parade was in connection with the annual drill of the school cadets, who marched to the grounds an hour earlier than the girls. They were headed by the school band and were under the direction of Lieut Albert J. Kelley, the military instructor.

On parade they made a fine showing and were a fine example of the excellent training they have received under the guidance of Lieut Kelley.

The judges were Col George B. Stebbins, Maj Vincent Breen and Capt R.L. Wright.

Col George J. Brown Jr's company [?] decided the prize company. Others were placed in the following order: Co E, Lieut Col William J. McCusker, Co G,Maj Francis H. Martell; Co D, Maj Dennis M. Crowley; Co J, Maj James H. Hermiatge.

The winners in individual competition were Homer E. Blenus, John P. Shea, Charles T. Glennon, Edmund L. Kelleher, John J. McGovern, Henry T. Noon, Sven W. Winkvist, Daniel J. Sullivan, Edmund H. Storer and James J. O'Leary.

Charles R. Lovejoy won the drum competition and Norman Oaks was decided the best bugler.

Forest Hills Memorials - WW I

As far as I know, William A. Damm square doesn't exist any more. It appears to have been at the south edge of Forest Hills square, at an intersection that was destroyed when the elevated train line was removed. The memorial shown above is also shown below, without its tablet. I'm afraid that the bronze tablet was stolen from its place in the boulder and sold for scrap. Granted that capital punishment would be extreme for such a crime, but a good old-fashioned horse-whipping would be entirely appropriate.



Boston Daily Globe May 16, 1921


Forest Hills Square Dedicated To Memory Of William A. Damm - War Hero Tablet Also Unveiled at Parkman School - Military And Civic Parade Included Mayor Peters and Ex-Mayor Curley - Choruses by the Children


About 1000 Forest Hills residents participated in a military and civic parade yesterday afternoon in connection with the dedication of William A. Damm sq and the unveiling of a tablet to the boys of Forest Hills who served in the World War. John B. Archibald headed the committee in charge and Mrs J.B. McManus was chairman of the reception committee. The affair was under the auspices of the Francis Parkman Parent's Association.

The marchers received much applause as they passed through the streets of the Forest Hills section, headed by Commander J. Edward Murray of the Michael J O'Connell Post, A.L., who was chief marshall of the parade. His staff consisted of Commander Edward J. White of James C. Shea Post, A.L.; Hon Andrew J. Peters, Hon James M. Curley, Rev William J. Casey, Rev James G. Lane, J. Mitchel Galvin, Henry E. Lawler, John F. McDonald, C.P.O.,; James Kelley, U.S.N., chief of staff; Lieut George Lovejoy, Lieut James Flanagan Lieut Thomas Gately, Lieut Clement Morton, Sergt James Walsh, Sergt George Ainsworth and Ensign Alfred J. Moore.

Mayor Peters was accompanied by his sons, Alanson and Andrew Jr, who marched along the route. Mrs Peters and the other children rode in an automobile. Part of the way Ex-Mayor James M. Curley marched with the Legion boys. He was loudly applauded.

When the procession reached Hyde Park av and lower Walk Hill st William Damm sq was dedicated. Rev James G. Lane read the opening prayer. Hon James F. McDonald was the orator, and the school children, under the direction of A.J. Stanley, rendered the vocal numbers. The Nary Yard Band furnished the music.

From Damm sq to the Francis Parkman School, the parade roster was composed of police detail, M.J. O'Connell Post, A.L.; James C. Shea Post, A.L.; Navy Yard Band, St Andrew's Holy Name Society, Legion Auxilliaries, Francis Parkman Parent's Association, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Campfire Girls and the Men's Club of the Upham M.E. Church.

At the Parkman School, a bronze tablet was unveiled to the memory of 250 men of Forest Hills who served in the World War and the 10 who died. The following is the list of names of the latter inscribed on the tablet; Joseph W. Bonney, Charles F. Briggs, William Canary, William A. Damm, Lieut Thomas J. Enright, Alfred Peterson, Jordan E. Phee, Oscar Tugo and Albert Wetzler.

Hon James M. Curley was the orator, Hon J. Mitchel Galvin and Mayor Andrew J. Peters were speakers and Rev William J. Casey offered prayer, Sergt William F. Donnelly and C.P.O. John B. Brady unveiled the tablet and Col Fred Bogan accepted it for the School Committee. The Forest Hills Quartet sang.

Grand Army men who were unable to march in the procession were taken around by Mrs Pauline Green of Jamaica Plain, who offered her automobile for the old "Vets."

Vincent Memorial Hospital

January, 2008

Here's another South Huntington avenue institution I didn't know existed. Vincent Memorial merged with Mass General as an OB/GYN department. It survives to this day in that form, as described here. The photo below shows that the building is being refurbished for a new tenant. The building sits at the intersection of Heath street and South Huntington avenue.

Note: I just learned that the Vincent hospital became the Longwood, so I certainly did know it existed - I was born there!



Boston Daily Globe February 21, 1907


Work Begins At Once. Vincent Memorial Hospital on South Huntington Av To Have All Modern Conveniences.


The Vincent memorial hospital will be built at once. The contract has been let and it is expected that the building will be completed by next November. The plans are by Charles Bruen Perkins, and provide for a brick structure with terra cotta trimmings, employing the latest and best in hospital construction.

The location of the land purchased recently on South Huntington av overlooking Jamaica way and the park, which cost $44,000. The building will have a frontage of 70 feet on Huntington av and a depth of 60 feet. There will be three entrances, one at the front and one at each side, opening into a wide hall running the width of the building.

It is so planned that its capacity can be doubled when it shall become necessary by adding on to the rear, maintaining symmetry of the hospital and the effectiveness of its interior arrangements

The front entrance opens into a vestibule and here is placed the large electric elevator designed to hold cots and transfer patients without distress.

At the right of the first floor are the reception room and nurses' sitting room, dining room and pantry three servants rooms, the housekeeper's room and the night nurses' room. On the left side are five rooms for nurses.

The second floor contains the office, the matron's room with bath, diet kitchen, three private rooms each containing one bed, one ward containing four beds, one ward with two beds and a sun parlor.

On the third floor as a doctor's room at the front, the etherizing room, the sterilizing room, the operating room, the doctor's dressing room, a diet kitchen, one private room, one eight-bed ward, one four-bed ward, and a sun parlor Provision is made for a roof garden.

The refrigerator, pantry, servants' dining room, locker room, laundry, linen room, a storeroom, the boiler room a man's room and a coal room are in the basement. There are bathrooms and toilets on each floor and large linen closets.

The finish and doors throughout are hardwood with hospital b(?)ses and the walls are finished in hard plaster. All the operating rooms, diet kitchens, etc, have hygienic floors. The lighting will be both electricity and gas.

Green Street Elevated Station

The picture above shows that the station at Green street was hung beneath the Elevated structure. The surprise in this article is that the Elevated company didn't put a station at Green street when the extension from Dudley street to Forest Hills was built. What were they thinking? Of course, it's no surprise that those rat-bastards from Roslindale were trying to screw Jamaica Plain.



Boston Daily Globe April 26, 1910


Mayor Favors Station. Jamaica Plain Petitioners Given Hearing on Request for Better Service From Elevated Road.


A large number of residents of Jamaica Plain attended the hearing by the railroad commission yesterday morning on the petition for a station on the elevated structure at Green st, between Egleston Square and Forest Hills.

Congressman Peters presented the case for the petitioners. He said the people are annoyed by the noise and their property has depreciated, and therefore they should be compensated. Although the steam roads have two stations between Roxbury and Forest Hills, the service is unsatisfactory.

Robert M. Morse said that 10,000 residents of the district want the station, and Col Thomas L. Livermore said that he could not understand why the elevated should try to develop Forest Hills and neglect Jamaica Plain, which is already thickly settled. Samuel D. Capen and John B. Wheeler also spoke in favor of the station.

Mayor Fitzgerald spoke in favor of the station. Residents of Jamaica Plain complain that the elevated structure injures their property, he said, without providing compensating convenience to passengers. The company has taken off surface cars so that the service is inferior. There are 13,000 persons in the territory served by the elevated, which has only one station in the area for which the New Haven road has three, he said. He insisted that the company should furnish adequate means of accommodation.

It was shown that Forest Hills and Egleston Square was nearly as great as the distance from Sullivan sq to the North station, in which there are two intermediate stations, and that the distance from Dudley st to Dover st is equal to that from Forest Hills to Egleston Square. Among others who appeared in favor of the petition were George A.O. Ernst, Rev Charles F. Dole, George A. Cowen, Louis A. Buff, George W. Flynn, John T. Wheelwright, William B. Wheelright, Thomas Curley, Sewall C. Brackett, E.F. Riley, J.J. O'Donnell, J.T. Hasford, W.A. Gleason, Dr Chadwick, attorney McLaughlin and Dr E. Peabody Gerry.

The commissioners heard George Cherry of the Mt Hope Improvement association and Henry Kramer and James Ward of Roslindale in opposition. They objected to the station because it would interfere with rapid transit, they contended, and because, if the station is built, others would be demanded by residents along the route.

Mr Snow, counsel for the elevated company, was not prepared to go on with his case and asked for a continuance. The hearing was postponed until 2 o'clock Friday afternoon.

Tiger Cat Killed At Glen Road

This story doesn't tell us of the great historical events of the day, but it's just too good to pass up. As for historical interest, it does tell us in passing that two households in the area of Sigourney street had servants in them - an interesting fact in itself. I can only assume that the two officers involved in the great cat-hunt spent the rest of their careers trying, unsuccessfully, to live down the shame of it. Two men, two guns, one kitty. The jokes must have followed them for years.

Mr Nathan Haskell Dole gets a mention here. His name is new to me, but apparently he was a well known author and editor, and friend to the famous. The Tileston family lived at the corner of Glen road and Sigourney street, next to a house my father's youngest brother owned in the early 1960s, so I know the area, and can well imagine the battle with the great beast.




Boston Daily Globe January 10,1907


Killed By 15 Shots

Brick Helps Some Too.

Rabid Tiger Cat Attacks People.

It Frightens a Jamaica Plain Neighborhood.

Done to Death by a Big and a Little Policeman.


A big tiger can, believed to have been affected by rabies, that had recently terrorized the aristocratic neighborhood of Sigourney st and Glen road, Jamaica Plain, was sent to its long sleep yesterday afternoon by revolver shots fired by patrolmen McAdams and Riley.

When Dr Austin Peters, chief of the cattle bureau of the state board of health, who lives in the vicinity, learned of the rabid cat, he had the body taken to his residence, and tomorrow will have an examination of the head made to determine if the cat had rabies.

For the past two days the tiger cat, said to weigh more than 20 pounds, has been prowling about the neighborhood and acting like a wild cat. It had no fear of attacking man, woman or child, and it is said a number of children have been bitten and scratched by it. Monday night it got into the residence of Cheever Newhall, corner of Walnut av and Montebello road, frightened the servents by its vicious attacks on them and was with difficulty driven out of the house.

Yesterday morning it made its way to the premises of Roger E. Tileston, 82 Glen road, and when Mr Tileston's little boy and girl began to pet it the cat sprang at them. The children's screams attracted a servant in the house, who ran to drive away the cat, but she was glad to beat a retreat, taking the children with her into the house.

Mr Tileston, too, was attacked by the cat when he attempted to drive it out of the yard in front of his residence. Later the cat sprang at a woman who was walking on Glen road.

Two Policemen Detailed.

The police were told about the cat and patrolman McAdams, one of the biggest men in the department, and patrolman Riley, who is not more than 5 feet 4 1/2 inches in height, were sent out to find the cat and secure it if possible. After skillful gum-shoe work they discovered the cat on Glen road, and when the tiger saw the officers of the law it promptly ran to cover under the steps of the porch of the Tileston residence.

There was only one exit from its hiding place and that was the hole by which it entered. So big Jack McAdams and little George Riley proceeded to lay in wait. The wait was a long and tiresome one, for the cat refused to leave its place of security.

Some hot water was poured through the cracks of the planks of the piazza, and out through the hole of its place of concealment sprang the big tiger cat. A shot from McAdams' revolver made the cat crouch on the lawn as if about to spring upon the policemen.

Again and again did McAdams' revolver fire at the cat until all the seven shots of his revolver had punched holes in the air without hurting the cat, which crouched and blinked at the smoke from the muzzle of the revolver.

Little George to the Fore.

Then little George Riley pushed big Jack McAdams aside with a knowing wink. Five shots in rapid succession were fired at the cat by Riley, and when the smoke of battle had cleared away kitty was still there glaring at the marksmen.

Then reinforcements were brought into play.

The policemen had used all of their ammunition, and a revolver was borrowed from Nathan Haskell Dole, the author. Before the policemen got back to the battlefield a citizen had tapped the crouching cat with a brick. It rolled over on its back, and received the contents of the third revolver before it gave up its life.

In all 15 shots were fired, not counting the brick.

Dr Austin Peters said last night it was unusual that a cat was affected with rabies, for the reason that they would usually manage to get out of the way of a dog, but occasionally a case of rabies in a cat has been discovered. Whether the dead cat was affected with rabies he could not tell until proper examination of it is made. He was interested to know the cause of the vicious attacks of the cat on human beings, and if rabies was the cause of its unusual actions, and that would be determined today at the laboratory of the board of health.

German Reformed Christ Church

The German Reformed Church stood on Chestnut avenue opposite the end of Sheridan street. The architect, H.M. Stephenson, also designed St John's Episcopal church on Elm street. A look at this map will show the location - the church appears on the map in red. As a bonus, the house of the architect shows up on this map, of the same series and date, on Chestnut avenue as well.



Boston Daily Globe February 22, 1904


New House Of Worship Dedicated. German Reformed Christ Church, Jamaica Plain, Is Entirely Free From Debt.


The members of the German Reformed Christ church, Chestnut av, Jamaica Plain, dedicated their new house of worship yesterday.

A notable feature of the dedication was the fact that the entire building is completely paid for.

The morning service commenced with a selection by the organist, B.F. Meyer, followed by a hymn by the congregation. A soprano solo was rendered by Mrs Rudolph Nagle with violin obligato by Miss Freida Strasser. The sermon was given by Rev P.H. Dipple of Philadelphia. Mrs Nagle sang "Ave Maria," with flute obligato by Edward E. Ramseyer and piano accompaniment by Mrs M. Hagerstroh.

In the afternoon the Sunday school had services consisting of selections by different members of the school and addresses by Rev P.H. Dipple of Philadelphia, Rev Eugene G. Fuessle of New York and Rev August Schwartz of Mellville N.Y.

The evening services consisted of organ prelude by B.B. Barton, invocation by the pastor, hymn by the congregation, Scripture lesson, solo by Thomas Moore Cornell, address, "The Christian's Delight in God's House," by Rev August Schwartz; solo, "O, for the Wings of a Dove," Mrs Anna Lohbiller-Mason, and concluded with the rendering of a largo by Rudolph Nettle violin, Arthur Haberstroh cello, J. Walter Schurmer cornet Eduard E Ramseyer flute, B.B. Barton organ and A. Haberstroh piano.

The church cost about $17,000. There are entrances from two vestibules into the auditorium, which has hard pine finished floors and pews. An open timber ceiling completes a harmonious interior. The seating capacity is about 300. At the right of the chancel opposite the entrance is the organ, and at the left is the minister's study. At the front is a large memorial window. In the basement, which is almost entirely above ground, are the Sunday school room, two Bible rooms, the supper room, kitchen and heating apparatus. The Sunday school room and the Bible class room can be thrown into one room.

Agassiz Farmers

I knew there were victory gardens during WW II, but I didn't realize they were encouraged during WW I as well. The boys of the Agassiz school did their part to feed the home front.



Boston Daily Globe September 29, 1917


Boys' Garden Truck Shown.

Striking Exhibit at the Agassiz School, Jamaica Plain - Award of Prizes.


A large number of the parents of children in the Agassiz School, Jamaica Plain, witnessed yesterday an exhibition of produce grown by the boys of the school, the equal of which has seldom been witnessed in the city. The exhibit was divided into three classes; the prevocation class, supervised by Miss Halstrom; the school class in charge of Miss West, the master's assistant, and the individual war garden exhibit.

The prevocation class,recently awarded third prize at the Horticultural exhibit in Boston, was yesterday given first prize for the finest collection of vegetables. The school won a blue ribbon prize for the finest garden exhibit.

In the individual exhibit Nelson E. Withington, a pupil of the eighth grade, carried off the highest honors, being awarded four first prizes and taking second in many other classes.

Features of the exhibit were a 28-pound pumpkin grown by Roland Scollins, and an 18-pound squash raised by Andrew Flynn. Both boys received first prizes. The following is a list of the prize products and the winners.

Vegetables from Children's Garden - Nelson E. Withington, Variety Garden - Frank Glennon Best Beets - David Pickett. Carrots - Nelson Withington, Onions - Richard Peterson, Potatoes - Thomas O'Rourke, Tomatoes - Waldo Scoffield, Preserved Vegetables - Nelson Withington. The flower garden prize was won by Lewis Bower.

Jamaica Plain W.C.T.U.

Certain topics in history seem to get orphaned. Women were leaders in the temperance movement, but they don't seem to get any love these days. Is it the scowl of Carrie Nation that scares off potential admirers, or is it the modern taste for the Devil's Drink? Whichever the case, let's raise a glass and remember the activist women of Jamaica Plain's past.


Boston Daily Globe February 22, 1901


Its 18th Anniversary.

Celebration by Jamaica Plain Women's Christian Temperance Union.


The Jamaica Plain W.C.T.U. observed its 18th anniversary at the Central Congregational church last evening. Early in the evening the members and guests gathered around the banquet table. Mrs A.E. Pearson, president of the union, sat at the head table and around her were the guests of the evening, who made addresses - Mrs Katherine Lente Stevenson, state president; Mrs Susan S. Fessenden ex state president; Mrs Harriet T. Todd, state secretary; Mrs Dr Louise Purington, county president and Miss Elizabeth P. Gordon, state editor.

Following the supper interesting exercises were held and the addresses and reports showed the opening of the 19th year of the union to be a most auspicious one.

Music was furnished by the Algonquin banjo, mandolin and guitar club. The committee of arrangements was composed of Mrs A.E. Pearson, Mrs C.E. Withington, Mrs Coburn, Mrs Keyes, Miss Woodworth, Mrs Huxley and Mrs Cross.

Boston Politics - The Real Thing

I don't claim to be any more than a passive observer of today's Boston politics, and I'm certainly not a historian of Boston's political past. That being said, I think that it is reasonable to say that the political culture that Boston was known for since the Civil war is now dead. The populations that battled over the issues of the day and the spoils of patronage have moved to greener neighborhoods, and that particular Boston political world that existed for several generations has ceased to exist. It could be argued that the change is a good thing, but the change is real nonetheless. I think it could be said with reasonable certainty that if nothing else, Boston politics in "the old days" was far more entertaining.

For those who don't know, the Jamaica Theatre was at Hyde Square.



Boston Daily Globe December 12, 1921


Murphy Booed From Hall In Curley Ward

Crowd in Jamaica Theatre Refuses Him a Hearing

Yells of Most of Audience Drown Out Strains of Orchestra


John R. Murphy made an unsuccessful attempt to speak in the Jamaica Theatre in Curley's home ward yesterday. He was booed from the stage by about 1000 persons out of a possible 1500 who attended the rally.

Representative James Mulvey of Roxbury attempted to deliver the opening address, but he was loudly booed. Representative Stephen R. Mealey, whose candidacy for Representative was endorsed by Curley, presided. He was the objective for many insulting remarks.

When the candidate Murphy entered the theatre he was greeted by a few handclaps from persons in the front rows and many boos from the others in the audience. Mr Murphy made several attempts to speak. Many times he repeated "Just a word," and that was as far as he got, when cries of "Goo Goo," "What did you do to P.A. Collins?" "Loyal Coalition Candidate," and other yells rang through the building. The orchestra played, but the yells drowned the strains of the music.

Almost the entire audience arose at once and cried "Goo Goo" for fully three minutes.

The police were called upon to remove the disturbers, but they were unable to do anything as the disturbance was almost general. Officers Fisher, Dodge and Graham were assigned to the theatre, but when the trouble began to look serious, officers Griffin, Monahan, Seevak and Walsh were sent to the scene.

Seven police officers comprised a small force to cope with the large audience, but they handled the crowd in a nice manner and succeeded in stopping a lot of the booing. The officers were praised by their superiors for their coolheadedness and diplomacy.

Candidate Murphy finally got about twenty words across and gave up. He left the hall by the stage door and his supporters gathered around him at his automobile to prevent the crowd from getting to him.

Several put out their hands, but when Murphy offered his they drew them back and called him names. One young fellow finally did shake Murphy's hand and the door of the car closed and the machine drove away, with the crowd yelling after it.

A banner for Murphy was hanging on a house across from the theatre and several young men tore it down. Several Curley banners were hung near the theatre, and cars passing the theatre, coming from Curley rallies and bearing his signs, were loudly cheered.

After Murphy left, two of his speakers succeeded in making a few remarks about Curley to the small audience that remained in the hall.

Three loud cheers were given for Curley and the police then dispersed the crowd from in front of the building.

The treatment of Mr Murphy, according to residents, was the worst of the kind ever accorded in that section of Jamaica Plain.

The Beautiful Game

Soccer in this country is generally seen as a game of immigrants and suburban grade schoolers. So who knew that Jamaica Plain had a championship team a century ago? Were they locals, or did they just use Jamaica Plain as a headquarters? The Boston Rovers had their home at the corner of Washington and Williams streets. Was that Doyle's, or was it the building on the opposite corner of Williams street? Foss field was at the corner diagonally across from Doyle's, where the English High School track is now. It was mentioned in an earlier post regarding baseball played on the Sabbath. I'd love to know whether the trophy mentioned below still exists - wouldn't that be cool?

This map from 1914 shows Foss field, at Washington and Williams streets - look for the adjoining Boston Consolidated Gas property.


Boston Daily Globe March 20, 1909


Cup Given To Boston Rovers

Marks Championship of Soccer League.

Jamaica Plain Team Holds Open House for the Ceremony.




It was a gala night at the rooms of the Boston Rovers, corner of Williams and Washington sts, Jamaica Plain, last evening, when the formal exercises attending the presentation of the John C. McGee cup, the championship trophy of the Boston association football league, took place in the presence of a large gathering of league players and their friends.

The Rovers's team that went through the season undefeated champions of the league, were each presented with a handsome gold medal. The team included J. Fairweather capt, Ben Lyncy, R.C. Lewis, H. Gray, A. Houston, P. Guthrie, R. McLay, D. Maitland, J. Caithness, G. Collins, W. Collins, S. McCleary, W.D. Murchie, James Smith, D. Stewart.

Pres Barker of the league presented the cup, donated by the late John C. McGee of East Boston, and it was accepted by Capt Fairweather of the Rovers for his associates in a neat speech. The trophy is a massive silver loving cup resting on an ebony pedestal. Then followed the presentation of the individual gold medals to the players by Pres Barker, each of the men responding briefly. The cheers of the large audience concluded the ceremony.

The entertainment provided introduced David L. Smith, who sang some of Harry Lauder's songs, W.J. Colling, A. Barkley, William Tighe, Daniel Lynch, James Smith, all with vocal selections, that were enthusiastically received.

The committee in charge was D. Lynch, James Smith, James Fairweather, L. Blume. The Boston Rovers will play the Methuens, champions of the Lowell, Lawrence and district league, at Lawrence on April 19, for the championship.




Boston Daily Globe June 28, 1909


Soccer Football Plans.

Four Teams Already Entered for the Fall Championships.


Sec McLearie reported to a meeting yesterday of the Boston and district soccer football league in Jamaica Plain the following teams that have announced their intention to compete this season: Boston Rovers, Boston American, Lynn City and the Fore Rivers of Quincy. The Hopedale Rovers, Clan Lindsay and the Boston Rangers of Brighton will be asked to enter.

Two representatives from the steamships Ivernia and Saxonia asked to be allowed to enter the ship's teams. It was suggested that the two teams amalgamate so that one team would be in port twice within the month when the application will be accepted. It was decided to open the season as early in September as possible.



Boston Daily Globe September 3, 1910


Opening Of Soccer Season.

Big Game of the Day Will Be Played in Jamaica Plain.


Today marks the opening in Boston of the soccer football championship season, 10 clubs of the Boston league matching up for battle.

At 4 o'clock on Foss athletic park Jamaica Plain, the big game of the day takes place, between the Boston Americans and the Lynn city club. Manager Wyse of the home club sent out invitations to many followers of the game, including Alexander MacGregor of the Boston Caledonian club and Mr Grieve, donor of the championship club that the Boston league stars will strive for.

Today will be a sort of gala reunion day for the soccer fans of the Hub, and a big crowd is expected on Foss park, the new home of the game.

At Beverly the Champion Boston Rovers open the struggle against the new Beverly club.

Sec Sam McLerie of the league tonight will start for New York and Philadelphia, where the soccer game is coming strong this year.

South Street Car Barns

This subject intrigues me because I spent so much time in the area. The current site of the South street housing public housing complex, the car barns are still remembered by the oldest Jamaica Plain residents. When my father first told me about the streetcar barns that stood beside St Thomas church, I had trouble imagining it. The article below is a little confusing as well. The building described was an addition to one that was already there, as seen to the right in the picture above. I'm also guessing that the 150 streetcar capacity mentioned below was for the entire complex, not just the new building. Asbury place was within the current housing complex, and was eliminated when it was built. I have no idea where Pitt street was - there 's no mention of a Pitt street in the 1910 city street directory.

This map from 1896 shows the old facility, and this one from 1905 shows the new building added.



Boston Daily Globe January 14, 1901


Storage House For 150 Electric Cars.


During the month of September, 1900, work was begun on the Jamaica Plain terminal station and car storage house for the Boston elevated railway company, and now it is about completed. This new station is 325x320 feet, and the tracks will accommodate 150 electric cars. There is a waiting room on the corner of Asbury pl and Pitt st, and the interior of the station is fitted with rooms for motormen, conductors, superintendent and receiver.

M.I.T. In J.P.

This is an interesting what-if... what if M.I.T. had moved to Jamaica Plain?



Boston Daily Globe July 17, 1903


Tech's Plans.

Institute is Casting About for a Home.

Cassidy Estate, Watertown Looked at Favorably.

It Contains 2,500,000 Feet, Fronts the Charles.

Plot in Jamaica Plain Also Taken Under Consideration.


There is little doubt that it is not the intention of of trustees of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to enlarge the present buildings at Copley sq, as has been frequently asserted, for the board has for several months past been casting about in search of a suitable location upon which to remove.

One site in particular is said to have caused Pres Prichett to remark that it is what he desires, and this location has several times been inspected, the last time less than a month ago, when a party of 22 went to an estate in Watertown in a special electric car and spent some time in looking over the ground.

It was in connection with this particular site that a well-known real estate dealer was called in to make a proper valuation for the benefit of the trustees. The trustees are also said to be considering the choice of a plot consisting of about 30 acres in Jamaica Plain, and they have also looked over the land in Cambridge owned by the Charles River Embankment company.

The reason held out as to why nothing has yet been done in the matter of some one of these three locations is that financially the institution is unable to come to direct business until after after the sale of the present site supplies it with sufficient funds to purchase a location elsewhere.

It is claimed that it is the desire of the trustees of the institute to locate on the banks of the Charles river in a spot removed from the noise and roar of city traffic, and yet within easy access of the city. Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge and other famous universities are located on the banks of rivers, thus affording the students opportunities for recreation as well as adding to the beauty of the site.

[skip boring Watertown talk]

Rumor has for some time had it that the trustees of the institute were to remove to a plot at Jamaica Plain, and it has even been said that a bond was given as proof of good faith on the part of the trustees. This plot is bounded by Jamaica way, Lakeville pl, Perkins and Centre sts. It contains about 30 acres and is known as the old Curtis farm. In connection with this property Charles F. Curtis makes the statement that he has never in any way been approached by the trustees of M.I.T. or by any agent for them.

The land over in Cambridge is known as a fine location for such a purpose, although not generally considered as desirable as the other two mentioned.

German M.E. Church - Amory Street

January, 2008



* I've had a comment informing me that this church us still in use (5/2008)

Another straggler in the Jamaica Plain church division. This church is currently boarded up, an architectural shell with no life in it. There's something melancholy about a church with no congregation. The building opened with enthusiasm and promise, ready to serve for centuries. decades later, the congregation has dispersed, and the community is dead. How many years has it been that an ethnic German community existed in Boston? I have to wonder how much effect the two World Wars had on Jamaica Plain's German colony. Did the wars cause them to give up on their German identity, or was it just time and assimilation?

The article puts the church in Roxbury. Reasonable at the time, as the old Roxbury/West Roxbury line fell a block to the south, putting the building in Roxbury proper. Still, I have to wonder whether the people themselves considered the church to be in Roxbury or Jamaica Plain. I won't mistake a citation in the Globe to be the last word on the subject. In this area, the Globe bounces between Roxbury, Roxbury Highlands, Boston Highlands and Jamaica Plain, probably depending on the editor on duty at the time.



Boston Daily Globe January 15, 1900


Dedication At Roxbury. Interesting Services in the Handsome New German M.E. Church - $2000 Subscribed.


The handsome new German M.E. church, which for the past seven months has been under construction at the corner of Amory and Atherton sts, Roxbury, was dedicated yesterday. Appropriate services of an interesting nature were held in the morning, afternoon and evening. The morning and evening services were conducted in German and were principally for the members of the church, while the afternoon service was conducted in English and was given over largely to the neighbors and friends of the society.

The church was crowded to its utmost capacity at each service, and it was found necessary to throw open the vestry to accommodate those seeking admission.

The pulpit platform was adorned with potted palms and ferns and there were two large bouquets of roses on the reading desk.

At the morning and evening services the pastor, Rev J.G. Lutz, was assisted by Rev C. Jordan of Lawrence, Rev R. Glenk of Greenfield, Rev F.H. Rey of Brooklyn, NY, and Rev W.H. Kurth of Amsterdam, NY, a former pastor, Mr Rey spoke at the morning service and Rev W.H. Kurth delivered the sermon in the evening.

The English service opened at 3 p.m. with congregational singing, followed by prayer by Rev Ellis Mendell of Jamaica Plain. A selection was then given by the choir, which was followed by scriptural readings by Rev W.A. Lott.

Rev W.T. Perrin, the presiding elder of the parish, delivered a very forcible sermon, in which he congratulated the society on the accomplishment of their work. He said that while the church was a beautiful one, it did not compare with the temple of Solomon, but for all that it may be filled with the glory of God. Whenever and wherever the creature becomes conscious that God is present, the speaker continued, there is an awakening to humble worship, and the glory of the Lord fills the house wherever the sacrifices of the people are accepted.

"There is nothing that can take the place of this glory in the church," the speaker said. "We may build massive foundations, erect grand walls and decorate them in the most beautiful manner, put in the best organ that will flood its aisles with melody, but this will be as nothing unless the glory of God is manifested in the hearts of the people.

"I am glad to be here representing the English speaking people, and I feel we are interested in the work you are doing here."

Rev J.P. West followed with prayer, after which there was congregational singing and benediction.

The society begins its new work under very favorable conditions. There is a debt of more than $6000, but this was materially decreased by the subscriptions received at yesterday's meetings, amounting to more than $2000.

An architectural feature of the new edifice is the three memorial windows on the Amory st side. One is a triple window, and represents a cross and passion flower, in memory of F.W. Dinger, a former pastor of the church. The other two double windows are a gift from the family of one of the ones memorialized, the father of the present pastor, and represents a chalice and sheaf of wheat, to the memory of Rev F.G. Lutz, who was also a former pastor of the church, and his wife.

Mr. Atwood's Trees

The world needs people like Louis Atwood. Jamaica Plain had one.



Boston Daily Globe December 27, 1913


Atwood Has 100, Will Take More

Starts Home for Aged Christmas Trees.

Jamaica Plain Estate Made Green in a Day.

Boys With Handcart Assist in Transformation.


Yesterday a bare waste of ground, today a veritable forest of green fir trees covered with snow, such is the transformation wrought on the estate of Louis L.P. Atwood of 27 Seaverns av,Jamaica Plain.

The good people of the Plain rubbed their eyes in amazement as they passed the grounds yesterday afternoon at the sight of the trees which had sprung up as though by magic, and which nodded a welcome to every visitor. The entrance to the Atwood home was flanked on each side by nearly a dozen of the stately monarchs of the forest, the yard was dotted with trees of many sizes and shapes and on either side of the garage in the rear of the house two stately firs stood guard.

To all conjectures as to the cause of this sudden and startling forestation Mr Atwood maintained during the day a discreet silence.

Early yesterday morning two boys, pushing a handcart before them, started from Mr Atwood's home on a mysterious errand. After a tour of the business establishments of Jamaica Plain, they returned, their cart laden with Christmas trees. Mr Atwood had been impatiently awaiting them, and on their arrival seized his spade and in a few moments had set the trees in the ground. Once again the boys started forth on their errand and continued throughout the day and by nightfall had gathered more than 100 trees, which had been planted in every nook and corner of the estate by the enthusiastic Mr Atwood.

Late yesterday afternoon Mr Atwood said to his curious neighbors that he had wished to have something green about his house throughout the cold Winter months. He had spent 10 years in Southern California, and had come to dread the dreary Winter of Northland. While passing a provision store Christmas afternoon he saw several Christmas trees standing in front of the establishment. It seemed a pity to him that they should be wasted. He hurried to his home and suggested to his wife that it would be pleasant to set out a few of these trees in his yard, and she cordially agreed.

Realizing that his own efforts would be feeble, he hired the two boys, and Mr Atwood was kept busy throughout the day setting out the trees they gathered.

By dark more than 100 trees were rearing their heads on the Atwood estate, and Mr Atwood proudly gazed over the scene of primeval beauty which he had created.

At that he is not satisfied. Although it seemed that every nook and corner of his estate was covered with the firs, he proclaimed aloud his desire for more trees, and told every passerby to come to him if they had fir trees to dispose of.

Christmas On Brewer Street - 1961

(Copyright 2007)


There I sit in my new red wagon on Christmas day, 1961. That red wagon made me a part of a Jamaica Plain tradition. My first job in this world was as an order boy at the First National supermarket on Centre street opposite Greenough avenue. With other boys, we lined up on either side of the entrance of the store. As people came out, we offered to carry their "orders" home in our wagons. Most of our "clients" were older people, who would have difficulty carrying their groceries home. We pulled our bag-laden wagons from the brick building directly opposite the store to Orchard street. Twenty-five cents was a good take, and paid for a bottle of tonic and a comic book. Both the Jamaicaplain.com message board - "Remember the "order boys" with their little red wagons, who hauled our parents' grocery orders home on Saturdays from the First National?" - and the Jamaica Plain Historical Society web site tell stories of boys who did the same thing - some of them 10-15 years before I did. My mother still comments on how useful that little red wagon was.

Begging for Stuff - A Holiday Tradition

(Copyright 2007)


Yours truly, sitting on Santa's lap in downtown Boston. I'm guessing that it was at Jordan Marsh some time before 1960. You see, children, back in the old days, people from Jamaica Plain would get on the streetcar and go in to Boston to do all their Christmas shopping. There was Filene's and Jordan's and Raymonds; all the big stores were along Washington street, kind of like a plaza or mall, only in the city. Then you'd walk over to the Boston Common to see the lights and decorations, and hear carollers or bands playing Christmas music. Pretty neat.

Christmas In JP

Boston Daily Globe December 25, 1913


Carol Singers Tour District

Feature at Jamaica Plain Celebration.

Big Tree at Curtis Hall, Where 1000 Citizens Gather.

Candles Placed in the Windows of the Homes.


Nearly 1000 residents of Jamaica Plain last night enjoyed exercises held around the Christmas tree in front of Curtis Hall Municipal Building. The tree was donated to the Jamaica Plain Citizen's Association by the Mayor and City Council. It was more than 20 feet in height and was brilliantly illuminated. In many houses in the vicinity lighted candles were placed in the windows.

There was carol singing by a choir made up of members of various church choirs,under the direction of Thompson Stone, choirmaster of the St John's Episcopal Church. After singing at the tree, the choir toured the district, singing at the following places: Corner of Roanoke av and Elm st; Rockview and Green st; Lakeview pl, and at the further end of Burroughs st.

Dr Hartwell was chairman of the committee in charge of the affair, and addresses were made by Rev Walter Calley, pastor of the First Baptist Church, and Joseph Lyons, Assistant Corporation Counsel.

Post Office - Green And Cheshire Streets

In an earlier post, it was noted that the Post Office left this site for Centre and Myrtle streets. The portrait of Supt. Clark bears a remarkable resemblance to John Cleese, don't you think?



Boston Daily Globe March 1, 1908

New Postoffice To Be Opened Today. Jamaica Plain Structure is Attractive in Design and Complete in Equipment.


The new Jamaica Plain postoffice, which competent judges say is the best equipped in the Boston district, will be opened for business at 9:30 this morning, with Albert H. Clark as superintendent. Supt Clark has been in charge for nearly 10 years, and during that time the business has increased 100 percent.




This year, the stamp sales will amount to $40,000 and the money order business to $130,000. A staff of nine clerks, 21 carriers, one subcarrier and four collectors is necessary to properly care for the business. The oldest carriers are Joseph E. Page, who has seen 33 years' service; John F. Tuckett, 24 years' service, and Thomas Clary, 23 years' service.

Supt Clark started as a special delivery letter boy in the Chelsea postoffice in 1887, and has worked his way up to his present position. He is very popular with the men under him and also with the citizens.

The building in which the postoffice is located is of modern brick construction, situated at the corner of Green and Cheshire sts, and affords ample room for the transaction of business of that station for many years to come. A feature of the new building is that its front and east side is almost wholly of plate glass, and being only one story in height, large skylights also help to light the interior. At night many electric lights will illuminate the office.

The new office is finished in quartered oak, and the furnishings are of the same wood. There is a modern burglar proof safe, which Supt Clark says "the yeggs will have a hard time trying to crack."

The fixtures include stock cabinets, letter boxes and keyless combinations, stamp cabinets, money order cases, carriers' return book case, with lockers underneath, double mailing case, with 140 holes, slip case with sliding doors, letter assorting case, paper assorting case, sack pouch holder, stamping table with storage of ink pads, new stamping machine, clerks' tables, private office for Supt Clark, lockers for the clothing of clerks and carriers, and many other up-to-date conveniences.

Thursday evening an opportunity was offered the public to inspect the new office, by invitation of Supt Clark, and nearly 300 accepted and were greeted by the superintendent and his staff.

[the remainder gives names of visiting post office dignitaries]

The Madonna Of Jamaica Plain

Here we have an appropriate subject for a Christmas season posting. My online investigation suggests that the painting was owned by Quincy Shaw, who lived on Perkins street along Jamaica pond on the Brookline side. I have not been able to find an image of the painting online, which makes me wonder whether its claim to be a Raphael held up over time. Where's an art history major when you need one?


Boston Daily Globe September 29, 1912


A Raphael That Was Discovered In Jamaica Plain


The picture in Boston which is attracting most attention among art lovers these days is the painting by Raphael - a Madonna and Child - which was discovered among the attic possessions of an old family in Jamaica Plain and which has been until recently locked up in the vaults of the Old Colony Trust Company. In fact, it is locked up in these vaults most of the time now with the exception of a portion of one day each week when it is privately exhibited in the little gallery of Duffle & Ryan on Boylston st.

On the days the gallery is crowded with distinguished people who have heard of the picture and who are anxious to see it. Somehow the fame of the picture ran through the North Shore this Summer, and from there it spread through all the Summer resorts along the coast, with the result that many of these people - art collectors themselves - have been clamoring to see this painting by Raphael. The Austrian Ambassador, a great admirer of Raphael, after having seen this Madonna and Child, was so enthusiastic about the picture that his enthusiasm has much to do with this popularity.

And curiously enough those who were most incredulous about the painting before they saw it have been among its most enthusiastic admirers after having seen it. It was not strange that they should be skeptical, for paintings of Raphael are pretty scarce in America. In fact there are very few in the United States and some of these are of doubtful authenticity.

The wonder about this painting is that it should be so well preserved and that it should be found in Boston. But this is no more strange than that one of the finest collection of drawings by old masters in the world should be found up in Brunswick, Me, in the Walker Memorial in Bowdoin College. That collection was purchased by one of the Bowdoin family in Europe in the early years of the last century for less than $100 and Harvard University has recently offered $30,000 for it. It came in a folio as a gift to Bowdoin and was not thought very much of until recent years, when its value dawned on somebody.

The painting by Raphael came to this country in much the same way that the collection in Bowdoin College came. It was purchased in Europe after the Napoleonic invasions, when the young conqueror brought the art treasures of Italy and other countries to Paris, and it was one of those treasures which was not returned after the Allies entered Paris and demanded the return of the Napoleonic "loot" to its rightful owners. A rather poor mezzotint of the painting was made at that time in Paris.

The chances are that the American purchaser of this painting did not realize either its artistic or intrinsic value and when it arrived on these shores it was not treated with any too much hospitality, for the prejudice against Madonnas was stronger than any artistic appreciation that existed in the community, and both the name and fame of Raphael were little known in the country. So it was treated in much the same way that the pottery and carvings and other bric-a-brac from the Orient were treated when the shipmasters brought them to this country in the early part of the last century.

Such things were regarded as curiosities and eventually found their way into the attics or cellars of the old houses.

It was fortunate that this painting went into an attic, and a dry attic, for that was the only thing that saved it from destruction. As it is, the painting is beautifully fresh, time simply having given the colors an added depth and richness.

Seen in proper light in a gallery the picture looks very much more impressive than when seen in the vaults of the Old Colony Trust Company some months ago. It is one of the few Madonna paintings by Raphael in which the Christ Child is draped, a fact which, for obvious reasons, probably made it all the more acceptable to the American purchaser.

But the expression on the Christ Child's face is an artistic achievement of which only a Raphael is capable, and the same is true of the expression on the face of the Mother Mary. The painting of these faces challenges attention even today when the [?] think they have made new discoveries in the relations and juxtapositions of pigments. There is a refinement and delicacy in the drawing and in the flesh coloring which gives the painting That distinctiveness of charm that characterizes the works of all masters. And the color harmony of the whole picture is exquisitely rich.

The three colors which Raphael most loved in his draperies - blue, olive, green and orange red - are seen in this picture in fine contrast with the flesh tints and the background. The light is from above and the highest light falls on the upper part of the face of the Madonna when the [nt] of transparent veil cloth shimmers against the dark hair. It is said that several wealthy American collectors have offered fabulous sums for this painting.

Knights of Columbus Christmas

This article made me think of my late father, who would have been a year old in 1923. He had a subtle sense of humor, which extended to a remarkable ability to tell a tall tale with a straight face. More than once, he told me that one Christmas, they had no money for presents, so he was given coal in his stocking rather than be told that there was no Santa. When I expressed doubt, he insisted with a matter-of-fact response - that's just the way it was. However far-fetched it seems, that fact is that they were poor people, living on Everett street in hard years. When my father was old enough to get a job, he gave his mother his entire paycheck, and she returned fifty cents to him as an allowance. He had two younger brothers, and stayed home with them while his mother worked nights. Given what I know, the heartbreaking story of the lump of coal in his Christmas stocking isn't so hard to believe. He certainly could have gone to a Knights of Columbus Christmas party like the one described below - he was among the many needy children of the time in Jamaica Plain.


Boston Daily Globe December 23, 1923


Santa Claus Fills Cup Of Happiness For 700 At Jamaica Plain K. of C. Tree.


"I wanna dolly, and a doll carriage, and a doll houth," spoke up one of 700 children who went to the Christmas party of Jamaica Plain Council, Knights of Columbus, yesterday afternoon to make known to Santa Claus the things which they expected of him for Christmas - a list that they have been preparing for several weeks past.

The little speaker found that Santa was a good old chap, and that not only did he listen well, but right away drew [?] from his pile of presents the little dolly and house, and to the amazement of the little tot handed them over to her. Her face beamed up with joy as Santa said "You may take these now and I will bring a carriage Christmas eve, so that you may have it when you awake in the morning."

She thanked him and was about to start on her way, when she sort of hesitated. Santa Claus' eye at once noticed, and he inquired the reason. She then told him that she hoped that he wouldn't forget her little brother Dick, who was injured, and who prays every day that Santa will remember him with some toys.

"Last Christmas when mama was home she told us always to pray that Santa would come and leave us some toys. So Dick has been praying every day," she added.

Santa turned around and handed out a horse and cart, an airplane, a monkey and a big bag of candy for Dick. The little hands tried to embrace all the nice toys, but they were not large enough to hold them all. She asked one of Santa's assistants to keep her presents until she could run home to Dick with his toys.

Although Santa was busy hearing another little one's desires, he directed the assistant to tie the toys in a bundle and carry them home for the little one.

"Have to talk with Dick, and if he wants anything else, you come back and tell me," he said.

She was very happy, and so were the some 699 others that made known their wishes and received the attention of Santa. Several boys who wanted to be printers received printing sets. Others wanted fire engines, horses, autos, and airplanes; they got them, and each received a big bag of candy with them.

It was the zealous labor of J.Thomas McLaughin, DGK, and his hard-working committee that brought joy to the throng who covered the lawn in front of the Columbus Club. W. Frank Connell wired up the big tree.

John J. Sheehan, GK, was in charge of the party. Edward Kelly represented Santa Claus, and he had the assistance of the Queen of Hearts, a Jamaica Plain young women's organization, and the following members of the council; William Cassidy, Joseph Doyle, John Downey, Thomas Magner, Carl Wilson, Michael Haverty, James Judge, Eugene Sheehan, William C. Dolan, John Sullivan, Arthur Paul, Michael Doherty, William Coady, Daniel Kelly, Leo Gartland and George Holland.

Stage Coach Days

This article only mentions Jamaica Plain in passing, but it discusses a topic that would have been well known to the residents of the district. The move from coach to omnibus to horsecar certainly had a great impact on Jamaica Plain, allowing Boston workers to live year round, and local residents to travel to the city to shop. I'd love to know more about the "saucy" bell boys - what made them saucy, and how did they get away with it? South Coast Today has a close-up picture of an omnibus, now owned by the Freetown Historical Society.

By the way - does anyone know where Grab Village was? I found one online reference that put in in Jamaica Plain.




Boston Daily Globe September 18, 1887


Boston Stage Coach Days.

Evolution of Locomotion in the Hub - From the Old Lumbering Buses to the Comfortable Horse Cars.


A thousand horse cars now meander through the streets of Boston and its suburbs each hour of the day. Trains on nine railways glide into and empty hosts of passengers at as many stations in town at short intervals during the day. The ferry boats from Chelsea and East Boston, and sundry omnibuses that ply about our streets, add to the number making an ingress until an aggregate of non-residents is reached amounting to a quarter o four regular complement. These are again transported to their homes at night.

What would happen to this mighty swarm of all the means of conveyance were cut off for a time? Men and women abide with us today who are still in active life, with vigorous memories recalling the period when stage coaches, starting on alternate hours, were the only means of conveyance to Roxbury, Cambridge or Charlestown, and these seemed ample for the purpose intended. Five of these trips constituted a day's business, and the number of passengers carried in the whole time would not exceed a common horse car load at the present day.

This was but a little over 50 years ago. Compare it with out present status and observe how Boston as grown.

In order to fully appreciate this matter and the progress of enlargement, let us analyze the proceedings. Take the route to and from Roxbury as an illustration. The enlivenment caused by the introduction of steam railways in the early thirties, with their established stopping places out of town, rendered it possible for an interchange of visits, and it awakened desires in the thoughts of town residents that were novel. Every favorable opportunity for making excursions was improved.

But there came another longing in its train, a desire to create homes in our beautiful suburbs, and it was to cater to this caprice that other and better means of conveyance that the infrequent lumbering stage coach were supplied by the omnibus - a series of omnibuses in fact, to wit, five named President, Conqueror 1 and 2 and Regulator 1 and 2. These were drawn by four horses, and carried 24 passengers inside, with seats for six or eight more on top. The driver of these huge vans had naught to do but to care for his horses, and obey the summons to stop or go on given him by the bell boy, who looked up and attended to the passengers and collected the fares.

These omnibuses made half-hourly trips between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. Business increased rapidly. Not only were suburbans accommodated, but city people took frequent outings, similar to the manner with horse cars now.

About 1840 a rival line appeared with two omnibuses, named Vete and Thorn respectively; fare six cents. Messrs Cheney & Averill also established a line of two-horse omnibuses (the first in Boston) to run between Dover street and Dock square. This line became merged in another one in a short time that was started by Hobbs & Prescott to run between Canton street and Dock square, and this in process of time came into the ownership of J.H. Hathorne & Co., who still own it.

About this period likewise the first spider-like black cabs began to run, fare 10 cents, and it was surmised that they would be popular because they were not confined to arbitrary routes like the omnibuses, but they failed to catch on, and had an evanescent existence.

Horace King, in whom the Roxbury line became finally vested, was an enterprising man. He is still alive today, or was recently, resting from a busy life upon the resources gained from his skill in manoevering this line of omnibuses. About 1850 Mr King made a radical change in the system, but supplanting the "arks" was the four-horse omnibuses were called in disparagement, with two-horse coaches of the New York pattern. The bell boys departed likewise, much to the pleasure of the patrons, for they were a saucy and overbearing set.

The driver took a hand - or rather a foot - in regulating ingress and egress to the vehicle, by means of a strap connected with the door, same as at present, and collected his freight the same as his successors do, but the fares were taken by men who boarded the coach midway of the Neck coming in, or between Dover and Eliot streets going out. The fare was eight cents either way, no less for short rides, and as the Canton-street line charged but five cents, the short-distance riders took those 'buses as a rule, and the Robury fare collectors were rarely eluded.

From omnibus to horse car was another important evolution. This occurred in 1857, first on the Cambridge route, then by the Metropolitan road.At first the service from Roxbury was limited to two cars which ran experimentally. A line of tracks with turn-outs was laid from the Norfolk House to Boylston street. Great doubts were expressed as to the feasibility of this innovation, and stress was placed upon the avowal that it would be impossible to run the cars after a fall of snow.

No attempts were made for several years to remove the snow and run cars in winter, but to offset this state the company purchased the omnibus line of Mr King, and made him a stockholder and director in the new enterprise. The runners were provided for the deposed omnibuses and they handled the winter traffic.

The first president of the corporation, Hamilton Willis, a State-street broker, handled the reins on the inaugural of the winter siege of coach running, much to the edification of the crowd assembled to see him off.

The next move made by the Metropolitan road to enlarge its service was to lay a single track through Boylston, Tremont and Dover streets, to connect with the main track on Washington street for the return trip.Cars likewise came down Tremont street, from Jamaica Plain, Brookline and "Grab Village," and passed through Waltham street, to connect with the Washington street track, returning by a spur track about Dover street on Tremont street.

The next move was made to the Tremont House, and business so increased that double tracks were laid through the thoroughfares before long. Here is a good place to make a note. In 1857 - 30 years ago - the Metropolitan road owned and operated four cars. The number in use today is over 600; but this is only a section of the means of conveyance which our citizens and those prosecuting business here have at their command.

The Case Of The Purloined Pine

The scene of the crime - 13 Gordon street, home of Otto Sharp.

Richards, L.J. 1899 (copyright © 2000 by Cartography Associates)
David Rumsey Collection




Boston Daily Globe December 16, 1912


Mystery of Stolen Irish Pine Solved.

Found in Home of Jamaica Plain Boy Who Cut It For Christmas Tree.


In the front yard of the comfortable home of Otto Sharp, 13 Gordon st, Jamaica Plain, for 15 years an Irish pine, the pride of the Sharp family and the envy of the neighbors, has been nurtured with jealous care. Saturday evening it disappeared, only a bleeding stump remaining to mark the place where it stood.

Word was sent to the Jamaica Plain Police Station, and early yesterday morning, Capt Harriman summoned patrolman Joseph Delaney to his office. After receiving the details of the mysterious crime, he issued the following instructions to his trusted sleuth: "Go forth and return not until the culprits are captured and brought hither."

"Gee whiz," mused Delaney, "that's going some, and I think the captain means business."

Carefully examining his revolver, the fearless Joseph hastened to the scene of the desecration. He made a careful survey of the surroundings and discovered on the sidewalk near the fence a few green needles evidently shaken from the tree.

"Ah, ha!" he exclaimed with true detective inflection, and took up the trail. Over fences, through alleyways, through yards and across fields the dauntless Delaney followed the needles, which at length led him to the door of a well-known citizen of Jamaica Plain. Delaney entered, and still guided by the needles, passed through hall and living rooms into the bathroom. There stood the pine, somewhat damaged, but still sturdy.

Upon questioning the 11-year-old son of the family, Delaney ascertained that he wanted a Christmas tree and being financially embarrassed by conceived the idea of cutting down Mr Sharp's pine, which he did with the assistance of his chums under cover of night. [?] will probably be aired in the juvenile session of the West Roxbury District Court Saturday morning.

Mr Sharp has another Irish pine left.

Talitha Cumi Home

Bethel A.M.E. church, 2008 - Formerly Talitha Cumi home.



Like the original Home for Blind Babies, this was an institution that was unknown to me. The Talitha Cumi home was a residential facility and hospital for pregnant girls that moved from the South End to Forest Hills street. A picture of the facility can be seen at the Jamaica Plain Historical Society web site here. I can well imagine that once the facility was built, few in Jamaica Plain would have been aware of it. Set off at the edge of a residential district that still was not filled in, it was probably out of sight as well as out of mind. Still, if not of Jamaica Plain, it was certainly in Jamaica Plain, so it deserves a mention here.

You can see the location of the home on Forest Hills street at the bottom of this 1914 map.

Edit: I just (3/4/2008) added the contemporary picture above. The building is now used by the Bethel A.M.E. church.


Boston Daily Globe January 19, 1910


Girls Want A Show.

Dr Julia M. Plummer Tells of Talitha Cumi Home.

Haven for Unfortunate Young Women Planned at Jamaica Plain.


"We feel that now the Y.M.C.A. has gotten all it wants and that it is time for the girls to have a turn," said Dr Julia Morton Plummer to a meeting at the hotel Tullieries yesterday. Dr Plummer was pleading for gifts to enable the New England moral reform society to complete the erection of three buildings for the Talitha Cumi home at Jamaica Plain. This society is over 70 years old and has for many years carried on a hospital and home for unfortunate girls, most of whom have come to their unhappiness through no fault of their own and many of whom are under 16 years of age.

The society has now in hand $46,000, two houses on the corner of West Brookline st and Warren av in the South End and three acres of land facing Franklin park in Jamaica Plain. It is necessary that $54,000 shall be raised to erect the buildings desired for the better carrying on of the work.

One building is to be the receiving home, where the girls may enter two or three months before they become actual patients, the hospital building itself and the third building is to be fitted up for industrial training for the girls who are not fitted to become wage earners of any kind and where the weaker ones may be kept until their strength will allow them to be worth while to employers.

Dr Plummer was introduced by Arthur Perry, treasurer of the building fund, who paid a tribute to the work which the doctor has done in the last 20 or more years in giving her entire life to the work of the home, for many years as physician, secretary, speaker, house mother and almost everything else, and then, after severe illness compelled her to relinquish a portion of the work acting as superintendent and corresponding secretary.

Dr Plummer said the work of the home embraced not only the hospital work, and the educational work to which many people preferred to give their money, but it healed the broken hearts of helpless young women, who nowhere else in the state could find tender, sympathetic are in their time of awful need.

"In no hospital or institution supported by the state," said the doctor, "will the girl be taken until the actual hour when she becomes a patient. If she goes to Tewksbury she has absolutely nothing but the most degrading companionship, with no word or care or thought of uplift.

"She goes through her hospital care when the time comes in the barest and most meagre way. She goes forth at a time when she ceases to be a patient with a baby in her arms and with no provision for a place where she can earn the support of that little life for which she is now responsible. It rests absolutely with private charities to stand between these young girls and a dark future."

Home For Little Wanderers

Here's another South Huntington avenue institution. The New England Home for Little Wanderers was founded in 1865, and moved to the edge of Jamaica Plain as described in this article. For some reason, this region of Roxbury/Jamaica Plain was quite popular with charitable institutions, as shown in earlier entries. I added a contemporary picture below.


Boston Daily Globe July 28, 1914


Little Wanderers' $100,000 Building New Location for Home for Destitute Children. Work on the Erection of a Flameproof Structure Has Begun.


The New England Home for Little Wanderers will sell its present location at 202 West Newton st, and has begun to erect a new structure at a cost of $100,000 between the Jamaicaway and South Huntington av, about four miles from the Public Library and near the spots now occupied by the Boston Nursery for Blind Babies and St Vincent's Hospital. The grounds will comprise about six acres.

The plan of moving has been under consideration for some months, but negotiations for the actual construction have only just been completed.

The architects of the new institution are Brainerd(sp) & Leeds. The building will be fireproof, of three stories and a basement. The ground floor will contain the great dining room for the children, the kitchen and allied features. The boiler plant will be outside the building, its roof forming a terrace.

The first floor will hold a large auditorium with a capacity of 180, suitable for conventions held in the building. There will also be administration rooms for the superintendent, matrons, directors, etc.

The second floor will provide for the occupancy of from 40 to 50 children - rather fewer than the present building, because the plan is that the outside department henceforth shall be of more importance than the actual administrative department.

About 1000 inmates pass through the institution in the course of a year, the most detailed record of them being kept after they pass from beneath the roof of the building to homes elsewhere.

The third floor will be for a playroom and a hospital. The basement will be of reinforced concrete and the material of the remainder of the building will be of antique brick with a considerable amount of stone trimmings, the whole presenting an appearance of the Colonial period. It is hoped the new building may be ready for occupancy by next Spring.

The institution was organized in Boston in May, 1865, under a charter granted by the Legislature of Massachusetts for the purpose "of rescuing children from want and shame, providing them with food and clothing, giving them instruction in mind and heart and placing them, with the consent of their parents, or guardians in Christian homes."

Homeless and destitute children are received from all parts of New England. No discrimination is made because of color, race, sex or religion.

Arthur S Johnson is president of the Home; Samuel D. Parker, treasurer, and Frederic D. Fuller, secretary. The superintendent is Rev F.H. Knight.

The Home is a private charity. It is not supported by State, city or town funds, but by legacies and contributions from churches and individuals.


January, 2008

Blind Babies Home.

Continuing with the medical institutions, this article describes the building of a long-time facility at the northwest edge of Jamaica Plain. The Blind Babies' Home started in 1901 as a home-based facility in Roxbury, supplementing the kindergarten of the Perkins School for the Blind. Miss Isabel Greely, a principal at the Perkins kindergarten, led the effort to extend the benefits of dedicated care and education to the youngest children.

In time, the Home became the Boston Center for Blind Children, which was visible from the Jamaicaway. In 1995, the institution closed its doors.




Boston Daily Globe November 7, 1908


New Blind Babies' Home. Work Will Begin Next Spring on Buildings in the Jamaicaway.


The new building for the blind babies' home will be located on the Jamaicaway near St Vincents's hospital and work will begin next spring.

The building lot is 110 by 150 feet and the home will face Leverett pond with an entrance from South Huntington av. O.A. Thayer of this city designed the building which will be a home in appearance and comfort with all things "institutional" eliminated.

The exterior will be finished in stucco and surmounted by a red tile or slate roof. At the left of the entrance hall on the south side the nursery, with 20 by 40 feet dimensions, will be located.

A large sun plaza opens off the nursery, while at the left of the entrance there will be a reception room, dining room for nurses and diet kitchen with all the latest improvements, including a tile floor and walls of cement plaster. The main kitchen, serving rooms and pantries are to be located in the L.

The night nursery, containing 25 cots, is on the second floor and it will be connected with the bathrooms and toilets. The rooms for the nurses, the superintendent, sewing and operating are planned for this floor also.

Rooms for the maids, several bathrooms and toilets and a room for isolation purposes will be found on the third floor and the laundry and heating plant will be in the basement.

Faulkner Hospital Home For Nurses

Boston Daily Globe January 29, 1924


Faulkner Hospital Winning Drive For $250,000 Home For Nurses. Training School Will Be Housed in New Jamaica Plain Building and This It is Hoped Will Help Relieve Shortage of Nurses.


Trustees of the Faulkner Hospital, Jamaica Plain, and their friends are determined that the nurses there are to have attractive and comfortable living quarters and surroundings.

To this end, they are conducting a drive for $250,000 for a new Nurses' Home, which they hope will allow the Faulkner Hospital to do in a larger way its part in relieving the present shortage of trained nurses now felt throughout the country. The new building will also release for essential hospital development space at present occupied by the nurses who now are quartered in two different buildings, at a considerable distance apart.

Then again the training school for nurses is planning to instruct 50 students this year, and so many vocations are calling women today, that students demand comfortable living quarters.

Proper space for the classrooms, for the Training School will also be provided in the proposed new building. One of the buildings now occupied by nurses is on the Adams Nervine Hospital grounds and the lease runs out in a year and a half. Thirty-five nurses live in this structure, while the remaining 20 are in a building on the hospital property, now needed for hospital use. The new structure will accommodate 75 persons.

About one-fifty of the needed funds has already been pledged, and the committee headed by Nelson Curtis, is working zealously to have the remaining money collected by the middle of March, so work may be underway as soon as possible.

Subscriptions will be received by Ingersoll Bowditch, treasurer, at 111 Devonshire st, Boston.

Faulkner Hospital Opens

Boston Daily Globe February 27, 1903


New Faulkner Hospital Opened To The Public.

Two of the Three Proposed Buildings at Jamaica Plain Have Been Erected and Fully Equipped.


Yesterday the new Faulkner hospital at the junction of Centre and Allandale sts, Jamaica Plain, was thrown open to the public for inspection. Most of the large number of visitors were women, and all expressed themselves as delighted with the entire arrangements.

Situated on rising ground a short distance from the street, the location is an ideal one. Two of the three proposed buildings have been put up, the main or administration building and one ward building.

[skip building description same as previous entry]

The visitors were shown around the buildings by Dr Henry B. Chapin and the nurses. Miss Coleman, the superintendent, received the visitors as they arrived.

Faulkner Hospital

In honor of a trip to the Faulkner hospital with my mother today, Jamaica Plain's own hospital gets an entry today. I have only a vague memory of the old building, but I've spent much time at the new hospital. The rooms that face Centre street have a great view of the Arboretum and beyond to the Blue Hills and Quincy, and the roof of the back garage has a nice view of the city. I think that the Faulkners could be rightfully proud of the facility they left behind.




Boston Daily Globe October 7, 1901


West Roxbury To Have Fine Hospital. Institution Given by Mrs A.L. Faulkner Will Be Ready in About a Year.


Through the generosity of Mrs A.L. Faulkner, wife of Dr George Faulkner of Jamaica Plain, the part of Boston comprised in the old town of West Roxbury is to have a fully equipped modern hospital, located on Centre and Allandale sts, Jamaica Plain, work on which has just begun.

It is to be as near the lines of the Massachusetts General hospital as the trustees deem expedient. That Mrs Faulkner thought a great deal in the matter is shown by the fact that three years after she first provided for the founding of the hospital she bought what she thought would be a suitable site, and in a codicil called the attention of the trustees to its advisability.

She has been extremely liberal in her proposition, for she leaves practically the execution of her desire in the hands of her executors, Charles P. Bowditch and Alfred Bowditch, limiting them only in the choice of trustees, which she designates shall be nominated first by the Messrs Bowditch, who are to constitute two, and then appointed by the judge of the probate court, not to exceed eight, of whom two at least shall be women.

Since Mrs Faulkner's death, two years ago, the executors have been preparing to carry out the provisions of the will and are now taking the first actual steps. The hospital will be known as the Faulkner hospital, in memory of the benefactor. The trustees are Charles P. Bowditch, chairman, Alfred Bowditch treas, Henry B. Chapin, Charles H. Souther, Miss Ellen D. Morse, Miss Caroline Bowditch, all of Jamaica Plain, and Miss Emily G. Jenny of Brookline.

The location for the hospital is an ideal one, on rising ground just far enough from the street to be away from its noises and yet near enough to be easily accessible. On the summit of this rising ground will be placed to begin with two buildings, with provision for another at a later time. Through the courtesy of Kendall, Taylor & Stevens the Globe is able to give a description and picture of the hospital.

Naturally not so much attention has been paid to the ornamentation of the buildings as to the arrangement of rooms.

Provision will be made for cases of all kinds except contagious diseases.
The main or administration building will be situated at the center on rising ground. It is to be three stories high, of dark brick, with elaborate trimmings of cream terra cotta. There will be a southern exposure. The entrance will be by a cartouche. The general finish is to be of white ash excepting the front hall and the executive committee room, which will be finished in quartered oak. Special plumbing will prevail throughout the building, also a complete system of indirect steam heat and ventilation. The lighting will be by electricity, although there is to be piping for gas.
Connecting all the rooms will be a complete system of telephones. The elevators will be large enough to accommodate chairs or cots that must be conveyed from floor to floor. A fully equipped surgical room in the administration building will be separated from the rest of the building by a series of doors and hallways.

The first floor arrangement of the administration structure will be very handy. A large corridor runs the entire length from the entrance. On the right will be the reception room, finished in quartered oak, with an open fireplace. The room of the house physician is to be back of it, with an entrance from the main corridor. In addition there will be the matron's room, sterilizing room, etherizing room, surgical room, operating room, recovery room and toilet and bathrooms.

The second floor provides for six bedrooms for the use of physicians, surgeons and nurses, dining room, bath and toilet. On this floor there will be a large outside balcony,with wrought iron railings.

The third floor will be devoted to the use of the help. There the rooms include a large kitchen, amply pantry, a living room, a cook room, two bedrooms for servants, toilet and bath rooms and a large laundry. In the basement there will be an X-ray room, pharmacy, laboratory, autopsy room, janitor's quarters, cold storage room, boiler room and storage room.

The ward building will be two stories high. In the basement is the disinfecting room, clothing room and large storage room. The first floor is to have four private wards with open fireplaces and a common ward room with accommodations for eight beds. At one end of the room will be a sun bay window. On this floor will also be a small kitchen with a gas stove and steam table. The second floor will be the same as the first.

It is expected that the hospital will be ready for use in about a year.

The Franklin Park Cave - Part II

Boston Daily Globe July 16, 1889


The Cave In Franklin Park.


Although the descriptions of the recently discovered cave in Franklin park are rather conflicting, there appears to be no doubt that it is a cavern of considerable dimensions, such as is exceedingly rare in this part of the country.

The rocks that underlie the surface of New England are not of the soft limestone formation in which caves abound, and it is only by the accidental falling together of two or more great rocks that one can be formed. This appears to be the case with the Franklin Park cave; it is non a cavity in a single rock, but is formed by several rocks which lie as if they had been promiscuously tumbled together by some convulsion of nature. The Globe reporter penetrated to a depth which he estimated at 75 feet, without reaching any limit. The relics that have been found within it show it to have been unquestionably inhabited at one time by Indians. The atmosphere within the cave is described as almost unbreathable.

This natural curiosity lies directly in the way of the new circuit drive, and it is reported to be the intention of the superintendent to have it blasted away. If the cave is anything like what has been described, we hope he will reconsider that intention. It would be well worth while to have the drive turn aside for the sake of preserving a work of nature which would make a valuable addition to the park's attractions. The path into the interior could be made smooth and convenient and the cave lighted and ventilated.

Plant Company Nursery - And Much More!

At the Plant Company's Nursery for the Children of Women Employees.


I'll give a dollar to the first person who finds a 154-word sentence in a contemporary issue of the Boston Globe. In a world where the MCAS test is seen as an undue burden, the three-sentence paragraph is seen as too challenging for the average reader of the newspaper of record. Bah, humbug!



Boston Daily Globe June 23, 1918

Factory Maintains Nursery For Children While Mothers Work. Whole House in Jamaica Plain, With Kindergarten and Playground Given Up to the Little Ones, and House Next Door May Be Taken Soon.


When the Thomas G. Plant company, the shoe manufacturing concern in Jamaica Plain, announced a few months ago that it was prepared to employ women who had small children, and would give the little ones just as good - even better - care than they would receive at home while the mother was at work, some folks were skeptical. The idea of a shoe manufacturing company starting a nursery and kindergarten for the children of its employees was a new one.

But the plan has worked, probably better than even the most optimistic official of the company had hoped. The three-story house adjoining the factory on Bickford st, opposite the Lucretia Crocker school, already is threatened with being outgrown, and the company is prepared to throw open to the kiddies and their caretakers the roomy house next door.

Some time ago a small temporary nursery was established in the factory building itself, to provide for the children of the employees. But with the war the scarcity of male labor and the increasing numbers of women entering the field, the need for larger quarters became pressing.

In the new home every accommodation for the care and training of children from 3 months to five years of age, On the third floor are airy sleeping rooms, where the babies slumber peacefully in tiny white cribs. Downstairs is the big kindergarten room, for the older children, where educational play is the program. On the ground level are the dining and reception rooms and the kitchen where dainty, nourishing food is prepared.

And the yard! Out there, in the sunshine, is the big sandbox, where all by the youthful architects. And around this busy place is a big play space for the little mothers, with their dolls, and the brave soldier boys in paper caps.

Manager Charles M. Lawrence of the company has a personal interest in the welfare of these little ones, and frequently drops in to call on them. Dr Lewis, the company's staff physician, not only visits the kindergarten regularly twice a day, but is always within instant call.

Miss Euphemia Christie, formerly a kindergarten teacher in the Boston Public schools and the Perkins Institution for the Blind, is constantly with her little charges. Miss Mary O'Leary is in charge of the nursery.

The mothers come to the house just before 8 o'clock each morning and leave their children. Following supervised play in the morning, the larger children have lunch at 11:30. The smaller tots and the babies always have plenty of milk. Then in the afternoon comes the interesting and instructive play in the kindergarten.

The children seem to be delighted with their life. The mothers, too, like it, and new children are constantly being received. Today, of the Plant Company's 5000 employees, 2500 are women,and the number is growing rapidly.

This work for the children is only one of the services which the Thomas G. Plant Company gives to its employees. The factory features include separate rest and recreation rooms for men and women, equipped with pianos and games; reading rooms, with a free lending library of 3600 volumes; a restaurant and dining rooms, with service at less than cost; a hall for club dances and parties; women vocational experts to assist women workers; a hospital supervised by Dr Lewis, the staff physician, who is in the factory during working hours, and who is assisted by Miss Armstrong, a professional visiting nurse; a private park of several acres, adjoining the factory, with a greenhouse growing flowers for employees, sold at cost; a roof promenade for the noon hour; separate locker for every worker, a refrigerating plant, providing drinking water throughout the establishment; a heating and ventilating system that changes the air completely every three minutes; bright, clean factory interior; bowling alleys, billiard and pool rooms, a barber shop and facilities for getting cigars, soft drinks and candy.

A corps of investigators is constantly employed to look up absentees, especially among the younger people, whose parents in many instances do not know when the youngsters stay away from their work. For the boys and girls a private continuation school is maintained.

Leo XIII School - 1888

Boston Daily Globe July 22, 1888


The Crowning Event In the Life-Work of Father Maginnis. Corner-Stone of Leo XIII School to be Laid Today at Jamaica Plain.

Wonderful Growth of St Thomas' Parish Since 1869.


The cornerstone of the Leo XIII School will be laid today at Jamaica Plain. In these imposing ceremonies, the crowning event of the wonderful progress of St Thomas' parish. Father Maginnis sees the fruition of his fondest hopes.

It is now 20 years since Rev. Thomas Maginnis, pastor of St Thomas, was sent to establish the new parish there just formed from the parent one of St Joseph's, Roxbury. Then the Catholics of Jamaica Plain went to Roxbury for religious services, as previous to that time mass had never been celebrated in their midst. The new pastor immediately undertook to raise funds for the erection of a church. For a time mass was celebrated in Curtis Hall.

A lot of land was soon purchased. With a frontage of about 200 feet on South street, and extending along Jamaica street for a distance of upwards of 225 feet, it formed almost a complete square. Upon this site the church was built. Ground was broken without delay, and the cellar of the edifice completed. The first floor of the building being finished, a roof of canvas was improvised, under which the parishioners assembled to witness the imposing ceremonies of the blessing of the corner-stone.

The corner-stone was laid with all the solemnity of the Roman ritual by His Grace Archbishop Williams, then Bishop Williams, on Aug 15, 1869. A vast gathering of people witnessed the rites, which were participated in by a large number of the priests of the diocese. The sermon was delivered by Rev. Father O'Reilly, then pastor of St John's Church, Worcester, now bishop of Springfield.



Thenceforward work upon the edifice was pursued with renewed vigor, until at the end of four years from the laying of the corner stone, the structure had reached completion, and all that remained necessary for its incorporation as one of the Catholic churches of the archdiocese, was the solemn act of dedication, which accordingly took place on the 17th of August, 1873. The dedication attracted thousands, many of whom were Protestants, and all of whom contributed generously to the work. The archbishop, attired in his Pontifical robes, surrounded by a large number of priests and clerics, and accompanied in Gregorian chant by a select chorus of voices from the leading churches of the city and suburbs, solemnly blessed the new church, its altars, walls and grounds adjoining, and dedicated all to the lasting service of God under the patronage of St Thomas Aquinas.

After the completion of the ceremonies, the sermon of the day was preached by Rt. Rev. P.T. O'Reilly, D.D., Bishop of Springfield, Mass.

It is not out of place to now give a brief description of the edifice as it is at the present. The church is situated on South street. It has a seating capacity of 1350, it is 165 feet long by 68 feet wide and is accessible by three entrances, the main entrance being from South street. The tower and spire of the church have not yet been built.The place destined for them is at the north corner of the church and when completed will be in height 194 feet.

On the south corner is a neat little bellcot, which relieves the facade of the building.

On entering the church the visitor is agreeably surprised by the beauty of the fresco paintings, which are in wonderful harmony with the whole place. The high altar is built of French Caen stone, is massive but relieved by beautiful carvings, representing the burial of Christ, the two Marys at the tomb, St Thomas, the patron of the church, and St Patrick. The reredos is of very ecclesiastical design, towering, by three carved pinnacles, towards the roof and set off in the background by a realistic painting of the ascension of Our Lord. The smaller altars, viz., the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary and that of St Joseph, are also beautiful pieces of workmanship and in harmony with the high altar, extend the (?) carved pinnacles toward the roof, which forms an inclined plane directly overhead.

The stranger as he walks down the aisle is attracted by the 14 stations of the cross, painted upon the walls on the church. These stations, together with the impressive paintings of the nativity and resurrection of our Lord, form the nucleus of the church's artistic designs, and are the admiration of all. Yet they are by no means the only distinguishing features of the edifice. Aside from the pews, which are of ash and are carved in trefoil figures, and the taste exhibited in the decorations and tapestry of the sanctuary, two noticeable features are the statues of St Thomas and St Patrick, that of St Thomas Aquinas occupying the right and that of St Patrick the left of the sanctuary.

Both statues, which were made expressly at Paris and donated to the church by a member of the congregation, are well set off by a bright background, which forms a resting place for the statues and their pedestals.

This statue of St Thomas is perhaps the only statue in the archdiocese indulgenced by Pope Leo XIII.

The chapel of the church, in which mass is celebrated every morning, compromises a small altar and a comfortable auditorium capable of seating about 300 persons. The rest of the basement is utilized for schoolroom.

Such has been the unusual development of the parish that it was found necessary to increase the number of Sunday masses, until now four masses are celebrated. A well-trained choir, under the supervision of a competent director, furnishes the music at the high mass each Sunday, while the little children sing at each of the earlier masses.

Soon after the church was completed an additional parcel of land was purchased, thus extending the church property to Woodman street, and leaving the parochial estate within the boundaries of South and Woodman, Jamaica and St Thomas streets.



Then came the introduction of the Sisters of St Joseph into the parish, and, for the first time in the archdiocese of Boston. The progress of the order was in keeping with the rapid advancement of the parish itself. Starting with only four members, who came here from Brooklyn, the community gradually increased in numbers to more than 60 sisters, with branch houses in South Boston, Haverhill, Stoughton and Amesbury, retaining, however, their novitiate at Jamaica Plain until they purchased the Fresh Pond estate in Cambridge, where they now hold their novitiate and direct an academy.

The convent, which was built for the Sisterhood of St Joseph, first comprised a large and comfortable dwelling-house fronting on Jamaica street.

Afterwards the old convent was moved inward a distance of about 75 feet from its former site, and an addition was built to meet the wants of the steadily increasing community. Last year the convent was rendered complete in its outfit by the erection of a new and spacious addition to the old convent, thus changing the frontage of the entire structure to St Thomas street.

The school first had its sessions in the basement of the church and was exclusively for girls. Afterwards the pastor opened a school for boys. Both schools, under the supervision of the priests and in the immediate charge of the Sisters of St Joseph, have been in a flourishing condition since their establishment in 1872.



Thus affairs drifted busily along for several years until 1886, when, having provided for his people and their children, the pastor turned his attention to the building of a parochial residence. The parishioners readily co-operated with their pastor, and erected a fine new home for him.

The crowning portion of the whole work was yet to come. The reverend pastor's cherished hope was the erection of the parochial school.

This school, a frame building three stories in height, is situated on St Thomas street, is 68 feet long by 61 feet wide, and includes a well-lighted and spacious basement. This ground floor or basement will finish at a height of 12 feet, and is divided into rooms for the use and benefit of the children of the parish. It also includes a large gymnasium, 60 feet long by 30 feet wide, which is to be thoroughly equipped with all the usual apparatus for physical development, and modeled after the most approved patterns. In addition to the gymnasium, the basement will comprise a reading room, music room and library for the boys of the parish.



The same provision has been made for the girls, and a music room, sewing room, library and cooking school will accord them every facility desirable for furthering and increasing their knowledge in any of these several branches. At either end of the schoolhouse, from the first to the third story, is a staircase hall 33 feet by 13 feet, thus affording an easy access to and exit from the building. The first floor includes in its area four large schoolrooms, (?) 13 feet high, thoroughly lighted and ventilated, in which the girls will assemble by means of the main entrance on St Thomas street. The entrance for boys will be from Jamaica street, the four rooms destined for them being on the second floor of the building.

These rooms will comprise the same are and size as those of the girls, will (?) 13 feet high and will be furnished with all the requisites of a model class room. The third, or upper story, will be utilized as a hall, embracing in its range the entire length of the schoolhouse and having a height of 17 feet at the sides and 20 feet in the center. The whole building will be lighted by gas and heated by steam.

Home For Aged Couples

This institution is at the very edge of my arbitrary definition of Jamaica Plain, although I confess that I never would have thought of if as being within the community I grew up in. At the time this article was published, it was at the border of the districts of Roxbury and West Roxbury. The map below shows the property at the corner of Columbus and Walnut avenues, with Seaver street just out of view, and Franklin park also off the page across Walnut avenue. The home sounds like an early version of an assisted living home. The original name of the organization was certainly quite unfortunate.

The organization survives to this day in a new home and a new manner, as you can read here.


Boston Daily Globe May 30, 1887


For Aged Couples. A New Home Provided in West Roxbury. History of a Useful Though Modest Charity - Its Change of Name. Life of the Residents in Their Declining Years.



Near the Northern corner of Franklin Park on Walnut avenue, between Seaver and School streets, stands the new Home for Aged Couples.Acquired by purchase from Edward E. Rice about a month ago, the house has been occupied by the home two or three weeks, and the inmates are already well settled in their new quarters.

The associations history is brief. Organized in January, 1883, and incorporated May 20, 1884, the first home was opened June 12, 1884, at 431 Shawmut avenue. Its original name, "New England Aid Society for the Aged and Friendless," was changed at the session of the Legislature in 1886 to "Home for Aged Couples," and this name fully describes the charity and its objects. Three couples were received in the home in 1884 and three more in 1885, reaching the limit of capacity of its former quarters. By the move to West Roxbury the number of couples which can at one time be cared for is raised from six to 11 or 12. only one death has occurred among the inmates, J.Q.A. Litchfield, a deacon in the First Baptist Church on Commonwealth avenue having died the week before leaving the residence on Shawmut avenue.

No better residence could be desired for the beneficiaries of this charity than is afforded by the large airy rooms, spacious corridors and verandahs and ample grounds connected with the newly acquired house. The great front hall, 12x36 feet, is in striking contrast with the halls generally provided by modern builders. The ceilings are high, the rooms commodious, and comfort is provided for at every turn. Three acres of land well stocked with fruit and shade trees surround the house.



The beneficiaries of the home must be at least 60 years of age. The number of applicants is so great that the trustees are enabled to make careful selection, and preference is given to those over 70 years of age. A couple are about to be received whose ages are now 94 and 82 respectively. The oldest man now at the home is 84 years old, and he works daily outdoors planting in the garden. The oldest woman, who is 87, is unusually active. She is a member of the Park Street Church, and when the home was on Shawmut avenue used occasionally to walk to church and back on Sunday.

Preference is given in receiving inmates to those who have no children or other relatives who might care for them. The residents, with the exception of one couple, have no children. Most of them have seen better days. The value and importance of this charity lies in the fact that such couples need not in their age and dependence be separated, but may have a home together. In case of death the survivor remains an inmate.

Life in the institution is essentially life at home. The inmates are free to come and go, and receive visitors. So far as they are able to work about the place, the men in the garden and woodshed, the women in their rooms, sewing or caring in their husband in sickness. One inmate is blind and another paralyzed, but good health is the rule. Preaching services are held on the second and fourth Sundays in each month by pastors of various denominations, and services of song are held on the alternate Sundays. Musical entertainments are held from time to time in the afternoon. In the summer season horse car rides are occasionally given by the city mission, and harbor rides by the Young Men's Christian Association. The latter organization also sometimes provides carriage rides for invalids in the Home, and other similar provisions are made by the management of the institution. The inmates take their meals at the same table, visit each other in their rooms and stroll in company in Franklin Park or about the grounds of the home. In few things are they made to feel that they are subject to the "rules and regulations" of an "institution."

Each couple pays on entering the home $400 and assigns to the trustees for the benefit of the home such property as they may possess. In case of their obtaining money or property after their admission it will be necessary to make it over to the corporation, if they continue as inmates of the home.

Of course, the money received from inmates falls far short of meeting the expenses. The income is increased by fairs, festivals, membership fees, donations and bequests. Last year the fair for the benefit netted over $5000 and the recent Russian festival in Music Hall cleared over $1675. The new home cost $27,500. When the purchase was negotiated the institution had $6000 on hand, and within a week $4000 more was raised. The value of the Shawmut avenue property is about $13,500, and this amount will eventually be applied toward extinguishing the present mortgage. The new home was for 20 years the residence of Edward E. Rice, a dealer in dyestuffs, having his place of business at 281 Franklin street. There are employed upon the place a lady superintendent, who is the resident physician; and a nurse and a cook, besides one man engaged in the outdoor work.

The officers of the home are a president (Elizabeth Abbott Carleton, M.D.), six vice presidents, a secretary, treasurer, auditor, 20 trustees, a board of council numbering 12, two consulting physicians and a superintendent. Of these all are ladies save the treasurer, auditor, one of the trustees, all the board of council and one of the consulting physicians.


Richards, L.J. 1899 (copyright © 2000 by Cartography Associates)
David Rumsey Collection

Street Dates

I took the following dates from A Record of the Streets, Alleys, Places, Etc. In The City of Boston, published by the city of Boston in 1910. Streets marked (a) are in the book, but listed with no date. Streets marked with (b) are not in the book, and have been accepted by the city after 1910. I do have access to dated maps showing a minimum age for some of the streets, and in time I'll go back and try to added dates to some of the "a" and "b" streets.

The dating of the streets of the city of Boston was a great undertaking. The earliest dates seem to have been taken from early maps and citations in documents. The year 1825 seems to be the first they have regular records for, and it is noted in many listings that streets listed under 1825 are often much older - often of Colonial vintage. The dates given are for acceptance. Most streets were actually laid out withing the next several years. Many streets have changed somewhat over the years, with different sections being laid out at different times. Parker street was extended towards Centre street long after it was first laid out near Tremont street. Many streets have also changed names. In most cases, I have ignored the name changes and given the date of the original city acceptance.

Seeing the streets listed by date - and thus, by age - is a nice way to see the growth of Jamaica Plain. A series of maps based on this data would be better, but it is beyond my ability or time. Needless to say, there are errors somewhere in the list. and I'm sure I've left out some streets. I decided on my own boundary for Jamaica Plain, as I've noted in an earlier entry. If you see that your street is missing, please let me know. If you think I've included a street that's not in Jamaica Plain, pass it by me and I'll decide whether it belongs. Final word - this list is worth every cent you pay for it.

Centre street	1662
Day street	1662
School street	1662
South street	1662
Washington street	1788
Amory street	1796
Eliot street	1802
Walk Hill street	1802
Dedham turnpike	1806
Bourne street	1825
Boylston street	1825
Burroughs street	1825
Canterbury street	1825
Heath street	1825
May street	1825
Perkins street	1825
Pond street	1825
Walter street	1825
Prince street	1828
Bussey street	1832
Morton street	1832
Boston avenue (Lamartine)	1837
Green street	1837
Cornwall street	1843
Hyde Park avenue	1843
Avon street	1845
Lakeville road	1846
Elm street	1847
Forest Hills street	1848
Lamartine street	1848
Carolina avenue	1849
Louder's lane	1849
Roanoke avenue	1849
Seaverns avenue	1849
Starr lane	1849
Woodside avenue	1849
Keyes street*	1850
Lee street	1850
Newbern street	1850
Green Hill avenue	1851
Jamaica street	1851
Harris avenue	1852
Glen road	1853
Greenough avenue	1853
Brewer street	1855
Creighton street	1856
Chilcott place	1857
Alveston street	1858
Boylston avenue	1858
New Heath street	1859
Chestnut street	1860
Child street	1860
Allandale street	1863
Gordon street	1865
Orchard street	1866
Brookside avenue	1868
Sheridan avenue	1868
Walnut avenue	1868
Woodman street	1868
Atherton street	1869
Beethoven street	1869
Florian street	1869
Boynton street	1870
Chestnut place	1870
Hall street	1870
Arcadia street	1871
Bishop street	1871
Bowe street	1871
Bragdon street	1871
Everett street	1871
Germania street	1871
Grotto Glen road	1871
John A. Andrew street	1871
Neponset avenue	1871
Parker street	1871
Weld avenue	1871
Williams street	1871
Bickford street	1872
Bromley street	1872
Greenough park	1872
Rockwood street	1872
Adeliade terrace	1874
Lamartine place	1874
Revere street	1874
Spring Park avenue	1874
Union avenue	1874
Walden street	1874
Bickford avenue	1875
Brown terrace	1875
Thomas street	1875
Jess street	1876
Myrtle street	1876
Oakdale street	1876
Porter street	1876
Burr street	1877
Call street	1877
Chestnut avenue	1877
Holbrook street	1877
Enfield street	1880
Hoffman street	1880
Parley avenue	1880
Rockview street	1880
Roys street	1880
Alfred street	1881
Arklow street	1881
Custer street	1881
Danforth street	1881
Sedgwick street Paul Gore street	1881 1882
Meehan street	1883
Ashley street	1884
Ballard street	1884
Boylston place	1884
Lawndale terrace	1884
Parley vale	1884
Robeson street	1884
Sigourney road	1884
Dimock street	1885
Marmion street	1885
Copley street	1886
Anson street	1887
Armstrong street	1887
Bolster street	1887
Hagar street	1887
Mozart street	1887
Wachusett street	1887
Clive street	1888
Edge Hill street	1889
Gay Head street	1889
Burnett street	1890
Cranston street	1890
Egleston street	1890
Fessenden street	1890
Forbes street	1890
Plainfield street	1890
Stedman street	1890
Peter Parley road	1891
Schiller street	1891
Sylvia street	1891
Weld Hill street	1891
Wenham street	1891
Wyman street	1891
Jamaicaway	1892
Locksley street	1892
Moss Hill road	1892
Ophir street	1892
Robinwood avenue	1892
St. Joseph street	1892
Sunnyside street	1892
Tower street	1892
Willow Pond road	1892
Woodland road	1892
Woodlawn street	1892
Adelaide street	1893
Barlow street	1893
Catherine street	1893
Jamaica place	1893
Leeland street	1893
Olmstead street	1893
Sunset avenue	1893
Spalding street	1894
Varney street	1894
Castleton street	1895
Hampstead road	1895
Iffley road	1895
Marbury terrace	1895
Montebello road	1895
Park lane	1895
Zamora street	1895
Aldworth street	1896
Arcola street	1896
Ballard way	1896
Barbara street	1896
Bynner street	1896
Chestnut square	1896
Chestnut terrace	1896
Craft place	1896
Eldridge road	1896
Hubbard street	1896
Patten street	1896
Rodman street	1896
Wyvern street	1896
Newsome park	1897
St. Mark street	1897
St. Rose street	1897
Arborway terrace	1898
Bancroft street	1898
Dixwell street	1898
Ernst street	1898
Glade avenue	1898
Glenside avenue	1898
Biltmore street	1899
Dresden street	1899
Grovenor road	1899
Hunter street	1899
Oakview terrace	1899
Rowen court	1899
Achorn circle	1900
Cleaves street	1900
Dolan's court	1900
Meehan place	1900
Asticou road	1901
Haverford street	1902
Beecher street	1903
St. Peter street	1903
Beaufort road	1905
Dane street	1905
Estrella street	1905
Segel street	1906
Varona street	1906
Alveston terrace	1907
Dunster road	1907
Halliday street	1907
Arborway court	1909
Rossmore road	1910
Toll Gate way	1910
Agassiz park	a
Alden place	a
Amory avenue	a
Amory terrace	a
Arborway	a
Atherton place	a
Atwood square	a
Bismark street	a
Carolina place	a
Dalrymple street	a
Eliot place	a
Erie place	a
Forest Hills avenue	a
Francis Parkman drive	a
Glenvale terrace	a
Glines avenue	a
Goldsmith place	a
Hathaway street	a
Lamartine terrace	a
Larch place	a
Lester place	a
Maple place	a
Marlou terrace	a
Merriam street	a
Meyer street	a
Minton street	a
Oakdale terrace	a
Organ park street	a
Peabody place	a
Rockview place	a
School street place	a
Story place	a
Wallace park	a
Warren square	a
Arborview road	b
Blanvon road	b
Bremen terrace	b
Brookley road	b
Brownson terrace	b
Buckley avenue	b
Calvin road	b
Candor place	b
Cartford road	b
Cataumet street	b
Catenaccia way	b
Cedarwood road	b
Cerina road	b
David road	b
Driftwood road	b
Dunning way	b
Elwell road	b
Goodrich road	b
Goodway road	b
Granada Park	b
Greenley place	b
Greenview avenue - Centre pl	b
Halifax street	b
Hampstead lane	b
Herbertson road	b
Hillcroft road	b
Hillside avenue	b
Hopkins road	b
Horan way	b
Jamaicaway court	b
Kenton road	b
Lennoco road	b
Lila road	b
Lourdes avenue	b
Mendell way	b
Metcalf court	b
Meyer court	b
Nellian crescent	b
New Minton street	b
Nira avenue	b
Oleary way	b
Orchardhill road	b
Pitsmoor road	b
Quarley road	b
Rambler road	b
Rockvale circle	b
Rocky Nook terrace	b
Shurland street	b
Stonley road	b
Termine avenue	b
View S avenue	b
Wayburn road	b
Westchester road	b
Winchester terrace	b
Yale terrace	b
Zamora court	b

Sudden traffic surge

Who linked to this blog? Just curious.

Journey To The Center Of Franklin Park

Boston Daily Globe July 14, 1889


Strange Cavern Explored.

Wonderful Discovery in Franklin Park - Great Cave Once Inhabited By Indians Discovered by Laborers.

A sensational report was circulated through the West Roxbury district yesterday that a gang of workmen under William O'Brien, in digging through a hill in Franklin Park, near Williams street had discovered a large cave, which extended many feet into the earth, and which had every appearance of having been inhabited at some remote time.

The entrance to the cave was under about 10 feet of soil, which had been cleared away preparatory to blasting.

Patrick Clark, a bricklayer employed in the park department, was the first man to penetrate the cavern, and he was followed by Thomas Glennon and others. They found several small tools of antique pattern and two small hatchets of crude workmanship, such as were used by the Indians who were located here years ago. The men groped their way along the opening 100 feet, finding several relics left by Indians who probably inhabited the underground cavity.

The opening of the cave is about 18 inches wide and scarcely large enough for one to enter, but once within a person can stand upright and walk around with ease. The opening extends downward 15 or 20 feet, and the passage then takes a turn to the left. The end has not yet been reached.

Yesterday afternoon a Globe reporter, accompanied by Editor John P. Forde of the West Roxbury Advertiser, and M.E. Hennessey, assistant editor, vistied the scene of the discovery, and proceeded to explore the mysteries of the cavern. A rope and a lantern were procured from the tool house in the park, and the rope being fastened to a post near by, The Globe reporter with the lantern in hand slid down into the cave, followed by his companions. The sides of the opening had the appearance of being the work of nature, but within the cave the work of man was plain seen. The walls were smooth as though chiseled out, and there was plenty of room for the three men to stand abreast.

They proceeded along the cave the lantern shedding a ghostly light on the walls, which were dripping with moisture. Every few feet, there were openings in the side of the cave, which looked as though they had been cut out of the solid rock. A nauseous odor pervaded the air, caused by the gas which had accumulated in the passages. The ceiling of the cave presented an odd appearance. A series of small bowlders hanging from the roof seemed to have been fastened by mechanical means and extended the entire length of the cavern.

As the party proceeded the cave grew continually wider and extended downward at a sharp pitch. Along the sides little openings, about the size of a man's hand, were discovered, and seemed to form the outlet of other and smaller caverns. After proceeding about 100 feet along the passage their progress, which was somewhat difficult on account of the small smooth stones, which lined the floor, was suddenly stopped by a barrier of loose stones. The cave did not end here, for through a small opening in the barrier its continuance could be seen and by the flickering rays of the lantern no end of it could be seen. A small piece of iron was picked up by one of the party. It proved to be the head of an arrow.

The reporter and his companions retraced their steps to the entrance and climbed up the rope out into pure air.

The greatest excitement exists over the discovery, and crowds of people visited the spot yesterday, but few had the courage to enter. Monday morning the workmen employed by the park will make further excavations, and it is expected that interesting discoveries will be made.

Eliot School

I lived a block away from the Eliot school for 10 years, and I never saw the inside of the place. My friends and I did sneak over the fence occasionally to test our ability to surmount barbed wire, and to violate private property in general. I seem to recall being chased out by a janitor or worker of some kind. We had far less trouble in the graveyard of the Unitarian church next door, so me spend much more time there.

After all these years, I had a chance to see the inside of the school recently. A craft fair gave access to the school, Eliot hall and the church, so took the opportunity to see the interior of each building for the firs time. It's hard for me to imagine that 200 students ever fit inside the Eliot school. Maybe piled up like cordwood, but certainly not in any other fashion.

The story of the founding of the Eliot school is a well known one. [Speculation warning!] When Ruggles gave the land for the first school (located at today's Soldier's Monument), I suspect that South street was not yet laid out. Why would Ruggles own the land in the middle of an intersection? More likely he owned the land where Centre street turns west, and he gave a piece at the bend in the road. Or perhaps the Ruggles land was at the fork in the road where South and Centre streets branch apart.

The story of John Eliot giving land for the support of the school is well known, but I don't think we know where that land was.


Boston Daily Globe Dec 25, 1921


Boston Has Nation's Oldest School. Endowed in 1676, Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians, Game It 75 Acres of Land and Was One of Its Teachers.


The oldest school in the United States is situated in Jamaica Plain, according to the claim of the city authorities. To be sure, the present schoolhouse is not the one which was established in 1676, in which to teach the children of Jamaica or Pond Plain, "together with such negroes and Indians as may or shall come to said school, and to no other use, intent or purpose, under any color or pretense whatever."

The school is the Eliot School and is used now in connection with manual training under the auspices of the School Department during the day and as a private woodworking school at night.

The present building is situated on Eliot st and bears, over the second-story window, an old stone, inscribed as follows: "Eliot School, Endowed 1690."

The school, however, was really started in 1676, when 38 of the inhabitants of Jamaica, or Pond Plain, subscribed various sums, from two shillings to one pound, to be paid annually for 12 years, for the support of the school, payments to be made in corn, half English and half Indian.

Ruggles the First Donor

The first donation for the use of "a school only" was made by John Ruggles of the triangular piece of land in front of the present Unitarian Church on which the Soldier's Monument now stands. On this site was erected the first schoolhouse.




Later Hugh Thomas and Clement, his wife, offered to make over their house, orchardhouse lot and night pasture provided the town would agree to take care of and provide for them in sickness and health and during their natural lives, and to decently inter them after death. This offer was accepted and the property was put into the hands of the trustees.

On the 10th of July, 1689, the Rev John Eliot conveyed by deed about 75 acres of land to three trustees for the maintenance, support and encouragement of a school and schoolmaster at that part of said Roxbury commonly called Jamaica or Pond Plain.



The first trustees of the Eliot School were John Ward Sr. Edward Morris and John Watson. Later the number of trustees was increased and John Gore, Samuel Gore, John May, and Edward Bridge were added to the board. The trustees were chosen from the freeholders of Jamaica Plain, and "they shall be the true and sole visitors and governors of the said Eliot School in perpetual succession forever."

Still a Private School

In 1831 the trustees erected the present brick schoolhouse on Eliot st, which would accommodate 200 pupils. The upper room was occupied by the primary school and was supported by the town. The grammar department was taught in the lower room and was in the charge of the trustees. It is still, as mentioned before, partly a private school, operated under a board of trustees, the Boston School Board using it evenings to teach manual training.

Eliot, called the Apostle, was for years a teacher and preacher to the Indians in Roxbury. He devoted two years to learning the language of the Indians from a native who had been a servant in an Engish house.

Eliot made a grammar of the Indian language, which was a laborious piece of work, inasmuch as a word of 34 letters was required to express "love" in the Indian tongue.

When Eliot entered upon this unpromising field of labor there were nearly 25 tribes of Indians within the limits of the plantations. He was opposed in his teachings by the sachems and pawwaws, or priests.

Eliot used to lecture to the Indians, one week at the wigwam of Waban and the next at the wigwam of Cutshamokin near Dorchester Mills.

Eliot and the Indians



There was a great fishing place at one end of the falls of the Merrimac, where the Indians assembled in great numbers in the Spring of the year. Eliot, before the founding of the school which still bears his name, used to go down to meet them. He hired an Indian to beat down a path for him from Roxbury through the woods and to notch the trees, that he might find his way through to give lessons to the Indians.



After 12 years of labor Eliot translated the Bible into the Indian tongue. It was the first Bible printed on this continent, and remained the only one until the War of the Revolution.

Primers, grammars and other books in the Indian tongue followed the Bible, and soon there were 14 places of "praying Indians," under Eliot's care. No pains were spared by Eliot to teach the Indians to read and write and, in a short time, says Bancroft, a larger proportion of the Massachusetts Indians could do so than the inhabitants of Russia.

Children's Museum At The Perkins House - II

This is another follow-up article, this time looking back at the Children's Museum five years after the initial entry. Reading about the collection, I have to wonder what happened to it all. The only item that sounds familiar to me is the narwhal's tusk. I'm pretty sure I can remember it sitting on a wall, perhaps over a doorway. Does the organization still have any of it, or did they dump it all? It's hard for me to imagine that boxes still exist filled with musty dolls, stuffed animals and mineral collections. The powers that be would have had no interest in such things when they "improved" the museum years later.



Boston Daily Globe Mar 2, 1919


This Museum The Children's Own. Started a Few Years Ago in One Room at Jamaica Pond, It Now Fills a Whole Building - Learning Natural Science Here Becomes Play - About 65,000 Visitors a Year.


The camouflage used in the recent world's war was astonishing to most people, yet it has been used for many centuries by animals. Many of the school children of Boston have learned this from visits to the Children's Museum of Boston, a toy institution in Olmstead Park, on the shores of Jamaica Pond, in Jamaica Plain.

The Children's Museum was established in 1914 to educate the children of Boston and vicinity in the natural sciences, and to promote their love of nature and their interest in science. It is kept going by contributions of money and exhibits given by friends of the children and has grown in five years from one room in a park department building to include the whole building of six rooms and soon must find more room for its rapidly increasing exhibits.

Miss Delia J. Griffin is the director of the delightful educational house for children and the Board of Directors is made up of teachers, professional men and scientists. It is a matter of the greatest pride that practically all of the exhibits have been given or loaned by museums and private individuals, and that eminent geologists, botanists and natural historians have volunteered their services to give lectures to the children on subjects on which they are recognized authorities.

While the museum is more generally used by the children living nearby, an effort is made to attract the young people from all over the city. To get there from the Park-st Subway take a South Huntington-av car to Perkins st and then walk west to Olmstead Park. From the Dudley-st Elevated take a Jamaica Plain car to Moraine st and walk west.

Day after day children throng the Museum and on Saturdays and in vacation time there is standing room only and very little of that.

The lower floor of the building is given over to an exhibit of natural history, and there are cases after cases of well-grouped and placarded prehistoric animals, animals of more modern age, shells, sea corals, birds and minerals.

[description of insect collection]

The Museum Game is an interesting mystery, and one started in the Museum very recently. It is played for an hour every Tuesday and Friday and many children flock to the museum just for this. Each child is given a card, each one different, but one of which reads as follows: "The ______ is a furred animal with a bill like a duck and has webbed feet. Find it." The child takes the card and walks about the cases until she or he has discovered the animal; when it is discovered, the delight of the child is very obvious.

On the lower floor are two flower tables which bare flowers or twigs or evergreens, according to the season. Just now junipers, cedars, pine, spruce and evergreens of all kinds are shown. Later, twigs will be shown and, after watching the forcing of buds and blossoms and leaves, the children are taken out of doors and allowed to examine and watch the same game of nature on trees and plants.

The children do a great deal in helping to keep these tables supplied. One table last Christmas was supplied with all greens - holly, hemlock, laurel, club moss and partridge berries.

Dolls of Many Countries

On the upper floor of the museum are various exhibits that appeal to the childish mind. In one case is a collection of dolls, dressed in the native costumes of various countries of South America and Europe. Then there is a model of an old New England doll. It is wooden and painted. There is also an old doll, over 100 years old, with a head of hard rubber, from South America. There is a wax doll made by the Mountain Indians of Columbia, South America. It is marvelously done. There is a doll's bonnet and a trunk which was made in 1825.

In the Philippine case is an exhibit of odd weapons, some native rugs, feather headdresses of the tribes, etc. In the Japanese collection are dolls, crockery and quilts, the star of the collection being O Hara San (Honorable Flower Maiden) which is often used by Miss Griffin to weave stories about to the children.

The China case contains exhibits of chairs, tables, dishes, and dolls, and the children, Miss Griffin says, go from the Japanese case with no chairs and tables to the China case showing those house-hold articles, and exclaim on their discovered mode of life of these two different races, which most children suppose, were practically the same in their mode of living.

From Greenland are shown models of sledges, some skin boots, wearing apparel, a walrus skin boat, walrus trunks, narwhal horn and other curious objects. On these objects no less distinguished persons than Admiral Peary and Donald McMillan have lectured to the children while they sat around on their tiny camp chairs and listened with their eyes on the very objects lectured about.

Other cases are filled with interesting objects selected with a view to childish interest, from the South Sea Islands, Egypt and many other foreign places.

Lectures for Grownups, Too

Miss Griffin says the children are more frank in the museum and with the museum attendants than in school or even at home. They are free in the museum and are taught to consider it their own place to learn and be entertained.

"Many of the articles from foreign climes," she says, "are given to the museum by mothers or fathers of boys who have travelled and, perhaps, have passed out of life on foreign shores. The objects are saved for a time and then are turned over to us as being of special interest to children."

The lectures at the museum supplement the exhibits and are either given in the class room or with the children grouped about the exhibits. On Sunday afternoons there is a lecture given by Miss Griffin or some other lecturer which is attended by the mothers and fathers as well as the children.

Teachers of the public schools send their children to hear the lectures. They come in classes and Miss Griffing, with the aid of the School Committee's list of the courses of study for the various grades, takes care to be ready to lecture to these classes on the very subject that they have been studying in the schools. The number of lectures given last year was 450, which will be much increased this year. The average attendance of children is 150, or about 65,000 a year.

Club Work Important

The club work of the Museum is an important phase. There is the Industries Club, composed of boys and girls of 16 or so. It was established when the children were younger and now contains many charter members. The club is run entirely by the young people and they give up their Saturday afternoons to attend the studies. There are 14 to 16 members of this club. A third grade high school boy is president, and this year the subject of the "Story of the World" is being taken up. Mrs Robert W. Sayles now lectures before this club.

On the third floor is a small room, the meeting place of a club of younger members called the Sons of Nature; and there is also the Kettlehole club. There is a girl's club which meets in the Summer for the study of flowers and birds. Then there is the Busy Bee club of little chaps, which makes the study of insects a specialty.

In one room of the museum there has been started an industries exhibit. Already there is a case filled with shoes, belting and other things made of leather. Cotton manufacturing is also gone into, and other exhibits are expected to be added soon.

There is a good-sized library filled with tiny chairs around a large table and the walls are filled with shelves or books for the children. No fiction is kept, but books on all kinds of instructive subjects for children are at the call of many children are at the call of the many children who roam through the rooms of their "own museum."

Curtis Hall Rebuilt - Problem Solved

Curtis Hall, 2007


Last month, I posted an article from 1901 describing community complaints regarding dances and parties held at Curtis Hall. The auditorium in the building was being rented out at relatively low cost, resulting in almost nightly use by groups as far away as Roxbury and the South end. An assault on a streetcar conductor brought things to a head, and neighbors of the building wrote a letter to the Mayor demanding an end to the practice.

A few years later, a fire broke out above the hall where the dances were held, and the building had to be closed and rebuilt. The new building - surprise - was rebuilt with no hall in it, and the problem was eliminated. Hmmm... is anyone else suspicious? A problem building, no help from the city, and a fire, in that order. I can't help but speculate that maybe someone took things into his own hands. Coincidence is always a possibility, but....

On another topic: in my younger years, I spent many afternoons swimming at the "tank" in Curtis Hall. When I've told friends in recent years that we boys were required to swim in the nude, the reaction has been stunned disbelief. Apparently, times have changed so much that such a thing is now unbelievable.



Boston Daily Globe October 2, 1911


Will Have Modern Municipal Building.

Residents of Jamaica Plain Expect to Occupy Remodelled Structure This Week.


Residents of Jamaica Plain are eagerly looking forward to the opening to the new Municipal Building on South st, near Soldier's Monument, which, according to the Public Buildings Department, is likely to take place late this week. Some minor things remain to be finished inside the structure and the building is yet to be accepted by the city, but these matters are expected to require but a few days more.

The building, which for many years was known as Curtis Hall and which was partly burned about three years ago, has undergone a great transformation in the last year, during which time it has been under reconstruction. The work has been carried on under the direction of architect Lewis H. Bacon of Boston.

A feature which hundreds of man and boys of the district have been eagerly awaiting is the swimming tank in the basement. It was filled with water about a fortnight ago and was found to be all right. The tank is 75 feet long, 24 feet wide and varies in depth from three to seven feet.

The first floor contains general offices on each side of the main entrance and a long gallery overlooking the swimming tank. The second floor provides a gymnasium 128 feet by 72 feet and 30 feet high. An abundance of shower baths and lockers is furnished.

When provision was made for the remodelling of the building there was a strong expression among the citizens for the devotion of a large part of the new structure to athletic purposes and it was decided by the city officials to carry out this idea, which has been done with the $60,000 provided for work on the building.

The exterior presents quite a different and much more modern aspect than the building before the fire of Dec 15, 1908, which damaged the structure about $25,000.

Apartment Building - Brown Terrace

Seaverns avenue and Brown terrace 2007



That's enough of churches for a while - I thought I'd move on to secular real estate for a change. When I was growing up in Jamaica Plain, I always wondered who lived in the brick buildings. None of my friends did, so they were alien to me. If you look closely at the corner window on the first floor, you can see a box with an Apartment to Let sign just above the window. There's an electrical conduit running up to the box, so I assume the sign used to light up when there was an available apartment. The map below shows the site before the buildings went up.



Boston Daily Globe May 11, 1902

Real Estate.


A new apartment house trust has been formed in Jamaica Plain, to be known as the Jamaica Plain real estate trust, with Messrs R.S. Barrows, Henry W. Hart and Hon Arthur A. Maxwell as trustees. They have just bought the estate on Seaverns av, corner of Brown pl, Jamaica Plain, formerly owned and occupied by Ex-Alderman Alfred S. Brown, consisting of the Mansion house and 15,000 feet of land, taxed for $12,000; also 6200 square feet of land of the west side of Brown pl, taxed for $4200. The deed for the large part is given by the institutions for Savings in Roxbury, and for the smaller lot by William J. Miller. The taxed value of the property purchased is $17,000.

The new buildings to be erected will cost about $70,000.

Brown pl will be widened to 40 feet, and will hearafter be known as Brown terrace. It is proposed to erect six high-class apartment houses, three stories each, with seven-room suites, besides hall and bath rooms, making 18 suites in all.

There will be four houses on the Brown estate and two on the westerly side, facing Seaverns av. Brown Terrace will be in the form of a court with granolithic walks, lawns and shrubbery and it is proposed to make it very attractive. The buildings will be of red face brick, with light Cincinnati hewn stone trimmings.

No pains or expense will be spared to make them complete in every appointment. It is expected the houses will be ready for occupancy in September. John P. Campbell is the architect and R.S. Barrows was the promoter of the trust.



Seaverns avenue and Brown place (terrace)
Richards, L.J. 1899 (copyright © 2000 by Cartography Associates)
David RumseCollectiony

St John's Episcopal Church

St John's Episcopal Church, 2007


This article was a lot of work to transcribe, but there are a lot of historical nuggets in there. I have wondered whether the C.W. Green mentioned was the man memorialized in the name of Green street. He was certainly present at the right time, lived nearby and was a leading figure in the community. Until it can be shown otherwise, I think I'll give him the honor.



Boston Daily Globe January 25, 1891


Made History Rapidly

Early Records of Famous Jamaica Plain Church.

St. John's Episcopal Church Celebrates Its Semi-Centennial Tuesday.

First Services Were Held in Little Wooden Chapel, May, 1841.


There is a good deal of history included in the early records of the St.John's Episcopal church of Jamaica Plain, and its organization and reorganization into the state from which its progress dates occupied a decade or more. On the whole its institution was unusually fraught with difficulties that many years since have ceased to be a part of that influential church of Jamaica Plain, which has passed the 50th milestone.

Tuesday, May 26, the semi-centennial services will be held in the large edifice and parish house belonging to the society. Rev. S.A. Shearman, the rector, will conduct the morning services with communion at 10:30 a.m. At 4:30 p.m. there will be a meeting in the chapel with addresses and reminiscences by old parishioners. A parish tea and social will occupy the time from 6 p.m. until 7:30 p.m.

At 8 p.m. the chief services of the day will be held, at which a large number of clergymen will attend, including Bishop Brooks, while Bishop Clarke of Rhode Island will deliver the sermon.

It is not clearly determined where the first services that preceded and led to the establishment of the St John's Society were held, but one Charles Beaumont is recognized as the inaugurator of Episcopal services in Jamaica Plain. As a result of his efforts services were held in the old Town Hall on Thomas st, and transferred some time after to a building between Eliot and Orchard sts, on Pond st, which has been torn down since.

The worshippers again moved their place of meeting to the old "Seaverns house," which is still standing on the corner of Lakeville pl. and Centre st.

The congregation soon reached those proportions that made a church building necessary and advisable. The society accordingly purchased a large piece of land on Centre st. nearly opposite the estate where they were then worshipping.



A wooden chapel was erected in 1841 and the first services were held in it May 23 of that year. The building was an unpretentious structure, whose location and surrounding, however, lent it a certain air of charm. It was built some distance back from the road, and was precisely in the center of what is now St John's st. A long narrow avenue, shaded by a heavy growth of trees on either side, led to the front entrance of the chapel, and being constructed on either side of the building, formed a small square. The accompanying cut gives a good idea of the front of the chapel, and also well pictures this avenue entrance.

All vestige of this little church as now been removed; the avenue has been broadened into a street, upon either side of which residences of modern architecture have been crowded in, while the old rectory which after a few years was built at right angles with the church, has also yielded to modern artifices and renovated according to later-day designs.

At the first services held in the chapel Rev M.A. De Wolfe Howe, then rector of St. James church, Roxbury, and now bishop of central Pennsylvania, who had taken an active interest in the establishment of the church, delivered the sermon.

The present rector has an old and well-nigh illegible diary, written in pencil, which says that on that day Mr. Howe preached from the text contained in Mathew, v., 6, and the congregation sang "Old Hundred" and hymn 35 from the old hymn book.

Up to this time there had been no organization of the church, but on June 30, 1841, a meeting was held in the chapel upon a warrant issued by L.W. Harris, Esq., a justice of the peace for Norfolk county, at which the owners of pews in the chapel it was ordered should appear and conform to the laws of the Commonwealth by organizing into a corporate body.

Samual G. Goodrich was chosen chairman of the meeting, and William R. Lawrence clerk. The elections of the others were made without a dissenting vote, and were Wardens, Matthew Green and Henry R. Cleveland; vestrymen Charles W. Green, Samuel A. Goodrich, Royal A. Crafts, R.A. Lamb and William R. Lawrence; treasurer and clerk, William R. Lawrence. The meeting voted to adopt the name St. John's chapel.

The title to all the church property was held personally by Rev. Mr. Howe, as he had taken personal charge of the establishment of the church, and he had also assumed the responsibility for the debt that had been incurred by the erection of the building. At a meeting of the church held July 7, 1841, the property was transferred and the society became the proprietors of the chapel with its $1500 debt, while their name became "The Episcopal Society of St. John's Chapel, Jamaica Plain."

One of the members of the church at that time, and one of the first vestrymen and moderator of the first business meeting was Samuel G. Goodrich, who was then widely known as "Peter Parley" through his "child's History of England" and other books for juveniles. A large private avenue upon which the present rectory of St. John's is situated and near where he formerly resided is called Parley Vale to perpetuate Mr. Goodrich's pseudonym.

Other noted characters who were earnest among the early supporters of the church were C.W. Green and his brother Matthew. C.W. was a renowned pedagogue and had a thriving private preparatory school on the corner of Centre and Pond sts, in an old roomy mansion, which scene furnishes the local color for George W. Curtis, who was one of Green's pupils, in his novel "Trumps." All these men identified with the early organizations of this church were representatives of families who were early settlers of the town.

The society adopted a set of bylaws at its meeting July 23, 1841, whereby the proprietors of pews were given all the authority with relation to the management of the church with the exception of the choice of pastor, which should be agreed upon by both owners and renters of pews. Although the chapel was not free from debt still there was nothing then as now that prohibited consecration until the liquidation of all indebtedness, or otherwise it would have been some years after before the chapel would have been ready for consecration. So the new building was duly consecrated by Bishop Griswold on July 25, 1841.

The church on the 1st of August received its first gift, it being a new service of plate for the communion, which was given by Widow James Perkins.

The society had been desirous of having Rev. Mr. Howe take charge of their parish, and they offered resolutions expressive of that gratitude for the zeal with which he had assisted in the building of the chapel, and offered any concession if he would consent to do so without necessarily severing his connection with St. James parish, Roxbury. He did not do this, however.

The chapel continued without a rector, the pulpit being supplied by whoever could be secured, and sometimes there were no available clergymen.

At the September meeting of the society they took away from the pew renters all voice in the selection of a rector. Another effort was made to get a settled rector, and Rev. Mr. Livermore was invited to supply the pulpit for three months, but he did not accept.

On December 7, 1841, the entire church property was transferred back to Rev. Mr. Howe, and a resolution passed that "we are doing what we believe most conductive to the growth of the society and to its permanent establishment among us."

From this point things were rather lax in the society, and although services were held regularly there were no records or does there remain any evidence of what transpired in this religious body until October 17, 1843, when the meeting in the chapel is recorded at which James Barnard was elected a member of the vestry. He continued in that capacity until only a few year ago.

It was at this meeting that their first settled rector, Rev. George C. Shephard, was invited, which he immediately accepted and gave his time and services to the parish, being at that time a summer resident of the community. When Mr. Shepherd left town the church was closed and reopened upon his return for the summer season. Rev. Mr. Shephard resigned July 29, 1845, and at a meeting held May 26, 1844, J. Phillip George was elected treasurer and officiated in that capacity for 35 years.

After Mr Shephard's resignation Rev. Cameron McRae, a visitor in Jamaica Plain, conducted the services, but declined an offer to become rector. In June, 1845, steps were instituted with a view of liquidating the indebtedness of the chapel, the mortgage upon which had through various sources been transferred to Capt. Charles Hill.

A committee, including the church wardens, Joseph S. Avery, Amos A. Lawrence, William H. Sumner and Phineas Capen, were appointed to make a settlement with Capt Hill, while the wardens were empowered to collect money for the same. Some dispute arose at this time as to the boundary line between the estate owned by Capt. Hill and the church property, and a meeting was held Oct. 12, 1845, for the determination of this line, and this same committee were given authority to act in this matter. It is then recorded that on Oct. 19, `1845, Rt. Rev. Manton Esterbrook and the previously named committee were appointed to receive the deeds and title to the church property from Capt. Hill, and to retain it until some action could be taken relative to the reorganization of the parish.

During the winter the chapel services were conducted by Rev. G.W. porter, who volunteered. During this time the business affairs of the society had not been in a (?)gible state and May 1, 1846, Francis Hilliard, Esq., justice of the peace, issued a warrant for the purpose of a new organization of the parish, which was effected May 9.

The mortgage had at this time been entirely cleared, and the church committee were in possession of all title to the property, upon payment of $2100.20. In conveying the property, Capt. Hill expressly stipulated that there should be no part of the land used for a burial ground, and he retained a strip of land included within the lines of the church property upon condition that it should be conveyed again if it were ever needed for an extension of the church building.

In September, 1846, the society had their first settled rector in the person of Rev. E. F. Slafter.

Previous to this the prosperity of the society had been retarded by various dissensions among the members which the records say arose upon the unusual arrangement of having an assistant rector when Rev. Mr. Howe was invited to the rectorship.

During the following year of Mr. Slafter's rectorship the parish seems to have flourished as it had not done before, and the differences among members had been so amicably adjusted that the increased interest and growth made an enlargement of the church advisable. Accordingly, Aug. 2, 1847, the strip of land held by capt. Hill was conveyed to the parish.

On June 9, 1847, there were 31 communicants recorded.

The church was immediately enlarged so as to admit 18 more pews, which made the building wider than it was long. With the chapel more commodious and a regular rector the parish next undertook the movement in favor of the erection of a rectory. But other matters claimed their attention as the people desired to have the title of the property vested in the church organization which was up to this time held by the trustees, entrusted to pay off the mortgage and to hold the property. The trustees were the dictating authority, as being legal holder of the property, the church could do but very little without the consent of the trustees. When asked to release their trust July 17, 1847, the trustees agreed to do so as soon as 10 persons should purchase pews and pay for such to the amount of $500, the reorganized parish having no pew owners.

By Oct. 3, 14 pews had been sold as demanded by the trustees, but the property was not deeded to the church until July 31, 1848, after they had again, on May 22, made formal application for it.

The reason assigned for the delay in the relinquishing of the title by the trustees was the claim that the organization of May, 1846, was illegal, a material point in statute law having not been complied with and another organization of the parish in consequence of this was made July 25, 1849, when the church was deemed eminently qualified to hold real estate.

The next thing of interest in connection with the church and in line of progress was the erection of a new rectory which was built near the chapel and at right angles with it and was completed in September 1849. The "Ladies League" took an active interest in the house and most of the money for it was raised through their efforts.

[cut prosaic details]

At the annual meeting in 1857 the enlargement of the chapel again came up and the practicability of an entirely new one was considered with some well defined ideas of erecting one, but finally it was voted to expend $3500 upon an addition to the old church.

The improvements were an extension in length 22 1/2 feet, which admitted of 24 new pews, making 69 in all and a new building added on made an extension of 12 1/2 feet, which gave room for a library and robing room. Gas was also introduced and the interior of the edifice ornamented, and the building remained practically as it was in later years, when it was vacated, removed and its location became a street. Permission was given to Gen. William A. Sumner to place a marble tablet in the church to the memory of his mother-in-law.

The parish purchased in November, 1850 a house on Myrtle st. at a cost of $8000 which was used for a rectory and subsequently sold. A new organ was purchased in 1861, and in November of that year, upon the death of Gen. Sumner, his widow was given permission to erect a tablet to his memory upon the walls of the church.

In May, 1872, a Sunday schoolroom was erected, and in October of that year, after being rector for over 16 years, Rev. W.R. Babcock resigned on account of ill health. His place was filled May 14, 1873 by the acceptance by Rev. Abbott Brown of the rectorship, who remained ministering the needs of the parish until March 3, 1876, when he resigned.

Rev. Sumner U. Shearman, the present rector, was called to the church October 30, 1876. He was an ardent young preacher and the church grew visibly during the first few years after his coming until the old fashioned church was totally inadequate.

When Gen. William A. Sumner died in 1861, he left a bequest of land between Roanoke av. and Revere st. for a new church, but, the bequest, according to the will, must be confirmed by the widow upon her death. she could have disposed of it otherwise, but at her death in 1873 she confirmed the bequest of land. At that time the parish thought itself in a feeble financial condition, and as there was a commercial panic at the time, it was not considered practicable to build the new church.

As there was a clause in the bequest that necessitated immediate occupancy the society bought the right to hold it for 10 years from the heirs, to whom the land would otherwise revert.

Although the necessity of a new church had been long apparent, it was not until the spring of 1882 that work was begun upon the present edifice. The corner-stone was laid in April, 1882, by Bishop Paddock, and the church was finished in 1883, the first services being held in it Feb 9, 1883. It was consecrated in October, 1886, then being out of debt, and Bishop Hoew, who delivered the first sermon in the old church, preached the sermon on that occasion.

The parish house and chapel, which in the cut form a wing of the church, was erected in the summer of 1888, and contained a chapel with altar and verandas and also parish rooms.

The entire building has a most beautiful location upon a rising knoll in one of the finest residential portions of Jamaica Plain, and cost as it is today, about $55,000. The material is Roxbury stone with Bay of Fundy stone trimmings, and the building could hardly be duplicated today for the original cost.

The church auditorium is richly ornamented with light terra cotta walls and pale green ceiling, and the chancel decoration is not often equalled. Five narrow gothic windows light the chancel; in the center one Christ is represented and in the others with their symbolic representations there is St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke and St. John.

To the bottom of the windows the walls are covered with burnt gold, as the chancel arch; next a band of cherub's heads is frescoed entirely around the chancel. On either side of the carved oak reredos are two marvellous mural paintings in genuine fresco, representing Moses as the law giver and David as the psalmist. The altar and the reredos are also elegantly carved respective with the tokens of the last supper and emblems of the passion. The chapel connected with the church is finished in lighter pattern and simpler, but none the less beautiful in design and there most of the Lenten services are held.

[cut remaining details of the contemporary rector, Rev. Sumner U. Shearman.]

Forest Hills Methodist Episcopal Church

This church building is still present at Wachusett and Patten streets, reborn as... what else? Condos. The developer was required to keep some of the external appearance, so the building still kinda-sorta looks like a church. I wonder if they fished out the time capsule mentioned below when they did the rebuilding.






Boston Daily Globe December 26, 1899


Laying Of The Corner Stone.

Notable Day in the Annals of the Forest Hills Methodist Episcopal Church.


Christmas time was a memorable one with the members of the Methodist Episcopal church, Forest Hills, for yesterday afternoon they laid the corner stone of their pretty little house of worship at the corner of Wachusett and Patten sts, Forest Hills. The beautiful afternoon brought together a large number of the workers of the society.

The exercises were opened by an introductory address by Rev W.T. Perrin, presiding elder of the Boston district, followed by a hymn sung by those present. Prayer was then offered by Rev J.H. Mansfield, DD, presiding elder of the Cambridge district. The responsive reading was led by Rev J.D. Pickles, PhD, pastor of Tremont st M.E. church, Boston.

An interesting portion of the program was the historical sketch of the society, given by Rev George B. Dean, pastor of the church. He spoke of the commencement of the society a little more than five years ago, when Rev F.N. Upham, who died a short time ago, came to Forest Hills, got together a number of residents interested in the movement and commenced to organization of the society which was now laying the foundation of its own home.

He alluded to the first meetings in Columbian hall and how year after year the members had labored earnestly to accomplish the very thing they were now doing.

He spoke of the leaders of the church in the past. Rev F.N. Upham, the founder; Rev Robert Clark, pastor from 1893 to 1895, and Rev Benjamin Rist, immediately preceding him. He thanked all for their assistance in the work of the past three years in the raising of the necessary money for the erection of the church, and predicted many happy, useful years for the society.

Addresses were made by Rev J.H. Mansfield, Rev J.D. Pickles and Rev W.T. Perrin.

W.H. Whitcomb, chairman of the building committee, then exhibited the box to be placed in the corner stone, and announced the contents. This box is of unusual interest and is highly prized because it is made of copper taken from the tower of Faneuil hall, presented to the society by E.B. Badger.

Inside was a Bible, a copy of the discipline of the Methodist Episcopal church, names of the officers and members of the committees of the society, a topic card with the names of the officers and members of the committees of the Young People's society of Christian Endeavor, the names of the building committee, a photograph of Rev G.B. Dean, pastor of the church, a memoir of Rev Rev F.N. Upham, the first pastor of the church; the title pages of the following Methodist publications; Christian Advocate, Zion's Herald, Christiche Apologete (German), title pages of The Globe and other Boston daily newspapers, and the Jamaica Plain News, clippings of the account of the death and sketch of the life of Dwight L. Moody, manual of the Boston city government of 1899, a calendar of 1899, a United States coin of 1899, a Spanish coin, a cartridge captured by an American during the Spanish-American war,various other coins and a handbill announcing the first meeting held by Rev Mr Upham.

The ceremony of the laying of the corner stone was conducted by Rev W.T. Perrin. The exercises closed with the singing of a hymn by the gathering and the benediction.

When finished the church will be an attractive one, ad decided addition to the section. It will be a mixed English, gothic and Italian renaissance. There will be one gallery in the rear. The entire seating capacity will be about 250. At the front of the auditorium, back of the platform at the left of the congregation, will be the organ and the choir, and on the right will be a room for the choir.

The ceiling is to be 12 feet from the floor. On the left of the auditorium will be the Sunday school room, connected with the main church room by rolling doors. The entrance to the church will be at the Wauchusett and Patten sts corner, the entrance to the Sunday school from Patten st and by a fireproof staircase.

On the second floor are to be three classrooms and a woman's parlor. In the basement there will be a hall and adjoining it a kitchen.

A feature will be a parsonage, which will face Patten st and be connected with the church itself, an entrance leading from the auditorium to the reception parlor of the parsonage. There are to be nine rooms in the parsonage.

The exterior appearance of the building will be attractive. Stained shingles will be used. The windows will be of stained glass. The outside measurements will be 74x66 feet.

St Peter's Episcopal Church

Boston Daily Globe September 28, 1893


St Peter's Episcopal Church, Jamaica Plain.


Yesterday afternoon was laid by Bishop elect Lawrence the cornerstone of St Peter's Episcopal church on Paul Gore st, Jamaica Plain.

The edifice is being erected under the auspices of the Episcopal city mission and the congregation of St Peter's mission, of which the rector is Rev L.W. Lott, who prior to one year ago last May was pastor of Christ church, Lonsdale, R.I.

The structure, as shown in the cut, is of a composite order of architecture, the walls of rubble stone, with square tower, surmounted by a tapering spire, to be crowned with a cross.

There will be seating room for 300 worshipers in the church proper, and at the rear a smaller structure will be built for use as a chapel. In the basement will be placed an apparatus for heating. The cost of the building is estimated at from $10,000 to $12,000.

The committee on subscriptions consists of Rev R. Lott and Messrs George B. Kelly, J.F. Gammel and George O. Currie, and the labor of love faithfully performed by these gentlemen has met with encouraging success.

The ceremonial of yesterday was in accordance with the regular order provided by the Episcopal church for such an occasion. It opened with singing hymn 202:

The church's foundation
Is Jesus Christ, her Lord,
She is his new creation
By water and by blood.


Then followed the invitation to the concourse to unite in prayer for the divine blessing upon the work about to be begun.

After the prayer appropriate scripture selections were read.Then the Apostle's creed was recited, and after the concluding prayer and the singing of hymn No. 276 the benediction was given by the bishop elect.

Among the articles placed in the box which was deposited beneath the corner stone were a copy of the rector's memorial sermon on the late Bishop Brooks, Sunday school lesson leaflets for the quarter, cards of weekly offerings to the church, a paper containing the order of exercises of the corner stone laying, a copy of the Churchman, an Episcopalian denominational publication; a copy of the Diocese with picture and account of the new church building, a local Jamaica Plain newspaper and copies of the Boston daily papers.

The choir of St Peter's mission assisted in rendering the hymnal selections.

There attended and took part in the exercises the following clergymen: Rev L.W. Lott rector of St Peter's, Rev S.U. Shearman of Jamaica Plain, Rev A.F. Washburn of South Boston, Rev Percy Browne of Roxbury, Rev Dr Storrs of Brookline, Rev Robert Murray of Waltham, Rev Samuel Babcock of Hyde Park, Rev F.B. Allen of the Boston Episcopal city mission.

In his address Bishop-elect Lawrence said:

"It has been well remarked that a work well begun is half finished and may God grant to this work its complete fulfilment.

"I can remember when this hillside was covered with oaks and walnuts, but year after year the city has been pushing out hitherward and encroaching more and more upon the domain of nature. But the highest form of nature is found in man's spiritual being. The life of oaks and walnuts must give way to the spiritual life of man; and the spiritual works of man are more beautiful, and stronger and more enduring than any work of nature."

[the address continues]


The map segment below shows the church fronting on Paul Gore street, between Chestnut avenue and Parker court. The old Chestnut avenue primary school is on adjoining property.


Richards, L.J. 1899 (copyright © 2000 by Cartography Associates)
David Rumsey Collection

First Methodist Episcopal Church

Former First M.E. church building, 2007. Now in use by another congregation(copyright)



Boston Daily Globe November 1, 1909


Parish Society 50 Years Old Methodists Rejoice at Jamaica Plain. Semicentennial Services Held at the First Church. Historical Sermom by Rev Dr James Mudge.


Yesterday was a day of rejoicing for the parishioners of the First Methodist Episcopal church, Jamaica Plain, for it marked the semicentennial of the founding of the society.

The pulpit platform was decorated with chrysanthemums and the enlarged choir, under the direction of Mrs H. Louise Margot, organist, appeared for the first time wearing surplices. The soloists were Mrs Samuel Gould and Miss Elizabeth Rose. The services were in charge of the pastor of the church, Rev Harry C. Wilson.


It was 50 years ago when a few devout men and women organized a Methodist society in Jamaica Plain. This society was called the Rock Methodist church, for the first pulpit was a rock near Chestnut av, Jamaica Plain, and the auditorium a grove nearby. It was later incorporated as the First Methodist Episcopal church, Jamaica Plain, and the substantial little stone church, corner of Elm and Bishop sts, in which the society worships today, was built.

The celebration of the founding of the church is to be in the form of various services and a banquet during the week, and a meeting is to be held next Sunday afternoon at the rock on Chestnut av, where the first service was held.

At the morning service yesterday Rev Dr James Mudge, editor of Zion's Herald, a former pastor of the church, told the story of the life of the church in an historical address.

In part Dr Mudge said:

"Methodist churches, as a rule, begin in one of two ways. We are not absolutely sure just where the initiative came in the case of Jamaica Plain, but it looks as though it was a layman, Brother Pardon W. Case, who had come to occupy a house on the top of the hill on Chestnut av, who made the first move. Probably on his invitation Dr John H. Twombly, then pastor of at Hanover st, got out to this distant suburb, some time in September, 1855, and preached the first sermon in Brother Case's house. For three or four years occasional services were held and an out-of-doors place of worship was fitted up by Mr Case in a grove around a rock near his dwelling.

"Early in 1859 the little flock had gathered sufficient strength to hire Association hall on Centre st. Here the opening sermon was preached Feb 13, 1859, by Rev George Bowler, then pastor at East Cambridge. Gershon F. cox was the first minister of the church in 1859 and 1860.


"In 1867 Presiding Elder Thayer began t urge the building of a church in Jamaica Plain. In 1868 Thomas W. Bishop was sent here to build a meeting house. He had just graduated from Harvard university. A board of trustees was organized in 1868, including Jacob Sleeper, Isaac Rich, John O. Bishop (all of Bromfield-st church), William Blakemore, John Blakemore, Edwin Ray and three others. These men contributed $3000 and $6000 was contributed by the Unitarians of Jamaica Plain. The Methodists were even invited to occupy the Unitarian church during the summer.

"The church was built, largely through the untiring energy, financial skill and courage of Rev T.W. Bishop. It was constructed at a cost of $22,000 and was dedicated with a sermon by Dr J.A.M. Chapman, then pastor of Grace church Oct 5, 1870. The salary of the minister was $700, and there was a debt of $6000."

Dr Mudge stated that at present there are 104 communicants of the church, and of this number only 25 have been connected to the society for 15 years or longer. The list of ministers who have served the church follow: [26 names].

At the evening service there was special music by the choir and the sermon was delivered by Rev A.C. Knudson, PhD of Boston university school of Theology. There was a large attendance.


Richards, L.J. 1899 (copyright © 2000 by Cartography Associates)
David Rumsey Collection

First German Baptist Church

No picture came with this article, but luckily the building still stands on Centre street around the corner from Boylston st. The German Baptists are long gone to the suburbs, but the brick building sits raised above street level overlooking the intersection of Centre and Boylston streets and South Huntington avenue.


Boston Daily Globe September 5, 1904


New Church Dedicated.

Day of Happiness for Members of the First German Baptist Society of Jamaica Plain.


Yesterday was a day of joy and thanksgiving for the members of the First German Baptist church of Boston, when, with services morning, afternoon and evening, the new edifice on Centre st, Jamaica Plain, was dedicated.

The interior of the church was beautified with plants and flowers, and large congregations were present at the three services, in which music by an augmented choir, under the direction of orgainist E. Blum, was a feature.

The morning service was conducted in the German language by the pastor of the society, Rev Samuel Blum, Rev G.A. Schulte of Hoboken, N.J. delivered the dedicatory sermon, and prayer was offered by Rev Dr J.S. Gubelman of Rochester N.Y.

At the session of the Sunday school at noon there were addresses by well-known ministers of the denomination and officers of the church and school.

At 4 o'clock a service in English was held, which was participated in by the pastor, Rev Joseph S. Swain of Boston, Rev J.E. Norcross of the First Baptist church, Jamaica Plain, and Rev Dr Gobelman. A cello solo was contributed by Oscar Schulze and a vocal solo by John Blum.

In the evening the service was conducted in both German and English languages. Rev Dr Gubelman preached the sermon, an address was delivered by Rev Dr W.H. Eaton of Boston, general secretary of the Massachusetts state convention of churches, and there was singing by a choir of male voices.

The society was organized in April, 1876, and has a membership of 168. The new church is of the Romanesque style of architecture, constructed of brick, and costs about $17,000.

The committee having in charge the building of the church includes Samuel Blum, C. Bullman, N. Samsel, A.B. Praetsch, A.B. Praetch Jr. R.J. Praetch, C. Ziest and F.W. Tratsch.

Rev Florence K. Crooker - Jamaica Plain Minister

St Paul Universalist Church (formerly), Rockview street (2008).



Here's a new name to me. In Florence K. Crooker, Jamaica Plain had a woman minister one hundred year ago. The church was a wood frame building on Rockview street, opposite St John street. Mrs Crooker was pastor from 1905-1910. The church was organized in 1888, and the final meeting was held in January, 1928. I wonder what happened? For a little more on the church, see here. The following is an excerpt from from a larger article on women ministers of the time.

Addendum: it took a while, but I finally took a walk on Rockview street and found the old St Paul church still standing. It appears as if an addition was built on the front right of the building. The original Universalist church, purchased from the Central Congregational society, was at Centre street and Greenough avenue, shown on this 1874 map.


Boston Daily Globe May 10, 1908


Women Ministers Of New England.


[excerpt]

Rev Florence K. Crooker has the distinction of being the only woman in Greater Boston in full charge of a denominational church and on absolute equality with any minister. She has for four years been pastor of St Paul's Universalist church in Jamaica Plain, and while there has succeeded in "lifting" a mortgage of 15 years standing, has increased the membership of the church and has gathered together one of the finest and largest clubs of young people in the city of Boston.

Though a native of Massachusetts, her great work has been in the west. Starting with a handful of people in a little hall in Chicago, she soon built a small church, outgrew it, and afterwards built the Stuart-av church of that city. Going from there to the Pacific coast, she organized in Pasadena, Calif, a society which grew into a large and flourishing parish.

While travelling with her husband in England she was many times invited to preach, and during their stay in Shrewsbury she preached regularly every Sunday evening in the church where Darwin used to sit, and was courteously and cordially received by the conservative Englishmen who refuse to ordain women in their own country.

Mrs Crooker is probably the only woman minister in the world who is married to a minister of a different denomination. Her husband, Rev J.H. Crooker, DD, is pastor of the Unitarian church at Roslindale, so that in addition to her work as pastor of the Universalist church in Jamaica Plain she manages to greatly assist her husband in his parish work and at the same time conduct a charming and hospitable home.

Baptist Chapel, Centre And Mozart Streets

Bromley, George Washington; Bromley, Walter Scott, 1895 (copyright © 2000 by Cartography Associates)
David Rumsey Collection

The Baptist Chapel sits at the corner of Centre and Mozart streets, opposite the Lowell school.


Boston Daily Globe November 12,1892

Baptist Chapel, Jamaica Plain.


There has recently been completed on Centre st, corner of Mozart, Jamaica Plain, a modest little chapel which, it is confidently expected, will prove the first edition of a large and influential Baptist church.

It was in 1888 that it was first proposed to form a Baptist society in this neighborhood. It was thought that as there was not a church of that denomination within a radius of a mile, a new society would not lack for members and support, and such has proven to be the case.

Under the leadership of the late Mr. Sturtevant, who said he would contribute $1 for every two that could be raised for that purpose, a number of laymen took hold of the matter and purchased a lot of land having a frontage of 100 feet on Centre st, and 200 feet on Mozart st.

A year afterwards Mr. Sturtevant died, and the matter received a set back, but the Baptist Church Union of Boston came to the rescue and offered to raise sufficient money to carry on the work of building a church.

Rev Mr. Demming, late of the Baptist Tabernacle, became interested and with that energy and persistence that characterized all his efforts in Boston, he worked in behalf of the project. As a church building could not possibly be erected in a day, much valuable time would be wasted, he said, if the iron was not struck while it was hot. He therefore proposed to erect a tent in which services might be temporarily held, as he had seen done in Denver Co.

The idea met with the approbation of members of the union, and within a month a large tent was standing on the lot and services were held every Sunday thereafter under the auspices of a committee of the following named gentlemen: W.N. Hartshorn, Rev D.B. Jutten, Rev R.J. Adams of Dorchester, Rev A.S. Gumbart, pastor of the Dudley Street Baptist church, William H. Whitney and F.E. Blake.

The effort to raise money for the erection of a church building met with pronounced success, and soon the fund had reached such proportions that it was deemed advisable to begin work at once. Accordingly Mr Whitney and Mr N.B. Chamberlain were appointed to a building committee and Messrs Lewis and Paine were commissioned to draft plans.

The drawings they submitted were approved, and last April ground was broken. There now stands on this site a cosy frame house of worship of a foundation measuring 69x52 feet.

It is nearly conventionally oblong, and has a pitched roof, surmounted by a tower about 70 feet high. The outside is shingled and painted a subdued dark red color. The roof is of an even darker and more slaty hue.

Inside, one entering through the main doorway on Centre st steps through the vestibule, and turning to the right finds himself in a commodious class room, separated from the auditorium by a sliding door. On the Mozart st side of the building are two more class rooms.

The pulpit and choir gallery are at the end opposite Centre st, and are flanked by the pastor's study and a library. A stairway leads one to the little gallery facing the pulpit. On the left are two rooms which may be used for committee or class rooms.

The interior of the building is finished in white wood and the walls are stained a delicate light tint. The furniture is oak. The chapel will seat about 500 people.

In the course of time if the society, which as yet has not been formerly organized, continues to grow in numbers and in influence as it has begun the chapel will be moved to the rear of the lot, and a more commodious building will be erected on the site.

Central Congregational Anniversary

The Boston Globe online archives don't go back to the founding of many of the oldest churches of Jamaica Plain, but articles do relate half century anniversary ceremonies. I'll post a few of these, starting with the first I found. I'll note here that Samuel B. Capen was a leading layman in Central congregational and in the Congregational denomination nationally. He served as president of the Sunday School association for 17 years, and was actively involved in mission work. Somehow, he also found time to hold a place on the Boston school board, including time as board president.

The picture above shows the old church, which burned down in the 1930s. At the back of the new church is Capen Hall, named for Samuel B.



Boston Daily Globe February 16, 1903


Celebrates Semicentennial. Central Congregational Church Jamaica Plain Observes Anniversary.


With appropriate services the members of the Central congregational church, Jamaica Plain, commenced yesterday morning the observance of the semi-centennial anniversary of the organization of the church.

The pulpit and choir loft were decorated with potted plants and palms. Rev Charles L. Morgan, pastor of the church, conducted the services. On the platform with him were Rev J.B. Clark, Rev D.M. Boynton and Samuel B. Capen.

At 10:30 the service opened with an organ voluntary, doxology and invocation, followed by responsive reading, and Rev D.M. Boynton offered prayer.

Samuel B. Capen delivered an interesting history of the society.



He reviewed a historical sketch of it given by Rev Dr Joseph B. Clark, Feb 10, 1878, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary. It told of the appearance of the locality when the church was organized, the first meeting for that purpose being held at the residence of Wm. M. Schute at the corner of Green and Washington sts, and Dr George Faulkner, Reuben A. Lamb, James Laughton and Mr Schute being present.

Sunday, May 23,, 1862, the first public religious service was held in the town hall on Thomas st, and in September following Simeon James Humphrey, just out of Andover, was engaged for six months.

The organizing council met at Mr Schute's house Feb 13, 1863, and approved the effort. Dec. 27 following, Alonzo Hall Quint, who had supplied the pulpit for five months, was ordained and installed pastor. At the outbreak of the civil war he became chaplain of the 2d Mass regt of volunteers, and his leave of absence was extended from time to time till May 1863 when the tie was finally severed.

Rev Francis Brown Perkins was pastor from August, 1864, to May, 1870, and in April the old building was sold to the Universalist society for $12,000, and the present lot purchased for $10,000. Building was at once begun, and the vestry was occupied in May, 1872. The building was completed and dedicated Sept 5, 1872, and Oct 8 Rev Joseph B. Clark was installed as third pastor.

Mr Capen then told of events of the 25 years since 1878, in which year the mortgage debt of $19,000 was paid off by the efforts of a committee consisting of Mark R. Wendell, Samuel B. Capen, Mortimer B. Nelson, Dr Joseph Stedman and Charles N. Snow. Rev Joseph B. Clark's pastorate lasted until 1879. Rev G.M. Boynton was in charge from 1880-1888. Rev John E. Tuttle has since been the pastor. The membership of the church at present is 666.

The Sunday school has 508 attendants and the superintendents have been Francis B. King, 1876-1878, Alexander M. Davis, 1879, Edward P. Butler 1880, Chas N. Snow 1881-83, S.D. Balkam 1884-88, Nathaniel Greene 1889, Edward L. Rand 1899-93, Charles H. Kilborn 1894, Frederick A. Farrar 1885, J.W. Farmer 1896-1902 and G.A. Cowen 1903.

Since 1878 the church has paid for home expenses $169,000 and given $89,742 to missions.

Directly after the morning service the Sunday school held an observance, under direction of Supt George A. Cowen and his associate, Theodore Barnes. In addition to the regular service remarks were made by Ex-Supts B.W. Williams, Rev J.B. King, E.P. Butler, C.N. Snow, S.D. Balkam, E.L. Rand, J.E. Butler, J.W. Farmer, G.W. Pierce and M.C. Cone.

At 3:30 the Endeavor society met. After the opening hymn an introductory address was given by John Hamilton Jr., the president: Miss Georgina Reid sang a solo; addresses were made by Rev Dr Charles H. Beale, on "Realization of Endeavor Aims," and William Shaw, treasurer of the United society of Christian Endeavor," on "Sources of Strength."

In the evening a union service was held, at which other churches of the section were represented by their pastors and many parishioners.

The Arlington-st church quartet and organist assisted in the musical program.

The anniversary sermon was preached by the pastor, Rev Charles L. Morgan.

He spoke of the marvelous growth of the Christian church in the past 50 years as due to the great truths of revelation. During 20 years past Christianity had been passing through the severest ordeal to which it has ever been subjected under the analysis of the world's most eminent scientists, but the doctrine of evolution had proved the "exponent of the divine method," instead of banishing God from the universe."

"Though some things we thought divine may prove to be human," said Mr Morgan, "we may confidently anticipate that the final criticism will be found not destructive to, but the surest defence for, whatever is of God."

Greetings were extended by Rev W.A. Thurston of the First Methodist church, Rev C.G. Miller of the Universalist church, Rev H.B. Grose of the Baptist church, all of Jamaica Plain; Rev Ellis Mendell of the Boylston Congregational church, and Rev W.H.Allbright of the Pilgrim Congregational church, Dorchester. With Mr Allbright came about 200 of his parishioners.

New West Roxbury High School Addition

This article was trouble to transcribe. The bottom of the page seemed to be cut off by at least one line, and some sentences are difficult to interpret as written. I'd like to know what they mean by recitation rooms.


Boston Daily Globe November 23, 1901


Handsome West Roxbury High School Building On Elm St. Jamaica Plain, Dedicated.


The handsome new West Roxbury high school building on Elm st Jamaica Plain, was dedicated last evening in the presence of a large gathering of pupils, graduates and friends.

Shortly after 7:30 the exercises opened with the "Recessional" by a chorus of graduates and pupils. The address of welcome was given by Dr William J. Gallivan, president of the school committee. Robert D. Andrews, of Andrews, Jacques & Rantoul, the architects, made the speech of presentation of the building to William F. Merritt, chairman of the committee on new buildings, who gave the keys to Dr Gallivan. The latter in turn presented the school to George C. Mann, headmaster.

After the singing of "The Angel" by a chorus of female voices an address was delivered by Edwin P. Seaver, superintendent of schools.

The address of the evening was given by Pres Charles W. Eliot of Harvard, who said in part:

[short speech excerpt]

The old West Roxbury high school, so-called, has been allowed to remain as an adjunct of the new building until such time as the demand for additional accommodations will require its removal and the building of the proposed left wing of the present structure.

The present corps of teachers and the branches they teach are: George C. Mann, head master, Mrs Josephine L. Sanborn, English, history, etc; George F. Partridge, mathematics, German, etc; Mary I. Adams, history and English; Blanche G. Wetherbee, mathematics and history; Caroline W. Trask, Latin, German, etc; George A. Cowan, chemistry and physics, etc; Mrs Florence B. Phelan, drawing, Frances B. Wilson, French; Rebecca Kite, biology, gymnastics, etc; Ernest V. Page, commercial branches; Mrs Annie N. Bunker, English, history, etc.

In order to provide for the increasing number of pupils in the school it was decided to alter the old building and build a new one on the adjoining lot to be used in conjunction with it. The alterations in the old building consisted principally of removing the old heating and plumbing systems completely and substituting new work in connection with the systems installed in the addition. The addition and the alterations in the old building were so planned as to make their use as one building easily managed, being connected by means of an enclosed passage on each floor.

A difference of about 40 feet in the grade between Elm st on the front and John A. Andrew st on the rear made [text missing] room and principal's room. This floor also contains three recitation rooms, one triple class room, three single class rooms, book room and toilet room for the men teachers.

A well-lighted assembly hall, having a seating capacity of 618 persons, and provided with stage and anterooms, is provided on the second floor; a separate staircase connects the anterooms with the first floor, basement and street, thus providing a private entrance to the stage. This floor also contains two recitation rooms, three class rooms and toilet rooms for the girls and women teachers.

The gallery and upper part of the assembly hall occupy the front wing of the addition in the third floor. In the rear wing of the addition on this floor there is a lecture room with demonstration tables, raised seats for the pupils, and connecting work room, fitted with cases and suitable apparatus for the instructor, physical laboratory with demonstration table, individual tables the planning of the addition and the grading of the lot(?) difficult problems, and expensive in execution. In order to utilize to the best advantage this difference in the grade a subbasement was built under the rear portion of the addition, in which the boiler room, coal bin and rooms for the heating and ventilating systems are placed.

The basement covers the whole area of the building, and is well lighted throughout. On this floor there is a gymnasium 18 feet in height with a clear floor space 48 feet by 63 feet; a lunchroom convenient for use by both boys and girls, and fitted with complete apparatus for serving warm lunches; boy's bicycle and locker room with entrance at grade, and fitted with 100 individual lockers; toilet accommodations for all the boys in the school, with connecting bath and dressing rooms.

On the first floor, convenient to the main entrance, there is a reception [text missing] for pupils, large soapstone sinks and connecting apparatus room, chemical laboratory provided with individual hoods, finished in enamel tile; individual tables for the pupils, large soapstone sink, and connecting workroom, fitted with apparatus for the use of the instructor, a recitation room, fitted with demonstration table, and especially adapted for the use of the classes using the laboratories; toiled room for the boys.

The demonstration tables and individual tables for the use of the pupils in the laboratories are supplied with soapstone sinks, hot and cold water, gas, electricity, air suction and steam, as their use requires.

In the attic a dark room has been fitted up to meet all the requirements of photography. The service stairs extend to the roof, where a large platform and suitable fittings for the convenient use of a telescope have been provided.

The construction of the addition is fireproof throughout, the floors being of steel beams and terra cotta arches between them, and the partitions of terra cotta blocks. A special iron staircase, enclosed in a brick shaft, has been provided as a second means of exit from all portions of the addition in case of fire.

The principal first floor entrance to the school is in the addition on Elm st, the girls' entrance is in the basement of the old building, and the boys' entrance in the basement of the addition, each convenient locker rooms; special entrances are provided for the gymnasium, boiler room and stage. All the pupils' entrances are accessible from either street.

The free Tudor style is employed in the design of the building, and the materials used are selected common red brick and Indian limestone.

The building has a steep roof covered with grayish blue slate, with copper trimmings.

The interior finish throughout the building is red oak, finished in its natural color, except in the assembly hall. The plaster walls are painted a soft neutral gray in the corridors and a dull green in the class and recitation rooms.

The assembly hall on the second floor has a paneled oak wainscot, and an elliptical ceiling of plaster, handsomely moulded; the wood work is stained nearly black, the plaster walls are a soft red, and the ceiling is white. The floors in the toilet rooms and basement are terrazzo; elsewhere throughout the building are Georgia hard pine.

The grounds about the building have been carefully and completely graded and concrete walk- and driveways provided. The steps in connection with these walks are of bluestone, and sloping buttresses at each side of them are provided for bicycles. The grounds are enclosed by brick and iron fences.

The plans were prepared and the building erected under the superintendence of Andrews, Jaques & Rantoul, architects.

The cost of the general contractor was $162,061.05 of the grading contractor $21,972 of the plumbing contractor $12,080, making the total cost $206,193.

NJKIMBY - No Jewish Kids In My Back Yard

While investigating one topic, I frequently find myself lead to another. In this case, I was interested in the old village hall on Thomas street. The building sat at what is now the parking lot behind Blanchards liquors, and was the West Roxbury town hall before Curtis Hall was built nearby. The city of Boston inherited it after annexation, and in time it became the Grand Army of the Republic veteran's meeting hall.

The story related below describes a primary school at Thomas street. Since there was no other city-owned building on Thomas street at the time, I think we can assume that the former village hall was being used as a school, although there is no mention of the former use of the building.In September of 1902, the Thomas street school was mentioned as having an increased attendance, so it must have stayed a school for a while. I'd like to know when the building was torn down. It was gone when my family moved to the area in 1961.

The second story here is the effort to secure a home for Jewish children in Boston. I believe they call this a "non-starter."



Boston Daily Globe January 25, 1899


Refuse To Grant Lease. Thomas St Schoolhouse Not to be Used as Home for Jewish Children.


The board of street commissioners has refused to lease the Thomas st schoolhouse, Jamaica Plain, for a home for destitute Jewish children.

The board decided that the building was unfitted for the purpose for which it is wanted, and such use of the estate was against the unanimous sentiment of the residents of the locality.

It was on the recommendation of Mayor Quincy that the Thomas st schoolhouse was considered for the purpose of a home. An order, which was passed by both branches of the city council without opposition, authorized a lease for five years at a nominal rent.

Last Saturday morning a hearing was given on the protest of R.M. Morse and a large number of others against the lease of the building for the purpose stated and some 50 Jamaica Plain residents and property owners attended. They all agreed that such a home would ruin values in the vicinity.

Ex Councilman Borofsky of ward 6, who represents the committee seeking to establish the home, said yesterday that he would not relax his efforts to have a home for destitute children established. It is difficult, he said, to find homes for Jewish children who are placed in institutions, and a temporary home must be provided for them. He will seek another location for the home.

*********************************************************************************


In June of the same year, a location for the home for Jewish children was found near Centre street near Highland park in Roxbury.

No Electricty Yet

A small article published in November of 1886 featured the news from Jamaica Plain. Charity fund-raising efforts, a lecture on the Sandwich Islands, illustrated by a stereopticon, and a list of permits to build filled out the article. Inserted in these listings was this comment from the writer:

"It is a strange fact that the city of Boston does not run electric lighting wire out in this district. Depot square would be greatly benefited as would also many other places."

I've been curious about when gas and electric services came to Jamaica Plain. This negative statement is the first I've seen for electric lights. Edison invented his incandescent light bulb in 1879, and formed a company to provide power to communities in 1880. Here we have an anonymous writer puzzled that Jamaica Plain has not been wired just six years later.

I think we can assume that there were gas lights at the depot, so electric lights must have been seen as a significant improvement for the writer to see great benefit in them. At one time, there must have been many written records of exactly when Jamaica Plain was wired for electricity. Do any of those records still exist, or was it all lost?

The Jamaica Plain Historical Society has a great picture of the old train depot mentioned above. At that time, the railroad tracks ran at ground level. It was ten years later that the raised embankment remembered by some today was built.


Source: Boston Daily Globe November 11, 1886

Smallpox Hospital - Canterbury Street

Canterbury street is at the border of Jamaica Plain and Mattapan, but it was considered the West Roxbury district in the late 1800s. In the 1890s, a smallpox hospital sat on Canterbury street, opposite Forest Hills cemetery, and between Morton and Walk Hill streets. Today, the site is the home of the Judge John J. Connelly Youth Center and a Department of Corrections Pre-Release center (for more, see here). Clearly, it is a place the city puts institutions that do not play well with NIMBY-fied neighbors.

The first reference to the hospital I find is in December of 1893, when a Roxbury father and six of his children were taken there for care. A girl from Cape Breton had come to stay in their house, and had apparently carried the infection with her. Smallpox had been a scourge for Boston since colonial times, but this late date was a surprise to me. There had been an epidemic in 1873, but few outbreaks since. The next year a case appeared nearby on Canterbury street itself, but while it was believed to be a coincidence by physicians, the neighbors of the hospital apparently thought otherwise. Another case in the same year came from Egleston square. The family of the victim, a married woman, resisted her removal to the hospital, only agreeing on the promise that their names would not be revealed. The husband, a businessman, feared that knowledge of his wife's condition would destroy his business.

This is another one of those small institutions that needs some digging to get at the full story. And again, maybe someone who knows the story will find this posting and add to it.


Resources: Boston Daily Globe, December 8, 1893, December 9, 1893, January 5, 1894, January 23, 1894.

Annexation And The Working Man - Part II

Here is a follow-up on an earlier entry. In A Long Wait For A Paycheck, I posted an article that told the story of men who did work for the Town of West Roxbury at the eve of annexation, and were refused their pay from the City of Boston. As always, there was another side of the story, and here are presented a response and counter-response.

Boston Daily Globe March 8, 1878


West Roxbury District.

Has the City Oppressed the Workingmen? - Captain McDonald's Statement.


In reference to the statement published in yesterday's Globe about the city refusing to pay certain laborers their wages and compelling the men to sue for their money, Captain McDonald of Station XIII says that the city does not legally owe the men any money; that after the vote of annexation was passed, and before the act was consummated, a certain class being in the majority, illegally voted at a town meeting to appropriate $20,000 for work on the roads. Next day a gang of about 250 men with many teams swarmed into the gravel-pit working there at digging and carrying off the gravel, dumping it here and there on streets, or carrying it home. Notice was given to the Selectmen, and in three or four days a majority of the Board, accompanied by Captain McDonald, then Chief of Police, went to the pit and warned the men to desist, which they then did. Subsequently the Town Treasurer refused to pay their demands for compensation, hence the lawsuit. In the case of the two men who have been successful in court, it is said that those two were a part of the regular gang employed by the town, and had not been discharged.



West Roxbury District.

A Statement of the Claims of the Laborers Against the City

To the Editor of The Globe:

Sir: Statements having been made disputing the claims of the West Roxbury laborers, it may be well to state that the facts in the case are that $20,000 was appropriated by the Selectmen and the men were employed by the direction of two of the Selectmen with the knowledge of the whole Board. These laborers received no notice to quit work until the political opponents of the two Selectmen raised objections, when the men obtained their time from the respective overseers. Some of the latter were recognized and their men were paid, while the remainder were ignored, the alleged intent being to cast odium upon Mr Dolan. The statement that the cases of two of the men were different from the others is untrue, the latter being merely test cases. It is conceded that it is a matter of injustice towards the laborers to compel them, at great cost, to seek redress before the courts, in order to obtain their just dues. The original amount of the claims was about $1800, which has been increased to $6000 at the present time, and should the cases be continued for the next four years, the tax-payers will learn that it costs considerable for legal hire, even though paid by the year. The offer of the city officials to pay the claims with interest appears to be rather poor justice, considering that the costs are double the amount of the claims.

Laborer

Soldiers Of Revolution Honored

This, from the Jamaica Plain News, is a better copy of an identical picture used by both the Globe and the News.


Boston Daily Globe May 30, 1909


Honor Patriots of Jamaica Plain. Boulder to Memory of Soldiers of Revolution Unveiled by Mary Draper Chapter, D.A.R.


On the plot of ground at the junction of Centre and South sts, Jamaica Plain, where stands a fine granite monument erected to the memory of Jamaica Plain men who fell in the civil war, a boulder was unveiled yesterday afternoon by Mary Draper chapter, D.A.R., with a tablet inscribed to the memory of Jamaica plain men who were patriots of the revolutionary war.

Opposite the site, to the east, is the old Greenough mansion, used as headquarters by general Green of the Continental army, and later as a hospital for sick and wounded revolutionary soldiers, while the west side of the street is the ancient church edifice of the First Congregational society (Unitarian), where the general court sat in April, 1778, on account of the prevalence of smallpox in Boston. Adjacent to the spot, too, were the residences of two of the colonial governors of that time.

The exercises were witnessed by a large gathering of the members of the Mary Draper chapter, D.A.R., of Jamaica Plain, and by representatives of Paul Revere chapter, Wayside Inn chapter, Orlando chapter, Fla, Old South chapter, Adams Tufts chapter, John Adams chapter, and Sarah Bradley Fulton chapter, D.A.R., together with a large gathering of citizens and children.

The memorial committee, headed by Mrs Charles T. Bauer, past secretary of Mary Draper chapter, presented the memorial to the chapter, which was accepted by Mrs Frederick S. Davis, past regent of the chapter. The flag that draped the boulder of Roxbury puddingstone on which the bronze tablet is placed was unveiled by little Miss Dorothea Callowhill, daughter of Mr and Mrs Sidney Callowhill, of Roslindale, whose ancestors, on her mother's side, were all of revolutionary stock, Joseph Philbrook, her ancestor, having settled in Hampton N.H. in 1632. Mrs Callowhill is a member of Mary Draper chapter.

The inscription on the bronze tablet is as follows:

"In memory of the men of Jamaica Plain, then the third parish of Roxbury, who served in the war of the Revolution. 1775-1783. This tablet is erected by Mary Draper chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution 1909."

Following the unveiling of the memorial the formal exercises were carried out in the parish house of the First Congregational society, on Eliot st, and were presided over by Mrs Davis.

After extending a greeting to the men and women present, Mrs Davis called upon Rev Walter Calley, minister of the First Baptist church, Jamaica Plain, who offered prayer. Sewall R. Payson then sang "God That Made Earth and Heaven," and Mrs Davis on behalf of Mary Draper chapter presented the memorial to the city of Boston.

Alderman William Dudley Cotton of Jamaica Plain accepted the gift for the city of Boston. He said:

"By authority, delegated to me by the mayor and on behalf of the city of Boston, I accept this memorial to the sons of Jamaica Plain who fought in the war of the revolution, and may this memorial ever serve to inspire in us, our children, and out children's children zeal for country and willingness for loyal self-sacrifice."

An historical address was given by Frederick G. Bauer, vice president of Boston chapter, S.A.R. and commander of Joseph Stedman camp, B. of V.

Mrs James G. Dunning, state regent of the Massachusetts D.A.R., was present and made a brief address, saying:

"I deem it a great privilege to be with Mary Draper chapter today. Men of this country have raised monuments to the soldiers of the civil war, but is has remained for the women of the Country to raise monuments and tablets to the memory of the patriots of the revolution. But I believe the Daughters of the American Revolution have greater work in the raising of living monuments patriotic citizens. Let us not only educate our children in patriotic sentiment, but educated those who are coming to us from other shores, who, if the time comes, should be willing to serve and die for our country if need be."

The interesting exercises, which were in charge of the memorial committee, included Mrs Charles T. Bauer, Mrs F.C. Irving, Mrs George N. Bliss, closed with the singing of "America" by the whole company.

Fire At The Fireworks Factory

I'd like to know where this business was. It could have been outside of what we consider Jamaica Plain now, as I can't find it on any map.


Boston Daily Globe October 2, 1877


Explosion And Fire.

Wedger's Fire-Works Manufactory in the West Roxbury District Destroyed - The Proprietor Severely Burned.


About 3:20 yesterday afternoon an alarm was sounded in the West Roxbury District for a fire in Wedger's fire-works manufactory on Canterbury street. The buildings, two in number, were small, two-and-a-half story structures, situated apart from other buildings. Most of the stock was removed some days since, and consequently the loss was small. The fire was caused by an explosion of chemicals and the building was totally destroyed. Loss $600, with no insurance. In his effort to extinguish the flames Mr B.M. Wedger was severely burned about the face, arms and neck.



Boston Daily Globe October 30, 1891


Loose Powder Fired.

Mimic Pyrotechnic Display Made in Fireworks Factory.


Consternation prevailed yesterday after noon shortly before 3 o'clock in the manufacturing room of B.M. Wedger's fireworks factory, Jamaica Plain.

One of the employees in making an experiment did not exercise the usual care essential in making such tests and a spark communicated with some of the loose powder scattered about the bench, causing a mimic pyrotechnic display.

Soon one of the benches was in flames. Some of the girls in the adjoining room screamed, while several of the men, acting with commendable coolness, hastily extinguished the flames.

Meanwhile an alarm had been sounded from box 530, but by the time of the arrival of the department, the crisis was passed. The damage was slight.

Seaverns Avenue - 1949-1951

Lill and Bill Bulger, in front of Fraternity Hall on the day of my uncle and aunt's wedding. You can just see my brother Jim's head in my father's right hand. The sign in the background says that it was officially the Odd Fellows hall. I believe that that last time I drove through it was being rebuilt for... wait for it.... condos.



My father, William Bulger, brother Jim, and the granddaughter of the lady next door. The building on the left is Capen Hall, at the back of the Central Congregational church.

Thanksgiving 1949 at 92 Seaverns avenue. From right to left, My uncle Chris, my father, grandmother, brother, mother and my uncle's girl friend.




My mother, Lillian Olander Bulger, her mother, Esther Olander, and Esther's brother Ernie, standing beside Central Congregational church. The houses in the background are still there, across from the church and Capen Hall. My grandmother lived in one of the three mansard-roof houses, and my parents lived in another (84 and 92?). My Mother tells me that those quaint-looking mansard roofs with the slate shingles heated up the second-floor apartment above 100 degrees in the summer in the days before air conditioning.



My grandmother, her brother Ernie, and my uncle Chris. Chris was Arvid Christopher Olander, and was known as Yaco, for his initials; ACO. Chris was 21 in this picture, and would be dead in ten years, killed by a sudden heart attack while being treated for ulcers.

My grandmother and some of her brothers and sisters came to this country from Sweden. She came in 1904, and worked as a domestic for much of her life, cooking, cleaning and taking in laundry. Ironically, she left home because she didn't want to work as a domestic for a farmer in Sweden, and she ended up scrubbing floors on her hands and knees in the land of opportunity.

Both pictures Copyright, 2007.

Agassiz Kindergarten

In honor of my birthday yesterday, I present.... me! There I am in my bow tie, looking into the camera. Check out the girls with the Shirley Temple curls. I uploaded a full-size picture so you could see as much detail of the room as possible. The calender on the wall can't be read, but it was 1959-60. If you recognize yourself, give me a shout-out.

Weekly Notice - 1878

Little articles like this were published about once a week. They told of church functions, reports of accidents and fires, weddings and other events of note. The reference to filling in a public park is interesting. Were they referring to Franklin park, or were the trains just passing through to fill in the Back Bay?


Boston Daily Globe May 22, 1878


West Roxbury District.


Last evening Elson Hall, Jamaica Plain, was filled by a throroughly appreciative and exacting audience to listen to a musical entertainment complimentary to Miss Etta Sherman, a student at the Boston Conservatory. She appeared in the tenth number of the programme in a violin solo, and was warmly encored. Frequent encores were demanded and acceded to. Miss Clara F. Lane and the beneficiary sharing the honors with Albert C. Orent and Alexander Freygang.

The gravel trains with Canton soil have begun the run on the Boston and Providence Railroad to fill up the territory for a public park. It is found to be cheaper and more expeditious to use the trains than teams.

Pleasant Draper (colored) and Ann Eliza Williams (white) were held in $800 each, yesterday, on a charge of adultery.

West Roxbury - Ward 23

When the Town of West Roxbury was annexed to Boston, it became Ward 23. In time, the ward was broken up, and West Roxbury the political entity ceased to exist in any official form. People already thought of themselves as living in Jamaica Plain, Roslindale or West Roxbury (we might call it West Roxbury the Lesser), but the ward had kept them connected, as in old Town days. A similar thing happened to Dorchester, with Mattapan breaking away, but Dorchester remained a large community still. With West Roxbury splitting in three parts, the component communities became little brothers to the larger Dorchester.

All this raises an "alternate history" issue for me. What if the Town of West Roxbury had voted against annexation, as Brookline did? So much of the appearance of the district came about through Boston projects, like the Arboretum and the Emerald Necklace parks, but then the Town already had Forest Hills cemetery and Harvard had the Bussey land, so maybe the results would have been similar. Would the district have been worse off without Boston money, or better, without Boston's problems? Interesting to think about.

A note on the article: the Boston Globe was a booster of annexation in the 1870s, and they remained boosters of the results. It was a time of "bigger is better," and the elites of Boston wanted to keep up with the growing cities of the West.



Boston Daily Globe March 17, 1895


Ward Of Big Things. West Roxbury Larger Than Any of 10 Cities. Has a Third of Boston's Area. Most of the Parks and 10 Stations. Longest Police Beat, Biggest Fireman, Best Wardroom, 500-Acre Farm.


Ward 23's preeminence as a ward of big things, the Texas of Boston wards, is threatened just now by the city fathers, who are considering the question of redistricting the city, as allowed by the statute every decade.

In the redistricting some of the North and West end wards will have to be joined together probably, owing to the relative decrease in their population, and the big outlying wards like 23 and 24 will probably have to be carved up and divided, making at least four wards out of the two.

When Boston and the Town of West Roxbury joined hands in January 1874, the wise men of the Hub rubbed their hands in glee, and predicted a great future for greater Boston.

It was the hour of consolidation, and the fever caught all around, but in many instances annexation was not brought about without a hard and stubborn contest, and the annexation of the town of West Roxbury to the city of Boston was no easy matter for those who undertook to deliver the goods.

West Roxbury was set off from the city of Roxbury in 1851, and was the rural section of the city, which was destined in another decade to join her sister city, and form one of the principal sections of the growing municipality of Boston.

The town was not unlike most New England villages of her time, and matters went along smoothly until the breaking out of the war.

Boston being the seat of government, all attention was naturally turned to her during those stirring times. The little town raised more than her quota of troops to save the union, and quartered a regiment in her limits on the Brook Farm, now used as the Martin Luther orphan home, but famous as the rendezvous of the Brook farm phalanx, organized for the purpose of making life sweeter by such eminent literary people as Hawthorne, Ripley, Charles A. Dana and others.

When the war was over the town erected a beautiful monument to her beloved dead who fell battling for the union. Among her residents the town claimed by birth the hero of fort Wagner, Col. Robert G. Shaw, after whom the latest school erected in the upper part of the ward is named.

When the excitement of the rebellion ceased, and the town recommenced to settle down to business, some of her go-ahead young men thought the proper thing to do would be to become a part of Boston, and so they began the agitation under many adverse circumstances finally winning the day.

Many of the older inhabitants of the town threatened to move away if the town voted to annex itself to Boston, and all sorts of harsh things were said of those who were instrumental in pushing the matter through.

As in most cases of this kind after the hot-headed opponents cooled down and saw the benefit the town derived from being a part of Boston, they were sorry for what they said, and regretted running the town in debt to the extent they did, when they found that annexation was sure to come.


But the city fathers of the hub knew that they were adding to the city a great territory. In 20 years this section of Boston has had a remarkable growth.

A few interesting facts about ward 23 observed by a Globe man, are as follows.

It comprises one-third of the area of the entire city. Boston's acreage is 23,707 acres. There are 8078 acres of land in this single ward.

The population is, according to the census of 1890, 21,XXX(?).

It has more people than the counties of Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket put together, and casts a bigger vote than these communities combined.

It has a larger population than the cites of Fitchburg, Quincy, Newton, Waltham, Woburn, Everett, Marlboro, Northampton, Bevery or Newburyport, and casts a bigger vote than any of these cities.

There are 10 railroad stations in the territory - Boylston, Jamaica Plain, Forest Hills, Clarendon Hills Roslindale, Central, Highland, West Roxbury and Spring st.

Three post offices are within the ward lines, Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury and Roslindale. Mail is delivered by carriers.

There are engine houses at Egleston sq, Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury and Roslindale.The Roslindale house is regarded by the fire commissioners as one of the finest houses they have in the department.

There is a district court at Jamaica Plain, and under the same roof is the police station, and, adjoining, the patrol house. A finer municipal building would be hard to find in the city, and it was built by the town a few years before annexation. There is also a lockup at West Roxbury.

In the ward are 59 electric, 1247 naptha and 902 gas lamps, and still the cry is for more light.

There are two libraries, one at Jamaica Plain, containing 12,363 volumes, and one at West Roxbury, with 3321 books and a delivery office at Roslindale.

Most of the great Boston park system is within the ward, which contains the Arnold arboretum and Franklin park.

It has more acreage devoted to burial purposes than any other ward. There are Mt Hope, Forest Hills, Mt Benedict, St Joseph's and parts of Mt Calvary, and other smaller cemeteries like the Jewish burial ground near the Dedham line.

The valuation, real and personal property, of the ward last year was $35,795,000. At the time of annexation it was $22,116,000.

There are 74.39 miles of streets in the ward, and each year is adding to the number.

The highest point of land in the entire city is in this ward, being the elevation known as Mt Bellvue, 334 feet above the level of the sea.

What is recognized as the finest wardroom in the entire city is in this ward. It was formerly used as the town hall, and called Curtis hall, after its builder and the town benefactor, Mr Nelson Curtis, uncle of the present mayor. It cost in the neighborhood of $200,000, half of which Mr Curtis gave the town.

Most of the citizens in this ward desiring to attend a caucus of either political party have to travel further than any of their fellow citizens or the other Boston wards. Take for instance, a man living up in the Germantown end of the ward. He is obliged to travel at least five miles to attend the caucus in Jamaica Plain, where the ward room is.

No other ward can boast of a 500-acre farm, as can ward 23.

The longest police route, and one of the biggest policemen on the Boston force to patrol it, is credited to this ward, the route being nearly five miles long.

The same may be said of the letter carriers' routes. Carrier George has the longest route to deliver in the entire postal district.

And right here it may be said that the biggest fireman doing duty in the city today is said to be Capt J.B. Prescott of engine 30, West Roxbury.

It has more miles of railroad than any other ward in the city, and the largest body of fresh water in the city limits. Jamaica Pond is credited to the "garden ward."

Nearly 4000 pupils crowd the ward's public schools and many do not attend, owing to the lack of accommodations.

Within the boundaries are a large number of churches. Some of them rank among the finest in the city, and they represent nearly every Christian faith.

Taken as a whole, ward 23 is a great ward, and is growing every day.

Patrick Meehan - RIP

Many people think that they could write a book about their lives. Patrick Meehan seems to have kept himself busy enough to deserve volumes. An immigrant from Ireland, Meehan worked in different businesses, lived in different states and made his fortune in helping to build Jamaica Plain and Boston. Looking at a Jamaica Plain map of his time, you find yourself saying "there's another Patrick Meehan property, and another, and another." He seems to have kept his holdings mostly in one small area, between Washington street and the railroad tracks. Perhaps he liked to keep an eye on all his properties. His home was on Washington street, a stone's throw from B.F. Sturtevant's blower works, the largest factory in the area. Clearly, this was not a man who wanted to take a country estate and live among bankers and lawyers. Someone needs to do some digging and give this man the write-up he deserves.



Boston Daily Globe February 16, 1916


Patrick Meehan Dead. Extensive Real Estate Owner in Jamaica Plain and Formerly Prominent in Politics.


Patrick Meehan, a holder in much real estate in Jamaica Plain, and formerly very prominent in Democratic political circles, died yesterday at his home, 3451 Washington st, after an illness of several weeks.

Mr Meehan was born in County Fermanagh, Ireland, on March 15, 1834, the son of Thomas and Katherine (McMorrow) Meehan. He came to this country in 1846. At first he went to work on a Connecticut farm. After a few years, he entered railroading, and was for a time with the old Boston, Hartford & Erie Road. Later he went to New Orleans and followed steamboating for a number of years.

In 1860 he returned to this State. He made a fortune in the constructing business and settled in Jamaica Plain with his family.

He next turned his attention to real estate and at the time of his death owned much property on Washington st and along the length of Green st. He was one of the original organizers of the Boylston Brewery, later selling out his interests.

He was chariman of the old Democratic Town Committee, when West Roxbury was a town, and he also was chairman of the Democratic Ward Committee for many years after the town's annexation by Boston.

He was married in 1864 to Miss Mary Sheehan, who died about four years ago. Surviving him are two sons, John J. Meehan, who was associated in business with his father; William P. Meehan, Harvard, '94, and Harvard Law School, '96, now a lawyer in this city, and four daughters, Mrs Albert J. Hill of West Roxbury, Mrs Frank I. Johnson of Fitchburg, Mrs Frank M. Flanagan of Brookline and Mrs Ward N. Boylston of Princeton.

The funeral will take place on Thursday morning with a solemn high mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Church at 10 o'clock.






Richards, L.J., 1899. (copyright © 2000 by Cartography Associates.)
David Rumsey Collection

When I first saw this property on Amory Street at Boylston station, I assumed the owner lived here, but the obituary places him on Washington street. Maybe one of the sons lived here.







Count the Patrick Meehan properties.





A strange place for a real estate tycoon's home, no?

Lilac Sunday - 1908

Lilacs at the Arnold Arboretum predate the institution itself. Benjamin Bussey planted lilacs on his estate, and he allowed people access to his property to enjoy it - quite unlike most property owners today. It seems to me that we should be talking about the Bussey Arboretum, but Arnold's money somehow trumped Bussey's land. At least we still have Bussey hill, brook and street. And we still have the lilacs.

Lilac Sunday is one of the institutions that all the residents of Jamaica Plain have been able to share through the years. Geography, church parishes and income all segregated the people of Jamaica Plain over the years, but all could share a trip to the Arboretum. The advantage of living in Jamaica Plain is that you don't actually have to go to see the lilacs on the traditional day. A ride down the Arborway would tell when the lilacs were blooming, and a trip on an off-day would avoid the crowds of "outsiders".




Boston Daily Globe May 25, 1908

Lilac Sunday At Arnold Arboretum. Beautiful Blooms of Many Colors and Tints Fill the Air With Their Fragrance.


In so section of greater Boston was yesterday's delightful weather enjoyed more fully than on the grounds of the Arnold Arboretum in West Roxbury.It was Lilac Sunday, and a lavish feast was spread for every lover of floral beauty. Everywhere throughout the great extent of the grounds was the charm of the rural. Every one of the thousands of trees, shrubs and plants seemed to rejoice in a renewal of life.

The special glory of the day and the place, however, was found in the flowering lilac bushes, of which there are hundreds upon hundreds, with almost as many varieties as there are bushes, and with each bush covered with the pleasure-affording blooms. The botanist can give the scientific name of each variety, but it would take an expert in colors to describe fittingly the many shades and hues of the fragrant flowers. No expert knowledge, however, is needed to enjoy the pleasures which the senses bestow.

In the clear green of the leafage, in the daintiness of the flower petals, in the vigor of the wood, in the general healthiness of the bushes and in the symmetry, this year's display is the peer of any that has preceded it.

Just now also, there are to be seen at the arboretum two double-crab trees of the order maius loensis, almost literally clothed in double rose pink blossoms. To enjoy a view of these is worth a day's journey.

The FIRST Jamaica Club House

OK, so you know about the Jamaica Club and their club house at Green and Rockview streets. Did you know where the first home of the club was? Here we have the answer. I think we can assume the John street mentioned was St John.


Boston Daily Globe June 16, 1887


Jamaica Plain club House.


The members of the Jamaica Plain club and their many friends made merry last evening upon the occasion of the formal opening of the new club house in John[sic] street, near Rockview. Early in the evening the beautiful Queen Anne house was aglow, without and within, with many colored lights, and the houses in the neighborhood were likewise illuminated.

There was no formal ceremony whatever, and the only part of the opening that partook the nature of a reception was carried on in the parlor, where His Excellency Governor Ames and His Honor Mayor O'Brien were warmly greeted.

The Jamaica club is yet young in years, but it bids fair to become the leading one in the suburbs. It was organized in 1884, and for a time its membership was wholly composed of young men. Now, however, the older men are coming, and the limit of 150 is being rapidly approached.

The new clubhouse was built by Captain Albert Lewis, H.M. Stephenson furnishing the plans and William Sanby attending to the erection. The cost of the building was about $15,000.

The interior furnishing is particularly rich, the woodwork being of cherry, and all of the rooms as to the mural decorations, warm and cozy. The furniture for the most part is of live oak, the hangings of rich silk and plush, the rugs tasty in design and in keeping with the surroundings.

On the ground floor are two billiard and pool rooms, hat, coat and toilet rooms, and the janitor's suite. On the next floor are found the parlor, library, smoking and card rooms. On the third floor are smoking rooms, card rooms and the janitor's bed room. In the basement are a 65 feet bowling alley and the gymnasium.

In addition to a full quota of the members and their ladies last evening:

[list of names]

The Nelson Curtis House

The Nelson Curtis house was known to many as one of the home buildings of the Children's Museum from the 1930s to the 1970s. Both my older brother and I spent summers in the museum summer day camp, which was housed primarily in the old Nelson house, so I have vague memories of the inside of the building. There was a room with cages and aquaria for small animals, and I seem to remember an iguana and a rabbit in the collection. I also have one of those quirky memory fragments of sitting on the floor singing the song

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Merry, merry king of the bush is he,

although I remember it being the old oak tree, so apparently someone americanized the lyrics of this Australian children's song before it got to us.

Somehow, it never occurred to me that someone had once lived in the museum buildings. As it is, the Curtis family didn't live there very long. In little more than thirty years after the house went up, the Children's Museum had taken over the property. Ironically, a descendant of one of the oldest families of Jamaica Plain built one of the last great estates in the pond area at the end of the estate-building era. The turn of the 20th Century was a time of new streets lined with small lots and crowded houses. I suspect that it just wasn't fun being rich in Jamaica Plain any more, as the word suburb came to mean towns outside Boston, not districts of the city itself. How could you keep them down on the farm, after they've seen Wellesley?




Boston Daily Globe January 24, 1904


Handsome House On Beautiful Site. New Residence of Nelson Curtis is One of the Prettiest About Jamaica Pond.


A large residence has just been completed on the parkway near Jamaica pond, at the corner of Eliot st, for Nelson Curtis from plans by Chapman & Frazer, architects. It is on a beautiful site, overlooking Jamaica pond and park and is designed in the georgian or colonial style of red brick with marble trimmings and with white shutters on the first story and green blinds on the second.

The house stands on the site of the old Smith house, a landmark in Jamaica Plain for many years. The simple and dignified front of the old house, with its recessed porch and greek ionic columns is well remembered by people who use the parkway. These columns from the old house are used again in the new in a large two-story recessed porch which is the feature of the parkway side.

In the porch is a balcony opening from the second floor. On the parkway and Eliot st side is a wide grass terrace raised a few feet above the level of the lawn with a ballustrade at the top of the bank. The entrance front is on the side opposite the parkway and is reached by means of a curving driveway from Eliot st. The driveway sweeps around a large old english elm and brings on to the entrance porch.

A white vestibule leads into the main hall and opens through french windows to the recessed porch and terrace on the parkway side. The woodwork in the hall is white, with a panelled dado, and the walls above are of a warm red with a wood cornice. The stairs at the left lead to a gallery over the vestibule on which is a great triple stair window, patterned after those found in the colonial mansions of Salem.

A second flight leads to the floor on the right of the hall, forming a large stair-well, which is open to the second-story ceiling. The stairs have a twisted colonial newel post in white, with white balusters and a mahogeny handrail.

On the left of the hall, and opening from it through sliding doors, is the large living room. This room extends the full width of the house on the Eliot st side. It is finished in California redwood, with a beamed ceiling. The walls are dark green. About half of the wall space on one side is taken up with bookcases, and opposite the entrance to the room is a large fireplace in dark old gold Perth Amboy brick, with a high mantel. French windows open on the piazza and terrace, while on the parkway side are long windows that go nearly to the floor and open onto small iron balconies. At the other end of the room is a large bay window with a roomy seat.

On the right of the hall is the dining room, side hall and reception room. The dining room is finished in mahogeny, with a panel of dado and tapestry above. The fireplace is of roman shape red brick and there is a high carved mantel in the georgian style. The side hall is connected with the main hall through an arched opening to the billiard room, which is at the end of the house on the Parkway side, and the service part, which is at the end of the house on the entrance front side.

The reception room is finished in White, with yellow silk on the walls above a low white dado. There is a low mantel, and the fireplace facing and hearth area are of light grayish green onyx. The long windows are like those on the Parkway end of the living room opening on to small iron balconies.

Through the side hall one reaches the billiard room, which is finished in dark cypress stained brown. There is a high sheathing dado in this room, with a dark red on the walls above. At one end of the room is a fireplace nook, the entire floor of which is covered, like the hearth, with large red quarry tiles. The fireplace facing is of red brick. At the sides of the nook is a seat with a plank arm. The room is well lighted through large windows overlooking the pond, and is one of the most attractive rooms of the house.

The second floor is finished throughout in white. The bathrooms connect with the principal bedrooms and have tiled floors and walls. A feature of the second floor plan is that the family bedrooms, dressing rooms and bathrooms are all connected in such a way as to make it unnecessary to go into the main hall in going from one to the other.

The house cost to erect about $100,000. The estate comprises 49,000 square feet of land.



*********************************************************************************


If you are like me and are unfamiliar with the architectural use of the word dado, it refers to the lower section of an interior wall, under a dado rail. See here: Dado picture

Bonfires At Forest Hills

In my recent post about Judge Emmons, the Boston police commissioner titled Police Commissioner - Hanged in Effigy, I mentioned the long-lost practice of celebrating the 4th of July with bonfires. Here we have two articles describing the practice as it occurred at Forest Hills at Galvin's field. So here's a question: where was Galvin's field? I'm guessing that it was between Washington street and the railroad tracks near the Arboretum. Perhaps it was on the east side of Washington street - there seems to be more room on that side of the street and it was not yet built up at the time. I also wonder when the city was able to outlaw the bonfires. At this time they were already under the supervision of the city, and regulation is just one small step from elimination. And eliminate they did.



Boston Daily Globe July 4,1910


Bonfires Redden Skies of Boston and Vicinity.


[Opening paragraphs skipped]

The Forest Hills athletic association had one of the largest bonfires in the city at Galvin's field off Washington st, Forest Hills.

The octagonal pile, 50 feet high, was composed of more than 500 railroad ties. The interior of this great wooden chimney was then filled with barrels, boxes, mattresses and refuse materials, and the whole was saturated with 25 gallons of kerosene oil. The top of the pile was ornamented with the national flag, which was removed before the match was applied, and across the front of the pile was a large white banner with the words "Forest Hills A.A.

Pres Charles A. Murphy of the association and his assistants have guarded the bonfire for days to prevent its being "touched off" prematurely. Saturday night Dick Fallon and his two dogs were watchers, and they were kept busy until daylight in preventing miscreants from attempting to fire it.

Dist Chief Michael J. Mulligan detailed a member of the fire department to watch the fire and a line of hose was laid from a post hydrant for service in case of need.

At the stroke of 12 Pres Murphy made a brief address to the 2000 people present. Then there was a series of bugle calls by buglers Ernest Coleman and Edwart McDermott, the flag at the top of the pile was lowered and the match applied.

The committee in charge was Pres Charles A. Murphy, James Finley, John M. Rowan, Cornelius J. Murphy, James Kelly, John Broderick, Fred Every, Arthur Freish, Thomas J. McAdams.


[the article continues with descriptions of other bonfires around Boston]



Boston Daily Globe July 4, 1913


Bonfires Blaze As Fourth Comes In.


Between 6000 and 7000 persons witnessed the bonfire and attendant exercises in Galvin's Field, Washington st, Forest Hills, at midnight. The bonfire consisted of a pile of railroad ties and inflammable materials, which had been reared to a height of 35 feet, and preceding the applying of the torch at 12:01 a.m. by Richard E. Corcoran, about 200 members of the Motley A.A. under whose auspices the fire was held, marched from the rooms of the Tilden Club in Forest Hills sq to the field.

Remarks were made by Pres George Sayce, Mr Corcoran and others, and amid the tooting of horns and the burning of red fire the pile was ignited.

Following the illumination the Motley A.A. held open house at the rooms of the Tilden Club, and ice cream and cake was served to the patriotic youngsters who assisted in the building of the fire.

New Fire Truck For Forest Hills

In an earlier post, the arrival of an new auto-chemical fire truck was mentioned. Here we have a preceding article from the Globe that describes the new-fangled machine. Being a (male) baby-boomer, my mind goes immediately to the Three Stooges episode, in which the boys attempt to show that the old horse-drawn wagon can still do the job as well as the new motorized version. I wonder if Boston firefighters resisted the new machines, or if they saw them as a great improvement over the horse-drawn wagons.


Boston Daily Globe January 20, 1910


New Fire Fighting Machine For Hub. Combination Chemical Auto Reaches City and Will Be Stationed in the Forest Hills District.


A new combination chemical automobile, built for the fire department of this city, and which will later be installed in the new fire station now being erected at Forest Hills, arrived in the city yesterday. It was taken to Briston st, where commissioner Parker, Chief Mulen, Supt Byington and other fire department officials examined it. In the afternoon it was driven to the Copley sq hotel, where the fire chiefs' club of Massachusetts was in session. The members of that club gazed upon it admiringly.

The new machine is considered an important adjunct to the fire service of this city. It will be the sixth auto in service in the fire department when placed in commission.

The new machine will be placed in a district at Forest Hills where for 15 years additional fire protection has been persistently advocated. In the meanwhile the combination chemical will be temporarily installed elsewhere and thoroughly tried out.

While the machine was being built there was a member of the Boston fire department on watch constantly getting a line on every part of it. First Charles H. Cosgrove had the Springfield assignment, and he remained at the factory until shortly before his promotion to the rank of lieutenant, when he was supplanted by hosemen James T. Jones of engines 26-35, Mason st. Those firemen know all that there is to know about the new car.

The machine will be equipped with two 35-gallon chemical tanks, several hundred feet of chemical hose, 1000 feet of hydrant hose, a small extension ladder, two hand extinguishers, a lifeline, axes, door opener, hose jackets and other equipment that will make it an up-to-date piece of apparatus. The machine is painted red. It carries a large searchlight beside the two fixed lights on front, and cost the city $5150.

The fire department officials are relying on the new machine doing great work at Forest Hills. It will be located so that it can reach almost every box in that district before any of the horse-drawn apparatus, and will carry a crew large enough to run a hydrant line should it reach, before the other apparatus, a fire that required a large line.

A special running card will be prepared for the combination chemical. Later it will be announced who will have charge of it.

Perkins And Day Streets - An Incomplete History

Picture found at JPHS web site.

Bromley, 1931 (BPL)


This picture, and my previous post about the Perkins Institution for the Blind kindergarten at the same location, made me think about a follow-up entry. The problem is, I have little detailed knowledge of the history of the site through the 20th Century, so I can only give a loose outline of the property's use. Rather than wait until I can nail down dates, I've decided to