Glenvale Park

Glenvale Park, surveyed by Alexander Wadsworth, 5/16/1848. (click to see a larger and legible version).



Here's an ad from the Classified section of a Boston newspaper. The train stations were making land in the vicinity attractive to Boston commuters, and the old multi-acre lots were being broken up to take advantage of the market. Today, an analogy might be the breakup of old single family houses into multi-unit condos. Locust street sounds familiar, but I can't find a reference to it, even in the offical city street history book. I assume the name was temporary, changed to something we'd recognize soon after. Maybe Amory street, which was accepted as Boylston avenue in 1858.

Addendum (10/22/2008): I suspect that Locust street was a temporary name for Chestnut avenue, as it is the only other street on the Glenvale plan. The plan, shown above, lists Chestnut avenue under its first name, Nebraska street. The explorer Freemont had recently travelled through the Nebrask territory, so the street may have been named for his exploits. The auction described below offered 25 of the original 73 lots for sale seven years after the auction listed on the plan above.


Boston Daily Atlas May 19, 1855


Great Sale of Lands at Jamaica Plains.



On Tuesday, May 29, at 3 o'clock, on the premises.

Twenty-five choice and valuable Cottage Lots, in Glenvale Park, Jamaica Plains(sic), containing from 13,000 to 33,000 square feet each, situated on Boylston, Lamartine and Locust streets, and lying between Boylston and Green street Depots, and within from two to four minutes walk from either.

The land is of the most beautiful and picturesque character, it being upon a gentle elevation and partly covered by an aged forest, and offers a most favorable opportunity to those who wish to secure a pleasant home in the country.

The advantages possessed by Jamaica Plain for a suburban residence are believed to be unsurpassed, if equalled by any in the vicinity of Boston. This charming village being justly celebrated for the purity and healthiness of its climate, the high character of its schools, both public and private, the beauty of its walk, and drives, its good roads, its social advantages and the facility of its intercourse with the city by Railroad and Omnibuses at all hours of the day and night.

The lots are all in the immediate vicinity of many elegant residences and on wide and well graded streets.

The sale will be positive, and every lot offered will be sold to the highest bidder on the most liberal terms of payment.

Persons in pursuit of lots in the country are invited to attend this sale, as it is believed they offer advantages superior to any in the neighborhood of Boston.

Persons wishing to go out to the sale from Boston by Railroad will take the train which leaves the Providence Railroad Depot at quarter before 3 o'clock, stopping at the Boylston street station. Free tickets and plans will be furnished by the auctioneer.