Jimmy Durante and his entourage paid a visit to Hanlon’s Shoe Store in Jamaica Plain in 1958. During a visit to Boston to perform in a downtown club Durante asked where the best place was to buy shoes in Boston and was directed to Hanlon’s Shoes on Centre St. Mr. Durante purchased five pairs of shoes on that first visit to Hanlon’s and returned on a number of occasions to make additional purchases.
Read MoreWhat does a 1940’s type shoe repair shop, a fleet of World War Two B-17 Bombers, the Building 19 discount store in Norwood, Arthur Fiedler of Boston Pops fame and Jazz Maffie, the late Brinks bandit, have in common? And the answer is: 90 year-old cobbler Guy Perito, formerly of Sedgwick Street, Jamaica Plain!
Read MoreDoyle's is more than just a great beer bar. It's something of a museum of Boston brewing history.
Read MoreMy name is Frank Norton and I was born in Jamaica Plain on May 7, 1943. We lived on the second floor of a three decker at the corner of 51 Custer Street and Goldsmith Street.
Read MoreWell, not exactly like the other stations on the dial, but there was a broadcasting transmitter from my bedroom at 590 Centre Street in the late-1940’s that reached a small neighborhood audience, and far beyond as we shall see!
Read MoreCurtis Hall was still there; we used to go swimming in the pool in the basement. We called it “the tank.” No bathing suit for the guys, but the girls wore city-issued one-piece suits.
Read MoreIn the section of Jamaica Plain on the Roxbury line bounded by the train tracks and Centre, Heath and Bickford Streets, lived some of my friends that had fathers and uncles that were a little left of center with the law.
Read MoreBack in the 1940s, the city and the schools kept us kids pretty occupied during school vacation. While the parents were planting Victory Gardens such as the big one on the Jamaicaway at Daisy Field, the city provided small plots for kids, and supplied the seeds, tools, and the teachers to show us how to grow vegetables. They had about an acre of land on Paul Gore Street for us to plant. Everything we grew we took home.
Read MoreAnyone remember before television existed? We had this thing called radio. It was kind of like TV. There was sound but you supplied your own pictures in your mind. After school I’d run home and turn on the big parlor Philco radio. At four o’clock the programs started.
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