Bob's Spa

Ask anyone growing up south of the Monument in the later half of the 20th century where they could find industrial sized bologna and cheese sandwiches on super-fresh bulkie rolls, the plumpest jelly donuts, the smoothest ice cream, the foamiest root beer floats, the coldest tall bottles of Royal Crown, Pepsi and Nehi Orange, an honor-system penny candy case and a kind and trusting proprietor who’d carry your family “on-the-cuff” when needed, and the answer can only be “Bob’s Spa” at 128 South Street.

Locales, 20th CenturyJamaica Plain Historical SocietyMarch 16, 2005Grocer, Peter O'Brien

Buff & Buff Manufacturing Company

Buff & Buff Manufacturing Company occupied the site of what is now the Buff Condominiums at 329R Lamartine Street in Jamaica Plain until the mid-1980s. They manufactured and repaired a variety of precision engineering instruments, most notably surveying transits and theodolites.

20th Century, LocalesJamaica Plain Historical SocietyMarch 15, 2005Manufacturing

Classic Cleaners Celebrates Golden Anniversary

In 1953, when Classic Cleaners opened 50 cents you could get a jacket dry-cleaned at their new shop on the corner of Centre and Green streets.

20th Century, LocalesJamaica Plain Historical SocietyMarch 14, 2005Businesses

Coffee Tree on McBride Street

On June 29, 1898, three well-known Boston beer and ale brewers opened a handsome new Inn at 16 Keyes Street, Jamaica Plain. The owners, Bradley & Farmer, Rueter & Co., and A.J. Houghton & Co. called it the Coffee Tree Inn, naming it for a coffee tree that once grew on the site.

Locales, 20th CenturyJamaica Plain Historical SocietyMarch 14, 2005Taverns, Peter O'Brien

Doyle's Cafe Serves Up Brews And History

Doyle's is more than just a great beer bar. It's something of a museum of Boston brewing history.

Locales, 20th Century, PeopleJamaica Plain Historical SocietyMarch 13, 2005Taverns

Doyle's History Talk by Gerry Burke

This article is based on a talk given by Gerry Burke to a meeting of the Jamaica Plain Historical Society the evening of November 9, 2005 at Doyle’s Café.

Locales, 20th CenturyJamaica Plain Historical SocietyMarch 13, 2005Taverns

Five Thousand Witness Spectacular Forest Hill Hotel Blaze

A fire that swept through the north section of the Forest Hills Hotel, at the junction of Hyde Park Ave. and Walk Hill St., Forest Hills, yesterday afternoon, drove 400 guests in the building in a stampede to the street and did damage to the hotel and adjacent property estimated at between $16,000 and $18,000.

Locales, 20th CenturyJamaica Plain Historical SocietyMarch 12, 2005Fire

Farnham and Nelson is Manufacturer of Auto Bodies

Among the instances of the business development there is none in the local district that has been more rapid and substantial than that of the Farnham & Nelson Co., of Jamaica Plain, the large and well-known concern engaged in the building of high-grade automobile bodies andall that pertains to the automobile above the engine and running gear.

20th Century, LocalesJamaica Plain Historical SocietyMarch 12, 2005Manufacturing

Hailer’s Drug Store

Hailer’s Drug Store, one of the oldest retail landmarks in Jamaica Plain, shut its doors for the last time Monday. [1993]

Locales, 20th CenturyJamaica Plain Historical SocietyMarch 11, 2005Businesses, Pharmacy

Hi-Lo: For Latinos, More Than A Grocery

Ripe guineos verde green bananas Dominican olive oil, dulce de leche candy, Embajador chocolate, and Yaucono coffee, shrink-wrapped for freshness. Shoppers who push through the swinging metal doors of Hi-Lo Foods are on a mission: to fill their carts with foods like these that they often can’t find anywhere else.

Locales, 20th CenturyJamaica Plain Historical SocietyMarch 11, 2005Businesses, Grocer

Holtzer-Cabot Electric Company

In 1970, when the Boston Housing Authority converted the factory building at 125 Amory Street for senior citizen housing, it marked the end of the long history of one more manufacturing concern in Jamaica Plain. The building is now known as the Amory Street Apartments, but for fifty-five years it was the home of the Holtzer-Cabot Electric Company.

Locales, 20th CenturyJamaica Plain Historical SocietyMarch 11, 2005Manufacturing, Cars

How Jamaica Plain Activists Created the Southwest Corridor

No wonder Jamaica Plain residents speak and act as though they can have some control of what happens in the neighborhood. Starting 49 years ago, local people along the Southwest Corridor banded together to stop a highway from splitting the neighborhood. Then they persuaded government to move the elevated Orange Line from over Washington Street and put it in the corridor with other positive additions.

Locales, 20th CenturyJamaica Plain Historical SocietyMarch 11, 2005Activism