The Rise & Fall of the Thomas G. Plant Shoe Factory in JP (Event Video)

Fifty years ago, in February 1976, a suspicious fire consumed a massive old factory building at the corner of Centre and Bickford Streets in JP. Displacing roughly a hundred artists-in-residence, the old factory had once been home to the Thomas G. Plant Shoe Company, employing up to five thousand workers at its peak. This presentation explores the origins of the Plant shoe factory in 1896 and its mercurial French Canadian owner, Thomas Plant, known for his pioneering business and corporate welfare practices. It also discusses the thousands of immigrant workers who labored there and sometimes challenged Plant’s anti-union policies.

LocalesJamaica Plain Historical SocietyFebruary 8, 2026event video, Businesses

History of 55 South St: The Early Years

In December 2025, the property at 55 South Street, Jamaica Plain -- the home of Fiore’s Bakery -- was placed on the market. Anticipating that the multi-use building will take its next steps in the future, let's look into its past, particularly the history of the businesses that have operated in its storefront and the people who lived and worked there after it was first constructed. What follows is the history of 55 South Street in its early years.

LocalesCharlie RosenbergJanuary 28, 2026Jenny Nathans, Businesses

Blessed Sacrament: Boston Landmark Study Report

The five-building Blessed Sacrament Complex includes the former church, convent, rectory, and two former parochial schools - Cheverus School and St. Norbert School. Originally built between 1894-1926 to serve a growing Irish and German Catholic parish in this part of Jamaica Plain, the Church of the Blessed Sacrament and associated parish buildings represent an architecturally significant collection of buildings designed in a variety of period styles

LocalesJamaica Plain Historical SocietyMarch 5, 2025National Register

District 13 Police Station: National Register of Historic Places Materials

The District 13 Police Station, at 28 Seaverns Avenue in Jamaica Plain, is an unusual example of a High Victorian Gothic Style building. The building continued to serve as the neighborhood’s Police Station until being converted to condominiums in the early 1980s.

LocalesJamaica Plain Historical SocietyOctober 31, 2024National Register

The History of the Italian Home for Children (Event Video)

In 1918, the influenza epidemic devastated Boston's congested North End and left hundreds of orphans in its wake. Touched by this crisis, a Roman Catholic priest and a group of Italian Americans founded the first home for Italian children in Massachusetts. Franciscan Sisters devoted 24 hours a day to providing the children with a safe, loving, and spiritual environment. This talk from 9/22/2024 outlines the remarkable history of this remarkable institution.

LocalesJamaica Plain Historical SocietySeptember 23, 2024event video

John Harris House & Farm (Allandale): National Register of Historic Places Materials

Allandale Farm has been farmland since 1655 and many of its structures retain historic significance. It is mostly in Brookline but crosses over into JP too. It is the only working farm in Boston or Brookline.

LocalesJamaica Plain Historical SocietyMay 5, 2024National Register

Getting it Together in Franklin Park: The Past and Future of a Boston Landmark (Event Video)

Ethan Carr believes Franklin Park is one of the great urban parks in the world. Generations of Bostonians have loved this landscape and invested it with many diverse memories and meanings. Today the park is at a turning point. Mayor Wu has approved an Action Plan to guide its future, and the city and its partners have proposed new multi-million dollar construction projects. In this talk he argues that the time is right to consider the past, as well as the future, of Franklin Park.

LocalesJamaica Plain Historical SocietyMarch 16, 2024event video

Jamaica Plain & Ralph Waldo Emerson's Wish (Event Video)

Alex Krieger realized that his own neighborhood of Jamaica Plain is emblematic of a number of American ideals. Americans still identify with Ralph Waldo Emerson who lamented, “I wish for rural strength and religion, and city facility and polish...” Krieger uses his talk to trace this long American desire to occupy a place in between: city and country; civilization and nature, sophistication and simplicity, community and family and to argue that JP is an answer to Emerson’s wish.

LocalesJamaica Plain Historical SocietyJanuary 21, 2024event video

The History of Allandale (Event Video)

A talk about the History of the area of JP known as Allandale. Once a rural farming area it still includes Boston’s only working farm. Centre Street has traversed the area since the 1600s and a famous colonial tavern once offered respite to weary travelers. Eventually, large estates came to be built in the area whose inhabitants created history in their own right. And we mustn’t forget the Allandale Spring - whose Spring House is still around and who waters were said to cure dyspepsia, dropsy, catareh, and many other ailments.

LocalesJamaica Plain Historical SocietySeptember 25, 2023event video, Archaeology