Well, a little history of my family may help, so I’ll start when we arrived in Egleston Square in 1949, from Attleboro, Mass. We lived across the street from the Egleston Theatre. It was the only private home in the Square proper.
Read More
Until the 1920's, according to a long time Jamaica Plain resident, the house faced Centre Street. The 1874 Boston City Directory suggests that the entrance to the confectioners shop was on Centre St. and the residential entrance on Eliot. The property was sold in 1873 to Anthony Hankey, although his brother Joseph evidently continued to live there until his death in 1880.
Read More
Forest Hills Cemetery was originally set aside in 1848 by the City of Roxbury as a city cemetery. In the corner of the grounds near Walk Hill and Canterbury streets, explorers will find the glass-enclosed white marble statue titled “Boy in the Boat,” and marked LL on the cemetery’s map of curiosities.
Read More
Franklin Park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, America’s preeminent landscape architect. It was the hub of a huge Boston park system. This brochure lays out two walking tours to allow the visitor an opportunity to explore the park.
Read More
Although Green Street was subdivided as early as 1851 for stores, factories and houses it was not extensively developed until the late 1870’s with construction continuing until the early 1900’s. The Bowditch School was completed in 1892 and early in the 20th century the United States Post Office moved from its location on Call Street at Woolsey Square to its new location at the corner of Green and Cheshire Streets.
Read More
Some residents on Germania Street know that Samuel Adams beer and other products are made in the industrial complex on their street. But few seem to know the history behind the smokestack that stands at the end of the street, just beyond a maze of red brick buildings.
The first evidence of a commercial ice operation on Jamaica Pond is found on an inset of an 1855 map of Suffolk County showing the E.M. Stoddard and Company Ice Company owning a row of icehouses near the modern day rotary at Jamaicaway and Prince Street.
Read More
In 1846, the piano manufacturer, Chickering, purchased five of their shore lots where he built a summerhouse "Sunnyside." Francis Parkman bought the house and land in 1854, and the consequent story has been chronicled before. With the Jamaica Plain connection, the Goddard tale itself deserves retelling.
Transformed by transportation over two centuries of time, Forest Hills challenges the definition of neighborhood. About a mile long and a half-mile across, Forest Hills has been shaped by geography more than any other part of Jamaica Plain.
Read More