Mayor Curley was a lifelong Democrat, but his distancing himself from Al Smith of New York when Smith sought the presidential nomination for a second time in 1931 is well known, though he had heartily supported Smith in his bid against Herbert Hoover in 1928.
Read MoreDavid A. Mittell grew up on Prince Street in Jamaica Plain. He attended the Agassiz School and Roxbury Latin. He is a 1939 graduate of Harvard University. Mr. Mittell is a retired executive of Davenport Peters, the oldest American continually operating lumber wholesaler. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Plimoth Plantation and Roxbury Latin High School.
Read MoreThe following interview was conducted with Janice Murray by Charlie Rosenberg on April 10, 2004.
My name is Janice Murray. My maiden name was O’Hara. I was born in 1957 in Dorchester, and in 1960, my parents bought a big Victorian up at the corner of St. Rose Street and the Arborway, overlooking the Arboretum – not right at the corner, one house in. The man who built the big Victorians there, his name was Leonard, I believe. It was a huge 17-room house, he built a series of them – if you look along that strip, there are three houses that are almost identical.
This oral history project was complied and edited by Bill Vanderbeck and Jamaica Plain High School students circa 1984 and includes extracts of interviews and historic photographs.
Read MoreThis is the memorial to Francis Parkman, American historian and summertime Jamaica Plain resident. It was designed by Daniel Chester French and carved partly on site in 1906.
Read MoreI was born right around the corner, at 16 Paul Gore Street, on April 9, 1917. So I have been waiting 86 years for the Red Sox! I was born at home.
Read MoreA descendant of Boston’s famous Boylston family and one of Jamaica Plain’s largest property owners meets Jamaica Plain Historical Society member Tom Sullivan on a walking tour. And now we know Chris Boutourline of Portland, Oregon, and his famous kin including his 500-year old Russian antecedents.
Read Moren the summer of 1945 I was six years old and my brother David had just turned five. Our house at 73 Sheridan St. Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts was a big two family grey clapboard set back 25 feet from the street, angled up and back with large rectangular shrubs towards the front and sides.
Read MoreHow did Paul Gore Street get its name? Here's the explanation
Read MoreWhen China trade merchant brothers Thomas and James Perkins headed south of Boston for summer country homes in the early 1800's, the younger Thomas built a house (now gone) near Jamaica Plain in Brookline, at Heath and Warren Streets, while James chose the shores of Jamaica Pond, building Pinebank I in 1802.
Read MoreQuincy Adams Shaw was born in the Parkman home in Bowdoin Square in February, 1825. A member of the Harvard Class of 1845, he left the East the next spring “on a tour of curiosity and amusement to the Rocky mountains.” His father, a wealthy Boston merchant, allowed him another trip?the Grand Tour of the last century to Europe and the Near East, written up by his companion, George Curtis.
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