The stairway that leads from Hancock Street to Downer Avenue on Jones Hill contain more that 100 steps. The concrete stairway replaced a wooden stairway, pictured as the lower image in today’s illustration. The photograph of the wooden stairway was taken between 1918 and 1926.
In 1936, Jack Frost described the steps in the Boston Herald:
The Longest Wooden Stairway in Boston
The fatigue inspiring stairway shown in the sketch connects Hancock Street and Downer Avenue in Dorchester on Jones Hill. There are more than a hundred steps and thirteen landings. The granite wall shown in the foreground was built by the PWA. The three family houses are common to the hill. The building part way up the steps is a dance hall, well known in Dorchester. After the city had been scoured pretty thoroughly, these Jones Hill steps were the longest wooden ones found—and wooden steps are not as abundant today as they once were.
The dance hall mentioned in Jack Frost’s description was the Jacqueminot Bungalow at 136 Hancock Street, apparently legally part of 134 Hancock Street (the three-decker in the photo). In 1922, the building department reported the capacity of the function hall as 223.