Dorchester Historical Society

Book Launch – Sunday, Oct. 7^th, 2 pm

Jake Hanna: The Rhythm and Wit of a Swinging Jazz Drummer.

By Maria Judge.

 Jake Hanna was a Dorchester boy who made the national scene.

Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1870

Card advertising real estate, 159 Walnut Street, on Port Norfolk, with address and photo on front and description on verso.  Apparently foreclosed property for sale at the end of the Depression.  4/42.  Plus photo of the same property from 9/14/2012.

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The Dorchester Illustration of the Day (DIOTD) is sent weekdays. If you receive this e-mail by mistake, please reply to be taken off the e-mail list. If you know others who would like to receive the daily e-mail, please encourage them to join the group by going to http://groups.google.com/group/dorchester-historical-society. You may contact Earl Taylor at ERMMWWT@aol.com

If you value receiving the DIOTD, please express your appreciation by making a donation to the Dorchester Historical Society, either by regular mail at 195 Boston Street, Dorchester, MA 02125, or through the website at www.DorchesterHistoricalSociety.org

Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1869

First Parish Church and Lyceum Hall

Postcard. Caption on front: E6400 Dorchester, Mass. First Parish Church and Lyceum Hall, Meeting House Hill. Postally unused.

The building of First Parish, built in 1897, is the sixth church building and still stands.  It was designed by Cabot, Everett and Mead with references to Colonial models and is considered one of the finest examples of the Christopher Wren type in this country.

Lyceum Hall was built in 1839-1840 in the Greek Revival style and lasted until 1955.  It was the scene of many social functions, lectures and dances.

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The Dorchester Illustration of the Day (DIOTD) is sent weekdays. If you receive this e-mail by mistake, please reply to be taken off the e-mail list. If you know others who would like to receive the daily e-mail, please encourage them to join the group by going to http://groups.google.com/group/dorchester-historical-society. You may contact Earl Taylor at ERMMWWT@aol.com

If you value receiving the DIOTD, please express your appreciation by making a donation to the Dorchester Historical Society, either by regular mail at 195 Boston Street, Dorchester, MA 02125, or through the website at www.DorchesterHistoricalSociety.org

Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1868

The Ashmont Universalist Church was located at 22 Bushnell Street, corner of Lombard Street behind All Saints Church.  The building is now a private residence.

“This parish [Ashmont Parish] sprung into existence through the earnest efforts of the Rev. Chas. Conklin, State Secretary. The first business meeting was held Mar. 14, 1902, when some forty people met and drew up and signed an agreement of association founding a corporation, the name of which was to be ‘The Ashmont Universalist Parish of Boston.’ The first religious meeting was held in Ashmont Hall, corner of Bushnell and Lombard streets, July 26, 1892. This property was later purchased by the society and here Rev. Chas. Conklin preached and assisted the society until Nov. 7, 1902. At this time [1892?] the Rev. L.O. Williams was called and labored faithfully with this parish nine years, resigning Dec. 7, 1901, going to Stoughton, Mass. From this time the pulpit was filled with supplies until Sept. 1, 1902, when Reverend Merrill C. Ward was called and gave himself devotedly to the work until Sept. 1, 1903, when he was called to Southbridge. At this period of the parish’s history dark clouds of despair hung heavily over the people, but the faithful father of the parish, Rev. Chas. Conklin, rallied the drooping spirits of the people and, inspired with hope and success, the hall was renovated throughout and made into a beautiful chapel with all the necessary appointments needed in any church. In March, 1905, the Rev. Harry Adams Hersey came to us and is giving his earnest efforts to the building up of a strong and united church, and so forgetting the things that are behind we are ‘pressing toward the mark of our high calling in Christ Jesus.’

Leavitt, P.M. Souvenir Portfolio of Universalist Churches of Massachusetts. Boston: The Massasoit Press, 1906.

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The Dorchester Illustration of the Day (DIOTD) is sent weekdays. If you receive this e-mail by mistake, please reply to be taken off the e-mail list. If you know others who would like to receive the daily e-mail, please encourage them to join the group by going to http://groups.google.com/group/dorchester-historical-society. You may contact Earl Taylor at ERMMWWT@aol.com

If you value receiving the DIOTD, please express your appreciation by making a donation to the Dorchester Historical Society, either by regular mail at 195 Boston Street, Dorchester, MA 02125, or through the website at www.DorchesterHistoricalSociety.org

Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1867

The John D. Bussell Supply Co. was located at 1869 Dorchester Avenue, on the west side of the Avenue, approximately across from the entrance to Dracut Street.  That number would be included in the property where the brick apartment is located now in the V of Talbot Avenue and Dorchester Avenue on the north side of Peabody Square.

My guess is that today’s illustration probably comes from the 1940s or 1950s.  And how times change.  A good paint was good because it was durable, and what better way to make it so than adding pure white lead?

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The Dorchester Illustration of the Day (DIOTD) is sent weekdays. If you receive this e-mail by mistake, please reply to be taken off the e-mail list. If you know others who would like to receive the daily e-mail, please encourage them to join the group by going to http://groups.google.com/group/dorchester-historical-society. You may contact Earl Taylor at ERMMWWT@aol.com

If you value receiving the DIOTD, please express your appreciation by making a donation to the Dorchester Historical Society, either by regular mail at 195 Boston Street, Dorchester, MA 02125, or through the website at www.DorchesterHistoricalSociety.org

Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1866

Today we have the Edmund J Baker House.  Edmund J Baker was the son of James, the founder of the chocolate company that later became Walter Baker.  Edmund took over the business in 1804, when his father retired.  Edmund lived at the corner of Washington Street and Richmond Street, where the modern brick office building is located today.

The photo is taken from Richmond Street.  The spire of the First Methodist Church appears in the upper right of the photo, and the Safford House appears in the lower left.  Abraham Lincoln stayed in the Safford House when he visited Dorchester in 1847.  All these buildings are now gone.

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The Dorchester Illustration of the Day (DIOTD) is sent weekdays. If you receive this e-mail by mistake, please reply to be taken off the e-mail list. If you know others who would like to receive the daily e-mail, please encourage them to join the group by going to http://groups.google.com/group/dorchester-historical-society. You may contact Earl Taylor at ERMMWWT@aol.com

If you value receiving the DIOTD, please express your appreciation by making a donation to the Dorchester Historical Society, either by regular mail at 195 Boston Street, Dorchester, MA 02125, or through the website at www.DorchesterHistoricalSociety.org

Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1865

Postcard. Caption on front: General View of Franklin Park, showing Bridge and Duck Pond. Postmarked Dec. 24, 1906 Roxbury Station, with one-cent stamp.  On verso: A 5118 Published by The New England News Company, Boston, Mass., Leipzig, Dresden.

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The Dorchester Illustration of the Day (DIOTD) is sent weekdays. If you receive this e-mail by mistake, please reply to be taken off the e-mail list. If you know others who would like to receive the daily e-mail, please encourage them to join the group by going to http://groups.google.com/group/dorchester-historical-society. You may contact Earl Taylor at ERMMWWT@aol.com

If you value receiving the DIOTD, please express your appreciation by making a donation to the Dorchester Historical Society, either by regular mail at 195 Boston Street, Dorchester, MA 02125, or through the website at www.DorchesterHistoricalSociety.org

Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1863

Today we have an issue of the Strand Theatre News from 1929 highlighting Clara Bow.  And not that they have actual “talkies.”

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The Dorchester Illustration of the Day (DIOTD) is sent weekdays. If you receive this e-mail by mistake, please reply to be taken off the e-mail list. If you know others who would like to receive the daily e-mail, please encourage them to join the group by going to http://groups.google.com/group/dorchester-historical-society. You may contact Earl Taylor at ERMMWWT@aol.com

If you value receiving the DIOTD, please express your appreciation by making a donation to the Dorchester Historical Society, either by regular mail at 195 Boston Street, Dorchester, MA 02125, or through the website at www.DorchesterHistoricalSociety.org

Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1862

Today’s illustration is a photo of Clapp Avenue in the Dorchester Old North Burying Ground.

In the 17th century, the burial ground was simply a cemetery, but in the 19th century the garden cemetery movement had its influence on Dorchester’s Old North with the installation of ornamental shrubbery and bedding out of annuals.

The National Register nomination description says: Dorchester North contains approximately 1200 markers—upright stones of slate, marble, sandstone, granite, and bronze and scores of above-and at-grade tombs in straight ranges.  The various markers displayed range from squat, upright curve-topped slabs from the 17^th century to light-toned, slender rectangular steles popular in the late 18h century to the more substantial, thick, varied shapes of the 19^th century monuments.  The total effect is more polychrome and varied than any other of the ancient Burying Grounds in Boston.

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The Dorchester Illustration of the Day (DIOTD) is sent weekdays. If you receive this e-mail by mistake, please reply to be taken off the e-mail list. If you know others who would like to receive the daily e-mail, please encourage them to join the group by going to http://groups.google.com/group/dorchester-historical-society. You may contact Earl Taylor at ERMMWWT@aol.com

If you value receiving the DIOTD, please express your appreciation by making a donation to the Dorchester Historical Society, either by regular mail at 195 Boston Street, Dorchester, MA 02125, or through the website at www.DorchesterHistoricalSociety.org