Dorchester Historical Society

Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1862

Print advertisement from Koppers Company in Pittsburgh (suppliers of the building materials) showing Dickson Bick showroom at 40 Hallet Street in 1966.  Photo caption: Architect Henry Metivier, Hingham, Mass.  Builder Stephen S. Vlachos & Associates, Inc., Hingham, Mass.

Sentry South Lincoln now occupies the building.

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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. 1861

Scan of a photograph belonging to Stern family, formerly from Fremont Street, Mattapan, so the “trolley” was probably used on Blue Hill Avenue.

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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. 1860

The Depression kept home sale prices down, and there were hundreds if not thousands of properties for sale.  Today’s illustration shows the front and back of one of a series of real estate cards from the collection of the Dorchester Historical Society.

298 Ashmont Street for $8,500 or best offer

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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. 1859

I have always been told that quotation marks should not be used for emphasis, and now I can see why.

Boston Fish Market, 1484 Dorchester Avenue.

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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. 1858

The Boston Landmarks Commission voted last evening to approve an upgrade in the level of significance for the Industrial School for Girls building at 232 Centre Street.  They also approved a National Register nomination for the Sherman Apartments Historic District, 554-546 Washington Street, 4-6, 12-14 and 18 Lyndhurst Street, Dorchester.

Today’s illustration shows 12-14 Lyndhurst Street in 2005.

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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. 1857

Bob Rugo writes:

Seeing Judy Tuttle’s photo of the marker in her walk reminded me that I had never gone to find and photograph this marker on Melville Avenue about which I had been told many years ago. I found it in the driveway of 92 Melville Avenue. It was probably installed in 1922 as Joseph Rugo, my great grandfather, signed a building permit for the construction of a garage at the property that Spring. At that time he lived at 173 Magnolia Street, near Quincy Street, and had an office in town at 80 Boylston Street, the Little Building, corner of Tremont Street, overlooking the Common, now part of Emerson.

The adjacent home at 98 Melville Avenue was owned by the Piotti family and they also built a garage in 1922. I believe that there may have been a similar marker in that driveway. Twenty years earlier my great grandparents had been tenants of the Piotti family, living on Piotti Place, off Franklin Court, across from 321 Norfolk Avenue, by the Norfolk Tap where they blew up a car this past weekend as part of a film shoot. Most of that area is gone, now part of the Boston Edison / NSTAR facility fronting on Mass. Ave. I suspect that the connection to the Piotti family at 98 Melville was how Joseph Rugo got the job for the garage and driveway at 92 Melville Avenue.

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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. 1856

Judy Tuttle has submitted a photo on Facebook showing the cement medallion in her walk.  The company was Adams Pond Co. from Milk Street Boston.

The 1909 Directory of American Cement Industries 5^th ed. has an entry for Adams Pond Co. at 53 State Street, Boston, in a section of Contractors and Other Users of Cement.  So it seems likely that the medallion was the concrete installer’s way of showing pride in his work as well as an advertisement for new business.

The 1918 Boston Register and Business Directory shows the company at 166 Devonshire Street in the Master Builders Exchange Building. (It is possible that the building had an entrance on Milk Street – hard to tell exactly where the building stood).

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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. 1855

The Albert T. Stearns Lumber Company was once a thriving business on Port Norfolk. According to the l869 Taxable Valuation of the Town of Dorchester, Stearns’ Taylor Street business encompassed “an old counting room” (possibly # 98 Taylor Street?), lumber building, two stables, planing mill and counting room, dry-house, moulding room, a block of 5 tenements, a large shed and a wharf.

The only building left is the c. mid 19th century Greek Revival brick office structure at 98 Taylor Street. This structure is labeled “office” on the 1910 Atlas. The half dozen Stearns buildings that once stood across Taylor Street have all disappeared although several foundations appear to have survived amidst the underbrush.
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The Dorchester Illustration of the Day (DIOTD) is sent weekdays. If you receive this e-mail by mistake, please reply t 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, MA02125, or through the website at www.DorchesterHistoricalSociety.org

Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1854

The building at 232 Centre Street was built for the Industrial School for Girls in 1858.  The building appears to be the only remaining existing building in Massachusetts from the 19^th century movement of private industrial schools for either boys or girls.  It certainly is the only remaining existing building in the state specifically built for the mission of an industrial school.  Although the building has been vacant for some years, it was used most recently as a facility of the Home for Little Wanderers.

On Tuesday the Boston Landmarks Commission will consider a recommendation to raise the level of significance of the building on the Commission’s scale of significance that follows the National Register ratings.  If they do vote to approve the  upgrade, it means that a Landmarks petition for the property could be accepted at some future date.

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The Dorchester Illustration of the Day (DIOTD) is sent weekdays. If you receive this e-mail by mistake, please reply t 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, MA02125, or through the website at www.DorchesterHistoricalSociety.org

Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1853

The house 1326 Dorchester Avenue has stood for about 140 years, pre-dating even some of the streets in the area.  Located between Linden and Ellsworth Streets on the east side of Dorchester Avenue, it has been surrounded by commercial properties for many years.  A permit in response to an application to demolish was issued on August 17^th.   Applications to demolish buildings are first sent to the Boston Landmarks Commission for determination of significance.  If the staff finds that a building is significant within the terms of the demolition delay ordinance, they will begin the hearing process.  In this case, the staff determined that the building at 1326 Dorchester Avenue did not meet the criteria for significance that would warrant a full Commission hearing.  Therefore the permit to demolish was issued by Inspectional Services.

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The Dorchester Illustration of the Day (DIOTD) is sent weekdays. If you receive this e-mail by mistake, please reply t 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