Dorchester Historical Society

Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1845

Comments on the last couple of days images 

Doug Wynne:

Years ago, when I worked for Associated Industries of Massachusetts, someone from AT&T told me that the pattern on these manholes represented a cross-section of telephone cable.  Not sure if he was telling the truth, but it made sense to me at the time.

Judy Neiswander:

Edison Electric Illuminating Company – their building was (& still is) at 25-39 Boylston Street, constructed in 1906 by Winslow & Bigelow and Bigelow & Wadsworth.

Paul Kenney:

EEI does stand for Edison Electric Illuminating Company. However the manhole cover which you show here has the words BELL SYSTEM on the cover which would imply that it is a Telephone Manhole.  The radio station, WEEI, was originally owned by Edison.

Paul Cass:

I remember when I attended Boston Tech High School in the Back Bay in the late 50’s the clocks were AC because it was hard to keep accurate time with DC. The rest of the school was DC including the belt driven machine shop where all the lathes were driven by one large DC motor with a large belt loop system. With DC it is a lot easier to control the speed of motors but DC required carbon brushes which had a lot of maintenance and put a lot of carbon dust in the air. I do believe DC is used on the high transmission lines ( envision the electrons going back and forth with Alternating Current or flowing one way only with Direct Current) because their is less resistance to the flow.  With all the electronics today DC is changed to AC with a inverter. The most efficient systems have a inverter which changes AC to DC and the speed can be controlled totally and thus be more efficient. Batteries are DC but you can change it to AC  by plugging the inverter into the cigarette lighter. This day and age we use both AC and DC with ease depending on the use. 

For today we have a photo of a medallion in a set of concrete stairs, showing the pride of the company that installed them: Hind of 19 Milk Street, Boston.

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Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1843

Yesterday I asked:   Does anyone know what EEI stands for?  There were lots of responses including a reference to this site:

http://forgotten-boston.com/lights%26utilities/boston.electric/utilities.html

and another reply from Doug Wynne:

Good morning, Earl.

My memory is a little fuzzy, but I think this hatch bears the initials of the Edison Electric Illuminating Company.  Not sure if it dates to the struggle between Thomas Edison (locally-generated Direct Current) and Nikola Tesla (regionally-generated Alternating Current), which Tesla obviously won.  Edison held patents dealing with the commercial-scale generation of DC, but once the ability of AC to be transmitted over longer distances was proven, DC faded and Edison adapted.  However, I did read somewhere recently that as late as the 1940’s there were still small urban pockets served by DC.  But I digress.  My interest in such matters stems from the fact that my siblings and I owe our existence to Boston Edison.  Our eventual mother was the secretary to the contracts manager at the Edison when one of their contractors, Thomas Wynne Cox of Cox Electric (corner of Broadway and L Street in Southie) introduced her to his “English cousin” who had immigrated to apprentice to him.  Charlotte and Ed hit it off, to put it mildly, and the rest is history.  Pretty good for the days before eHarmony.  Heck, almost the days before radio!

Today’s illustration is self-explanatory.

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Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1843

And here is one response from many regarding the BWWstreet covers.

Good morning, Earl.

Assuming these are a foot or so square, I think they are street shutoff valve access hatches for water service to either individual customers or neighborhood mains.  The “B.W.W.” stands for “Boston Water Works,” but I have no idea what the other letters mean.  Perhaps they are clues to what types or sizes of valves lie hidden beneath the hatches.  Maybe one of the old-line plumbing companies (e.g., Trethewey Brothers) still operating in Boston might know the full story.  Does the Boston Sewer and Water Commission still exist, or has it been absorbed by the MWRA?  One or the other of those agencies should know.  These legacy covers are sort of a municipal utility history course.  I can remember seeing round ones marked “BEICo” for Boston Edison Illuminating Company, and a variety of names on the hatches for the downtown Boston steam power loop.  As recently as the last time I worked downtown (ending 1998), several buildings were heated (and cooled – go figure) by high-pressure steam generated by what I think had started out as a division of the Edison.  I seem to remember they sold it off during the period immediately following dereg.  I’m a little fuzzy there, but someone is sure to know all about all kinds of covers and educate us all.

Regards,

Douglas R. Wynne

Today’s illustration is another mystery.  Does anyone know what EEI stands for?

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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. 1842

A friend encouraged me to look down to see what’s under my feet.  Today we have four metal covers embedded in the pavement.  Does anyone know what the letters stand for?  These have been grouped together due to their similar design.

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Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1841

Back cover from Oliver Optic’s Annual 1895

Oliver Optic was the pseudonym for William T. Adams, an author of over 100 books for young men and women.

He was born in Medway, Norfolk County, July 30, 1822, then educated in the public and private schools of Boston and vicinity, and when a mere lad displayed a talent for writing, his first article being published in the “Social Monitor.”

For three years Mr. Adams was the master of the “Lower Road” school in Dorchester.  In 1846 he resigned his position to assist his father and brother in the management of the Adams House, Boston. Mr. Adams resumed teaching in 1848, in the Boylston School, Boston, becoming the master in 1860, and on the establishment of the Bowditch School, he was transferred and held the post of master of that school till he resigned in 1865.  He then went abroad and traveled throughout Europe, dating his career as an author from this period.

Mr. Adams’s nom de plume, “Oliver Optic,” originated from his having written a poem in 1851 which was published under the heading of “A Poem Delivered Before the Mutual Admiration Society, by Oliver Optic, M.D.”  The name “Optic” was suggested by a character in a drama at the Boston Museum, called “Dr. Optic.”  To this Mr. Adams prefixed “Oliver,” with no thought of ever using it again.  But soon after two essays appeared in the “Waverly Magazine,” “by Oliver Optic,” which were so well received that he continued to write under this pseudonym until it became impracticable to abandon it. His books, numbering over a hundred volumes, are widely and deservedly known.

Mr. Adams was married October 7, 1846, to Sarah, daughter of Edward and Martha (Reed) Jenkins. Mrs. Adams died in 1885.  Their children are: Alice Marie, wife of Sol. Smith Russell, and Emma Louise, wife of George W. White, a member of the Suffolk bar.  Mrs. White died in 1884.

In 1867, Mr. Adams was unanimously elected a member of the school committee of Dorchester.  He served until the town was annexed to Boston, and was elected a member of the Boston school committee and served for ten years.  In 1869 he was elected a member of the House of Representatives and served one year, and declined a re-nomination.

In 1870, he went to Europe a second time, and three times recently, traveling through the countries not previously visited, and the books which he has since published show the result of his observations.

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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. 1840

Second Church. Gilt stamp on cover of Memoir of John Codman, D.D. by William Allen, D.D. late president of Bowdoin College with reminiscences by Joshua Bates, D.D. late president of Middlebury College. Boston: T.R. Marvin and S.K. Whipple & Co., 1853.

The following information is from: Codman Square House Tour Booklet 2000

Year Built: 1806; Architect: Unknown; Style: Federal

Although it now stands but little removed from the commercial bustle of a reviving neighborhood shopping district, Codman Square’s oldest building remains among its most important as well as its most enduring.  Constructed of Maine timber during the administration of Thomas Jefferson, it still enjoys a useful life today nearly 200 years later.  Clearly indebted to the architectural pattern books of the day, its unknown designer composed an exterior of classic Federal form, with projecting vestibule and graceful steeple.  The latter’s belfry houses a bell cast by Paul Revere; the internally illuminated clock dial was added in 1914.   Although the front-facing or west façade of the building remains essentially unchanged from its early nineteenth-century appearance, the church has been enlarged several times toward the rear.  The first visible alteration, the frame ell of 1892, replaced an earlier addition of 1869; the brick wing beyond was added in 1929.

Brightly lit by its many large, plain-glass windows, the interior was remodeled extensively in the 1850s.  At that time, the present slip pews with lithe scroll arms replaced the original pews.  Although it is reasonable to surmise that these may have been the box pews prevalent at the time of the original construction, church records indicate only their paint color, which was green!  A splendid high pulpit of highly figured bookmatched mahogany was also installed at this time.  The displaced original pulpit has been retained as an historical relic under the gallery to the right.  Behind the pulpit is a large reredos whose Ionic columns support a shell enclosed by a heavily molded arch.  More explicitly neoclassical in feeling, this element may represent a still later modification.  Later still, dating from the turn of the twentieth century, is the choir loft’s massive pipe organ with its elaborately carved case.

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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. 1839

Sculptor Robert Ball Hughes came with his wife to America from London in 1828 or 1829. Noted for his statues of New York Governor Clinton, of Alexander Hamilton and Nathaniel Bowditch, Ball Hughes also created a large high-relief marble memorial to Bishop John H. Hobart for Trinity Church, New York.

In the 1830s the couple purchased a home on Adams Street in Dorchester opposite what would later become the Cedar Grove Cemetery. In 1851, they moved to a house at the corner of School and Washington Streets that had been owned by Captain Jeremiah Spalding, a ship-master in the East India trade. Here they entertained some of the world’s leading celebrities including Charles Dickens, the author, and Jane Stuart, the artist.

The house on School Street still exists, but it has been modernized to the point that there seems be very little of the original. The Dorchester Historical Society has Ball Hughes’ bust of Washington Irving.

Like other well-known sculptors, Ball Hughes was called upon to design coinage for the United States mint. He modified the design by Christian Gobrecht for the Seated Liberty coins. As re-designed it depicted Liberty seated on a rock, surrounded by thirteen stars and holding the Union shield along with a pole topped by a Liberty cap.

He sculpted a statue of Alexander Hamilton that was placed at the top of the Merchants’ Exchange Building, New York, which was lost to a fire. He produced the seated bronze statue of Dr. Nathaniel Bowditch, the famous mathematician and nautical writer, located in Mount Auburn Cemetery.

He was the first to bring burnt wood picture or “poker” pictures to America (pyroengravings). He produced a poker picture of The Witches from Macbeth and another of the Blind Beggar of Gretna Green.

Samuel Gerry said “Ball Hughes was without controversy a genius, as is evidenced by his well-known group of the Widow Wadman and Uncle Toby, and the fine statue of Bowditch … Many knew him in later years by poker drawings, which he did for small returns … We have never had in Boston natural powers for art superior to his.”

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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. 1838

Walter Baker – One of the Engines in the Power House.  Illustration from Cocoa and Chocolate: a short history of their production and use. Revised edition. Dorchester, Mass., Walter Baker & Co. Limited, 1917.  The power house is the building with the tall chimney next to the Neponset River.

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Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1837

Postcard. Caption on front: Pierce Square looking South, Dorchester Lower Mills, Mass. Dated Sep 5, 1912. On verso: Pub. by Thomson & Thomson, Boston, Mass. No. 1588. Printed in Germany.

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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

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Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1836

Last Indian Camp on Savin Hill.

On the site of the old fort. From photo made by James H. Stark in 1884. Pub. in  Dorchester Day, Celebration of the Two Hundred and Seventy-Seventh Anniversary of the Settlement of Dorchester, June 8th, 1907. Boston, 1907.

Savin Hill was the location of a fort in colonial times due to the sweeping view of Dorchester Bay. 

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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