Dorchester Historical Society

Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1759

Students from the North Bennet Street School repaired windows at the First Parish Church.  The First Parish Church’s steps in the plan for restoring the building are as follows.

The Massachusetts Historical Commission provided a $50,000 emergency fund grant to help match the George B. Henderson Foundation’s grant of $100,000 for recent emergency repairs to the chimneys, parapets, and tower. This project finished on schedule and under the original estimates of our architects, McGinley Kalsow & Associates. 

The next project will restore the original steeple: preserving and returning the two lantern sections that were removed in 2006 due to structural instability, and preserving the clock section (including the clock faces and the historic mechanism.) The original estimate for material and labor: $350,000, but there will be a significant reduction in labor costs if the church secures the North Bennet Street School involvement.  The Church has received a verbal commitment from NBSS’ preservation carpentry program that their second-year students will restore the two lantern sections.

Designed in 1896 by the architectural firm Cabot, Everett and Mead, preliminary research indicates that the church building is one of the oldest ecclesiastical examples of Colonial Revival architecture.   The congregation is the oldest congregation within the present-day boundaries of the city of Boston and one of the older in the United States. Gathered first in England in March 1630, it was the second congregation planted in the Massachusetts Colony, the third in New England, and through annexation became the oldest church 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

Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1758

The birthplace house of Edward Everett stood on the corner of Columbia Road and Boston Street, where there is now a three-decker with a Dunkin Donuts behind.

 Edward Everett (1794-1865), was an American statesman, educator, and orator, born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and educated at Harvard University and the University of Gottingen, Germany. Everett was the editor of the North American Review from 1820 until 1824. In 1825 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and served for ten years. He was governor of Massachusetts from 1836 to 1840. The following year he was appointed U.S. Minister to Great Britain, returning to the U.S. in 1845 to beome president of Harvard University, a position he held from 1846 to 1849. Everett served as Secretary of State (1852-53) under President Millard Fillmore and as U.S. Senator from Massachusetts from 1853 to 1854. In 1860 he ran unsuccessfully for the vice-presidency on the ticket of the Constitutional Union party as the running mate of John Bell of Tennessee. His orations, including the one he delivered at Gettysburg just before Lincoln’s Address, were published in four volumes (1850-92).
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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

Note that our April program is scheduled for Sunday, April 29^th.  This is different from earlier announcements about the date.

Come and be entertained by John Horrigan.

John Horrigan, historical lecturer, has been called “New England’s Pocket Historian.”  Mr. Horrigan joined us once before with a lecture on the history of New England Blizzards.  Now he returns with:

“Booms, Bubbles, Busts, Depressions, Recessions and Panics: A History of American Financial Crises”

Description: New England folklorist and economic historian John Horrigan presents a chronology of recessions, bank crashes, slides, panics and manias in American finance including: The South Sea Bubble, The Mississippi Land Scheme, the Darien Scheme, The Financial Crisis of 1785, Canal Mania and Duer’s Panic of 1792, The Panic of 1797, The Panic of 1807, The Panic of 1819, The Panic of 1825, The Jacksonian Financial Crisis of 1837, The Financial Crisis of 1847, The Western Blizzard Panic of 1857, The Financial Crisis of 1860, The Silver Panic of 1866, The Panic of 1869, The Panic of 1873, The Financial Crisis of 1878, Grant’s Last Panic of 1884, The Panic of 1890, The Silver Panic of 1896, The Panic of 1901, The Panic of 1907, The Financial Crisis of 1920, The Crash of 1929, The Great Depression, The Panic of 1937, The 1953 Recession, The 1958 Recession, The Kennedy Slide of 1962, The Johnson Erosion of 1966, The 1967 Oil Embargo, The 1973 Oil Crisis, The 1979 Energy Crisis, The Recession of 1982-83, Black Monday (October 19, 1987), The Junk Bond Recession (1988-92), The Third Energy Crisis (1990), Black Wednesday (1992), The Mini Crash of October 27, 1997, The Slide of ’98, The Dot Com Bubble (2001), The 9/11 Slide, The Emerging Markets Correction of May, 2006, The Great Stock Market Draw Down (August, 2007), The Grand Dow Slide of October 19, 2007, The Mortgage Crisis (2008) and The Great Humbling (2009 – 2012).

Horrigan puts these economic troughs in a cyclical historical perspective and also equates them with their subsequent booms.

Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1757

Today we have a photograph of organ pipes at the Skinner Organ factory.
In 1914 the Skinner Organ Factory company moved into a new factory building in Dorchester at Crescent Avenue and Sydney Streets. The building still stands in part on Sydney Street—part of it was demolished to create the ramp from Columbia Road to the southbound side of the Southeast Expressway.

Ernest M. Skinner was the most prominent organ builder of the early 20th century who believed an organ should be able to play all music effectively and with infinite tonal variety. His organs were highly orchestral in character. The succeeding generation rejected his “all-purpose” organ and insisted upon absolute authenticity in the performance of early music. Many of his organs were rebuilt by them to satisfy this change in opinion. There is, however, a renewed interest in the Skinner organ in more recent years. The pinnacle of Skinner’s career may have been the installation of one of his organs in the Washington National Cathedral.
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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. 1756

Postcard. Caption on front: The Tuttle House, Savin Hill, Dorchester.  Postmarked Uphams Corner Station. With one-cent stamp. On verso: Pub. by Putnam Art Co., Dorchester, Mass.

The Tuttle House, which was located at the corner of Savin Hill Avenue and Tuttle Street, existed as a “sea-side” hotel from 1822 to 1924.

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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. 1755

Don Rodman of Rodman Ford grew up in Dorchester near Franklin Park

The following is from the company website: http://rodmanford.com/displayContent.asp?keywords=history

The “History of Rodman” began in Dorchester with a young man’s love of automobiles.  Don Rodman’s major interest as a child was solving the complexities of the machine that to many represented both mobility and wealth.  His interest in auto mechanics started by working after high school and weekends on the cars of friends and relatives.  Approximately one year prior to his graduation he made the decision to drop out of school to make auto mechanics his chosen field, and took a full time job as a laundry truck mechanic.  His quest for knowledge led him to enlist as a mechanic in the U.S. Army where he received his first formal training. While in the Army, Don met and married his wife, Marilyn.  Following his time in the service, Don worked at a number of dealerships where he moved from mechanic to salesman to general manager.  His growing reputation in the industry led to an offer from Ford Motor Company to take over a small, struggling dealership in Foxboro Center.  He accepted that offer in 1960 and quickly recruited his brother, Gerry, who left a career in the Air Force to become a partner and salesman extraordinaire.  This was the start of Rodman Ford Sales, Inc.

In 1964, Don and Gerry’s success enabled them to expand to a new location on Route One, the present location of Rodman Ford.  In 1972, Don acquired a Lincoln-Mercury franchise, which was located with the Ford franchise.  In 1988, the Rodman Lincoln-Mercury franchise moved to a facility of its own – one mile south of Rodman Ford on Route One in Foxboro.

A commitment to health and fitness led to the opening of the Rodman Health & Fitness Center in 1989.  Located behind the Foxboro Lincoln-Mercury dealership, the center features all of the amenities you’d expect from one of the region’s premier fitness clubs.

In 1990, Rodman expanded beyond Route One with the opening of a second Lincoln-Mercury dealership on Route 44 in Raynham. 

The Rodman’s exemplified their commitment to total automotive care by opening the technology-driven Rodman Collision Repair Center and Rodman Car & Truck Rentals in 1996.  The Collision Repair Center is located on Route One, between the Ford and Lincoln-Mercury dealerships. 

New Year’s Day 2001 marked the grand opening of the new, state-of-the-art Ford store and Quick Lane, which replaced the original Route One Ford dealership.

 In 2002 Lincoln Place, a commercial business and office building, opened on Lincoln Road across from the Health & Fitness Center. The building houses the Ride for Kids headquarters, Rodman’s primary philanthropic endeavor

Rodman Ride for Kids.  It would be a gross understatement to say that Don Rodman has many charitable affiliations.  In fact, there are literally too many to mention.  However, you should be aware of the most visible one.  The Rodman Ride for Kids began in 1989 with the idea of creating a fun bike-riding event to raise money for inner-city kids at risk.  The first Ride raised $10,000 to support the work done with over 200 children. Currently, the yearly event hosts thousands of riders who, along with many corporate contributors, raise over three million dollars annually to improve the lives of thousands of kids and their families, and communities across Massachusetts.

In June of 1996, he received an Honorary Doctorates Degree in Commercial Science from Suffolk University for charitable endeavors.  In June of 1999, he received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Massachusetts, Boston for his most remarkable rise in the business world in conjunction with years of dedicated charitable activities on behalf of the needy in Massachusetts and beyond.

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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. 1754

The Vietnamese American Initiative for Development (Viet-AID) is finishing their new building at 455-475 Geneva Avenue or 4 Bloomfield Street.  The city’s Assessing department calls the parcel 4 Bloomfield Street, while Inspectional Services calls it 455-475 Geneva Avenue.  The project is described as 4 stories, 27 units of affordable housing and 13 parking spaces.  The lot was once occupied by the Stewart Building, designed in 1896 and extant from that time through the first half of the 20^th century.

From American Series of Popular Biographies. Massachusetts Edition. This Volume Contains Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Boston: Graves & Steinbarger, 1891:

JOSEPH IRVING STEWART, of Dorchester, a prominent real estate dealer and builder, now serving as Representative in the Legislature for the Twentieth Suffolk District, was born in Kings County, New Brunswick, April 25, 1847, a son of Joseph and Mary (McVey) Stewart. His ancestors on both his father’s and mother’s side were Scotch, the former settling first in Nova Scotia.

Mr. Stewart’s early years after his school days were spent in active employment on his father’s farm and in the saw and grain mills, where he made himself generally useful. In April, 1867, at the age of twenty, he came to Boston and entered L.F. Whiting’s iron foundry as an apprentice, but thus continued for only one year and nine months, when on account of his health he gave up that business. For two years subsequently he was employed at the cabinet-maker’s trade in Cambridge. He then worked for a while in the piano factory of Chickering & Sons, after which he was engaged for seven years in the fancy wood business. This was followed by an industrial period of six years with the Bell Telephone Company. Then in 1886 he began business as a real estate dealer and builder, in which line of industry he has achieved an unqualified success. The assessed value of the property he has built in Dorchester alone amounts to about one million dollars. At Ashmont he erected sixty-one houses and three blocks. In four and a half years the value of this property had increased to five hundred thousand dollars. He purchased sixteen acres of land in Dorchester Centre, and built thereon fifty-four houses, putting in three-fourths of a mile of sewers and the same length of streets, all of which he subsequently released to the city of Boston. This property also included a large brick block known as the Stewart Building and Bloomfield Hall.

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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. 1753

Jack Beatty was born and raised in Dorchester and attended Boston Latin School, Boston State College and the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Jack Beatty is public radio station WBUR’s On Point program news analyst. He was a longtime senior editor at The Atlantic Monthly, which he joined in September of 1983, having previously worked as a book reviewer at Newsweek and as the literary editor of The New Republic.

From The Atlantic Monthly:

Beatty joined The Atlantic Monthly as a senior editor in September of 1983, having previously worked as a book reviewer at Newsweek and as the literary editor of The New Republic. In addition to editing many of The Atlantic‘s major nonfiction pieces, Beatty is in charge of the book-review section, and he has contributed numerous articles to the magazine himself. Recent subjects have spanned the globe: NATO, the United States Navy, and the Irish Troubles among them.

His 1993 contribution to The Atlantic Monthly‘s Travel pages, “The Bounteous Berkshires,” earned these words of praise from The Washington Post: “The best travel writers make you want to travel with them. I, for instance, would like to travel somewhere with Jack Beatty, having read his superb account of a cultural journey to the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts.” Beatty is also the author of The World According to Peter Drucker, published in 1998 by The Free Press and called “a fine intellectual portrait” by Michael Lewis in the New York Times Book Review.

Born, raised, and educated in Boston, Beatty wrote a best-selling biography of James Michael Curley, the Massachusetts congressman and governor and Boston mayor, which Addison-Wesley published in 1992 to enthusiastic reviews. The Washington Post said, “The Rascal King is an exemplary political biography. It is thorough, balanced, reflective, and gracefully written.” The Chicago Sun-Times called it a “. . . beautifully written, richly detailed, vibrant biography.” The book was nominated for a National Book Critics’ Circle award.

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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. 1752

Wikipedia 2012-03-28

Neal P. McDonough (born February 13, 1966) is an American film, television and voice actor.

McDonough was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, the son of Catherine (née Bushe) and Frank McDonough, motel owners who emigrated from Ireland, with his mother coming from County Tipperary and his father from County Galway.  McDonough was raised Roman Catholic.  He grew up in Barnstable, Massachusetts, graduated from Barnstable High School, and attended Syracuse University, where he was a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1988. His roommate in college was Brett Pollock, current broadcaster for the Omaha Storm Chasers of the Pacific Coast League. McDonough frequently appeared as “Captain Laser”, inspiring young students to bring their studies to completion. From there, McDonough trained for a short time at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).

In 1991, McDonough won the Best Actor Dramalogue for “Away Alone”. McDonough has made many television and film appearances since then, including Band of Brothers, Boomtown, Star Trek: First Contact, Minority Report and The Hitcher. McDonough played Dave Williams on the fifth season of Desperate Housewives. He also starred in the lead role on 2004 medical drama Medical Investigation for its one full season.

McDonough was set to star in the ABC dramedy Scoundrels but was fired for refusing to do sex scenes for the show. He credits his family and his Catholic faith for his decision.

McDonough portrays the role of “Jesus” in “The Truth & Life Dramatized audio New Testament Bible,” a 22-hour, celebrity-voiced, fully dramatized audio New Testament which uses the Catholic edition of the RSV.

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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