Dorchester Illustration 2726 Milton Station car barn
Today’s illustration is a postcard, dated 1908, of the Milton Station car barn for trolley cars. The footprint of the building first appears in the 1904 Bromley atlas on Dorchester Avenue between Adams Street and Richmond Street. The location is now the site of the Lower Mills Apartments, a brick building with seven stories it was built in 1972. The car barn last appeared in the 1918 Bromley atlas.
Dorchester Illustration 2725 S. S. Pierce homestead
Samuel Stillman Pierce (1807-1880), the son of Daniel and Lydia Davenport Pierce, was born in the farmhouse owned by his family in what is now the Cedar Grove section of Dorchester. Daniel Pierce was a cabinetmaker. The house appears to have been built in the 18th century, although there is no documentation to provide an exact date.
At an early age, Samuel Pierce worked for a firm of importers in Boston, then went into the grocery business for himself. In 1831, he started his own grocery store, specializing in products for the well-to-do in Boston. The firm of S. S. Pierce became widely known for catering to the cosmopolitan tastes of Boston residents and for introducing new foods to the market.
Pierce maintained a home on Union Park and the family homestead in Dorchester, both homes appearing in the Boston Directory. He married Ellen Maria Theresa Wallis in 1836, and they had eight children. The family lived in Boston during the winters and summered at the family house he owned in Dorchester. According to Anthony Sammarco in “Dorchester, Volume 2,” the house was enlarged after the Civil War to accommodate his family. It stood on a knoll overlooking both Adams Village and and the Neponset River. The estate comprised a house and stable, with ten acres and marshland.
Pierce died in 1880, and his son Wallis Lincoln Pierce continued the trademark name and standards established by his father. The family included Samuel S. Pierce, Jr., who died as a young man in California; Dr. M. Vassar Pierce, a noted physician in Milton; and Holden White Pierce, who took over management of the Back Bay store of the S.S. Pierce Company. They retained their connection to Dorchester through their sister, Henrietta Pierce, who still summered in the family home. By the time of World War I, the Pierce homestead was a rambling series of additions made over the years.
Henrietta M. Pierce died in 1920, and her heirs sold a portion of the property to the Archdiocese of Boston, and shortly thereafter St. Brendan’s Church was built on the new Gallivan Boulevard. The remaining portion of the Pierce Estate was laid out as Lennoxdale, Myrtlebank, Rockne and Crockett streets and St. Brendan’s Road in the late 1930s, allowing for the building of the many new houses.
Sources: “Good Old Dorchester” by Dana Orcutt’s (1893); “Professional and Industrial History of Suffolk County, Volume 2,” by William T. Davis (1894); Wikipedia.
Dorchester Illustration 2724 James and Hepzibah Swan
Colonel James Swan (1754-1830) was a native of Scotland, who came to Boston in his boyhood. He participated in the Boston Tea Party in 1773. Swan fought at Bunker Hill, where he was wounded twice. He was Secretary of the Board of War for Massachusetts in 1777 and afterward adjutant-general of the state. During the time he held that office, he drew heavily on his private funds to aid the Continental Army, which was then in dire need of funds to arm and equip the soldiers who were arriving in Boston from all parts of New England.
After the Revolution, Swan privately assumed the entire debt that the United States owed to France at a slightly higher interest rate. Swan then resold these debts at a profit on domestic U.S. markets. The United States no longer owed money to foreign governments, although it continued to owe money to private investors both in the United States and in Europe. This allowed the young United States to place itself on a sound financial footing.
James Swan arrived in France in 1787 where he hoped to trade in American produce such as wheat, tobacco and naval supplies. The destruction of social order following the French Revolution placed a premium upon these goods, and Swan’s business prospered. In 1792, the French government declared all property of the crown, church and fleeing aristocrats to be public property. That property was subsequently sold in negotiated sales or at auction. Swan bought numerous lots. Many of these he sold, but the best he shipped back to America, including the Thierry bedchamber suite, where they were installed in the Dorchester (Boston) home where his wife and daughters lived. These pieces of furniture from the master bedroom of Marie-Antoine Thierry Ville d’Avray’s estate are on display at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, courtesy of the descendants of the Swans.
In 1808, Swan and a business partner had a falling out, and the partner alleged that Swan owed him a large amount of money. Swan refused to pay and was sentenced to debtors prison in France. Swan lived stylishly in prison until 1830 when he was freed by another revolution.
His wife, Hepzibah Swan (1757-1835), was wealthy in her own right and was accomplished in both society and business. Mrs. Swan bought out two of the original investors in the largest and most far reaching real estate venture in postwar Boston when she became the only female member of the four person Mount Vernon Proprietors. They acquired the John Singleton Copley pasture in 1794 and subdivided it into townhouse lots that became quite valuable when the Massachusetts State House opened in 1798.
In 1796, the Swans built a second home on Dudley Street in Dorchester across from where the Salvation Army, Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center is located today. Hepzibah wanted a larger home for entertaining so she had this one built in Dorchester with the help of her friend, Charles Bullfinch the noted architect. In this very grand manor house she maintained a household of herself, General Henry Jackson and other friends including General Henry Knox.
During the siege of Boston in the 1770’s, Knox and Jackson had stayed with her family and kept them safe from the British occupiers. Mrs. Swan depended on General Jackson for the management of her household affairs. Jackson maintained a home in Boston to keep up an appearance of propriety but lived in Dorchester. When he died in 1809, Hepzibah had him entombed in her garden in a plot surrounded by lilacs. A lane of lilacs led from the house to the tomb that Mrs. Swan often visited and pointed out to guests. One of them was the Marquis de Fafayette in 1825, on his triumphal visit to Boston for the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill. He visited Mrs. Swan on his way to Quincy to see John Adams. When she died in 1825 joined Jackson in the tomb.
The illustrations: the portraits of the couple by Gilbert Stuart; the bed is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the photograph of the house was published in “Domestic Architecture of the American Colonies and of the Early Republic” by Fiske Kimball. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1922).
Today’s top image is a photo by Leslie Jones of the “100 Steps,” leading from Hancock Street to Downer Avenue on Jones Hill.
The bottom image is a sketch drawn by Jack Frost, the Boston Herald’s columnist in his Fancy This. This series on April 29, 1936. The hundred steps, rising from Hancock Street up the side of Jones Hill, the longest wooden stairway in Boston.
The building halfway up the hill was the Jacqueminot Bungalow, a function hall from the 19-teens to the 1930s.
Note: I counted the steps in 2015. There are a total of 103.
Dorchester Illustration 2722 portrait of Isaac Withington
The burnt poker portrait of Dorchester resident Isaac Withington was created by the artist Robert Ball Hughes. Isaac Withington was born in Dorchester in 1802 and died here in 1877. Ball Hughes was first a sculptor whose subjects were usually famous men and/or literary and artistic scenes. In this case he created a portrait of a nearby neighbor, Withington lived on Harvard Street, only a few blocks away from Ball Hughes’ home at 3 School St., so perhaps they were friends.
Robert Ball Hughes was an artist, born in London in 1804, who immigrated to America in 1829. He and his wife, Eliza, went first to Washington, D.C. In 1842, they moved to Dorchester, where Ball Hughes was commissioned to produce a bronze statue of mathematician and astronomer Nathaniel Bowditch. This statue was the first large bronze to be cast in the United States.
They lived on Adams Street opposite the site that would later become the Cedar Grove Cemetery. Then in 1851 they moved to 3 School St. at the corner of Washington and School streets. The house is still there, though quite altered. They entertained a number of celebrities including Charles Dickens and Jane Stuart, the artist.
Pyrography is the art of burning sketches into wood using a hot poker. A late 19th-century publication, “Wide Awake,” a serial miscellany of topics from art and literature, described the technique in 1885: [Regarding] “the drawing on wood with a hot iron (otherwise known as “poker-pictures”). The lines are burnt upon the wood and produce the effect when varnished, of a painting in glazed oils . . . . . the color of the burnt line being a rich brown upon the soft creamy tone of the wood.”
William Dana Orcutt said in “Good Old Dorchester” (Cambridge 1893), 385-386.
“Mr. Hughes manifested his artistic nature in more ways than one. He excelled, among other things, in executing what are known as “poker sketches.” These are pictures made on whitewood, the only tools used being pieces of iron, which were heated to a white heat. Every touch of the hot iron leaves a mark which cannot be effaced, and the work is so trying to the nerves that only a short time each day can be devoted to it. The effects of color can only be appreciated when seen. It seems incredible that such artistic results could have been produced in this way.”
There are a few examples of Ball Hughes’ other burnt poker drawings at these links:
http://www.geocities.ws/Paris/Rue/4029/antique.html
http://carverscompanion.com/Ezine/Vol8Issue5/KMenendez/KMenendez2.html
Dorchester Illustration 2721 Saint Ann’s Roman Catholic Church
Today’s illustration, the building in the foreground is the first rectory of St. Ann’s Church. The building farther away is the parish’s first church building.
Father Fitzpatrick of St. Gregory’s Catholic Church in 1880 bought a lot of land on Minot Street in Neponset, and by December 1881, a new wooden church was ready.
A story published in The Boston Globe, Nov. 22, 1880, stated that “St. Anne’s [sic] Roman Catholic Church, Neponset, will be ready for occupancy on Christmas Day. It is a neat wooden structure, seating about 400 persons.” The church remained a ward of St. Gregory’s until 1889 when it became St. Ann’s Parish.
In 1915, Father John S. McKone began the construction of a new church on a new site, on Neponset Avenue. The new church building in the style of a Roman basilica with a campanile (freestanding bell tower) in the rear was finished in 1920.
In the edition of July 23, 2020, the Dorchester Reporter newspaper stated that on July 1, 2020, the parishes of St. Brendan and St. Ann had been consolidated. Later in 2020, the new parish was named St. Martin de Porres.
Dorchester Illustration 2720 First High School
Dorchester established its first high school in 1852.
“In 1850 the subject of a high school was again agitated — this time with more success. One hundred and eighty-three tax-payers of the town signed a petition asking the school committee ‘to recommend to the town the immediate establishment of a high school.’ This petition was discussed and reflected upon for two years, when action was finally taken. The sum of six thousand dollars was appropriated with which to erect a building, the location selected being on the School Pasture property, on the westerly side of South Boston and Dorchester turnpike, a little north of Centre Street. This spot was selected as being the most central position.
“The school was organized in December, 1852, with a membership of fifty-nine pupils of both sexes, representing the Everett, Mather, Adams, Gibson, Winthrop, Norfolk, and private schools. The first principal was William J. Rolfe, the present Shakespearian authority, who held the position for four years.”
The school building occupied the lot that is today a small shopping plaza at the corner of Dorchester Avenue and Gibson Street. The school pasture property encompassed what is now Town Field and extended across Dorchester Avenue to the east.
Source: William Dana Orcutt. Good old Dorchester. (Cambridge, 1893)
Dorchester Illustration 2719 Andrew Jackson Vose
“Andrew J. Vose (1833-1912) was brought up and educated in his native town of Dorchester. In 1849 he became associated with R. Gleason & Sons as clerk in the silver-plating business, and he continued to act in that capacity for twenty-five years. Since then he has given his attention to looking after his estate.
“He was married December 29, 1870, to Miss Abbie T. Buzzell, of West Newfield, Me., daughter of Jacob and Catherine (Rogers) Buzzell, and a representative of an old Maine family. His only child, Sadie Lizzie, born March 26, 1873, died May 2, 1896, at the age of twenty-three years. Mr. and Mrs. Vose are still living at the old homestead, enjoying the fruits of a well-spent and busy life. They attend the Unitarian church. Andrew died in 1912.”
Vose sold much of his inherited estate in 1892, and it became subdivided for houses along Athelwold Street, Merlin Street and Thane Street. He continued to live in a house at 22 School Street (pictured) but that house was later demolished, and the parcel became Champlain Circle.
Source: American Series of Popular Biographies. Massachusetts Edition. (Boston: Graves & Steinbarger, 1891)
The following comes from http://www.gmmy.com/crooners/clark/biography.htm
“Buddy Clark was a likable, versatile singer whose career was cut short at the age of 37 by an airplane crash on October 2, 1949, at 9 p.m. PST.
“Buddy Clark’s real name was “Samuel Goldberg,” he was born 1912 in Dorchester, Mass., a suburban city of Boston, and grew up in the West end, of Boston. As a youngster, he expressed strong interests in sports, body building, exercising, and one of his big dreams was to become a professional baseball player. Buddy even had plans to become a lawyer. He attended Northeastern Law School, in Boston. A Strong Love For Music However, his love for music was stronger than his dreams of becoming a pro baseball player or an attorney.
“As a young boy Buddy sang as often as he could at gatherings, and in what today’s times would be called ‘joints’ — local pubs, where the floors of the local pubs, and barrooms were covered with sawdust. He often times sang just to earn enough to pay for a square meal. Neighbors, and friends, who heard this young lad sing, were supportive, whether he sang on the streets or in a pub…he was well liked. It wasn’t long before Buddy was appearing with local Boston bands, singing his heart out to supportive loyal Boston Fans.
“At 17 years old the young Sam Goldberg was singing at a local wedding in Boston, when he was heard by David Lilienthal a proprietor of Boston’s leading furriers I. J. FOX, located on Washington St., in Boston. Sam became a protégé of Mr. Lilienthal who arranged music lessons for him and started him off on a professional career as a band vocalist and radio star. He appeared for nine years on a Boston radio show, sponsored by I.J. Fox.
“Sam was now on his way to a new musical career with his own Boston radio show, with a new name, where he was billed as BUDDY CLARK, a name that had more of a show business flair than his own. It wasn’t too long that the Buddy Clark stylish unique baritone voice was catching on to local audiences in his own home state of Massachusetts. In 1934, a few years after his successful Boston radio show, he made his big band singing debut career, in earnest as a vocalist, with the Benny Goodman band on the ‘Let’s Dance’ Radio Show.
“Buddy was billed on several other top radio shows, including the “Hit Parade” from 1936 to 1939. Buddy made scores of hit records, many of them with Xavier Cugat’s orchestra.
“Buddy Clark put his career on hold by enlisting into the U.S. Army for three years during World War II. While serving his country, Buddy sang with many of the military bands until his discharge in 1945, in which he resumed his career. For the last ten years of his singing career as a super star in radio and a top ranking celebrity of the juke boxes.
“Buddy Clark and five other friends rented a small plane to attend a ‘Sanford vs. Michigan’ football game. After the game on the way back to Los Angeles, the plane developed a sputtering engine problem, due to lack of gas, and lost altitude and crashed on Beverly Boulevard, in California. Buddy was thrown from the plane. He did not survive the crash. At that time, he was 37 years old reaching new heights of popularity, when tragedy struck.”
Dorchester Illustration 2717 Dorchester Poor House
The Dorchester Poor House was located on Hancock Street opposite Kane Square and opposite the end of Bowdoin Street. The Dorchester Poor House was one of several almshouses that provided food and shelter to the homeless. It was operated by the town of Dorchester and later by the City of Boston.
The Dorchester Poor House building was built by the town of Dorchester in the 1860s and was taken over by the city when Dorchester was annexed to Boston in 1870. The building appears on the 1866 Map of the City of Boston and Its Environs, created by Henry Francis Walling. The last map in which the building is labeled an almshouse is in the Bromley Atlas of 1884. After that, the building was used by the public works department.
Each year, as part if its annual report, Dorchester listed the number of poor living in the almshouse. During the year the poor house also provided meals and lodging for the transient. In addition, the town reported the expense on behalf of the poor who were placed in institutions such as the Insane Hospital.
Residents of the Almshouse for a few selected years:
The building appears to have been taken down in 1924 or 1925. A building permit states that construction of the new building for the public works department was completed on Oct. 26, 1925.
