Dorchester Illustration 2690 James and Anna Foster

Posted on October 13, 2024 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration 2690 James and Anna Foster

Please join the Dorchester Historical Society and the Boston Preservation Alliance for look at the Dorchester Old North Burying Ground on Sunday, October 20, 2:30 to 4:30.

Registration required at bostonpreservation.org/cemetery

The subjects of this stone are James Foster (1651-1732) and Anna (Lane) Foster (1664-17320.  Anna was James’ second wife.  The stone was damaged and removed from the cemetery about 20 years ago.  it has been repaired and was re-installed in the Dorchester Old North Burying Ground this week.

Three generations of the Foster family, all named James, were stone carvers in Dorchester.

The first James married first Mary Capen on September 22, 1674.  Mary died Feb. 8, 1678-9.  He married Anna on October 7, 1680. She died Sept. 29, 1732, and James died a few days later on October 4, 1732.  She was 68, and he was 81 in the “82nd year of his age”.

The carving is attributed to James’s son James (1698-1771).  The coat of arms and the acanthus leaves seem to be unusual for him.  Acanthus leaves are a symbol of enduring life. 

The stone has suffered a great amount of damage with attempts at repair.  Some of the pieces are lost.  In 2024, the stone was again repaired and re-installed in the cemetery this week.

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Dorchester Illustration 2689 St. Mary’s Episcopal Church

Posted on October 6, 2024 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration 2689 St. Mary’s Episcopal Church

The first service at St. Mary’s as an organized parish was held in Lyceum Hall on Aug. 23, 1847. A gift of land on Bowdoin Street at the corner of Topliff Street allowed the parishioners to build a church, which was completed in September 1849. The top image in today’s illustration is a drawing of that building shown on the 1850 map of Dorchester.

St. Mary’s became one of the strongest and most prosperous parishes in the Diocese outside of Boston. The building was enlarged in the 1860s, and in 1869 a tower with a bell was blown down but never rebuilt. The 1898 history of the church stated that the church experienced challenges in its finances, especially due to “the unexpected social results of the annexation of Dorchester to Boston — the centralization of all interests in the city proper, the removal of many wealthy citizens to the city and effects of the financial crisis following the great fire in Boston in 1872 [which] greatly affected the fortunes of the church.”  However they weathered their challenges.

Following a fire that destroyed the church in 1887, the congregation was able to acquire land on Cushing Avenue overlooking the Old Dorchester North Burying Ground. Henry Vaughan designed a new church in the Jacobethan Revival style, where the first service was celebrated on Dec. 25, 1888. The lower image in today’s illustration shows the church in the early years of the 20th century. The church contains an important collection of stained glass windows by Tiffany Studios, Wilbur H. Burnham, Harry E. Goodhue, and Charles J. Connick. The church was enlarged, and a parish house was added in 1907.

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Dorchester Illustration 2688 Mattapan Bank

Posted on September 29, 2024 by earltaylor

Mattapan Bank

Dorchester Illustration 2688

The image of the Mattapan Bank comes from a vignette on the 1850 map of Dorchester.

Mattapan Bank, was located at Harrison Square (just east of Fields Corner), it was incorporated in 1849. Its first president was Edward King, the Boston businessman who purchased the estate named Rosemont from Captain Frederick William Macondray. The estate stretched from Adams Street to Neponset Avenue and south of the mansion to Mill Street (now Victory Road). King made his fortune in the paint and drug business. He was president of the Dorchester and Milton Branch Railroad, and he bought much of the land at Harrison Square, which he subdivided into house lots.

In 1856, Charles Carruth became President of the Mattapan Bank. He was a younger brother of Nathan Carruth. They were also in the paint and drug business. Nathan later became known as a railroad pioneer, due to his presidency of the Old Colony Railroad. He devoted energy and capital to the introduction of railway lines in Massachusetts and in other New England states.

Frederick Beck was the cashier of the Mattapan Bank. He wrote: “None of the directors knew anything at all about a bank. It was necessary then to have one-half the capital in gold, $50,000.00, and that I borrowed myself of Foster, of the Grocers’ Bank. This I carted out to the bank in Dorchester; it was counted there by the Commissioners, kept overnight, and returned to the Grocers’ Bank the next day. I carried on that whole bank for about two years …”
 

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Dorchester Illustration 2687 Carney Hospital

Posted on September 22, 2024 by earltaylor

Carney Hospital

Dorchester Illustration 2687

This image is a postcard of the Carney Hospital, Dorchester, Massachusetts, circa 1953.

Carney Hospital closed its doors at the end of August. It was a casualty of financial decisions made by Steward Health Care Network. Carney Hospital owes its beginning to the generosity of Andrew Carney, a Boston clothing manufacturer. Originally founded in 1863 on the Howe estate on Dorchester Heights in South Boston, the hospital moved to its Dorchester location in 1953.

The hospital was operated by the Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul. Later it became part of Caritas Christi system of hospitals. In 2010 it became part of the Steward Health Care Network.

The following is a telegram sent to the Carney Hospital from John F. Kennedy.

From: The White House Washington DC October 8, 1963

To: Sister Margaret Administrator Carney Hospital

I am pleased to send greetings and congratulations to the professional, administrative and volunteer staff of Carney Hospital as you commemorate a century of medical service to the citizens of Boston.

Your institution was conceived during a period of crisis and transition in American history when hospitals, although desperately needed to care for Civil War casualties, were few in number and inadequately equipped and staffed. Established in this period of great national need, Carney Hospital is among those institutions that have consistently pioneered for the best possible medical care.

Your continuing advances in clinical medicine, as well as your active support of medical research and education have helped to establish close cooperation between hospitals and medical schools and strengthened the quality and quantity of our nation’s medical resources.

Over the years Bostonians have come to look upon Carney Hospital with both pride and appreciation. The contributions of your institution, however, reach far beyond the geographical boundaries of the community you serve. Progress against disease and disability in any part of our country is a step toward better health for the entire nation—one of which all Americans can acclaim.

John F. Kennedy

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Dorchester Illustration 2686 Putnam Horseshoe Nails

Posted on September 15, 2024 by earltaylor

Putnam Horseshoe Nails

Dorchester Illustration 2686

Silas Putnam invented a machine to make horseshoe nails that would perform like handmade nails. His factory at the northern end of Port Norfolk was modest at the time his factory was pictured in “The Great Industries of the United States” in 1872.  

The operation grew to include many buildings, producing tons of nails for the U.S. Army and for local use. As the automobile replaced horse-drawn carts, the business dwindled after the turn of the 20th century.

Sometimes a picture helps us think about the past. The image of the cardboard box reminds us that the nails had to be packaged and sent out to customers.

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Dorchester Illustration 2685, Alexander Pope, Jr., Emblems of the Civil War

Posted on September 8, 2024 by earltaylor

Alexander Pope, Jr., Emblems of the Civil War

Dorchester Illustration 2685

Today’s illustration is a painting by Alexander Pope, Jr., of a wooden wall with artifacts from the Civil War, the painting is titled Emblems of the Civil War.

Pope first worked for the family lumber company in Dorchester. He first began using his talent as an artist by carving animals from wood. He went on to become a very well-known painter.

The following is from various internet sources:

“Alexander Pope Jr. (1849-1924) was a renowned American sporting artist who specialized in animal and still life paintings. Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1849, he briefly studied sculpture with the prominent artist William Copley and essentially taught himself to paint. As a youth, Alexander Pope carved and sketched animals around his home in Massachusetts. In the 1860s, he worked for his family’s lumber business (at Neponset). Although primarily lauded as a painter, he continued producing sculptures well into the 1880s and later became a member of the famed art association the Copley Society of Boston.

“In 1878 and 1882, he published two important portfolios of chromolithographs after his watercolors: Upland Game Birds and Water Fowl of the United States and Celebrated Dogs of America. In addition to his more conventional animal paintings, Pope was also known for his still-life compositions of dead animals hanging in the interior of wooden crates, which innovatively combined his avid interest in hunting and fishing with the trompe l’oeil style of painting. His works and those of the influential trompe l’oeil painter William Harnett (1848-1892) helped popularize the genre of still life in late nineteenth-century America.

“Throughout the late 1880s, Pope painted large trompe l’oeil still lifes, a painting technique that literally means, “that which deceives the eye.” Pope reproduced realistic images that fool the viewer’s eyes into perceiving the image as three dimensional.”

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Dorchester Illustratin 2684 Codman Mansion

Posted on September 1, 2024 by earltaylor

Today’s illustration includes two drawings of the Codman mansion. The lower image was torn from the same notebook as last week’s drawing (Blaney Memorial Baptist Church), by an artist who signed the image: F.G.H. We are still trying to find out more about his artist.

The following information is from the entry for Joseph Clapp in “The Clapp Memorial. The record of the Clapp Family in America” … Ebenezer Clapp, compiler. (Boston: David Clapp & Son, 1876)

“Dr. Codman graduated at Harvard College in 1802, studied for the ministry under the Rev. Henry Ware, then of Hingham, and in 1805 embarked for Europe, to finish his theological studies there [at Edinburgh University]. After spending three years broad, he returned home, and in August, 1808, first preached to the Second Church in Dorchester, then recently organized, their new meeting-house having been dedicated Oct. 30, 1806. He was ordained pastor of this church Dec. 7, 1808, the Rev. Dr. Channing (from whom he very soon after separated in theological belief) preaching the ordination sermon. In about a year after his settlement, commenced the celebrated controversy between him and many members of the parish, which lasted for three years, but neither the merits nor the details of which can be here entered into. In 1821, an interesting journey by Dr. C. and his wife was made to the state of Georgia, including a Sunday passed at Midway, among the descendants of the people of Dorchester who emigrated thence in 1695. They then took passage for Europe, returning home the next year. Two other visits to Europe were afterwards made by Dr. C. The position attained by Dr. Codman as pastor of the Second Church, and as a leading and able minister in the denomination to which he belonged, was elevated, and his death, which took place Dec. 23, 1847, in his 66th year, was much lamented.”

Dr. Codman bought a house on the hill at the northwest corner of what is now the intersection of Washington Street and Gallivan Boulevard. After his death, his heirs rented out the property, which was used in the second half of the 19th century as a school for young ladies and in the first half of the 20th century as a dairy farm.

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Dorchester Illustration 2683 Blaney Memorial Baptist Church

Posted on August 25, 2024 by earltaylor

Blaney Memorial Baptist Church

Dorchester Illustration 2683

Miss Mercy Blaney died in 1884, leaving $20,000 for the building of a church, which was erected in 1887 at the southeast corner of Richmond Street and Dorchester Avenue. Blaney lived on Temple Street in Lower Mills.

Today’s illustration is an ink drawing from 1893, torn from the sketch book of an artist with the initials F. G. H. We are trying to find out more about this artist. The bottom image in today’s illustration is a postcard from the 19-teens.

The Blaney Memorial Baptist Church had been organized Nov. 13, 1882, with a membership of twenty-five. Before the construction of the church, meetings had been held in Hutchinson’s Hall (the old Methodist Church building) for six months in 1879, and beginning again in January 1881. In April 1882, the services moved to the Associates Building, where the congregants met for six years.

Abner Chute, of Milton, built the Blaney Memorial Baptist Church in the Carpenter Gothic style. The church building stood where the Rockland Trust Bank (formerly Meeting House Cooperative) is now located. The church building was taken down in the 1980s when the property was sold to the bank.

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Dorchester Illustration 2682, Coal Gas Holder at Adams Corner

Posted on August 18, 2024 by earltaylor

Coal Gas Holder at Adams Street and Gallivan Boulevard

Dorchester Illustration 2682

The Dorchester Gas Light Company was incorporated in 1854. “Gideon Beck, Alexander Pope, and Charles C. Harrington, their associates and successors, are hereby made a corporation, by the name of the Dorchester Gas Light Company, for the purpose of manufacturing and selling gas in the town of Dorchester. … Said corporation, with the consent of the selectmen of the town of Dorchester, shall have the power and authority to open the ground in any part of the streets, lanes, and highways, in said, for the purpose of sinking and repairing such pipes and conductors as it may be necessary.”

Coal gas, which was manufactured by heating coal, was used for gas lamps both in homes and on public streets. The gas was stored locally in gas holders, sometimes called gasometers, and was distributed through wooden or metal pipes. Many of the gas holders were telescoping, that is, they were balloons that could rise when gas was pumped in and fall when gas was drawn out.

Today’s illustration is a photograph of the gas holder circa 1871 that was located at the corner of Adams Street and Marsh Street (now Gallivan Boulevard). At least a portion of the structure still exists and is incorporated into the rounded back wall of the Erie Pub.

Other Dorchester holders were located on Freeport Street and Franklin Court. Local gas companies in the Boston area were brought together in 1905 to form the Boston Consolidated Gas Company.

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Dorchester Illustration 2681, Wood Mausoleum, Dorchester Old North Burying Ground

Posted on August 11, 2024 by earltaylor

Wood Mausoleum, Dorchester Old North Burying Ground

Dorchester Illustration 2681

The Wood mausoleum is the largest above-ground structure in the Dorchester Old North Burying Ground. It was erected in memory of Caroline Elizabeth Wood, 1822-1892, beloved and devoted wife of Charles Austin Wood, 1818-1898. The mausoleum and its sheltered doorway are shown in today’s illustration. A portrait of Charles Austin Wood and an illustration of the Wood Block at Port Norfolk are also included in the illustration.

Caroline was a descendant of George Minot who settled in Dorchester in the 1630s. Charles Austin Wood was born in Ashland, Mass. on May 5, 1818. In the 1840s and early 1850s, he began his career in real estate buying a number of large tracts of land in Port Norfolk. The 1850 map of Dorchester, commissioned by the Old Colony Railroad, shows that Port Norfolk was largely undeveloped at that time.

On April 1, 1830, or possibly 1840, he moved to Neponset, where he lived for forty years. For many years, he was a river pilot. In 1842, he established the first wood and coal yard in Neponset in connection with a grain business. Just before the Old Colony Railroad was built, Wood bought a considerable amount of real estate in the neighborhood, and after selling out his coal and grain business, he began building extensively. Before he left Dorchester, he had erected more than forty buildings including his home and the large brick block which bears his name. In 1855, Mr. Wood was one of the founders of the Dorchester Mutual Fire Insurance Company. In the same year, he was one of the selectmen in Dorchester.

The Wood Block referred to the building later occupied by the Dorchester Mutual Fire Insurance Company and the attached buildings behind it. On Feb. 12, 1862, Wood sold the property to Otis Wright. It was described as “a lot of land situated in said Dorchester with a building thereon called Wood’s Block with a tenement adjoining the main block.” The block still stands at 5-11 Woodworth St., Dorchester.

Wood had the Hotel Vendome built in Boston, and in 1870, he moved into the hotel as its manager. He entered the insurance and brokerage business on State Street, with offices in New York. He did a flourishing business in real estate investment in the Back Bay.

Wood died on July 31, 1898.

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