Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1595
Today’s illustration is a detail from the 1890 view of Mattapan by O.H. Bailey showing the home of George L. Burt.
The following is 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.
George Lathe Burt was sixteen years old when he began to learn the cabinet-maker’s trade under his father, with whom he remained until March, 1848. He then came to Dorchester, and worked for two years as a journey-man, receiving one dollar per day for twelve hours’ work. This period of hard labor for small compensation was terminated in 1850, when he united with his brother John H. in establishing the present business (J. H. Burt & Co., contractors and builders, Blue Hill Avenue, Boston (Dorchester district), which has now been carried on for nearly fifty years, and which, besides the general contract work already mentioned, includes the manufacture of doors, sash, and blinds. Their success, and the importance of the work they have executed in the last half-century form an interesting page in the business history of Dorchester. Mr. George L. Burt is a director of the Dorchester Mutual Fire Insurance Company and a trustee of the Dorchester Savings Bank. For twelve years he was a trustee of Mount Hope Cemetery and for four years a trustee of the Mechanics’ Charitable Association. He is a Republican in politics; and, like his elder brother, he has been frequently called upon to serve in public office. He was a member of the first City Council after the annexation of Dorchester to Boston, which was in 1870 and so continued for four years. He was in the State Legislature five years, three years– 1880, 1881, and 1882–as representative from the Twenty-fourth Suffolk District and in 1884 and 1885 as Senator. In the House and also in the Senate Mr. Burt served on several important committees, prominently on Charitable Institutions and on Cities, and also was on the State House committee. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, being a member of Union Lodge, F. & A.M.*
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