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Today’s photographs are of the Dorchester Athenaeum building, located on the point of land between Cottage Street and Pond Street. There is a small play lot in this location today.
The photographer of the photo with the cow would have been standing in the large open field on the west side of Pleasant Street, known as Allen’s Plain. The land on that side of Pleasant Street between Cottage Street and Stoughton Street was not subdivided until the late 19th century. Cottage Street is located behind the fence.
The Dorchester Athenaeum was incorporated on March 14, 1857 by John G. Nazro, A. H. White, M. O. Barry, Ebenezer Clapp, Jr., Jacob Davis, Amasa Pray and John J. May. The purpose of the Athenaeum was to establish a library and reading room, advancing useful arts and sciences, and promoting public instruction by lectures and otherwise.
The Athenaeum operated as a private library and as the convener of programs.
For part of its existence, the Athenaeum building shared its lot with a church building, the start of the society that would become Pilgrim Church. Until 1871, it was known as the Cottage Street Congregational Society.
The Athenaeum submitted a petition to the Supreme Court of Massachusetts in April 1891 to dissolve the Dorchester Athenaeum since the annexation of Dorchester to Boston and the “opportunity to use the Public Library have made it unnecessary to continue the Athenaeum.”
The property was sold in 1891.