Christopher Gibson School
The Gibson School house on School Street was named in honor of Christopher Gibson, an early donor to the schools of Dorchester. When he died in 1674, Gibson left the sum of 104 Pounds to the town of Dorchester for the benefit of the schools. The money was invested in land and, by 1895, had grown to a value of $14,000. The Gibson School Fund is administered by the City of Boston.
The school building in the illustration was built in 1857, a portion of the expense being met by generous gifts from the Hon. Edmund P. Tileston and Roswell Gleason. The upper image shows the front of the building, while the lower image, from about 1910, shows the back side. The Oliver Wendell Holmes School had been built in 1905, nearly obscuring three sides of the former Gibson School building.
According to Orcutt, in 1881 the name, Gibson School, was moved to what later became the Atherton Building on Columbia Street (now Road). Later the name was moved to another building on Ronald Street (formerly Avenue).
Source: Orcutt, William Dana. Good Old Dorchester: A Narrative History of the Town, 1630-1893. Cambridge: The University Press, 1908 [c.1891].