Merrill Leavens at 97 years of age.
Mr. Leavens is a former Port Norfolk resident. He grew up at 52 Port Norfolk Street.
The interview with Merrill George Leavens took place, June 11, 2021, at his home, 212 Parke Ave., Squantum (Quincy). Present also was his wife Pauline (Polly) and his 4 daughters, Deborah McAlister, Jane Estabrooks, Nancy Skrabak and Carol Comeau. Merrill also has 2 sons, Merrill Edward and Chris.
Merrill, 97 years old, shared his memories with Dorchester Historical Society board members Emy Thomas and Carole Mooney. Merrill’s wife and his four daughters had located photographs of Port Norfolk which helped spark his memory.
Through a combination of Merrill’s storytelling (he was very organized and tried to keep things on track), prompts from looking at the photographs of Port Norfolk and prompts from his daughters, it was a very lively and fun interview. Most of the photographs had been taken by Pat Carson, a professional photographer, who was a tenant at #52. His many photographs provide us with a view of the early 1900’s.
Merrill was born 26 Dec 1923 and raised in the Port Norfolk section of Dorchester at 52 Port Norfolk St. He was the son of Merrill W. Leavens (1902-26 Jul 1978) and his wife Josephine M. (Ulrich) (circa 1903 – 31 May 2000). He had 3 younger siblings, Robert H., Barbara E. and Harold W. Leavens.
Merrill in front of 52 Port Norfolk Street with 55 Port Norfolk Street in the background, ca. 1933.
When Merrill G. Leavens lived in Port Norfolk, the neighborhood consisted of an active port with a lumber yard (Stearns Lumber), kitchen equipment manufacturer (Peter’s Co. where Sullivan & McLaughlin is now and the beautiful stone wall that was a WPA and CCC project) and a coal company (Frost Coal). Here he watched the schooners come in loaded with lumber for the Stearns Lumber Company and the deep sea fishing boats (flounder fleet).
According to the 1920 census, Merrill G. Leavens’ father, Merrill W. Leavens, 18 years of age, was a lodger with the Ulrich family (Martin Ulrich, Josephine M. and their 4 children) at 74 Dix Street, Dorchester. It was probably at this time that Merrill W. met Josephine M., the eldest Ulrich daughter, age 17. Merrill W. was working as a shipbuilder at the shipyard and Josephine was working at the chocolate factory. They were married in 1922.
In 1928, Merrill W. and family moved to a multi-family house that Mrs. Ulrich purchased at 52 Port Norfolk Street. The 1930 U.S. Census shows that a family named White lived in one unit, while Merrill and Josephine lived in another unit with their three children: Merrill G. Leavens, 6; Robert H. Leavens, 4; and Barbara E. Leavens, 2 months. Merrill W. was listed as a laborer in the shipyard.
In the 1940 census, Merrill W. Leavens, a ship fitter for the Navy Yard, was living with his wife and their four children at 52 Port Norfolk Street.The grandparents (Martin G. and Josephine M. Ulrich), both 68 years old,were now living with them. Two other units were rented to the Carson family and the Greer family.
52 Port Norfolk Street, 2019.
Merrill’s grandparents, the Ulrich’s, bought 52 Port Norfolk Street on February 12, 1928. The 1933 atlas shows number 52, a large piece of property owned by M.G. & J.M. Ulrich (Martin G. & Josephine M.), 14,000, square feet, fronting on Port Norfolk Street and running to the street behind, with an outbuilding between 71 and 77 Lawley Street. The buildings were all attached. The barn had brick walls, but Merrill said that the barn had caught fire twice.
Detail from 1933 atlas showing 52 Port Norfolk Street indicated by grey oval.
Grandfather Ulrich was a farmer who had a garden and grape arbor on the property, and he was a woodcarver for the Skinner organ factory on Sidney Street in Dorchester.
John, Pa Ulrich, Kitty & Bill Keenan, Josephine & Merrill W. Leavens.
Today, the barn is gone and there are two houses, where there used to be one. The section of the house that extended to the right became a separate house numbered 52A Port Norfolk Street. The 52A property was formerly the laundry and an apartment where one of Merrill G.’s sisters lived. Another tenant was the professional photographer Pat Carson who took many of the photographs. The remnants of the barn’s foundation on the Lawley-Street side of the property can still be seen today.
Merrill Leavens in the barn, 1934.
Remnants of the barn foundation at 52 Port Norfolk Street as seen from Lawley Street.
Directly across the street from 52 Port Norfolk Street, two empty lots that extended to Walnut Street (between 180 and 188 Walnut Street) were used as a parking lot for George Lawley & Sons. One of these was owned by William W. Whitmarsh who had also owned the house at 52 Port Norfolk Street from 1885 to the 19 teens.
Detail from 1933 atlas showing parking area between Port Norfolk Street and Walnut Street – outlined in red oval and No. 21028 Parking lot between Port Norfolk and Walnut Street 1930s.
When Merrill G. was a baby, his father would take him to Erickson’s Beach. One of the pictures included show Lawley’s building on Left and Squantum Air Station (Navy Yard) in the background and the other showing just the Air Station. The beach would have been between what is now Venezia Restaurant and the Port Norfolk Yacht Club. We all know what it is like when the tide is out.
Merrill W. Leavens and Merrill G. Leavens.
Merrill attended schools in Dorchester: Minot Elementary and Woodrow Wilson Jr. High. He then attended Mechanic Arts High School in Boston.When he was 13 and 14 years old, he sold papers in Neponset and during high school, he worked at Lawley’s Shipyard.
Merrill remembers “worming,” digging clams and worms for fishermen on the tip of the Naval Air Station with his buddy Earl Button. “There was a beautiful sand bar with great big clams. We would row through the culver (near the UMass campus) when the tide came in,” he recalled.
He named his first boat the New Deal, after President Roosevelt’s plan to rejuvenate the economy. Once he found an abandoned boat in Port Norfolk. Merrill and his Dad rebuilt it with friends at the Port Norfolk Yacht Club and named it the “Merijonbil”, a combination of the builders’ names (Merrill, John and Bil).
The Port Norfolk Yacht Club was built over two barges. It was small back then but has grown over the years, Merrill noted.
He remembered a Port Norfolk Yacht Club outing on Sunday, August 5 1934 on Peddocks Island. Perhaps he meant Rainsford Island as The Dorchester Beacon reported on September 1, 1934. It was a Clambake and Program of Sports with entertainment provided by Commodore Jensen William Tomlinson, Joseph White, Martin Ulrich, M. W. Leavens, Peter Sheridan and John Ulrich.
He remembered the Ragman coming around with his horse and cart. When he was a boy, he was friendly with him and he once climbed onto the cart while the ragman was busy with a customer. But when he picked up the reins the horse started galloping with items flying off the cart. “I could not stop that horse from galloping but he finally slowed down on Tenean Street where there was a dump (now the Southeast Expressway),” Merrill said.
During the 1938 hurricane, a boat called “The Needle” came into Port Norfolk to find a safe mooring and cut the line on Merrill’s boat while turning around. “Oh boy, did I cuss that thing,” Merrill said, but they later found his boat on Savin Hill, high and dry.
He registered for WWII Draft, 30 Jun 1942. He was 18 years old, and he was working for George Lawley and Son on Erickson St. He enlisted in the Navy, was in transit, 32 days, on a 3-islander Dutch freighter and served in the Philippines not far from Manila, on Luzon Island, Clark Air Base.
World War II draft registration card.
Merrill said that when Pearl Harbor was bombed, he was just out of high school making ice boxes at Peter’s Company.
While in the service, he worked as a 3rd class metalsmith repairing planes at Clark field, a Philippine Air Force Base on Luzon Island which he described as a graveyard for wings and tails.
During the war, Merrill’s father built a new home in Squantum, and the family moved there from Port Norfolk. When Merrill returned from service, he found his family in the new home on Parke Avenue, Squantum, Quincy. So, when Merrill G. Leavens left Dorchester to serve in World War II, he essentially left Dorchester behind.
He married Pauline Rupprecht in 1948 in Quincy. Polly had worked at the Air Station during high school and was active at St. Ann’s Church.
Merrill G. Leavens’ father, Merrill W. Leavens, died July 26, 1978, and Josephine Leavens died May 31, 2000.
The Dorchester Beacon, September 1, 1934