Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1734
The following article was discovered by Andrew Saxe.
House of Ex-Mayor Fitzgerald Passing from Boston Scene
Boston Globe, April 26, 1939
“Can’t keep it empty,” Says John F. of Place Where Kennedy Courted Rose, and Notables Were Guests
The house at 39 Welles Av., Dorchester, from which a future ambassador to the Court of St. James took his bride, and in which Admiral Togo, Vice President Charles Warren Fairbanks of the United States and Sir Thomas Lipton, owner of the famous racing yachts named Shamrock, were entertained, is passing from the Boston scene.
For a quarter century it was the home of Boston’s ex-Mayor, John F. Fitzgerald, now chairman of the Boston Port Authority. There his boys and girls grew up and went to school. There Rose Fitzgerald had her coming-out party, a brilliant occasion; and there Rose lived when she married young Joseph F. Kennedy, the boy from East Boston who never stopped moving, from East Boston to Brookline to Bronxville, to Washington, to Florida; till his last move landed him in the American embassy at Prince’s Gate, London.
“But you can’t keep a house that is empty,” said John F. “the children are all married, with homes of their own, and Mrs. Fitzgerald and I find it simpler and more central to stay at the Hotel Bellevue in Boston.
House Damaged, Barn Burned
“For the past five years we have kept the house furnished and gone out there now and then as convenient to stay, but a house cannot be kept that way. One time the barn burned down; other times damage was done to the windows and things in the house.
“The old place had served our need, given us many happy hours. Now its time was done. I retain the land, of course. Later, perhaps, there will be plans for its use. Can’t say yet.
“Like everything in Boston, the conditions are changing all the time. A hundred years ago the section where that house stood was a country resort. Daniel Webster use to spend his Summer vacations out there!
Sir Thomas’ Advice
“I mind me now something Sir Thomas Lipton said to me, sitting on the veranda of the Wells Av. house. My boys, Tom and Jack, were coming up the driveway.
“ ‘What’ll ye be doin’ with those bhoyes?’” John F. reproduced the old tea magnate’s brogue.
“ ‘School, maybe college,’ I told him,” Mr. Fitzgerald continued.
“ ‘No, no! Make mer-r-chants of them!’ he snapped.
“And Sir Thomas was right. Boston’s greatness was built up by the great merchants before the Civil War, whose ships sailed the seven seas, bringing home cargoes that heaped the wharves and raw products that kept the mills humming. But when those great fortunes passed into trust estates, the generations that followed were handicapped in free enterprise. Look at Atlantic Av. today! Go out and see the market price on downtown Boston real estate. Sir Thomas was right. What we need today is merchants!”
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