Dorchester Historical Society

Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1857

Bob Rugo writes:

Seeing Judy Tuttle’s photo of the marker in her walk reminded me that I had never gone to find and photograph this marker on Melville Avenue about which I had been told many years ago. I found it in the driveway of 92 Melville Avenue. It was probably installed in 1922 as Joseph Rugo, my great grandfather, signed a building permit for the construction of a garage at the property that Spring. At that time he lived at 173 Magnolia Street, near Quincy Street, and had an office in town at 80 Boylston Street, the Little Building, corner of Tremont Street, overlooking the Common, now part of Emerson.

The adjacent home at 98 Melville Avenue was owned by the Piotti family and they also built a garage in 1922. I believe that there may have been a similar marker in that driveway. Twenty years earlier my great grandparents had been tenants of the Piotti family, living on Piotti Place, off Franklin Court, across from 321 Norfolk Avenue, by the Norfolk Tap where they blew up a car this past weekend as part of a film shoot. Most of that area is gone, now part of the Boston Edison / NSTAR facility fronting on Mass. Ave. I suspect that the connection to the Piotti family at 98 Melville was how Joseph Rugo got the job for the garage and driveway at 92 Melville Avenue.

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The Dorchester Illustration of the Day (DIOTD) is sent weekdays. If you receive this e-mail by mistake, please reply to be taken off the e-mail list. If you know others who would like to receive the daily e-mail, please encourage them to join the group by going to http://groups.google.com/group/dorchester-historical-society. You may contact Earl Taylor at ERMMWWT@aol.com

If you value receiving the DIOTD, please express your appreciation by making a donation to the Dorchester Historical Society, either by regular mail at 195 Boston Street, Dorchester, MA 02125, or through the website at www.DorchesterHistoricalSociety.org

Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1856

Judy Tuttle has submitted a photo on Facebook showing the cement medallion in her walk.  The company was Adams Pond Co. from Milk Street Boston.

The 1909 Directory of American Cement Industries 5^th ed. has an entry for Adams Pond Co. at 53 State Street, Boston, in a section of Contractors and Other Users of Cement.  So it seems likely that the medallion was the concrete installer’s way of showing pride in his work as well as an advertisement for new business.

The 1918 Boston Register and Business Directory shows the company at 166 Devonshire Street in the Master Builders Exchange Building. (It is possible that the building had an entrance on Milk Street – hard to tell exactly where the building stood).

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The Dorchester Illustration of the Day (DIOTD) is sent weekdays. If you receive this e-mail by mistake, please reply to be taken off the e-mail list. If you know others who would like to receive the daily e-mail, please encourage them to join the group by going to http://groups.google.com/group/dorchester-historical-society. You may contact Earl Taylor at ERMMWWT@aol.com

If you value receiving the DIOTD, please express your appreciation by making a donation to the Dorchester Historical Society, either by regular mail at 195 Boston Street, Dorchester, MA 02125, or through the website at www.DorchesterHistoricalSociety.org

Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1855

The Albert T. Stearns Lumber Company was once a thriving business on Port Norfolk. According to the l869 Taxable Valuation of the Town of Dorchester, Stearns’ Taylor Street business encompassed “an old counting room” (possibly # 98 Taylor Street?), lumber building, two stables, planing mill and counting room, dry-house, moulding room, a block of 5 tenements, a large shed and a wharf.

The only building left is the c. mid 19th century Greek Revival brick office structure at 98 Taylor Street. This structure is labeled “office” on the 1910 Atlas. The half dozen Stearns buildings that once stood across Taylor Street have all disappeared although several foundations appear to have survived amidst the underbrush.
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The Dorchester Illustration of the Day (DIOTD) is sent weekdays. If you receive this e-mail by mistake, please reply t be taken off the e-mail list. If you know others who would like to receive the daily e-mail, please encourage them to join the group by going to http://groups.google.com/group/dorchester-historical-society. You may contact Earl Taylor at ERMMWWT@aol.com

 If you value receiving the DIOTD, please express your appreciation by making a donation to the Dorchester Historical Society, either by regular mail at 195 Boston Street, Dorchester, MA02125, or through the website at www.DorchesterHistoricalSociety.org

Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1854

The building at 232 Centre Street was built for the Industrial School for Girls in 1858.  The building appears to be the only remaining existing building in Massachusetts from the 19^th century movement of private industrial schools for either boys or girls.  It certainly is the only remaining existing building in the state specifically built for the mission of an industrial school.  Although the building has been vacant for some years, it was used most recently as a facility of the Home for Little Wanderers.

On Tuesday the Boston Landmarks Commission will consider a recommendation to raise the level of significance of the building on the Commission’s scale of significance that follows the National Register ratings.  If they do vote to approve the  upgrade, it means that a Landmarks petition for the property could be accepted at some future date.

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The Dorchester Illustration of the Day (DIOTD) is sent weekdays. If you receive this e-mail by mistake, please reply t be taken off the e-mail list. If you know others who would like to receive the daily e-mail, please encourage them to join the group by going to http://groups.google.com/group/dorchester-historical-society. You may contact Earl Taylor at ERMMWWT@aol.com

 If you value receiving the DIOTD, please express your appreciation by making a donation to the Dorchester Historical Society, either by regular mail at 195 Boston Street, Dorchester, MA02125, or through the website at www.DorchesterHistoricalSociety.org

Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1853

The house 1326 Dorchester Avenue has stood for about 140 years, pre-dating even some of the streets in the area.  Located between Linden and Ellsworth Streets on the east side of Dorchester Avenue, it has been surrounded by commercial properties for many years.  A permit in response to an application to demolish was issued on August 17^th.   Applications to demolish buildings are first sent to the Boston Landmarks Commission for determination of significance.  If the staff finds that a building is significant within the terms of the demolition delay ordinance, they will begin the hearing process.  In this case, the staff determined that the building at 1326 Dorchester Avenue did not meet the criteria for significance that would warrant a full Commission hearing.  Therefore the permit to demolish was issued by Inspectional Services.

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The Dorchester Illustration of the Day (DIOTD) is sent weekdays. If you receive this e-mail by mistake, please reply t be taken off the e-mail list. If you know others who would like to receive the daily e-mail, please encourage them to join the group by going to http://groups.google.com/group/dorchester-historical-society. You may contact Earl Taylor at ERMMWWT@aol.com

 If you value receiving the DIOTD, please express your appreciation by making a donation to the Dorchester Historical Society, either by regular mail at 195 Boston Street, Dorchester, MA 02125, or through the website at www.DorchesterHistoricalSociety.org

Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1852

Photograph in the collection of the Dorchester Historical Society. Note on back of photo says: O.L. Briggs, School Street.  O.L. Briggs was a stationer at 573 Washington Street, Boston.  Home on School Street, Dorchester (1869)

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The Dorchester Illustration of the Day (DIOTD) is sent weekdays. If you receive this e-mail by mistake, please reply to be taken off the e-mail list. If you know others who would like to receive the daily e-mail, please encourage them to join the group by going to http://groups.google.com/group/dorchester-historical-society. You may contact Earl Taylor at ERMMWWT@aol.com

 If you value receiving the DIOTD, please express your appreciation by making a donation to the Dorchester Historical Society, either by regular mail at 195 Boston Street, Dorchester, MA 02125, or through the website at www.DorchesterHistoricalSociety.org

Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1851

I have never been able to find a photograph of the Franklin King house on Clam Point.  Franklin King was in business in Boston in E.F. King and Company, wholesale druggists.  He was also a real estate developer, at least in a small way.  He was one of the men who signed a petition to the Massachusetts General Court requesting the annexation of Dorchester to Boston.

The house was located where the Byrne Playground is today.   We knew that at some point during the early 20th century, King’s no longer extant residence on the Byrne Playground parcel was operated as the Massachusetts Homeopathic Hospital.  A look at the atlases shows that the property passed from King to Sarah F. King Nash between 1910 and 1918 and from her to the Massachusetts Homeopathic Hospital between 1918 and 1933.  A recent inquiry about the Nash facility of the Hospital led to an internet search for Nash, and the result was a photo of the Nash Home for Convalescent Men, which we presume to be the facility that once was the home of Franklin King.

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The Dorchester Illustration of the Day (DIOTD) is sent weekdays. If you receive this e-mail by mistake, please reply to be taken off the e-mail list. If you know others who would like to receive the daily e-mail, please encourage them to join the group by going to http://groups.google.com/group/dorchester-historical-society. You may contact Earl Taylor at ERMMWWT@aol.com

If you value receiving the DIOTD, please express your appreciation by making a donation to the Dorchester Historical Society, either by regular mail at 195 Boston Street, Dorchester, MA 02125, or through the website at www.DorchesterHistoricalSociety.org

Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1850

During the research for the structural improvements to its barn, the Dorchester Historical Society discovered that the ell of the barn had a basement door that had been hidden on the outside.  There is a passageway between the barn and the carriage house where the land slopes down from the front of the ell toward the back.  The door was invisible from the outside due to the accumulation of dirt and trash, especially the deposit of dirt from the driveway when the snow was plowed in the winter.  It looked as if the trash in front of the door might be as old as 50 years, and the fact that no one remembers the doorway ever being visible supports this guess.  This summer the doorway has been cleared.

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The Dorchester Illustration of the Day (DIOTD) is sent weekdays. If you receive this e-mail by mistake, please reply to be taken off the e-mail list. If you know others who would like to receive the daily e-mail, please encourage them to join the group by going to http://groups.google.com/group/dorchester-historical-society. You may contact Earl Taylor at ERMMWWT@aol.com

If you value receiving the DIOTD, please express your appreciation by making a donation to the Dorchester Historical Society, either by regular mail at 195 Boston Street, Dorchester, MA 02125, or through the website at www.DorchesterHistoricalSociety.org

Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1849

Another in the series of metal plates in the street.  I was thinking this is for tv cable, but I have seen mention that the cable companies do not have their own designs.  Does anyone know?

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The Dorchester Illustration of the Day (DIOTD) is sent weekdays. If you receive this e-mail by mistake, please reply to be taken off the e-mail list. If you know others who would like to receive the daily e-mail, please encourage them to join the group by going to http://groups.google.com/group/dorchester-historical-society. You may contact Earl Taylor at ERMMWWT@aol.com

If you value receiving the DIOTD, please express your appreciation by making a donation to the Dorchester Historical Society, either by regular mail at 195 Boston Street, Dorchester, MA 02125, or through the website at www.DorchesterHistoricalSociety.org

Join the Dorchester Historical Society for its Gala Fundraiser on October 12th at the Venezia Waterfront Restaurant.  Buy tickets by clicking on the big green Gala words on the home page of the website at the top right of the page.

With Ryan Landry as master of ceremonies, the evening should be a laugh.