Dorchester Historical Society

Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1588

Walter Humphreys (son of Henry Humphreys and Sarah Clapp Humphreys) enlisted in Company A of the 13^th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment four days after his twentieth birthday in 1862.

His letter home dated May 2, 1864:

I must say that I am ready for the coming contest and hope that victory although it may come with the sacrifice of life and the flow of much precious blood may be the result of our arms—with haste—

Yours in love,

Walter

Near Mitchell’s Station, Va.

May 2^nd 1864

He died one month later on June 2, 1864, at Cold Harbor.

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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. 1586

The outhouse at the Clapp Family Farm owned by the Dorchester Historical Society has 4 seats, two for children and two for adults.

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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. 1586

The hearing on the demolition delay for 15 Grant Place took place last evening at the Boston Landmarks Commission.  The hearing has two parts – the first answers the question whether the building merits a demolition delay, and the Commission voted in favor of the demolition delay.  The second part considers whether there may be reasons that the delay should be waived.  The Commission voted in favor of a waiver based on reports of oil leakage into the soil supported by an environmental report that says taking down the building is the most feasible of all the options in devising a plan to remove the contaminated soil. 

For today’s illustration we have a seeder or seeding machine that is among the artifacts in the Clapp Family Barn at the Dorchester Historical Society.

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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. 1585

In 1847 Darius Eddy established the Eddy Refrigerator company on Gibson Street.  His iceboxes were wooden with metal lining to hold a block of ice in the top compartment.  The food was held in the bottom on slate shelves.  The company did not make the transition to electricity and ceased to exist after World War I.

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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. 1584

Today’s illustration shows St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in 1897. 

After a fire in 1887 at the first building of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, which was located on Bowdoin Street at Topliff, the congregation acquired land on Cushing Avenue on Jones Hill for the construction of a new church. St. Mary’s Church, designed by Henry Vaughan in Jacobethan Revival style and built in 1888, is a prototype of modern gothic. Saint Mary’s was one of his earliest American commissions and his only known example of a building in the City of Boston. The first service in the new church was held on December 25, 1888. The church was enlarged in 1892-93 (transepts by Hartwell and Richardson), and a parish house was dedicated in September, 1907. The church contains an important collection of stained glass windows by Tiffany Studios, Wilbur H. Burnham, Harry E. Goodhue, and Charles J. Connick, all completed between 1902 and 1911. The building displays extraordinary exposed timbers on the ceiling.

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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. 1583

Today’s illustration shows the Stoughton Street Baptist Church in a drawing by William P. Budwell.

In response to yesterday’s illustration of the Neponset river by Budwell, Richard Heath supplied this illustration from the Boston Herald—Earl  – I love this picture ! William Budwell was a prolific + very talented newspaper artist who appeared often in the Boston Herald in the 1890’s.  Attached is a line drawing of the Stoughton Street Ch taken from the Herald of July 10,1895. It appeared in a Supplement written about a huge city-wide Protestant “Christian Endeavors” conference.  

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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. 1582

William P. Budwell, an American artist of the late 19^th and early 20^th century, drew today’s illustration of the Neponset River marshes.

Doug Wynne responded to yesterday’s email:

How well I remember this milestone!  That slight concavity near the bottom of the uphill side is probably due to me smacking into it with my red wagon, my scooter, or both.  Many times, after we moved from 14 Miller’s Lane to 18 River Street, I would wait for my Dad at the corner of Adams and the passageway between the Mill buildings.  Sometimes (many times) (most times) I would be running a little late when the Mill whistle blew, and would use the sweeping downhill curve that started at Pete’s Variety to speed my arrival at the meeting place.  Maybe two-thirds along that sweeping curve, just when one’s speed approaches Warp Nine, stands that milestone.  Since my need for speed usually exceeded my steering/braking prowess, check the stone for red paint the next time you walk by.

Two other geographically related memories: first, the hedges that stretched from the corner of Miller’s Lane all across the front of the admin building were mulched with cocoa bean shells, many decades before they came into general public awareness.  I know this for a fact, given that bailing out into those hedges was an alternate stopping tactic; second, on one of those occasions when I was running very late and giving full rein to my wagon, I met my Dad walking up the hill.  I never knew he could clear those hedges with a single bound, and I did not hear language like that again until I encountered my first Army DI!  In those days, the term “grounded” had not been promulgated, but I do seem to remember both my wagon and my scooter spending some time confined to the cellar, and me doing a lot of walking.

Thanks again for yet another memory-provoking image.

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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

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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. 1581

This 7 mile stone is located in front of the Baker Chocolate administration building in Lower Mills.  Mile stones were installed in the towns surrounding Boston in the 18^th century to indicate travelers the distance to the Boston Town House. 

There is a parking space in front of this stone, so it is almost always obscured by a parked car.  During the recent road work in Lower Mills, there has been a period of no parking so the stone has become visible for a while.

You can read an article about milestones in the Proceedings of the Brookline Historical Society 1908 p. 21

http://books.google.com/books?id=C3kUAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA6-PA17&dq=boston+milestones&hl=en&ei=oTYUTtj8M8L2gAeBsqD-BA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=boston%20milestones&f=false

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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. 1580

Postcard. Caption on front: End of the Season, Savin Hill Yacht Club. Coyprighted 1907, Boston Post Card Co.  Postmarked Uphams Corner Station Feb. 4.  On verso: No. 1695. Pub. by Boston Post-card Co. Hand colored 

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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. 1579

Sampler worked by Mary Blake in 1798.  She was born April 4, 1784 in Warwick, MA and married Richard Clap of Dorchester in 1807.  The lived in a house that was located where the Russell School is now on Columbia Road across from Richardson Park.

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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