Dorchester Illustration 2529 Arrest for Anti-Discrimination Protest

Posted on September 5, 2021 by earltaylor

Today’s illustration is a photo of Betty Wise at the time of her arrest for participating in an anti-discrimination protest.  The photo is a press photo, dated September 16, 1963, possibly from the Boston Herald.

The police arrested three demonstrators for staging a “sit-in” in the office of a Dorchester real estate company, the G. V. Wattendorf Real Estate Co., at 544 Washington Street.  The three included Betty Wise of Brookline, who appears in the photo.  The others were Peter Filene, 23 of Cambridge and Robert Phillips, 24.

If the Herald published an article, it has not been found, but The Boston Globe described the protest as “The demonstration was the first over racial discrimination in Dorchester, and the first demonstration on private property.”

The protesters alleged that a woman of color, Alma Williams, inquired about apartments and was told they had nothing.  Betty Wise went into the office a few minutes later and was told there were several apartments available.

The staff of the real estate office disputed the statement.

The protestors remained in the office past the closing time, and an attorney for the real estate company telephoned the police.  The protestors were asked to leave, and when they did not, the police arrested them for trespassing.

Earlier in the month, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination had ruled in another case that Wattendorf had practiced discriminate, and the firm was warned to cease operations.  When the case involving Alma Williams came before the Commission, Wattendorf said that she had not filled out an application, and that no one is shown an apartment without filling out an application.  Judge Sgarzi of Suffolk Superior Court ruled in June 1964 that Wattendorf had discriminated in not accepting an application from Mrs. Williams, but that the evidence did not support a finding that discrimination was practiced generally by the firm.

In later court actions on other cases, Wattendorf seems to have won on technicalities, such as claiming he did not know what his agents were doing.

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Dorchester Illustration 2528 Dorchester Alms House

Posted on August 29, 2021 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration 2528 Dorchester Alms House

The Dorchester Alms House was located on the north side of Hancock Street opposite Kane Square, where there is a city yard today.

In the year before the annexation of Dorchester to Boston, the report for 1868-1869 of the Dorchester Alms House stated twenty persons had been admitted during the year.  Ten were discharged, and six had died.  There were seventeen at the end of the year who were being provided relief.  The town also spent $3,150.64 for those who were not living in the Alms House.  The town also supported seven people who were at insane hospitals across the state: four at Taunton, two at Worcester and 1 at Northampton.  There was a state alms house at Bridgewater, but in the report for 1865-1866, the committee for the alms house in Dorchester visited the Bridgewater facility in response to the unwillingness of the poor of foreign birth to be sent there.  After their visit, the Committee stated, “We are free to confess we are less inclined to send paupers there than before our visit.”  The superintendent of the Dorchester alms house was Capt. Charles Spears along with his wife.  Capt. Spear had experience as superintendent of women on the highways.  This last statement needs further research.  Were the poor forced to labor on road work in exchange for their place at the alms house?

An article that appeared in The Dorchester Beacon newspaper in 1939 stated that the first instance of supporting the poor was in 1659, when the selectmen ordered that the Constables should give out of the Town Rate unto Benjamin Tuchel five pounds for his present necessity for clothing himself and his children.

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Dorchester Illustration 2527 Alice Stone Blackwell

Posted on August 22, 2021 by earltaylor

August 26, 2020, is the 100th anniversary of the federal government’s ratification of the 19th amendment pertaining to voting rights for women. The federal amendment mandates “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

Dorchester’s most famous woman’s rights advocate was Lucy Stone.  She moved to Dorchester in the early 1870s to become the editor of The Woman’s Journal newspaper. Lucy did not live to see the ratification.  Her daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell, did witness the successful conclusion of the work her mother and so many other women worked for.

Alice took over the editorship of The Woman’s Journal after Lucy’s death in 1893. After graduating from Boston University, Alice had begun working for the paper started by her parents. By 1884, her name was alongside her parents on the newspaper’s masthead. After her mother’s death in 1893, Alice assumed almost sole editing responsibility of the paper.

In 1890, Alice helped unify the American Woman Suffrage Association and the National Woman Suffrage Associated into the National American Woman Suffrage Association and served as the new group’s recording secretary from 1890 to 1908. 

She took up other causes, including temperance and befriending Armenians in the 180s  She sold the oriental rugs from the house she inherited on Pope’s Hill to raise money for food for the Armenian people.  She translated the work of many Armenian poets into English.

The following is from Notable American Women

After her graduation from Boston University where she excelled and was president of her class, she went to work in the offices of the Woman’s Journal, the paper edited by her mother. Over the next thirty-five years, Miss Blackwell bore the main burdens of editing the country’s leading woman’s rights newspaper–gathering copy, reading proof, preparing book reviews, and writing long columns of crisp, hard-headed arguments for female equality. Beginning in 1887 she also edited the Woman’s Column, a collection of suffrage items sent out free to newspapers round the country. She effected a truce between the American Woman Suffrage Association and Susan B. Anthony’s rival National Woman Suffrage Association. In 1890 the two organizations merged, and Miss Blackwell became recording secretary of the new National American Woman Suffrage Association.

Lucy Stone’s death in 1893 freed her daughter to find other evils to expose and underdogs to champion. For years she operated an informal employment service for needy Armenians, and she joined William Dudley Foulke and George Kennan in activating the Friends of Russian Freedom. She translated the poetry of oppressed peoples into English to widen American awareness. Her affiliations widened to include the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, the Anti-Vivisection Society, the Women’s Trade Union League, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the American Peace Society. Postwar reaction turned her into a socialist radical. One Boston newspaper refused to print her militant letters because of the controversy they provoked. In 1930 she published Lucy Stone, a biography of her mother.


Some of her books include:


Growing Up in Boston’s Gilded Age: The Journal of Alice Stone Blackwell, 1872–1874. This was her teenage diary.

Armenian Poems. (1896), translations

Songs of Russia. (1906)

Songs of Grief and Joy, translated from the Yiddish of Ezekiel Leavitt. (1908)

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Dorchester Illustration 2526 Daloz Drycleaning

Posted on August 15, 2021 by earltaylor

Daloz Cleansers started in Boston in the late 19th century.  It had retail shops in Boston although the actual work facility was located elsewhere, first in Roxbury, then South Boston,  then in 1900 in Dorchester at 11 Humphreys Street.  The Dorchester building later became the Humphreys Street Studios.

Today’s illustration comes from The Dorchester Beacon newspaper, May 5, 1900.  In that issue, the paper did a couple of dozen puff pieces about various businesses in Dorchester.  The text of the article follows:

L. H. Daloz

Cleansing and Dyeing, 11 Humphrey Street, 510 Tremont Street and 24 Bromfield Street

One of the latest establishments to come to Dorchester for a permanent location is the large dyeing establishment of Mr. L. H. Daloz.  This gentleman has followed the business in Boston for almost a quarter of a century and has become one of the leading and most prominent men in his line of business in the city.  For over thirty years he has been engaged in the cleansing and dyeing trade and most of the time on a large scale.  He began business in 1869 in New York City, and in 1877 he moved to Boston, opening a down town office and establishing his works in Roxbury.  In four years his business had grown so as to require larger and better quarters, and in 1883 he moved his works to South Boston, locating on Dorchester Avenue and Rawson Street.  Here he remained for seventeen years, until recent changes and improvements there forced him to move.  He then turned to Dorchester and soon began the erection of a large plant at 11 Humphrey Street.  This he has but recently completed and is just getting fully established n his new quarters. He has a large frame and brick building 130 feet long and 40 feet wide, with three floors, giving him a total floor space over 15,000 square feet.  This larger building is completely equipped with all the machinery, apparatus and conveniences necessary for a thoroughly modern cleansing and dyeing plant, and Mr. Daloz is better prepared than ever to handle his large business.  He does cleansing an dying of all kinds and his methods are the most modern and improve, making it possible to treat the most delicate goods and colors successfully.  A specialty is made of fine garments, such as evening dresses, silk waists, fancy skirts, draperies, laces, etc.  The work is confined exclusively to cleansing and dyeing, and no laundry in connection with the establishment and no agents are employed.  The business is one directly with Mr. Daloz.  His many years’ experience makes it possible for him to give ladies the most valuable advice about the cleansing or dyeing of their wearing apparel or household goods, while his service in every branch of the business is the most expert and satisfactory.  At his Humphrey Street works, which are now in full operation, he employs thirty people.  He maintains two stores in the city, one at 510 Tremont Street another at 24 Bromfield Street.  Mr. Daloz has been a resident of Dorchester for the last fifteen years and has many friends in the district who esteem highly as a business man and citizen.

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Dorchester Illustration 2525 Lifeguard and Friends

Posted on August 8, 2021 by earltaylor

Real photo post card: Lifeguard and friends at the beach.  The photograph is by A. W. Cutter of Dorchester, but we don’t have any information about him.

At the height of summer, it seems appropriate to show a vintage photo of people at the beach.  The style of the bathing suits indicate the photograph is from the early 20th century.

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Dorchester Illustration 2524 S. S. Pierce homestead

Posted on August 1, 2021 by earltaylor

Samuel S. Pierce, the son of Daniel and Lydia Davenport Pierce, was born in the farmhouse owned by his family in what is now the Cedar Grove section of Dorchester.  The house appears to have been built in the 18th century, although there is no documentation to provide an exact date.  Samuel’s father was a cabinetmaker.   At an early age, Samuel worked for a firm of importers in Boston, then went into the grocery business for himself.  In 1831, he started his own grocery store, specializing in products for the well-to-do in Boston.  The firm of S. S. Pierce became widely known for catering to the cosmopolitan tastes of Boston residents and for introducing new foods to the market.

Pierce maintained a home on Union Park and the family homestead in Dorchester, both homes appearing in the Boston Directory.

Samuel married Ellen Maria Theresa Wallis in 1836, and they had eight children.  The family  lived in Boston during the winters and summered at the family house he owned in Dorchester. According to Anthony Sammarco, the house was enlarged after the Civil War to accommodate his family.  It stood on a knoll overlooking both Adams Village and and the Neponset River. The estate comprised a house and stable, with ten acres and marshland.  Samuel Stillman Pierce died in 1880, and his son Wallis Lincoln Pierce continued the trademark name and standards established by his father. The family included Samuel S. Pierce, Jr., who died as a young man in California, Dr. M. Vassar Pierce, a noted physician in Milton, and Holden White Pierce, who took over management of the Back Bay store of the S.S. Pierce Company.  They maintained their connection to Dorchester through their sister, Henrietta Pierce, who still summered in the family home.  By the time of World War I, the Pierce homestead was a rambling series of additions made over the years.

Henrietta M. Pierce died in 1920, and her heirs sold a portion of the property to the Archdiocese of Boston, and shortly thereafter St. Brendan’s Church was built facing the new Gallivan Boulevard. The remaining portion of the Pierce Estate was laid out as Lennoxdale, Myrtlebank, Rockne and Crockett Streets and St. Brendan’s Road in the late 1930s, allowing for the building of the many new houses.

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Dorchester Illustration 2523 Dorchester Historical Society report for the year

Posted on July 25, 2021 by earltaylor

Although the Dorchester Historical Society had to close to visitors, the Society has been busy.  Please take a moment to review the summary of activities for the last year.

https://mcusercontent.com/2bf796f357150e4acf3f7e971/files/b36017a2-f94e-d228-016b-7cb739202a56/DHS_Annual_Review.pdf

We are continuing to monitor the spike in COVID infections, before we make the decision to open to visitors. Thank you.

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Dorchester Illustration 2522 James Blake House

Posted on July 18, 2021 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration 2522   James Blake House

The James Blake House at 735 Columbia Road is the oldest existing house in Boston.  It is 360 years old this summer.  We are sorry that the house is not open for public tours at this time.

The first illustration was drawn by John Goff to show the appearance of the house at the time it was built, based on the architectural evidence.  The second illustration appeared in The Memorial History of Boston in 1880. The appearance in 1880 was very much the same as today.  In the 18th century, the dormers were removed, and the windows were changed to make the house look more contemporary.

The analysis of tree rings in a representative sampling of the timbers in the framing has shown that the trees were felled in the winter of 1660-1661.  The house would have been built the following summer.

The house is one of a small number of post-Medieval timber-frame houses that survive in New England and one of only a few with West Country framing, that is, representative of the western English counties of Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and the City and County of  Bristol.  Most other buildings in Dorchester and in New England were built by housewrights from the south and east of England. (An example is the Pierce House on Oakton Avenue in Dorchester). West Country homes were known for using heavier timber in the framing, which is evident in the Blake House. 

The house was built on land that is approximately where the Eversource facility is located today on Massachusetts Avenue.  At the time the house was built, there was no roadway nearby.  When Massachusetts Avenue was created, the road ran right next to the Blake House property.

The original occupants of the house were James Blake and his wife Elizabeth Clap Blake. He was born in the area of England near Pitminster, in 1624, and emigrated with his parents to Dorchester in the 1630s. Deacon James Blake became a constable, town selectman, and deputy to the General Court. James and Elizabeth Clap (the daughter of Deacon Edward Clap and niece of Roger Clap) were married in 1651, and by the time they built the new home, they already had a growing family.

The first written reference appeared in the Dorchester Town Records in June 1669.  The Selectmen decided to build a house for the minister of the town and should be “such an house as James Blaks house is, namly 38 foote in lenth and 2- foote wid and 4 foote between Joynts gert worke.” In 1895, the City of Boston of Boston acquired the property to complete a large parcel for the building of municipal greenhouses. The Dorchester Historical Society, which had been incorporated in 1891 undertook the preservation of the Blake House as its first major project. The Society convinced the City to grant the Society the house and the right to move it to Richardson Park at its own expense. By January 1896, the house had been moved to its new location by a local building mover for $295. This seems to be the first recorded instance of a private residence being moved from its original site for the purpose of historic preservation.

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Dorchester Illustration 2521 Victory Road Bridge to Squantum

Posted on July 11, 2021 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration 2521   Victory Road Bridge to Squantum

During World War I, a bridge was built from Commercial Point, Dorchester, to Squantum, Quincy, to allow workers to travel from Boston to the plant manufacturing destroyers at the Naval Air Station in Squantum.

Today we have a photo showing the bridge and a portion of a US Coast Survey chart of Boston Harbor from 1921 showing the location of the bridge across the opening of the Neponset River.  The view in the photograph is from the Quincy side toward Commercial Point with its coal gas holders.  The bridge first shows up in the Bromley Dorchester Atlas in 1918 and on the 1919 US Coast Survey chart, but by the 1927 Coast Survey it no longer appears.  We have not seen coast surveys between 1923 and 1927, so we don’t know the exact year it was taken down.  A comment found on the internet without documentation states it was taken down in 1925.

The following comes from Scientific American, May 4, 1918, p. 407

Building a Bridge in Six Weeks to Save a Half Hour

Nothing is too costly or impossible in carrying out our war program.  That is the impression one gets when travelling through any section of this big country during these days of preparation and toil for the struggle across the sea.

A typical case is that of the Squantum Destroyer Plant near Boston, Mass., which is popularly known as the Victory Plant in that locality.  One of the chief difficulties in locating the plant on the Quincy side of the Neponset River was the inaccessibility to Boston and the lost time and inconvenience of laborers and mechanics in getting to work.

Something had to be done–and done in a hurry.

So it was decided to run a bridge directly from the Squantum plant to the nearest point, which is known as Commercial Point, Dorchester.  As time was the paramount element, the type of construction decided upon was the usual wood pile construction, and as the bridge crosses a navigable river, a draw had to be installed which was, of course, of steel.  Work was started late in October, under the direction of Thomas C. Atwood, Supervising Engineer for the Bureau of Yards and Docks.  The bridge was completed shortly after the middle of December, so that by Christmas all laborers to and from the plan were furnished a direct route 20 minutes from the elevated terminal in Boston, thus doing away with approximately two and a half miles of distance to be traveled and one-half hour’s time for each trip; furthermore, and this is an important consideration where workmen are concerned, the extra carfare called for by the second street railway company has been eliminated.  Fortunately, the greater part of the work was completed before the ice reached sufficient thickness to cause trouble.

The Victory Bridge, as it is called, was first used for passenger traffic only in the rush hours morning and evening; but at the present time a half-hourly schedule is in effect continually through the day was well as extra service morning and evening.  Besides caring for street traffic, the bridge is used for pedestrians and for the teaming of materials to the Squantum works.

Note: A comment without documentation on the internet says: It opened on the 11th of January 1918. I ran across this when I stumbled on a request that a trolley line from Dudley Square be routed to the plant over the bridge.  Another comment on the internet says: There may, in fact, be a very small piece of this bridge left near the so-called Victory Park near the northbound Southeast Expressway off-ramp on Victory Road. You can see it when the vegetation clears in that area in the spring and fall. Anyway, there was a Boston Elevated trolley line over the Victory Bridge, which was a trestle structure made of wood with a steel draw span over the river’s navigable channel. The trolleys ran from the Dudley Street station into the shipyard via the Victory Bridge and Victory Road. The trip took 30 minutes and the fare was five cents.

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Dorchester Illustration 2520 Thetford Avenue School

Posted on July 4, 2021 by earltaylor

Today’s illustration shows a school building at the corner of Thetford Avenue and Evans Street.  The portrait photograph is a picture of Robert Swan.

The City built a primary school at the corner of Thetford Avenue and Evans Street between 1882 and 1884. The building does not appear in the atlas for 1882 but does in 1884.  The school was abandoned in1952, and it caught fire in 1954.  There is now a playground on the site.

Known for years as the Thetford Avenue School, the school was renamed in 1910 to become the Robert Swan School, in honor of the long-time master of the Winthrop School.  Robert Swan lived on Meeting House Hill and was master of the Winthrop School.

The following is from Special to The New York Times, June 3, 1902:

Boston, June 2.—Robert Swan, the oldest Principal of a Boston school, died at midnight at his home in Dorchester.  He attended as usual to the routine duties of his school throughout last week.   Shortly after 10 o’clock last evening he experienced difficulty in breathing,.  A physician was at once summoned, but Mr. Swan died within two hours.  He was born in Dorchester, Nov. 28, 1821.  He received his education in the local schools, and in 1837, before he had completed his studies, became an instructor.  He was promoted in September, 1856, to be master of the Winthrop School on Tremont Street.  Here he had remained since.

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