Marlton Downing, Dorchester Illustration 2667

Posted on May 5, 2024 by earltaylor

Marlton Downing, Dorchester Illustration 2667

Marlton Downing was born Henry Marlton Downing in 1852. He changed his name for his work as a journalist and author. Downing married Sarah Thayer, and the couple moved in with her parents on Wesley Avenue, later named Dillingham Street, on Savin Hill. The street was later demolished for the construction of the Southeast Expressway. The couple had at least seven children.

As a young man, Downing was a mariner, serving on voyages to India and South America. He became a marine editor for the Boston Daily Post. In the 1890s, he was a journalist for The Boston Globe, and the newspaper sometimes published short stories by him of about a thousand words each. He was a co-author of The Young Cascarillero, and Colonel Thorndike’s Adventures; a Story of Bark Hunters in the Ecuador Forests and the Experiences of a Globe Trotter (Boston, 1895). Downing wrote plays that were produced by local groups.

By 1895, the family had moved to Chaplin, Conn., where Downing became a farmer. He died in 1927.

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Dorchester Illustration 2666, Fire Grenade

Posted on April 28, 2024 by earltaylor

Fire Grenade

Dorchester Illustration 2666

In the period from the 1870s to the early 20th century, one method of fighting fire was the wall-mounted fire grenade. The grenade was a glass container with a fire-retardant liquid inside. Fire could move quickly through a home due to numbers of flammable items, such as, candles, oil lamps, wood and coal for stoves, clothing, upholstery, etc.

Earlier in the century, homeowners depended on neighbors to bring leather fire buckets to help pour water on a fire, often without much success. The fire grenade was meant to stop a fire at the start. The glass globe was grabbed from its holder and thrown at the base of the fire. The glass would break and the contents (water or carbon tetrachloride) would vaporize and help to put out the fire.

The grenade pictured in today’s illustration came from a Dorchester home. The grenade was made by the AutoFyrStop Company of Philadelphia, which described their extinguishers as both automatic and decorative.  Ours was made with frosted glass. Many others were manufactured using blue, yellow or green glass molded into more shapely oval designs. As you may imagine the grenades sometimes failed to extinguish the fire, which then consumed the house. The grenades were most effective when a fire was just breaking out.

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Dorchester Illustratin 2665, George Douse, developer

Posted on April 21, 2024 by earltaylor

George Douse

Dorchester Illustration 2665

George N. Douse was a well-known developer of housing in Dorchester during the first three decades of the 20th century. He is pictured at the right in today’s illustration.

In 1912, he built a series of three-deckers on Monadnock Street. In 1915, Douse acquired 51 lots of land on Whitten, Redwood, Althea, Clematis and Center streets and Dorchester Avenue, where he built single and two-family homes. He bought 10 more lots in the same area the following year. On Sept. 10, 1916, The Boston Globe stated, “The development of the Whitten estate by George N. Douse, a well-known builder, is proving one of the most important undertakings that has been experienced in the Dorchester District.”  

Douse indulged himself at the dinner table and became proud of his stature. He was pictured in the media eating with others members of a U.S. Fat Men’s Club. A story on the New England Historical Society website says to join the New England Fat Men’s Club you had to weight at least 200 pounds. https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/?s=U.S.+Fat+Men%27s+Club

An article in The Boston Globe on July 15, 1929, reported Douse’s weight as 480 pounds. His shirt collar was recorded as 36 inches in circumference. In a bit of hyperbole, the reporter said that Douse’s coat had more yardage than Ringling’s Big Top.  

It is probably not surprising that George died two years later at the age of 53.

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Dorchester Illustration 2664 Ship Charles Carroll

Posted on April 14, 2024 by earltaylor

Ship Charles Carroll

Dorchester Illustration 2664

In the 1830s a syndicate was formed with facilities at Commercial Point to make a profit from whale and cod fishing.

The following paragraph is from “Captain John Codman, William D. Codman, John & Richard Codman” in Other Merchants and Sea Captains of Old Boston (Boston, State Street Trust Company, 1919.

“Their goal was to whale in the Pacific, Indian, and North Atlantic oceans. The ships bought by the company were the “Charles Carroll,” of Nantucket; “Courier,” “Herald,” and bark “Lewis,” plus they equipped twenty schooners, of which two—the “Belle” and “the Preston”—were built at the Point.  They purchased not only the wharf, but quite a tract of land in its immediate vicinity, where they put flakes for the drying of their codfish.  They also built some cooper-shops and a store for the supply of sailors’ outfits and ship chandlery.  The store was built from the material that came from the granary building which formerly occupied the site of the present Park Street Church in the city proper.”

William C. Codman is cited in William Dana Orcutt. Good Old Dorchester. (Cambridge, 1893), 178-179″

“I well remember the arrival of the ‘Charles Carroll.’  The wharf at the Point was lined with carriages coming from great distances, containing relatives or friends of the Jack Tars [who had been away for 4 years].  When every sail had been furled, they were allowed to go ashore. Anxious parents, brothers and sisters awaited them.  The Jacks climbed over the side to rush to their relatives’ embraces…”

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Thaddeus Mason Harris School

Posted on April 7, 2024 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration 2663

A newly-acquired unused photo postcard from about 1910 shows a picture of the Harris School.

In 186,1 the Harris School on Adams Street at the corner of Victory Road (formerly Mill Street) was erected and named in honor of the Rev. Thaddeus Mason Harris, who was the pastor of the First Parish for many years. The property was conveyed to the Boston Housing Authority (in the 1970s?) for the construction of apartment buildings.

Sometimes it was called the school on the Lower Road, before the naming of the streets. Adams Street was the lower road through Dorchester, and Washington Street was the upper road. From the early settlement of Boston and Dorchester, the road from Boston to Plymouth led to Roxbury and meandered along the eastern part of Dorchester to Lower Mills and on to points south. In the mid-seventeenth century, the upper road was constructed to provide a more direct route from Boston to Roxbury to Lower Mills. It was not until 1804-1805 that the Dorchester Turnpike (now Dorchester Avenue) and the South Boston Bridge were constructed to provide an even more direct route from Boston to Lower Mills.

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Dorchester Illustration 2662, Harry B. Whall

Posted on March 31, 2024 by earltaylor

Harry B. Whall

Dorchester Illustration 2662

Harry Bertram Whall was born in Dorchester in 1868 to Charles and Mary Whall.  Charles was an expressman, a person who collects and delivers goods. Mary, was a milliner, a hat maker.

In the early 1890s, Whall lived in Lower Mills, then moved to 300 Ashmont St. for a few years and later moved to 389 Ashmont St., in the section of the street between Burgoyne Street and Adams Street.  

Harry Whall worked in real estate, though starting in 1900, he was listed for a few years as the president of the U.S. Steel Company, possibly located in Everett (not the U.S. Steel that was formed by Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, Charles Schwab and Elbert H. Gary in 1901).

Whall’s advertisements with houses for sale were common in the Boston newspapers of his day.  

Whall was prominent in public affairs, serving two years in the Common Council of Boston, and he represented the twenty-fourth Suffolk District in the Massachusetts Legislature in 1899 and 1900.

In 1895, Whall married Fannie Longfellow Baldwin. By 1910, Harry and Fannie must have divorced, because Fannie was not listed at 389 Ashmont St. in the 1910 U.S. Census.  Fannie died in 1917. 

Whall married Lillian Clarry in 1914.

He died in 1920, leaving his wife and a four-year-old daughter.

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Dorchester Illustration 2116, Clock at Peabody Square

Posted on March 24, 2024 by earltaylor

The advertisement appeared in the Official Program, Dorchester Day, Saturday, June 7th, 1913.

The Peabody Square Clock was commissioned on 1909 with the description: “a twelve foot, four dial, post clock in the public square, known as Peabody Square, junction of Dorchester and Talbot avenues, Ashmont.  Each dial is to be thirty inches in diameter.” 

The design of the clock was approved in October, 1909, and by August, 1910, the clock was reported to have been put in place. The clock was made of wood and after 90 years had deteriorated.

The clock was removed and fully restored in metal in 2002-2003, and the clock was welcomed back in May, 2003.

Underneath each of the four clock faces, there is a dog’s head ornament, originally made from wood, now made of bronze.

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Dorchester Illustration 2660, Handstand at Malibu

Posted on March 17, 2024 by earltaylor

Handstand at Malibu

Dorchester Illustration 2660

This week, we are looking for information.  The illustration is of a man performing a handstand at Malibu Beach.

Does anyone know how Mailibu Beach got its name?  Send your answer to   info@dorchesterhistoricalsociety.org 

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Dorchester Illustration 2659, King Square

Posted on March 10, 2024 by earltaylor

King Square

Dorchester Illustration 2659

The intersection of Adams Street, Neponset Avenue and Parkman Street is known as King Square.  

The image at the top of today’s illustration is an image of King Square, looking south from approximately where Gibson Street ends at Adams Street. The image comes from a postcard, postmarked Sept. 11, 1912, with title View of King Square, where Neponset Avenue begins.

In the postcard view, Neponset Avenue is to the left side of the house at the point. The street with the trolley car is Adams Street and the building to the right of the trolley car, on the south side of Parkman Street, is 359-365 Adams St.  

The house disappeared from the maps between 1918 and 1933 and was replaced by a Beacon Oil gas station. The three-decker at the very right, 349 Adams St., does not appear on the 1910 map but does appear on the 1918 map.  The postmark date and the map means that the three-decker was constructed in the range of years from 1910 to 1912.  The tax assessing records show that in 1911 Michael Maynes had a “house erecting” there, and in 1912, occupants had moved in: John W. Connelly, 38, lawyer; Charles H. Spear, 43, machinist; and Arthur M. Fraser, 23, machinist.  

The building with the awning at the corner of Adams Street and Parkman Street, on the north side of Parkman Street, had a bakery on the first floor. The bottom image shows the first floor of the building a few years earlier, when Chamberlain’s Pharmacy occupied the storefront on the left of the building and a bakery occupied the storefront on the right side.

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Dorchester Illustration 2658, Eaton Tavern

Posted on March 3, 2024 by earltaylor

Eaton Tavern

Dorchester Illustration 2658

The Eaton Tavern was located in the triangle of land at the foot of Meeting House Hill, near St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church.  The little park is now known as Father Coppens Square. Over the years it has been called Percival Square, Eaton Square, Dorchester Square, and Father Francis X. Coppens Square.

It is said that American troops gathered at Eaton Tavern in 1775 to participate in the fortification and defense of Dorchester Heights. They would have joined the wagons coming from all directions to Boston Street, converging there to proceed to the Heights, now in South Boston.

Parson Eaton kept a grocery and general store at this location and entertained parties in a hall in the house, which was a local landmark. The tavern contributed to the social life of Meeting House Hill, which was the cultural center of the town. His son, Ebenezer, carried on the business.

The following is from William Dana Orcutt. Good Old Dorchester: A Narrative History of the Town. (Cambridge, 1893).

[Ebenezer Eaton] “was born June 8, 1787, at Meeting-House Hill, in Dorchester, on the site of what is now called Eaton Square. He was at one time a captain in the militia, and retained the title of  “Captain” until his death. After his marriage to Mrs. Mary Withington, a daughter of Thomas Moseley; they lived in the house above mentioned.

“In politics Captain Eaton was a democrat, and held the position of inspector of the Custom House for many years. After his removal by a change in administration, he became an auctioneer and appraiser, and held the office of selectman. He also represented the town in the Legislature. Although Dorchester was a strong Republican town, he never was defeated at the polls. For many years, together with E.E.R. Ruggles and Lewis F. Pierce, Captain Eaton was a member of the “old board” of selectmen, which managed their part of the town affairs with prudence and discretion.  He was also one of the trustees of the Dorchester Savings Bank.” 

Ebenezer died in 1874.

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