Dorchester Historical Society

Dorchester Illustration no. 2220 Strand Theatre program 1929

Clara Bow appears in The Saturday Night Kid, November, 1929, at the Strand Theatre.

The Strand Theatre was constructed on the site of the former Dyer mansion.

The Strand opened on November 11, 1918, as Dorchester’s NewMillionDollarPhotoplayPalace, one of the first designed specifically for motion pictures, and hailed as New England’s most beautiful theatre.  The Strand opened the same day that the news of the Armistice, which ended World War I, reached Boston.  The Theatre would go on to host movies, stage plays, concerts and political meetings.

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The Dorchester Illustration is sent occasionally. 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 illustration, 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 and the American Pipe Organ: Restoring E.M. Skinner’s Opus 708 for All Saints, Ashmont

Sunday, November 8, 2015, 2 p.m.

A talk by Skinner organ expert Jonathan Ambrosino and a demonstration of the organ by All Saints’ Organist Andrew Sheranian.

All Saints chose to bring home to Dorchester a product of Dorchester: a historic E.M. Skinner organ, built in 1928 for a church that closed some years ago. Established on Crescent Avenue in 1901 and remaining in that location through 1968, the Skinner and later Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company built the most important organs of their time. Come hear how this little Skinner was saved and restored, and listen to a demonstration of its characteristic sounds.

****Note location for this event is:  Parish of All Saints, Ashmont, 209 Ashmont Street, Dorchester, MA 02124

Dorchester Illustration no. 2218 St. Matthew’s Church

In 1888 Father Fitzpatrick of St. Gregory’s bought a lot of land at the corner of Norfolk and Darlington Streets, and two years later opened a temporary church on the site at 89 Norfolk Street. It opened on Christmas Day, 1890, and remained as a ward of St. Gregory’s until it became St. Matthew’s Parish in 1900. When the new Saint Matthew’s building on Stanton Street was ready for use in 1923, the building pictured here was used for a time as the church school.   It later became the Syria Temple No. 31, Prince Hall, Ancient Egyptian Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.

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The Dorchester Illustration is sent occasionally. 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 illustration, 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 no. 2217 Upham’s Corner

Today we have a view of Upham’s Corner showing Winthrop Hall on the left.  The Dorchester Savings Bank building replaced Winthrop Hall.

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The Dorchester Illustration is sent occasionally. 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 illustration, 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

A Pleasant Home for the Neglected: The Archaeology of Dorchester’s Industrial School for Girls.

October 18, 2015, 2 pm, at the William Clapp House, 195 Boston Street

City Archaeologist, Joe Bagley, shares early results from his team’s archaeological survey behind the Centre Street institution.  From the search for and discovery of the school’s out house, to the recovery of thousands of personal items, including hundreds of dolls, Bagley will explore the new history and surprising insights revealed about the daily lives of the disadvantaged and immigrant girls who lived in the School from 1859 to 1900.

Dorchester Illustration no. 2216 Andrew Oliver

Andrew Oliver appears at the right in this copy of a painting at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.  Oliver was Lieutenant Governor of the Massachusetts leading up to the Revolution and was a loyalist.  His country house was located at the corner of Washington and Park Streets, later owned by Walter Baker of Baker chocolate fame.  The house was replaced by the Lucy Stone School in 1937.

Oliver “entertained the finest of the land, where gentlemen in powdered wigs and ladies in fine old silks used to dance the minuet …” The house was sold by Oliver’s estate to Col. Benjamin Hichborn, and in 1817 it went to his brother Samuel, “who entertained Gen. Lafayette, and Presidents Jefferson and Munroe” there.

Wikipedia: Andrew Oliver (March 28, 1706 – March 3, 1774) was a merchant and public official in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Born into a wealthy and politically powerful merchant family, he is best known as the Massachusetts official responsible for implementing the provisions of the Stamp Act, for which he was burned in effigy. He never actually carried out those duties, and was later commissioned as the province’s lieutenant governor 

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The Dorchester Illustration is sent occasionally. 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 illustration, 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 no. 2215

Today’s illustration shows the J P O’Connell masons’ supplies building at a railroad crossing on Freeport Street in the 19 teens.  This was before the T took over.  The line was owned by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.

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The Dorchester Illustration is sent occasionally. 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 illustration, 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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