Grove Hall Universalist Church, Dorchester Illustraton 2625

Posted on July 16, 2023 by earltaylor

Grove Hall Universalist Church, Dorchester Illustration 2625

Holy Tabernacle Church is located at 70 Washington St. This section of Washington Street is between Columbia Road and Blue Hill Avenue.

The illustration of the church building is from American Architect and Building News, June 20, 1894.

The society that built the church was the Grove Hall Universalist Church. Architect Francis R. Allen and his associate W. H. Brainerd designed the building.

The following is from Parish Register of the Grove Hall Universalist Church, Dorchester, Massachusetts and Favorite Recipes, 1913. 

“The Grove Hall Universalist Church came into existence March 3, 1878, being an off-shoot of the Roxbury Universalist Church, and in its inception received the cordial support of that parish.  On January 9, 1878, a meeting was held at the residence of Mr. Franklin S. Williams for the purpose of organizing a church. 

Starting as a mission church, holding its first or preliminary meetings at the residents of various interested persons, it soon wanted a centrally located temporary home, and began holding its meetings in Wetherell Hall, at or near the junction of Washington Street and Blue Hill Avenue. That served its needs for a time, but the desire for a home having more the churchly appearance prevailed, and the church on the corner of Blue Hill Avenue and Schuyler Street was built.

This amply served the purposes of the society until about 1892, when the subject of a new larger church was agitated, resulting in the building of the present edified. At about this same time it also ceased to be a mission church, and since then has been able to maintain services without calling upon the state Convention for aid.

The present edifice was completed in 1895, and cost, furnished, about $45,000: $25,000 of this was provided for by a mortgage; the balance was raised by canvassing our parishioners. To our good member, kind and generous neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Ivers W. Adams, we are largely indebted, both for their liberality in subscribing for the building and in their continued liberality in contributing to the wiping out of the mortgage debt, which has lately been accomplished and made possible largely through their instrumentality.”

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Ernest Skinner, Dorchester Illustration 2624

Posted on July 9, 2023 by earltaylor

Ernest Skinner

Dorchester Illustration 2624

Ernest M. Skinner (1866-1960) was the most prominent organ builder of the early 20th century. Skinner believed an organ should be able to play all music effectively and with infinite tonal variety. His organs were highly orchestral in character. The high point of Skinner’s career may have been the installation of one of his organs in the Washington National Cathedral.

Skinner married Mabel Hastings in 1893, they lived at 293 Savin Hill Ave. for 2 years, and then 33 years at 7 Evandale Terrace on Savin Hill. One of his three children, Eugenia Shorrock, married in 1917, and moved to 259 Savin Hill Ave. at the corner of Evandale Terrace. 

In the late 1890s, Ernest Skinner supervised the installation of numerous organs made by the Hutchings Company, including one in the Pilgrim Church in Dorchester. In 1900 he started his own company, the Ernest M. Skinner & Co. In 1905 it was incorporated as the Ernest M. Skinner Company.

In 1914 the company moved into a new factory building in Dorchester at Crescent Avenue and Sydney Street. The company became the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company in 1932, and Skinner’s association with the firm ended in 1936. He and his son, Richmond, opened the Ernest M. Skinner & Son Company in Methuen, Mass., this company built the organ for the Washington National Cathedral in 1937.

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CowParade in Fields Corner Dorchester Illustration 2623

Posted on July 2, 2023 by earltaylor

CowParade in Fields Corner Dorchester Illustration 2623

Two life-size fiberglass cows are on display at Fields Corner’s Memorial Square at the intersection of Dorchester Avenue and Adams Street.

They are part of a herd of 75 life-size cows displayed across the city. Each cow was painted by a New England artist and will be sold to benefit the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to mark the 75th anniversary of the Jimmy Fund.

One of the cows in Fields Corner, Sally Sunset, (on the left in the photo) has been bought. The other one called Spreading Love is still available. The cows will remain in Dorchester until Sept. 4.

CowParades are public art events that serve as fundraisers for local nonprofit organizations. They have been held since 1999 in 80 countries, more than 6,000 cows have been created.

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Farrington Store, Dorchester Illustration 2622

Posted on June 25, 2023 by earltaylor

Farrington Store, Dorchester Illustration 2622

Franklin Farrington operated a small grocery store at the corner of Dorchester Avenue and East Street at Glover’s Corner from 1856 until his death in 1901. The Farrington Store building still stands at Dorchester’s most historically dangerous intersection where Freeport Street meets Dorchester Avenue. Traffic improvements have made the intersection safer. 

The following puff piece about the business was published in the booklet “Picturesque Boston Highlands, Jamaica Plain and Dorchester” (New York: Mercantile Illustrating Co., 1895).

“Among the many grocery establishments carried on in this city, that conducted by Mr. Fr. Farrington, at No. 1261 Dorchester Avenue, corner of East Street, Dorchester District, deserves particular mention on account of the age and the high character of the enterprise. It was inaugurated about 1830 by Andrew Glover, who sold the business in 1863 to the present proprietor, who had been in business on the opposite side of the street for six years previous, or since 1856, and in this connections it is interesting to note that Mr. Farrington’s business cards refer to  him as a dealer in ‘West India Goods,’ as all groceries were called in the days when the most important goods they handled came entirely from the West Indies. But we would not have our readers infer that there is anything ‘behind the times’ about this establishment, for it is thoroughly ‘up to date’ in every particular although Mr. Farrington does adhere to the old-fashioned policy of giving ‘full value for money received.’ He carries a large, carefully-chosen and compete stock of staple and fancy groceries, including the choicest teas and coffees and the purest spices that the market affords, and a very complete line of imported and domestic table delicacies, the very best canned goods, etc. Employment is given to three competent assistants, and all orders are assured prompt and careful attention.”

The building has been changed over the years.

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Dorchester Illustration 2621, Bunker Hill Day

Posted on June 18, 2023 by earltaylor

Bunker Hill Day

Dorchester Illustration 2621

Bunker Hill Day was yesterday. It marks the Battle of Bunker Hill, the first major battle in the Revolutionary War, which took place on June 17, 1775, in Charlestown. The British won the battle.

Lemuel Clap served as a captain in the Revolutionary War, and during the siege of Boston and the Dorchester Heights campaign some of his men were stationed at his house. The house still stands on Boston Street.

Elizabeth (Clapp) Withington kept a diary and wrote on June 17, 1839, what her paternal grandmother, Rebecca (Dexter) Clap – Lemuel’s second wife whom he married in 1768 ­– had experienced.

The diary reads:

“Today commemorates the anniversary of the battle of Bunker hill, a day to ever be remembered by the children of the soldiers of the revolution. This morn at the breakfast table, the conversation was on the subject of this battle. My grandmother Clapp went out of doors & ascended a little hill not far from home to see the smoke of the burning of Charlestown & listened to the report of the cannon. What emotions filled her heart, her husband absent, the probability that they must abandon her home, making their Indian meal into bread, ready for their departure.

How little can we of the present day form any just conception of the labours & toils of our grandfather?  When my grandmother, deprived of sleep by the sickness of one of her children, in going from one room to the other, was obliged to step between the bodies of soldiers who lay in unconscious sleep on the floor, ready at a moment’s warning for the march.”

Although the Dorchester Historical Society’s Lemuel Clap House was altered in the early and mid-eighteenth century, it is still the same as it was during the revolution. It was moved to its present location on Boston Street in 1957.

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Dorchester Illustration 2620 Al Donahue

Posted on June 11, 2023 by earltaylor

Al Donahue

Dorchester Illustration 2620

Al Donahue was a violinist and a big band leader. Albert Francis Donahue was born on Huntoon Street in Dorchester in 1902. He graduated from Boston University Law School, but he was in such demand as a musician, he never took the bar examination. Donahue attended the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He got his start playing in Boston-area campus bands.

From the 1930s through the 1950s the Al Donahue Orchestra played at many famous venues across the country including the Rainbow Room of Rockefeller Center in New York City, the Palladium in Hollywood, the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, the Oriental Theater in Chicago, and locally at the Totem Pole in Newton. In 1932, Donahue’s orchestra had provided music aboard Furness Bermuda Line steamship, the Monarch of Bermuda. The orchestra was the featured attraction with regular engagements during 1936-38 at the Bermudiana Hotel in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Between 1935 and 1942, he recorded for Decca Records, Vocalion, and Okeh. His biggest hit was a rendition of “Jeepers Creepers,” which went to number one on the Billboard chart in 1938. He also recorded for University Recording Company. Vocalists including Paula Kelly, Dee Keating, Lynne Stevens, Phil Brito, and Snooky Lanson were guest singers with the band.

After World War II, the ensemble moved away from big band music toward light music, playing throughout the West Coast and appearing in films such as Sweet Genevieve. Later, Donahue would return to cruise ships once more, as music director contracting bands for the Furness Bermuda Line. His band played on the Queen of Bermuda and the Ocean Monarch from 1950 to 1963.

In 1933 he married New York heiress Frederica Gallatin. They had three children, two sons and a daughter. He settled in Oceanside, California, where he ran a store called Ponzi’s House of Music, which closed in the 1970s.

Donahue died in 1983.

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Dorchester Illustration 2619, Humphrey Atherton’s Tomb

Posted on June 4, 2023 by earltaylor

Humphrey Atherton’s Tomb

Dorchester Illustration 2619

Humphrey Atherton was a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, and he organized the first militia in Dorchester. As Major-General in the Suffolk Regiment, he was the senior military officer in New England, which included the responsibilities of subduing and controlling Native Americansand apprehending criminals, such as those accused of heresy.Atherton was also known for his harsh treatment of Native Americans and his opposition to Quakers.

Atherton died after he fell off his horse which stumbled over a cow. His Quaker critics believed his horrible death to be God’s visitation of wrath. A century later a Quaker imaginatively described Atherton’s death:

“Humfray Adderton … having been, on a certain day, exercising his men with much pomp and ostentation, he was returning home in the evening, near the place where they usually loosed the Quakers from the cart, after they had whipped them, his horse, suddenly affrighted, threw him with such violence, that he instantly died; his eyes being dashed out of his head, and his brains coming out of his nose, his tongue hanging out at his mouth, and the blood running out at his ears: Being taken up and brought into the Courthouse, the place where he had been active in sentencing the innocent to death, his blood ran through the floor, exhibiting to the spectators a shocking instance of the Divine vengeance against a daring and hardened persecutor; that made a fearful example of that divine judgment, which, when forewarned of, he had openly despised, and treated with disdain.”

The following inscription can be found on Atherton’s tomb in Dorchester Old North Burying Ground:

Hear lyes our Captaine, & MAJOR of Suffolk was withall,

A godley Magistrate was he, and MAJOR GENERALL

Two Troops of Hors with him here Came, Such worth his love did Crave;

Ten Companyes of Foot also Mourning Marcht to his grave.

Let all that read be sure to keep the faith as he has don,

With Christ he lives now crownd, His name was HUMPHREY ATHERTON

He dyed the 16 of September 1661.

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Edward Everett School on Sumner Street

Posted on May 28, 2023 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration 2618

Today’s illustration comes from The Dorchester Beacon, Feb. 17, 1894. The artist would have been standing at the corner of Willis and Stoughton Street.

The illustration was on the front page of the newspaper with a story about the Everett School Association’s reunion at the Old Dorchester Clubhouse on Feb. 6, 1894, a few blocks away from the school. The story said the school “is commodious and attractive, but its generous arms cannot hold all who throng to them. Primary schoolhouses are utilized on both Dorchester and Savin Hill avenues, and yet, so eager is the desire to get an education, that every square foot of room is growing more precious.”

The original Everett School building on Sumner Street was made out of wood and opened on Feb. 25, 1856. The City of Boston replaced the building in 1876 with a larger structure built of brick.

The school was named for Edward Everett, a Dorchester native. Everett was a congressman, governor of Massachusetts, president of Harvard University and served as U.S. Secretary of State in President Millard Fillmore’s administration. Everett gave a two hour speech prior to President Lincoln’s two minute Gettysburg Address.

Building schools was an ongoing endeavor in the second half of the 19th century. Some of the more notable school buildings include: William Stoughton School (1855) on River Street; Christopher Gibson School (1857) on School Street; Thaddeus Mason Harris School (1861) on Adams Street; the Edmund P. Tileston School (1868) on Norfolk Street; and the Minot School (1886) on Neponset Avenue.

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Donna Summer, Dorchester Illustration 2617

Posted on May 21, 2023 by earltaylor

Donna Summer, who was born as LaDonna Adrian Gaines to Andrew and Mary Gaines on Dec. 31, 1948, in Boston. As a young girl, she sang gospel music at the Grant African Methodist Episcopal Church in Boston.

Summer attended Jeremiah E. Burke High School in Dorchester, but she dropped out a few months before she graduated. In 1983, she returned to the school where she was awarded her high school diploma. School officials credited her life experience and coursework in drama and voice toward her unfulfilled graduation requirements.

Summer’s career took off in the mid 1970s when she became known as the Queen of Disco. She won five Grammys and sold more than 130 million records worldwide. She went on to record  four number one singles, fourteen top ten hits, three platinum albums and twelve other Grammy nominations. Summer had 32 hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1975, Summer recorded “Love To Love You Baby,” which made her an international star.

Summer won Best R&B Vocal Performance Female for Last Dance in 1978, Best Rock Vocal Performance Female for “Hot Stuff ” in 1979, Best Inspirational Performance for  “He’s A Rebel” in 1983, Best Inspirational Performance for “Forgive Me” in 1984 and Best Dance Recording for “Carry On” in 1997. She also picked up three American Music Awards in 1979, the NAACP Image Award in 1980, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1992.

Her last studio album, “Crayons” in 2008, produced three dance club hits with “I’m a Fire,” “Stamp Your Feet” and “Fame.”  In 2009, Summer sang at the Nobel Peace Prize concert in Norway in honor of Nobel laureate U.S. President Barack Obama. Her last hit was the 2010 single “To Paris With Love.”

She appeared in eight movies, was the first female artist to have three number one solo singles in one year, the first female artist to use synthesizers, and the first artist to create an extended play song (“Love To Love You Baby,”) for use in dance clubs.

Donna Summer died from lung cancer in 2012, she was 63.

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Frank P. Sheehan, Dorchester Illustration 2616

Posted on May 14, 2023 by earltaylor

Frank P. Sheehan

Dorchester Illustration 2616

Francis Patrick Sheehan (1884 -1953) was a middle distance runner. He was a

member of the St. Alphonsus Athletic Club, South Boston Athletic Club, Boston

Athletic Association and the Boston Irish-American Athletic Club.

In 1907, Sheehan broke the 880-yard record at the Amateur Athletic Union junior

championship games at the Jamestown Exposition in Norfolk, Virginia. He was a

member of the 1908 US Olympic Team, competing in London, England, but

without a sponsor, he had to pay his own way. He made it to the semi-finals.

Sheehan became deputy superintendent of the Department of School Buildings in

Boston. He lived on Savin Hill Avenue and later moved to Tuttle Street. He had a

long affiliation with the Boston Athletic Association, working as a track official.

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