The Dorchester Reporter interviews Elisa Speranza, who, as a BWSC project manager, came up with the idea of labeling storm drains with where things poured in them wind up, to try to convince people not to dump motor oil and stuff in them.
The folks at the Boston City Archives are looking for some help identifying these EMS workers at a City Hall call center during the Blizzard of '78 (this is not a quiz, they don't know who they are, and, yes, that's Kevin White with his head turned away from the camera).
Today is the anniversary of the Thomas G. Plant Shoe Factory fire in 1976, which completely destroyed what had once been the world's largest shoe factory, along Centre Street in Jackson Square. The Jamaica Plain Historical Society recounts the fire, started, as were so many other fires then in JP and the Fenway, by arsonists, who first disabled the complex's sprinklers, then set multiple fires in what had been converted from a factory into the home of multiple small businesses - and residents.
After the snow ended in the Blizzard of '78, Mike Dukakis went on TV to discuss recovery efforts - wearing the best of his sweaters: Read more.
The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this scene. See it larger.
The Boston City Archives has posted digitized copies of oral histories taken by city interviewers in 1975 and 1976 in West Roxbury (as part of Boston's bicentennial celebrations). Included are reminiscences of the growth of the neighborhood's Syrian Orthodox and Jewish communities, the history of Roxbury Latin School and the Catholic Women's Club.
Boston Parks and Recreation recounts the story of a column in Mount Hope Cemetery, off Walk Hill Street, that marks the grave of John Edward Kelly, who was born in Kinsale, emigrated as a child with his family to Boston by way of Halifax, Nova Scotia, went back to Ireland to participate in the 1867 uprising, was sentenced to death, had his sentence commuted to banishment in Australia - to which he was transported on a ship with John Boyle O’Reilly - then made his way back to Boston after he was released from five years working on a road gang.
The folks at the City Archives have posted photos of three firefighters at a fire after the Blizzard of '78 and wonder if you can identify them and the location of the fire. This isn't a quiz - this time, they don't know the answer either and are seeking help. Read more.
The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this scene. See it larger (there's a lot of detail in this photo, so if you want to see it even larger than that, click here).
The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this scene. See it larger.
Not a Parker House roll to be had back in 1858 (prices are in cents, not dollars).
The New York Public Library has a collection of hotel menus dating back to the 19th century and including menus from three Boston hotels, only one of which still stands, at the corner of School and Tremont streets. Read more.
New England Folklore recounts the magical dance on Christmas Day, 1692. Cotton Mather was involved - in what today might be diagnosed as a serious case of PTSD.
The Internet Archive has put up a collection of Boston Phoenix copies dating from the 1970s through its demise in 2013. You can do keyword searches, just browse through copies (including all those Phoenix Personals) or download entire copies for reading at your leisure. Read more.
The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this scene. See it larger.
Earlier:
Horse-drawn storrowing in 1906.
In December, 1951, Arthur Fiedler and BSO musicians Inar Hanson George Zasowsky journeyed to the Prendergast Preventorium, 1000 Harvard St. in Mattapan to join the younger patients there for their annual Christmas party. Read more.
A neighborhood of 7,500 people bulldozed. From Boston City Archives.
Jerome Rappaport died the other day, and the Globe had a glowing obituary, complete with a quote from the mayor, about his decades of philanthropy and as a builder who helped shape the Boston of today. Read more.
The folks at the Boston City Archives say the BRA took this photo inside a church in Charlestown in 1967 and wonder which church it was. This isn't one of those historic puzzlers where they will tell us the answer later - they really aren't sure and are seeking help identifying the church. See it larger - or see it gigantic.
The Boston Architectural College posted a copy of a 1950 postcard showing what the lights atop the old Hancock Building mean, in the days when a) the building wasn't "old" (since there was no "new" Hancock) and b) they had yet to come up with the mnemonic rhyme nobody can remember.
The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this photo (yes, part of the photo is whited out so you don't just see the street name written on it). See it larger.
The Portland, drawn in 1890 by Samuel Ward Stanton, who later died on the Titanic.
Today marks the 123rd anniversary of the start of the Steamship Portland's final voyage - which ended with its sinking and the death of all onboard in a nor'easter that exploded over the ocean not long after it left Boston Harbor's India Wharf for what was supposed to be a routine night voyage to its home port in Maine. Read more.
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
