Paul Levy says farewell to John Winthrop Sears, a gubernatorial candidate and the last Republican to win a seat on the Boston City Council. He died on Election Day. Levy recalls an interview he did with Sears about his role as commissioner of the MDC - many of whose tasks Levy would later take on as head of the new MWRA.

I loved spending time with John. He was as public-spirited as anybody, a great conversationalist, and one of the last of the old New England "Yankees" to serve in public office.

J.L. Bell recounts an attempt by Gov. Hutchinson in 1772 to try to peel John Hancock away from Sam Adams and his rabblerousing. Hutchinson sensed the populace had tired of all that revolutionary stuff and Adams was becoming a has-been. But then Boston Town Meeting overwhelmingly re-elected Adams to the colonial legislature.

I can’t help but think that Hutchinson was fooling himself about his strength in the colony’s popular politics. Royal appointees were always too convinced that “a considerable proportion of the people” was really on their side.

The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this photo. See it larger.

Earlier:
Another horse-drawn carriage blocking another trolley.

Seth Barnett, lawyer for the company that owns the now closed Blue, Inc. on Broad Street, came prepared to a Boston Licensing Board hearing today: He figured somebody would ask why his client would want to name the replacement restaurant after the Broad Street Riot.

And, indeed, board member Milton Wright asked what the deal was with wanting to name the place Broad Street Riot.

But where and when? The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place the photo. See it larger.

And what better place for it than the Greenway? Not because the 1919 sticky death flood happened there, but because the Greenway is where all memorials are supposed to go these days (and the state is seeking proposals for what to put atop Big Dig ramps).

The interior tour starts at 1:00.

The Jamaica Plain Gazette reports on a class project at Wentworth to scan in photos of both the exterior and interior of James Michael Curley's house at 350 Jamaicaway - which is owned by the city but which is almost never opened to the public.

Fort Hill History takes note of the Roxbury Russet - a type of apple first grown in Roxbury, back when it had apple orchards. See where you can find them now - and the cider they are good for.

The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this photo - and figure out what happens when he pulls the rope. See it larger.