History

East Boston used to have trolleys, too

By adamg - 11/17/14 - 7:30 am

Streetcars in East Boston

Allen Morrison posted a copy of 16-mm footage of trolleys running from Maverick to Suffolk Downs in 1949.

H/t A.P. Blake.

Brookline to ditch textbook that said some slaves were treated well

By adamg - 11/13/14 - 11:28 pm

WBZ reports school officials took action after parents complained.

Imagine something like this at Park Street

By adamg - 11/12/14 - 11:29 am

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

Remembering one of the first veterans

By adamg - 11/11/14 - 12:23 pm

On this Veterans Day, Heather Parker remembers her ancestor, John Parker, commander of the Minute Men on that fateful morning on Lexington Green.

The coat of arms of all the Reserves today is the Minute Man, the statue of my relative Captain John Parker which faces the Lexington Common who played a prominent role in the first battle of the War for Independence opening battles of the Revolutiom. Captain Parker's musket still hangs in the Senate Chamber of the Massachusetts State House.

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.

Boston's lost Jewish neighborhood reunites on Facebook

By adamg - 11/6/14 - 8:01 am

Jeff Rubin, whose family was one of the last Jewish families to leave the area along Blue Hill Avenue in 1970, reports on a diaspora reunited in a Facebook group:

Jews are famous for their exiles and the Dorchester-Mattapan dispersion is just another example. Thanks to the Facebook page we can experience the lost culture of that neighborhood once again, enjoy the friendships, and find some closure for this formative chapter of our lives.

The silent majority in colonial Boston

By adamg - 11/4/14 - 10:26 am

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.

A horse-drawn wagon blocking a trolley under an el

By adamg - 10/27/14 - 10:29 am

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.

Giving a deli the evil eye

By adamg - 10/22/14 - 11:30 am

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

Lawyer: Restaurant with the same name as an infamous Boston riot isn't named after the riot

By adamg - 10/22/14 - 11:02 am

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.

Hanging out the windows, watching the world go by

By adamg - 10/20/14 - 10:49 am

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

Such a bucolic river scene

By adamg - 10/15/14 - 1:07 pm

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

You could always count on Eastern Steam Laundry, the best laundry contractors in the city

By adamg - 10/6/14 - 11:14 am

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

Area engineer says it's past time for a Great Molasses Flood memorial

By adamg - 10/3/14 - 10:36 am

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).