History

'The prostitutes from the Combat Zone establishments would actually stop the cars by standing in front of them'

adamg — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 23:33:49 -0400

Video report on the decline and fall of the Combat Zone by A Chinatown Banquet (which has also posted other videos on Chinatown and its history):

Combat Zone visitors and workers reminisce.

Redcoats retake the Common

adamg — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 21:19:00 -0400

His majesty's regiments of foot reasserted their control over the Boston Common today with an encampment and a successful battle against rebel colonists. The encampment continues on Sunday.

Imagine if a trolley line ran along the Charles instead of Storrow Drive

adamg — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 20:32:40 -0400

Vanshnookenraggen posts a copy of a 1909 map showing current and proposed transit lines in Boston Proper, including what became today's subways, the long-gone Atlantic Avenue el and a proposed trolley tunnel along the banks of the Charles.

Visiting Boston's original Chinese residents

adamg — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:04:34 -0400

The Chinatown Blogger visits Mount Hope Cemetery in Mattapan, where some of the first Chinese residents of Boston are buried:

... Boston Chinatown was established in the early 1870s after a group of 75 workers were brought to work in the Sampson shoe factory in North Adams, MA and eventually migrated to Boston. These first Chinese who came to the U.S. were no different than many other immigrant groups. They faced hardship and discrimination but also persevered and founded communities. Many of them came seeking work and to start a new life. Others had planned on saving enough money and going back home.

However, some of these pioneers never made their way back home and died as bachelors. Without families and descendants, family associations paid for their burial. Their bodies were buried in several lots at Mount Hope Cemetery in Mattapan. Many had just a simple marker to note their passing, but these early Chinese settlers formed Boston Chinatown's identity and history. ...

The lighthouse war

adamg — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:27:17 -0400

Boston 1775 begins the saga of Revolutionary War skirmishes over Boston Light, the lighthouse that basically controlled nighttime navigation into Boston Harbor.

Remembering

adamg — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 08:31:37 -0400

16WadeSt photographs members of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment in front of the memorial to the 54th on Beacon Hill.

Dead men tell lots of tales at Forest Hills Cemetery

adamg — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:44:43 -0400

You just have to know how to listen and do a bit of research. Mike Ball profiles a couple of inventors buried there, including Richard Lufkin, inventor of the first vamp folding machine, which was revolutionary for its time.

Litigious Jamaica Pond

adamg — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 23:07:40 -0400

Mark recounts decade after decade of various legal actions involving the pond (mainly related to people doing such dastardly things as taking ice out of it without the town of West Roxbury's consent - OK, granted, 8,000 tons of ice). He mentions that in 1856, the town of West Roxbury stationed a policeman on the shores in warm weather to stop people from swimming in the pond (back when it was still used as a drinking-water supply).

John F. Kennedy and the Declaration of Independence

adamg — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 09:20:21 -0400

Via BostonMaggie: Sen. John Kennedy reads the Declaration of Independence in 1957:

Opening a time capsule in Roxbury

adamg — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:48:47 -0400

State Rep. Byron Rushing holds up a 1922 newspaper. Photo by Third Decade.

Third Decade reports on what was inside a 1922 time capsule opened today at the Ferdinand building in Dudley Square:

... The Mayor and Rep. Rushing pulled out copies of the Boston Evening Transcript and the Boston Post, furniture advertisements from Ferdinand's Blue Store, and a list of employees from Ferdinand's Blue Store. ...

Next up: Figuring out what to put in a new time capsule.