You could always count on those Kennedy boys for some fresh, uniform butter

I doubt it's that -the alleyway in the photo goes up an incline. The area behind 668 Centre is either flat or downhill. Also, it looks like that there's a bay window above the door to the right of Kennedy Butter and Eggs, which doesn't exist on the present building. If I had to guess, I'd say that this may be somewhere along Huntington Ave or Tremont St in Mission Hill...

Sure...but...

By Kaz
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 3:24pm

Kennedy & Co. was located at 668 Centre St.

They were indeed

By Neal
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 4:02pm

From about 1968 to 1999. It was also a chain with several other locations. Side note: are those two of the Triplets of Belleville window shopping?

Edge of a hill

By anon
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 12:04pm

Trolley tracks. Guess would be somewhere along the Mission Park area of Huntington St., between Brigham Circle and Heath, or Tremont street in the same neighborhood.

Neat picture

By Anony-Mouse
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 12:09pm

Love these. Thank you for posting them.

Wasn't this on Centre Street in Jamaica Plain

By Ron Newman
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 12:19pm

until just a few years ago?

668 Centre Street Jamaica

By Jp v
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 12:22pm

668 Centre Street Jamaica Plain

I don't think so...

By c1josh
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 12:54pm

I just walked down that alley last week and it's not inclined like the photo.

Sorry, it appears so.

By whyaduck
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 1:00pm

http://www.jamaicaplainnews.com/2015/01/29/own-a-s...

Landscapes can change over time.

Different sign

By SwirlyGrrl
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 1:20pm

Landscapes don't change that much ... I doubt they tore down the hill and buildings behind.

Perhaps they moved from somewhere else? Pushed out by the VA ?

Perhaps.

By whyaduck
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 1:21pm

Although they could of. Look at what happened to the hills of Boston.

Signs do change over time.

I do think it is a JP institution, though.

More than one?

By SwirlyGrrl
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 1:30pm

It was apparently a chain at one point. The Jamaica Plain Historical Society page says that this location opened in the 1960s.

Makes sense.

By whyaduck
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 1:32pm

n/t

Must be a different location

By John Travis
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 1:26pm

A caption on a photo in the JP News article you cite states that they'd been at the 668 Centre Street location for 32 years when it closed in 2000. The picture we're trying to identify seems to be from an era much earlier than 1968.

Kennedy's was a chain

By Allstonian
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 1:41pm

Kennedy & Co. was a chain - I remember a branch in my neighborhood in Allston when I was growing up, and I remember stumbling upon one up in Salem, maybe some time in the 1980s or 90s.

that article says it was at

By pierce
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 1:32pm

that article says it was at 668 Centre Street for 32 years before closing in '99. That means it moved there in 1967. So it was in a different JP location before? The mystery deepens.....

That said, generally speaking a grade change like that would be believable.... once cars become a thing the owners want to flatten the site to create parking in the back, so they install a retaining wall at the rear property line (ala Colburn Street at the foot of Mission Hill near the Huntington turn).

BUT as for 668 Centre there is no hill behind it to be terraced.

I'll see you 366 Centre

By Waquiot
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 4:07pm

And raise you 362 Centre. Their older address.

I don't know why, but I just think it's Centre Street.

That sign is now hanging

By ShamusJP
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 12:45pm

inside the Galway House.

Main Street Charlestown

By anon
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 1:10pm

Could be so many places, those Kennedy stores were all over the place.

668 Centre St. JP

By bostnkid
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 1:23pm

butter store closed in 1999

Opened in 1967

By anon
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 1:33pm

http://www.jphs.org/photogallery/1970s-and-1980s-j...

Please use in a sentence.

By Rob
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 1:41pm

Please use in a sentence.

The old pro knew he was going to have to improve his off-season conditioning program.
Each February, come "pitchers and catchers report", it was taking more and more uniform butter to get into his uniform.

Well-played

By Scratchie
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 3:36pm

[img]http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/201...

Thank yew!

By Rob
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 11:15pm

Thank yew!

https://i.imgur.com/Lhd1nD4.gif

Kennedy & Co.

By John Kyper
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 2:04pm

I first moved to Boston in 1969 and have lived in several neighborhoods since then, so I remember several Kennedy & Co. locations: In addition to Centre Street, I also remember one on Harvard Street in Coolidge Corner (possibly where Zaftigs is now or in an adjacent building) and on Dot Ave. in Fields Corner. But I don't recall an alley beside any of them that had an alley next to it that went up a small rise...

Kennedy's was a major chain

By fenway
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 2:32pm

They routinely took out full page ads in the Globe

https://i.imgur.com/5VW9avV.png

There seems to be one Kennedy's remaining - in Lowell

By fenway
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 2:45pm

https://www.google.com/maps/place/13+Merrimack+St,...

1317 Tremont

By SwirlyGrrl
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 3:17pm

I googled "tremont kennedy butter" and low and behold: Kennedy & Co. 1317 Tremont

This was the 1921 directory, so this picture was probably taken during the 1920s.

Here's the location now (Likely wiped out for the SW Corridor).

So Whyaduck may be right about massive changes in landscape.

There are other locations listed ... Three in Washington Street alone, one on Blue Hill Ave, Dorchester Ave, etc.

I agree,

By Iwuzzn'tthere
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 7:46pm

I think the guy on the left is standing on the address numbers, and it looks like four digits with "1" in the first and third position.

Looking again at the enlarged

By Rob
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 4:31pm

Looking again at the enlarged photo, I see something else that might narrow down the location...

In the right-hand window, there's a reflection - must be an awning or sign across the street -

Henry's

Does that make sense in the context of any of those addresses and directories?

Long list of locations

By SwirlyGrrl
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 7:27pm

Looks like Kennedy Butter and Egg had a long list of locations by 1921.

Many of these streets have "hill" in the name, like Blue Hill and Bunker Hill. Bowdoin St. was also a hill.

Give it a whirl.

Jamaica Plain

By Susan DiMatteo
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 5:37pm

Jamaica Plain

Also in Roslindale

By dmk
Mon, 10/23/2017 - 9:39pm

There was a Kennedys in Roslindale Sq on Corinth Street when i was a kid in the 60s. They had various grades of butter. Some were a dark yellow and some almost white. They also ground coffee there and would blend it to your specifications.

Walking in there or even by the open door was a whiff of coffee that one cannot forget.

They were next to Clausen's German Deli.

The Answer

By Boston City Archives
Tue, 10/24/2017 - 8:37am

Thanks for playing, folks!

This photo was taken on April 26, 1932. It shows the Kennedys Store on Main Street in Charlestown. The photo is labeled 'Opposite 186 Main Street"

An astonishing coincidence

By UHub-fan
Wed, 10/25/2017 - 12:56am

That the Charlestown photo should have such a close resemblance to the later JP location: same recessed doorway, with an alley to the left, and even a downspout in almost exactly the same location!

This seems to be the same building today: https://www.google.com/maps/place/186+Main+St,+Boston,+MA+02129/@42.37597,-71.0650444,3a,15y,49.03h,91.03t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1soJz0_lX4wlSmihUntMBn-w!2e0!5s20110801T000000!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x89e370ec3795d9a9:0xe328d73444bd4376!8m2!3d42.3761648!4d-71.0652932.

The correct answer is:

By Kaz
Tue, 10/24/2017 - 9:07am

Good guess! This store was a chain with many locations, and this location was Main St in Charlestown. Photo is from April 26, 1932

— Boston City Archives (@ArchivesBoston) October 24, 2017

You could always count on those Kennedy boys for some fresh, uniform butter

Comments

Add comment

Plain text

Support Universal Hub

In other Boston news