Mass. Moments reminds us today is the anniversary of the burning of the Ursuline Convent in Charlestown by "an unruly, drunken mob of laborers, sailors, apprentices, and hoodlums." The convent burned to the ground because the local firefighters, all Protestant, refused to respond.
Earlier:
Riot on Broad Street.
Book:
Fire and Roses: The Burning of the Charlestown Convent, 1834.
Neighborhoods:
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Comments
Now East Somerville
By rb
Mon, 08/12/2013 - 10:33am
The new Chuckie Harris Park is built on/near the site.
Somerville became a separate city (from Charlestown) in 1842.
Somerville
By Bob
Mon, 08/12/2013 - 12:08pm
From the old map, it looks like it was located on what is now ~16 Michigan Ave, Somerville.
It was on a hill called Mount Benedict
By Ron Newman
Mon, 08/12/2013 - 4:10pm
north of Broadway in what today would be called East Somerville. The hill was mostly levelled in subsequent decades. The current pattern of streets, named mostly after states, came much later.
Isn't Benedict the one where
By avjudge
Mon, 08/12/2013 - 8:32pm
Isn't Benedict the one where there's the teeniest bit of the hill left, because a developer had started doing his thing there before the cut-and-fill people started leveling? Looking at the Google satellite view, that would be the Austin St. end.
I don't know that story
By Ron Newman
Tue, 08/13/2013 - 12:12am
and would like to hear more. But yes, Austin and Benedict streets are on what's left of the hill. (I wonder if more of it got taken down in the 1960s-70s for I-93 construction?)
What old map?
By Ron Newman
Mon, 08/12/2013 - 4:14pm
I do not see a map on, or linked from, the page that Adam referred to.
I thought the convent was
By chaosjake
Mon, 08/12/2013 - 12:37pm
I thought the convent was burned on the 11th, then rioters further damaged the grounds on the 12th?
Real Boston bar rooms
By anon
Mon, 08/12/2013 - 1:35pm
to this day will refuse to make a V.O. Presbyterian.
Dedham Ursuline alumnae here
By Nancy
Mon, 08/12/2013 - 2:48pm
How did I not know this history of Ursuline nuns in Boston? I went to Ursuline in Dedham for six years and never heard of this incident until right now.
Now I feel like jerk for going to a Presbyterian church once in a while.
Religious freedom
By tblade
Mon, 08/12/2013 - 4:39pm
Remember kids, America was founded on the principle of religious freedom!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_martyrs
I think much of the hill was
By Billl
Tue, 08/13/2013 - 7:15am
I think much of the hill was removed to fill in the Back Bay...
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