Roslindale substation project actually happening; Square could get restaurant by chef at Tavolo in Dorchester

Cummins Highway is named after Father John Cummins, first pastor of the Sacred Heart Parish. Before that it was Ashland Street.

Cummins is buried in Old Calvary Cemetery near the chapel.

The power sub-station provided a boost for the 600 volt DC power needed to operate the streetcars that plied Roslindale all the way to the Dedham Line and to the Charles River.

The end of the line on Washington Street was where Rockland Towers now stands. That was the original trolley yard. At Charles River it is the big paved "loop" behind the restaurant at Spring and VFW.

After the streetcars ended in the early 50s they were replaced for a period with "trackless trolleys" (electric buses) similar to those that operate out of Harvard Sq. Station to Watertown and Belmont.

After the electric bus era ended in the region it continued to provide power via underground cable to the Boston Elevated Railway, by then called the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) (before it was the MBTA and Orange Line) at Forest hills. It generated power on demand and infrequently through the early 1960s.

I understand a study was done to determine if the F.J. Higgins funeral home bore any historical significance, and it did not.

Fred Higgins, the founder, lived there with his family. They occupied the second floor and raised their children there, hence the term "funeral home" as it was commonplace in those days for the funeral director to live with his family on the premises. Two of the sons eventually went into the business as did the present Higgins, a grandson.

My mother, approaching 90, tells stories of being hushed when playing with her peers there when a wake was in progress downstairs.

As with many funeral businesses these days, the current Mr. Higgins consolidated with PE Murray-Doherty in West Roxbury. The building has been vacant for quite some time.

Locally, the only real historical significance would be to those generations that grew up with it as a fixture in Roslindale Square. It was often referred-to as a landmark and directions were often given to travelers with it as a point of reference.

Few of Roslindale's residents these would even know that there were two more funeral homes just around the corner on Cummins Highway; Walls and Hearns. The buildings have long been re-purposed. The cluster of funeral homes accommodated the similar cluster of churches that stretched from Sacred Heart down the hill representing Roman Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, and Congregational denominations. Not far away was the Episcopal, Unitarian, and Lutheran churches surrounding the business district. Those structures are gone, re-purposed, or serve other denominations these days.