I approached Dorchester for the first time with an open mind. I assumed the neighborhoods in Boston were all similar. Though this may be true to some extent, I found Dorchester at least to contain many subtleties setting it apart from its neighbors. An orderly little slice of the Boston area, Dorchester has much to offer, as its residents can attest to. You’ll hear people say “this is an historic place” over and over and for good reason. The oldest house in Boston, the James Blake House, is one of many notable sites of preservation. One longtime resident, an old man we’ll call Howard, said, “A lot changes here, but it all feels the same in the end.” For over a hundred years Dorchester has been a diverse and working class community. Indeed, each of the residents I spoke to was unique in their own way.
I had expected to encounter a stuck-up people, but I was hastily proved wrong. Those I held conversation with seemed friendly and fun loving. One gentleman, probably in his thirties, suggested I check out his favorite spot, the Franklin Park Zoo. With two colleges around, students are not an uncommon sight. They seem to know where all the best restaurants are. One girl, fresh out of college, bragged about the local bar scene. “Dorchester has my favorite bar in Boston, the Banshee,” she said. I asked the same girl what she knew about the Battle of Dorchester Heights and was impressed when she noted the fight resulted in the British evacuation of Boston. Even the kids I talked to were well versed in Revolutionary War history. A twelve-year old boy pointed out the actual site of battle, which I had not even noticed.
Misconceptions often skew the fact of a matter. Who I thought would be elitists Bostonians turned out to be hard working and down to Earth individuals. Sure, there were some fancy boutiques and restaurants with names I could not pronounce, but beneath the surface lies an area rich in history home to some of the nicest people I’ve encountered in Boston.
-Matthew Lee
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Friday, May 8, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Conversations on Roxbury
A drive through Roxbury is often said to be both a history lesson as well as a discovery of urban life. As one of the oldest Boston neighborhoods Roxbury has thrived on its nearness to downtown while still retaining homey neighborhood qualities. Roxbury’s rich history is something that residents seem to wear on their sleeves. When asked Roxbury citizens say that there are many historical sites within the neighborhood and Roxbury’s history is far more diverse than most Bostonians imagine; something that can be seen clearly from the multitude of options of ethnic shops and neighborhood restaurants.
Home to a great number of parks, schools, and churches in which the historical architecture of Roxbury comes alive. More than one resident mentioned the Dudley Street Baptist Church, one of Boston’s oldest and largest churches. And still others, mentioned Malcolm X’s childhood home.
Today, after undergoing both an annexation and a massive landfill Roxbury lies in the cities 
geographic center. But, what the residents of Roxbury may not know is that it was once an independent community that was only connected to Boston by a small strip of land along what is now Washington Street.
Once a farming town Roxbury is home to the Shirley Eustis House the only remaining country house in America built by a British Royal Colonial Governor. The homes importance appears lost on most residents of Roxbury, however. While residents of the neighborhood do view the Shirley-Eustis House as an essential part of Roxbury’s vibrant history the importance of the building seems lost on much of the community. Like most neighborhoods across the country Roxbury residents’ knowledge of the history around them seems at times superficial.
The lack of attachment residents have of the Shirley-Eustis House could be because the demographics of the neighborhood have changed dramatically since the home was built. While at the time of its construction Roxbury was both predominately Caucasian and economically solvent it no longer is. Today the neighborhood is ethnically diverse with a large number of residents living below the poverty line.
While most residents seem to know where to take out-of-town guests they do not often venture to the historic sites around them. Instead residents of Roxbury enjoy other features of residential life. Trips to the Franklin Park Zoo or walks around, what is sometimes called "The Heart of Roxbury" , Dudley Square seem to be simpler things that Roxbury residents take enjoyment from.
Roxbury’s ties to popular music and political history also seem to be on the forefront of residents minds. The neighborhood ties to Bobby Brown, New Edition, Henry Hampton, Robert Patton-Spruill, Jon Sullivan, Donna Summer, and Sarah Ann Shaw show just a little of Roxbury’s culture. The previous homes of these famous residents surround Roxbury creating a sense of inspiration.
Roxbury has been covered by various Boston news affiliates such as the Boston Globe, the Boston Metro, and WCVB.
If you’d like to learn more about this Boston neighborhood please visit DiscoverRoxbury a site dedicated to educating the public about this Boston neighboorhood.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
On Representing the Real
In a legal case a lawyer is a representative. It is the lawyer’s responsibility to inform a jury of the accounts of the case and try and convince the panel that their client is innocent or just in their legal pursuits. Lawyers are quasi-historians with efforts to tell a narrative on the past. With a collection of physical evidence, human accounts, and research, the “historian” presents a picture of the past. What differentiates a lawyer from a true historian is the reward for skewing the “whole” picture of the past. A lawyer’s represents a client but does not “represent the real.”
The initial problem of representing history is the almost unavoidable urge to “assume.” With assuming reasons for “why,” we as humans string along a narrative of the past acting more as a lawyer rather than historian. When narrating historical events, we must try (with our best efforts) to avoid using “because” as the link between question and answer. By understanding that a historian can never tell a “complete” story of the past, then the lack of access to information will not alter the usefulness of an account.
Our stories about the neighborhoods of Boston are only windows into the broader picture of the city’s history. Our narratives are personal accounts of interacting with the neighborhoods today threaded by research of the past. What “defines” a neighborhood within a city? Have the neighborhoods changed over time? Do the neighborhoods represent the essence of Boston? Can we argue that the “essence” of a place is the “real” we are trying to uncover?
Jamaica Plain
When I was first accepted into Emerson College, one of my main concerns of leaving Philadelphia for Boston was the lack of “diversity” the college had to offer. I grew up as a minority in a predominately African American neighborhood. My mother told me to visit Jamaica Plain when I arrived in Boston because it reminded her of Germantown—our home.
She explained to me that in Jamaica Plain, African Americans had a prominent presence in the neighborhood as well as other various ethnicities. She said that although Jamaica Plain was considered one of the “bad” parts of Boston, it had great restaurants and thrift shops. She mentioned that artists started moving into the neighborhood because of the lower priced real estate.
When I moved into Emerson, in the heart of the Theatre District, I was distracted by the city around me. It was a smaller and cleaner than Philly, and the Commons were beautiful. After many months playing a resident of Boston, I thought I was well on my way of “conquering” the city. I had not however visit Jamaica Plain, the first neighborhood I heard about in Boston. When March finally arrived, we finally took the Orange line out to JP in order to find some cool thrift stores.
We walked up and down Centre St, shopped for a bit, had lunch at a Fair Trade Café, and went home. Without much exploration I found JP nothing like the way my mother described. It was “artsy” of and the thrift stores were there but it did not feel like home.
After my initial confusion on why my mom’s description of the neighborhood was incorrect, I realized that she had not lived in Boston for over two decades. How silly of me!
Jamaica Plain was annexed into Boston in the mid 1870’s. The neighborhood consisted of factories, breweries, and residential houses. In the late 19th century, Frederick Law Olmsted designed and built a series of connected parks (the Emerald Necklace) in Boston, many of which bordered Jamaica Plain. Complications with building train lines through JP resulted in demolished houses and abandoned commercial properties. Middle class families fled Jamaica Plain, resulting in lower housing prices.
In 1976, when my mother lived in Boston, Jamaica Plain was not the same neighborhood that I know today. The Jamaica Plain Historical Society wrote that
“The housing stock of the area attracted new groups – among them blacks moving to northern cities from the South after the War, and in the 1960s and 1970s many new Cuban, Puerto Rican, and other Latin American immigrants, while many of the white working class residents of Jamaica Plain remained, from necessity and from choice. As these new groups had little money or political power, Jamaica Plain lost much of its claim to adequate funding and services – its houses, still beautiful, often tended toward decay.”
Today, Jamaica Plain is the epitome of a gentrified neighborhood. When I interviewed a resident, a white 35 year old mother, who lived in JP for over ten years, she said that she liked the diversity of JP but noticed that It has become "more white" within the past couple of years. She also said that the properties were costing more money and that the public schools were horrible.
In the 1980’s more students moved into Jamaica Plain because of the lower costs. Today, Jamaica Plain has become the home for upper middle class families (living in the beautiful Victorian houses), students, and artists. Jamaica Plain is also known for their large gay and lesbian community.
When I visited Jamaica Plain in April I ended up sailing in the middle of Jamaica Pond. Jamaica Pond was created by glacial action. It covers about 70 acres, is 1.3 miles in circumference, and is as deep as 70 feet in some locations. Before 1848 the pond supplied Boston with fresh water through an underground aqueduct. The Jamaica Plain Ice Company has icehouses along the pond, and Boston locals loved to skate on the pond in the winter. A two-year resident of JP said his favorite part of JP was the pond (he was sitting on a bench by the pond and obviously gave me a smartass answer to the question “What’s your favorite part of the pond?”) For as longer than Jamaica Plain has been a part of Boston, the pond has been the center of resident activity.
Jamaica Plain is a fascinating (and beautiful) place. I cannot believe how much it has changed since my mother was a resident of Boston. Now that I am living in this city, a whole new identity of JP exists. It’s amazing how much a place can change (demographics, businesses) and stay the same (Jamaica Pond= awesome.) Here are some links for a broader picture of Jamaica Plain…
Jamaica Plain Historical Society
Jamaica Plain High School Yearbook 1976
"Love thy neighbor as thyself" -Deborah Scott c/o 1976
Photo Credits: Kristy Robinson
The South End
By: Katie Dulleakellegrew
Boston, Massachusetts is a city notarized for its historical sites and prominent standing in the development of the United States of America. In this city, as in many cities across the country, individual neighborhoods have developed each with its own unique culture and past. However, just because the citizens of any given neighborhood live with history does not mean they fully know what that history is.
April 20th, 2009 was a cool day and although the Boston Marathon was still in the process of finishing, residents of the South End were busy making their way through the streets. It was on the sidewalk of Tremont Street that a spot was deemed good enough for interviews. Through speaking with residents of the South End, I hoped to learn more about the historical aspects of the neighborhood and locate any landmarks or statues that could provide us with more information. Questions in hand and camera rolling, I embarked upon my quest and returned with a very different notion of the neighborhood than I had left with.
Surprisingly, although I managed to get four people to stop for interviews (and three to agree to be filmed), none of them could tell me a specific location that held historical significance. Every person stopped admitted that the history of the South End was important and that it was significant in Boston’s development, but none could cite information beyond that. What was even more surprising was that when I sat down to gather information on the internet (in the belief that the people I interviewed simply did not care to investigate where they lived); the web could not provide me with much information either.
As it turns out, the South End is a historical Boston neighborhood not because important movements occurred there or statues and monuments call the area home. Instead, what the South End is known for is simply having a historical atmosphere. Waves of differing cultures have made residence in the area over the years and because of this the district was dubbed historical.
With the exception of the Harriet Tubman Museum, the neighborhood (which is one of the largest in the country covering 500 acres) is known primarily for its Victorian houses and parks such as Chester Square, Union Park, and Worcester Square. (http://www.southendhistoricalsociety.org/ )
The South End was once what made up the neck of Boston into Roxbury. This was fact until the 1840s when the mansions and swamp land were replaced by Charles Bulfinch’s plan to develop the land into a series of “Bay-Window” Townhouses, small gardens, and parks with a preference for a fountain at the center of it. Bulfinch’s designs attracted upper-middle and upper class families until 1870 during which time the neighborhood was abandoned because of the financial crisis of the time. (http://www.south-end-boston.com/)
The area remained in disarray until the 1940s when the homosexual community began to flock to the area. In the 1960s the South End was renovated yet again in an effort to drive down the crime rate in the area. (http://www.aviewoncities.com/boston/southend.htm ) Since this time, the South End has become an area known for upper-class living and fine dining (all of which were mentioned in the interviews provided by South End residents). The variety of these restaurants help to both build character in the neighborhood as well as support the diversity that the area has become known for.
Examples of restaurants include:
South End Pizza and Grill
772 Tremont St.
Boston, MA 02116
South End Food Emporium
469 Columbus Ave
Boston, MA 02116
South End Formaggio
268 Shawmut Ave
Boston, MA 01228
Addis Red Sea Ethiopian Restaurant
544 Tremont St
Boston, MA 02116
While the Harriet Tubman Museum can be found in the neighborhood, what makes it historical is the diversity it is known for. The residents enjoy an antiquarian architectural environment to live in that has been shaped by the historical architecture and restaurants that have come to nest there.
*Other sources consulted:
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