From Dave Brigham:
As part of a series of quick-hit jaunts through Boston this spring, I checked out the outer reaches of Nubian Square, mostly along Dudley Street. Earlier that day, I was in Egleston Square (see July 18, 2026, "Scrambling Through Boston's Egleston Square"), and subsequently I walked through Newmarket Square. I don't plan to publish anything about the latter neighborhood, having covered it pretty well a few years back (see May 15, 2022, "Busting Ghosts in Boston's Newmarket Square").
I'll admit that when I steered myself toward Dudley Street, I didn't realize that I wasn't far from Nubian Square (formerly Dudley Square), which I wrote about last year (see March 4, 2025, "Nubian Square: New Name, Old Buildings"). My first stop, Montesino & Sons Tire Shop, is located just a half mile from Hibernian Hall, the historic events venue in Nubian Square that I wrote about in the post linked above.
Situated at the northern end of Blue Hill Avenue, where it intersects with Dudley Street, the tire shop has been in business for at least 30 years. I like Montesino's sign, with a tire forming the "O" in "Sons." Adjacent to the store is a large parking lot and work area. I can't say I've ever seen a storefront tire repair joint before. Usually they're located in service stations.
The building rose in 1890, per MACRIS.
I headed southeast on Dudley Street, passing a park (Dudley Town Common), the old St. Joseph Home for the Aged, numerous three-decker homes and brick apartment buildings, until I spied Davey's Super Market (formerly F and T Supermarket).
I'm guessing that there has been a market here for several decades. "We're like a staple in the community," Jacqueline Teixeira, owner of Davey's, told the local CBS news station, WBZ, in this article. "We're not only like a grocery store; we're like a community center."
At the left of the photo, you can see part of the mural that runs the entire length of the store along Clarence Street. The art work depicts "heroes from our community," according to the web site for the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative. The mural was the first that DSNI produced.
Continuing along, I stepped into an alley next to Nos Casa Cafe (Spanish and Portuguese fare) to check out a ghost sign for a much older business.
I don't know how old this sign for Smith Grocery is, when the business was started, nor when it went out of business. I always love seeing relics like this, fossils from earlier times.
Located at 475 Dudley Street, this building is known as the Adolph Miller Building, which dates to 1897, according to MACRIS.
Further south on Dudley Street, at the corner of Albion Street, I made an image of the side of Market Borinqueña.
This is one of those photos that I just walk into. The bold lettering on the sign telling potential customers important information, the contrast of the tan and blue section of painted wall, the stacks of plastic crates, the bike, the pallet. I really like this image. The next one is no slouch either.
I walked past Market Borinqueña, then turned around and headed back toward my starting point. I was thrilled by the sign painted on the side of Ideal Sub Shop. Again, the sign tells you everything you need to know, in a bold but simple fashion.
A little further north, I looked east down Rockford Street, a narrow way running down the side of a two-and-a-half story building that, I found out later via MACRIS, is a former Metropolitan Street Railway car house (so sorry, no photo). I spied a carriage house and thought, "Oh, that's cool. And in really good condition."
Then I walked up a series of short stone stairways up a small hill in front of me and saw the main house. "This place is beautiful," I said.
I'd heard of the Shirley-Eustis House, and knew it was in Roxbury, but I had no idea I was close by. I'm thankful that my backside nose led me to it.
"The Shirley-Eustis House was built in bucolic Roxbury in 1747 by William Shirley as his country estate," according to the web site for the non-profit organization that operates the home as a museum and event and education space. "Shirley was Royal Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay from 1741-1749 and 1753-1756. In 1756 he was also appointed by King George II Commander-in-Chief of all British and Colonial Forces in North America. In this grand example of English Palladian design, Governor Shirley and his family lived very public lives as representatives of the British Empire. Their persons, their house, and the grounds were cared for by a staff of enslaved Africans, indentured servants, and sometimes idle soldiers."
In 1759 Shirley was reappointed as the Governor of the Bahamas and he deeded the property to his son-in-law, Eliakim Hutchinson, according to MACRIS. Hutchinson, who served as a member of the governor's council and Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, lived in the property until his death in 1775.
The estate served as a vital property for the colonists during the Revolutionary War. "Despite Hutchinson's demise, the Americans seized his property officially in 1782, but practically in 1775 because of its former owner's Loyalist sentiments. Beginning in 1775 the house was used as barracks and hospital for men stationed in Dorchester during the [British] siege [of Boston]," MACRIS continues.
Per the Shirley-Eustis House Association, the home was owned by a succession of wealthy Bostonians in the following decades, including Capt. James Magee, a merchant; and former diplomat William Eustis and his wife, Caroline. In 1865, Hannah Osgood purchased the property and ran it as a boarding house.
"By 1900...the aging structure was a tenement falling quickly into disrepair," per the web site. "In 1913 it was condemned and slated for demolition."
Preservationists stepped in to save the home. "Led by Lillie B. Titus and William Sumner Appleton, the Shirley-Eustis House Association managed to rescue the house and worked diligently over several decades to restore it to its former grandeur. With the exception of the lost piazzas and verandas, the house now looks very much as it did in 1820."
The carriage house dates to 1806.
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