Lower South Roxbury End

From Dave Brigham:

Wouldn't it be funny if neighborhood boundaries, and city and town borders, existed in the three-dimensional world, rather than just on maps and in people's minds? Imagine walking on the Massachusetts Avenue bridge from Boston to Cambridge, across the Charles River, and half-way along you have to duck under a rope or pass through a door or step over a raised line of bricks to gain entry to the People's Republic.

Sometimes I feel this type of marker would be helpful when I'm out exploring. But what, ultimately, does it matter whether I'm making photos in Boston's South End neighborhood, or its Lower Roxbury area? I faced this same issue many years ago when walking along the Somerville/Cambridge line (see March 16, 2019, "Where Am I? Somertown? Charlesville?").

After walking through Boston's Nubian Square (see March 4, 2025, "Nubian Square: New Name, Old Buildings"), I continued north into more of Roxbury and then the South End. After checking out the murals honoring Martin Luther King, Jr., and his wife, Coretta Scott King, featured at the end of the Nubian Square post, I continued past Ramsay Park.

On the side of Pizza Talia, I saw a great mural painted by artist Alex Cook in 2009.

Called "She Sees More Than The World Will Show Her," the mural features a woman standing in a kitchen, staring out a window at a galaxy of stars. Cook has painted hundreds of murals all over the world. I've featured him a few times on the blog: September 21, 2024, "Franklin Park is Ruin-ed" and August 10, 2021, "A Lovely Walk Through Roslindale Village."

A few doors down is the Roxbury Men's Club, which the Internet tells me is permanently closed.

I bet this was a fun place to hang out back in the day.

Next door is the Shawmut Community Church of God.

On the opposite side of Shawmut Avenue, across from the Eritrean Community Center, is a storefront church.

Iglesias de Dios Pentecostal is located in the J.B. Prescod Building. Regular readers of the blog know I have an interest in these types of houses of worship. While I'm not religious, I respect this type of effort to carve out places for congregation.

I continued on for a short time, enjoying the brownstone apartment buildings and street-level activity of the neighborhood. At the corner of Worcester and Washington streets, I spied a classic old sign.

Andy's Cleaners was located in this beautiful brick building for many years. I made a photo of the sign because I'm guessing it won't be around much longer. The cleaning business was located in what's known as the Pope Block, which was "built by James E. Potter in 1884 from designs provided by Frederick A. Pope for George A. Pope," per MACRIS. "A member of the family for whom the Pope's Hill area of Dorchester is named, Boston Directories indicate that Frederick A. Pope was active as an architect from the early 1870s until the mid 1890s....Frederick A. Pope designed numerous residences in the Back Bay, including" many on Newbury Street and Marlborough Street.

I headed southwest along Washington Street, where I was inspired to make a photo of the gorgeous Smith Block.

"The Smith Block is a rare surviving Boston example of a mansard-roofed commercial block," according to MACRIS. "Numerous examples of this building type were destroyed in the Great Boston Fire o 1872...After this fire, the mansard roof was less widely utilized in residential as well as commercial construction. Over time, examples of this building type have disappeared as the result of demolition and neglect. The Smith Block ranks among Washington Street's most architecturally significant properties by virtue of its prominent siting and intact form and elements, if not its original brownstone facing. After many years of precarious existence as a vacant building, the Smith Block [was] adapted for reuse as an antiques cooperative."

Built in 1866 for Stephen Smith, a leading Boston dealer of office furniture, this block "was evidently intended as a satellite store of a business whose main office was located at 51 and 53 Cornhill, Boston," per MACRIS. Today it is occupied by Yunnan Kitchen, as well as several condos.

I knew that Mike's City Diner was in this area, but I wasn't inspired to make a photo.

Not far away stands one of the most photographed buildings in the South End, a former beauty that has sat unloved and neglected for many years.

I refer to this High Victorian slab as Tom Cruise's Place. Located on the corner of Washington Street and Massachusetts Avenue, the former Hotel Alexandra was built in 1875 and for a time several years ago was owned by the Church of Scientology (see April 8, 2018, "Tom Cruise Slept Here...Well, Maybe"). The cult hoped to make this historic property its New England headquarters.

"That project proved expensive, and ultimately the Scientologists put the property back on the market for sale in late 2014," per this Boston Globe article from April 2025. "It spent nearly five years on the market, and at least one sale agreement fell through before [developer Tom] Calus and [business partner Jas] Bhogal spent $11 million to buy the site in 2019."

That Globe article indicates that Calus and Bhogal in April filed a revised redevelopment plan with the city "that calls for restoring the historic Alexandra and building a five-story expansion on the vacant lot next door. The 68-room hotel would include retail or restaurant on the ground floor."

Here's wishing them all the luck in the world.

Next to Tom Cruise's Place, heading southwest on Washington Street, back in the direction of Nubian Square, is the very handsome Chester Block.

Built in 1857, this Italianate building mixes residential and retail uses. Completing a loop, I ended up admiring the gorgeous Church of St. Augustine and St. Martin on Lenox Street, just around the corner from the Shawmut Community Church of God mentioned above.

The combined congregations trace their respective histories to the late 19th century. "What is now the Church of St. Augustine and St. Martin began as two different missions of the Society of St. John the Evangelist," per the church's web site. "St. Martin’s Mission had its beginnings in the home of Sarah Jackson at 17 Westminster Street in the South End in 1899. The congregation soon outgrew Mrs. Jackson’s living room and moved first to a storefront on Camden Street and then to a small chapel on Lenox Street. In the West End, Church of St. Augustine was formally organized. In 1886 a building was purchased on Anderson Street and 1892 a new church was built on Phillips Street."

The web site continues: "In 1908 the Society of St. John the Evangelist purchased the land next to St. Martin’s Chapel on Lenox Street and began construction of the present building. Later that year St. Augustine’s Church in the West End was closed and many of its furnishing were incorporated into the new building. Father Field was the first pastor of the combined community. On St. Martin’s Day, November 11, 1908 the Church of St. Augustine and St. Martin was formally opened with a ten-day preaching mission led by a black priest, The Rev. John A. Williams, Rector of St. Phillips Church in Omaha, Nebraska."

A long fly ball away from the beautiful house of worship with the bright red doors is Jim Rice Field at Ramsay Park. The field was being upgraded back in January when I happened by.

The baseball field is named for Jim Rice, the Hall of Fame left-fielder who played for the Red Sox for 16 seasons in the 1970s and 1980s. The field was named in his honor due to his involvement with Major League Baseball's Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) program, per Wikipedia.

Jim Rice Field was the last stop on this journey. But in May 2024 I had done some exploring nearby, with the intention of one day adding more material for a post. So below are several spots I checked out on the adventure.

On Whittier Street, which sits across Tremont Street from the Boston Police headquarters, and which dead-ends at Madison Park High School's football field, sits a relic from times gone by.

The old Health Unit of the George Robert White Fund is likely to be redeveloped before too long, much like its neighbor properties across Whittier Street, which include several new apartment buildings. The GRW Fund was established in 1922 to fund "works of public utility for residents of Boston, to hold and manage the facilities constructed by the Fund and oversee its investments," according to the City of Boston web site. Its namesake was a pharmaceutical executive who lived most of his life in Boston.

White is also the namesake of the stadium in Boston's Franklin Park that has been the subject of quite a bit of controversy as it undergoes a massive redevelopment. I wrote about the stadium in May 2024.

The Health Fund building sits just south of a lot labeled on Google Maps as "Embrace Center Project Site." Embrace Boston is the organization behind the The Embrace, a memorial on Boston Common to Martin Luther King, Jr., and Coretta Scott King. The group plans to develop the project site with a 31,000-square-foot community center offering performance, gallery and work spaces.

Heading east-northeast on Tremont Street, I passed many great old buildings. The one that caught my eye the most was at #1023.

This Classical Revival beauty, which is located in the Lower Roxbury Historic District, dates to 1894, and features decorative friezes and cornices covered with pressed metal, per MACRIS.

At Tremont and Cabot streets is an interesting mix of four buildings cheek by jowl.

Separated from Tremont Street by a small cobblestone parking lot and street, these buildings read this way to me, left to right: either new construction or completely renovated apartment building; a probably late-19th century Mansard building with a barber shop that may or may not be endorsed by Major League Baseball; a 19th-century apartment building that may have been a firehouse at one point, judging by the large opening in the middle of the ground floor; and another great residential structure that may have been the inspiration for the newer building.

Steps away is a legendary joint.

In business since 1935, Slade's Bar & Grill calls itself the "Soul of Boston." Here's the bullet list for this restaurant/nightclub's history:

• Original owner Renner Slade may have been a bootlegger.
• Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell once owned this place.
• Malcolm X was a server.
• It was listed in "The Negro Motorist Green Book."
• Famous patrons over the years include Martin Luther King, Jr., Ted Kennedy and Muhammad Ali.

I'd heard of this place, and would have made a photo for sure, even if I wasn't in a musical outfit called the Slade Wiggins Band.

I considered turning around at this point, but I looked up ahead and saw a massive mural that I had to capture.

Located at the corner of Camden and Tremont streets, "Breathe Life" is a fantastic work by Rob “ProBlak” Gibbs, who I also featured in my Nubian Square post. Gibbs grew up in Roxbury and is a co-founder of Artists for Humanity, an arts non-profit that hires and teaches creative skills to youth.

Directly across Tremont Street from "Breathe Life" is, well, perfection.

The Chickering and Sons Piano Factory (aka the Spencer Repeating Rifle Co. building) is a five-story brick behemoth that fills nearly a full city block between Northampton and Camden streets. Built in 1853, this Italianate stunner was a year later called the second-largest building in the country following the U.S. Capitol.

At the time of the factory's opening, the Chickering company was the largest piano manufacturer in the United States, according to Wikipedia. From 1860 to 1868, the Spencer Rifle outfit was also located here, making weaponry for the U.S. Army and sportsmen, Wikipedia indicates.

In 1972, the building was converted to artist studios. Today known as the Piano Craft Guild, the building has been modernized with amenities including an indoor pool and a fitness center. I'm unclear on whether there are still artist spaces here.

I meandered the side streets between Tremont Street and Columbus Avenue for a while. There are loads of great buildings here, but the light was tough. For some reason -- well, I know the reason and I'll explain below -- I made a photo of the Stanhope Garage at 277 Northampton Street.

Built in 1916, according to the Boston assessor's office, it located a two-minute walk from the apartment building where Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King first lived after their 1953 wedding.

So what was the reason I made that photo above?

I was a fan of the TV show "Taxi," which aired for five seasons in the late '70s and early '80s. Whenever I see a garage like the one above, I think of the garage where the show mostly took place, and imagine that Louie DePalma is in there yelling at his drivers.

The last thing I saw on this journey was the most surprising. It required some detective work to figure out just what I was looking at.

This is the rear of 8 Coventry St / 1035-1039 Tremont Street. Using my photo editing software to manipulate the contrast and light, I was able to read the words "THE WORLD'S BREAKFAST" at the top. Doing a quick online search of that phrase, I discovered that the American Cereal Company used that slogan beginning in 1902 for its Quaker Oats cereal. Once I learned that, I looked at the image again and was able to make out the outline of the Quaker Oats "mascot" underneath.

Pretty cool find, I must say.

Oak Square is OK

From Dave Brigham:

I have driven through Boston's Oak Square approximately countless times in my life, and have wondered about one specific property on just about each of those infinity occasions. I'll get to that shortly, after I discuss a family-owned laundry and dry cleaning outfit that closed up shop about five years ago in the Brighton neighborhood.

(I hope somebody saves that sign.)

Swan Cleaners was in business for more than 70 years. I don't know if the business took a dive because fewer people need office outfits dry-cleaned, or if there was another reason it shut down.

(The swan on the side exterior wall is a nice touch.)

In November 2022, the Boston Zoning Board of Appeal approved a pot shop to take over the Swan space. I saw no sign that Pure Oasis, which has stores on Blue Hill Avenue in Dorchester and Devonshire Street in downtown Boston, is preparing to open in Oak Square.

Across the way, elevated above the hustle and bustle of Washington Street, is the specific property I've pondered over for years. Vacant for a long time, this place at one point had what appeared to be contractor trucks parked around it, as if perhaps it was a builder's office. And a search of the address brings up Daley Construction Company as a prior tenant or owner. Turns out, this place has "a long association with members of Brighton's building trades," according to MACRIS.

"This unusual, towered Mansard/Queen Anne house...[s]ituated on a triangular lot formed by the intersection of Washington Street and Langley Road...was built c. 1870-1875 by and for John H. McCausland, carpenter," MACRIS continues. "By 1885, Granville A. Fuller owned this property. Granville A. Fuller resided at 15 Sparhawk Street, Brighton. His father, Granville Fuller was a talented architect/builder responsible for the design and construction of the Greek Revival Brighton Town Hall in 1841. Granville A. Fuller was a partner in his father's lumber company and was also a civil engineer. From the 1890s until at least the 1930s, this house was owned by Walter L. Maguire, roofer with an office at 46 Cornhill Street, Boston."

In late 2018, a developer filed plans with the city for a five-story, 37-unit condo building with ground-floor retail space. I'm not sure of the status of that proposal.

I just have two more sites I want to discuss. The first is the Faneuil Branch of the Boston Public Library, named after the street where it is located. The street is named after Benjamin Faneuil, brother of Peter, who is the namesake of the well-known hall in downtown Boston.

"The Faneuil branch...was built in 1931 and is a relatively rare example of the Art Deco style in Brighton," according to MACRIS. "It was designed by the architectural firm of Kilham, Hopkins and Greeley of Boston, who also designed Waltham City Hall, Dedham High School, and Barnard Hall at Radcliffe."

Last, but certainly not least, is my favorite building in the square.

Located adjacent to the library branch, the circa-1912 Oak Square Fire Station is an English Revival gem. It was designed by the firm of Timothy Francis Walsh and Charles Maginnis, known for designing Roman Catholic churches and institutional buildings around the country, including Holy Cross College in Worcester, Mass., the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., and Trinity College Chapel in the capital city, per MACRIS.

Here's your headline explainer.

Walking Through a Small Slice of Brooklyn at Dusk

From Dave Brigham:

My last post featured highlights from a walk I took through Greenwich Village, as I tagged along behind my daughter and her friend while they did a self-guided tour of New York University (see December 21, 2024, "A Peep at Greenwich Village"). Later that day we checked into a hotel in Brooklyn near the Barclays Center, where the girls went to a concert in the evening. While they were at the Childish Gambino show, I walked around the Park Slope neighborhood and made some photos, trying to beat the sunset.

The first thing that caught my eye was the rear of a Warby Parker store along Bergen Street.

The eyewear store, which fronts on Flatbush Avenue, opened in 2020.

Along Flatbush Avenue, I dug the sign for Antonio's Pizza, which has been in business for more than 50 years.

Across the avenue was a pair of buildings that caught my eye. Frankly, there were dozens of buildings like this that appealed to me, but I couldn't make photos of all of them.

On the right is a Dominican restaurant, El Gran Castillo de Jagua, which translates to the Great Castle of Jagua. Jagua is a fruit found in the jungles of South America; it has been used for body ornamentation and medicinal purposes by the indigenous people of the Amazon for centuries, according to the Internet.

On the left is Sharlene's Bar, which, according to its facade, features beer cocktails. "Opening in its current form in 2009, when borough native Sharlene Frank rechristened it, the space had previously been a watering hole named Mooney’s," according to this 2018 profile at Punch. "Before that, according to The New Yorker, it was 'a bar for as long as anyone can remember.'

"The jukebox is stocked with everything from The Kinks to At the Drive In, but the bartenders only turn it on when it’s really busy; before then, it’s usually a steady flow of bebop. That lack of pretension or gimmick is exactly what has made it the beloved second living room for an extended web of ambitious young people looking to mingle, hook up, swap stories about the sorry state of [the media] industry and hatch schemes to improve the lots of their comrades."

Sounds like a great place.

(I really like this photo.)

A little further I was charmed by the bus on the Burrito Bar & Kitchen sign.

This joint has been here since 2005, after starting in New York's Tribeca neighborhood in 1991.

I passed the Barclays Center and then made my way over to a beautiful old subway head house.

I believe this place was built in 1908 from a design by the firm of Heins & LaFarge, as part of a much larger complex for an elevated train station. Eventually, the elevated line came down and the old head house fell into disrepair, according to this blog post.

"At some point, Arts for Transit took over the building, and today, it sits majestically and silently in the middle of the triangle formed by Flatbush, Fourth and Atlantic Aves," the blog post indicates. The nicely restored building "now serves as an artistic skylight for those folks waiting on the Brooklyn-bound local IRT tracks" underground.

I love that.

The sun was fading, while my appetite was growing, so I started making my way back to my hotel. I got a bit turned around, but after reorienting myself via Google Maps, I ended up in front of a hulking industrial building along Butler Street, just a few blocks from the Fairfield Inn.

This neighborhood is still somewhat industrial, but I could tell that there once had been a LOT more buildings that looked like this, filling up what are now empty lots or new condominiums. Thanks to the awesome Brownstoner web site, I learned everything I need to know about this abandoned complex.

Completed in 1914, this place was originally a publishing plant for R.G. Dun & Company, according to this blog post. The "Vaguely Renaissance/Gothic Revival early 20th century factory" was designed by the architectural firm of Renwick, Aspinwall & Tucker. The firm also designed buildings including the American Express Building at 65 Broadway in Manhattan; Grace Church Neighborhood House and the Provident Loan Society Buildings, both in Manhattan; and sanitarium additions to Seaview Hospital in Staten Island, and Dollar Savings Bank in the Bronx.

You can read the history of R.G. Dun & Company at the blog link. I'll tell you where the story ends, though: the firm merged with the John M. Bradstreet Company, forming Dun & Bradstreet, which provides commercial data, analytics, and insights for businesses.

There appears to have been a legal battle over this property, which as of early 2014 was slated for demolition to make way for a hotel, according to Brownstoner. More recently, a developer was awarded $36 million by a judge for...I'm not sure what, because the article is behind a paywall.

At the corner of Butler Street and 3rd Avenue there is a large mural advocating for drivers to watch out for pedestrians and those riding bicycles, with a big red stop sign painted that says "NOT ONE MORE DEATH." There are four kids portrayed, with names and birth and death dates next to three of them: Victor Flores 1992-2004; Juan Angel Estrada 1993-2004; and James Rice 2003-2007. The photo below depicts Rice.

Victor and Juan were hit and killed by a garbage truck at an intersection several blocks away, in February 2004, according to a news article that I don't feel the need to share. James was hit and killed by a car while in a crosswalk nearby, in 2007. Local teenagers painted the mural in 2007.

Before retiring to my hotel room, I did a loop around the property. Along Douglass Street, I saw a sign that I thought was perhaps a ghost, but alas it's for an active business: Marble, Onyx, Granite & Terrazzo.

Around the corner on Butler Street is a place that I'd noticed on Google Maps when I booked the hotel. I had to make an image of the Yellow Cab garage.

I will publish more quick-hit New York City posts in the near future.

For links to more about New York City, see below:

February 19, 2022, "New York City Flashback: Views from a Tour Bus"

February 12, 2022, "New York City Flashback: Views from the High Line"

February 5, 2022, "New York City Flashback: Views While Strolling and Shopping"

January 29, 2022, "New York City Flashback: The Transit Museum"

IC An Old Museum in Boston

From Dave Brigham:

What to do with a long-abandoned, modernist box of a building in the middle of a very popular Boston park that was once home to a horse-racing track and that for decades has been the finish line for the world's largest regatta? I'm glad I don't need to come up with an answer to that run-on question. After reviewing some photos and history, we will learn about possible plans for this place.

Nestled in a stand of trees just steps from an amphitheater in Allston's Christian Herter Park, this rectangular curiosity was completed in 1960. Designed by architect Nathaniel Saltonstall, the building became home to the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) for the next two years. Saltonstall was a co-founder of the ICA.

The building and the amphitheater were collectively known as the Metropolitan Boston Art Center in the 1950s, and were sited on a moat-surrounded island a short distance from the Charles River. The project, while presenting a bold vision, was "at odds with the original concept of the Charles River Reservation as an open-space amenity," according to this State of Massachusetts document about Herter Park.

"The Herter Center (as the building is now known), built as a museum, for a time fulfilled that intent as the original home of the ICA, but poor location and low attendance finally closed it," the state document continues. Sometime in the 1980s the New England Sports Museum moved into the building, where it remained until the mid-'90s, I believe. The organization continued using the building for storage for many years.

I remember when this building housed the sports museum, although I never visited. Now known as The Sports Museum, the organization operates on levels 5 and 6 of the TD Garden, home to the Celtics and Bruins.

Since the sports museum moved out, this building, out of place amid the walking paths, canoe-rental shacks, playgrounds, pop-up brewery spaces and collegiate boathouses, has sat empty, gathering moss and graffiti.

At 45 acres, Herter Park is the largest park in the Charles River Basin. From the late 19th century into the first half of the 20th, Herter Park was where the Charles River Speedway was located. The what now?

Backside readers with strong memories will recall the post in which I found out about the Charles River Speedway (see September 6, 2010, "UPDATE: Horsing Around at the Old Barracks"). From the Brighton Allston Historical Society: "The Charles River Speedway was built in 1899 along the shores of the Charles River from Market/Arsenal St to Harvard Stadium and existed into the 1960's. The complex included a mile long race course used mainly for sulky racing and a 1.75 mile driveway, the original Soldier's Field Road, which paralleled the race course and extended up through Cambridge St. It was designed by the Olmsted Landscaping firm and included a bicycle racing course.

"The Superintendent's Building was located at the intersection of Western Ave and Soldier's Field Rd and is the only portion of the complex that still remains." Today, that building houses a fantastic space for eating, drinking, shopping and seeing live entertainment, known as The Speedway (I have an update post on that complex coming soon).

To return to my question: what to do with the former ICA/Sports Museum building, which is located on the grounds where a horse-racing track once stood? And yes, the park where each year, thousands of spectators, competitors and supporters gather for the Head of the Charles, and where during any given year lots of folks arrive for fundraising walks, family outings and theater performances.

Even in decay, the Herter Center shows its potential, with its large windows, well-shaded location and fascinating history.

In 2016, The Friends of Herter Park, which hosts events at the amphitheater, applied for funding from the Boston Redevelopment Authority (now known as the Boston Planning & Development Agency) in order to clean up the outdoor performance space. In that application, the group referenced the decay happening in and around the Herter Center, and laid out its vision for the building, tying its new uses to the stage productions.

The Friends at that time envisioned "gallery space for local artists, support facilities such as restrooms for event patrons, prep areas for caterers, staging rooms for event staff, costume changing rooms, green rooms for actors not on stage, or administrative support space to programs that utilize the amphitheater."

In the aforementioned State of Massachusetts document about Herter Park, there is a call for the Center's possible use as a home for environmental education programs or a ranger station; a space for public functions; or a cafe, or perhaps a combiination of those.

I understand the need for the amphitheater events to use the space, but I think it's important to make as much of this place available for public use as possible. Therefore, I love the ideas for gallery space, a ranger station/visitor center, a cafe, public event/programming space and restrooms.

I don't get the impression anything will happen here soon, but stay tuned.