Way Down Yonder in Pawtucket, Part I

From Dave Brigham:

I apologize in advance for this, but I often feel the need to explain my headline choices:

I'll admit that before posting that video, I couldn't recall what a paw paw is. I may have known when I was a kid and had occasion to sing the song. It's a fruit.

Anyway...let's dig into Pawtucket, Rhode Island, the fourth-largest city in the smallest state in the Union. This marks only the second time I've explored any municipality of Lil' Rhody. In September 2017, I wrote about a mini-vacation my family took in Newport (see September 28, 2017, "No Yachts, No Mansions").

I covered a lot of territory back in late June, so I'm splitting this review into two parts.

But first, a note about pronunciation. I've been saying "Paw-tucket" forever, but someone I met recently who lives on the South Coast of Massachusetts corrected me. "It's "Pah-tucket," he told me. Fair enough.

I like to park near town or city halls when I explore a place. Sometimes there's free parking, and usually such a building is located in the center of the action. So, after finding my spot in the lot on Roosevelt Avenue, I headed west for a short distance along Exchange Street. I was quite taken by the mural on the side of the Graham Building.

Built sometime between 1926 and 1929, the building was likely erected by the owner of H.L. Graham & Sons, a plumbing contractor, according to the National Register of Historic Places registration form for the Downtown Pawtucket Historic District.

As for the mural, it was completed by Rene Gomez for the Mental Health Stigma Campaign. "'I suffer from ADHD and I struggle with it every day. I also have an autistic son and it’s also something touching, meaningful to my heart,'" Gomez said in this NewsNation article. "'Being Hispanic, I had to put a Hispanic message up there,'" he continued. "'I grew up in a household where it wasn’t OK to cry and talk about my feelings, and that’s a stigma I would like to break.'”

"The murals also feature sign language and it’s LGBTQ-friendly because, to Gomez, it doesn’t matter who you are — mental health is mental health," the article continues. The mural program is in partnership with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) of Rhode Island and Rhode Island Latino Arts.

Next, I cut down Montgomery Street, after getting a peek at a ghost sign.

The Times newspaper was founded in Pawtucket in 1885 as The Evening Times. "Five years later, David O. Black bought the paper, and became the first of four generations to keep it in his family," per Wikipedia. "Black commissioned a new building for the newspaper at 23 Exchange street (sic)." The building was completed in 1896, and was the home of the paper until 2019.

"In October 2023, [current owner] Triboro Massachusetts News Media announced that The Times would be merging with sister paper The Call of Woonsocket to become The Blackstone Valley Call & Times, a Monday–Saturday newspaper," Wikipedia continues.

The old newspaper headquarters, which was designed by architects William R. Walker & Son, has been vacant since 2023, I believe.

Facing the rear of the old Times building, at the corner of Summer and North Union streets, is the former Henry Arnold Livery Stable, which in more recent years was home to Feldman Furniture. Below is a ghost sign facing southeast along Summer Street (I will feature another ghost sign from this building in a follow-up post).

(Ghost sign for Sealy Mattress on side of old Feldman Furniture building.)

"Henry F. Arnold was the proprietor of the Broad Street stables in 1891, when he first appears in city directories; an advertisement boasts '37 fine livery horses, and almost every description of carriage,' available 24 hours a day," per the Art in Ruins web site, quoting from the National Register nomination for the Downtown Pawtucket Historic District. For this post, and the one to follow, I relied as heavily on Art in Ruins as I do on MACRIS when writing about Massachusetts towns and cities.

"In 1892 Arnold...moved the stables to this new building...with 176 horse stalls on the ground floor and two floors of carriage storage above. The stables were accessed from North Union Street, while the three storefronts on Summer Street were occupied by various small, mostly auto-related businesses. In 1921, H.M. Arnold & Son Co. converted this building to a vehicular garage, and maintained that business until 1940. In 1945 Feldman’s Furniture Co. moved in, with retail space on Summer Street and storage on North Union...."

Check out that web site for a photo of the great Feldman's sign that used to grace this building. When I was in the city, there appeared to be construction under way at this site, likely for condos.

Next I headed north-northwest on Summer Street, where I immediately spotted another great mural on the side of 28 Summer Street.

This work features Phillis Wheatley, an American writer who is considered the first African-American author of a published book of poetry. Enslaved as a child, Wheatley was emancipated by the Wheatley family of Boston shortly after her book was published in 1773. I have referred to Wheatley before, in a post about Boston's Chinatown neighborhood where a plaque honors her memory.

This mural was painted by Lee Adam Beard, an artist who goes by Soems. This mural and two that I will showcase below, as well as others in the downtown, all feature farmous Black people from history, per this article on the Valley Breeze web site. Developer Leslie Moore spearheaded the project on various buildings she owns.

Just up the street, at 3 Exchange Street, is a wildly colorful depiction of a peacock.

The mural on the side of the Beswick Building was created by local artist Charles Clear, according to this Valley Breeze article. As for the Beswick, it was completed in 1891 "for Frances Beswick, widow of a saloon keeper and brewer who lived on the opposite comer of Exchange and Summer Streets in the early 1890s," according to this Art In Ruins article.

The building has suffered two fires in its lifetime and has fallen into disrepair in recent years. Developers have announced plans to renovate the place. I'm not sure of the status of that project.

Next, I made my way southeast on Main Street, where I was pleasantly surprised by two more Soems works of art.

This mural features William Grant Still, a composer born in Mississippi and raised in Arkansas. He composed nearly two hundred works, including five symphonies, four ballets, nine operas, and more than thirty choral works, art songs, chamber music, and solo works, per Wikipedia. This work is located on the side of the Still on Main, a group of shops with the motto, "Eat. Shop. Vibe."

The building is known historically as the W.T. Grant Building. Grant's was a department store chain founded in Lynn, Mass., in 1906. The chain was in business until 1976. In more recent years, the building was home to the Mill River Arcade, Preachers on a Mission and The Grant, a live entertainment venue.

Just up the street is The Green on Main, an events and retail space that Leslie Moore opened in 2022.

"The Green on Main, located in the Artéé Fabrics & Home building at 230 Main St....is intended to resemble a downtown park, complete with tables for eating or playing board games such as chess, and comfortable hanging chairs," per this Valley Breeze article. There are vendors and food offerings in the space, which is intended as a place for businesses that can't maintain regular hours, while adding life to Main Street, the article continues.

I'm not sure how many tenants are located in what is known historically as the Toole Building, which rose in 1892. Two floors were added in 1922

The mural at the left side of the entrance, another one by Soems, pays tribute to Victor Green, a postal employee who, with assistance from his wife Alma, started the Green Book in Harlem in 1936. "[C]alled alternately The Negro Motorist Green Book, The Negro Travelers’ Green Book, and The Travelers’ Green Book over its 30-year existence," the guide was one of "the most successful and long-lived" methods of helping African-American travelers during the Jim Crow era know where they could safely eat, shop and lodge, according to the National Park Service.

The NPS web site quotes Dino Thompson, a native of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, about the importance of the Green Book: "...[it] didn’t tell you if a place had a good steak, or good seafood, or had a soft bed...it told you where you would be safe; it told you where you’d be welcome and not made to go around the kitchen and order something to go...The rest [of the guide books out there] are just fluff...To my mind, it’s still the only necessary travel guide that’s ever been printed."

Frankly, I'm surprised the Trump administration has allowed this information to remain on the NPS web site.

From there, I wound my way south on East Avenue, and then west on Church Street. There, I made a less than great image of the Slater Cotton Mill apartments (let's blame it on the sun angle dissuading me from getting a better shot).

Built between 1880 and 1889 for the Slater Cotton Company, this massive mill building by 1892 contained 1,475 looms and employed 600 workers, according to this Art in Ruins write-up. The company "apparently fared poorly in the first decade of the 20th century," that blog post continues. "By October 1908, it had fallen so deeply in debt that it was reorganized as a new corporation, the Slater Manufacturing Company. At this time, its functions were broadened to include manufacturing of silk cloth."

The company continued to struggle and by 1918 it had sold its various operations and become a real estate holding company, renting space to other manufacturers. In succeeding years, the building was used by ER Hutchinson Co., which made jewelry displays. I'm not sure whether other companies also occupied the old mill before 2007, when a developer acquired the property and converted it to apartments.

Across Church Street, at 450 Main Street, is another old mill building, which I assume was once part of the Slater complex.

This building, which dates to *ahem* 1900, is currently home to the city's Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, among other outfits.

From there I continued north on Pine Street, across Main, where I made a photo of Atlantic Furniture, which is located in yet another old mill building.

Known historically as the James S. Brown Machine Shop, this brick building runs for 400 feet along Pine Street between Main and Bayley streets. The mill dates to the 1840s and was built for Brown, who was a metal worker who toiled for a company called Pitcher and Gay, per Art in Ruins.

"Even before the construction of the 1848 factory, James Brown had a substantial and well-deserved reputation as a machinist and inventor," the Art in Ruins article continues. "In 1831 he invented a machine for cutting bevel gearing; in 1838 he patented a machine for boring the tubes of speeder flyers from solid iron; and in 1842, he patented a lathe for creating irregular metal forms. In the new shop on Church Hill, Brown built a variety of textile machinery, including mules and speeders, and cordage machinery; by the mid-nineteenth century, the factory employed three hundred hands."

A jewelry manufacturer occupied this building in more recent years before the furniture company took over a long time ago.

Across Pine Street running perpendicular is another mill building that's almost as large as Brown's machine shop. Built in the late 19th/early 20th century, 248 Pine Street is a 35,000 square-foot old factory that, on the day of my exploration over the summer, was on the market.

Originally home to H.A. Briggs & Co., this facility was used, among other things, to process cotton waste.

What is cotton waste? Well, the Old Structures Engineering blog, in discussing this very building, has an answer: it "apparently means scraps (left over from making various cotton products) that are being reused, with cleaning being a common use. In other words, rags, maybe fancy rags."

More recently, this place was home to Summit Manufacturing Corp.

On the corner of Pine and Bayley streets is Don Armando Meat Market.

Zoom in to see the little square cow near the door. The company has been in business for quite a few years, I believe.

At the corner of Bayley and Commerce streets I spied a sign for the Rhodium Room, operated by RI Spirits, a distillery that makes products using the Rhodium name.

Also located in this cluster of buildings is Isle Brewers Guild and The Guild, each of which offers contract beer brewing.

I continued north on Commerce Street, and snapped a photo of an old mill, a smokestack and a new development along Goff Avenue.

The complex is known as 125 Lofts, a community of studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments.

The development is located in the former Union Wadding Company complex (also seen in the image below).

"The Union Wadding complex used to be the site of nineteen one- to four-story brick buildings with a prominent round-section chimney sited next to a late 19th-century boiler house," per my new friend, Art in Ruins. Check out that link, as it features tons of great photos. Makes me wish I'd walked around this area a bit more before moving on.

Anyway, back to Union Wadding: "The cotton wadding and waste business was prone to fire; several fires between the earliest development of the site in 1847 and 1870 destroyed most of the original factory buildings. A major fire in October 2010 — unrelated to the manufacture of cotton wadding but under suspicious circumstances — claimed ten buildings at the west end of the complex. The surviving Union Wadding buildings represent building campaigns carried out between 1870 and ca. 1930."

The company went into receivership in 2004 and subsequently went out of business.

I headed east on Goff Avenue, then north on Broad Street, having no idea about the urbex fantasy world I was about to encounter.

Accessible via Broad Street, between Clay and Barton streets (the latter of which is blocked off), the Pawtucket-Central Falls railroad station was completed in 1916 for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. The station, which straddles Pawtucket and neighboring Central Falls, was in use for barely 40 years. As regular readers of this blog know, I don't really do urbex. But obviously plenty of other people have explored this place.

"In 1959, the station building itself was in disrepair and was closed," according to Wikipedia. "Thereafter passengers accessed the platforms via stairways from Barton Street. The station was served by New Haven Railroad trains, then later by MBTA Commuter Rail, until Rhode Island stopped funding service past Attleboro on February 20, 1981. The station building was considered for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, but this was deferred due to concerns about its structural integrity. During the Northeast Corridor Electrification Project in the 1990s, the station tracks were relocated to increase clearances for the Acela Express to tilt when going around the curve."

I've ridden Amtrak trains through here many times over the years, but never realized that I was riding underneath this old station. But when I traveled to New York City in early October, I paid attention, pointing it out to my son as we rolled on by.

In January 2023, a new station opened a short distance west from the old one, just past the 125 Lofts development I highlighted above.

Next I walked east on Clay Street until I hit Roosevelt Avenue. I was now fully in Central Falls. I think. Google Maps tells me I was; the web site for Mel-Co-Ed, Inc. says the company is located in Pawtucket. I believe that, like the train station, this building is split by the border.

In this very pleasant industrial building, Mel-Co-Ed produces pendants, pins, bracelets, necklaces, cufflinks, tie clips, hang tags, medallions, and more, per its web site. The operation was founded in 1948 in Warwick, Rhode Island, and moved to this location in 1964. A third generation of one of the founders now runs the company.

I ventured just one building north -- definitely in Central Falls now -- to make a photo of K&W Webbing Co.

"K & W Webbing is a family-owned U.S. manufacturer...with over 100 years of combined hands-on experience in textile manufacturing and engineering design," per the company's web site. The company's "facilty includes a complete dyeing and finishing plant and equipment for the application of special treatments. Our experience in the production of webbing and tapes assures you of the highest quality at the lowest price consistent with that quality."

I crossed back into Pawtucket, where in short order I stumbled across a statue that's stirred some controversy.

Known as Toleration or Tolerance, this metal sculpture was created by artist Peruko Ccopacatty and installed in August 2021. Located at the corner of Roosevelt Avenue and Exchange Street, overlooking the Blackstone River, the work depicts Rev. William Blackstone. He was an early settler of Boston who moved to what is now Rhode Island in 1635. He is considered the little state's first permanent English settler.

His surname adorns not only the river this statue abuts, but also the Blackstone Valley, the town of Blackstone in Massachusetts and the Blackstone Canal, among other places.

"The statue, as is the case with many public art projects is not without controversy and Blackstone’s past was called into question as inappropriate to be recognized due to historical issues with Native Americans at the time of the founding and development of Pawtucket," per this RI News Today post.

This, despite the fact that "[l]ittle is known about Blackstone’s direct interactions with Native Americans," according to this article from the Valley Breeze.

I don't know much about Blackstone, but I'll say this, the statue certainly stands out.

Make sure to check back in two weeks for the second part of my Pawtucket report, featuring old mill buildings, a beautiful armory, a lonely carriage house, a historic riverside mill, an amazing diner and much more!

UPDATE: Guido's Court

From Dave Brigham:

Longtime readers of this blog might recall that every once in a while I check in on a quaint campo di bocce in Brighton known as Guido's Court. I was unaware when I stopped by this past June that good things are in store for this little gem.

(Bocce courts.)

Located along the Leo M. Birmingham Parkway, up a small hill behind Acura of Boston and tucked nicely under some shade trees, Guido's Court was named for Guido Salvucci, a local Italian-American guy who helped build the court. According to someone who commented on one of my previous posts about the court (see May 15, 2021, "A Magic Trek in Brighton" and November 18, 2010, "Guido's Court"), his son was Fred Salvucci, former secretary of transportation for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Born in Brighton, Fred, who is 86 years old, left quite a service legacy. From Wikipedia: he "served two terms as Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation under Michael Dukakis from 1975 to 1978 and 1983 to 1990. During his tenure, he gave particular emphasis to the expansion of the transit system, the development of financial and political support for the Big Dig, and the implementation of strategies in compliance with the Clean Air Act. Other efforts included the extension of the Red Line to Quincy and Alewife, the relocation of the Orange Line to the Southwest Corridor, the acquisition and modernization of MBTA Commuter Rail, the restructuring of the MBTA, and planning for the redevelopment of Park Square by placing the State Transportation Building there."

That commenter I mentioned also said that Guido, who passed away in 2006, was a wine maker and a Mason. It seems evident that his heavy-hitter son had something to do with naming the park, which sits on what was formerly a neighborhood of approximately 20 homes.

As for the court, it doesn't appear to have been used in quite some time, but that will likely change in the near future. The adjacent parkway, named for a former Massachusetts House of Representatives member, was recently reconstructed, with travel lanes reduced from four to two and the addition of a shared-use path along the southern edge of the park.

(Bocce scoreboard.)

(Horseshoe pit.)

According to the web site of landscape architecture firm Shadley Associates, proposed improvements for the small park "include universally accessible walkways, woodland trails designed to meet U.S. Forest Service accessibility guidelines, and a new overlook plaza featuring a shade structure, picnic tables, and timber benches. Recreational amenities include reconstructed bocce courts, new horseshoe pits, bicycle parking, benches, picnic tables, and a water bottle filling station."

Shadley Associates says the State of Massachusetts acquired the land in 1932 and constructed the park and parkway. Check out that web site for more history, as well as photos and maps of the proposed work.

New Balance Draws a Red Line with Diner

From Dave Brigham:

I can't be expected to know everything about the backside of America, nor of Massachusetts or even of Boston. But I'm flabbergasted that I didn't learn for more than a dozen years about a longtime Hub diner that's been sitting in a parking lot roughly four miles from my house, converted to new use by a major footwear company.

Thanks to a video shared by one of my favorite Instagram accounts, Chris Tanaka of Boston's WBZ-TV, I found out that the former Englewood Diner, which had previously been located in Dorchester, among other locations, sits on private property in Brighton. Tanaka posts regularly about walks he takes around the city, offering up lesser-known facts about streets, architecture and the city's history. Definitely check him out.

"The Englewood Diner stood in Peabody Square from the 1940s until the 1970s, when it was replaced by the Englewood Apartment building in the point between Dorchester Avenue and Talbot Avenue," according to this Dorchester Atheneum 2 blog post.

The diner over the years has moved to several Bay State towns. Per an article in the Diner Hotline Weblog, the old eatery relocated from Dorchester to Cambridge, Somerville, Fitchburg, Holden and Salisbury over the years. The diner, however, never operated in those locations. It was either stored or sat waiting for a plan to come to fruition.

The diner even went on a road trip.

"While in [Dan] Johnston’s possession, the diner ended up taking its longest round trip to be in a big budget Hollywood movie!" per the Diner Hotline article. "Johnston was approached by Dreamworks Production Company in 2001. Dreamworks wanted to use the diner in a scene of the movie 'Road to Perdition' starring Tom Hanks and Paul Newman. According to [Randy] Garbin as quoted from his book Diners of New England, Dreamworks reportedly paid Johnston nearly $40,000 giving Johnston the first option to purchase it back after the scenes in the movie were completed. The diner was transported to the Chicago area for the film and Johnston bought it back for less than half his original sale price."

I highly recommend reading the entire article to understand the full breadth of the old diner's life.

In 2012, I believe, the owner of New Balance, or perhaps the shoe company itself, acquired the diner and moved it to a private lot behind Boston Volvo. I accessed the site via a parking lot behind 38 Everett Street. I believe you can also check it out by walking to the rear of the car dealer's property and winding your way around to the rear of a low-slung building that is perpendicular to 38 Everett Street.

New Balance uses the old Englewood for corporate events.

A Saturday Skulk Through Southie

From Dave Brigham:

I've covered South Boston quite a bit on this blog (see the bottom of this post for links) yet somehow I found more to check out this past April. The impetus for visiting this Boston neighborhood yet again was a ghost sign that I didn't know about the last time I was there.

I forget where I learned about this old sign for Bay State Brewery located on the side of The Distillery North apartments on East 2nd Street at the intersection with H Street. "The large brick factory building that sits between East 1st and 2nd Street in South Boston was first constructed in the 1860s as the Bay State Brewery and Malt House for the production of beer," according to the Distillery North web site. A man named Henry Souther started the brewing operation, having "purchased the land from the Sound Boston Association, seeing it as well located beside the water for the delivery of barley from Canada. At the time, the harbor came right up to the property edge...."

"It wasn’t long before the Bay State Brewery was sold to a railroad magnate and Congressman from New Hampshire named Frank Jones." I haven't learned when Jones took over the facility, but I'm assuming no later than the 1890s. That means the ghost sign is likely at least 125 years old, which is pretty cool.

Jones, who during his political career also served as mayor of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, started his brewing business in that small seacoast city. "The Frank Jones Brewery was one of the largest producers of ale in the United States of America," according to Wikipedia. "In 1896, Jones' Portsmouth brewery produced about 250,000 barrels a year."

Jones died in 1902, and the brewery complex was sold to the Felton family of Newton, Massachusetts, per the Distillery North web site. "The Feltons had arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1640, already with a background in ale brewing. In Boston they took up rum distilling under the names of Crystal Spring Rum and Pilgrim Rum. After purchasing the Bay State Brewery, it took the Feltons a year to reconfigure the facility as a rum distillery, a process that involved the installation of two dozen 10,000-gallon fermenting vats."

The Felton distillery closed in 1982. "In 1984...Frederick Gordon...purchased the property with its skeletons of disused machinery, molasses streaked walls, and malodorous scents," the Distillery North site continues. "The rough neighborhood and the curious layout of the 100,000 square foot factory, with spaces ranging from shoebox to gymnasium-sized, was a curious real estate puzzle. It was artists who naturally gravitated toward the atypical labyrinth, and word got around."

Currently, the development features both work and living spaces for more than 100 artists and creative professionals. The on-site Distillery Gallery "features rotating exhibitions that highlight the diverse talents of both resident and guest artists," per the web site for the community.

Whew! That was a lot of information. I'm always happy when companies that redevelop old buildings provide the history of the site.

Since I've made photos a lot around Southie, I wandered quite a bit to find new subject matter. I ended up on Silver Street, which runs parallel to the main thoroughfare, West Broadway, between Dorchester and D streets. You know I love back alleys and narrow streets where I can see the true backside.

The first thing to catch my eye was the old rear entrance to the Gorin's department store.

When I made this photo, I felt sure I had made a complementary image of the old tile entryway to the store a few years back. But in reviewing my archives, I realized that the entryway was for Pober's, another old department store. Then I thought perhaps Gorin's had been located in the same building, before of after Pober's. But I checked out Google Street View and realized the stores were located in different buildings along West Broadway.

Anyway, Gorin's was a local chain that started in Woburn, Mass., in 1900. Early on, there were stores in Everett, South Boston, Watertown Square, Central Square in Cambridge and Somerville's Union Square, according to this Bouseblog post. By the 1950s, the chain had grown to employ more than 3,000 people in at least 20 stores. Gorin's "purchase of the Almy, Bigelow and Washburn department store chain added locations in Salem, Danvers and Beverly. Later acquisitions and mergers expanded the company to New Bedford, Mass, Manchester, N.H., Waterbury, Conn. and Rochester, N.Y.," per the blog.

"In 1984, the Gorin family sold their company, by this time 32-stores strong and re-branded as 'Almy’s,' to an investment group. The Gorin’s business had been struggling to make a profit since 1978. By 1985, the new owners had sold most of the Almy’s chain to the Stop & Shop Companies," Bouseblog indicates.

Continuing west-northwest on Silver Street, I crossed over E Street and found a little bit of country in the middle of the city.

Located next to a new apartment building and across the street from the rear of the old Bigelow School, this cute little farmhouse-style duplex was built in 1890, per the Boston assessor. I dig the civic pride demonstrated by the SOUTH BOSTON sign.

I looped around some more side streets until I found myself in front of Boris Pest Control, at the corner of West Seventh and E streets (not where these guys got their name).

I love that whoever created the company's sign paid homage to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish mascot by using a mouse with boxing gloves. Of course, Southie was once a MAJOR Irish-American stronghold. Boris Pest Control has been in business since 1967.

As I stood in front of the pest-fighting mouse, I looked diagonally across West Seventh and saw a subtly unusual home.

This Odd House, as I dubbed it, has just under 660 square feet of living area, with one bedroom and one bathroom. Built in 1900 (perhaps; you know I'm always dubious of that date), it has seemingly been altered a bit over the last 125+ years. Maybe it was once two stories?

I made my way to D Street, then headed south-southwest into a more industrial/commercial section of the neighborhood. Then I turned south on Dorchester Ave. (aka Dot Ave. I'd walked this area outside Andrew Square a few times over the years, so once again, I sought out the nooks I had passed over previously.

On Alger Street, I found my quarry.

The ghost sign at the top says INDUSTRIAL and perhaps CO. I haven't found out what business was/is here. I just love the combination of the weathered bricks with fading paint, the heavy (leaded?) glass windows, the vent, the two doors - so many squares and rectangles.

In a large empty lot across Alger Street, running along Dorchester Ave., stands (or perhaps by this point, stood) a decomissioned Red Line subway car.

Car No. 1643 will be used by the developers of the On the Dot mixed-use project to "enhance the activity space," according to something I read somewhere online. The car was previously located in a parking lot abutting Cannonball Cafe, just up the street.

The Red Line runs underneath this area of the city, with a stop at nearby Andrew Square. The 1600 series Red Line cars came into MBTA service in the late '60s and early '70s.

Some buildings for the On the Dot project are already completed, while others in the planned 21-acre development of life-science, retail, and residential buildings will rise in the future.

To the south of the old subway car/soon-to-be social hangout stands a bit of old-school Boston: Andrew Square Liquors.

The Internet says this business opened in the late '90s. I'm guessing it took the place of a similar operation. I have a thing for packies, as they often have old signs that make for decent photos. Google Street View shows me that Andrew Square Liquors up until four years ago had a cooler sign than the current Budweiser one hanging over the awning.

I doubled back along Dorchester Avenue, cut down Damrell Street, went north-northwest on Old Colony Avenue and then headed onto E Street. After winding my way around, I ended up in front of some stunningly beautiful row houses on F Street.

These gorgeous homes date to the late 19th century.

I trekked up to Dorchester Street (not Ave.) and walked around the lovely and historic St. Augustine's Chapel grounds.

Founded in 1818, the chapel is the Boston Archdiocese's oldest Catholic church. It is open to the public only on holy days. The cemetery is the oldest Catholic burial ground in New England. There is a nice shrine that backs up to Tudor Street; it's obviously also used as a shed. Poor Mary!

I headed northeast along Dorchester Street, popping down West Fourth Street to check out a former fire house.

Completed in 1869, the station housed Ladder 5 until 1917, when the company moved next door to the much larger Engine 1 headquarters, which also served as a municipal district court. The building was converted to condos in recent years.

I headed next to East Broadway, about ready to finish my trip. At the intersection with Emerson Street, I was quite taken by the building housing M&T Oil Company / Metro Energy, which has been in business since 1929.

Upon getting back to my car, I remembered one more spot I wanted to document.

The Galley Diner is located on P Street, just off of East 1st Street. Established in 1995, the diner serves up breakfast seven days a week, and lunch Monday through Friday. Notice the sign also mentions Rumpy's, which is evidently is a brand of roast beef served at the diner.

For more on South Boston, check out the links below:

October 5, 2024, "Goin' ta Southie, Kehd"

August 27, 2020, "Circling Andrew Square"

January 25, 2020, "The Walk of Fame"

June 25, 2019, "Wool-d You Like to Join Me For a Walk?"

January 12, 2019, "Power Move in South Boston"

November 17, 2018, "Southie to Lose An Institution"

April 22, 2018, "Fort Point Channel - It's Electric!"

February 1, 2017, "Bon Voyage, Lady"

November 17, 2014, "Whitey Wuz Here"

Meandering in Milford

From Dave Brigham:

In April, I ventured to the Grafton Flea Market, searching for vintage wooden boxes I could use to showcase prints of my photos at arts and crafts events. I had no luck, but did procure three very cool crates not long after at Blue Collar Vintage Salvage, a great place in Leicester, Mass.***

Naturally, prior to my trek to Grafton, I scoped out a place to go backsidin'. That place turned out to be Milford, an old mill town with a population of just over 30,000 located in southeastern Worcester County, about 10 miles north of the Rhode Island border.

After parking in the center of town, along Main Street, I headed east and the first thing that caught my eye was the Milford Opera House.

Opened in 1881, this Victorian Gothic treasure has served many purposes down through the decades: a music hall, a theater, a racquetball club (!) and offices and shops, including a camera store that I will feature below that unfortunately is no longer in business.

I haven't found any information about the use of this place as a racquetball club, save for a few words from MACRIS, written in 1981: "[T]his lovely building is a racquetball club, where many Milfordians spend many happy hours. They can still enjoy the foyer that once part of the music hall, and many people enjoyed it in years gone by."

I passed several old buildings featuring small retailers, barber shops and churches, many catering to the growing Hispanic population (nearly 20% as of 2024). Then I spied a massive municipal building that was built in the middle of one of Milford's population explosions, as new industries took hold.

"The building is located in the center of the business district and is by far the most prominent building in the main street area," MACRIS reports. "The construction of the town hall out of wood and not granite makes it unique to the other town buildings. Milford's pink granite has played an important role nationally as a source of beautiful yet durable building medium. All of the other main public buildings are constructed out of Milford's granite, except for the town Hall (sic). This exception is important, for the building is a fine example of a wooden Italian Renaissance style."

The building rose in 1855. Five years later, "Milford pink granite was discovered, starting a long and successful quarrying industry in town," according to the town's 2025 Comprehensive Plan. "Milford saw the greatest growth in industry and population between 1830 and 1870," the plan indicates. "Between those four decades, the population increased from 1,360 to 9,000 people. Part of this population growth was fueled by the arrival of migrants from Ireland, who found work in the expanding boot and shoe industry as well as the emerging granite quarrying industry."

By the 1920s, the town had 16 quarries operating, with more immigrants arriving, many from Italy. "As the population increased and the town became wealthier, Milford saw a building boom. By the 1870s, the central village had become a distinct commercial district with multistory commercial brick building blocks and diverse establishments such as breweries, bakeries, and banks," the plan continues.

"The Great Depression led to the closure of several industrial businesses in Milford, including the Milford Iron Foundry, various shoe factories, and the quarries," according to the plan. "The population continued to grow, albeit slowly, between 1915 and 1940." During the 1980s, the town's Brazilian population grew.

Now that I've provided a history of the town's industrial and immigration growth, let's back to the buildings.

I doubled back on the opposite side of Main Street after seeing the town hall. I'd spied the old Rosenfeld Garage building as I walked east on Main Street, so I went back for a closer look.

This building on Spruce Street was home to the same business for at least 60 years, based on the "year constructed" date that MACRIS provides (1925), and the web site's 1986 write-up indicating that the garage was being run by the third generation of the family. Under renovation on the day I happened by, the building in more recent years was occupied by Gasco Auto Service, NAPA Auto Parts and Goodyear Tire Center. I'm not sure who the current tenant is.

Walking just a short distance west on Spruce Street, I looked up the hill and saw the magnificent Memorial Hall standing tall and proud along School Street.

Completed in 1884, this Richardsonian Romanesque beauty is currently home to the Milford Historical Museum, which has one of the finest displays of Civil War artifacts in the country, per the town's historical commission. "The large turret on the left of the building houses our large circular staircase made of our own Milford granite and each step is engraved with the name of a major battle of the Civil War and the name of its donner (sic)," according to MACRIS. "There are 23 steps. The large vestibule is made of oak and each side contains a marble plaque inscribed with the names of those who servered (sic)."

"The building was constructed in 1884 to serve multiple purposes: a free public library, meeting hall for the local Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) lodge, and most importantly, a memorial to honor the Civil War soldiers and sailors of Milford and nearby Hopedale," according to this Buildings of New England post.

Heading south-southwest on School Street, I found myself back at the old opera house. I was excited to see a sign on the Pine Street side of the building for a camera shop.

I was sad, however, to learn that about a month after I made this photo, Morin's Studio & Camera Shop closed up after more than 100 years in business.

Across Main Street from the opera house is one of several one-story commercial buildings located downtown.

When I found out on MACRIS that this building -- evidently two buildings stitched into one -- is known as the Blunt Block, I laughed to myself and thought of rap videos I've seen where crews are smoking blunts, aka a cigar that has been hollowed out and packed with weed.

(WARNING: This video is not safe for small pets or young children, nor for work, school or church.)

Then MACRIS tossed me this curious and, evidently, coincidental tidbit: "The earliest records that we have of this building show it being Milford's largest cigar manufactuer (sic)." The company was called Hale's Cigar Factory. The original owner was AJ Blunt, according to MACRIS. How's that for serendipity?

Current tenants include a convenience store, a karate studio and a church.

Further south, on the east side of Main Street, is one of several storefront churches I saw.

Milford Assembly of God is located in what appears to be a former bank, although I've been unable to confirm that. The house of worship, which I believe ministers to a Brazilian immigrant congregation, has been here since at least 2008, per my review of Google Street View.

I continued south on Main Street, then cut up Park Street, past Draper Memorial Park, which is located on land donated in the early years of last century by Susan Preston Draper. The small park features a statue -- fashioned by Lincoln Memorial sculptor Daniel Chester French -- of Gen. William Draper, Susan's husband. I did not make a photo of any of that.

I continued along Main Street, where the rear of an old fire station caught my eye.

I made an image of the front, located along South Main Street, a few minutes later.

"This firehouse was built in 1852 to house the new hook and ladder," according to MACRIS. "This company was call (sic) 'the Excelsior Hook and Ladder Company.'" As often happens when I'm researching my blog posts, I ran into conflicting information about the build date for the South Main Street Fire House. In this Patch article from December 2010, Deputy Fire Chief William Touhey said the station was built in the early 1900s.

""It was put in 'mothballs' around the year 2000," Touhey told Patch. "Then, when we rebuilt the Spruce Street station, it was reactivated until the construction was completed. When that was done, in 2003, the South Main Street station went into 'mothballs' again."

Regardless of when the fire house was erected, the property has sat largely unchanged since the town sold it in 2010. "Until the sale to [Jose] Ferreira, the building served as a storage center for the police and fire departments," the Patch article continues. " The sale was predicated on Ferreira's agreeing to convert the station to a multi-use building, with the bottom floor given over to commercial use, while the upper level would be turned into a housing unit. That plan was abandoned, however, as a result of neighborhood concerns. The major hurdle was the lack of available parking space for a commercial business."

The Patch article indicates that the property eventually was found to be deed-restricted to be only a single-family home. More than a decade and a half later, I'm not clear on whether there are any residents living here.

Across Main Street from the rear of the old fire station is an auto body shop with an eye-catching back entrance.

I'm unsure of the name of this joint; the town's assessor's database says the building dates to around 1900. Most of the cars in the shop's lot were modern; the two below, however, are gorgeous classic American cars.

(Mercury Comet, from the early- to mid-'60s.)

(Ford Ranchero from the early- to mid-'60s.)

At the corner of Main and Taylor streets sits this little building with sad red eyes.

For many years there was a business here called Cats II, which sold "specialty & promotional items," according to a sign that hung there that I saw on Google Street View. The sign below is from the side of the building.

K&S Painting was located here more recently, but I believe the business is no longer located here.

At this point, I turned back north on Main Street. One of the reasons I enjoy exploring old mill towns such as Milford is to see how these former centers of industrial strength are finding ways to grow and thrive after what may have been some lean times. A lot of the new energy in these towns comes from small businesses, many of them started by relatively new immigrants.

One type of business I've noticed in the towns and cities that I explore is tap rooms and affiliated operations. The Rail Trail Flatbread Company, sister to an outfit located in the town of Hudson, offers pizza, burgers and tacos, among other food, and also features 20 beer taps and additional options in cans and bottles. "[O]ur friends brew some really creative craft beers," the owners indicate on the web site.

Rail Trail is located in the Thayer Block, in a space previously occupied by Home National Bank of Milford and a branch of Rockland Trust Bank. This attractive building combines white brick with green marble from Vermont, according to MACRIS. The clock you can see at the right of the photo is "one of the remaining clocks made by the McClintock-Loomis Clock Company or successive company, O.B. McClintock Co., which specialized in sidewalk clocks for banking and financial institutions," according to this Buildings of New England post.

Next, I pointed myself east along Central Street, as I'd spied some old mill buildings.

The front (top) and rear (bottom) of what was originally known as Claflin and Thayer Shoe Factory. Built in 1871, this brick and fake stone (according to MACRIS) building in succeeding years was occupied by the Wilkinson Straw Hat Shop, the Rockingham Hotel and Stone's Furniture Store. In more recent years, as you can see in the second image, it was home to a Taylor Rental franchise.

I have a hard time imagining a former shoe factory being converted to a hotel, what with all the heavy machinery to be removed. MACRIS indicates at that time, the building had what is believed to be Milford's first elevator.

A short distance away is a related building, which, like the one above, dates to 1871.

MACRIS calls this one the Aaron Claflin Shoe Factory Building. Buildings of New England says Claflin and Thayer was "a leading boot and shoe manufacturer" in Milford, while MACRIS indicates this building is the only one on Central Street made from Milford granite, and one of the oldest along this old industrial strip.

The name Claflin and Thayer lives on in a clothing company started by the great-great-great granddaughter of the former boot company's founder. "My dad's great-great-grandfather started the original Claflin, Thayer & Co. in 1830 as a boot and shoe manufacturer in what is now Tribeca [in Manhattan, New York]," Liz Thayer tells a publication called Local Electric in this 2017 article.

While other sources online indicate the company was founded in the 1850s in Milford, I assume this is the same operation. Thayer continues: "The business was a family affair for over a hundred years until it closed down under my great-grandfather's management during the Great Depression. I think it's neat that I have fallen into the same work, so resurrecting the family name seemed like a given to me."

Claflin, Thayer & Co. sells outerwear and leather goods.

I mosied along, stopping to make a photo of the pleasant front of Nelly's Sandwich Shop.

The family-owned business has been making sandwiches and soups since 1997.

In the near distance, I could see what I thought was an old train station. It is indeed exactly that.

Now occupied by Countryside Discount Liquors, the old Milford Railroad Depot is located in a largely industrial area where the old railway right-of-way has been torn up. It was built in 1909 out of local granite, according to this Flickr post, which contradicts the above statement by MACRIS that the old shoe factory is the sole local granite survivor on this street.

The station was originally part of the Milford Branch of the Boston & Albany Railroad, according to this Waymarking post, which also pegs the built date to around 1890. Flip a coin.

"Passenger service remained on this line until 1959," the Waymarking article continues. "Penn Central, which eventually took control of the line, abandoned it in 1972."

My final stop in Milford was directly across my parking spot on Main Street.

The Gillon Block (aka the Ring and Welch Building) was built in 1888. The gorgeous Queen Anne building was erected by Patrick Gillon, who was a significant bottle manufacturer, according to MACRIS. Buildings of New England indicates that Gillon inherited his late-father’s distillery and bottling business.

Current tenants include a realtor and a mobile-phone store, but unfortunately not Manhattann's, which was a bar and restaurant whose sign is still on the building.

That's a wrap on Milford....

***I used those crates on May 31st at the Harvard Square MayFair, which marked the debut of Dave Brigham Photography in the public square. I was very happy to make a few sales and chat with many fairgoers. I will display my prints at other shows in the future, including at the Brighton Bazaar's New Digs: A Market for the Recently Moved at the Charles River Speedway in Brighton on September 5.