End to End In Boston's South End

From Dave Brigham:

OK, strap yourselves in and get ready for a whirlwind tour of Boston's South End....

This is a detail from a fantastic mural at the Harriet Tubman House on the corner of Massachusetts and Columbus avenues. I believe this detail features Cab Calloway. Not sure who the other cats are. The mural, created by Jameel Parker, wraps around two walls of the building, which is where the Cotton Club once stood, per the artist (although other online sources pinpoint the Club at 888 Tremont Street at some point, perhaps in a second incarnation?).

Operated by the United South End Settlements (USES), the Tubman House (named for the former slave and well-known abolitionist) offers early childhood education, job training, an after school program, a summer camp and more. USES announced earlier this year a plan to sell the Tubman House and use the proceeds to renovate its other properties and better serve the families in its programs. New Boston Ventures plans to build a residential complex with 17% affordability, and plans to save or reproduce the artwork, which covers two exterior walls.

Opponents of the deal, which include tenants of the building, say the sale should be nixed, pointing to deed restrictions.

OK, let's stick with the mural theme, and then move on to other public art.

Located on the side of the McKinley South End Academy at the corner of Dartmouth Street and Warren Avenue, this mural of Boston legend Mel King is just fantastic, isn't it? Created by students and faculty of the school, the artwork memorializes the nearly 91-year-old King, a community organizer, politician and currently director of the South End Technology Center, which he founded.

The next photo isn't a mural or art, but rather a plaque honoring a "master visual artist, painter, printmaker, author, lecturer, historian and good neighbor."

Allan Rohan Crite was born in 1910 in New Jersey, but he moved to Boston as a child. He enrolled in the Children's Art Centre run by the above-referenced USES and graduated from high school in 1929. He went to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, was employed by the Federal Arts Project and painted under two primary themes, per Wikipedia: religious themes and general African-American experiences. He died in 2007. I love this plaque.

Not far from the Tubman House along Columbus Avenue is Harriet Tubman Park.

This statue is called Emancipation, and was created by Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller in 1913 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, per Wikipedia. In 1999 the statue was cast in bronze and placed in Tubman Park.

What is Boston's connection to Tubman, who was born into slavery in Maryland, escaped via the Underground Railroad to Philadelphia and died in Auburn, New York? Tubman, who may some day appear on the U.S. $20 bill, "had strong links to the Boston abolitionist movement and played a large role in uplifting black Union soldiers," per this Boston Globe article. She traveled with the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment in the Civil War. That regiment was comprised entirely of Africa-American soldiers. Tubman cooked for the soldiers, treated their wounds and buried the dead during the battle at Fort Wagner, according to the Globe.

The statue in the above photo is known as the Harriet Tubman Memorial, or Step On Board. It was. sculpted by Fern Cunningham.

Below is a plaque embedded in the park's walkway dedicated to some of the "station masters" on the Underground Railroad.

The final public art piece on my tour is this plaque in honor of Childe Hassam.

"Who?" you ask. I'm embarrassed for you that you don't know this impressionist painter who was born and educated in Boston. OK, so I'd never heard his name before spying this plaque, but it seems he was a prominent painter of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born Frederick Childe Hassam in Dorchester, he "was noted for his urban and coastal scenes," per this web site. To see his complete works, click this link.

OK, now on to another form of art, albeit of the commercial variety.

Located at the corner of Columbus Avenue and Rutland Square, these ghost signs advertise Coca-Cola and Southern Fried Chicken (top) and Pepsi-Cola (bottom). I haven't found out what restaurant or store these signs were hawking for.

Now is a good time to plug a Boston Globe article about ghost signs that I was featured in recently. I was contacted by a reporter who found this blog, and we spent about an hour walking through Boston's Fort Point Channel neighborhood looking for and talking about ghost signs. I was extremely flattered to be a major part of the article, which you can check out here.

Now for something artsy that isn't art.

This is on Berkeley Street, between Appleton and Chandler streets. The colors remind me of package of candy.

How about we move along to former houses of worship....

The former Concord Baptist Church, at the corner of Warren Ave. and West Brookline St., was converted to condos several years ago. The congregation moved to Milton, taking over the former Temple Shalom. "The boutique building features 9 residential units and 21 below-grade parking spaces. Residences are graced with preserved Church details, including arched windows and cathedral ceilings; complemented with modern finishes and high-grade appliances," per the Bushari web site that features some nice photos.

Over at 66 Berkeley Street I found this impressive building.

Built as the First United Presbyterian Church, since 1924 this place has been home to the Ellis Memorial & Eldredge House (known as Ellis). Founded in 1885 by Ida Eldredge as an afternoon club for boys, Ellis has grown over the years to offer early education and services to children and their families.

Practically across the street is the former Parker Memorial Building, constructed as a Unitarian church.

Built in 1872, this place was named after preacher and writer Theodore Parker. The building was transferred in 1889 to the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches to become the "cathedral of Boston Unitarianism," per this link. The Star of David must have been added after the fact; I've been unable to find any information about this building's use as a synagogue.

I did, however, find out from a fellow lover of the hidden history of Boston about some of the Parker's secular past.

"....[I]n the late 60s, there was a lot of local rock n' roll history there too, Dave," a great guy named Phil Hailer told me via Instagram. "The 2nd floor was the site of the original Boston Tea Party rock club (and I believe the start of WBCN as a rock FM station in a back room somewhere). The Tea Party moved to Landsdowne Street a couple of years later, but there were some legendary shows at this venue. I remember seeing the Jeff Beck Group there with Ron Wood on guitar and an unknown lead singer named Rod Stewart. Long ago....and far, far away."

Over the past 30 years of living in and around Boston I'd heard of the Boston Tea Party. But I never had any idea where it was. I enjoy searching online for the history of the places I shoot, but it's just so much cooler to get information first-hand from people who have real experience with these places.

Here's a great history of the old club.

I'm gonna shift gears a bit now. The Cyclorama has a origin story that just sounds so unreal today.

"Built in 1884 to house a 360-degree painting of the Battle of Gettysburg, the Cyclorama is on the National Register of Historic Landmarks." Oh, cool, it's on the National Reg....wait. What?! The Cyclorama was built for the sole purpose of housing a circular painting depicting the most well-known Civil War battle, the one with the most casualties?!

"Cycloramas were a popular form of entertainment during the later nineteenth century," per the web site of the Boston Center for the Arts, which runs the Cyclorama. "Most major cities in both Europe and North America had at least one. Built to house enormous, life size, panoramic murals, they frequently depicted battle scenes, evoking a sense of national pride while presenting graphic depictions of many historical events."

Cycloramas were the IMAX theaters of their time.

I've known about the Cyclorama for years, but this was the first time I walked past it. I would love to get inside. In addition to the Cyclorama, the BCA campus includes the Boston Ballet, the BCA Plaza Theatres, the Calderwood Pavilion and the Beehive restaurant.

The complex also includes an artist studio building, below.

Additionally, the BCA is the landlord for the Banyan Bar + Refuge, below.

Just a little ways up Tremont Street is one of the city's oldest gay bars.

According to the Travel Gay web site, "[T]he Boston Eagle celebrates the classic leather-clad gay aesthetic. It isn’t, however, a kink club with a dress code. All are welcome. The Boston Eagle is shabby chic, rough and ready and devoid of pretension. It’s something of a Boston institution." Man, that big ol' bird is sumthin' else.

OK, now to some more "former" stuff.

This is 4 Appleton Street, the former home of Boston Protective Department Company 2. This picture doesn't show it well, but the square plaque under the middle window has the initials "BPD." The station was built in 1892 and housed a fire company that wasn't part of the city's public protection. Rather, the BPD "was funded as an association of insurance companies in Boston who sought to protect the commercial buildings and contents from damage by fire, smoke and water. In this endeavor, the BPD worked very closely with the Boston Fire Department and the Boston Police Department," per the Boston Fire Historical Society. For pictures, check this link at the BFHS web site.

Located at 321 Columbus Avenue, the building below went up in 1906 as a home for electric carriages.

Known, strangely enough, as the Electric Carriage House, this place was renovated in 1987 and features seven floors of office space.

OK, I'm switching on the randomizer for the rest of this post.

I don't know anything about the building above, other than that I find it quite striking. Located on Union Park, it stands out amid all the classic brownstones in the South End.

I don't know anything about Billy's Coffee Shop, which is located next to the Parker Memorial Building mentioned above, but I love the patina on the sign.

The quaint sign for Merrill & Co. is all that's left of this restaurant on Appleton Street, across from the former home of the Boston Protective Department station mentioned above. The eatery was open for only about a year and a half before closing in late 2015.

What is this place? I didn't know but I guessed it was a power plant for the MBTA or for Amtrak, each of which runs trains directly underneath. I love the massiveness of the door. Below is a close-up.

Recently, after I'd written most of this post, I found out the answer to "What is that massive door?" The Boston Globe ran an article about this place, as part of a new initiative inviting readers to ask about odd/quirky/strange things in the city. Turns out I was spot on: "According to the T, the building is the Orange Line’s Berkeley Traction Power Substation, and was built with the opening of the massive Southwest Corridor project in 1987," per the article.

I will conclude my tour of the South End with a shot of the legendary Charlie's Sandwich Shoppe.

Opened in 1927, Charlie's was popular with black jazz musicians in the middle part of last century when so many of them were denied service elsewhere, per Wikipedia. "On May 12, 2014, Charlie's announced that it was closing at the end of June 2014, ending its 87-year run. On August 5, 2014, South End restaurateur, Evan Deluty, announced he would be re-opening Charlie's Sandwich Shoppe and that the breakfast and that the lunch menu would remain unchanged, but a new dinner menu would be added along with expanded hours," per Wikipedia. The remodeled eatery opened in early 2016.

For more on the South End, see June 29, 2019, "Back Streets, Oh Boy."