From Dave Brigham:
The photos in this post were taken during one of the last few subway trips I took with my son, before the pandemic shut us in our house. I'm happy to report that we've begun to venture out, taking all necessary precautions. Keep your eyes peeled for posts about our new journeys.
I took a picture of the building above a few years ago while walking around South Boston's Andrew Square with my son on one of our regular subway trips. More recently, I found myself alone in this area, as the two of us split up on trips now that he's older. Since I was on my own, I took the time to shoot more photos of this place, and explore as much of this neighborhood as I could.
Andrew Square is named for John Albion Andrew, the commonwealth's 25th governor. Serving between 1861 and 1866, Andrew led the state's contributions to the Union cause during the Civil War, per Wikipedia. "He was a guiding force behind the creation of some of the first African-American units in the United States Army, including the 54th Massachusetts Infantry." Originally known as Washington Village (this is important later), this area was part of Dorchester, a town that Boston annexed in pieces between 1804 and 1870. The village was dubbed Andrew Square in 1870.
Located on Damrell Street near the intersection with Dorchester Avenue, the building that once housed GF Importing Co. is one of countless industrial or former industrial properties in this area. The company specialized in home video entertainment and Greek imports, according to this old sign.
The building, which dates at least as far back as 1899, is for sale. The latest assessed value is $618,500. This property sits directly across from a massive empty lot that stands in coming years to become a significant development. I'll get to that shortly.
Right next door to the old GF Importing business is piano merchant M. Steinert & Sons.
Located in the former S. A. Woods Woodworking Machinery Company factory (circa 1886), M. Steinert has been in business since 1860, including the last 140 in Boston. Perhaps you know the company's name from Steinert Hall along Boston's Boylston Street, which opened in 1896 under the company's downtown store. Shuttered in 1942, the concert hall has been the subject of renovation and reopening rumors for quite some time. For a look inside, check out the "Today" show video below.
A few doors down from M. Steinert & Sons I spied some random businesses tucked behind spare facades.
Businesses here include Fuji Corporation (a restaurant management firm, not related to Fujifilm), East Ocean Enterprises Limited - one of many seafood-related companies in the general area -- and Lucky Star Bus.
Indulge me for a moment, if you would: if you know how I can contact Madonna, please tell her I would like to pitch to her the idea of using her song "Lucky Star" for use in a song by this transit company that services Boston and New York. "You must be my lucky star...bus line."
I know you hear it, too.
Moving a little further southeast along Damrell Street, I found Iron Workers Local 7's large facility.
As impressive as that mural is, I was more enamored of the sculpture in the parking lot.
Yes, those are Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots standing next to what I believe is an column from Boston's long-gone Central Artery highway.
Across Damrell Street from all of these buildings is a gigantic empty lot.
Part (perhaps all) of this acreage was once occupied by the aforementioned S. A. Woods Woodworking Machinery Company. Per MACRIS: "Notable as a group of Victorian industrial bui1dings....The company had obtained over 50 patents for such machinery designs by 1900. The business was founded in 1854....Their first operations at this site were in 1866, and the company incorporated in 1873. By the turn of the century their operations employed about 300 persons....[T]he one-story portions of 27-37 functioned as a stable and pattern storehouse by 1886."
There was also a parking lot on this site, and probably other industrial buildings. The whole Megillah is now slated to be turned into something called Washington Village (told you I'd come back around to this). Approved by the Boston Planning and Development Board, Washington Village is a proposed seven-building apartment complex that will feature 750 units.
Washington Village will also include retail outlets and green space. The massive project -- one million square feet -- has been in the pipeline for several years, and was approved by the city four years ago. A new partner joined up in 2018; we'll see in the current environment how quickly this place rises.
Damrell Street forms a triangle with Dorchester Avenue and Old Colony Avenue. While gyms and distilleries have risen in this area, it's still heavily industrial. At the apex of the triangle is Super Shine Car Wash, with its great sign.
Across from the car wash (and adjacent Castle Self Storage) is the very long and low former headquarters of Cole Hersee Company, on Old Colony Avenue.
Founded in 1924, Cole Hersee manufactures heavy-duty electrical products for the off-road, truck and bus industries. The company was acquired by Chicago-based Littlefuse, Inc., in 2010. I believe this facility, which rose in 1910, has been shuttered.
Over on Dorchester Avenue, on the side of printing and embroidery business The Spot Clothing, is the cool mural below.
I'm sure this random assortment of objects means something to the artist, but it's like one of those Hafenreffer bottle caps rebus puzzles that just don't make sense to me: Converse Chuck Taylor high-top, utility pole, broken railroad track, the letters "CM" on an ancient ruin, and some squiggly lines. I got nothin'.
Next door is quite the tragic and dilapidated pile.
This is the former home of World Seafood Processing. Founded in 1994, the company serviced hotels, restaurants and institutions, and was the wholesale outfit of the business on the side of the building facing D Street (near Old Colony Ave.), Atlantic Sea Pride, Inc., which operated a restaurant and retail store.
Unfortunately, all businesses on this property were destroyed by fire in 2009.
Adjacent to the former seafood processing facility is, well, I'm not sure what it is.
Google Maps says this place is home to Demco car repair and maintenance. The property was listed for lease recently on LoopNet. Looks like a motorcycle club hangout to me.
Opposite Damrell Street on Dorchester Avenue is an equipment lot for Marr Scaffolding Company.
Founded in 1898, the Marr Companies specialize in construction equipment and services. The company has facilities all over this area, and in other locations around South Boston.
Along Old Colony Avenue, near the former Cole Hersee facility, I spied this garage door on the back of a building that houses a landscape firm and a dry cleaner.
The fact that this building has a number on it leads me to believe it was once part of a larger manufacturing operation, perhaps Cole Hersee or whatever preceded that company in this area.
I meandered along and found myself on West 9th Street, which makes it sound like I was somewhere in Manhattan. But no, I was just standing on a quiet side street looking at the back of this whitewashed building.
I went around front, to Old Colony Avenue, where I realized the business is Shawmut Glass Company.
The building dates to 1930.
About a block away from the Washington Village site, I stumbled across a piece of infamous Boston history.
Rotary Liquors is located on a traffic circle where Old Colony Avenue, Columbia Road and Treble Street come together, hard by Joe Moakley Park. The building dates to 1940, the current business to 2017. Prior to that name, the packie was called Kippy's Wine & Spirits. And before that, South Boston Liquor Mart. But at some point in the not-so-distant past the store was -- wait for it -- Rotary Liquors, and that's the business that interests me. Back in the '80s the store was owned -- stolen by, allegedly -- one James "Whitey" Bulger. He used the store as one of his hangouts to conduct his nefarious gang business. The guy he bumped aside -- Stephen Rakes -- died under mysterious circumstances during the gangster's 2013 trial for murder and racketeering. Pretty ballsy for the current owner to use the name Rotary Liquors again.
From the infamous liquor store I walked to Dorchester Avenue, over the Southeast Expressway (aka Route 93), along Howell Street to Boston Street. There I saw DJ's Market.
I thought perhaps the store was out of business, until I turned the corner and saw the much fancier sign on the front.
Two blocks away is the wonderful Polish American Citizens Club.
The side of the building had the perfect amount of imperfection for me.
Located in what the club's web site calls the Polish Triangle of Boston, the PACC was founded in 1924 in a former shoe factory. "In the late 1930's, the founders and members of Boston's Polish immigrant and Polish-American community came together to raise money and build a new building," per the web site. "In 1939, the new club...opened its doors."
Outside the club is a statue of General Casimir Pulaski.
Born in Warsaw, Poland, Pulaski was involved in the military and the revolutionary affairs in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, per Wikipedia. When the fight against Russian domination of the Commonwealth failed, he was driven into exile. Benjamin Franklin recommended that Pulaski travel to North America to help in the cause of the Revolutionary War. "He distinguished himself throughout the revolution, most notably when he saved the life of George Washington. Pulaski became a general in the Continental Army, he and his friend, Michael Kovats created the Pulaski Cavalry Legion and reformed the American cavalry as a whole. At the Battle of Savannah, while leading a cavalry charge against British forces, he was fatally wounded by grapeshot, and died shortly thereafter."
Back on the north side of the highway, I saw the parish hall for Our Lady of Czestochowa, a Polish congregation founded in 1894.
The last stop on my tour of Andrew Square and slightly beyond was a former moving company warehouse on Ellery Street less than two blocks from the subway station.
Gentle Movers has been in business for more than 30 years, with locations in Burlington, Natick, Revere and Boston's Hyde Park neighborhood. This building dates to 1910, per the Boston assessing department. I haven't been able to find out what was here originally, or in the years before Gentle Movers moved in.
For more about South Boston, see June 25, 2019, "Wool-d You Like to Join Me For a Walk?" and January 12, 2019, "Power Move In South Boston."
