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.

Newburgh NY - Industrialization, Revitalization and Crime

From Mick Melvin:

I travel often from Connecticut to Pennsylvania to visit family and friends. I take Route 84 west to New York on most trips to avoid going through NYC. I have to cross the Newburgh Bridge in New York as I make my way down. I stopped in the town of Newburgh on one trip to get some gas, which sparked my interest in the town. I made a plan to stop there on a recent visit to see my father on Good Friday and I’m glad I stopped through.

I did a bit of research beforehand to get a lay of the land. I spotted a factory along the Hudson River so I figured it would be a good spot to start. The factory was once the site of The Newburgh Steam Mills on North Water St. The building was built in the mid 1800’s and brought a lot of business and employment to the area. The factory, which processed cotton, employed over 300 employees. As this was my first time in the area, I only took a few shots of the building from the street side, but I found out later that I could have walked behind the building also. (Next time!)

The building was bought and transformed into a lawnmower factory in the late 1800’s after the decline of cotton manufacturing. The Chadborn & Coldwell Manufacturing Company of Newburgh operated into the 1940’s before eventually merging with Toro brand lawnmowers. The building was once again sold and transformed into the Regal Bag Company. The company ran the business from the property for almost 73 years and sold it in 2024.

The building now contains businesses on the 5th and 6th floors. On the 6th floor, there is a company that makes backdrops for Broadway shows. The fifth floor has many spaces for artists and artist studios. Fun fact - the building is listed in Ripley’s Believe It or Not! as the only building that has its main entrance on the 6th floor.

After taking a few shots, I ventured closer to the marina to check out some sites along the Hudson River. There were other brick buildings that also looked to be former factories/businesses. Most of the buildings have been transformed into restaurants. The weather was nice for an early spring day, which brought a pretty good amount of people to the area. I’m sure that the area will be much busier with the weather getting warmer. I’ll have to go back later in the spring or summer to see.

My curiosity for something more “Backside” drew me even closer to the water. To my delight, I spotted a few old vessels docked along the shore. I don’t know what these vessels were used for or how long they were left there, but it lets us know there was some shipping activity along this part of the Hudson River.

Being so close to the shore gave me a great view of the town of Beacon across the river. The Newburgh-Beacon ferry can be taken from the marina back and forth across the Hudson River connecting Newburgh and Beacon, N.Y. The ferries only run on weekdays as a rush-hour service for commuters to NYC. Ferries are timed to connect at Beacon with Metro-North trains to and from Grand Central.

I will definitely be back to take more shots in this interesting town. My research of the town led me to the fact that Newburgh is in the top 10 of cities in the U.S. in violent crime. I will have to be careful when taking a trip further into the town. The town is in the process of revitalizing the area as it is reported that there is much blight like a lot of towns in the U.S. I’m anxious to view some of the old architecture and layout of downtown Newburgh. I will keep you all posted. Wish me luck!

Kicking Around Downtown Everett

From Dave Brigham:

I take pride in coming up with clever headlines for my posts. I often rely on song titles or lyrics or other music-related terms ("Sneakin' Sally Through Boston's Alleys" came from a Robert Palmer song; "Things Are Poppin' in Windsor Locks" derived from two styles of street dancing). Other times I riff on the name of the town or city ("The Shire of Worcester, Part the Fifth,").

I came up empty while brainstorming about the downtown area of Everett, Mass., a city of nearly 50,000 residents just north of Boston. I tried to work something using former big-league baseball player Carl Everett, known by some as Jurassic Carl for his, shall we say, far out views on the world (denying the existence of dinosaurs, disputing that man has ever landed on the moon). In prior posts about the city, I had better luck (see September 30, 2023, "A Nutty Trip to See Some Signs in Everett" played off the Teddie Peanut Butter factory; May 4, 2019, "Roll the Dice: Encore!"; and June 25, 2013, "Roll the Dice") dealt with the city's casino. But those headlines had little to do with the city of Everett proper.

No matter. Lame headline aside, I've come up with another fantastic post (#906!) featuring a beautiful library, a gorgeous church, a nicely maintained armory and much more. Let's get to it!

The Palestine Masonic Lodge caught my eye first.

It looks practically brand new, all spiffed up and ready to greet the day. Often, when I see a Masonic building, it's closed up or in somewhat rough shape. Built in 1910 along Broadway, just south of the old high school, the lodge was erected to replace a previous building that burned down in a different location.

From MACRIS: "Like Masonic lodges across the country, the Palestine Lodge grew in membership in the first decades of the 20th century. In 1910, the lodge reported 465 members. By 1918 membership had grown to seven hundred and sixty-five and by 1926 the lodge had the third largest membership in the state with 1200 members. Interest in freemasonry and fraternal societies declined after 1930. This trend was evident at the Palestine Lodge, where membership declined to 825 by 1943. The Palestine Lodge continued to own and occupy the building at 536 Broadway until the early 1980s, when it was sold due to lack of funds to maintain the property. From the mid-1990s to 2019 the building was owned by the Islamic Association of Massachusetts."

The building sat vacant for a while before being redeveloped into apartments. "It houses 15 apartments consisting of a mix of studio, 1-bedroom, and 2-bedroom units. 3 units are designated as income-restricted and will be rented to households earning at or below 80% AMI (Area Median Income)," per this Maloney Real Estate listing.

Continuing north-northeast on Broadway, I liked the look of the sign outside McKinnon's Supermarket.

A five-store chain of stores in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, McKinnon's has been in business since the 1940s.

I continued all the way to Ferry Street, and then turned around. I didn't see much of note until I'd gone past the Masonic Lodge again and into the heart of Everett Square.

Dempsey's Breakfast & Lunch has been operated by the same family for years. I'm a little unclear on just how long the eatery has been in business. From the restaurant's web site: "From the original Donut Villa that opened in 1976 to Dempsey’s today, The Nentis Family has provided excellence in food service for over 39 years to Everett and the surrounding cities."

The MACRIS file on this building shows an old photo of Donut Villa. There are Donut Villa locations in Arlington, Cambridge and Malden. Their eatery in Newton didn't last very long. The building dates to 1940; previous tenants included Oliver's Stationery Store and S.K. Ames, which sold butter, cheese and eggs, per MACRIS.

Across the square from the diner is a rounded, two-story office building painted a distinctive shade of green.

The Everett Trust Company Building opened in 1919. The bank was establshed elsewhere in 1910. An addition on Chelsea Street, below, was built in 1921.

Now home to Iglesia Pentecostal Unida Hispana (United Hispanic Pentecostal Church), the addition was home to a post office for a number of years. Subsequent to that, the space was occupied by a Waldorf Restaurant, per MACRIS. I wrote about another old Waldorf Restaurant, this one located in Fall River, last September. Waldorf was a cafeteria-style restaurant popular in the middle part of last century in various locations across several states.

I continued east-southeast along Chelsea Street for a little bit until I saw a side-by-side clash of colors and histories.

On the right is Zeke's Pub, which I'll discuss in a minute. On the left is Super JC Market, which sells groceries and includes a pharmacy and a cafe.

The market is located in a circa-1925 building that was originally the Melanson Brothers Chevrolet dealership. A photo in the MACRIS file shows that this was also a BMW dealership in more recent years.

As for Zeke's, it has been slinging drinks since 1940, according to its sign.

This joint has a 3.8-star average on Yelp, based on four reviews.

A few steps further east brought me to the front of the Edward G. Connolly Center.

Like me, you may have guessed that this building's original purpose was as an armory. Built in 1902 in the English Revival style, the Everett Armory "was the home of Company B, 8th Regiment Infantry, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia," according to MACRIS. "In its early years the company provided assistance after the Chelsea Fire of 1908 and during the Lawrence Mills labor strike of 1912. The Armory building was taken over by the State in 1910 and was completely renovated for use by the company."

The renovation included a rifle range and two bowling alleys in the basement. "The building was used for military activities through the Vietnam War era but was also the site for various community functions including banquets, exhibitions and social events including military balls," MACRIS continues. "The City of Everett received the building from the National Guard in the 1970s and it received additional renovations in 1989. In October 2006 the building was renamed the Edward G. Connolly Center in honor of longtime state representative and former mayor, Edward G. Connolly."

At this point, I doubled back to Everett Square.

On the left in the photo above is La Hacienda, a Mexican/Salvadoran restaurant located in a circa-1926 building that was originally home to a Kresge department store. I've written about Kresge stores before, in Waltham and New Bedford.

The middle building is the aforementioned Dempsey's Breakfast & Lunch. The third building, the old Everett Savings Bank, I will discuss below.

I headed south on Broadway and was stopped in my tracks by the Frederick E. Parlin Memorial Library.

The main part of the Richardsonian Romanesque library opened in 1894. The addition, seen in the two photos above, dates to 1912, and was designed by the same architect, John C. Spofford, and matches the design of the original building.

Next door is the Central Fire Station, which dates to 1908 and looks to be in fabulous shape.

Renovations were completed in 2020.

Just a little further south is the shuttered Sal's Dry Cleaning.

At this point, I turned around and headed back toward Everett Square. There, I spied two great old buildings abutting the previously mentioned Everett Trust Company Building.

Completed in 1896, the Evans Building was built by Alonzo Evans, who served as the city's first mayor and was the president of the Boston Five Cents Savings Bank, per MACRIS. "The Evans Building contained two stores on the ground story and offices above," MACRIS continues. "The third story, known as Arcanum Hall, was used as meeting space by various clubs and civic organizations and for special functions."

Current tentants include a deli, a smoke shop and an insurance agency.

Next door is the imposing and beautiful Arthur H. Whittier Building.

Built in 1900, the Renaissance Revival building was originally occupied by Arthur H. Whittier & Company, a grocery store. Subsequently, F.W. Woolworth opened a store on the first floor. Current tenants include a T-Mobile store, a Brazilian market and the Skyplex function hall.

From there I headed west on Norwood Street. On the side of Angelo's Touch Hairstyling, I found this amusing mural/ad.

Yes, artist Juleen Jones has turned Vito Corleone's threat against a Hollywood big shot in "The Godfather" into a tagline for a hair salon.

Across Norwood Street, I dug the sign for Taco El Paso.

At the intersection of Norwood Street and Broadway is another in a long line of buildings I've documented here with an "X" on it, which indicates to firefighters that the building is not safe to enter in case there's a conflagration.

Built in 1877, this Second Empire brick building holds a few important places in Everett's history. First, per the photo on the MACRIS file, the building once housed a Brigham's Ice Cream restaurant. Second, it was the first masonry block to be erected in Everett Square, according to MACRIS, and "is also the second oldest (sic) building in the square, pre-dated only by the First Congregational Church." I will discuss that church below.

MACRIS continues: "Originally known as the Whittier & Dearborn Building, the block was soon renamed the Library Building. The city's first public library, organized in 1878, was located here until the Parlin Library was constructed in 1894-95. The other tenant and later owner of note was the Odd Fellows Association, organized locally in 1875."

I hope someone can turn this place around, given its illustrious past.

Just north of the previously mentioned Dempsey's is a great little building, the former Everett Savings Bank.

Currently home to Regal Mexican Grill, this Classical Revival gem dates to 1885. Although built as office space, it was converted to use as a bank in 1889. Everett Savings remained in this location until 1930, per MACRIS, when it moved to a newer building that will be featured below. Since that time, a variety of small businesses and retailers have operated here.

A few buildings away is the gorgeous Everett First Congregational Church.

Now home to Igreja Universal, this Italianate stunner dates to 1852 and is oldest surviving structure in Everett Square, according to MACRIS. "The first Everett town meeting was held here on March 21, 1870. The church was incorporated in 1891 and a year later remodeled and rededicated."

The final stop on my downtown Everett tour was the newer Everett Savings Bank building. The sun was tough, so I apologize for the photo.

You can't tell from my photo, but this building is fairly impressive. "This sandstone building, designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style (infrequently seen on the east coast (sic)) is one of the most distinguished in Everett Square," according to MACRIS. "The exterior walls are decorated with figured panels; multi-pane windows are outlined with rope molding and the arched heads terminate in panels filled with animal and foliate ornament. An arcaded frieze and Moorish cornice finish the major elevations."

Opened in 1930, the building is now home to the Pioneer Charter School...I think.

OK, that's all folks!