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.

From Munitions Factory to Suburban Mall and Office Complex...and Beyond

From Dave Brigham:

Boston-area locals might recognize the building in the two photos above as the Watertown Home Depot (previously an Ann & Hope retail clothing outlet), part of the shopping destination known over the years as the Arsenal Marketplace, Arsenal Mall and the Arsenal Project. Now dubbed Arsenal Yards, the complex is undergoing major changes, which I will discuss a little later in this post. The Home Depot and another massive building in the Yards development, along with several other buildings on the south side of Arsenal Street, were once part of the massive Watertown Arsenal. There, for nearly 180 years, the U.S. Government stored and manufactured gun carriages and artillery pieces and even operated a nuclear reactor for the Army. I believe the Home Depot building was erected between 1890 and 1928, and was used to construct mobile gun carriages.

Below is a not-so-brief history of the arsenal, excerpted from the web site for The Arsenal on the Charles, which sits directly west of Arsenal Yards. The Arsenal on the Charles is where the majority of the former gun-carriage manufacturing-related buildings are situated; tenants include athenahealth, the Mosesian Center for the Arts, Boston Sports Club and Panera Bread. The development's web site also features a photo retrospective of the complex, and offers a virtual walking tour.

"In 1816 the U.S. Government selected and purchased 40 acres of land on the northern bank of the Charles River in Watertown as the site for a new regional arsenal...The original Arsenal was composed of a group of 12 brick and stone buildings arranged in a quadrangle around central parade grounds, connected with a 15 ft. high brick wall. They included two arsenals for storage of arms and ammunition, officer’s quarters, barracks for soldiers stationed at the post, and workshops for maintaining and repairing the artillery and ammunition.

"From 1830-55, the Army had added 13 acres to the grounds, a new entrance connecting the complex to Arsenal Street, two new storehouses, and a new laboratory. The...Civil War transformed the Arsenal into an important military production center. [A] new manufacturing complex consisting of a large u-shaped machine shop and smith shop were built to meet the wartime demand.

"A natural gas works and small iron and brass foundry would be constructed on the banks of the Charles River in 1865 and 1867 respectively. The last two decades of the 19th century witnessed the transformation of the Watertown Arsenal into a major manufacturing and research center within the Army’s arsenal system. This process began in earnest in 1888, when the Watertown Arsenal was chosen as the site of the Army’s new gun carriage manufacturing plant.

"The importance of the Arsenal as an early 20th Century military manufacturing center is reflected in its most dramatic period of growth from 1917-1922. In just five years, a total of 23 new structures were erected on over 44 acres of previously undeveloped land, and a 7 mile network of railroad tracks connected the buildings of this sprawling industrial complex.

"The production demands of World War II pushed the Watertown Arsenal to its pinnacle as a military manufacturing site. During the war the Army purchased an additional 7 acres of land that included a former Simmons Mattress factory, doubled the size building 311, and built a massive additional building at the far eastern end of the property. After the war, the primary mission of the Arsenal shifted away from manufacturing and towards research. In 1959, the Army constructed the Horace Hardy Lester experimental nuclear reactor on western end of the Arsenal grounds. The Lester reactor was the first and only experimental reactor of its kind ever to be operated by the U.S. Army.

"The Army...closed the Watertown Arsenal in 1967. It turned over 55 acres on the eastern end of the property, including the original Arsenal site, to the General Services Administration, which, in turn, sold the property to the Town of Watertown for commercial and residential development. The buildings on the 37-acre western end of the former Arsenal were taken over by the newly created Army Materials and Mechanics Research Center. Changes to the campus under AMMRC ownership included the demolition of three buildings, and extensive renovations to the remaining structures to create additional laboratory facilities and increase energy efficiency.

"The Army closed its research facilities on the western portion of the Arsenal in 1995. After an extensive Federal environmental clean-up process, the property underwent significant redevelopment for commercial use, including rehabilitation of the remaining 10 buildings, and the addition of new roadways and a parking garage."

Harvard University acquired the property in 2001, with an eye toward using it as for educational purposes. That never came to fruition. In 2013, medical technology company athenahealth bought the site, after having been a tenant the prior eight years. In late 2019, Alexandria Real Estate Equities acquired the complex.

Alexandria is a well-known player in Greater Boston's growth as a high-tech and laboratory destination (see June 8, 2019, "UPDATE: Strolling Among the L7's in Kendall Square").

For the last few years, both the Arsenal Yards and Arsenal on the Charles sites have been undergoing major renovations and additions. The latter project includes office and lab space, as well as arts facilities, restaurants and open space. Arsenal Yards, which is owned by Boylston Properties and The Wilder Companies, is adding a hotel, apartments, a movie theater and many stores and restaurants.

OK, let's get to some pictures. I'll do my best to figure out just what we're looking at in each of these. I'll run through them in roughly the same order that I encountered them.

Located along North Beacon Street, this is the former locomotive repair house. From the Arsenal on the Charles web site: "Building 97 was constructed in 1920 to house and repair the Arsenal’s fleet of locomotives, switch cars and cranes, which moved freight and equipment around the grounds over seven-and-a-half miles of railroad tracks. In 1959, Building 97 was transformed into a materials testing laboratory and equipment facility supporting the Horace Hardy Lester Nuclear Reactor."

I'm not sure what, if anything, is located in this building currently. The nuclear reactor building, which was directly east of Building 97, no longer stands.

Above is the rear of building 311, known as the New Erecting Shop. I'm pretty sure this is the largest building on the site, at 462 feet. A steel-framed building, it was considered at the time of its construction in 1917, to be one of the largest of its type in the U.S., per the Arsenal on the Charles web site. Below is a front view, along Arsenal Street, featuring a great sign from the arsenal's latter days of operation.

Below is a side view of Building 311.

Heading east across Kingsbury Avenue and some green space, I next shot Building 43, the Smith Shop, below.

As you can see, this building, which dates to 1861 and is among the oldest in the complex, is getting new gutters and other updates. From the Arsenal on the Charles web site: "From 1892 to 1900 the smith shop was equipped with huge 2 and 3.5 ton steam hammers and other equipment for forging steel castings as large as 8,000 lbs. During World War I, a rail crane and 5 ton steel hammer were added to support production of even larger components for 14 and 16-inch seacoast gun carriages. After World War II, building 43 supported the Arsenal’s ongoing research activities with experimental and specialty forgings up until the closure of the Army Technical Materials Laboratory in 1995."

Just south of Building 43 is the U-shaped Building 313, the Carriage and Machine Shop, below.

(The Carriage and Machine Shop comprises the buildings on the left and center in this photo. At the far right is the West Timber Storehouse.)

The Carriage and Machine Shop dates to 1862. From the Arsenal on the Charles web site: "After WWII, Building 313’s machine shops were redirected for use in studying new types of metals, ceramics and other synthetic materials. Research included testing new types of metallic, composite and synthetic armor, which led to the use of Kevlar in body armor and helmets, and the design of specialized armor for presidential limousines and helicopters."

How cool is that?!

Next is the Old Erecting Shop, below.

"Significantly wider and taller than it’s [sic] predecessors, the Erecting Shop provided the space and the equipment necessary to assemble new, larger carriages for 8, 10 and 12 inch guns and field mortars," per the Arsenal on the Charles web site. As you can see, Building 312 is now home to the Dorothy and Charles Mosesian Center for the Arts. The 30,000-square-foot center features a 380-seat main stage theater, a 100-seat black box theater, exhibition galleries, two rehearsal halls, classrooms, and resident artist studios."

Below is Building 60, the Powerhouse.

"For over 80 years, Building 60 served as the central source of power and heat to buildings across the Arsenal," according to the Arsenal on the Charles web site. "The oldest part of the building was constructed in 1913. Steam engines on the upper level produced electricity. Three boilers on the lower level generated steam for heat and to power large steam hammers in the smith shop....By 1919 cheaper electricity rates led the Arsenal to shut down its electric power production, and the old steam-powered generators were sold off in 1926. At the start of WWII, a second 150-foot chimney was built next to the building. In 1953, the original chimney was taken down, and six boilers were replaced with three more efficient models. Building 60 supplied steam heat to buildings on the Arsenal until the closing of the Army Materials Technical Laboratory in 1995."

Below you see what I assume are former officers' quarters. The building at the far right of the photo was built as a cow barn in 1906, per the Arsenal on the Charles web site. It was converted to the warrant officer's quarters in 1936.

Next is Building 131, the Administration Building.

"The building’s location on Talcott Avenue, near both the Arsenal’s manufacturing complex and the research labs, is a testament to the critical roles that both activities played in the Arsenal’s operations in the first half of the 20th Century," sez the Arsenal on the Charles web site.

(I love the juxtaposition of the elaborate War Office plaque with the plain sign on the door behind for Enanta Pharmaceuticals.)

I love the cannons lined up on the administration building's lawn.

A tree-lined drive takes you to the only spot on the former arsenal campus where you can get married: the Commander's Mansion.

Built in 1865, the mansion has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1976.

At the bottom of the road running north past the mansion stands a former guard house.

Just steps from the guardhouse is a locked entrance to some sort of underground passage.

I've driven past here many times over the years and wondered about this tunnel. I finally have my answer. "Mr. Magoon said the two metal doors in the earth at the bottom of the Commander’s Mansion property are bunkers," according to a 2014 Town of Watertown Zoning Board of Appeals document I found online. "Mr. Schreiber added that they are connected to the tunnel system. Boats would pull up and unload there."

Well, that's pretty much what I'd hope was going on behind those doors!

Across from the mansion is Arsenal Community Park and Skate Park, a great resource. When I was there I saw an outdoor yoga class, some guys playing soccer and other folks just strolling around. There is also an amphitheater.

The skate park is below.

The park is behind one of the buildings of the Arsenal Yards shopping complex. Below is a Watertown Arsenal insignia on the side of that building, which I believe was the materials and mechanics research center.

I'm going to interrupt the flow of my tour here to talk about the building at the eastern end of the Arsenal Yards complex, which I shot on a follow-up trip.

Mount Auburn Hospital occupies the easternmost portion of the building. The other half is a combination parking garage and former restaurant space. Most recently, Miller's Ale House filled that slot. Prior to that it was a Bugaboo Creek Steak House, where I went once with my family.

While set apart from the main campus of Arsenal Yards, this building will also be redeveloped. The plan calls for life science lab space to be added here, according to this Wicked Local article.

Across Arsenal Street from this outlying building is the former arsenal's nuclear waste dump site.

I've written two posts about this site, where for decades the Army dumped radioactive material from the nuclear reactor (see April 5, 2013, "Nuclear Dump Playground: UPDATE" to read the most recent post, and find a link to the first post).

In 2014, the U.S. General Service Administration (GSA) announced it would transfer the old dump site back to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation said it planned to use the site for "passive recreation," which I believe means walking paths. As of June 26 of this year, however, the sign posted on the fence shown in the photo above indicates that it is federal property.

I've been unable to find an update on progress for this site.

OK, back to the Arsenal on the Charles property.

Below is the facade of the West Timber Storehouse, mentioned above. It "is the oldest standing industrial building in the Watertown Arsenal Historic District," per the Arsenal on the Charles web site. "It was built in 1851 for storing and drying lumber used in wooden field and siege gun limbers, carriages and caissons. By the 1890’s iron had replaced wood as the primary material for gun carriages, and building 37 was converted into an iron and brass foundry."

The last building I want to discuss is Building 43, the Smith Shop.

"Built in 1861, Building 43 is one of the oldest buildings in the Watertown Arsenal Historic District," according to you-know-which web site. "[I]t was a part of the original Seacoast Gun Carriage Complex. While most buildings at the arsenal would be adapted and changed to meet the evolving needs of the Army’s ordnance department, the smith shop was the only building that would retain its original use throughout the arsenal’s history."

I love the details on this building.

In front of the old arsenal complex are two old cannons.

As with the other cannons on the grounds, I'm not sure if they were manufactured at the arsenal, or are more recent replicas.

Well, that wraps it up! Make sure to check back for an upcoming post about the rest of East Watertown.