Curtis Hall is celebrating its 150th birthday and you're invited to the party!
Photo courtesy of the JP Historical Society www.jphs.org
Curtis Hall in Jamaica Plain
The celebration will be on Saturday, Nov. 17 from 2 to 5 pm. Admission is free and there will be activities, music and food. You don't even have to bring a birthday present!
The original Curtis Hall was erected in 1868, "by the old town of West Roxbury as a Town Hall in 1868," said an article originally published in the Boston Daily Globe on Dec. 16, 1908, according to the Jamaica Plain Historical Society (JPHS).
The building was named for Nelson Curtis, an "old-time contractor," whose nephew Edwin Upton Curtis was the 34th mayor of Boston from 1895-1896, according to wikipedia. Nelson Curtis gave the land to build Curtis Hall, built it for $70,000 and furnished the granite trimmings free, according to the Boston Daily Globe.
Originally, the public library was on the first floor of Curtis Hall, but a fire destroyed the building 1908, and was rebuilt in 1912 with the library as a separate building, wrote Henry Keaveney, the first president of the Jamaica Plain Historical Society (JPHS) in "Those Were The Days."
