History

The History of 101 Carolina Avenue

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At the corner of Carolina Avenue and Lee Street in Jamaica Plain sits a charming cottage on an unusually large parcel of land for the surrounding neighborhood. This house, at 101 Carolina Avenue, was the first to be built on the street. Though significant for its age, also important is the role it played in the history of Jamaica Plain and the development of the field of social work. Between 1853, when the house was constructed, and 1913, most of the owners and occupants of 101 Carolina Avenue were related by marriage, blood, or business ties. In 1913, the house transformed from a single-family home into the home of the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood House Association, a settlement house that served the working people of Jamaica Plain and the influx of immigrants moving into the neighborhood.

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History

‘Jamaica Plain Through Time’ Takes Readers on Historical Tour of Neighborhood

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Historian Anthony Sammarco's newest book Jamaica Plain Through Time chronicles the neighborhood from the late 19th century through to the 21st century. The following is from Sammarco's book with contemporary photographs by Peter B. Kingman. Known in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as the Jamaica End of Roxbury, the neighborhood of Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, evolved from agrarian farmland for over 200 years into one of the more dynamic and inclusive neighborhoods of twenty-first century Boston. Jamaica Plain became one of the earliest streetcar suburbs of Boston with various forms of transportation linking it to downtown Boston. With horse drawn streetcars, the Boston & Providence Railroad as well as the Boston Elevated Railway, by the turn of the twentieth century, the ease of transportation allowed a thriving nexus of cultures to move to a community that not only saw tremendous residential and commercial development, especially with the numerous breweries along the Stony Brook, but also green space and open lands that were laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted as a part of the "Emerald Necklace" of Boston.

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History

Trivia Challenge! Can You Defeat the Whiz of JP Facts?

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How good are you at Jamaica Plain trivia? Good enough to beat the assumed JP trivia champ? Sign up for the virtual Jamaica Plain Trivia Battle Royale on Nov. 12, and you'll see how much trivia you know. The evening will be full of facts, celebrity clues, historical info, and commercials from JP's local businesses.

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History

Who are the Suffragist Heroines of Jamaica Plain?

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August 26 is the 100th anniversary of the official certification of the ratification of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which banned states and the federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens on the basis of sex. Jamaica Plain was an important place in the suffrage movement, where many women's-rights agitators made their home. Judith Winsor Smith, who lived in Jamaica Plain in the latter part of her long life, was a suffragist and abolitionist. When she voted for the first time, in 1920, at the age of 99, she was dubbed "the oldest suffragist of them all." In Jamaica Plain she lived with her daughter, Zilpha Smith, who was a pioneer in the development of the field of family social work in Boston.

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History

Historical Society Leading (Real Life) Walking Tours of Stony Brook, Hyde Square, Jamaica Pond and More

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The Jamaica Plain Historical Society is leading four real life walking tours during the next four weekends. The hourlong tours are on Saturdays . The tour schedule is as follows: Stony Brook; Hyde Square; Green Street; and Jamaica Pond. JPHS has had to adapt their tours to modern pandemic times. "Luckily, the tours are all outside and that also makes things safer.

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