Walking Tour of Green Street

Join the Jamaica Plain Historical Society on a walk along Green Street. Laid out in 1836, the street played a key role in Jamaica Plain’s development, functioning as a residential, commercial, and transportation conduit in the lives of the district’s residents. Although Green Street was subdivided as early as 1851 for stores, factories and houses, it was not extensively developed until the late 1870s with construction continuing until the early 1900s. The Bowditch School was completed in 1892, and early in the 20th century the United States Post Office moved from its location on Call Street at Woolsey Square to its new location at the corner of Green and Cheshire Streets. Please note: this is a special SUNDAY afternoon offering of this tour (for JP Open Studios weekend).

Walking Tour of Woodbourne

Come walk with the Jamaica Plain Historical Society through this less well-known corner of JP. This neighborhood developed from 19th-century summer estates into a model suburban enclave. It contains examples representative of New England architecture with designs by local architects and builders. It also contains an unusual garden city model housing development by the Boston Dwelling House Company which was founded in 1912. Please note: this is a special SUNDAY morning offering of this tour.

Tour de Hyde Square en español

Entra el Jamaica Plain Historical Society a Aprende sobre la plaza Hyde en la década de 1840 cuando los inmigrantes alemanes e irlandeses transformaron el vecindario con sus negocios, escuelas e instituciones. Veremos cómo a principios de la década de 1960, Hyde Square volvió a cambiar cuando los inmigrantes cubanos, puertorriqueños y dominicanos convirtieron el vecindario en el primero predominantemente hispano de Boston. Este recorrido también nos lleva a la casa de Maud Cuney Hare, destacada historiadora de música y una de las dos únicas estudiantes negras en el Conservatorio de Música de Nueva Inglaterra en 1890. También aprenderemos sobre la propiedad que alberga el Centro Médico para Animales Angell de MSPCA. que fué el sitio de la Escuela Perkins para Ciegos.

Tour de Stony Brook en español

Entrar el Jamaica Plain Historical Society a explore un área industrial fascinante en el corazón de Boston. Veremos edificios que fueron cutidurías y cervecerías en el siglo XIX, las casas de los primeros colonos alemanes y la Boston Beer Company, la cervecería de Samuel Adams. Hablaremos de la década de 1970, en la que una coalición de grupos comunitarios se unió para bloquear la construcción de la autopista Southwest Expressway que iba a atravesar Jamaica Plain y otros vecindarios de Boston. Y pasearemos por lo que es hoy, el Southwest Corridor Park que atraviesa el vecindario de Stony Brook, un testimonio del poder del activismo comunitario. Los recorridos duran entre 60 y 90 minutos y se cancelan en caso de fuertes lluvias. No se requieren reservas, basta con ir al punto de partida a la hora indicada.

Film Screening: Borderland The Life & Times of Blanche Ames Ames

Blanche Ames Ames (1878-1969) was an artist, activist, builder, inventor, a birth control maverick and a leader within the woman suffrage movement in Massachusetts. She also has an intriguing and rather unique connection to Jamaica Plain. Please join us for a screening of a film about the life of this trailblazing woman, followed by a Q&A session with historian Ed Hands, who is featured in the film. This event is sponsored by the Jamaica Plain Branch of the Boston Public Library and co-sponsored by the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail, the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and the Jamaica Plain Historical Society

The event is virtual and will be held via zoom. Please pre-register here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_zBVGiHJpQiKYVIGU84hBJg

Walking Tour of Jamaica Pond

Come walk around the Jamaica Pond with us. Once a district that only included the houses of Boston’s elite, the Pond later was put to industrial use as tons of ice were harvested there each winter. Learn about the movers and shakers such as Francis Parkman and James Michael Curley who made their homes on the Pond’s shores. Discover how the Pond was transformed from private estates and warehouses into the parkland we know today. Please note: tours will be given based on the current COVID 19 directives from the City of Boston and the Commonwealth.

Walking Tour of Woodbourne

Come walk with us through this well-known corner of JP. This neighborhood developed from 19th-century summer estates into a model suburban enclave. It contains examples representative of New England architecture with designs by local architects and builders. It also contains an unusual garden city model housing development by the Boston Dwelling House Company which was founded in 1912. Please note: tours will be given based on the current COVID 19 directives from the City of Boston and the Commonwealth.

Walking Tour of Green Street

Laid out in 1836, the street played a key role in Jamaica Plain’s development, functioning as a residential, commercial, and transportation conduit in the lives of the district’s residents. Although Green Street was subdivided as early as 1851 for stores, factories and houses, it was not extensively developed until the late 1870s with construction continuing until the early 1900s. The Bowditch School was completed in 1892, and early in the 20th century the United States Post Office moved from its location on Call Street at Woolsey Square to its new location at the corner of Green and Cheshire Streets. Please note: tours will be given based on the current COVID 19 directives from the City of Boston and the Commonwealth. Please wear a mask and follow all required actions.

Walking Tour of Hyde Square

Learn about 1840s Hyde Square when German and Irish immigrants transformed the neighborhood with their businesses, schools, and institutions. See how in the early 1960s, Hyde Square changed again when Cuban, Puerto Rican, and Dominican immigrants transformed it into Boston’s first predominantly Hispanic neighborhood. This tour also takes us to the home of Maud Cuney Hare, a prominent music historian and one of only two black women students at the New England Conservatory of Music in 1890. You will also learn about the property currently housing the MSPCA’s Angell Animal Medical Center which was once a site of the Perkins School for the Blind. The tour will also walk through the Sunnyside neighborhood, the site of homes built by philanthropist Robert Treat Paine from 1889 to 1899 as a “worker’s utopia” for working families.

Walking Tour of Stony Brook

Explore a fascinating industrial area at the geographic heart of Boston that includes 19th-century tannery and brewery buildings, the homes of early German settlers, and today’s Boston Beer Company, the brewers of Samuel Adams. In the 1970s, a coalition of community groups joined together to block construction of the Southwest Expressway through Jamaica Plain and other Boston neighborhoods. Today, the Southwest Corridor Park that runs through the Stony Brook neighborhood stands as a testament to the power of community activism. Please note: tours will be given based on the current COVID 19 directives from the City of Boston and the Commonwealth. Please wear a mask and follow all required actions. All JPHS tours are free to the public.