We’re joined this week by Lauren Prescott, the executive director of the South End Historical Society and author of a new book simply titled Boston’s South End. It’s part of Arcadia Publishing’s “Postcard History Series,” and it features hundreds of images from the South End Historical Society’s collection of historic postcards dating from the 1860s to the mid 20th century.
Boston’s South End
- Purchase Lauren Prescott’s new book Boston’s South End.
- The South End Historical Society on… Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
- This article from Atlas Obscura illustrates how the Gettysburg Cyclorama uses props to create an early form of virtual reality.
- Information about the Chickering Piano Factory, and why its floors all slope toward the elevators.
- A 1906 study of “The Lodging House Problem in Boston,” focusing on lodging in the South End.
Featured Historic Site
This week, we featured two historic attractions in the forest on the Rockport/Gloucester town line, Dogtown Common and the Babson Boulders. Dogtown is the remains of a late 17th century settlement, that’s now a ghost town. The Babson Boulders were commissioned by Roger Babson, an eccentric millionaire who briefly owned the land formerly occupied by Dogtown.
To visit, park in the small lot along Dogtown Road in Gloucester, then follow a trail map to find the numbered cellar holes and carved boulders. You can find out more about each house site by matching the number at the cellar to the key in Babson’s 1936 guide to Cape Ann.
Roger Babson also founded a group called the Gravity Research Foundation. He hated and feared gravity, blaming it for his sister’s death when they were children. The Foundation was meant to fund research into antigravity devices. Along with many other projects, the foundation placed stones at about two dozen colleges around the country, including one at Tufts, and one at Eastern Nazarene in Quincy that questions what gravity is, how it works, and how it may be controlled.
Upcoming Event
Throughout 2018, Hyde Park is holding special events to commemorate the 150th anniversary of its incorporation as an independent town. On March 3, there will be a talk celebrating the Grimke Sisters by author and historian Louise W Knight. As we discussed in Episode 23, the Grimkes were radical abolitionists and suffragists, and they spent their final years living in Hyde Park. This talk will focus on that period, and their roles as educators, aunts, and voters.
The event will be held on Saturday, March 3 at 2pm, 2-4 PM at the Menino Arts Center (26 Central Avenue, Hyde Park, MA 02136).