Contemporary Map of Brighton Center #9: Vantage Point: Dighton Street & Chestnut Hill Ave. intersection facing Brighton Square Park Brighton Square Park: This green space on the opposite side of Chestnut Hill Avenue, now known as Brighton Square Park, is the closest thing that Brighton has to a town common, but it was in fact …
Category: Schools
Brighton Center Walking Tour: Part 1
By William P. Marchione The Noah Worcester House, built in the 1680s, one of the oldest houses in Brighton Center, the residence in the 1810 to 1837 period of Dr. Noah Worcester, the founder of the American Peace Movement who also served as Brighton's first postmaster. The year the house was decorated with these flags …
Photo Essay #3: Smyrna’s Old Downtown
The following images of Smyrna's Old Downtown are arranged in approximate chronological order. Smyrna's downtown was largely demolished in the 1989-90 period to allow for the widening of traffic choked Atlanta Road. Please bear in mind that the age of the buildings pictured here cannot be established with absolute certainty in every instance. Nor is …
Oral Interview with Helen Terrell McGee, age 91, and Nancy McGee, part 2
Davenport Town, the racially segregated black neighborhood on the eastern edge of Smyrna Bill Marchione: I wanted to ask you if you had any experience of the black neighborhood called Davenport Town. Helen McGee: Yes, actually one of the black ladies that used to live in Davenport Town used to do our washing years ago, and …
Continue reading Oral Interview with Helen Terrell McGee, age 91, and Nancy McGee, part 2
John McLane, An Oral Interview Part 1: Recollections of the Historic Lake Street Neighborhood of Allston-Brighton
John McLane, age 89, retired Boston fire fighter and life-long resident of Allston-Brighton John McLane, was 89 years of age in 2001 when I conducted this interview. He had lived in Allston-Brighton his entire life, residing during his first ten years (1912-22) in the Lake Street area of Brighton (the neighborhood in which I also …
Smyrna Photographic Essay #2: Public Education
The following posting is a by-product of a project undertaken by the History Committee of the Smyrna Arts and Cultural Council in which more than 1400 historical photographs of Smyrna were gathered and topically categorized. This is the second of a series of Smyrna history photographic essays to appear on this blog, the first on …
Continue reading Smyrna Photographic Essay #2: Public Education
Local Historian North & South 