What was before – What once occupied the site of today’s Pru?

March 31, 2012.Reading time 7 minutes.

Seen from any approach to Boston, the Prudential Tower has figured prominently into Boston’s skyline since its construction in the early 1960’s. And, with 52 floors, the Pru stands as Boston’s second-tallest building, just behind the John Hancock Tower‘s sixty. The Tower, completed in 1964, rises 749 feet, or, with its radio mast (pictured atop […]

The Great White Hurricane – New England’s Blizzard of 1888

February 5, 2012.Reading time 9 minutes.

During New England‘s Blizzard of 1888, also known as the Great White Hurricane, over four feet of snow fell in Connecticut and Massachusetts. The storm dumped as much as 40 inches of snow in New York and New Jersey. In a world before road salt and snowblowers, the Great White Hurricane suspended communication and travel […]

If you were to walk . . . Boston’s North Union Station, 1895

January 31, 2012.Reading time 11 minutes.

Any discussion on “Lost Boston” has to include Boston’s North Union Station, which once stood on Causeway Street, on the current site of the TD Garden (better known locally as “the Boston Garden” and by some as the “Fleet Center”). North Union Station, which consolidated the operations of four different railroads into one building, was […]

The Ebbing Excitement Surrounding the Opening of Boston’s Tremont Street Subway, 1897

January 28, 2012.Reading time 7 minutes.

Have you visited Boston? Do you have ancestors who lived or visited here? Since you’re reading a blog called Forgotten New England, chances are good that you, or someone on a branch of your family tree, has ridden Boston’s subway. Boston’s subway, or ‘the T’ as its locally known, makes a very walkable city even […]

Worries of the Past: Smallpox and Boston’s Epidemic of 1872

January 13, 2012.Reading time 7 minutes.

First, flu-like symptoms emerge -fever, aches, pains, nausea. Exhaustion soon follows. It’s not until a few days later when the telltale, flat, red spots appear about the face, hands, and arms. The spots evolve into pus-filled blisters that scab first and then fall off, to reveal deep, pitted scars. Smallpox was one of history’s most […]

Boston’s Immigrant Experience in 1900 – Anticipation & Hope Amidst Confusion & Exploitation

December 28, 2011.Reading time 16 minutes.

Imagine the anticipation of these folks aboard the SS Canopic as it docked in Boston over 90 years ago. Were your grandparents or great-grandparents among these immigrants, who had perhaps spent more than a week aboard ship traveling to a new life? How long had these families planned, sacrificed, and prepared for this moment as […]

Turkey Drovers – Traditions from Thanksgiving Days Past

November 22, 2011.Reading time 2 minutes.

It turns out that wild turkeys are incredibly difficult to move across long distances. In the days before refrigerated travel, a national roadway system, and even railroads, driving turkeys across long stretches of land was the province of men called turkey drovers. From 1790 to about 1830, turkey drovers walked turkeys to market, literally, at a […]

In His Words: Charles Dickens’ Perspective on New England and Public Transport, 1842

November 6, 2011.Reading time 13 minutes.

We New Englanders have long called Boston “the Hub”. And there’s a sense, just barely concealed, that we’re really referring to the hub of the universe, and not merely the hub of the state or region. Undoubtedly, New England has a strong regional identity that includes the ubiquitous image of the “proper Bostonian” as well as a […]

The Civility of the Past – Our Ancestors’ Experiences with Public Transport

November 4, 2011.Reading time 8 minutes.

Do you commute to work using public transportation? There’s a certain etiquette, a set of norms, that is easily observable when you are on the bus, the train, the subway, or even a plane. There’s a prevailing thought out there that civility is a “thing of the past”. But, was it? Did our ancestors live […]

If you were to walk . . . Boston’s Scollay Square and Tremont Street, 1895

October 30, 2011.Reading time 11 minutes.

If you were to walk . . . through Boston’s Scollay Square and down Tremont Street, into what those alive in 1895 called “the congested district”, you would feel the crush of people and electric car traffic on what, even then, was considered a narrow road. On this midsummer workday, as you walk southwest through the […]