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Dump the debt: Elect Gibbons mayor
By adamg on Tue, 06/18/2019 - 10:53am
The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this dilapidated old building. See it larger.
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Comments
1841 Columbus
On google maps, there is a Marty for mayor sign on the newer building there.
It's in Southie somewhere.
It's in Southie somewhere. There's a Kerrigan for City Council sign on the wall, and he was from South Boston and served as city councilor in 15 non-consecutive terms from 1933-1973.
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_E._Kerrigan
I know this building from riding around the neighborhood, but it's not coming to me where exactly it is. Best guess is City Point, on W 4th, somewhere between L and O.
Redo
Dorchester Ave. The building is still there.
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.2879725,-71.0637164,3a,75y,253.06h,91.22t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1ssH2Ctcb0w4mZ7wlkFC_WYg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
No the GMaps building is
No the GMaps building is brick, and the bow windows in the archive photo don't have fully encased trim panels.
Empty Lot Next Door?
The address on the building in the picure is 1841-1843. The exising building on GMaps is 1845-1847.
Big Bad Wolf
That is easy to explain.
1837-1839 was made out of straw. Empty lot.
1841-1843 was made of wood. Empty lot.
1845-1847 is made out of brick and still stands.
Seriously though. The windows and doors match perfect as for location. Too much of a coincidence to have a matching building (in brick) across town only two house numbers apart on such a high numbered street.
Found the big bad wolf
It’s not the same building.
It’s not the same building. Original building is wood frame, your building is masonry.
Agreed.
Since the answer is Dot Ave, it makes me wonder why they built a brick one exactly like the wood one next door.
Kerrigan would have been at-large
As the entire council was elected at-large from 1949 until 1983 (or 81.)
I'm going with Capecoddah. Tremont Street. And the year was 1975.
After 75..
Gibbons ran for Mayor in 75, but Flynn didn't run for City Council until 78..
Different John Kerrigan
Given that Gibbons ran for mayor in '75, the Kerrigan sign is likely for John J. Kerrigan
Bad guess
West Fourth Street is in the lower end. East Fourth is between L and M.
Typos happen...
Typos happen...
that dilapidated triple decker?
looks like a million bucks to me. at least a million.
1975 or after
Gibbons ran in '75 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Boston_mayoral_election
Dorchester
1841-43 Dorchester Ave Dorchester
1975
August 18 was a Monday in 1975, also in 1969 and 1980. '75 seems most likely.
The "street number" 1841-1843 is a problem. There are only a few streets in the City of Boston that have numbers going up to the 1800s. I checked most of them on old real estate atlases, and none had any wooden buildings resembling this one at that address. Streets I ruled out were Beacon Street (Brighton, south of the reservoir), Centre Street (West Roxbury), Columbia Road (Southie), Columbus Avenue (near Egleston Sq.), Commonwealth Avenue (Brighton), Dorchester Avenue, Hyde Park Avenue, River Street (Hyde Park), Soldiers Field Road, and V.F.W. Parkway. [Blue Hill Avenue and Tremont Street only go up to the 1600s.]
Surprisingly, the best match seems to be Washington Street in the South End, between Camden and Lenox, which actually did have a wooden building at 1843. But the old atlases say that it was just a 2-story building, and they don't show any bay windows. On the other hand, the general state of decrepitude would match that location; so many buildings there had been abandoned in that era, assuming that the Inner Belt was coming their way.
Is there any chance that the number may refer to something other than the address?
Gibbons was a Lyndon LaRouche cult member!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Labor_Party
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Boston_mayoral_election - he got a whopping 1002 votes in the preliminary election
Archives photo
Since no one has suggested this yet, I thought it looked like the old Carroll building on the corner of Lamartine and Paul Gore Streets in Jamaica Plain, before it was renovated into the Nate Smith House.
The answer