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Hot time in the old town
By adamg on Thu, 06/29/2023 - 9:56am
It's been warm the last couple of days, but the digital thermometer outside Harry's on Centre Street across from the reclaimed part of West Roxbury yesterday made us wonder if we'd somehow been teleported to Texas. Then it flashed a time of 10:35, when it was really closer to 6:30 p.m., so we realized, phew, we could still get chicken enchiladas in mole sauce at Yucatan Tacos across the street and the signboard was just malfunctioning.
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Comments
What’s the “reclaimed part of
What’s the “reclaimed part of West Roxbury” referencing?
Did the city designate Washington and Weld as part of a different neighborhood (eg Roslindale) before?
That stretch of Centre, up by the parkway ...
Used to be in 02131, but after years of pestering USPS, residents there got switched to 02132, because, at the time, West Roxbury had higher property values than Roslindale, and they wanted in.
So when Yucatan Tacos opened, it was in Roslindale, but now it's in West Roxbury.
But, I goofed in the original post. Unlike Yucatan, Harry's is still in 02131, so I will change the original post forthwith.
Also See
The streets just north of Franklin Park between Humboldt and Blue Hill Avenue.
This area was called Dorchester because it was a well off neighborhood from the 1900's until the 1950's. It was never part of the old town of Dorchester,
The local population didn't want to be associated with the working class along BHA or closer to what is now known as Washington Park.
Dorchester was seen as something better to put on your mail rather than Roxbury.
I was even asked once, at a former job by a condo association, to get the post office to include their development, along Pond Ave, as in Pond Ave which faces the J-Way and the Back of The Hill area of Mission Hill / JP as part of Chestnut Hill. Brookline was not enough for their taste. They wanted "better". I wrote a letter, showed it to the board. They said send it. I threw it in the trash that night. Snobby jackarses.
Yikes, that's nowhere near Chestnut Hill!
I would have completed the job I was being paid to do, but would have followed up in my capacity as a private citizen to protest the very notion.
Actually, I think that may be
Actually, I think that may be only partially true. If I recall correctly, the “reclaimed” portion was originally in West Roxbury. The old West Roxbury post office was unable to handle the volume of mail it received for all of West Roxbury, so that portion was cut off and given to the Roslindale post office to handle, until such time as the West Roxbury post office got new and improved digs. When the brand new post office opened, the reclaimed section went back to West Roxbury as originally envisioned (and, yes, perhaps helped along by the nudging of some residents — not all! — who wanted their West Roxbury zip code back).
Zip if Federal, not city
Some years back a few zip codes changed to accommodate postal delivery. The end of LaGrange Street with the apartments abutting Newton was in 02132 because it is West Roxbury, but sometimes referred to as Chestnut Hill. The zip there was changed because postal delivery is actually coming from the Newton District as a matter of convenience. Politics had nothing to do with it.
The zip code line actually goes straight up Centre Street in that area. A&N is in West Roxbury with an 02132 zip. Harry's is in Roslindale with an 02131 zip.