August 20, 2025 • 39 mins
Bradley Jay Fills in on NightSide
The city of Boston is considered one of the country’s oldest cities and it’s filled with a lot of history. Boston played a pivotal role in the American Revolution. Suffolk University Professor Bob Allison, an expert on Boston history specializing in Revolutionary Boston, joined us to share some secrets of Boston historical sites, including the iconic ship, USS Constitution.
The city of Boston is considered one of the country’s oldest cities and it’s filled with a lot of history. Boston played a pivotal role in the American Revolution. Suffolk University Professor Bob Allison, an expert on Boston history specializing in Revolutionary Boston, joined us to share some secrets of Boston historical sites, including the iconic ship, USS Constitution.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's nice size with Dan Ray, I'm going easy Bonds
News Radio Bradley j.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
For Dan tonight. This segment is for both locals and
visitors alike. We all know the popular historical sites around town,
and we've been to most of them, but I bet
there's a lot about these that we don't know, and
when we visit, we don't appreciate them as much as
we could. Well, I'm hoping to remedy that tonight with
(00:28):
our great, great guest tonight. He's been on many times.
This is Professor Bob Allison, Suffolk University history professor, and
he is the chair of the Advisory Committee of Revolution
two fifty, an organization dedicated to the celebration of events
related to the Revolution, and he's a life trustee of
(00:51):
the USS Constitution. He's got it going on. He's definitely
deep in history here in Boston. So thank you for
being with us.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Thank you, Bradley. It's great to be here. And there's
a lot of history happening in Boston.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
By the way, I did a video. Do you remember
the video we did together about the Constitution's trip around
the world. Yes, in honor of your visit here, I
reposted it and it's on the WBZ social media sites.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Great, you want to check that out.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
So we're going to take a look at some of
the Common sites and dig deep and tell you things
that you may not know, and it'll make you want
to go back and visit it, visit these places again
and again. So let's start with the Boston Common that
is right in the middle, and there's a whole lot
more going on there. Then I certainly realized, and then
(01:41):
most realized, So why did you talk about some of
the sites that are there that folks may not know about.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
The Common is really one of the most amazing sites
in the country. It's the oldest public park in the
United States. But it wasn't created as a park. It
was on the edge of town in the sixteen hundreds.
There was one tree on it, you know that where
Charles Street is now. That was where the back Bay began.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
That's where water was.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
There was water there, and there actually is a small
hill on the Common that we know native was a
Native American site. Joe Bagley, the city archaeologist, has done
a lot of work on the Common, finding actually the
oldest artifact ever found in Boston is a five thousand
year old arrow point that they found when they're actually
putting in new lights. Every time they do anything on
(02:27):
the Common, the archaeologist comes in to see anything, and
he did find this arrow point five thousand years old
from the Common.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
And we know what was there?
Speaker 3 (02:36):
A tribe, Well, the Massachusetts tribe.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
We're here five thousand years ago, Well, they were here.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
They were maintaining actually fish weirs on the on the
back bay. And in fact, every June, the first Monday
in June, the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company does their
muster but its history Day on the Common, and Russ Miller,
who's a Boston artist, recreates the fish weir they maintained
for about five or eight hundred years. They put in
(03:04):
the pilings in the back bay and then they would
put in brush and the tide would bring fish in.
They would fill up the fish weir. The tide would
go out, leave the fish behind the native women. Then
we'd go out and gather the fish, bring them to
shore to dry. So they were keeping this every year.
I'm told that they cut the branches to make this
(03:25):
mesh for the weir when the leaves were as big
as a mouse's ear. But imagine there's nothing that we
have maintained for five hundred years. It's an amazing story
about this maintenance.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
And did the pilgrims have any idea how to do
this when they got here?
Speaker 3 (03:41):
No, no they didn't. The native people were doing this
and had been doing this, and really they would use
the fish for fertilizer, but also they would smoke them
and then they would keep them in basket. You would
have native men would be traveling and they would have
a basket of these dried fish that they would eat.
They're usually small, harrying or other fish. They had other
fish kinds of fish too. They also had lots and
(04:03):
lots of oysters and clams, and anywhere you go, if
you dig down, you're probably going to find a shell midden,
and that's basically the scrap heap, and the shell middens
also preserve a lot of other things, animal bones, other stuff.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Where exactly do they find the five thousand year arrowhead
that was.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
On the common on the slope near Beacon Street. I
can't tell you exactly where because you'll be out with
the metal dete.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
No, that's interesting, Okay, I've actually walked up there with
you and you pointed out things that I had no
idea about.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
It's one of my favorite places because there's also a
burying ground on the Common and also the Great Elm, which.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
We talk about the Great Elm and some bad things
that happened.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
That was the execution point, and the Puritans were executing
people who committed crimes. Some are still crimes today, murder.
Others are things not crimes today. Adultery and I don't
know if we should talk about bestiality was another crime
punished on the Common, and in this case, a guy
convicted of best reality was executed along with the animals
(05:05):
with whom he was alleged to have committed these acts. Yeah,
it doesn't seem there the animals would be executed first
and then they would all be buried together. So somewhere
on the Common there is that grave of this malefactor
along with a cow, a sheep, a pig, and a turkey.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Wow, folks, if you have any questions or any suggestions
as the sites you'd like to hear more about, this
is your guy, Bob Allison and the number six one, seven, two, five,
four to ten thirty or if you preferred twelve three
six one, if you prefer six one, seven, nine, three,
ten thirty. You make the call there. Okay, more about
(05:43):
the great Elm. It's not there anymore.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
No blew down in a hurricane sometime in the eighteen sixties.
And when the Puritans arrived in sixteen thirty, it was
the only tree on the common. William Blackstone was already
living just off the Common in sixteen thirty, and the
native people had kind of cleared the area. And this
is a grazing area, this big elm tree. In the
(06:06):
seventeen nineties, sister Anne Lee, who was a leader in
the Shaker movement, comes and preaches under the elm. There's
a legend that actually there is a plaque there which
says this is where the Sons of Liberty met. But
that's not true.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Wow, and there was How about that bandstand? Does that
have any the Parkman bands? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Talk about that the Parkman band. Doctor George Parkman was
a doctor in Boston. Also, he had a number of
apartments that he rented. He was a Boston Brahman and
one of his tenants was doctor George Webster, and Webster
was a gambler. Consequently, he was often short and couldn't
pay his rent, and one Friday afternoon, doctor Parkman goes
(06:51):
to get collect the rent from doctor Webster, and that's
the last anyone sees of doctor Parkman. Webster they find
bone fragments in the furnace in laboratory and he is
convicted of murdering doctor Parkman. Even though there's not a body,
and even though the President of Harvard testified at the
trial saying that my faculty or not in the habit
of murdering one another, that wasn't enough for the jury.
(07:12):
So doctor Webster was hanged and Parkman's son and his
widow survived. They move into the Parkman House on Beacon Street,
now the home for the Mayor, possible residence for the mayor.
He also left fifteen million dollars to the city for
improvements to the parks, and they used that to build
the Parkman band Stand, which is a great feature on
(07:34):
the Common.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
It is. Yeah, actually I was in a band that
performed once on the park.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Parkman Martin Luther King spoke at the Parkman band Stand.
James Michael Curly spoke at the park's history there.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
How about a non you know, non leaf of punishments
on the common? Were there was there a spot where
they had the stocks.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
And yeah, the town would have whipped people in front
of the old State House. But when the Britishish occupied
Boston in seventeen sixty eight, this was their camp. Their
troops would be camped on the common and a common
always had been used for the colonial militia. This is
where they would train and muster. So it is one
of the oldest military sites in the country. And so
(08:14):
the British would whip their soldiers punish them on the common.
And this is something that infuriated Bostonians because the whipping
was done by the drummers, who often were black black
soldiers in the British Army, and this really enraged Bostonians
that these black men are whipping white men on the common.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
It's interesting that that people would get whipped at all.
That's again, you know, did they get whipped for the
equivalent of a parking ticket? Hey, you can't park your
horse here. What did you get whipped for? How bad
did you have to transgress?
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Well, if you miss divine service a certain number of times,
you could be or robbery or if you missed church, Yeah,
you get whip. You could be whipped if you do
it persistently, and it's a public punish. The idea is
that you are being punished in front of everyone as
a way of bringing and even hangings would be public events,
and it's a way of reminding the community of who
(09:12):
is in charge and why not you shouldn't. And by
the way, for an execution, usually there would be a
sermon and usually often the malefactor would publish, have published
his autobiography what led him to be such a bad guy?
Speaker 2 (09:28):
And then whole cautionary tale.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
It is definitely a cautionary tale. You want to avoid
doing these kinds of things.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
All right, Right after these words, we're going to go
to Pete and Revere and we'd love to hear from
you as well. Six one, seven, two thirty Its w BZY.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Hell No, I'm Bradley Jay for Dan today, and we're
here with Bob Allison, Suffolk University history professor, an expert
on Boston history revolutionary history, and we're going through the
common sights and doing a deep dive into the history
of those Some of those spots, for example, Old State
House will get to Fennel Hall, Cops Hill Burying Ground,
(10:07):
the Constitution, the Granary Burying Ground, Old North Church, and
maybe you have an idea, Bob, let's go to Pete
and Revere. Now, hello Pete, you're on busy.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Yeah, hyah, A great subject, by the way, one of
my favorites for the first till. I want to thank
you both for saying Boston Common not Commons, because Bostonians
don't understand that. And just let me read off a
few things that notes that may hanging. Mary Dye was
hanging there. She was a Quaker right the Manaster twice.
(10:38):
She has a statue by the State House. And they
have a meeting place every ten ten thirty every Sunday.
Quite a meetinghouse right at the top of Chestnut Streak there.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
We don't need a football team to play the first
football game there.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Yeah, we're gonna talk about.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
So there's some football a football monument on the Common.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Yes, it's very fan it's all names and what happened,
and the game was different. Whoever scored twice was over
and they never lost. I think the other team never
never made it.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Their goal line was never crossed, and they had a
great names. You have, Winthrop, Sultan Stall Scudder was one
of their players, and there are other there are school
boys and they were they played actually during the Civil War.
The monument went up in the nineteen twenties. And you
may remember one time they actually had a soccer ball.
But then they realized because they thought, oh, when they're
(11:29):
talking about football, they must mean what we think of
a soccer. But then they realized, no, this was football.
This was one of the antecedents of the game of football.
So it was being created on the common in the
eighteen sixties.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
What else, pete, Well, it's the first subway, right, you
know what. It needs to be a memorial plaque there,
my friend, because ten or twelve people got killed when
the train was making the turn. It was a gas list.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
That's right, there was a.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Yeah, exactly right right, and actually uh uh the seventeen
thirty three first what do you call that.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Still squeals that's right next to the back the gas lid.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Yeah, ghastlink built up underground and spark. This was when
the train was still on the surface.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
Eight the time people died, they need a plaque there. Yeah,
and seven of us died in the summit tunnel because
I knew the man. It was related to my wife.
That was the h the supervisor of the tunnels. And
one time the reversed and he said seven men went
up on the walls. To this date, there's no memorial
plaque for that either.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yeah, how do you know so much? First? Let me
before we go on.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
How do you have a historian? I'm a historian. I've
given all the six thousand tours of the city. It's
my passion. It's just my passion. I lot a few
guys a tour as well, you know, but you'd have
to get my number because I don't advertise. It's all private.
But let me you say something else. Gilbert Stewart is
one of the famous people and then carried the count cemetery.
(13:05):
Cementary came out in eighteen thirty one over Mount Mount
Mount uh and change and change. Yeah. And it's too
Greek woods chema taro meaning wrestling place. Yeah. And he's
the one to do the addis of Washington, right. And
then Edward Feline has a platform.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
People there explain who Gilbert Stewart was.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
An artist anti he did the portrait.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Of Washington you see on the dollar.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Put you on Ald Deatle I'm gonna let Bob talk.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Go ahead, and there's a marker, as he was saying
to Edward Phileine, who was the creator of Filine's Basement.
The Filines had a department store actually initially in the
North End, and they moved to the site. Now it's
actually no longer Filine's. But he created the basement knowing
he needed to sell things and he didn't want things
hanging around in the store. He also created a credit
union for his employees. He was a very far cited
(14:01):
capitalist that is, understood how to sell things, but also
doing this for a public good.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Filing's Basement was the best thing. It used a hitchhike
from New Hampshire to go to.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
It was a great place to shop.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
And for a while I lived right on uh Winter Street,
so I was about one hundred feet away and I'd
go every day and I knew the dates on me.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
About Yeah, my wife thing. My wife worked at Philine's Basement.
When I was in graduate school, I was the best
dressed graduate student.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
I guess Pete. Now what else? Just a couple of.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
Things, yeah, just one quick thing. Edward Feline was the founder.
His name was cats. He didn't want to use that name.
He looked in at the store if he found Feline
and he slipped the e and I came off Fellen's
and Edwin was the one that founded the first credit union.
Like I say, he has a plata. Wow.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Yeah, that's a good one. Very speaking of common versus commons,
Phileine versus Fillene, that's another of our Boston contravert which
is correct at Pete, which is correct. He's gone up.
I've heard that Fileene's is the store. But the name
was Feline.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Okay, the name the persons, the persons, Yeah, it was
his store. Yeah, but thehihiostrophy s yeah, yeah, okay, all right,
now let's is there anything on the common what's the
big statue in the middle.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
On that That is the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. It
was one of the put up in eighteen eighty one
to the soldiers and sailors from Massachusetts who saved the Union.
And around the base there are bar reliefs showing the
soldiers leaving, getting their flags from Governor Andrew and then returning,
and those little plaques have identifiable people both among the
(15:46):
soldiers and among the people standing on the platform. It
was heavily vandalized, but it's actually just had a massive renovation.
And then around the base their statues a soldier, a sailor,
and history and liberty. Around the sides there's also a
commemoration on the marker to the US sanitary cores that
(16:10):
basically tended to the wounded, as well as two sailors.
So it's a tremendous work of art. At the highest
point of the Common. The frog pond is also worth
Oh yes, the frog pond you know Edgar Allan Poe
called Boston Frog Pond yonda because of the frog pond
and skating in the winter, it's a waiting pool in
the summer. The Common at one time had three different
(16:32):
ponds on it, so only the frog pond remains. And
when they opened up a new water system in the
eighteen forties, they had water from Lake ke Chittawit was
piped in and they actually had a water spout several
hundred feet high to celebrate the opening of this water system.
And I think when we were talking in the break
we mentioned that at the gate on Charles Street was
(16:53):
put there by the British government to thank Boston for
the hospitality to British sold sailors coming through Boston during
World War Two. And it's ironic because that was the
point along the back Bay that the British troops had
left in seventeen seventy five to go out to Lexington.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Right, So all of you know, if you've been to Boston,
what the Boston Common looks like. And there's Charles Street
which bisects the two parks, and then you have the Garden.
Try next time you're here and you're going to cross
Charles Street, imagine put yourself in that's very, very very spot.
(17:29):
That is the spot where British soldiers had gotten all
their kids together, gotten their boats together, their guns, their
powder there, whatever they needed to go and they're lugging
it all, getting it in the boats and they and
they're gonna push off. They go to go to Concord
Lexington and at the same time they're deciding how many
Atlantic you know, we better put how many two?
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Two we better put two?
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Go tell them to put two in the the steeple.
And it happened right there, right there.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
That's where they left from. They in their boats on
the Common and rode over to Cambridge to begin their
march too, conquered in April of seventeen seventy five.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
So right there on Charles, if you dig under Charles,
do you find fish skeletons from the weirs and all
that used to be water.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
It was water, you'll probably find oyster shells, playing shells fish.
That area was a marshy area which is now the
public garden, all filled in beginning, really, that was it
filled in in the eighteen thirties. The back Bay project
really begins in the eighteen fifties.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
You mentioned Edgar Allan Poe. Yes, and as you know,
there's an Edgar Allen Poe statue that's really really good,
a sculpture not right on the Common, but across the
street over in front of the cigar store. Yes, I
can't remember the name of that excellent cigar store. Yeah,
what a great sculpture that is. It looks like he's
bent in the wind.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
He's returning to Boston because he was born just about
a block south of the Common. And along the base
of the statue there are quotes from Poe, and one
is Boston's common and is no uncommon thing, And he
says he didn't really like Boston. He was born here,
his mother loved the town, but he hated it. I
think Pope had a lot of issues. And he does
(19:12):
return to Boston to enlist in the army in the
eighteen twenties, actually stationed out of Castle Island, and then
while he gives publishes his first book, which is a
long poem under the pseudonym of Bostonian. But by this
time he has moved on and he has this he
hates Boston because Boston was the center of the American
literary establishment, and Poe thought that a lot of them
(19:35):
were frauds. They rejected him right this, somewhat they did.
He was also he was a very good literary critic,
and so he said what he thought. And there was
a movement in the eighteen thirties and eighteen forties, let's
try to pump up American literature and praise things, because
Americans should be writing things. He said, you should praise
things if they're good. And he didn't think a lot
(19:57):
of what was being written was worth reading. Really headed
in for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He thought long Longfellow wasn't
a very good poet. He also accused him of being
a plagiarist and a Longfellow was a genial enough guy and
took this that Poe had issues. He praised some things
that Poe wrote, but Poe was his had his own
(20:20):
mind about things, and so he was attacking this literary
establishment because maybe because it was a literary establishment.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
All right, after a break, we're going to go to
Old North Church and we'll talk to Justin in Marlborough,
Massachusetts on WBZ.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
It's night Side on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Hello, friends, here's something that I want to remind you about.
A cool way to be part of the night Side broadcast.
Utilize the talkback feature on the iHeart radio app. It's cool.
I have tried it, I've done it, and it's easy.
Make sure you download the app and have it open
while listening to Nightside on WBZ News Radio. Then you
(21:03):
tap the red microphone up in the corner top right
and send a personalized message. You can make it a
question you could say right now. For example, Hey, Bradley,
Jay and Bob Allison, tell me about the Old South
Church and you know, maybe you're too shot to call
in or for whatever reason you can't call. If you
do that, uh, you can hear. You can listen to
yourself on the radio and trust me, that's cool. So
(21:26):
once again, open that app, hit that red microphone button
in the top right hand corner of the app while
listening to Nightside and send us your audio message. Also,
you can call me in person and live six one, seven, two, five,
four thirty. We continue with Bob Allison, history professor at
Suffolk University, the Great Suffolk University. And Bob, you're ready
(21:46):
to talk to Justin and Marlborough. All right, let's see
what he has to say. Justin, what's up?
Speaker 5 (21:53):
Hi, miss Ellison? Thank you for joining the show and
I really enjoy the host of filling in for Dan.
You're doing a great job.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Thanks Jos And.
Speaker 5 (22:03):
I wanted to ask have you ever heard the story
about mister Olmstead. When he was at McLean's Hospital near
the end of his life, he told the nurses that
he created Central Park and they said, we need to
increase your medication. Died they found out He's like, oh my,
(22:25):
the guy's fight.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
He actually had created Central Park. Yeah, Frederick Law Olmsted
who lived a long time and then his son took
over the firm and kept working under the name of Olmsted.
But yeah, he had done Central Park and then he
came to Boston and designed the Emerald Necklace. There's the
common was there and the Commonwealth Avenue mall, but then
creating the back turning the Back Bay fens into the Fenway,
(22:51):
and it was really a design he had done. It
wasn't because he wanted to create a beautiful park, but
the problem there was a problem of flooding with the
Muddy River and the Stony Brook, so designing it so
that it wouldn't flood, but then also creating this green space,
which he called the lungs of the city, so the
people in these crowded neighborhoods would have a place to
go for He didn't think it should be a place
(23:12):
to play football or do those kinds of things, but
instead to walk and to be part of nature. And
some of those really elegant bridges are still there that
he created, and the old pumphouse is now the headquarters
for the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, and so it connects Franklin
Park with the Common along this really beautiful walk. I
(23:32):
think Bradley and I did this walk a few years ago.
That's taking I'm.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
A huge, huge, fan of the Emerald Necklace. Boston would
not be Boston without it.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
That's right.
Speaker 5 (23:41):
You can.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
I can walk most of the way downtown along lush
green walkways, beautiful big trees. I love trees. The green
space is really important. And I learned something when I
did a video with Hugh Madison Madison of the Brookline
Brookline Green Space, and he told me and I saw
that it was the case that Olmsteed wanted to have
each mode of transportation separate. So there are separate horse
(24:05):
paths right, and vehicle paths and maybe even carriage paths.
And it's kind of still that way today because the
Tea goes through, but it has its own path.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
And I would be a love that. It's great. I
would be remiss now living in East Boston if I
didn't mention Wood Island Park that he also designed, that
was taken by Massport through eminent domain in the nineteen
sixties to expand a runway, another beautiful park in East Boston.
And also the idea was to connect Franklin Park with
(24:35):
Marine Park in South Boston via Columbia Road to make
Columbia Road a green way. I know Mayor Menino was
talking about doing reviving that idea. Nothing has come of
it but Marine Park in South Boston, where there's a
statue of Admiral Farraga and then it connects with Castle Island.
It's also part of Olmsted's vision for this emerald necklace
(24:57):
surrounding the city.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
And there's a go ahead justin I wanted to Orthodo
to ask both of you. Do you remember I think
it's about seven years ago a Japanese artists did a
five on exhibit all along them necklace.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
I don't remember that, but.
Speaker 5 (25:18):
If you have a chance to google, it's pretty She
did it across the country. He made fog off the
water and she did it all along the necklace. It's
pretty cool. And I also wanted to ask you, is
the map pallium off the topic? But in Boston is
the mappallium? Is that somewhat unique? I think it is.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
That's a Christian science, Yeah, it is. It is another
place I would recommend. I mean, that's a great place.
You go into this globe.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Describe what the mapium is.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
It's unbelievable, unbelievable. It's a globe and you're inside this
globe that was done in the nineteen thirties.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
It is about what twenty feet and it's.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Stained glass showing the different continent countries.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
On the inside.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Yes, and so it's one of those circular features. So
if you stand at one side and whisper, someone on
the other side can hear you.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
It's the sound. It's a perfect sphere, and so you
can throw your voice. If you're whisper facing the other way,
somebody twenty feet away can hear you like it's right
in your ear. And also interesting, it is a snapshot
of world geography in the nineteen thirties.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
I believe it is easy look listen to me. Eleventhal
Map Center at the Best Boston Public Library is also
worth visiting. A tremendous collection of maps.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Hey, Justin, great call. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Thanks Justin.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
And now it's Matt in Boston. Hello Matt, you're on WBZ.
Speaker 6 (26:39):
Hey, first of all, thank you. This is incredibly fascinating.
I love this history. I have a question. I'm living
in a building. I literally live on forty eight Beacon Street,
so that's Beacon and Spruce if you know it. And
it's this really tall building in this building amongst all
(27:01):
these small buildings and I moved in and I.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
Was told that this building was built illegally.
Speaker 6 (27:08):
I have to be honest. I have an incredible view
and I love it, although it certainly doesn't fit in
with the history of all the homes and brownstones around it.
But I didn't know if you knew anything about it.
I moved in about two years ago, got a great old,
great old lift in it like an elevator, but it's
really a lyft.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Okay, so Matt, the story I heard about that building
was that plot belonged to the Episcopal Archdiocese and they
were able to get around the regulations because they were
the Episcopal Archdiocese. If it's the wrong building and I'm
slandering them, I apologize and WBG and I won't pick
(27:49):
up my legal bills. But yeah, that was the story
I heard. Because under the city's building code at the time,
nothing could be taller than the State House dome, and
Beacon Hill at self wanted to keep buildings lower, so
I don't know how tight the regulations were at that time.
The next tall building that goes up is the Custom
House Tower, and that gets around the city's ordinances because
(28:11):
that was a federal building. And they said, we don't
have to listen to your heavy, little local rules. But yeah,
that's it's a great, great building. But you're right, And
so I think it's fortunate that no one else built
tall buildings along Beacon Street.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
That's great.
Speaker 6 (28:25):
I I I definitely benefit from the views. I'm up
on the seventh floor, and so I so I so
I appreciate that.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
But I also, I.
Speaker 6 (28:35):
Mean, I've owned I've owned homes in the Boston area
that have been pre Revolutionary War. I love the history
of these old places. So where I where, I see
it as sort of a iesare. I also from the
inside it actually looks amazing. And anyway, I just I
love hearing this stuff. You're doing an amazing job to tell.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
You before you go, Uh, it must be a real
nice place. This is kind of personal. But how many
square feet is your place?
Speaker 6 (29:02):
I think it's about eight hundred square feet. It's a
it's a one bedroom. But this building, in particular, the
windows are obviously grandfathered into code and they're humongous. You
literally like feel if you open up these windows, you
literally feel like you have a deck on on overlooking
the common and the garden, and even in the winter.
(29:23):
I live on the seventh floor and there's a building
next to us that's six floors six floors high, so
I actually have one window that looks right at the
Sick Go sign down Beacon Street. So it's quite an
interesting building and a great view of all the things
that you, you gentlemen, are talking about here.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
It's amazing. Thanks very much, Matt.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Well Matt as a neighbor. And let me just invite everyone.
I'm the president of the Colonial Society. We have a
house at eighty seven Mount Vernon Street. We have an
open house the first Sunday of every month, beginning in October,
and you're welcome to come and see a Bullfinch mansion
on Beacon Hill. The open house, open house, everybody. Anybody
can go between one and three.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Cookie. Is there anything?
Speaker 3 (30:03):
Yeah, we we'll have cookies if you're coming.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
You know, you may wonder where I wanted to know
how many square feet. I just wanted to picture what
his place was like, and what his view was like,
and what it felt like to be in this historic
building overlooking Boston Common. He must must be pretty special.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
Must be. It's a great view.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
We're gonna get to Kenan Franklin. After this break, it
will continue with Bob Allison on WBZ.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
It's Night Side with Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Here is Nightside with Dan Ray. Bradley j for Dan
tonight where with Bob Allison, who is a professor of
history at Suffolk University and so much more. Yeah, he
belongs to all these organizations and he knows a whole
lot about the history of the places we left. And
that's what we're doing tonight, deep dive into places like
Old North Church, the Constitution, Dorchester Heights, Fantel Hall, and
(30:55):
much more. We're gonna we're ready to talk to We're
gonna go to kem in Franklin.
Speaker 7 (31:00):
Now, Okay, Ken, what's work William philans Son's Company in
nineteen sixty four?
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Oh my goodness, I didn't hear the first part of
that sentence.
Speaker 7 (31:10):
Ken, No, I've called before.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
He went to work at William Philine's Company in nineteen
sixty four.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Oh well, that's great.
Speaker 7 (31:17):
I mean, you know it was called William philans Son's Company.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Okay, was that the store?
Speaker 5 (31:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (31:24):
Okay, what did you do, seth Suits I was a bookkeeper, Okay,
it was a co op job. What I worked at
I when I was at Northeastern.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Okay, did you have lifetime, you know, fifty percent off
or anything?
Speaker 7 (31:38):
Yes, for you SECU out like like forty percent off.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
It was pretty good.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
Good is pretty well?
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Thank you for that. Ken, appreciate it, Alex, Alex, and
millis beautiful.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
Millis, Hey, how you doing great.
Speaker 8 (31:52):
I grew up in the South End, you know, as
a kid when he came over from Greece. So I
you know, ironically Boston has called the Athens of America.
I guess because of the culture and whatnot. But I
remember as a as a kid, as a little boy,
uh you know the link at school, which is still there,
but it's a different school. And then you know, uh,
(32:16):
there used to be if my memory recalls, there used
to be like a First National or an a n
P to recall on Tremont Street.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
I don't recall that. I know they've been trying to
put up there was a Foodies there fairly recently. I
kind of know where you're talking about. That was a
great neighborhood on the South End.
Speaker 8 (32:33):
Yeah, yeah, Actually, my the Brownstone I grew up and
was right on the corner of Tremont and Berkeley and
that's behind the Franklin Institute of Technology, and like yeah,
and that I was going to Sunday school as a kid.
At the church we still go. There is a thing
John the Baptist. It's it's a Greek Orthodox church.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
Sh it was.
Speaker 8 (32:54):
Converted from a synagogue and Artistan church. So very U.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
From Boston, don't you love all the history?
Speaker 8 (33:03):
Yeah, you know I miss it because we go there frequently.
I actually the Boston Common was our backyard back then.
You know, my mom were taking me and my siblings
and you know, it was it was really nice.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
That's excellent. Thank you. That's that's my great memories. Thank you,
Jim and Walpole. Now I actually lived for a while.
Hey Jim, Jim.
Speaker 9 (33:26):
I'm gonna just take this opportunity to pick your brain
a bit, professor, because I've been trying to find out
a couple of things. I give ducktors and you're a
great resource and I and the internet's not always two questions.
When you're on Court Street, they're redoing that old building.
(33:46):
Not quite when you get to the tea kettle, I
think it was the side of the original of the
jail the way back when and under the concrete. You
can see exposed brick, and obviously they don't build brick
and then say now let's cover it with concrete immediately.
Do you have any idea what that brick building under
it was. It's the same building, but that I.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Don't that building was. It was the City Hall annex.
I mean most recently the school Department was there. Then
it was the City Hall annex. And that was when
the City Hall was the old City Hall on School Street.
And before that, as you said, it was there was
a courthouse there that was the site of the courthouse
built in the seventeen sixties.
Speaker 9 (34:29):
But so the brick might be this courthouse that they
built around.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
It could be a little steptical because there was a fire.
But no, go on, Jim, what have you tried.
Speaker 9 (34:40):
I'm sorry, I've tried to ask the guy. The guys
are always working. When I'm driving buying a duck, I
don't want to bother.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
Yeah, stop the duck and ask. I can see that
might be a little awkward, but yeah.
Speaker 9 (34:49):
Yeah, yeah, But it's one of those things.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
To a Boston you have these places that still exist
covered by something.
Speaker 9 (34:54):
Else exactly, And I haven't been able to find out
what it is. All I can find is the name
of the construction of it, and it's doing the work.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Okay, Jim, I have a question for you, Yes, sir, okay.
And I'll ask this to everybody, including professor the professor.
This is a matter of opinion. I used to not
like City Hall, the brutalist architecture. Now I love it
because it yep, because it has personality and it's not
just another dumb glass building. It has some personality and
(35:22):
you see it in those movies that have Kevin Bacon
and all those Boston I love it now. It is
it's an identity for me.
Speaker 9 (35:29):
How do you feel about it? Interesting? I'm not sure
I feel about it on the outside because I still
like the Hurley building. It reminds me of an Assure painting,
the one where it was in The Departed. But when
you go inside a brutalist building, it's all windows. From inside,
it's wonderful. And on the ninth floors City Hall there's
(35:50):
a full scale model of Boston. Yeah, so you can
check it out for free. So I love the building
and the inside, and I got to give a plug.
I have nothing to do with this, but the best
coffee in town is in the lobby of the City Hall.
This family owns the farm in Nicotagua. It's called Recrea,
right know.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
I agree on the coffee, I disagree on the building.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
One more question, how do you feel about the renovation
of City Hall Plaza? At first I didn't like it,
but now they have so many trees there, I love it.
I mean, it's a lot better than it was. They
got to have some open space that's bricks for performances,
but there are so many trees there that I often think.
Speaker 9 (36:32):
I often think that it was a missed opportunity to
not put the Holocaust memorial there because it would be
so stark, and it would be so dramatic, and it
would stand on its own because it's almost hidden. I mean,
I know it's on the Freedom Trail for good reason,
but man, that would have been a It would have
been a frame to the most moving memorial in our city.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
We probably do a show about missed opportunities in Boston, right,
all kinds.
Speaker 9 (37:00):
Of thing, political architect He's been one more question that
I haven't been able to find out.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Yes, because the timing works out right, because we only
have two minutes and there's not much else to do.
Speaker 9 (37:08):
Two minutes ago, Professor Ellison, I haven't been able to
find out how did William Blackstone find Shaman. I know
he was in West Augussette. This is the first English
the first European that lived here. But I don't know
how he stumbled on the peninsula.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
If he had to stumble on it, it would have
been known to the native people. And so he probably
walked from West Augustat which is now Weymouth, you know,
up along the coast to this peninsula, which was almost
an island. That would be my suspicion. Or he could
have taken a boat too across the across the.
Speaker 9 (37:36):
Harbor and oh wow, here it is, look at the hills,
bloody of fresh water.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
I'm in right, yeah, yeah, Jim, thanks a lot, Thanks Jim.
Speaker 9 (37:44):
Thank you allays a pleasure. Got I'm glad to hear
you on the air.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
So okay, and just everyone in Walpole, Hello, Walpole. Yeah,
we only have it about a minute. We can't do much.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
But well, you just mentioned William Blackstone on Beacon Street,
right across from the Founder Monument. You go up that
little street. I'm blanking in the name of it. There's
a sewer great underneath. That is the spring, the spring
that was flowing into the back bay. That's why William
Blackstone built his house there along the shores of the
back bay.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
So that would really be why Boston's here.
Speaker 3 (38:16):
That's right. And the native people he said, can I
stay here? And they said sure. Then of course they
would also be still becoming here, and that was kind
of a misunderstanding because he the Puritans then came in
greater numbers. He invited them and they stayed. So the
spring still exists in springs still exists under the ground.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
That is yeah, that is cool. We'll continue with Bob Allison.
He's agreed to stay because we have only gotten to two.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
Historically, site really gotten off the common Let's.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Go to uh Old. We're gonna got Old North Church next.
Unless is something you want to hear about the number six, one, seven, two, five, four,
ten thirty. W BZ News Radio ten thirty and remember
again the new talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app. I'll
tell you how to do that again later. But cool,
if someone did it tonight. If anyone's app friendly, let's go,
(39:03):
it's WBZ
It's nice size with Dan Ray, I'm going easy Bonds
News Radio Bradley j.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
For Dan tonight. This segment is for both locals and
visitors alike. We all know the popular historical sites around town,
and we've been to most of them, but I bet
there's a lot about these that we don't know, and
when we visit, we don't appreciate them as much as
we could. Well, I'm hoping to remedy that tonight with
(00:28):
our great, great guest tonight. He's been on many times.
This is Professor Bob Allison, Suffolk University history professor, and
he is the chair of the Advisory Committee of Revolution
two fifty, an organization dedicated to the celebration of events
related to the Revolution, and he's a life trustee of
(00:51):
the USS Constitution. He's got it going on. He's definitely
deep in history here in Boston. So thank you for
being with us.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Thank you, Bradley. It's great to be here. And there's
a lot of history happening in Boston.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
By the way, I did a video. Do you remember
the video we did together about the Constitution's trip around
the world. Yes, in honor of your visit here, I
reposted it and it's on the WBZ social media sites.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Great, you want to check that out.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
So we're going to take a look at some of
the Common sites and dig deep and tell you things
that you may not know, and it'll make you want
to go back and visit it, visit these places again
and again. So let's start with the Boston Common that
is right in the middle, and there's a whole lot
more going on there. Then I certainly realized, and then
(01:41):
most realized, So why did you talk about some of
the sites that are there that folks may not know about.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
The Common is really one of the most amazing sites
in the country. It's the oldest public park in the
United States. But it wasn't created as a park. It
was on the edge of town in the sixteen hundreds.
There was one tree on it, you know that where
Charles Street is now. That was where the back Bay began.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
That's where water was.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
There was water there, and there actually is a small
hill on the Common that we know native was a
Native American site. Joe Bagley, the city archaeologist, has done
a lot of work on the Common, finding actually the
oldest artifact ever found in Boston is a five thousand
year old arrow point that they found when they're actually
putting in new lights. Every time they do anything on
(02:27):
the Common, the archaeologist comes in to see anything, and
he did find this arrow point five thousand years old
from the Common.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
And we know what was there?
Speaker 3 (02:36):
A tribe, Well, the Massachusetts tribe.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
We're here five thousand years ago, Well, they were here.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
They were maintaining actually fish weirs on the on the
back bay. And in fact, every June, the first Monday
in June, the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company does their
muster but its history Day on the Common, and Russ Miller,
who's a Boston artist, recreates the fish weir they maintained
for about five or eight hundred years. They put in
(03:04):
the pilings in the back bay and then they would
put in brush and the tide would bring fish in.
They would fill up the fish weir. The tide would
go out, leave the fish behind the native women. Then
we'd go out and gather the fish, bring them to
shore to dry. So they were keeping this every year.
I'm told that they cut the branches to make this
(03:25):
mesh for the weir when the leaves were as big
as a mouse's ear. But imagine there's nothing that we
have maintained for five hundred years. It's an amazing story
about this maintenance.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
And did the pilgrims have any idea how to do
this when they got here?
Speaker 3 (03:41):
No, no they didn't. The native people were doing this
and had been doing this, and really they would use
the fish for fertilizer, but also they would smoke them
and then they would keep them in basket. You would
have native men would be traveling and they would have
a basket of these dried fish that they would eat.
They're usually small, harrying or other fish. They had other
fish kinds of fish too. They also had lots and
(04:03):
lots of oysters and clams, and anywhere you go, if
you dig down, you're probably going to find a shell midden,
and that's basically the scrap heap, and the shell middens
also preserve a lot of other things, animal bones, other stuff.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Where exactly do they find the five thousand year arrowhead
that was.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
On the common on the slope near Beacon Street. I
can't tell you exactly where because you'll be out with
the metal dete.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
No, that's interesting, Okay, I've actually walked up there with
you and you pointed out things that I had no
idea about.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
It's one of my favorite places because there's also a
burying ground on the Common and also the Great Elm, which.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
We talk about the Great Elm and some bad things
that happened.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
That was the execution point, and the Puritans were executing
people who committed crimes. Some are still crimes today, murder.
Others are things not crimes today. Adultery and I don't
know if we should talk about bestiality was another crime
punished on the Common, and in this case, a guy
convicted of best reality was executed along with the animals
(05:05):
with whom he was alleged to have committed these acts. Yeah,
it doesn't seem there the animals would be executed first
and then they would all be buried together. So somewhere
on the Common there is that grave of this malefactor
along with a cow, a sheep, a pig, and a turkey.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Wow, folks, if you have any questions or any suggestions
as the sites you'd like to hear more about, this
is your guy, Bob Allison and the number six one, seven, two, five,
four to ten thirty or if you preferred twelve three
six one, if you prefer six one, seven, nine, three,
ten thirty. You make the call there. Okay, more about
(05:43):
the great Elm. It's not there anymore.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
No blew down in a hurricane sometime in the eighteen sixties.
And when the Puritans arrived in sixteen thirty, it was
the only tree on the common. William Blackstone was already
living just off the Common in sixteen thirty, and the
native people had kind of cleared the area. And this
is a grazing area, this big elm tree. In the
(06:06):
seventeen nineties, sister Anne Lee, who was a leader in
the Shaker movement, comes and preaches under the elm. There's
a legend that actually there is a plaque there which
says this is where the Sons of Liberty met. But
that's not true.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Wow, and there was How about that bandstand? Does that
have any the Parkman bands? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Talk about that the Parkman band. Doctor George Parkman was
a doctor in Boston. Also, he had a number of
apartments that he rented. He was a Boston Brahman and
one of his tenants was doctor George Webster, and Webster
was a gambler. Consequently, he was often short and couldn't
pay his rent, and one Friday afternoon, doctor Parkman goes
(06:51):
to get collect the rent from doctor Webster, and that's
the last anyone sees of doctor Parkman. Webster they find
bone fragments in the furnace in laboratory and he is
convicted of murdering doctor Parkman. Even though there's not a body,
and even though the President of Harvard testified at the
trial saying that my faculty or not in the habit
of murdering one another, that wasn't enough for the jury.
(07:12):
So doctor Webster was hanged and Parkman's son and his
widow survived. They move into the Parkman House on Beacon Street,
now the home for the Mayor, possible residence for the mayor.
He also left fifteen million dollars to the city for
improvements to the parks, and they used that to build
the Parkman band Stand, which is a great feature on
(07:34):
the Common.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
It is. Yeah, actually I was in a band that
performed once on the park.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Parkman Martin Luther King spoke at the Parkman band Stand.
James Michael Curly spoke at the park's history there.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
How about a non you know, non leaf of punishments
on the common? Were there was there a spot where
they had the stocks.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
And yeah, the town would have whipped people in front
of the old State House. But when the Britishish occupied
Boston in seventeen sixty eight, this was their camp. Their
troops would be camped on the common and a common
always had been used for the colonial militia. This is
where they would train and muster. So it is one
of the oldest military sites in the country. And so
(08:14):
the British would whip their soldiers punish them on the common.
And this is something that infuriated Bostonians because the whipping
was done by the drummers, who often were black black
soldiers in the British Army, and this really enraged Bostonians
that these black men are whipping white men on the common.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
It's interesting that that people would get whipped at all.
That's again, you know, did they get whipped for the
equivalent of a parking ticket? Hey, you can't park your
horse here. What did you get whipped for? How bad
did you have to transgress?
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Well, if you miss divine service a certain number of times,
you could be or robbery or if you missed church, Yeah,
you get whip. You could be whipped if you do
it persistently, and it's a public punish. The idea is
that you are being punished in front of everyone as
a way of bringing and even hangings would be public events,
and it's a way of reminding the community of who
(09:12):
is in charge and why not you shouldn't. And by
the way, for an execution, usually there would be a
sermon and usually often the malefactor would publish, have published
his autobiography what led him to be such a bad guy?
Speaker 2 (09:28):
And then whole cautionary tale.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
It is definitely a cautionary tale. You want to avoid
doing these kinds of things.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
All right, Right after these words, we're going to go
to Pete and Revere and we'd love to hear from
you as well. Six one, seven, two thirty Its w BZY.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Hell No, I'm Bradley Jay for Dan today, and we're
here with Bob Allison, Suffolk University history professor, an expert
on Boston history revolutionary history, and we're going through the
common sights and doing a deep dive into the history
of those Some of those spots, for example, Old State
House will get to Fennel Hall, Cops Hill Burying Ground,
(10:07):
the Constitution, the Granary Burying Ground, Old North Church, and
maybe you have an idea, Bob, let's go to Pete
and Revere. Now, hello Pete, you're on busy.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Yeah, hyah, A great subject, by the way, one of
my favorites for the first till. I want to thank
you both for saying Boston Common not Commons, because Bostonians
don't understand that. And just let me read off a
few things that notes that may hanging. Mary Dye was
hanging there. She was a Quaker right the Manaster twice.
(10:38):
She has a statue by the State House. And they
have a meeting place every ten ten thirty every Sunday.
Quite a meetinghouse right at the top of Chestnut Streak there.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
We don't need a football team to play the first
football game there.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Yeah, we're gonna talk about.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
So there's some football a football monument on the Common.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Yes, it's very fan it's all names and what happened,
and the game was different. Whoever scored twice was over
and they never lost. I think the other team never
never made it.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Their goal line was never crossed, and they had a
great names. You have, Winthrop, Sultan Stall Scudder was one
of their players, and there are other there are school
boys and they were they played actually during the Civil War.
The monument went up in the nineteen twenties. And you
may remember one time they actually had a soccer ball.
But then they realized because they thought, oh, when they're
(11:29):
talking about football, they must mean what we think of
a soccer. But then they realized, no, this was football.
This was one of the antecedents of the game of football.
So it was being created on the common in the
eighteen sixties.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
What else, pete, Well, it's the first subway, right, you
know what. It needs to be a memorial plaque there,
my friend, because ten or twelve people got killed when
the train was making the turn. It was a gas list.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
That's right, there was a.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Yeah, exactly right right, and actually uh uh the seventeen
thirty three first what do you call that.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Still squeals that's right next to the back the gas lid.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Yeah, ghastlink built up underground and spark. This was when
the train was still on the surface.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
Eight the time people died, they need a plaque there. Yeah,
and seven of us died in the summit tunnel because
I knew the man. It was related to my wife.
That was the h the supervisor of the tunnels. And
one time the reversed and he said seven men went
up on the walls. To this date, there's no memorial
plaque for that either.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yeah, how do you know so much? First? Let me
before we go on.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
How do you have a historian? I'm a historian. I've
given all the six thousand tours of the city. It's
my passion. It's just my passion. I lot a few
guys a tour as well, you know, but you'd have
to get my number because I don't advertise. It's all private.
But let me you say something else. Gilbert Stewart is
one of the famous people and then carried the count cemetery.
(13:05):
Cementary came out in eighteen thirty one over Mount Mount
Mount uh and change and change. Yeah. And it's too
Greek woods chema taro meaning wrestling place. Yeah. And he's
the one to do the addis of Washington, right. And
then Edward Feline has a platform.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
People there explain who Gilbert Stewart was.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
An artist anti he did the portrait.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Of Washington you see on the dollar.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Put you on Ald Deatle I'm gonna let Bob talk.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Go ahead, and there's a marker, as he was saying
to Edward Phileine, who was the creator of Filine's Basement.
The Filines had a department store actually initially in the
North End, and they moved to the site. Now it's
actually no longer Filine's. But he created the basement knowing
he needed to sell things and he didn't want things
hanging around in the store. He also created a credit
union for his employees. He was a very far cited
(14:01):
capitalist that is, understood how to sell things, but also
doing this for a public good.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Filing's Basement was the best thing. It used a hitchhike
from New Hampshire to go to.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
It was a great place to shop.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
And for a while I lived right on uh Winter Street,
so I was about one hundred feet away and I'd
go every day and I knew the dates on me.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
About Yeah, my wife thing. My wife worked at Philine's Basement.
When I was in graduate school, I was the best
dressed graduate student.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
I guess Pete. Now what else? Just a couple of.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
Things, yeah, just one quick thing. Edward Feline was the founder.
His name was cats. He didn't want to use that name.
He looked in at the store if he found Feline
and he slipped the e and I came off Fellen's
and Edwin was the one that founded the first credit union.
Like I say, he has a plata. Wow.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Yeah, that's a good one. Very speaking of common versus commons,
Phileine versus Fillene, that's another of our Boston contravert which
is correct at Pete, which is correct. He's gone up.
I've heard that Fileene's is the store. But the name
was Feline.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Okay, the name the persons, the persons, Yeah, it was
his store. Yeah, but thehihiostrophy s yeah, yeah, okay, all right,
now let's is there anything on the common what's the
big statue in the middle.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
On that That is the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. It
was one of the put up in eighteen eighty one
to the soldiers and sailors from Massachusetts who saved the Union.
And around the base there are bar reliefs showing the
soldiers leaving, getting their flags from Governor Andrew and then returning,
and those little plaques have identifiable people both among the
(15:46):
soldiers and among the people standing on the platform. It
was heavily vandalized, but it's actually just had a massive renovation.
And then around the base their statues a soldier, a sailor,
and history and liberty. Around the sides there's also a
commemoration on the marker to the US sanitary cores that
(16:10):
basically tended to the wounded, as well as two sailors.
So it's a tremendous work of art. At the highest
point of the Common. The frog pond is also worth
Oh yes, the frog pond you know Edgar Allan Poe
called Boston Frog Pond yonda because of the frog pond
and skating in the winter, it's a waiting pool in
the summer. The Common at one time had three different
(16:32):
ponds on it, so only the frog pond remains. And
when they opened up a new water system in the
eighteen forties, they had water from Lake ke Chittawit was
piped in and they actually had a water spout several
hundred feet high to celebrate the opening of this water system.
And I think when we were talking in the break
we mentioned that at the gate on Charles Street was
(16:53):
put there by the British government to thank Boston for
the hospitality to British sold sailors coming through Boston during
World War Two. And it's ironic because that was the
point along the back Bay that the British troops had
left in seventeen seventy five to go out to Lexington.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Right, So all of you know, if you've been to Boston,
what the Boston Common looks like. And there's Charles Street
which bisects the two parks, and then you have the Garden.
Try next time you're here and you're going to cross
Charles Street, imagine put yourself in that's very, very very spot.
(17:29):
That is the spot where British soldiers had gotten all
their kids together, gotten their boats together, their guns, their
powder there, whatever they needed to go and they're lugging
it all, getting it in the boats and they and
they're gonna push off. They go to go to Concord
Lexington and at the same time they're deciding how many
Atlantic you know, we better put how many two?
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Two we better put two?
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Go tell them to put two in the the steeple.
And it happened right there, right there.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
That's where they left from. They in their boats on
the Common and rode over to Cambridge to begin their
march too, conquered in April of seventeen seventy five.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
So right there on Charles, if you dig under Charles,
do you find fish skeletons from the weirs and all
that used to be water.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
It was water, you'll probably find oyster shells, playing shells fish.
That area was a marshy area which is now the
public garden, all filled in beginning, really, that was it
filled in in the eighteen thirties. The back Bay project
really begins in the eighteen fifties.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
You mentioned Edgar Allan Poe. Yes, and as you know,
there's an Edgar Allen Poe statue that's really really good,
a sculpture not right on the Common, but across the
street over in front of the cigar store. Yes, I
can't remember the name of that excellent cigar store. Yeah,
what a great sculpture that is. It looks like he's
bent in the wind.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
He's returning to Boston because he was born just about
a block south of the Common. And along the base
of the statue there are quotes from Poe, and one
is Boston's common and is no uncommon thing, And he
says he didn't really like Boston. He was born here,
his mother loved the town, but he hated it. I
think Pope had a lot of issues. And he does
(19:12):
return to Boston to enlist in the army in the
eighteen twenties, actually stationed out of Castle Island, and then
while he gives publishes his first book, which is a
long poem under the pseudonym of Bostonian. But by this
time he has moved on and he has this he
hates Boston because Boston was the center of the American
literary establishment, and Poe thought that a lot of them
(19:35):
were frauds. They rejected him right this, somewhat they did.
He was also he was a very good literary critic,
and so he said what he thought. And there was
a movement in the eighteen thirties and eighteen forties, let's
try to pump up American literature and praise things, because
Americans should be writing things. He said, you should praise
things if they're good. And he didn't think a lot
(19:57):
of what was being written was worth reading. Really headed
in for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He thought long Longfellow wasn't
a very good poet. He also accused him of being
a plagiarist and a Longfellow was a genial enough guy and
took this that Poe had issues. He praised some things
that Poe wrote, but Poe was his had his own
(20:20):
mind about things, and so he was attacking this literary
establishment because maybe because it was a literary establishment.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
All right, after a break, we're going to go to
Old North Church and we'll talk to Justin in Marlborough,
Massachusetts on WBZ.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
It's night Side on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Hello, friends, here's something that I want to remind you about.
A cool way to be part of the night Side broadcast.
Utilize the talkback feature on the iHeart radio app. It's cool.
I have tried it, I've done it, and it's easy.
Make sure you download the app and have it open
while listening to Nightside on WBZ News Radio. Then you
(21:03):
tap the red microphone up in the corner top right
and send a personalized message. You can make it a
question you could say right now. For example, Hey, Bradley,
Jay and Bob Allison, tell me about the Old South
Church and you know, maybe you're too shot to call
in or for whatever reason you can't call. If you
do that, uh, you can hear. You can listen to
yourself on the radio and trust me, that's cool. So
(21:26):
once again, open that app, hit that red microphone button
in the top right hand corner of the app while
listening to Nightside and send us your audio message. Also,
you can call me in person and live six one, seven, two, five,
four thirty. We continue with Bob Allison, history professor at
Suffolk University, the Great Suffolk University. And Bob, you're ready
(21:46):
to talk to Justin and Marlborough. All right, let's see
what he has to say. Justin, what's up?
Speaker 5 (21:53):
Hi, miss Ellison? Thank you for joining the show and
I really enjoy the host of filling in for Dan.
You're doing a great job.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Thanks Jos And.
Speaker 5 (22:03):
I wanted to ask have you ever heard the story
about mister Olmstead. When he was at McLean's Hospital near
the end of his life, he told the nurses that
he created Central Park and they said, we need to
increase your medication. Died they found out He's like, oh my,
(22:25):
the guy's fight.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
He actually had created Central Park. Yeah, Frederick Law Olmsted
who lived a long time and then his son took
over the firm and kept working under the name of Olmsted.
But yeah, he had done Central Park and then he
came to Boston and designed the Emerald Necklace. There's the
common was there and the Commonwealth Avenue mall, but then
creating the back turning the Back Bay fens into the Fenway,
(22:51):
and it was really a design he had done. It
wasn't because he wanted to create a beautiful park, but
the problem there was a problem of flooding with the
Muddy River and the Stony Brook, so designing it so
that it wouldn't flood, but then also creating this green space,
which he called the lungs of the city, so the
people in these crowded neighborhoods would have a place to
go for He didn't think it should be a place
(23:12):
to play football or do those kinds of things, but
instead to walk and to be part of nature. And
some of those really elegant bridges are still there that
he created, and the old pumphouse is now the headquarters
for the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, and so it connects Franklin
Park with the Common along this really beautiful walk. I
(23:32):
think Bradley and I did this walk a few years ago.
That's taking I'm.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
A huge, huge, fan of the Emerald Necklace. Boston would
not be Boston without it.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
That's right.
Speaker 5 (23:41):
You can.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
I can walk most of the way downtown along lush
green walkways, beautiful big trees. I love trees. The green
space is really important. And I learned something when I
did a video with Hugh Madison Madison of the Brookline
Brookline Green Space, and he told me and I saw
that it was the case that Olmsteed wanted to have
each mode of transportation separate. So there are separate horse
(24:05):
paths right, and vehicle paths and maybe even carriage paths.
And it's kind of still that way today because the
Tea goes through, but it has its own path.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
And I would be a love that. It's great. I
would be remiss now living in East Boston if I
didn't mention Wood Island Park that he also designed, that
was taken by Massport through eminent domain in the nineteen
sixties to expand a runway, another beautiful park in East Boston.
And also the idea was to connect Franklin Park with
(24:35):
Marine Park in South Boston via Columbia Road to make
Columbia Road a green way. I know Mayor Menino was
talking about doing reviving that idea. Nothing has come of
it but Marine Park in South Boston, where there's a
statue of Admiral Farraga and then it connects with Castle Island.
It's also part of Olmsted's vision for this emerald necklace
(24:57):
surrounding the city.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
And there's a go ahead justin I wanted to Orthodo
to ask both of you. Do you remember I think
it's about seven years ago a Japanese artists did a
five on exhibit all along them necklace.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
I don't remember that, but.
Speaker 5 (25:18):
If you have a chance to google, it's pretty She
did it across the country. He made fog off the
water and she did it all along the necklace. It's
pretty cool. And I also wanted to ask you, is
the map pallium off the topic? But in Boston is
the mappallium? Is that somewhat unique? I think it is.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
That's a Christian science, Yeah, it is. It is another
place I would recommend. I mean, that's a great place.
You go into this globe.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Describe what the mapium is.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
It's unbelievable, unbelievable. It's a globe and you're inside this
globe that was done in the nineteen thirties.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
It is about what twenty feet and it's.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Stained glass showing the different continent countries.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
On the inside.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Yes, and so it's one of those circular features. So
if you stand at one side and whisper, someone on
the other side can hear you.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
It's the sound. It's a perfect sphere, and so you
can throw your voice. If you're whisper facing the other way,
somebody twenty feet away can hear you like it's right
in your ear. And also interesting, it is a snapshot
of world geography in the nineteen thirties.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
I believe it is easy look listen to me. Eleventhal
Map Center at the Best Boston Public Library is also
worth visiting. A tremendous collection of maps.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Hey, Justin, great call. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Thanks Justin.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
And now it's Matt in Boston. Hello Matt, you're on WBZ.
Speaker 6 (26:39):
Hey, first of all, thank you. This is incredibly fascinating.
I love this history. I have a question. I'm living
in a building. I literally live on forty eight Beacon Street,
so that's Beacon and Spruce if you know it. And
it's this really tall building in this building amongst all
(27:01):
these small buildings and I moved in and I.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
Was told that this building was built illegally.
Speaker 6 (27:08):
I have to be honest. I have an incredible view
and I love it, although it certainly doesn't fit in
with the history of all the homes and brownstones around it.
But I didn't know if you knew anything about it.
I moved in about two years ago, got a great old,
great old lift in it like an elevator, but it's
really a lyft.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Okay, so Matt, the story I heard about that building
was that plot belonged to the Episcopal Archdiocese and they
were able to get around the regulations because they were
the Episcopal Archdiocese. If it's the wrong building and I'm
slandering them, I apologize and WBG and I won't pick
(27:49):
up my legal bills. But yeah, that was the story
I heard. Because under the city's building code at the time,
nothing could be taller than the State House dome, and
Beacon Hill at self wanted to keep buildings lower, so
I don't know how tight the regulations were at that time.
The next tall building that goes up is the Custom
House Tower, and that gets around the city's ordinances because
(28:11):
that was a federal building. And they said, we don't
have to listen to your heavy, little local rules. But yeah,
that's it's a great, great building. But you're right, And
so I think it's fortunate that no one else built
tall buildings along Beacon Street.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
That's great.
Speaker 6 (28:25):
I I I definitely benefit from the views. I'm up
on the seventh floor, and so I so I so
I appreciate that.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
But I also, I.
Speaker 6 (28:35):
Mean, I've owned I've owned homes in the Boston area
that have been pre Revolutionary War. I love the history
of these old places. So where I where, I see
it as sort of a iesare. I also from the
inside it actually looks amazing. And anyway, I just I
love hearing this stuff. You're doing an amazing job to tell.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
You before you go, Uh, it must be a real
nice place. This is kind of personal. But how many
square feet is your place?
Speaker 6 (29:02):
I think it's about eight hundred square feet. It's a
it's a one bedroom. But this building, in particular, the
windows are obviously grandfathered into code and they're humongous. You
literally like feel if you open up these windows, you
literally feel like you have a deck on on overlooking
the common and the garden, and even in the winter.
(29:23):
I live on the seventh floor and there's a building
next to us that's six floors six floors high, so
I actually have one window that looks right at the
Sick Go sign down Beacon Street. So it's quite an
interesting building and a great view of all the things
that you, you gentlemen, are talking about here.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
It's amazing. Thanks very much, Matt.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Well Matt as a neighbor. And let me just invite everyone.
I'm the president of the Colonial Society. We have a
house at eighty seven Mount Vernon Street. We have an
open house the first Sunday of every month, beginning in October,
and you're welcome to come and see a Bullfinch mansion
on Beacon Hill. The open house, open house, everybody. Anybody
can go between one and three.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Cookie. Is there anything?
Speaker 3 (30:03):
Yeah, we we'll have cookies if you're coming.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
You know, you may wonder where I wanted to know
how many square feet. I just wanted to picture what
his place was like, and what his view was like,
and what it felt like to be in this historic
building overlooking Boston Common. He must must be pretty special.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
Must be. It's a great view.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
We're gonna get to Kenan Franklin. After this break, it
will continue with Bob Allison on WBZ.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
It's Night Side with Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Here is Nightside with Dan Ray. Bradley j for Dan
tonight where with Bob Allison, who is a professor of
history at Suffolk University and so much more. Yeah, he
belongs to all these organizations and he knows a whole
lot about the history of the places we left. And
that's what we're doing tonight, deep dive into places like
Old North Church, the Constitution, Dorchester Heights, Fantel Hall, and
(30:55):
much more. We're gonna we're ready to talk to We're
gonna go to kem in Franklin.
Speaker 7 (31:00):
Now, Okay, Ken, what's work William philans Son's Company in
nineteen sixty four?
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Oh my goodness, I didn't hear the first part of
that sentence.
Speaker 7 (31:10):
Ken, No, I've called before.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
He went to work at William Philine's Company in nineteen
sixty four.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Oh well, that's great.
Speaker 7 (31:17):
I mean, you know it was called William philans Son's Company.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Okay, was that the store?
Speaker 5 (31:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (31:24):
Okay, what did you do, seth Suits I was a bookkeeper, Okay,
it was a co op job. What I worked at
I when I was at Northeastern.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Okay, did you have lifetime, you know, fifty percent off
or anything?
Speaker 7 (31:38):
Yes, for you SECU out like like forty percent off.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
It was pretty good.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
Good is pretty well?
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Thank you for that. Ken, appreciate it, Alex, Alex, and
millis beautiful.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
Millis, Hey, how you doing great.
Speaker 8 (31:52):
I grew up in the South End, you know, as
a kid when he came over from Greece. So I
you know, ironically Boston has called the Athens of America.
I guess because of the culture and whatnot. But I
remember as a as a kid, as a little boy,
uh you know the link at school, which is still there,
but it's a different school. And then you know, uh,
(32:16):
there used to be if my memory recalls, there used
to be like a First National or an a n
P to recall on Tremont Street.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
I don't recall that. I know they've been trying to
put up there was a Foodies there fairly recently. I
kind of know where you're talking about. That was a
great neighborhood on the South End.
Speaker 8 (32:33):
Yeah, yeah, Actually, my the Brownstone I grew up and
was right on the corner of Tremont and Berkeley and
that's behind the Franklin Institute of Technology, and like yeah,
and that I was going to Sunday school as a kid.
At the church we still go. There is a thing
John the Baptist. It's it's a Greek Orthodox church.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
Sh it was.
Speaker 8 (32:54):
Converted from a synagogue and Artistan church. So very U.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
From Boston, don't you love all the history?
Speaker 8 (33:03):
Yeah, you know I miss it because we go there frequently.
I actually the Boston Common was our backyard back then.
You know, my mom were taking me and my siblings
and you know, it was it was really nice.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
That's excellent. Thank you. That's that's my great memories. Thank you,
Jim and Walpole. Now I actually lived for a while.
Hey Jim, Jim.
Speaker 9 (33:26):
I'm gonna just take this opportunity to pick your brain
a bit, professor, because I've been trying to find out
a couple of things. I give ducktors and you're a
great resource and I and the internet's not always two questions.
When you're on Court Street, they're redoing that old building.
(33:46):
Not quite when you get to the tea kettle, I
think it was the side of the original of the
jail the way back when and under the concrete. You
can see exposed brick, and obviously they don't build brick
and then say now let's cover it with concrete immediately.
Do you have any idea what that brick building under
it was. It's the same building, but that I.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Don't that building was. It was the City Hall annex.
I mean most recently the school Department was there. Then
it was the City Hall annex. And that was when
the City Hall was the old City Hall on School Street.
And before that, as you said, it was there was
a courthouse there that was the site of the courthouse
built in the seventeen sixties.
Speaker 9 (34:29):
But so the brick might be this courthouse that they
built around.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
It could be a little steptical because there was a fire.
But no, go on, Jim, what have you tried.
Speaker 9 (34:40):
I'm sorry, I've tried to ask the guy. The guys
are always working. When I'm driving buying a duck, I
don't want to bother.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
Yeah, stop the duck and ask. I can see that
might be a little awkward, but yeah.
Speaker 9 (34:49):
Yeah, yeah, But it's one of those things.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
To a Boston you have these places that still exist
covered by something.
Speaker 9 (34:54):
Else exactly, And I haven't been able to find out
what it is. All I can find is the name
of the construction of it, and it's doing the work.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Okay, Jim, I have a question for you, Yes, sir, okay.
And I'll ask this to everybody, including professor the professor.
This is a matter of opinion. I used to not
like City Hall, the brutalist architecture. Now I love it
because it yep, because it has personality and it's not
just another dumb glass building. It has some personality and
(35:22):
you see it in those movies that have Kevin Bacon
and all those Boston I love it now. It is
it's an identity for me.
Speaker 9 (35:29):
How do you feel about it? Interesting? I'm not sure
I feel about it on the outside because I still
like the Hurley building. It reminds me of an Assure painting,
the one where it was in The Departed. But when
you go inside a brutalist building, it's all windows. From inside,
it's wonderful. And on the ninth floors City Hall there's
(35:50):
a full scale model of Boston. Yeah, so you can
check it out for free. So I love the building
and the inside, and I got to give a plug.
I have nothing to do with this, but the best
coffee in town is in the lobby of the City Hall.
This family owns the farm in Nicotagua. It's called Recrea,
right know.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
I agree on the coffee, I disagree on the building.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
One more question, how do you feel about the renovation
of City Hall Plaza? At first I didn't like it,
but now they have so many trees there, I love it.
I mean, it's a lot better than it was. They
got to have some open space that's bricks for performances,
but there are so many trees there that I often think.
Speaker 9 (36:32):
I often think that it was a missed opportunity to
not put the Holocaust memorial there because it would be
so stark, and it would be so dramatic, and it
would stand on its own because it's almost hidden. I mean,
I know it's on the Freedom Trail for good reason,
but man, that would have been a It would have
been a frame to the most moving memorial in our city.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
We probably do a show about missed opportunities in Boston, right,
all kinds.
Speaker 9 (37:00):
Of thing, political architect He's been one more question that
I haven't been able to find out.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Yes, because the timing works out right, because we only
have two minutes and there's not much else to do.
Speaker 9 (37:08):
Two minutes ago, Professor Ellison, I haven't been able to
find out how did William Blackstone find Shaman. I know
he was in West Augussette. This is the first English
the first European that lived here. But I don't know
how he stumbled on the peninsula.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
If he had to stumble on it, it would have
been known to the native people. And so he probably
walked from West Augustat which is now Weymouth, you know,
up along the coast to this peninsula, which was almost
an island. That would be my suspicion. Or he could
have taken a boat too across the across the.
Speaker 9 (37:36):
Harbor and oh wow, here it is, look at the hills,
bloody of fresh water.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
I'm in right, yeah, yeah, Jim, thanks a lot, Thanks Jim.
Speaker 9 (37:44):
Thank you allays a pleasure. Got I'm glad to hear
you on the air.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
So okay, and just everyone in Walpole, Hello, Walpole. Yeah,
we only have it about a minute. We can't do much.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
But well, you just mentioned William Blackstone on Beacon Street,
right across from the Founder Monument. You go up that
little street. I'm blanking in the name of it. There's
a sewer great underneath. That is the spring, the spring
that was flowing into the back bay. That's why William
Blackstone built his house there along the shores of the
back bay.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
So that would really be why Boston's here.
Speaker 3 (38:16):
That's right. And the native people he said, can I
stay here? And they said sure. Then of course they
would also be still becoming here, and that was kind
of a misunderstanding because he the Puritans then came in
greater numbers. He invited them and they stayed. So the
spring still exists in springs still exists under the ground.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
That is yeah, that is cool. We'll continue with Bob Allison.
He's agreed to stay because we have only gotten to two.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
Historically, site really gotten off the common Let's.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Go to uh Old. We're gonna got Old North Church next.
Unless is something you want to hear about the number six, one, seven, two, five, four,
ten thirty. W BZ News Radio ten thirty and remember
again the new talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app. I'll
tell you how to do that again later. But cool,
if someone did it tonight. If anyone's app friendly, let's go,
(39:03):
it's WBZ
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