Jamaica Plain

Jamaica Plain, commonly known as "JP," is a historic neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts. It was originally part of Roxbury, Massachusetts, and then part of the town of West Roxbury, Massachusetts when that was established in 1848. West Roxbury (including Jamaica Plain) was annexed to Boston in 1874. According to an official city estimate, it had a population of 38,196 in October 2003.

History

Name

There are a number of theories regarding the origin of the name Jamaica Plain. A well-known theory traces the origin to "Jamaica rum," a reference to Jamaica cane sugar's role in the Triangle Trade of sugar, rum, and slaves. However, a more likely explanation is that "Jamaica" is an Anglicization of the name Kuchamakin, regent to Wampatuck, the underage sachem (chief) of the Massachusett tribe.

Founding

Jamaica Plain was settled by the Curtis family, circa 1640. A number of the still-extant streets date to this era, including Centre Street, Day Street, and Perkins Street.

Shortly thereafter, Capt. Joseph Weld (ancestor of William Weld) was awarded 278 acres (including present-day Forest Hills and a portion of what is now Arnold Arboretum) for this role in the Pequot War and subsequent negotiations. The Weld Family was closely tied to JP until modern times.

Revolution

The Loring-Greenough House (c. 1760) was a country estate and farmstead of Commodore Joshua Loring of the British Army. After Loring fled to England in 1774, the Loring house served as a commissary, hospital and headquarters for Colonial troops during the American Revolution. After the Revolution, the house was the family home for four generations of the David Stoddard Greenough family from 1780 until its conversion by the Jamaica Plain Tuesday Club to a historic house museum in 1926. This house is the only 18th century building still standing in Jamaica Plain.

Other JP residents who fought in the revolution were Eleazer Weld and Benjamin Bussey.

Streetcar suburb

Streetcars played a significant role in the neighborhood's growth by providing access to downtown along Centre Street and Columbus Avenue (then Pynchon Street) via Roxbury Crossing. Development of the neighborhood followed the streetcar tracks.

File:VictorianHouseJamaicaPlain20040313.jpg

A Victorian-era house in Jamaica Plain

By the 1850s Jamaica Plain included massive summer "cottages" on the banks of Jamaica Pond belonging to Boston's oldest families.

In the 1880s, philanthropist and social reformer Robert Treat Paine (1835-1910) experimented with innovations in housing for "substantial workingmen." The Workingmen's Building Association built a 100-house development between Round Hill and Sunnyside streets and the Workingmen's Loan Association offered amortizing mortgages to buyers.

JP is also home to The Footlight Club, which is the United States oldest, continuously running community theatre since 1877. The Footlight Club resides in Eliot Hall, on Eliot Street, just off of Centre Street.

Industry

JP was the home of almost a dozen breweries which relied on the relatively pure water of Stony Brook. By 1896, the Thomas G. Plant Shoe Factory at Centre Street and Bickford Street proclaimed itself to be the largest women's shoe factory in the world.

Brewing in Jamaica Plain

As the 20th century dawned, it was said that within a mile of Roxbury Crossing there were twenty-five breweries. Many of these necessarily big brick hulks still survive, doing yeoman duty as storage warehouses, mostly in the Highland section of old Roxbury. Even in their altered forms, the old breweries display keen attention to decoration of all sorts. The arched gates leading to a central court, as seen in the American Brewing Company on Heath St., take the imaginative viewer to cobblestone streets with horse-drawn beer wagons.

Beer has been made all over the world since earliest times, and is first mentioned in Egyptian texts of the 22nd century B.C. Thus, just as soon as they were established, the Pilgrims and Puritans established malt-houses, and in keeping with English university practice, Harvard students had a malt-house on campus.

Jamaica Plain's newest brewer, the Boston Beer Company at the old Haffenreffer brewery, takes its label from patriot leader Sam Adams, who inherited a malt-house from his father in 1748. But as his revolutionary ardor grew, the business fell apart according to biographers, and after the British left Boston; nothing was left on Adams' South End property near Fort Point Channel.

When the flood of European immigration began in the early 19th century, Boston was a natural port for those from the famed beer brewing countries of Ireland and Germany. By 1846, the Roseole Brewery was established on upper Columbus Ave., because the railroad was needed for receiving hops and other ingredients.

More Germans came with beer recipes brought from the homeland (in beer steins, by some accounts) and favored our area (though some beer was brewed in South Boston and Charlestown). Brewery addresses focused on Heath, Terrace, Parker, Station, and Tremont Streets, along with Columbus Ave., while another core grew up by Egleston Square on Germania and Washington Sts.

Perusal of city directories of 1890-1950 indeed reveals twenty-five breweries in the immediate area within a mile of Roxbury Crossing.

The pre-eminent beer barons were Rueter, Haffenreffer, Burkhardt, Roesoje, Pfaff, and Souther. Like other barons, the Rueters lived in Jamaica Plain, where the Jamaica Towers now stand, in large mansard-roofed Victorian houses that were later abandoned. National prohibition (1919-1933) was disastrous for the local beer industry (though some kept going by making near beer) and, if not knocked out by the Depression, the majority was gone by World War II.

In addition to the brick ghosts, the brewers left a legacy of Germanic street names in the area where their employees lived. Today a new minority who hope to prosper here, as did my grandfather and mother, who lived here in their first days in America in the 1920s, people these streets.

Many of the old German clubs are gone (like the Schwaben, Turnverein, and Arbeiter) or have been recycled (like the Schulverein on Danforth St., now home to a health club) and the large brick, former Trinity Lutheran Church building (1892) at Parker and Gore Streets on Parker Hill was built with beer money. This might also be true for Mission Church. One wonders how many other traces of their existence these sources of heady suds left behind.

Written by Walter H. Marx. Reprinted with permission from the Jamaica Plain Gazette. Copyright © Gazette Publications, Inc.

Reprinted with permission from the September 11, 1992 Jamaica Plain Gazette. Copyright © Gazette Publications, Inc. Two Grand Breweries

Before Prohibition, there were 31 breweries in Boston, largely concentrated in the Stony Brook corridor of Jamaica Plain and Mission Hill. Haffenreffer became the last remaining brewery in Boston.

American Brewing Company on Heath Street

It closed in 1964, and Jamaica Plain produced no beer until 1988 when Jim Koch started up his local company whose beer distribution has radiated outward from Boston year by year, spreading the name of Sam Adams.

Jamaica Plain and Mission Hill had no fewer than twelve separate breweries, because of the concentration of German and Irish immigrants in the area. Local distribution of ale, and later German-style lager beer, was the rule before refrigeration and modern roads. While local production ended in 1964, many brewery buildings still stand in our neighborhood. The two most beautiful breweries are along Heath Street - a legacy for locally-produced beer, a reminder of the rich manufacturing heritage in the valley between Mission Hill and the plateau of Jamaica Plain, and a glimpse of beauty in industrial architecture.

At 249A Heath Street on the corner of Lawn Street, the American Brewing Company is the most elaborately designed brewery still standing in Boston.

- Reprinted from the Jamaica Plain Gazette

Annexation

By the end of the 19th century, the annexation by Boston had provided municipal services to the neighborhood, and it began to experience a rapid growth in population. This was fostered by the creation of the Emerald Necklace and Forest Hills Cemetery.

Immigration

During the 20th century Jamaica Plain transformed from a streetcar suburb to a more urban neighborhood, with a large influx of German, Irish, Italian, Polish and French-Canadian Americans. Prohibition brought an end to the breweries and launched a significant public housing development effort on Heath Street and later at Bromley Park, eventually creating over 1,000 government-subsidized housing units.

Urban Renewal

In the 1950s, sections of Jamaica Plain along the Boston & Providence Railroad and the Stony Brook valley were deemed blighted by the city's urban planners. Significant portions of the neighborhood adjacent to the railroad were demolished in the 1960s, in preparation for bringing I-95 through the city. Many working class families were displaced. Eventually public opposition shut the project down, and, after remaining desolate,crime ridden and abandoned for 20 years, the areas demolished for the interstate right-of-way were rebuilt as the Southwest Corridor linear park. The MBTA Orange Line reopened through this corridor in 1987, replacing an elevated train along Washington Street.

Steeple of Blessed Sacrament Church towers above Hyde Square

In the 1970s JP was better known for its arson and petty crime than for its parks. A dramatic fire in 1976 destroyed the Plant Shoe Factory and its adjacent park, creating a crater of rubble that remained for nearly two decades.

In the 1980s low rents brought many students to the area, especially those who attended the Museum School, Mass Art, and Northeastern University, who often lived in collective households. In addition, the neighborhood also developed a lesbian and gay community. The presence of artists in the neighborhood led to the opening or revitalization of local galleries and bookstores, and arts centers like the converted Firehouse. Many first-time homebuyers were able to afford the house and condominium prices in JP during this time.

The 1990s brought significant revitalization to JP. Nonprofit housing groups bought up rundown houses and vacant lots to create low-income rental units. Unfortunately, dangerous public schools and the opportunity to cash in on rising property values has led many families with children to relocate to the suburbs.

In the 1990s, the Plant Shoe Factory site was redeveloped as JP Plaza, a strip mall, and later a supermarket and a new facility for the Martha Eliot Health Center completed the site's redevelopment. Boston Main Streets districts sprouted in three corners of the neighborhood (Hyde/Jackson Square, Egleston Square, and Centre/South), bringing city funds and tools of neighborhood revitalization to local business owners.

Present day

By the turn of the century, the neighborhood had attracted a large community of college educated, professional singles or young couples, political activists and artists.

Jamaica Pond, boathouse in distance

JP has long been diverse: a melting pot of races, ethnicities, and family types.

Hyde, Jackson, and Egleston Squares have significant Spanish-speaking populations from Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

JP is a popular area among Boston intellectuals and has liberal social attitudes which have led to a unique blend of cultures that is reflected in local businesses, such as the many often eclectic business establishments which line Centre Street.

TheGreen Line "E" Branch at Heath Street, the Orange Line, and the #39 bus provide access to Back Bay, the South End, and Downtown; as well as Amtrak trains and most southbound commuter rail lines. A funky, populist feel have helped popularize the area with college students, artists, and young professionals. The crime rate continues, however, to be high due primarily to the high number of urban poor and due to the presence of poorly planned public housing projects and the corresponding crime problems that often arise in such developments.

A hot real estate market has driven conversion of older buildings into condominiums, particularly in historic areas such as Hyde Square, Pondside and Sumner Hill. A large number of formerly vacant sites are now being converted to residential use, among them the ABC Brewery, the Gormley Funeral Home, the Eblana Brewery, the Oliver Ditson Company, 319 Centre Street, Jackson Square, JP Cohousing, Blessed Sacrament, Our Lady of the Way, and 80 Bickford Street.

Geography

Neighborhoods

Jamaica Plain is made up of a number of distinct residential subdistricts.

• Brookside (Brookside Neighborhood Association) - roughly bounded by Boylston Street, Green Street, Washington Street, and the Southwest Corridor Park
• Egleston Square (Egleston Square Neighborhood Association) - intersection of Columbus Avenue and Washington Street at the border between Jamaica Plain and Roxbury
• Forest Hills - roughly bounded by the Arborway, Hyde Park Avenue, and Forest Hills Cemetery
• Hyde Square - intersection of Centre Street, Day Street, and Perkins Street
• Jackson Square - intersection of Columbus Avenue and Centre Street
• Jamaica Hills (Jamaica Hills Association) - northwest of the Arnold Arboretum, including Moss Hill and Green Hill
• Parkside - roughly bounded by Washington Street, Egleston Square, and Franklin Park
• Pondside (Jamaica Pond Association) - roughly bounded by Centre Street, South Huntington Avenue, and the Jamaicaway
• Sumner Hill (Sumner Hill Association) - roughly bounded by Seaverns Avenue, Everett Street, Carolina Avenue, and Newbern Street
• Sunnyside (Sunnyside Neighborhood Association) - roughly bounded by Centre Street, Day Street, Round Hill Street, and Gay Head Street
• Woodbourne (Woodbourne Heritage Association) - southwest of Forest Hills Cemetery, roughly bounded by Walk Hill Street, Goodway Street, and Wachusett Street

Emerald Necklace Parks

A scene in Arnold Arboretum

Jamaica Plain, often referred to in the 19th century as "the Eden of America," is one of the greenest neighborhoods in the city of Boston.

JP is bordered by a number of jewels in the Emerald Necklace park system designed in the 19th century by Frederick Law Olmsted:

• Olmsted Park, from Route 9 at the Riverway south to Perkins Street, including Leverett Pond, Willow Pond, and Ward's Pond;
• Jamaica Pond has 60 acres of surface area and is the largest and deepest body of fresh water in Boston;
• Arnold Arboretum is a 265 acre world-renowned plant collection maintained by Harvard University;
• Franklin Park is a 527 acre park (the largest in the city) and holds the Franklin Park Zoo (the largest zoo in New England).

Jamaica Plain also has three wooded parkways: the Arborway, the Riverway and the Jamaicaway.

Forest Hills Cemetery (a 275-acre “garden cemetery”) and hundreds more acres of cemetery that stretch along Walk Hill Street.

Notable Natives & Remarkable Residents

Alphabetically by last name:

• Robert L. Bacon, New York congressman and colonel in World War I, born in Jamaica Plain
• Emily Greene Balch, co-winner of the 1946 Nobel Peace Prize (130 Prince Street)
• Fanny Chamberlain, Maine first lady of Maine, born in Jamaica Plain.
• James Michael Curley, four-term mayor of Boston, later governor of Massachusetts (350 Jamaicaway)
• James Dole, founder of Hawaiian Pineapple Company which became Dole Food Company (14 Roanoke Avenue)
• Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist, lived in Forest Hills
• Ralph Waldo Emerson atop "Schoolmaster Hill" in Franklin Park
• Julie and Hillary Goodridge, plaintiffs in the landmark court case that legalized same-sex marriage in Massachusetts
• Samuel Griswold Goodrich, a.k.a. Peter Parley, 19th century author, publisher, state senator, and Consul General to France
• John Hancock owned a summer house that stood on the banks of Jamaica Pond
• Hellen Keller attended the Perkins Kindergarten for the Blind when it was located on Perkins Street in Hyde Square
• Joe McIntyre, former member of boy band New Kids on the Block, grew up in JP and performed in community theater at The Footlight Club
• Sylvia Plath, poet (birthplace at 24 Prince Street)
• Ellen Swallow Richards, first woman admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (and other notable accomplishments) (32 Eliot Street)
• Brian Viglione, drummer of the Boston Punk-Cabaret band The Dresden Dolls
• The Weld Family, landowners in JP from the 17th century to present; former Governor of Massachusetts William Weld is a member of this family.

Transportation

JP is served by the MBTA's bus and rail services. Major roads are Centre Street, the Jamaicaway (formerly US 1), the Arborway (MA 203), Washington Street, and Columbus Avenue (MA 28).

Bicycle Paths

Two major bicycle paths serve JP. Along the Southwest Corridor Park is the Pierre Lallement Bicycle Path, which runs from Forest Hills to Back Bay. To the west are bicycle paths, which run through the parks of the Emerald Necklace, along the Jamaicaway and Riverway. Jamaica Plain is home to the only bike lane in a Boston street, along one block of Perkins Street at Jamaica Pond.

Subway

The Green Line "E" Train terminates at Heath Street in Mission Hill. This line used to continue along South Huntington Avenue, Centre Street, and South Street to its terminus at the Arborway Yard across from Forest Hills Station. Service beyond Heath Street was suspended by the MBTA in 1985.

The Orange Line runs through the middle of JP with stops at Jackson Square, Stony Brook, Green Street, and Forest Hills. The Orange Line carries as many passengers as the #39 bus, on which ridership is steadily declining.

Forest Hills Station is a major transportation hub and is walking distance to the Arnold Arboretum and Forest Hills Cemetery.

Green Line controversy

Proposed restoration of the "E" Train from Heath Street to Forest Hills (part of the promised environmental mitigation measures that allowed for construction of the Big Dig) has caused considerable tension in the area. Some residents and commuters are eager to embrace what is seen as a reconnection with the rest of the city, while many others cite the #39 Bus along the old route and the Orange Line just a few blocks away as easy travel solutions. Opposition is mainly based on this availability of transport, and fears that restoration of the trolley service would eliminate on-street parking and create traffic snares in an area already plagued by a shortage of the former and abundance of the latter. Advocates on both sides of the issue, including the Arborway Committee and Better Transit Without Trolleys, present compelling arguments for improved service while the MBTA has not yet committed to a permanent transit solution.

Commuter Rail

The Needham Line of the Commuter Rail stops at Forest Hills Station, and many other lines are easily accessible by riding the Orange Line subway train to Ruggles and Back Bay.

Buses

The #39 Bus (Back Bay to Forest Hills) is a replacement service for the "temporarily" suspended Green Line streetcar from Heath Street to Forest Hills.

The #41 bus carries passengers from JP Center to Dudley Square.

The #48 bus runs a loop around the neighborhood, tying together the Washington and Centre Street corridors.

Green Line - Heath Street

• 14 Roslindale Sq.-Heath St. Sta.
• 39 Forest Hills Sta.-Back Bay Sta.

Orange Line - Jackson Square

• 22 Ashmont Sta.-Ruggles Sta. via Talbot Ave.
• 29 Mattapan Sta.-Jackson Sq. Sta. via Seaver St.
• 41 Centre & Eliot Streets-JFK/UMASS Sta.
• 44 Jackson Sq. Sta.-Ruggles Sta. via Seaver St.
• 48 Jamaica Plain Loop Monument-Jackson Sq. Sta.
• 66 Harvard Sq.-Dudley Sta. via Harvard St.

Orange Line - Stony Brook

• 48 Jamaica Plain Loop Monument-Jackson Sq. Sta.

Orange Line - Green Street

• 48 Jamaica Plain Loop Monument-Jackson Sq. Sta.

Orange Line - Forest Hills

• 16 Forest Hills Sta.-Andrew Station or JFK/UMASS Sta.
• 21 Ashmont Sta.-Forest Hills Sta.
• 31 Mattapan Sta.-Forest Hills Sta. via Morton St.
• 32 Wolcott Sq. or Cleary Square-Forest Hills Sta.
• 34/34E Walpole Center or Dedham Line-Forest Hills Sta. via Washington St.
• 35 Dedham Mall/Stimson St.-Forest Hills Sta.
• 36 Charles River Loop or V.A. Hospital-Forest Hills Sta. via Belgrade Ave.
• 37 Baker and Vermont Sts.-Forest Hills Sta.
• 38 Wren St.-Forest Hills Sta.
• 39 Forest Hills Sta.-Back Bay Sta.
• 40 Georgetowne-Forest Hills Sta.
• 42 Forest Hills Sta.-Ruggles Sta. via Washington St.
• 50 Cleary Sq.-Forest Hills Sta.
• 51 Reservoir (Cleveland Circle)-Forest Hills Sta.

Cars and parking

Municipal parking lots are located off Centre Street at Burroughs Street in JP Center, across from the Mary Curley School on Centre Street at Spring Park Ave., and across from Blessed Sacrament Church in Hyde Square. There are no parking meters in JP; on-street parking is free. Many streets near the MBTA Orange Line stations are posted "resident permit only" during working hours (8 AM to 6 PM). This is intended to discourage commuters from using residential streets as parking lots during the day.

External links

In alphabetical order:

• Arborway Committee -- Arborway Committee, advocates for light rail
• Franklin Park Coalition -- Franklin Park Coalition
• Historic Hyde Square -- Historic Hyde Square
  • Gas Lamps of Jamaica Plain -- photos of gas street lights
• JamaicaPlain.com -- neighborhood information and links
• Jamaica Plain Gazette -- Free neighborhood newspaper
• The Jamaica Plain Forum -- Free community discussion series on the great issues of the day
• Jamaica Plain Historical Society -- Jamaica Plain Historical Society
  • Egleson Square -- Egleson Square Neighborhood
  • Historic Jamaica Plain Photographs -- Locales, Street Cars, Persons
  • Jamaica Plain High School Yearbooks -- Directories, Bibliography, Research Resources
  • Sumner Hill -- Sumner Hill Historic District
  • Woodbourne -- Woodbourne Historic District
• Southwest Corridor Park -- Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation page
• The Jamaica Pond Project -- A Photographic Essay
• Neighbors for Neighbors -- A volunteer community group

Further reading

• Local Attachments : The Making of an American Urban Neighborhood, 1850 to 1920 (Creating the North American Landscape), by Alexander von Hoffman, The Johns Hopkins University Press (1996), ISBN 0-8018-5393-1.
• A Home in the Heart of a City: A Woman's Search for Community (Hardcover), by Kathleen Hirsch, North Point Pr (1998), ISBN 0-374-28079-7.
• Jamaica Plain: Then & Now by Anthony M. Sammarco, soft cover, 96 pages. Vintage Jamaica Plain photographs are placed alongside contemporary ones showing well-known buildings and streetscapes as they once were and as they appear today. Included are historic photographs of Jamaica Pond with its icehouses, streetcars, schools, places of worship, and homes. Anthony M. Sammarco is a noted historian and author of more than forty books on the history of Boston and surrounding cities and towns. Sammarco teaches history at the Urban College of Boston.
• Jamaica Plain by Anthony M. Sammarco (1997.) Soft cover, 128 pages. Author and noted local historian Anthony Mitchell Sammarco combines powerful text and images in this volume to create a compelling visual history of one of New England’s loveliest neighborhoods.
• Edwina by Jill Hofstra, soft cover, 252 pages. Jill Hofstra’s new book Edwina chronicles the life of a precocious and delightful girl who lived in Jamaica Plain in the early 1900s.

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