A person who wanders across Allandale Road with care will pass into the Allandale Woods, a vast natural tract of public land with ancient farm roads and newer bridle paths that extend to the valley of Saw Mill Brook and the Veterans of Foreign Wars Parkway.
Read MoreAs the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council formed in 1985 and in 1987 when the Jamaica Plain Historical Society was founded, the location of Jamaica Plain’s boundaries became a subject of discussion. From time to time, especially at the edges of the neighborhood, residents wonder where Jamaica Plain begins and ends.
Read MoreJamaica Plain has two streets named after the Chestnut tree with its distinctive leaves and blossoms. They probably got their names from these prominent trees that years ago grew on location here.
Read MoreIn the Victorian era, skating was the favorite winter activity of locals - the Jamaica Pond was their place to undertake this pastime.
Read MoreExcerpts from an illustrated lecture given to the Jamaica Plain Tuesday Club at the Loring-Greenough House on December 2, 1952
Read MoreIn the Victorian era Jamaica Plains' 200 acre Moss Hill was also known as Bowditch Hill, named for one branch of the Bowditch family of Salem fame, who lived there. Grandfather Jonathan Bowditch brought his family to Moss Hill in the mid-19th century.
Read MoreAn old Jamaica Plain homestead is best known by the name of the former estate, over which it once presided: Pinebank, so called from its pine-surrounded rise on the north shore of Jamaica Pond.
Read MorePinebank, the decaying, abandoned mansion overlooking Jamaica Pond, will be gone by the end of the month. Its existence spanned three centuries. Failed attempts to preserve it spanned three decades.
Read MoreFounded in 1908, Our Lady of Lourdes Parish was exactly half way to its 100th Anniversary in 1958, when I was privileged to graduate from its school.
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