Jamaica Plain Spoken was a video/interview project that JP musician Rick Berlin started with his friend Todd Drogy in 2004. It consists of over sixty interviews with people of all genders, beliefs, ages and ethnicities. Just a bunch of local characters describing their lives and offering their opinions about Jamaica Plain. The project was stopped due to a lack of funding, so the YouTube clips are all that remain. Those links are gathered here.
Read MoreLearn about the Glennon family living in Jamaica Plain and Roxbury from 1880-1940. Employment in the Thomas G. Plant Shoe Factory and the Burton Brewery provided the family with both opportunity and hardship.
Read MoreWalter Hoerner worked for Haffenreffer Brewery from 1933 to 1959. He was the chief engineer at Haffenreffers's property at 251 Heath Street. The building was used primarily for storage and as a workshop for coopers who built and repaired wood barrels.
Read MoreDavid A. Mittell grew up on Prince Street in Jamaica Plain. He attended the Agassiz School and Roxbury Latin. He is a 1939 graduate of Harvard University. Mr. Mittell is a retired executive of Davenport Peters, the oldest American continually operating lumber wholesaler. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Plimoth Plantation and Roxbury Latin High School.
Read MoreThe following interview was conducted with Janice Murray by Charlie Rosenberg on April 10, 2004.
My name is Janice Murray. My maiden name was O’Hara. I was born in 1957 in Dorchester, and in 1960, my parents bought a big Victorian up at the corner of St. Rose Street and the Arborway, overlooking the Arboretum – not right at the corner, one house in. The man who built the big Victorians there, his name was Leonard, I believe. It was a huge 17-room house, he built a series of them – if you look along that strip, there are three houses that are almost identical.
This oral history project was complied and edited by Bill Vanderbeck and Jamaica Plain High School students circa 1984 and includes extracts of interviews and historic photographs.
Read MoreI was born right around the corner, at 16 Paul Gore Street, on April 9, 1917. So I have been waiting 86 years for the Red Sox! I was born at home.
Read MoreA descendant of Boston’s famous Boylston family and one of Jamaica Plain’s largest property owners meets Jamaica Plain Historical Society member Tom Sullivan on a walking tour. And now we know Chris Boutourline of Portland, Oregon, and his famous kin including his 500-year old Russian antecedents.
Read MoreBob Casavant’s working life in Jamaica Plain saw him grow from a skilled machinist at Buff & Buff Manufacturing Company to a prize-winning antique automobile restoration expert.
Read MoreBased on 2014 interviews with six staff and board members, each of whom have left their mark on the school’s long history.
Read MoreThe Old Lamplighter song was introduced in 1946 by singer Sammy Kaye and it became an immediate hit; topping the charts for several weeks. Our family’s copy, on an old RCA Victor shellac-type record, was nearly worn-out on our old wind-up Victrola!
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