At the corner of Carolina Avenue and Lee Street in Jamaica Plain sits a charming cottage on an unusually large parcel of land for the surrounding neighborhood. This house, at 101 Carolina Avenue, was the first to be built on the street. Though significant for its age, also important is the role it played in the history of Jamaica Plain. In 1913, the house transformed from a single-family home into the home of the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood House Association. This article explores the history of the people who lived within its walls and, later, its life as a settlement house.

VictorianCharlie RosenbergDecember 3, 2020Jenny Nathans, social work

Health Booklet by Society to Encourage Studies at Home (1878)

A transcription of a booklet entitled ‘Health’ published by the Society to Encourage Studies at home in 1878. The authors were the Society’s Secretary Anna Eliot Ticknor who worked with Ellen Swallow Richards to produce this tract. The purpose - in their words: These pages are addressed to the Students of the Society to Encourage Studies at Home, to the women living in different parts of the United States, who have joined it for the purposes of home education. Grieved by the amount of ill-health revealed in the correspondence, the Committee resolved to make an appeal in behalf of the laws of health, not only on the usual grounds, but for the sake of the very studies which the Society aims to promote.

VictorianJamaica Plain Historical SocietyMarch 14, 2020Medical, social work

Victorian Era