Hello & thanks for visiting,

I am a Bostonian living in exile who harbors romanticized memories of "Beantown" and has a strong interest in the history of the Hub of the Universe. 

I grew up in Lexington, which pretty much cornered me into learning all about the American Revolution as a kid. I used to put on a vest and a felt tricorn hat, tuck my trousers into my socks, and show tourists around on Patriot's day. I can still recite Captain John Parker's words on the Lexington Green when the Minutemen faced the British army; "Stand your ground! Don't fire unless fired upon. But if they mean to have a war, let it begin here!" They did, and it did.

Also as a child I used to visit my great-grandmother in her apartment on Beacon Hill (where she lived her whole life). She'd tell stories about the "olden days": the first airplane to fly over the city, the celebration at the Boston Public Library in Copley Square at the end of WW I, my Grandmother's job as a telephone operator in the 1920s, and much more. We used to go down to Haymarket Square to buy fresh fish and vegetables, or to Bailey's ice cream shop downtown. I remember running down eight flights of escalator stairs at Jordan Marsh after viewing their extensive Christmas display. Sometimes in the winter my mother would take me to the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum, where we could smell real flowers in the enclosed courtyard. Or we'd visit the Peabody museum at Harvard to see the glass flowers (Mom) and the preserved gorilla's hand (me). On very special occasions my Dad would take us to Anthony's Pier Four for lobster, and those delicious popovers.

As a teen I remember "The Plywood Skyscraper" dominating the Boston skyline. It took them years to fix that John Hancock tower so that the windows wouldn't fall out. I took my first girlfriend on a date to Boston. We took the "T" downtown, rode the swan boats in the Boston Gardens, had our tea leaves read, and had lunch at some Polynesian restaurant. I took another date to the 1976 bicentennial performance of the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Hatch Shell on the Esplanade. The event was attended by more than 400,000 people and was reckoned to be the largest audience in history for a classical music concert. It was amazing; they even used real howitzers in the finale of Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture. Still, the record-keepers seemed to overlook the fact that the group "Heart" also played, having released their smash debut album just a few months before ("Dreamboat Annie," "Magic Man," "Crazy on You"). 

A few years later I had a temporary job with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, videotaping conductors trying out for Arthur Fiedler's place as his retirement neared. Seiji Osawa won. But what I remember most vividly was going into the orchestra's rest room during break. There were 25 white urinals along the white-tiled far wall, and 25 men in black tails lined up in front of them. One word: Penguins.

I moved to Vermont for graduate school in 1979 and have lived in the Green Mountains ever since. But my fondness for Beantown and its history has never faded. 

This site is starting out as an organizational repository for my notes on the history of Boston. I hope over time it grows into a useful resource. 

As of this writing there is no content. I hope it doesn't stay that way for long!

Cheers,
Jeff