A special Thank You to Ms. Joanne Polk for being so kind as to grant me permission to include her performance of Amy Beach's "Nocturne, op. 107" on this web site

Lucy's Boston

"Jamaica Plain"

At the southern edge of Boston Massachusetts, there lies an incredible place, where people of all races live comfortably. A place where art and ideas are shared freely. It is a dynamic community with the luxury of a beautiful neighborhood. The hustle and bustle on Centre Street is balanced by the cool breeze off Jamaica Pond and the enchanting greenery in the Arnold Arboretum. This place is called Jamaica Plain…

The emerald vistas of Jamaica Plain provide the setting for Lucy’s Boston. I originally wanted the setting for the Victorian garden cemetery and the Bram House Mortuary in Boston proper but couldn’t settle on the right area. My editor, Linda Hollander, a former resident of Boston, suggested the lovely community of Jamaica Plain. Not only has Jamaica Plain retained much of its pristine Victorian majesty, it is also the home of a spectacular garden cemetery, Forest Hills: however, one 19th century graveyard was simply not enough for the plot of Boston Gothic. I decided the citizens of Jamaica Plain needed another and located my fictional graveyard there.

I recently contacted the Jamaica Plain Historical Society who graciously shared the following insights on this vibrant community:

In 1880, Jamaica Plain was a thriving neighborhood of Boston. Old farming estates were being developed into housing lots, industry was booming in the Stony Brook Valley. Streetcar and railroad transportation was flourishing. As noted the 1892 edition of Boston Illustrated, “The cars thereupon enter a delightful region of villas and open fields, passing the stately building of the Russell School, and approaching the village of Jamaica Plain. Several handsome churches are seen, on either side of the street, several attractive country places, and the mansion once made famous as the home of S. G. Goodrich (Peter Parley). The beautiful Jamaica Pond is a short walk to the right, down Pond Street. A little farther on is the large and showy building formerly used as the town hall; and near it is the West Roxbury Soldiers’ monument, opposite the dignified old Unitarian Church. Stages connect with the cars at this point, and run out through a mile or more of picturesque wooded country, to the celebrated Allandale Mineral Spring.”

Some say the neighborhood received its name during the heyday of rum shipments from Jamaica to Boston in the 1660s, following Cromwell’s seizure of the Caribbean island. Jamaica Plain eventually became part of Roxbury and in later years, West Roxbury. Another account says Jamaica Plain was named for an Indian woman named Jamaco, a weaver of fine baskets, who lived at Jamaica Pond. Jamaco was married to Kuchamakin, who reared the head of the local Massachusetts Indians. By the 1800s, Jamaica Plain was a summer playground for elite New Englanders before having become part of Boston in 1874.

City directories reveal that twenty-five breweries operated in the immediate area within a mile of Roxbury Crossing. The pre-eminent beer barons were Rueter, Haffenreffer, Burkhardt, Roesoje, Pfaff, and Souther prospered until the passing of the Eighteenth Amendment, prohibition of intoxicating liquors. National prohibition (1919 -1933) was disastrous for the local beer industry and the majority of those breweries that were not immediately destroyed were gone by World War II. Luckily the industry has rebounded and 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.

The same energy that was discernable in the 1880’s is apparent in Jamaica Plain in the 21st century. Diversity is the strength of “JP,” to which it is lovingly referred by residents. Every ethnicity, socio-economic stratum, and sexual orientation is well represented and made to feel welcome in this neighborhood sandwiched primarily between Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood and the City of Brookline. Jamaica Plain’s rich diverseness has created a strong character of social awareness and tolerance among neighbors and residents.