HUB History - Our Favorite Stories from Boston History

You don’t grow up to walk two steps behind your husband when you’ve met Jo March. The same could be said of Louisa May Alcott, in which case you may not take a husband at all, choosing instead to paddle your own canoe. It has been said that, with the penning of the semi-autobiographical novel Little Women, Alcott launched the notion of the of the All American Girl. With both Sewall and Quincy ancestry, a sharp mind coupled with a determination to succeed, and a life guided by progressive values, Alcott herself was certainly an All Boston Girl. Learn about Louisa May Alcott’s long journey to overnight success, and hear how Sirena Abalian portrays Jo in the Wheelock Family Theater’s production of Little Women, the Musical.

Please check out the transcript and full show notes at: http://HUBhistory.com/171/

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Louisa May Alcott and Little Women

• National Parks Service profile on the Wayside/Hillside. The Wayside is part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program, administered by the National Park Service. This program commemorates and preserves the historical significance of the Underground Railroad which sought to address the injustices of slavery and make freedom a reality in the United States and is a crucial element in the evolution of our national civil rights movement.
• Louisa May Alcott’s page on the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail
• “Louisa May Alcott’s Pot of Gold,” a blog post from Historic Boston Inc. recounting Alcott’s loan from James Fields.
• More on Annie Adams Fields and Sarah Orne Jewett
• Information to help you plan a visit to Orchard House in Concord.
• Archive of Louisa May Alcott’s papers at Harvard University.
• Alcott’s Hospital Sketches via Project Gutenberg, for those wanting to meet Tribulation Periwinkle.
• Louisa May Alcott : Her Life, Letters, and Journals via Project Gutenberg

Hillside/Wayside Orchard House Orchard House Louisa May Alcott’s grave Boston Book Club

Stephanie Schorow’s Inside the Combat Zone: The Stripped Down Story of Boston’s Most Notorious Neighborhoods harkens back to an era before internet porn. Back then, anyone seeking adult entertainment had to not only leave their homes, they had to visit the seedy side of downtown Boston. Here’s how the author’s website describes the book:

Upscale restaurants, majestic theaters, and luxury condos line the streets of downtown Boston today. Students, office workers, doctors, and shoppers navigate the busy sidewalks along Washington and Boylston Streets, giving little thought to the historical significance of their surroundings. The bustle distracts passersby from what may be the city’s dirtiest little secret: these blocks were once home to Boston’s most notorious neighborhood. The Combat Zone, a five-plus-acre, city- sanctioned adult entertainment district, was as sordid and alluring as anything found in Amsterdam or Vegas. Indeed, Boston’s now tony neighborhood once resembled the set of HBO’s The Deuce, all with the blessing of city officials.

Schorow recounts the stories that made the Zone infamous. Meet the dancers who stripped to punk rock, the cops who tried to keep order on the streets, and the hookers who turned tricks and slipped wallets from gullible tourists. Go beyond the enticing marquees promoting all-nude revues to discover how the Zone—in an era dogged by miserable economics— remained one of Boston’s most profitable neighborhoods.

With Inside the Combat Zone, Schorow examines the constitutional and societal issues that led Boston to engineer an audacious social experiment, heralded across the nation as the solution to the pornography epidemic. She introduces the players who made it all possible and the antics and tragedies that unfolded as a result of their decisions. The streets come alive through interviews with former city planners, strippers, and porn merchants. Some nostalgically recall the Combat Zone as a seductive adult playground where men and women alike found the freedom to express themselves; others remember it as a dangerous, crime-ridden neighborhood. Schorow deftly captures a moment in Boston’s history that helped shape the city today—and that will likely never be seen again.

Upcoming Event

In honor of Presidents’ Day, our friends over at Boston By Foot have devised special walking tours that will allow you to see Boston through the eyes of our first two Presidents. Both tours begin at 1pm, both tours cost $15 for non-members, and both tours meet near the Old State House. George Washington is up first, with a tour on Saturday, February 16. Here’s how Boston By Foot describes it:

This walk follows the first President on his six-day visit to Boston as part of his post-inaugural tour of New England 230 years ago, in October 1789. In 1789, Boston was on the cusp of transformation, its economy rebounding from the war years, with its advances in industry, technology, and commerce on show for this most important of visitors. Boston in 1789 was still a town, not a city. Charles Bulfinch had yet to create his many churches and civic landmarks, and the hills of the Shawmut Peninsula were not yet plundered for their gravel and landfill. [Side note: you can get more context for Boston in 1789 from episode 147, where we trace the trial and execution of the so-called pirate Rachel Wall. Wall was the last woman to be executed in Massachusetts, and she was hanged on the Common just days before Washington’s presidential visit.] In part, we will walk the route of the civic parade organized for Washington’s arrival; stop by many of the sites where he visited, worshipped, and – yes – slept; and learn about Governor Hancock’s political miscalculation when President Washington came to town.

And because even now, almost 225 years later, John Adams still plays second fiddle to George Washington, the Adams family tour will be held on Monday, February 17. Their description begins with the words of 24 year old John Adams describing the bustling town of Boston in 1759:

“My Eyes are so diverted with Chimney Sweeps, Carriers of Wood, Merchants, Ladies, Priests, Carts, Horses, Oxen, Coaches, Market men and Women, Soldiers, Sailors, and my Ears with the Rattle Gabble of them all…”

Follow the words and history of four generations of Adamses, from their experiences at the Old State House, through Beacon Hill, and into Back Bay. John, Abigail, and their descendants were prolific writers. The trove of documents they left behind intimately describe their lives, public service, and Boston from the eve of the Revolution to the turn of the twentieth century.

Dr. Rebecca Crumpler’s Headstone

Long-time listeners may recall episode 18, in which we discussed the incredible life of Dr Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first black female medical doctor trained in the United States, who graduated in 1864 from the New England Female Medical College in Boston. Dr. Crumpler and her husband Arthur Crumpler are buried in an unmarked grave at Fairview Cemetery in Hyde Park. The Friends of the Hyde Park Library and the Hyde Park Historical Society are currently raising $5,000 for a simple gravestone to honor these two remarkable individuals. Please consider donating to this worthy cause.