HUB History - Our Favorite Stories from Boston History

You may have heard stories about the Confederate prisoners who were held at Fort Warren on Georges Island during the civil war. In this episode, we’ll explore a different island that housed prisoners during a different war. Our story will start with the only soccer riot in recorded Boston history, which broke out at Carson Beach in South Boston on July 16, 1944. It will end up with Italian war prisoners confined at Fort Andrews on Peddocks Island in Boston Harbor. Along the way, we’ll meet bootleggers, artillerymen, Passamaquoddy seal hunters, opium fiends, and Portuguese-American fishermen. We’ll also be taking a virtual visit to one of my personal favorite places in the Boston area, and one that is on the brink of being sold off to luxury hotel developers.

Please check out the transcript and full show notes at: http://HUBhistory.com/194/

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The Prisoners of Peddocks Island

• House Committee on Military Affairs report (page 21-22)
• “Petting with bathing-suited girls outside the wire fence,” Dec 1, 1944 DC Evening Star
• Attempted escape from Camp McKay, June 10, 1944 Boston Globe
• A brawl between prisoners and beachgoers, June 14, 1944 Boston Globe
• A second brawl prevented, June 16, 1944 Boston Globe
• Second fence added at Camp McKay, June 17, 1944 Boston Globe
• ISU prisoners moved to Peddocks Island, June 30, 1944 Boston Globe
• Thomas Morton describes an indigenous attack on French traders at Peddocks Island
• John Adams writes to Thomas Jefferson asking what “anckies” are.
• A general description of Fort Andrews
• Rumors that the military will fortify Peddocks Island, Jan 21, 1898 Topeka State Journal
• Rumors that the military will fortify Peddocks Island, March 13, 1898 DC Times
• A description of the cottage community on Peddocks Island, Aug 22, 1909 Boston Globe
• Passamaquoddy seal hunters, July 19, 1906 New Haven Daily Morning Journal and Courier
• Passamaquoddy seal hunters, Aug 10, 1907 Marion Daily Mirror
• Mortar round falls on Nantasket Ave, Aug 1, 1913 Essex County Herald
• Mortar fire damages Fort Andrews, Nov 28, 1941 DC Evening Star
• Research paper explaining how Italian POWs’ status changed, where prisoners came from
• Once Upon an Island, Matilda Silvia
• ISUs are overly coddled, July 24, 1944 DC Evening Star
• Plan to evict cottage residents, Nov 17, 1991 Baltimore Sun (via NYT)
• ISU strike, December 26, 1944 Boston Globe
• ISU strike near Toledo, July 13 1944 DC Evening Star
• ISU strike in Utah, June 1, 1945 DC Evening Star
• ISU strike in England, May 25, 1944 DC Evening Star

Camp McKay via past podcast guest Earl Taylor Camp McKay via the National Archives Fort Andrews as it appeared during WWII Live fire exercise in 1941, via the Washington DC Evening Star The real pier at Peddocks Island, with a massive mountain digitally inserted behind it for Shutter Island. Peddocks Island stands in for Shutter Island. Most of these officers’ quarters were demolished in 2011-2013. Arriving on Peddocks Island Welcome to Peddocks Island Fort Andrews enlisted barracks The base chapel where Italian Service Units worshipped The gym and Post Exchange, where Matilda Silvia’s family shopped Battery Frank Whitman “Portuguese Cove” with the Boston Skyline behind An abandoned cottage Sunset behind Boston from Peddocks Island Boston Book Club

East of Boston: Notes from the Harbor Islands, by Stephanie Schorow, is equal parts history book and travel guide, serving as a perfect introduction for the Boston Harbor Islands novice. From former Harbor Islands, like World’s End and Castle Island, to popular tourist draws like Georges and Spectacle Islands, to the windswept and little visited Brewsters and Graves, Schorow takes the reader through the entire archipelago of 34 Boston Harbor Islands.

In the early 20th century, Peddocks Island became an out-of-sight, out-of-mind home for unsavory activities and businesses like bordellos, speakeasies, and opium parties. There’s also a rich history of baseball being played on Peddocks Island. In East of Boston, Schorow explains that before the blue laws were finally changed in 1929, up to 5000 fans would flock to a long-lost ballpark on a narrow spit of land between two beaches on Peddocks to watch the Boston Braves play. Along with these more edgy topics, the publisher’s description says you will learn about “pirate treasure, elusive foxes, cross-dressing ghosts, flying Santas and a strange era of spontaneously combusting garbage dumps.”

While most of the islands will remain closed this summer, ferry service to Spectacle Island has started up and will run through October 12. If you are a frequent visitor to the Harbor Islands, or if you’re considering your first trip, it’s worth picking up East of Boston to help plan your trip, and so you know the many historic events that happened on each island.

Upcoming Event

On Thursday, July 23, check out Boston in Film: Beyond the Oscars, from the Massachusetts Historical Society, Emerson, and the Brattle Theater. A few weeks ago, we featured a talk focusing on movies that typecast the Hub as a home for mobsters, cops, and other tough-talking Irish characters. This week, Jim Vrabel, author of A People’s History of the New Boston, and Ned Hinckle of the Brattle Film Foundation will be presenting a more lighthearted counterpoint to that session. They will go beyond the grit to present a more well-rounded portrait of Boston. Here’s how the MHS website describes the event:

There are a remarkable number of gritty films set in Boston, yet that is not the only way the city is depicted. There are comedies, period pieces, and films that depict the diversity of the city with much greater accuracy. Next Stop Wonderland, Paper Chase and Between the Lines have not received the same attention from the Academy, but they have devout followings and depict a different vision of Boston. Our discussion will look at these other visions of the city and discuss short films and independent productions that offer a wider perspective of our city.