The Boston directory : including . . . Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Readville, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury 1955, Part 2

Author:
Publication date: 1789
Publisher: Boston : Sampson & Murdock company
Number of Pages: 1480

USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Allston > The Boston directory : including . . . Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Readville, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury 1955 > Part 2
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The Boston directory : including . . . Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Readville, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury 1955 > Part 2
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Brighton > The Boston directory : including . . . Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Readville, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury 1955 > Part 2
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Charlestown > The Boston directory : including . . . Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Readville, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury 1955 > Part 2
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Dorchester > The Boston directory : including . . . Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Readville, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury 1955 > Part 2
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > East Boston > The Boston directory : including . . . Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Readville, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury 1955 > Part 2
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Hyde Park > The Boston directory : including . . . Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Readville, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury 1955 > Part 2
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Jamaica Plain > The Boston directory : including . . . Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Readville, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury 1955 > Part 2
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Readville > The Boston directory : including . . . Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Readville, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury 1955 > Part 2
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Roslindale > The Boston directory : including . . . Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Readville, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury 1955 > Part 2
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Roxbury > The Boston directory : including . . . Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Readville, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury 1955 > Part 2
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > South Boston > The Boston directory : including . . . Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Readville, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury 1955 > Part 2
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > West Roxbury > The Boston directory : including . . . Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Readville, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury 1955 > Part 2
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Allston > The Boston directory : including . . . Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Readville, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury 1955 > Part 2
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The Boston directory : including . . . Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Readville, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury 1955 > Part 2
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Brighton > The Boston directory : including . . . Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Readville, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury 1955 > Part 2
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Charlestown > The Boston directory : including . . . Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Readville, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury 1955 > Part 2
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Dorchester > The Boston directory : including . . . Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Readville, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury 1955 > Part 2
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > East Boston > The Boston directory : including . . . Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Readville, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury 1955 > Part 2
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Hyde Park > The Boston directory : including . . . Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Readville, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury 1955 > Part 2
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Jamaica Plain > The Boston directory : including . . . Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Readville, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury 1955 > Part 2
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Readville > The Boston directory : including . . . Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Readville, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury 1955 > Part 2
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Roslindale > The Boston directory : including . . . Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Readville, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury 1955 > Part 2
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Roxbury > The Boston directory : including . . . Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Readville, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury 1955 > Part 2
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > South Boston > The Boston directory : including . . . Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Readville, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury 1955 > Part 2
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > West Roxbury > The Boston directory : including . . . Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Readville, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury 1955 > Part 2

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Bank

Page 64

Niles Inc .1932

Real Estate

Page 180

Norfolk County Trust Co 1935

Banks

. Page 64

*O'Brien William Pease Inc 1910

Real Estate.

right side lines and Page 180

Insurance

left top lines and Page 145

*** Paige John C & Company

1876

Insurance

** Paine Furniture Co 1895

*** Parker House 1856

Hotels

. Page 117

* Patterson, Wylde & Windeler Inc 1911

*Paul Revere Life Insurance Co

1930

Insurance

Page 151

** Penn Mutual Life Insurance Co 1847

1844

Textile Manufacturers

Page 192

Contractors' Supplies

Page 91

*Peters Employment Service * ** Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Co

1851

* ** Pierce S S Co

1831

*Pilgrim Photo Engraving Co Pilgrim Trust Co

1933

Bank

. left side lines and Page

** Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co

1896

*** Polk R L & Co 1870

1910

.1817

** Provident Institution for Savings in Town of Boston The

.1816

Public Loan Co

%Quincy Savings Bank

1845

Bank

. Page 53

*Rand, Avery, Gordon, Taylor Inc

*Redmond Carlton S

1919

1833

Banking

Page

Clothing

Page

*Sam's Radio & Appliance Stores 1924

. Page 190

**** Savage Henry W Inc

1840 Real Estate . left side lines and Page 180

** Schrafft W F & Sons Corp

1886

Confectionery Manufacturers

Page 91

*Sears Thomas E Inc ..

.1918

Insurance .right top lines and Page 151

** Second Bank-State Street Trust Company Organized

.1955

Bank

Page

*Sheridan's Inc

1923

Department Store

Page 96

Sherry Biltmore Hotel

1955

*Short & Williamson Inc

.1905

Funeral Directors

Page 111

#Shreve, Crump & Low Co ** Somerset Hotel Corp

1898

Hotels right top lines and Page 118

** Stearns R H Company

1847

Department Store

. left top lines and Page

*Stedfast & Roulston Inc ** Stern Can Co Inc

.1901

Cans and Metal Containers

.. right top lines and Page

Street and Co Inc

.1934

*Suffolk Savings Bank for Seamen and Others 1833 Sumner's

1942

*Tileston & Hollingsworth Co

1801

** Transcript Publications

.1870

Newspaper .right side lines and Page 163

Page 61

** United Fruit Co

.1899

Steamship Lines

Page 186

** United States Fidelity and Guaranty Co. . 1896

1895

Bank

Page 46

** Volunteer Co-operative Bank

1888

Bank

Page

*Vose Galleries of Boston Inc

1841

.right top corner cards and Page

** Vulcan Tool Manufacturing Co

1890

*Wahn George H Co

1915

*Wainwright H C & Co

1868

1898

Insurance

. left side lines and Page 152

** Ward Samuel Manufacturing Co

1829

Bank.

outside cover and Page

Waterman J S & Sons Inc

1832

** West Roxbury Co-operative Bank

1881

Co-operative Bank .... right top corner cards and Page

White R H Corp

1853

Department Store .right top lines and Page

. Page 99

** Whittier C W & Bro

1900

Real Estate

.outside cover and Page 177

Jewelry

right side lines

Bank

Page 65

Leather

right top lines and Page 156

** Winslow Bros & Smith Co

1776

Wool Dealers

. Page 155

*Wolf Secret Service Bureau

1920

Detective Agency

Page

** Woodlawn Cemetery The 1851

Cemetery

Page 84

** Workingmens Co-operative Bank 1880

Cooperative Bank. .right side lines and Page 57

*Zurbach L E Steel Co

1924 Steel

.right top lines and Page 189

*Pepperell Manufacturing Co ** Perrin, Seamans & Co Inc 1887

1926

Employment Agency

ribbon book mark and Page 107

Insurance left side lines and Page 147

Grocers-Importers

. Page B

Photo Engravers.

right top lines and Page 103

Glass right top lines and Page 115

Directory Publishers

Lumber right top corner cards and Page 160

Home Furnishings right side lines and Page 113

The

Savings Bank .left top lines and Page 52

.1938

Loans .right top lines and Page 159

Printers .right top corner cards and Page 173

Real Estate right top corner cards and Page 180

** Rockland-Atlas National Bank of Boston. ** Rogers Peet Company

.1875

1800

Jewelers

. Page 154

1854

Machinery

.right side lines and Page 161

Realtors

Page 181

Savings Bank.

.left top lines and Page

Clothing

right top corner cards and Page

Paper Manufacturers.

.outside cover and Page 169

*** Union Savings Bank of Boston

1865

Bank

Insurance

. left top corner cards and Page 151

Art Galleries.

Contractors Tools

Page 92

Page Electrical Supplies .... right top corner cards and Page 100 Brokers 82

Wallace Wm & Co

1868 Office Supplies

.left top lines and Page 165

Warren Institution For Savings The

Funeral Directors. . outside cover and Page 110

Whitney T D Co

.1796

Linens

*** Widmer Frederick T ** Wildey Savings Bank *Winship W W Inc

1844

1892

1776

. . top and bottom stencil, left top lines and Pages 122 and 123 Furniture Dealers

Page 112

Insurance

Page 150

Insurance .left side lines and Page 150

1925

*Pope Lumber Co

** Pray John H & Sons Co

Radio and Television Appliances

Hotel .left top corner cards and Page 119A

** United States Trust Co

.1842

*** OBrion, Russell & Co .1872

Name

INTRODUCTION

R. L. POLK & CO., publishers of more than 800 city, county, state and national Directories, present to subscribers and the general public, this, the 1955 edition of the Boston City Directory in two volumes.

Confidence in the growth of Boston's industry, population and wealth, and in the advancement of its civic and social activities, will be maintained as sections of this Directory are consulted, for the Directory is a mirror truly reflecting Boston to the world.

The enviable position occupied by R. L. POLK & CO.'S Directories in the estimation of the public through- out the country, has been established by rendering the best in Directory service. With an unrivaled organiza- tion, and having had the courteous and hearty co-operation of the business and professional men and residents, the publishers feel that the result of their labors will meet with the approval of every user, and that the Boston Directory will fulfill its mission as a source of authentic information pertaining to the city.

Five Major Departments

The five major departments are arranged in the following order :-

THE MISCELLANEOUS DEPARTMENT, pages 11 to 32, on white paper, presents lists of city, county, state and federal officials, post office information and institutions, etc., with officers, courts holding sessions in the city, statistical review, and manufacturing, trade and civic surveys.

THE BANKING REFERENCE DEPARTMENT and THE BUYERS' GUIDE, printed on tinted paper, contains the advertisements of leading banking, manufacturing, business and professional interests of Boston. The advertisements are indexed under headings descriptive of the business represented. This is reference adver- tising at its best, and merits a survey by all buyers eager to familiarize themselves with sources of supply. In a great commercial and industrial center like Boston, the necessity of having this kind of information immediately available is obvious. General appreciation of this fact is evidenced by the many reference users of this City Directory service.

THE ALPHABETICAL LIST OF NAMES of residents and business and professional concerns in two volumes, 1, A-K; Volume 2, L-Z, on white paper. This is the only record in existence that aims to show the name, marital status, occupation and address of each adult resident of Boston, and the name, official personnel, nature and address of each firm and corporation in the city.

THE DIRECTORY OF HOUSEHOLDERS, INCLUDING STREET AND AVENUE GUIDE, on pink paper in two volumes, 1, A-K; Volume 2, L-Z. In this section the numbered streets are arranged in numerical order followed by the named streets in alphabetical order ; the numbers of the residences and business concerns are arranged in numerical order under the name of cach street, and the names of the householders and concerns are placed opposite the numbers. The names of the intersecting streets appear at their respective crossing points on each street. Special features of this section are the designation of tenant-owned homes and the designation of homes and places of business having telephones.

THE CLASSIFIED BUSINESS DIRECTORY in Volume 2, on yellow paper. This department lists the names of all business and professional concerns in alphabetical order under appropriate headings. This feature constitutes an invaluble and indispensable catalog of the numerous interests of the community. The Directory is the common intermediary between buyer and seller. As such it plays an important part in the daily activities of the commercial and professional world. More buyers and sellers meets through the Classified Business Direc- tory than through any other medium.

Municipal Publicity

The Directory reflects the achievements and ambitions of the city, depicting in unbiased terms what it has to offer as a place of residence, as a business location, as a manufacturing site and as an educational center. To broadcast this information, the publishers have placed copies of this issue of the Directory in Directory Li- braries, where they are readily available for free public reference, and serve as perpetual and reliable advertise- ments of Boston.

The Boston Directory Library

Through the courtesy of the publishers of the Boston City Directory, a Directory Library is maintained in their offices at 179 Lincoln Street, for free reference by the general public. This is one of more than 500 Directory Libraries installed in the chief cities of the U. S. and Canada by members of the Association of North American Directory Publishers, under whose supervision the system is operated.

The publishers appreciatively acknowledge the recognition by those progressive business and professional men who have demonstrated their confidence in the City Directory as an advertising medium, with assurance that it will bring a commensurate return.

R. L. POLK & CO. Publishers

Section 28, Copyright Law In Force July 7, 1909

That any person who wilfully and for profit shall infringe any copyright secured by this act, or who shall know- ingly or wilfully aid or abet such infringement, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by imprisonment for not exceed- ing one year, or by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than one thousand dollars, or both, in the discretion of the court.

ASSOCIATION OF

PRO

UBLICO

NORTH AMERICAN'

189

DIREIOURCORES

DIRECTORY

PUBLISHERS

PUBLISHERS' NOTE

The information in this Directory is gathered by an actual canvass and is compiled in a way to insure maxi- mnum accuracy.

The publishers cannot and do not guarantee the cor- rectness of all information furnished them nor the com- plete absence of errors or omissions, hence no responsi- bility for same can be or is assumed.

The publishers earnestly request the bringing to their attention of any inaccuracy so that it may be corrected in the next edition of the directory.

R. L. POLK & CO., Publishers

BOSTON . . . Historical

State House, Beacon St.

Boston. the oldest large city in the United States, was founded in 1630 by a chartered company of English colonists under the governorship of John Winthrop. Named Shaw- mut by its Indian inhabitants and Trimontaine by the early colonists, it received its present name on September 17, 1630, after the town in Lincolnshire, England, from which many of the company had come. Two years later it was es- tablished as the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and is today capital of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Although religious freedom was one of the principles on which the early English colonies were founded, the "Puritan" population of Boston soon became intolerant of divergent religious views. Some of the offenders were exiled, Anne Hutchinson among them and others, like Roger Williams who founded Rhode Island, emigrated voluntarily. Between 1648 and 1688 four women were executed as witches and four Quakers, who returned in defiance of their exile, were hanged.

For many years Boston was the largest town in the colonies and it has always occupied a position of leader- ship. It was the scene of the first American printing office and the first regular newspaper, the BOSTON NEWS LETTER, was published in Boston in 1704. America's first public school which is still in existence, the Public Latin School, was started in 1635. Harvard College, located across the Charles River in Cambridge, the country's oldest insti- tution of higher learning, was founded in the following year.

Boston, as the natural center of the colonies that later came to be known as New England, was continuously in the forefront in the long dispute with the mother country that culminated in the American Revolution. Because of the lack of resources in New England - the soil and the climate were not suitable for the raising of the colonial staples, tobacco or cotton or sugar - this section of the New World soon became England's step-child and came to learn that it had to fend for itself. The various trade and tax laws, imposed by Britain, worked a particular hardship on New England's seaport towns. Therefore, these could subsist only through their shipping among the other colonies and between the old and the new worlds. As a result Boston earned the name of hotbed of the Revolution, with the Stamp Act and Revenue Act riots, the Boston Massacre, The Bos- ton Tea Party and the Boston Port Bill, outward evidence of the city's right to the title. America still respects the names of the many rugged patriots who refused to accept England's punitive measures in silence, such men as Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Paul Revere, William Dawes and James Otis, among a long list.

New England capitalized on the opportunities offered by the industrial revolution around 1800. Textile mills sprang into being in towns all over New England where water power was available, and not long after, the shoe in- dustry followed suit. Boston became the natural center for these industries both as a market for their finished prod- ucts and as the port of entry for their raw materials, cotton, wool, silk and leather.

Boston - well called "the Birthplace of the American Nation" - possesses a wealth of historic places and tradi- tions which are the heritage of all America.

A partial list of historic places to see in and around Boston includes: Samuel Adams House, "Ye Old Blake House", Boston Common, the site of the "Boston Tea Party", Bunker Hill Monument, U. S. Frigate "Constitution", Copp's Hill Burying Ground, Faneuil Hall, First Church in Boston, Franklin's Birthplace, Granary Burying Ground, King's Chapel, Liberty Tree, Old North Church (Christ Church), Old State House, Wendell Phillips House, First Post Office in American Colonies, Province House, Paul Revere House, Old South Meeting House, Old West Church, Spring Lane, the Adams Houses, Arnold's Tavern, Lowell's House, Long- fellow's Home, Old Powder House, Plymouth, Minute Man Statue, The Revolutionary Monument, Sleepy Hollow Ceme- tery, and Longfellow's Wayside Inn.

BOSTON'S WATER SUPPLY

Boston is blessed with one of the purest and most plen- tiful water supplies in the world. Even during a dry year 90% of our stored water is still unused in the late fall of the year.

Within Metropolitan Boston, twenty-four communities and Poston receive their water from the Metropolitan Dis- trict Commission Water District. Three other communi- ties are partially supplied.

The Metropolitan District Commission is an agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts providing park sewerage and water service with its own police force to 45 cities and towns in Metropolitan Boston-not all communi- ties have all three services. The Water District contains 14 distribution reservoirs with capacities varying from 0.33 to 1,791.7 million gallons; and 3 storage reservoirs with 477 billion gallons capacity impounding the run-off from 268.69 square miles of water shed.

Quabbin Reservoir, the largest, completed in 1946, was constructed on the sites of four townships requiring relo- cation of 36 miles of state highways, discontinuance of 16 miles of railroad and removal of all homes and buildings. Other statistics:

Water surface-36.6 square miles

Total land and water area inside the real estate taking line -- 117 square miles

Length of reservoir-18 miles Shoreline-118 miles

Shoreline including 110 islands-177 miles

The water is extremely soft and can be used for any home or industrial purpose without further treatment. Pur- ity of the water is evident from the fact that only 6.3 pounds of chlorine and 1.1 pounds of ammonia per million gallons is added and only .15 parts per million gallons of residual chlorine gas are found in the mains and this is almost com- pletely dissipated on reaching the consumer. The average daily quantity of water per capita supplied in 1954 to Bos- ton was 135 gallons and to the Metropolitan Water District, 112.

-4 4 ..... /.

Old State House

---

Faneuil Hall

Aerial View of the Heart of Boston

BOSTON .. .

Commerce

and

Industry

Federal Street-Looking South

The Boston industrial area is one of the four or five leading manufacturing centers of the nation, notable par- ticularly for the diversity of both its products and the skills of its working forces, and also for the high degree of con- centration in its manufacturing establishments.

The 6,500 manufacturing plants of the Boston area employ approximately 375,000 wage-earners who receive wages at the rate of over $1,000,000,000 annually.

Boston was the birthplace of American industry, and it has today the largest number of manufacturing plants in proportion to size of any industrial area but one. Further- more, approximately 200 new manufacturing companies are established in the Metropolitan Boston district annually. Although on an average the plants in this area are small, a considerable number are of substantial size and their pro- ducts are internationally known.

About 63 per cent of the manufacturing establishments of Massachusetts are located in the Boston area; they em- ploy more than half of the Commonwealth's industrial wage- earners; pay well over half the wage bill and turn out a corresponding volume of the state's industrial production.

A remarkably wide diversity of manufactured goods characterizes the Boston industrial output. Of all industrial products listed by the United States Census Bureau, more than two-thirds are manufactured in the Boston area. This diversity of products is more notable because it is spread largely among consumer goods and does not embrace any considerable volume of heavier products. This variety in Boston's industrial output is further emphasized by the fact that the volume of no single industry group represents so much as 10 per cent of the area's total volume of processed goods.

Woolen and worsted goods rank first in value of output in the Boston area. Fourteen other major classifications are listed in the Federal Census as producing more than 25 million dollars worth of merchandise a year - food products, the rapidly expanding apparel industries, leather tanning, footwear, meat packing, boot and shoe cut stock and findings, newspaper publishing, rubber products, con- fectionery, electrical and other machinery, transportation equipment, iron and steel products, chemicals and allied products and petroleum and coal products.

Electrical and electronic equipment, advanced products of chemical and related industries, up-to-date plastics and a fast-growing leadership in style and fashion merchandise are other characteristics of Boston's highly diversified manu- facturing enterprises.

Although it is listed officially as a separate industrial area, the Boston district is actually the easterly anchor of the largest and most intensively developed manufactur- ing region of the country - an unbroken industrial belt embracing virtually all of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, lower New York and northern New Jersey. There is no other industrial area of such magnitude and unity in the world.

The City of Boston itself, with nearly a billion-dollar annual production volume and close to 80,000 wage-earners in 2,400 manufacturing establishments, is by far the largest. but not by any means the sole important industrial unit in the area.

The leading industrial cities outside Boston, each with a record of 100 million dollars or more in value of manufac- tured goods, are Lynn, Cambridge, Lawrence, Quincy, Fra- mingham, Lowell, Somerville and Everett. Other cities which have produced 50 million dollars worth of merchan. dise or more include Watertown. Brockton, Haverhill, Pea- body, Waltham, Salem and Malden, with Newton close to that figure.

A thumb-nail summary of the latest statistics for the principal industrial cities of the Boston area is recorded on another page.

"Boston quality" is associated the world over with the output of Boston factories. Expert craftsmanship, an un- excelled record for labor-management cooperation, proven stability of operation and resistance to economic changes --- these are implicit in Boston-made merchandise. In addition, abundant power, light, fuel and transportation facilities and the nation's largest water supply in the Quabbin reservoir, provide unfailing assurance of adequate service and supplies for industry.

Modern methods and modern tools make Boston pecul- iarly adaptable for the production of modern merchandise. "No single area of the country is so renowned for toolmak- ing and precision manufacturing", describes, in the words of a representative of the nation's largest manufacturer, the key position in the country's industry occupied by the multi-skilled workmen and the factories of Boston and New England.

In another key field, too, the Boston area is not only currently pre-eminent, but is gaining by leaps and bounds over the rest of industrial America. This is the field of modern industrial and technical research, wherein the edu- cational and scientific institutions and laboratories which abound here are leading the way toward continued develop- ment, improvement and cost-saving in the nation's industrial products and techniques.

As a reservoir and fountain-head of technical and engin- eering knowledge, this region offers unrivalled attractions to industries, particularly those involving specialized meth- ods and the desirability of locating near high-grade research facilities. Many companies have decided to choose a location here chiefly because of proximity to the superior facilities and collateral services. The latest acknowledgement of the Boston area's advantages in this respect comes from the United States military services, which are erecting their six-million dollar major research laboratory in nearby Bed- ford. In Natick, they are now building a $12,000,000 facility to house the various Quartermaster research activities now distributed in various parts of the country. This new laboratory, incidentally, will be of special advantage to numerous industries which furnish supplies to the Army, such as plastics, rubber goods, leather, shoes, clothing and textiles, among others.

The vigor and resilience of this area's industrial activi- ty was emphasized strikingly in its reconversion experience following World War II. Studies of the Federal Security Agency revealed that Massachusetts gained a greater per- centage of employed wage earners than any other of the large industrial states after the war and well into the post- war years. Compilations reported by the State Planning Board nearly a year after the war showed that the employ- ment of wage earners had increased in four-fifths of the State's leading industries ranging from 14 per cent in rubber goods to 27 per cent in textile machinery. No other region experienced so rapid and broad an expansion under post- war conditions.

Rich Wholesale Market

Boston, fifth largest wholesale market in the United States, is the heart of one of our largest and most highly concentrated merchandise distribution centers.

In nearly 4,300 wholesale establishments some 46.000 employees handle close to $2,276,232,000 in merchandise annually. Only New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles outrank Boston in volume of sales at wholesale. In proportion to population the Boston area is the nation's largest consumer goods market.

Boston's dominant position as the marketing center of New England is indicated by the fact that sales in this city alone represent 67 per cent of all wholesale sales in Massa- chusetts and 45 per cent of all sales in the New England states.

Other cities within the Boston district distribute a substantial volume of merchandise at wholesale. In 19 near- by communities annual sales at wholesale are in excess of $451,000,000. For instance, Cambridge distributed a whole- sale volume of $131,280,000, according to the latest sales- manager's report for 1954; Chelsea, $50,584,000; Somerville, $44,307,000; Brockton, $32,681,000; Lynn, $35,358,000; Ever- ett, $36,387,000; Revere, $1,899,000 and Watertown, $9,- 017,000.

Boston, which has always been the largest wool market in the United States, became the wool center of the world as a result of the war, and now handles two-thirds of the total trade volume in this commodity. Prior to the war. London was the world's leading wool market.

Boston is one of the leaders in the sale of shoes and other footwear and also of fish and sea foods; is the sixth largest furniture market and one of the country's leading food distributors.

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The Boston directory : including . . . Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Readville, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, West Roxbury 1955, Part 2

Author: Publication date: 1789 Publisher: Boston : Sampson & Murdock company Number of Pages: 1480

Author:
Publication date: 1789
Publisher: Boston : Sampson & Murdock company
Number of Pages: 1480