Thursday is "This Old House" Day

The paint palette of this updated 1900 house on Cross Street, in West Quincy,  caught my eye . . . lots of interesting shapes and details to enjoy.

Thursday is "This Old House" Day

Located at 165 Crescent Street, this is one of Quincy's older homes, built in 1795.

Thursday Is "This Old House Day"

This house has a certain symmetry to it. I like the contrasting trim, especially on the porch. There is a granite retaining wall in front which is not unusual for a West Quincy house near the quarries.

Thursday is "This Old House Day"

This 1880 bright red house on Hall Place brightens up a rainy Thursday.

Thursday is "This Old House or Barn Day"

This dilapidated barn, adjacent to Blue Hills, is located on Willard Street. It was built in 1899, and in need of a new owner who has very deep pockets. It would be great to see horses in the paddocks again because this is where I learned to ride English.

Thursday is "This Old House Day"

This beautiful 1910, colonial at 136 Crescent Street in West Quincy exudes a charm from bygone times. If you enlarge this you can really see the granite foundation that is so prevalent in Quincy residences. The granite might have been quarried from just a few yards away. Love that porch!

Petals For Paul

Friendship Park provides an inviting sitting area outside Lincoln-Hancock Community School. The park is dedicated in memory of Paul Gauthier, an inspiring young student at the school who made everyone smile during his short 11 years on earth.

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Granite Railway 2

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This is where the first commercial railway got started: at the end of Bunker Hill Lane. The overgrown rail bed here was once used to move massive hunks of granite from the quarry site to the Neponset River where it would be loaded onto a barge and brought to the building site of the Bunker Hill Monument. It would be a challenge to move the massive blocks of stone specified for this project. Quincy architect Solomon Willard was determined to get it done and enlisted the aid of Gridley Bryant who conceived of the idea for a rail system and got it operating by 1827.

If you enlarge the picture below you can see some of the details in a model of this railbed that is based on work done by Quincy archaeologist, Richard Muzzrole. The roadbed is essentially a dry stone wall three feet deep. The "wall" supported massive granite sleepers that are spaced eight feet apart. The first rails were wooden, but they were eventually replaced with granite ones to help transport stone loads of 21 tons or more for a distance of 3 miles. The horse drawn railway cars were loaded from the bottom so as not to damage the stone blocks. This was a pioneering design achievement which has earned this site a designated National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.

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I just discovered an excellent blog post about the Granite Railway: click "Stories in Stone" to see the old rail car and find out more about this fascinating piece of Quincy's history.

Sunday is for Church

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This is the Faith Community Center at 65 Roberts Street also home of Djerf Christian Preschool.

Sunday is for Church

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This simple white clapboard church, the First Spiritualist Church, is located at 40 West Street, in the West Quincy neighborhood. This brings the number of houses of worship in Quincy to 33 . . . with a few more to post.

Gravel Pit Transformed

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It's Monday and this parking lot at Crown Colony Office Park will be filling up fast. Crown Colony, located seven miles south of Boston, is an office complex built within a 175 acres gravel pit. This development accommodates two million square feet of office space in more than 13 buildings. A park-like atmosphere for the complex has been carefully established through the extensive use of tree-lined boulevards, ponds, fountains and walkways. This attractive landscaping can be attributed to MKA Landscape Architects and Mary Smith Associates of Quincy who also helped transform Marina Bay. The empty lots are good places for driving students to practice their new skills on weekends . . . so beware if you decide to go for a stroll there on a Saturday or Sunday.