Famous Allston-Brighton Residents, Past and Present |
All of the people listed below resided in Allston-Brighton at one time or another and were significant, not just locally, but on a regional, national, or international basis. We encourage readers to submit additional candidates for inclusion, with supporting biographical information and an indication of when and where they lived in Allston-Brighton. |
Fred
Allen (1894-1956) - Born John Florence Sullivan in
Cambridge in 1894, this famous radio personality of the
1930s and 1940s, whose mother died when he was a small
child, grew up on Bayard Street in the home of his
paternal aunt and attended the neighboring North Harvard
Grammar School. As early as 1936, the literate, urbane, and
intelligent comedian, who wrote most of his own material,
had a radio audience of some 20 million listeners. In
1946-47 Allen's was ranked the number one show on network
radio. His later career included a long stint on the
television program "What's My Line?" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Allen |
William Henry Baldwin (1826-1909)
-
A leading 19th century Boston businessman and social
reformer, born into a prominent Brighton family in 1826, who
attended Brighton High School, graduating in 1843 as one of
its first students. In 1850 Baldwin established the highly
successful woolen goods firm of Baldwin, Baxter &
Company in Boston. He was active as a social reformer in the
city throughout his lifetime, most notably as the long-time
President the Boston Young Men's Christian Union. The
Baldwin family of Brighton included several notable social
reformers, including William Henry's sister-in-law. Harriet
Hollis Baldwin (see Harriet Baldwin biography) and a
grandson, Roger Baldwin, founder in 1917 of the American
Civil Liberties Union. http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~div00683 |
Jennie Loitman Barron
(1891–1969) - Longtime Brighton resident Jennie Loitman
Barron, daughter of Jewish immigrants, crossed gender
barriers well before most women joined the professional
workforce. Jennie was raised in Boston’s West End and,
at the age of twenty-three, earned her Master’s in Law from
Boston University and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar.
She opened her own practice with her husband in 1918, which
they shared until she was appointed Assistant Attorney
General of Massachusetts in 1934. A committed suffragist and
feminist, Jennie continued to advocate for women’s rights
throughout her career, as well as actively participating in
Jewish social justice organizations. She became the state’s
first full-time female judge in 1937, and in 1957, the first
woman appointed to its Superior Court. She lived in
Brighton’s Aberdeen neighborhood until her passing in 1969.
http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~sch00176 http://www.brandeis.edu/centers/wsrc/files/research/reSEARCH_eZine_Spring09.pdf |
Adolf Berle (1895-1971)
- Brilliant corporate lawyer, the youngest person ever to
graduate from the Harvard Law School, Adolf Berle, Jr. was
born in Brighton, MA in 1895, the son of the minister of the
Faneuil Congregational Church. The nation's leading expert
on corporate governance, Berle served as Professor of
corporate law at Columbia University Law School from 1927
until his retirement in 1964. An original member of Franklin
D. Roosevelt's "Brain Trust" he helped shape the policies of
the New Deal and was a principal architect of FDR's
"Good Neighbor Policy". Berle subsequently served as
Undersecretary of State for Latin American Affairs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_A._Berle |
Leonard Bernstein (1918
- 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music
lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born
and educated in the United States of America to receive
worldwide acclaim. He was probably best known to the public
as the longtime music director of the New York Philharmonic,
for conducting concerts by many of the world's leading
orchestras, and for writing the music for West Side Story,
Candide, Wonderful Town, and On the Town. He lived in
Allston from 1920 -1923 before moving to Roxbury and later
Newton. In 1935, he graduated from Boston Latin
School. http://www.leonardbernstein.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Bernstein |
Michael Bloomberg (1942
- ) New York City Mayor from 2002-2014 and founder of
Bloomberg L.P., Michael Bloomberg, the son of Russian Jewish
immigrants, was born in St Elizabeth's Hospital in 1942 and
resided in Allston at 100 Brainerd Rd until age 2. A
highly successful businessman and philanthropist,
Bloomberg's fortune is variously estimated at $16 billion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bloomberg |
Abel Bowen ( 1790-1850)
- Leading American illustrator and engraver. Born in
New York City in 1790, Young Bowen came to Boston in 1812 to
work as a printer in the Columbian Museum, Boston's oldest
museum, which was owned and operated by his uncle Daniel
Bowen. (see the David Bowen biography). During his
period of employment with his uncle. Abel Bowen resided with
his uncle on an estate in Brighton called Lime Grove,
situated just west of Oak Square. He moved to Boston in
1814, following his marriage, where he long functioned as
one of the city's leading illustrators and publishers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abel_Bowen |
Daniel Bowen (1760-1856)
-
Boston's first museum keeper, was born in Rehoboth, Rhode
Island in 1760 and saw service in the Continental Army
during the American Revolution. Bowen then settled in
Philadelphia, where he befriended the great painter and
pioneer museum keeper Charles Wilson Peale. Interested
in establishing a museum of his own, but not wishing to
compete with his friend, Bowen moved to Boston in 1791,
where he established that city's first Museum, the Columbian
Museum, on Tremont Street adjacent to the King's Chapel
Burial ground. Bowen resided, on a nine acre estate in
Brighton called Lime Grove, just west of Oak Square. In 1815
Bowen sold the Columbian Museum and left Boston. He died in
Philadelphia in 1856 at the age of 96. http://www.bahistory.org/HistoryBowen.html |
Joseph Breck (1794-1873)
The
leading Massachusetts horticulturalist of his day, a
founding member of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society,
and its President from 1859 to 1863, Joseph Breck was the
long-time editor of the "New England Farmer," as well as
several other horticultural publications. In 1836, he
founded the Joseph Breck & Sons Agricultural Supply
House in Boston, and moved to Brighton, where he established
a nursery to the rear of his residence, on the site now
occupied by the Oak Square School. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Breck |
Patrick Collins (1844-1905)
-
Boston Mayor from 1902 to 1905, Collins, who was born in
Ireland and emigrated to America at the age of 4, was one of
Massachusetts leading Democratic politicians of late 19th
century. During the last years of his life he resided on
Corey Road in Brighton. Beginning as an upholsterer, and a
labor activist, Collins eventually earned a law degree from
Harvard, becoming one of the city's leading attorneys.
Collins served in a wide array of public offices before
becoming Mayor, including both houses of the Massachusetts
legislature, the U. S. Congress, and as U.S. Consul General
in London under President Grover Cleveland. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Collins_%28mayor%29 |
Harold Connolly (1931-2010)
-
Winner of an Olympic gold medal for hammer throwing at the
1956 Olympics in Melbourne Australia, Harold Connolly grew
up and trained in Allston, Ma. A statue of this outstanding
athlete stands on the grounds of the William Howard Taft
School in Brighton, which he attended. He also graduated
from Brighton High School and Boston College. Connolly, who
was born with one arm four inches shorter than the other,
was an inspiration to the physically disabled. In his
subsequent career he served as Executive Director of the
Special Olympics. http://www.wickedlocal.com/allston/features/x162774693/Remembering-Brightons-Olympic-gold-medalist-Harold-Connolly |
Richard Cardinal Cushing
(1895-1970) - Roman Catholic Cardinal, was born in
South Boston, MA, the son of Irish immigrants, and was
educated at Boston College and St. John's Seminary. He
served as a parish priest in Roxbury and Somerville.
From 1929-1944 he held the position of Director of the
Society for the Propagation of the Faith. In 1939 Cushing
was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Boston and in 1966
elevated to the post of Archbishop of Boston, following the
death of William Cardinal O'Connell. whereupon he took up
residence at the Archbishop's Palace in Brighton, MA.
An important part of his work consisted of building bridges
to the non-Catholic elements of the city, in striking
contrast to the more militant policies of his predecessor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Cushing |
Commodore John Downes (1786-1854)
Born
in Canton, MA in 1854, U.S. naval officer Commodore John
Downes, maintained a country estate on the western slope of
Nonantum Hill in Brighton in the late 1830s and 1840s, while
serving as Commandant of the Charlestown Navy Yard. Downes
earlier career had included service in the Tripolitanian
War, Command of both the Navy's Mediterranean and Pacific
Squadrons and command of the controversial expedition
against Malayan Pirates at Kuala Batu in 1832. The ship he
commanded in that South Seas expedition, the Potomac, was
the first American naval vessel to circumnavigate the globe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Downes_(naval_officer) |
Sarah Willis Eldredge (Fanny
Fern) (1811-1872) - Arguably the most popular
American female writer of her day, Sarah Payson Willis (best
known by her pen name, "Fanny Fern"), was born in Portland,
Maine in 1811, the daughter of publisher Nathaniel Willis
and sister of the poet Nathaniel Parker Willis. In 1837 she
married banker Charles Harrington Eldredge of Brighton, MA.
The couple resided in Brighton from 1837 to 1845, where
three daughters were born to them. Following Charles
Eldredge's financial failure and death in 1845, Sarah sought
to support herself and her children by writing, a course of
action of which her male relatives strongly disapproved.
Adopting the pen name Fanny Fern, she eventually moved to
New York City where she attained great success and became a
strong advocate of women's rights. Her best known novel,
"Ruth Hall," largely autobiographical, deals with her period
of residency in Brighton, MA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Fern |
Julian Eltinge (1881-1941)
-
American stage and silent screen actor, and the leading
female impersonator of his day, sometimes referred to as
"Mr. Lillian Russell". Julian Eltinge was one of the
highest paid actors on the American stage in the early years
of the 20th century. Born in Newtonville, MA. in 1881, as
William J. Dalton, Eltinge grew up in Allston, MA on
Mechanics Street just outside of Union Square, and attended
the Washington Allston Grammar School. http://www.thejulianeltingeproject.com/bio.html |
George Bethune English(1787-1828)
was
an American adventurer, diplomat, soldier, and convert to
Islam. English was born in Little Cambridge (now Brighton,
MA), the grandson of Benjamin Faneuil, younger brother of
Peter Faneuil. He attended Harvard College, where he earned
a Masters in theology in 1811, and was the author of
numerous religious tracts. He also served in the United
States Marine Corps during the War of 1812. English
was among the first citizens of the United States to visit
Egypt, where he resigned his commission, converted to
Islam and joined Isma'il Pasha (in an expedition up
the Nile River against Sennar
in 1820 in the Sudan, winning distinction as an officer of
artillery. He subsequently entered the US diplomatic service
where he helped negotiate a treaty with the Ottoman Empire.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Bethune English |
Hannah Webster Foster
(1758-1840) - Hannah Webster Foster was born in Salisbury,
N.H. in 1758, the daughter of wealthy Boston merchant Grant
Webster. Hannah married the Reverend John Foster of
Brighton, MA in 1785. She was the first American born
woman to publish a novel, "The Coquette, or the History of
Eliza Wharton," which she wrote in the church parsonage on
Brighton's Academy Hill Road in 1797. "The Coquette" was
said to have been, next to the Bible, the most popular
reading material of early nineteenth-century New England. A
recent commentator tells us that it was “one of the two
best-selling American novels of the 18th century.” She is
also also credited with having organized the first women's
club in Massachusetts among the female members of her
husband's parish. Foster also encouraged her children to
pursue literary careers, and two of her daughters, Eliza
Lanesford Cushing and Harriet Vaughan Cheney, did so. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Webster_Foster |
Nathan Hale II
(1784-1863) - American journalist and railroad promoter,
born in Westhampton, MA in 1784, nephew of the Revolutionary
War hero of the same name. Hale was an important
Boston entrepreneur of the day. He edited the influential
"Boston Daily Advertiser" from 1814 to 1854 and helped found
the "North American Review." While supervising the
construction of the Boston & Worcester Railroad through
Brighton in 1834, Hale resided in a house on Dighton Street,
just south of Brighton Center. His son, Edward Everett Hale,
the later prominent author and clergyman, then a student at
Harvard, also occupied this Brighton residence for a time. http://www.bahistory.org/HistoryRailroads.html |
William Hathaway (1924 -
) - U. S, Senator from Maine from 1973-1979, William Dodd
Hathaway was born in Cambridge, MA in 1924, but grew up in
Allston, MA. A decorated World War II veteran, he attended
Harvard University, graduating in 1953, and then moved to
Maine. Elected to the US Congress in 1965 as a Democrat,
Hathaway defeated Republican icon Senator Margaret Chase
Smith in the 1972 Maine senatorial race, but was himself
defeated for reelection in 1978. Hathaway then relocated to
Washington, DC, where he practices law. He also served for a
time as the Chairman of the U.S. Maritime Commission. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hathaway |
Horace Gray Sr
(1799-1873) - Known as "The Father of the Boston Public
Garden" Horace Gray, son and heir of William "Billy" Gray,
one of the wealthiest merchants in Massachusetts, devoted
his life principally to horticulture. In addition to
spearheading the creation of the Boston Public Garden, he
also owned and operated an extensive "grapery" on Nonantum
Hill in Brighton on the grounds of his country estate, where
prize grapes were grown under glass. Two of his sons, Horace
Gray, Jr., future US Supreme Court Justice, and John Chipman
Gray, first Royall Professor of Law at Harvard, also resided
at the Brighton estate for a time (see Horace Gray, Jr. and
John Chipman Gray biographies). He was also a brother-in-law
of Mrs. Jack Gardner, founder of the Gardner Museum. http://www.bahistory.org/HoraceGray.html |
Horace Gray II
(1828-1902) - Horace Gray, Jr., son of the prominent
horticulturalist, Horace Gray Sr (see above), was a
distinguished lawyer and jurist who served in succession as
Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
and as Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. As
a boy Gray lived for a time on the grounds of his father's
country estate and Grapery on Nonantum Hill in Brighton,
where his brother legal scholar John Chipman Gray was born
in 1839. He was the principal legal historian on the Supreme
Court during his twenty-four year's of service there
(1889-1902) and the first Justice to hire a law clerk
(future Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis). His legal
record was not without blemish, however. In 1896 he voted
with the court's majority in the infamous case of Plessy v.
Ferguson, which held that racial segregation was
constitutional. Gray was succeeded on both the Massachusetts
Supreme Judicial Court and the U. S. Supreme Court by the
celebrated jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Gray#Judicial_career |
John Chipman Gray
(1839-1915) - Legal scholar and author, co-founder of the
noted law firm of Ropes & Gray, and brother of U. S.
Supreme Court Justice Horace Gray, Jr,. was born in
Brighton, MA in 1839, the son of leading horticulturalist
Horace Gray, who in the 1830s owned and operated a famous
nursery on the western slope of Nonantum Hill. John
Chipman Gray taught at the Harvard Law School from
1869-1913, where he held the position of Royall Professor of
Law. His legal writings were so influential that they are
still being used in American law schools. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Chipman_Gray |
William Henry Jackson
(1848-1910) - Eminent civil engineer, William Henry Jackson
was born in Brighton, MA in 1848. He attended the local
schools and MIT, where he received a degree in civil
engineering. Following graduation, Jackson worked on the
construction of the Chestnut Hill Reservoir in Brighton. In
1885 he was appointed Civil Engineer of Boston, in which
capacity he supervised the construction of the Harvard,
Longfellow and Charlestown Bridges across the Charles River.
He held this post until his death in 1910. Brighton's
William Jackson Avenue was named in his memory. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Jackson_%28engineer%29 |
Nathan Hale II (1784-1863)
-
American journalist and railroad promoter, born in
Westhampton, MA in 1784, nephew of the Revolutionary War
hero of the same name. Hale was an important Boston
entrepreneur of the day. He edited the influential "Boston
Daily Advertiser" from 1814 to 1854 and helped found the
"North American Review." While supervising the construction
of the Boston & Worcester Railroad through Brighton in
1834, Hale resided in a house on Dighton Street, just south
of Brighton Center. His son, Edward Everett Hale, the later
prominent author and clergyman, then a student at Harvard,
also occupied this Brighton residence for a time. http://www.bahistory.org/HistoryRailroads.html |
Joseph P. Kennedy II
(1952- ) - Joseph Patrick Kennedy II , eldest son of Senator
Robert F. Kennedy, was born in Boston, MA in 1952. In
1979 Kennedy founded Citizen's Energy, a non-profit
organization that provides discounted heating fuel to
low income families. Upon the death of U. S. House Speaker
Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neil in 1986, Kennedy was elected to the
U. S. House of Representatives from the historic
Massachusetts Eighth Congressional District, a seat
previously held by his uncle, President John F. Kennedy.
Joseph Kennedy occupied this seat for thirteen years,
stepping down in 1999. Kennedy resided on Bigelow Street in
Brighton, MA during his period of serving in Congress. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Patrick_Kennedy_II |
Dennis Lehane (1965 - )
- Born and brought up in Dorchester, the son of Irish
immigrants, award winning author Dennis Lehane is one of the
most popular writers of our day, several of whose thrillers,
including "Mystic River," published in 2001, have been made
into blockbuster movies. Lehane lived on Bigelow Hill
near Oak Square in Brighton, MA for a number of years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Lehane#Literary_career |
Charles Horatio Matchett
(1843-1919) - Charles Horatio Matchett was born in Brighton,
MA in 1843 at the family homestead on Washington Street just
west of Oak Square. After a career of several years in
the U.S. Navy, Matchett, who had settled in New York State,
helped to found the Socialist Labor Party and was that
party's candidate for Vice President in 1892, Governor of
New York in 1894, and President of the United States
in 1896. Matchett died in Allston, MA after a long illness
in 1919. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Matchett |
Brenda Gael McSweeney, PhD.
(1943- ) - A native of Massachusetts, Dr. Brenda Gael
McSweeney has committed her life to international
development and achieving sustainable equality between women
and men worldwide. Her career with the United Nations
spanned thirty years with executive postings in West Africa,
the Caribbean, Europe and South Asia, and was acknowledged
by prestigious awards. Today she lives in Brighton’s Oak
Square and is Visiting Faculty at Boston University’s
Women’s Studies Program, Resident Scholar at the Women’s
Studies Research Center at Brandeis University, and
affiliated with the Sustainable International Development
program of the Heller School for Social Policy and
Management at Brandeis. Brenda initiated the Women’s History
Group at the Brighton-Allston Historical Society, which has
become a BAHS Standing Committee. http://www.brendamcsweeney.com/ http://www.brandeis.edu/centers/wsrc/scholars/profiles/McSweeney.html |
David Nevins, Sr. (1809-1881)
-
Wealthy New England textile manufacturer David Nevins, Sr.
who was born in Salem, New Hampshire in 1809, owned several
mills in Lawrence, Salem, and Methuen, MA., including the Pemberton Mill in Lawrence, scene of a
January 1860 building collapse and fire that killed as many
as 145 workers, mostly Irish and Scottish immigrants. After
the disaster Nevins bought out his partner and rebuilt the
mill, which still stands. Nevins resided for many years on
an estate in Brighton called "Bellvue," a property that
today comprises the grounds of St. Elizabeth's Hospital and
the former St. Gabriel's Monastery. The hill on which
Bellvue Estate stood is commonly referred to as Nevins Hill. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Nevins,_Sr. |
William Henry O'Connell (1859-1944)
-
Roman Catholic Cardinal William Henry O'Connell was born in
Lowell, MA in 1859 to Irish immigrants parents.
Educated at Boston College and the Pontifical North American
College in Rome, O'Connell was named Bishop of Portland,
Maine in 1901 and Archbishop of Boston in 1907. In
1911, he became the first Archbishop of Boston to be
appointed a Cardinal. It was Cardinal O'Connell who in the
1920s moved the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church in
Boston from the South End to the grounds of St. John's
Seminary in suburban Brighton. Cardinal O'Connell presided
over a period of rapid growth for the Roman Catholic Church
in Boston and wielded immense political and social power in
the Massachusetts of his day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_O%27Connell |
Francis Ouimet (1893-1967)
-
American golf champion, best known for winning the 1913
American Open. Born in 1893 in Brookline, MA to immigrant
parents, Ouimet's victory at the 1913 American Open helped
to democratize the aristocratic game of golf. In 1918,
Ouimet married Stella Sullivan, daughter of a well-to-do
Brighton building contractor, thereafter living on
Brighton's Lake Street close to his wife's family. He also
established a successful athletic supply business. In 1974,
he was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame. A book (2002)
and film (2005), both entitled "The Greatest Game Ever
Played" have appeared based on Ouimet's inspiring athletic
career. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Ouimet |
Zachariah B. Porter
- Famed hotelier who served as the first manager of the
well-known Cattle Fair Hotel in Brighton, MA established in
1830 on the grounds of the Brighton Stockyards. Later he
owned and operated the equally well- known Porter House
Hotel in Cambridge's Porter Square, likewise adjacent to a
stockyard, in the dining room of which he introduced his
famous Porter House Steak. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_Square http://www.bahistory.org/CattlefairHotel.html |
Mother Mary Regis
(Annie) Casserly (1843-1917) - A leading educator in the
Archdiocese of Boston, she established Mt. St. Joseph
Academy in 1885 to provide a sound secular and religious
education to elementary and high school students. In
1891, the Academy moved from Fresh Pond in Cambridge to its
current site in Brighton. At the same time she
established the motherhouse of the Boston Sisters of St.
Joseph in Brighton and was the first general superior of the
Boston congregation. Inventive and farseeing, from her
arrival in Boston with three colleagues in 1873, Sister
Regis discovered ways to increase the financial support of
the educational ministry, established the Boston
congregation as a separate entity from its roots in New York
and sought education of high quality for the Sisters, as
well to expand relations with the residents of the towns and
cities in which Catholic schools were being established.
Regis College in Weston was named after her. Mother
Regis lived in Brighton 1891-1892 and 1913-1917. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2536601620.html |
Edward Everett Rice
(1847-1924) - Legendary Broadway producer, Edward Everett
Rice, was born in Allston, MA in 1847. Rice was the
creator of "Evangeline" the first American production billed
as a musical comedy. In 1884 he brought out "Adonis," the
first musical to run more than five hundred performances in
New York. In all, Rice produced some eighteen shows that
appeared on Broadway over the course of a long career. He is
also credited with having introduced Lillian Russell to the
New York stage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_E._Rice |
Frederick P. Salvucci
(1940 - ) - Prominent transportation engineer, Frederick P.
Salvucci was born in Brighton, MA in 1940, where he still
resides. Salvucci graduated from MIT in the 1961-62 and is
currently serving on the MIT faculty. Salvucci has
participated in much of the transportation planning and
policy formulation of the Boston urban area for the last
forty years. During the period 1970-74 he was Transportation
Advisor to Boston Mayor Kevin White and from 1975-1978 and
1983-90 served as Secretary of Transportation and
Construction of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts under
Governor Michael Dukakis. Salvucci played the central role
in planning the massive Central Artery Project (the
so-called Big Dig). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_P._Salvucci |
Tom Scholz (1947 - )
- Tom lived on Parkvale Ave and Market St in the late
1960s while attending MIT and playing in local bands.
Later in the 1970s, he founded, produced and played
lead guitar for the very successful rock band Boston.
The first Boston record ranks as the second
best-selling debut album in U.S. history with over 17
million copies sold and included their classic hit "More
Than A Feeling" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Scholz |
Thomas W. Silloway
(1828-1911) - Noted architect Thomas W. Silloway was born in
Newburyport, MA. in 1828. He received his
architectural training in the office of Ammi B. Young,
designer of the Boston Customs House. Silloway's works
included the Vermont State House and over 400 churches in
the northeastern United States. He is widely credited with
having designed more churches than any other American
architect. Silloway pursued a second career as a
Universalist minister in the period 1862-67, presiding over
the Universalist meetinghouse in Brighton, MA., which he is
believed to have designed. After returning to his career as
a full-time architect, Silloway continued living in Allston,
where he died in 1911. http://www.bahistory.org/HistorySilloway.html |
Edward Dexter Sohier (1810-1885)
-
Edward Dexter Sohier was born in Boston in 1810 and
graduated from Harvard College in 1829, entering the legal
profession in 1832. Considered one of the leading
criminal attorneys of his time, Sohier was junior counsel in
the sensational Dr. John White Webster murder trial of 1850
murder. The accused, Dr. Webster, was the grandson of
another Brighton resident of note, pioneer American novelist
Hannah Webster Foster (see Hannah Webster Foster biography).
Sohier moved from Boston to Brighton in the 1840s. His
elaborate South Allston residence stood on Commonwealth
Avenue at Packard's Corner. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Dexter_Sohier |
Warren Spahn (1921-2003)
- Famed
baseball legend, Warren Spahn, one of the best pitchers in
major league history was born in Buffalo, N.Y. in
1921. Spahn lived on Monastery Road in Brighton, MA
for a time while playing for the Boston Braves from 1941 to
1952. Spahn won more games than any other left handed
pitcher in baseball history. He was elected to the Baseball
Hall of Fame in 1973. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Spahn |
Charles Richard Stith
(1949 - ) - Born in St. Louis, Mo. in 1949, the
Reverend Charles Richard Stith is currently the Director of
the African Presidential Archives and Research Center at
Boston University. Stith earned a masters in divinity from
Harvard, among other graduate degrees. By the time he
was 30, he was the senior minister at the Union United
Methodist Church in Boston. President Bill Clinton appointed
Stith U. S. Ambassador to Tanzania, where he served with
distinction during a period of great turmoil. Upon assuming
his current post at Boston University, Ambassador Stith and
his wife Deborah Prothow Stith, an administrator at the
Harvard School of Public Health, moved to Parsons Street, in
Brighton, MA, where they still reside. http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/biography.asp?bioindex=978 |
William Chamberlain Strong
(1823
- 1913) - William Chamberlain Strong, horticulturalist
and land developer, was born in Vermont in 1823. He
graduated from Dartmouth College in 1845 and attended the
Harvard Law School. He then joined Senator Daniel
Webster's Boston law office. In the late 1840s Strong
switched careers to horticulture when he purchased from
Horace Gray (see Horace Gray biography) an estate and
grapery on Nonantum Hill in Brighton. Strong soon became one
of the most eminent horticulturalists in New England,
serving, in the 1870s, as President of the Massachusetts
Horticultural Society and in the 1880s as Vice President of
the American Pomological Society. He also wrote extensively
on horticultural topics, publishing two notable books, "The
Culture of the Grape" in 1867, and "Fruit Culture and the
Laying Out and Management of a Country Home" in 1885. Strong
moved to neighboring Newton, MA where he founded and named
the village of Waban. http://www.bahistory.org/HistoryChandlers.html |
Gustavus Franklin Swift (1839-1903)
-
Founder of the Swift Meatpacking Company, Gustavus Franklin
Swift was born in West Sandwich, MA in 1839. Before
emigrating to the west, where he founded the nation's first
great meatpacking empire in Chicago, Swift owned and
operated a slaughterhouse in Brighton, MA which was then the
most important cattle trading center in New England.
He and his family resided on Brighton's Oakland Street for a
time in the 1869-72 period. Swift is credited with having
introduced railroad car refrigeration to the meatpacking
industry, an innovation that contributed significantly to
the decline of the cattle industry in the east and presaged
Brighton's transformation into a burgeoning residential
suburb of the City of Boston. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustavus_Franklin_Swift#Chicago_and_the_birth_of_the_meat-packing_industry |
Elizabeth Rowell Thomson
(1821-1899) - Elizabeth Rowell Thompson was born into a poor
farming family in Vermont in 1821. In 1844 she married the
wealthy and reclusive Thomas Thompson of Boston, heir to a
considerable fortune, and the city's premier art collector.
The Thompson's settled on Chestnut Hill Avenue in Brighton
soon after their marriage. When Thomas Thompson died in 1869
Elizabeth inherited the bulk of his estate. Her
philanthropic ventures over the next thirty included
generous support of the American antislavery movement,
creation of model communities for working class families in
the west, the gift of an astronomical observatory to Vassar
College, and the funding of research to eradicate yellow
fever. http://thomasthompsontrust.org/id1.html |
Maurice Tobin
(1901-1953) - Born in Roxbury, MA to Irish immigrant
parents, Maurice Tobin's meteoric political career included
service as Mayor of Boston (1938-45), Governor of
Massachusetts (1945-47), and U. S. Secretary of Labor in the
Truman Administration (1948-53), before an untimely death in
1953 at age 53. In 1932 Tobin married Helen Noonan of
Brighton, daughter of stock broker David Noonan. At the time
of his first election as Mayor, Maurice and Helen Tobin were
living at 11 Kinross Road in Brighton, the home of Helen's
recently widowed mother. In 1967, the Mystic River
Bridge was renamed the Maurice J. Tobin Memorial Bridge http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_J._Tobin |
Waban (1604 - c. 1680)
- A Native American leader, born circa 1604 at Musketaquid,
near present-day Concord, MA., Waban settled with his
extended family on the outskirts of the Puritan settlement
of Cambridge, near the present-day Newton-Brighton boundary,
in order to trade with the English. It was outside
Waban's wigwam that the Reverend John Eliot, the so-called
"Apostle to the Indians" made his first conversions of
Native Americans to Christianity in October 1646. Eliot
established the first "Praying" or Christian Indian
community in British North America, to which he gave the
name Nonantum (signifying "rejoicing" in the Indian
language), at this location. Waban and his followers
left Nonantum for more ample acreage in present day South
Natick in 1650. Waban subsequently served as Clerk of the
town of Natick. The elderly Waban was imprisoned on Deer
Island during King Philip's War. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waban |
Charles Alvah Walker (1848-1925)
-
Well known painter and engraver, born in New London, N.H. in
1848. Walker was a versatile and largely self-taught artist,
who lived in Brighton's Aberdeen Section, just outside of
Cleveland Circle, for many years. He exhibited chiefly at
the National Academy of Design in New York City, at the
Boston Art Club, where he served as Vice President for
a time, and at the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics
Association. Walker is reputed to have invented the term
"Monotype" in 1880. A 1997 exhibit at the Smithsonian
entitled "Singular Impressions: The Monotype in America,
featured works by Walker, alongside works by William Merritt
Chase, Frank Duveneck, Maurice Prendergast, and Jasper
Johns. http://whitemountainart.com/Biographies/bio_caw.htm |
American David Foster Wallace
(1962-2008) - Noted American novelist and short story
writer, whose most important and critically acclaimed work,
"Infinite Jest," published in 1996, was written while the
author, who suffered from depression, resided in a
Brighton, MA halfway house. "Infinite Jest" contains many
allusions to Brighton personalities and locations. The
mentally troubled Wallace died by suicide in 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Foster_Wallace#Family |
James Lloyd Lafayette Warren
(1805-1896) - J.L.LF, Warren, known as "The Father of
California Agriculture" was born into a prominent Brighton,
MA family in 1805. At a young age the enterprising Warrren
was the proprietor of both a well-known "floral salon" in
Boston, a local tourist attraction, and the Nonantum Vale
Nursery on Lake Street in Brighton. Warren is credited with
having raised Boston's first commercially grown
tomatoes on the grounds of his Brighton nursery. A
humanitarian, he also also helped found the anti-slavery
Liberty Party. In 1849, during the California Gold Rush,
Warren sailed round Cape Horn with a party of forty-niners,
where he scored a number of California firsts, including the
founding of that state's first agricultural supply business,
its first agricultural newspaper, "The California Farmer
& Journal," founded the California state fair, as well
as the state's agricultural society. http://www.bahistory.org/HistoryJamesWarren.html |
William Wirt Warren
(1834-1880) - U. S. Congressman and Massachusetts State
Senator, who as leader of the Tammany style "Brighton Ring"
masterminded the 1874 annexation of the town of Brighton to
the City of Boston. Born into an important local family in
1834, he was an early graduate of Brighton High School,
pursued classical studies and graduated from Harvard
University in 1856, and was admitted to the practice of law
in 1857. He served as Assessor of Internal Revenue in
the Seventh Massachusetts District in the mid-1860s, as
State Senator in 1870, and as a member of the United States
House of Representatives in 1875-77, but failed of
reelection. Warren then practiced law in Boston until
his early death in 1880, at the age of 47. http://www.bahistory.org/HistoryDevelopFever.html |
Ted Williams (1918-2002)
- Ted Williams, born in San Diego, California in 1918, was
arguably baseball's greatest hitter and the last player to
bat over .400. Ted lived at 39 Foster Street at the
corner of Washington St for a number of years during his
career with Boston. His roommates were fellow Red Sox
players Billy Goodman (3rd base) and Mel Parnell
(pitcher). All three players have been inducted into
the Red Sox Hall of Fame. Ted played for the Boston
Red Sox from 1939 to 1960 and was elected to the Baseball
Hall of Fame in 1966. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Williams |
Captain Jonathan Winship
(1780-1847) - Born in Brighton, MA in 1780, Jonathan Winship
III, son and grandson of the team that founded the
Brighton Cattle Market during the American Revolution,
distinguished himself in the Pacific trade during the period
1801-1815, working for the firm of Homer & Winship,
which his brother Abiel headed. His Pacific adventures,
carried out in collaboration with his brothers, included
trading along the westerly coast of the present United
States between California and the Pacific Northwest, the
Hawaiian Islands, Alaska, and Canton, China, in activities
that included provisioning the Russian Colony in Alaska,
attempting to colonize the Columbia River Valley, engaging
in highly lucrative seal and otter hunting expeditions,
securing a monopoly on the sandalwood trade from King
Kamehameha of Hawaii, and spending time in China studying
horticulture. Captain Winship capped this eventful
mercantile career in 1820, by founding Brighton's important
horticultural industry. http://www.bahistory.org/HistoryWinships.html |
Dr. Noah Worcester
(1758-1837) - Prominent Unitarian minister and author,
founder of the American peace movement, known as in his day
as "The Apostle of Peace. Dr. Worcester settled
in Brighton, MA in 1813, residing there for the last quarter
century of his life. He came to Brighton to edit "The
Christian Disciple," an influential Unitarian journal, that
had been founded by prominent associates William Ellery
Channing and Joseph Tuckerman. In 1814 Worcester wrote "A
Solemn Review of the Custom of War," the first significant
American anti-war tract, and, in 1815, founded the
Massachusetts Peace Society, the nation's most active
pacifist group. The first meeting of the society was held in
Rev. Worcester's Brighton residence at the northwest corner
of Foster and Washington Streets just west of Brighton
Center. http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/noahworcester.html http://www.bahistory.org/HistoryNoahWorcester.html |
BAHS Home |