Boston question

[BigMoaner]

I am mid thirties now but when i was 15 I stayed with a mates Aunt in Boston for four weeks. It was the trip of a life time. We also spent time in Washington, but I have fondest memories of Boston.

I wonder if you can help...i have tried many times to work out where we stayed. It was a slightly run down area, with nearly all wooden houses, our one had three floors I think. Nice little houses, tightly packed but not really terraces, but as i say run down, i remember them saying it was quite crime heavy. It was a VERY working class neighborhood, I stayed with an Irish-American family, but it was also quite a black neighbourhood also. It was around the corner of a school. One night, we hung out with the local teens at a disused bit of railway. Got drunk. Had a great time. There was a video shop at the corner of the road (probably long gone).

I know that's hardly anything to go on, but can anyone help with what possible areas that could be, back in 1997? I'd love to see the area on google maps and perhaps even locate the house we stayed in.

Thanks

 

[Maharani]

I have a good friend from Boston. I shall ask him.

 

[Miss Caphat]

I am mid thirties now but when i was 15 I stayed with a mates Aunt in Boston for four weeks. It was the trip of a life time. We also spent time in Washington, but I have fondest memories of Boston.

I wonder if you can help...i have tried many times to work out where we stayed. It was a slightly run down area, with nearly all wooden houses, our one had three floors I think. Nice little houses, tightly packed but not really terraces, but as i say run down, i remember them saying it was quite crime heavy. It was a VERY working class neighborhood, I stayed with an Irish-American family, but it was also quite a black neighbourhood also. It was around the corner of a school. One night, we hung out with the local teens at a disused bit of railway. Got drunk. Had a great time. There was a video shop at the corner of the road (probably long gone).

I know that's hardly anything to go on, but can anyone help with what possible areas that could be, back in 1997? I'd love to see the area on google maps and perhaps even locate the house we stayed in.

Thanks

Hmm, I'm from Boston. What you describe could be several different areas. South Boston? Jamaica Plain? Somerville? Cambridge? Allston? Dorchester?
Did you go into the city itself (from the wooden houses thing, it doesn't sound like you were in any of the Boston proper neighborhoods)? And if so, do you remember how you got there? Bus? Subway? above ground or below?

 

[Miss Caphat]

BigMoaner (please see above post)

 

[Bonfirelight]

Sounds like you might have been in a Ben Affleck movie.

 

[BigMoaner]

Hmm, I'm from Boston. What you describe could be several different areas. South Boston? Jamaica Plain? Somerville? Cambridge? Allston? Dorchester?
Did you go into the city itself (from the wooden houses thing, it doesn't sound like you were in any of the Boston proper neighborhoods)? And if so, do you remember how you got there? Bus? Subway? above ground or below?

Ill get back to you today or tom, sorry. Cheers

 

[Miss Caphat]

Ill get back to you today or tom, sorry. Cheers

aw, I'm dying to help you figure this out. let's get this mystery solved!

 

[BigMoaner]

Hmm, I'm from Boston. What you describe could be several different areas. South Boston? Jamaica Plain? Somerville? Cambridge? Allston? Dorchester?
Did you go into the city itself (from the wooden houses thing, it doesn't sound like you were in any of the Boston proper neighborhoods)? And if so, do you remember how you got there? Bus? Subway? above ground or below?

right, sorry for the delay and thanks for you help. none of them names ring a bell we did go into the centre for just one day, and i think, though really am not sure, that it was overground. i am pretty sure it was a suburb as the journey took a while.

hmmmmm

i have no interest connecting the with the bloke i went with on facebook (long story).

all i can say was that it felt very, very inner city. It had a huge irish population and a huge black population. there's no two ways about it - it had a rough feel. but it was also a brilliant neighbourhood where everyone knew everyone else. the family i stayed iwth, the bloke ran a boxing club. i was told to "listen out for hte police sirens at night" and sure enough, there was one after the other. but it didn't feel a dangerous place. re ben effleck, yeah it sounds like i have romantacised a poor area, but it wasn't like that. we played football in teh street in the day in a school play ground (it was the summer holidays), we went to BBQs, hung around basket ball courts, got pissed with the local teens by this weird sort of abandoned rail way track. does that ring any bells? all the local yoots used to hang out there. it was a just a lovely time, a time surrounded by warm people. and i have never had so much female attention due to the english accent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! probably one of teh best two weeks of my life. as a sixteen year old, it was all exciting.

thanks if you can help. damn i wish i could remember more!

 

[BigMoaner]

i've tried a google image search with terms "boston wooden terraced houses" and the nearest i could get was these in san fran

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Haight_Ashbury11.JPG

but - the houses we stayed in and the surrounding streets where smaller, BROWN, and not as done up. the ones above look expensive, but this was clearly a very working class area, where families lived in modest but roomy houses. i think our one even had three floors. little wooden yard iwth a pool crammed in overlooked by about ten other houses, where everyone on the balconies chatted with each other.

 

[BigMoaner]

have you got an american word for terracing, i.e houses that are joined in one long line? might help me search

 

[BigMoaner]

just remembered something else!

the first night we went to watch a baseball game and the pitch thing was right by a massive lake. MASSIVE lake. !!!

 

[Spymaster]

have you got an american word for terracing, i.e houses that are joined in one long line? might help me search

Try "tenements". It's not strictly terracing but might get you somewhere.

 

[mauvais]

The Yanks call them 'row houses', I think.

 

[souljacker]

Theres an article here about minor league baseball in the New England area. New England Minor League Baseball Parks

That's assuming it was minor league and not at Fenway Park or kids baseball.

 

[skyscraper101]

I wonder if you can help...i have tried many times to work out where we stayed. It was a slightly run down area, with nearly all wooden houses, our one had three floors I think. Nice little houses, tightly packed but not really terraces,

It sounds like the sort of area like between 5th and 9th St. Tightly packed, not really terraces, but also often 2 or 3 floors. Slightly run down, working class-ish. You also mentioned railway tracks so I'm going to hazard a guess at South Boston.

Take a look at Google Maps for 7th Street as an example. Something like this perhaps?

 

[BigMoaner]

it was kids baseball thanks soulj. just 10-12 year olds i think. might have even been girls. crowd of parents watching. i can remember getting bored with the baseball and wondering along this massive lake to go for a sly ciggy.

 

[BigMoaner]

It sounds like the sort of area like between 5th and 9th St. Tightly packed, not really terraces, but also often 2 or 3 floors. Slightly run down, working class-ish. You also mentioned railway tracks so I'm going to hazard a guess at South Boston.

Take a look at Google Maps for 7th Street as an example. Something like this perhaps?

you know what, that's certainly what it was like. but it was a bit more run down, i think. i headed down on your google map to dorchester street and that is even more like it! ha, needle in hay stack! but at least i have an area to start to look into! thanks.

ethnic mix of that area in the 90s?

 

[skyscraper101]

ethnic mix of that area in the 90s?

Not really sure, would have to ask our Bostonian peeps I think.

 

[Miss Caphat]

right, sorry for the delay and thanks for you help. none of them names ring a bell we did go into the centre for just one day, and i think, though really am not sure, that it was overground. i am pretty sure it was a suburb as the journey took a while.

hmmmmm

i have no interest connecting the with the bloke i went with on facebook (long story).

all i can say was that it felt very, very inner city. It had a huge irish population and a huge black population. there's no two ways about it - it had a rough feel. but it was also a brilliant neighbourhood where everyone knew everyone else. the family i stayed iwth, the bloke ran a boxing club. i was told to "listen out for hte police sirens at night" and sure enough, there was one after the other. but it didn't feel a dangerous place. re ben effleck, yeah it sounds like i have romantacised a poor area, but it wasn't like that. we played football in teh street in the day in a school play ground (it was the summer holidays), we went to BBQs, hung around basket ball courts, got pissed with the local teens by this weird sort of abandoned rail way track. does that ring any bells? all the local yoots used to hang out there. it was a just a lovely time, a time surrounded by warm people. and i have never had so much female attention due to the english accent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! probably one of teh best two weeks of my life. as a sixteen year old, it was all exciting.

thanks if you can help. damn i wish i could remember more!

that sounds like an amazing trip!

the funny thing about this is while you've given a lot of details, many of them describe several different possible areas of Boston...you had a very typical yet very genuine Boston experience.
There are working class Irish neighborhoods with basketball courts & baseball fields in many parts of Boston & the surrounding villages, and there are countless abandoned or otherwise train tracks, and also sorry to say it but the houses you describe are incredibly common as well in almost all of the Boston neighborhoods.

What I'm going on is mostly the baseball field by the lake, and the above-ground commuter rail. I will look into those now and get back to you.

 

[Miss Caphat]

ok, so the subway* from South Boston looks like it's all underground, but I'm not ruling South Boston out because it's a very good contender and your memory of the train ride might be confused with something else.



The subway and public transportation in general around Boston is called the "T" or the "MBTA"

 

[mauvais]

?

 

[Miss Caphat]

what is that mauvais ?

 

[Miss Caphat]

The Yanks call them 'row houses', I think.

yes, row houses. or townhouses.

Try "tenements". It's not strictly terracing but might get you somewhere.

not quite...tenement is like one big uniform building with lots of apartments, and has a pretty negative connotation in the US

 

[Miss Caphat]

it was kids baseball thanks soulj. just 10-12 year olds i think. might have even been girls. crowd of parents watching. i can remember getting bored with the baseball and wondering along this massive lake to go for a sly ciggy.

there's this park with a big lake and a baseball field, but it would have been a 20 minute drive or longer on the highway. do you remember being driven there? Or you could have taken the train there and walked a bit. probably a long shot but maybe we can rule it out


Lake Quannapowitt - Wakefield, MA

 

[mauvais]

what is that mauvais ?

Pleasure Bay in South Boston. Just about constitutes a lake, has a baseball field.

 

[BigMoaner]

Pleasure Bay in South Boston. Just about constitutes a lake, has a baseball field.

now this i recognise, but i can't remember how long the drive was

there's this park with a big lake and a baseball field, but it would have been a 20 minute drive or longer on the highway. do you remember being driven there? Or you could have taken the train there and walked a bit. probably a long shot but maybe we can rule it out


Lake Quannapowitt - Wakefield, MA

def not this one.

thanks all, i am going to trawl around that dorchester street area because i think that's the sort of neighbourhood it was.

lol, needle/haystack. 100s of k of homes, wish me luck

 

[BigMoaner]

also, i played football in a school play ground that was deserted because it was summer hols. so i am going to look at the schools in south boston, click to street view, and hopefully BOOM

 

[Bonfirelight]

This is a good game. A bit like Treasure Hunt with Anneka Rice

I went to hotel in Greece once. It had a high up bar area overlooking a rocky bay.
Go.

 

[BigMoaner]

This is a good game. A bit like Treasure Hunt with Anneka Rice

I went to hotel in Greece once. It had a high up bar area overlooking a rocky bay.
Go.

my internetting skills are legendry. i'll find it

 

[catinthehat]

I'm going to Boston in a couple of weeks - staying in Back Bay then Harbour. First visit but will keep an eye out for this mystery area!