August 30, 2019 Beer + Mortar: Another Round, Walking Tour Through Roxbury
On August 24, Historic Boston and the Boston Preservation Alliance teamed up to conduct their second walking tour: Beer + Mortar: Another Round. The historic walking tour snaked its way through Roxbury, highlighting historic architecture and art along a 2-mile route.
A group of twenty people gathered at the Fort Hill Standpipe, built in 1869 to deliver water to the city below. In 2013, an extensive restoration effort was undertaken by the City of Boston preserve the tower. Next, the group made its way through the Highland Park neighborhood to Cedar Street to see the historic 1910 former African Orthodox Church and marble row houses. In 1983, HBI was involved in renovating the buildings’ roof and Empire-Style marble fronts.
The next stop also featured HBI building, the Alvah Kittredge House, a 18th century Greek Revival Mansion that belonged to alderman and Deacon of Eliot Church, Alvah Kittredge. HBI finished its rehabilitation of the building in 2014.
Continuing down Highland Street, the group visited the recently renovated Dillaway-Thomas House, part of the Roxbury Heritage Site, where Ena Fox, Head of Visitors Services for the Department of Conservation & Recreation site, lead the group on an abbreviated tour of the 17th century building, which has been transformed to educate visitors in the history and culture of Roxbury. (See below for Museum hours and tours.)
The tour also stopped by two of many waystones that were once used to direct Bostonians down to the city’s center and even all the way to Providence, RI. Other stops included the Eliot Burial Ground, one of the oldest in the city, and HBI’s headquarters at the Eustis Street Firehouse. The tour ended with a visit to the Feldman Land Surveyors’ offices, a renovated 19th century piano factory at 152 Hampden Street. Some of the group grabbed a beer and sat for historical debate and conversation at Backlash Brewery!
A big thank you to Ena Fox for the tour of the Dillaway-Thomas House.
The Dillaway Thomas House is open Wednesday-Sunday 10am – 5:30 pm and the grounds are open seven days a week: 9am to dusk. There is a small parking lot for the site. Tours are Wednesday-Saturday at 10am and 2 pm and Sundays 12pm and 2 pm. No reservation required.