So
Ma,
tell me your name, address, and date of birth.
My
name is Rose Murnane Daley, 375 Mt. Auburn Street in Cambridge.
My date of birth is October 24, 1918. I was born at 7 Maynard Place,
Cambridge.
And
who lived in that house, how come you were born there?
I
was born there because my father was in the service and my grandparents
lived there. My mother went home while my father was in the service.
So
tell us about your grandparents, when did they come over to this
country?
My
grandfather was born here at 7 Maynard Place in Cambridge. My grandmother
was born in Rosscommon, Ireland and she came over here as a young
girl.
About
what year did she come over, do you know?
Must
have been about 1858, oh no, no, my grandfather was born in 1860,
so she was 9 years younger and she came over here and landed at
Maynard Place because my great grandmother was a distant cousin
of hers, and then she went to New Hampshire and my grandfather was
a stonecutter and he worked in New Hampshire and that's where they
were married.
So
who lived at the house at Maynard Place, that was your great-grandparents?
Oh
my great-grandparents lived there. They had the house moved from
elsewhere.
Do
you know where it was moved from?
No
I don't, I think North Cambridge someplace.
Where's
Rice Street because... is that in North Cambridge?
I
don't know.
Cause
I looked up in the old historical thing and the first name I could
find for Murnane was on Rice Street, like in 1872. What was his
first name?
John.
Yeah,
it was John Murnane and it was on Rice Street and then the next
one's were on Maynard Place just after that. So they moved the house
to Maynard Place from someplace else?
Right.
So
how did it come to be that Ma and Pa moved in there?
My
great grandparents died. My mother was born on Foster Street and
they lived on Foster street until my great grandparents died and
they inherited the house, so they moved there.
And
what do you first remember about that house?
I
can remember my grandmother taking me to Sparks Street where my
parents had a home, an apartment and stopping at widow Holmes' store
for cookies which was located then, not the same place as on Mt.
Auburn Street,right after Shaler Lane. Shaler Lane was not in there
at that time. Then I can remember them moving here in 1922, here
being 375 Mt. Auburn Street, because I was very upset about my grandmother's
bedroom furniture coming out. The mover called me a brat and my
grandmother said she's not a brat. Come on Rose, we'll go up to
the new house, and thereafter the house on Maynard Place was known
as the old house.
Oh,
that's how everybody usto refer to it, called it the old house.
So, you remember the day they moved in here?
Yes,
I do.
How
many people moved in?
Eddie,
Jimmy, Lala, Johnny, Tommy, Katie, Betty, they all moved in. My
mother was married and Auntie Mae didn't live here and Aunt Rose
was in the convent.
Who
had the house built?
My
grandmother, my grandparents.
And
how did they afford to have a new house built?
My
grandmother raised chickens. She bought, they bought the land from
my grandfather's sister who inherited the land across the street
on Mayard Place from the house. My grandmother bought the land from
my aunt, my grand-aunt and raised chickens and from the chicken
money she saved, she bought the land here.
And
she had an architect design the house because I found the plans?
She
had an architect design the house, but she changed the plans of
the architect. Originally, the door was supposed to come in, the
front door was supposed to come in the sun porch and she changed
it to the door coming in behind the fireplace and she also paid
the architect whoever it was a hundred dollars extra to make sure
the materials went into the house.
So
it was a two family, so she rented out the second floor?
Right,
to Robert Burns.
So
how did so many people live in the first floor?
Well
the third floor, the second floor third bedroom was part of downstairs.
And
that's why the door goes into the back hall?
Right,
right.
And
Eddie usto sleep in the attic?
No,
he didn't sleep in the attic until Bob Burns wanted the back bedroom.
Oh,
so then the back bedroom became part of the second floor?
Right.
What
was the neighborhood like then, what did it look like here then?
Like when you looked out the front window at Mt. Auburn Street and
you'd walk down to Maynard Place, does it look alot different than
now?
No,
the hospital was there, the Homes(Cambridge Home for the Aged) was
there, the three houses were here when they moved here, the three
houses from Trail Street, The Doughertys moved in (the next block
down) right before that was Parkhurst, the Doughertys lived there.
Mrs. Parkhurst was a Doherty before she was married. The houses
were not on Channing Street, the 2-family houses, Ruth's and the
one next to it, and across the way at Channing Circle, that didn't
exist. Longfellow Park didn't exist. The Lowell school existed,
that's where I started school, and the other houses all existed.
Was
there public transportation?
Yes
the trolleys always went up Mt. Auburn Street. My grandfather told
me Mt. Auburn Street had been a toll road, years ago when he was
a boy.
Wasn't
that house at the corner of Maynard Place...?
The
Keough's house was the weigh-in station, that usto be up at where
the Star Market is now and they moved it there.
So
the people that lived in the neighborhood, because now it's kind
of fancy around here, you know who were the people who lived in
this neighborhood? What were their backgrounds? Were they people
who had come from another country or had they lived here a long
time?
Helen
Dorsey lived on the corner house on Traill Street with her family.
I think her family was born here, her mother and father. I don't
remember the father but I remember the mother. They were of Irish
descent. Eleanor Horrigan, the Horrigan's lived here and he was
was the superintendent of pictures, art for the state. The Hagers
lived next door, they were of German descent.
Because
Brattle Street is very kind of fancy and this is one block over,
did it seem like the people on Brattle Street were very wealthy,
but the people in this neighborhood were more working people?
Right,
right.
What
do you think the biggest changes have been in this neighborhood
from the time you lived here?
Well,
Holyoke Center (Stillman Infirmary) didn't exist in Harvard Square,
it existed on Mt. Auburn Street next to the hospital, where ten
ten is. That used to be what we called a park. We went over to the
park for swimming, and everybody went.
In
the Charles River?
Right,
right. They put up a bath house in the summertime and Nea Klan who
used to who lived next door to the Demillias on Foster Place was
the matron. In the wintertime she usto sew for my grandmother.
So
what are the other, the biggest changes you see?
Well,
the Wilson House was not there. The old hospital consisted of just
the main hospital. What they call the main hospital none of it existed.
Why
did they call this area the marsh?
Because
it's all filled-in land.
So
when they moved the house here, before that, it was Marsh land?
That's
Right.
And
I've heard you say the upper marsh and the lower marsh?
Right.
Which
is which?
The
lower Marsh was down around Sparks Street and Willard Street and
upper Marsh was more Maynard Place. Although I've heard members
of the family argue whether they lived in the upper or lower Marsh.
Was
is better to live in the upper or lower?
It
was better to live in the upper.
How
come?
Because,
like my grandfather was a stonecutter, he had a trade. My grandmother
told me that he worked in the summertime, the spring, the fall,
but not the winter months. He earned $12.00 dollars a week and he
earned more money than the others who were earning $4, but he didn't
work all year round. She said she had to store up for the winter
months, flour and what have you.
What
happened with Pa, cause he retired at an early age?
Forty-nine,
he retired because they said he had a hernia and he wouldn't live
a year unless he was operated on and he preferred not to be operated
on and he said that he always wanted to read the encyclopedias,
so if he was gonna live another year, that he'd read the encyclopedias
and be full of knowledge. He was 84 goin on 85, he died a month
before he would have been 85.
What
happened after he read the encyclopedias?
He
read them twice.
Did
he read anything else?
He
read all magazines and newspapers. In those days we had the Boston
Post, and the Boston Globe and the Herald, and he read all three
newspapers and all magazines. He had a subscription to National
Geographic and Life.
You
said he was very cranky and he always would eat his meals at a certain
time?
He
had his breakfast at 8, his lunch at Noon time and his supper at
5 o'clock, and he'd be seated when the clock stopped chiming.
So
he'd leave the chair....
Right
in the the living room on time so he'd be out in the kitchen sitting
down. There always had to be goat cheese on the table.
Why?
He
liked his goat cheese.
So,
he never worked for the last like forty years of his life?
No,
no.
So
what did Ma do?
Well,
the family was grown up. Burns(second floor tenant), she always
claimed, paid for the house. He lived and paid rent.
What
was Harvard Square like then? Did you ever go down to the Brattle?
Yes,
everybody walked. I lived until I was nine and a half on Maynard
Place. On Saturday night, my mother and I would walk down to Central
Square, and shop, and do errands and walk back. Margaret Mahoney
used to walk, too. I think that people used to walk more.
I
would say wouldn't one of the big differences be all the cars that
are around now?
Yes,
it may be of interest to know that when my father when he got his
license, originally, bought a car and he was given his license by
the salesman who took him around the block.
So
they didn't have to go to the registry and take a test?
No,
they didn't.
So
you usto walk down to Central Square and go to dances?
No,
I was nine and a half.
Oh,
didn't they have dances down at the Brattle, though?
No,
they usto have weddings and so forth.
(end
of first audio tape)
So,
I think we were talking about when Pa had pneumonia?
I
think he was in his late 70's when he got pneumonia. They didn't
want him to know that he was as sick as he was. Rick Cormick, who
was his nephew, dropped in. They told my grandfather he was the
doctor because they didn't want to worry him. He had a nurse that
was on at night, but he refused to go to the hospital, he stayed
in his room. After he had the pneumonia, he became an expert through
reading all the different types of pneumonia. Everybody that came
in had to listen to him, so my aunt Betty would say, "Can't
you get rid of him, Ma?" She didn't want her friends to have
to listen to his reading. To get back to Maynard Place, Eliza McDonald
lived at the end and the Sanseverinos lived across the street from
he, in back of her. Esther Sacco and her family lived. Mary Kiley
lived down there. She lived in the house next to Liza McDonald's,
and in back of that house was the house that your friend lives in
now, the one that does the garden.
Professor
Seckler and Mrs. Seckler?
That
was a two family house and they consider it small -- and it was
even smaller. Bert Cormick mother lived on one side and on the other
side were two sisters. I think they were schoolteachers; one was
tall and one was bent over, and my sister Pauline and I would pray
every night, we would want to be first, we would try to be first,
we wanted to be the tall one. I think I got my prayers answered
because I was tall.
There
were alot of tall women in our family as I remember, Auntie Mae,
well, I guess your mother was, my grandmother?
Right, right.
I'm
tall, your tall, there's alot of tall girls in the family.
My
grandmother was only five feet. She claimed to be five feet, two
inches, but we think she was only five feet. She had taken my hand
when I was taller than she. I grew up fast, and they would say,
"Who's leading who?"
So
it sounds like, we usto call her Ma, I never knew her, but her name
was Bridget and that's who I was named after, but everybody in the
family, even people who aren't in the family call her Ma?
That's
right.
It
sounds like she was pretty well known in the area?
She was very well known for her charitable works. She wouldn't let
the family sit down to a meal until everybody that was alone in
the neighborhood was fed. She would send my uncles out with dishes
to widow Brown, widow Holmes. The thing was that everybody that
lost their husbands was widow, known as widow. My great grandmother's
sister was married to McFadden and they lived on Gibson Street.
They first lived in the house next to the Corkery's which is where
the Whites lived. My great grandaunt sold the house to Mrs. White
who lived in North Cambridge, and she built the two-family house
that the McFadden's live in now. Where Sarah Keenan lives now, on
Gibson. Her great grandmother was my great-grand-aunt? I knew she
was related someway but... and they called um, my mother always
called her aunt, her grandaunt, Aunt McFadden, that was my grandmother's,
great grandmother's sister, so that would be my mother's grandaunt.
Like
Betty was to me through you?
Right.
So,
getting back to Ma too, didn't she lend money to people or something?
She'd give money, and she'd lend them if they needed it.
Because
I also heard that she was a good business woman and that if she
was alive today, she was ahead of her time?
Yes I think that she had what we call the mortgage on this house
on just the shake of a hand with Mr. Conley who was the president
of the bank.
Which
bank was this?
Reliance
Cooperative. We called Mr. Conley her boyfriend because he'd always
send her a gift every holiday. They didn't have refrigerators in
those days but the Coonihans, oh,what was the name of the grocer,
would call my grandmother everyday, and the meat would be delivered
daily. She'd call her order in, they'd call her every morning at
7 o'clock, and she'd tell them what she wanted for the day.
So
you had the, didn't you have like the egg man and the milkman?
We
had the egg man, the vegetable man, and the milkman.
That's
before the Star market?
The
Star Market, my grandmother died in September 1947, and the Star
Market didn't exist where it is now. The only Star Market that existed
was in Watertown Square where I moved to Watertown when I was 9
. My grandmother wanted me to stay, but my father said I had to
go with the family. My mother traded at the Star Market and they
would deliver, most days they had a fleet of trucks.
So
you lived at Maynard, you lived here in Cambridge until you were
nine and a half lived mostly at Maynard Place?
Um.
And
did you, but they lived on Sparks Street then or did you live at
the house at Maynard Place?
I
lived mostly at Maynard Place.
You
were the oldest grandchild?
Right,
right.
Wasn't
it true that in your mother's family her older sister Rose, Rosey,
who you were named after became a nun, did she, was she brought
up by her grandparents?
Right,
Right.
So
that's sort of like a thing that people did was the oldest would
be brought up by the grandparents?
I
don't think that was necessarily and truly that ah grandparents
would raise them, but I think when many children came along I know
that I was born at Maynard Place and when my father came home and
my mother and father got the apartment on Sparks street that my
grandmother didn't think that my mother knew how to take care of
me. So I stayed on, and then Pauline arrived. There's only 17 months
difference between Pauline and I, and my grandmother said that my
mother had all she could do. Pauline was the only one born in the
hospital, the rest of use were born at home.
How
many were in your family?
Five,
including me, um, Pauline, Gertrude and Herbie and Harold, the twins.
The
twins were born at Maynard Place, right?
Right.
And
tell the story about when the twins were born.
What?
Didn't
they get put in an oven or something?
Oh,
Harold did, the incubator.
They
didn't have an incubator?
They
didn't have it. He was in front of the stove in the kitchen and
he wa on two kitchen chairs that had been put together that pillows
were on and he was stacked there. They didn't think that Harold
was gonna live. Harold, and my father and one of the neighbors worked
on Harold. The doctor had put him aside as not living, and they
worked on him, and the neighbor went down and got a little bit of
whiskey and put it down his throat and he started crying.
So,
that's what brought Harold back?
Right.
But
Herbie was okay?
Right,
those days they didn't know that they were gonna have twins and
they only had one crib so the next day my grandfather Daley and
my father went down to Central Square and bought another crib.
So
they lived on Sparks Street until you were nine and a half and then...
No,
no, no , till they moved up here, the family, the Murnane's moved
up here and then my mother and father moved into Maynard Place.
Oh,
I didn't know that. Right.
So you lived at Maynard Place for awhile?
Right,
till, I was, I was almost four and they moved here, so, and I came
with them up here.
So,
you lived up here?
Right.
You
slept here and...
Slept
between Betty and my grandmother.
So
they slept in the same bedroom?
Right.
So
where did Pa sleep?
Pa
was in this room in your room and Tommy.
Oh
Pa and Tommy slept in the same room?
Right.
So
how many kids did Ma have, how many were in your mother's family?
Thirteen
altogether, there was thirteen in my father's family, but ah Aunt
Katie, Pauline and Herbie's twin did not live, but Katie came here.
So there was 8 of them that came.
So
you were saying there were thirteen, and out of thirteen there were
three?
Right.
Three
that didn't live. What happened to those three?
Well
Herbie's twin died when she was six months old.
Helen?
Helen,
and Pauline, I think she was about six when she died of pneumonia,
and Katie drowned.
So
tell us what happened to Katie when she drowned?
It
was on her birthday and ma went out temporarily and left her ironing
and when she came back she was gone and her boyfriend had called
her and they went for a ride in those days they had to get out of
the car to start it to crank it to start it and ah this is all hearsay,
that I heard from other people, the card rolled back.
Where
were they when they rolled back?
Spot
Pond. Spy Pond? Spy Pond?
Spy
Pond in Arlington?
So,
I was six. That was right before the twins were born.
So,
the car rolled into Spy Pond and she died? How old was she?
Twenty-six,
she was a telephone operator.
Wasn't
she very lively, they usto tell me that they had parties here, they
had orchestras and things?
I don't think she was the one necessarily. I think that the whole
family, ma, not pa.
It
seems that after Katie died... They
didn't have any. That
Ma was very upset then?
Yes,
yes and, ah, I can remember Betty being in bed.
She
was in bed because she was so upset?
Right.
Did
Betty have boyfriends? Did she go out, how come she never got married?
She
was engaged to a fellah. I don't know what happened. She had a hope
chest... I don't know, I don't know. You know I can remember the
guy comin here, he was, oh, his cousin was a jeweler down at Harvard
Square and I remember one night when he had come in. I had broken
my shoelaces, and I used white string to tie them up, my grandfather
gave me the white string, and I went in and she had a fit.
From
the old pictures of Betty she was very particular about how she
dressed and about how everybody looked?
Yes,
she was very particular when she died.
What
did everybody do for a living?
Well,
Johnny and Tommy worked at the Herald, the Boston Herald, and Herbie
worked for Miss Munroe. Ah, Jimmy didn't work, he was not well,
but then he worked at Polaroid, and Herbie worked at Polaroid.
So
what did they do at Polaroid?
I
don't know.
What
did Johnny and Tommy do at the Herald? They
were composers?
Johnny
was Tommy's boss, I think in the advertising section of the paper.
And
where did Betty work?
She
worked at Goodrich and then she worked at um, what was the last
place?
Kendall
Paper. She
worked at Kendall Paper for a long time?
Right,
she took ten years off her age when she went to work there.
She
just told them she was ten years younger?
Right. So, how old was she when she stopped working?
I
think she was 75.
And
what about Auntie Mae?
Auntie
Mae never lived at home that I can remember. I heard the story that
she stayed at a friend's all night, and my grandmother said that
she would never spend another night in her house, and she went to
live with my grandmother Daley who lived in Watertown, and then
she went to work at McLean hospital where she was a telephone operator
and that's where she met John. My grandfather usto call John Rubber
legs.
Why?
Because
he was not too steady on his feet, and uh, Auntie Mae thought she
was marrying money. She got cheated. She always worked.
So,
I always remember Auntie Mae at the Hotel Somerset. Right.
So what was her job there?
Oh,
she had a fancy titled. She was in charge of the communications.
So
she was like the head operator or she was in charge of the switchboard?
Right,
right.
I
remember going there when I was a kids, you'd drop me off in the
morning, and I'd go for like the whole day.
You'd
go when you were a baby, by cab. Auntie Hedt had a fit. I guess
that was when you were three. She'd want you in there for lunch
and then Janet would pick her up at 3 or something.
So,
I'd be sent in a cab?
uh,
uh.
To
the hotel, then I'd go to lunch, then I'd go with Louis the Chef.
What was his name?
Louis
Terco.
And
I'd have lobster Newburg with Auntie Mae.
Uh,
Uh.
So
what about your mother? Did she ever work?
Not
after she was married but she worked at the Hood Rubber before she
was married in the ticket office. That's all I know.
(end of tape two)
Why
did Ma decide to build, and when did she decide to build garages
where the chicken yard was?
Well,
first she put up the original five; the other nine were put up after
she moved up here. I lived across the street when they were put
up. She rented the garages to people on Brattle Street who did not
have garages but they started to have car. She knew everybody on
Brattle street through her garages. They were heated. My grandfather
never rode in a car. He always walked. He never went anyplace, but
when they would deliver the coal he'd walk down to Maynard Place.
He'd never ride.
Sorry,
we were talking about the garages and Pa and the coal....
I
think I finished.
Okay,
so we were talking about the garages, so she built five at first?
Five
when she lived across the street, and then she built nine after
she moved up here.
Do
you remember what she charged people for the garage?
Twenty
dollars a month, I think. It was heated.
So,
when did Pa die?
He
died in 1944, three years before Ma.
What
did he die of?
Old
age I guess. Ma had a shock. She was in a coma and they said that
she should have somebody that she was familiar with beside her in
case she came out of it. I would go and relieve the nurse so the
nurse could have supper, and Betty would come home here for supper
and I would go from the office over to the Deaconess.
She
was in the Deaconess?
Right.
So
what happened after Ma died? Did things change around here?
Margaret
Mahoney was the housekeeper, and Jimmy and Herbie and Eddie were
here. I think Johnny and Tommy were married, then.
And
Betty was here?
Betty
was here. My mother never came into the house after my grandmother
died.
I
didn't know that.
She
wouldn't come in.
When
did your mother die?
She
died March 1948.
Shortly
after Ma?
Right.
And
then Eddie?
And
then Jigs, Gertrude's first husband died in December 1948, and then
Eddie died in May of 1949.
So,
Eddie was pretty young. What did he die of?
Heart
attack.
So
what was is like here? Things changed a little bit?
Yeah,
I don't know, ah, it was empty. They took Lala in because he had
been an alcoholic, and they gave him a home and he was treated royally
by Betty, but not so by Jimmy Eddie and Herbie. Jimmy at one point
was going out to get a room of his own, rather then live with Lala.
And
so they still owned the house on Maynard Place and the garages?
Well
my grandmother left everything to, she made money bequests to my
mother, Auntie Mae, and Johnny and Tommy, but the other four who
were living here were single when she died, she left them all the
property and they could do whatever they pleased. They managed to
sell the property on Maynard Place after... I don't know.
When
was that?
Late
fifties or early sixties. They made fifty cents on year. They never,
they were not landlords. They never should have owned property.
They were not like my grandmother.
She
was the manager of the property, but they weren't?
They
left everything up to Betty, the boys did, and she was giving away
more than she was taking in.
Betty
was always giving money to everybody.
Right,
presents of money.
So
when did we move in here?
We
moved in here when you were ten years old so we've lived her 28
years.
I
remember, didn't they ask you if you wanted to live at Mayard Place
or if you wanted to live here?
No
they sold Maynard Place before that, they wanted to give me Maynard
Place before they sold it, before they were getting ready to sell
it, and I refused it.
How
come?
Because
it was a big house, 9 rooms and just you and I. Auntie Hedt must
have been with us then. She came right before your third birthday.
Who
was Auntie Hedt?
Don't
you know? She was the lady who took care of you.
And
she moved in when I was three?
Before
you were three. Right before you were three.
She
lived with us until I was twelve?
Right.
And
then Jimmy and Herbie died in, around 67, 68?
Right.
And
that just left Betty and Lala downstairs.
Right.
And
then Lala, Betty died in 85 and Lala died in 87. 87.
Well, how do you think the neighborhood has...?
Well
the neighborhood has changed with the people that live here, not
the structures. I don't know who lives on the corner house, corner
of Trail street. I do know the Wright's and the Wrights have their
house up for sale. they've had it up for a long, long time. They
originally asked for 499, if they sold it themselves, 529 if it
was sold by the realtor. In the paper today it's 359,900. The next
house next door to us, Mrs. Shell has lived there for a number of
years and Oliver on the first floor, and the second floor is David
and Patsy Ives. I don't know.
Do
you know anybody at Maynard Place now?
No,
I don't. Sanseverinos were the last family I knew.
And
they moved a couple of years ago.
Mm,
mm.
Now
the garages belong to 1010 (1010 Memorial Drive)?
Yes,
I think that's who they sold them to.
And
I've told you how they've done over the old house.
Right
right. Mrs. Seckler was telling us there's a landscape architect
lives down there. It was a landscape architect that lived in it
before. The Forbes were the family that they sold it to.
Do
you know how much they sold it for?
I
don't know. They kept everything a secret.
So,
you think more than anything else that's changed around here is
that people don't know who their neighbors are?
Right,
that's right. They usto all know each other but they were never
buddy, buddy, they didn't live with other. They respected their
privacy, but they all knew each other.
Why
do you think it's so different here now?
For
that reason, because people are not the same.
And
how are they different now?
They're
different, that ah, for instance I don't know who lives on Traill
street and I knew the Dorsey's lived there. I think it's because
you don't know about each other.
So
is it less of a community than it usto be?
It's
not as much as it usto be.
And
you were talking about how on Sparks Street, there usto be stores
down there?
Well
the house that my parents lived in had a store, Biddy Dees store,
that was at the corner of Bradbury, and across the street from her,
downstairs was a meat market. Sparks and Foster was Joe Shines,
and that was a grocery store. Everybody traded there, bought there
... bought their cereal and what have you.
Wasn't
there a grocery store on Mt. Auburn at Willard?
Yes, it's now an insurance store, a travel agency, and ah I forget
the name of the pole who lived upstairs. They had the store downstairs.
What
did they call where St. Peter's is?
The
hill, that was Huron Ave and Upland rd.
Why
did they call it the hill?
Because
you walked up a hill. The church was up the hill.
Did
you know people there?
Not
necessarily, I knew people that had, the Sugrue's moved up the hill.
They moved from the Marsh up the hill. They lived on Upland road,
and, ah, before they moved to Concord Ave.
Did
you go to Harvard Square?
Yes, it was Gumato's and they had an ice cream store. There was
Fisk's which was an ice cream store and candy store. The Green House
was Fisks. Gumato's was near Joyce's, I think There's a florist
shop that was there, and then next door to that was the ice cream
place.
Where
Bailey's was?
Right
right, um, I went to school in Cambridge with Helen Gumato but I
think Ma usto buy her fruits and vegetables from Gumatos, the vegetables
truck that would go around. The Scodgie's would come down on the
week-end from Harvard, Mass with vegetables and eggs and milk and
what have you. Cronin's had a store down there, that's where Ma's
meat came from. They were at the corner of Brattle Square, Eliot
street and Mt. Auburn Street, across from the Church. Corcoran's
was in the Square only they didn't have the shops on, ah, JFK street.
Did
you go to the square with Ma?
Right.
Oh I'd go with Katie, I'd go with Betty, my mother.
You'd
go to wakes with Ma?
Yes,
yes, she'd trot me around. That's right. Anyplace, around up in
the hill, down the Marsh, anyplace that she had knowledge of. Right,
my mother started going with her when I got older. The charge cards
that you had the charge accounts that you had, my grandmother would
say to me "Find my coins." They were on a key ring that
your charge account number was on the coin, and ah I'd go into town
with my grandmother she'd go in town. But it was alright to have
lunch at the Parker house, but you didn't go everywhere. There were
certain places that were okay. The Parker House was okay so we'd
go in. She'd go in by herself, the street car and the subway, Filene's,
Jordan's. White's was the favorite Place of her's. Gilchrist's was
on the corner, RH Stearns was on Tremont St. Chandler's was on Tremont
Street, and Crawford Holidge was on Tremont St., and what was the
store ....that was up in Belmont, that was on, um, across from ...?
What did the family think of Harvard?
It's
always been there. I don't think they had as many real estate dealings
as they have now. It was not as large as it is now, and MIT was
not as large. Um, Harvard Medical, Law School was always on Mass
Ave., the Medical School was in Brookline, I don't know.
Were
there any connections to Harvard?
I
don't think they had any at all. What your referring to now is the
property tax. They weren't as large as they are now. I think it
was the Harvard Yard. It was confined, Harvard University was confined,
and Mrs. Porter left the house up here to Harvard. Her husband had
been a professor down there.
The
President of Harvard lives there now.
That's
right. Tim Leary was the caretaker, he lived with his family in
the back house, it's attached, and the Porters lived in the front.
Bok decided he wanted to raise his family other than the Harvard
Yard.
(end
tape three)
|
