While perusing the city's photos of boundary checking in 1896, I noticed several were of markers with "HP" on one side, from back when Hyde Park was still an independent town. Hmm, could they have a photo of the one a couple blocks away from us?
Sure enough, they did, but it seemed a lot taller than I remembered it. So today, the kidlet and I went down to Dale Street to check out Marker 123. And as you can see from the photos, it is, indeed a lot shorter than it used to be.
One assumes granite doesn't just shrink like that, so what's the deal? A possible clue is on the map showing the marker in 1896: It features a creek running on the other side of Dale (down to Stony Brook on the other side of the train tracks), a small tributary just near the marker and marshes on either side of the street.
So no doubt when Windham and Sherrin streets were built, they first dumped several feet of fill in the land around the marker. Now, a 1912 map of Hyde Park, after it became part of Boston, doesn't show those streets. So when they were built, Hyde Park was part of Boston and there was no longer any need for a boundary marker and yet, the marker was left in place, albeit a few feet lower than it used to be.
Top photo from the City of Boston Archives. Posted under this Creative Commons license.
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Comments
Readville
By Scottie Campbell
Sun, 03/04/2012 - 6:02pm
Across from the Readville train station on W. Milton Street where the welcome to HP/Readville sign is, there is a marker showing the distance to Boston and Providence...is one of these markers what you are talking about?
No. That was put in place
By NotWhitey
Sun, 03/04/2012 - 7:09pm
No. That was put in place just a few years ago when they reworked that intersection and added the flower bed where the 'marker' sits.
Haven't You Ever Heard of Sinkage?
By Costello, John
Sun, 03/04/2012 - 6:11pm
When the street was improved the grade may have been brought up around the sign for purposes of leveling.
Awesome.
By Craiggles
Sun, 03/04/2012 - 7:05pm
This is too cute.
Also, since I have nothing better to do with my Sunday evening, I'm making a Google Map with the locations of all the monuments, so peoples don't have to go cross-referencing streets. I'll post it when I'm finished.
I've been poking around
By Matt
Tue, 10/16/2012 - 3:55am
I've been poking around looking for the markers. Did you ever make your map?
Marker on River Street
By Christopher Tucker
Sun, 03/04/2012 - 7:18pm
Google maps says it's near 637 River Street. About a 10 minute walk from Mattapan Square.
https://img.skitch.com/20120305-csmmgixhe7pipayuwm...
Oh, wow, how have I missed that one?
By adamg
Sun, 03/04/2012 - 7:53pm
I guess I'm always just so awestruck by the World's Best Food market right next to it to notice it (I mean, come on, it has the world's best food!).
Double Haar
By massmarrier
Sun, 03/04/2012 - 8:05pm
Been there...unless you're looking for canned Caribbean espresso, "world's best" is a highly diluted slogan.
I. Love. This.
By JohnAKeith
Sun, 03/04/2012 - 8:00pm
Awesome photo update. Love it.
Finished map!
By Craiggles
Sun, 03/04/2012 - 9:42pm
Alrighty, I approximated the location of the stones. Let's see how many of them are actually still there.
MAP.
Marker 121
By Mike from Brighton1
Mon, 03/05/2012 - 1:30pm
I came across what I presume was marker #121 when I was looking at properties back in July. It was in the rear yard of the last house on the left Hallron St.
Marker 17 somehow got moved out of position on your map
By Ron Newman
Mon, 03/05/2012 - 2:44pm
It belongs somewhere in Charlestown, but the map has it up in Malden.
Fixed!
By Craiggles
Mon, 03/05/2012 - 5:35pm
Fixed it. Careful when you're moving things, folks!
You've started an addictive trend, Gaffin
By Waquoit
Mon, 03/05/2012 - 12:13am
On my run today, I passed by Monument 115. God only knows I've been by it before, but today I knew I was hitting the town line and BAM, there it was, in all its D/B glory.
Keep up the good work.
White Boston Street signs
By Cleary Squared
Mon, 03/05/2012 - 9:19pm
What I've been looking for are the white-with-black-lettering signs that are still up around Boston - the ones left over from the late '60s-early '70s. The most prolific ones I've found are...
- Baker and Temple Street in West Roxbury
- Farragut Place in West Roxbury;
- Grove Street on the West Roxbury/Dedham line with Bussey St
- Anawan Avenue near the Bellvue train station (a little rusted, though)
- Brookline Avenue at the Boston/Brookline border
- St. Mary's Street near the C-line T stop
I think there were a few in Mattapan, but I don't know if they still exist.
The other interesting thing about the signs
By adamg
Mon, 03/05/2012 - 9:43pm
Are the interesting brackets used to connect them to the posts.
There is one of those street
By anon
Fri, 03/09/2012 - 2:02pm
There is one of those street signs at the corner of Clifrondale St and Rosecliff in Roslindale. I hope they never replace it. Its looking a bit old but it still reads well.... it says Cliftondale St.
Couldn't find markers 9 through 15
By Ron Newman
Wed, 03/07/2012 - 6:01pm
Markers 9 through 15 delineate the Boston-Somerville border just west of Sullivan Square, so I went off looking for them this afternoon. Either I didn't recognize them, or they are too badly eroded for me to see what they are, or they're just gone.
Marker 12?
By SwirlyGrrl
Wed, 03/07/2012 - 8:10pm
If you look on Google Maps street view, it appears to have been incorporated into a masonry wall. I didn't know this from street view, but because a friend lived on the Boston side of the line in that neighborhood.
UPDATE: Yep - it is there!
1. Go to http://maps.google.com/maps/place?ftid=0x89e370c49...
2. Pick "street view"
3. rotate the compass so that "N" is in the 3 o'clock position
The granite marker can be seen sticking out of the concrete retaining wall!
OK, I'll take another look tomorrow
By Ron Newman
Wed, 03/07/2012 - 10:55pm
There are a lot of broken stone fragments all over the areas surrounding these marker sites, which makes me wonder if I might be looking at fallen remnants of some of the markers.
Marker 12 - maybe, maybe not
By Ron Newman
Sun, 03/25/2012 - 7:30pm
I went there and looked for any obvious sign (such as etching) that this was an old boundary marker, but couldn't find any. If it is the old marker, it has been moved from its original position, as the entire width of Crescent Street (though not the east sidewalk) is in Somerville.