Quincy History Newsletter of the Quincy Historical Society

Quincy, Massachusetts Spring 2018 New Series No. 1 Spring 2018

Quincy-built USS Lexington Found in South Pacific

Courtesy of Thomas Crane Library, Fore River Shipyard Postcard Collection

On March 4, 2018 billionaire Paul Allen and his crew of WWII shipwreck hunters announced the discovery of USS Lexington by their ship R/V Petrel. She was found 500 miles off the eastern coast of Australia, two miles below the surface. In a press release Allen said, “To pay tribute to the USS Lexington and the brave men that served on her is an honor. As Americans, all of us owe a debt of gratitude to everyone who served and who continue to serve our country for their courage, persistence and sacrifice.”

The US Navy ordered the Lexington in the spring of 1917 and she was laid down at the Fore River Shipyard as a Lexington-class Battle Cruiser (CC-1). She was converted to an aircraft carrier in 1922 and redesignated CV-2. Commissioned December 14, 1927, and affectionately known as “Lady Lex” by the crew, the Lexington became one of the earliest aircraft carriers in the history of the US Navy.

The Lexington was attacked on May 8, 1942, at the Battle of the Coral Sea by Japanese dive-bombers and torpedo planes. The attack lasted seven to eight minutes with several direct hits, followed by a violent internal explosion that shook the ship. Fires broke out on board, followed by a second internal explosion of major intensity just under two hours after the first explosion. There were 27 torpedoes on the starboard torpedo mezzanine that could not be removed because the torpedo (continued next page)

Howard Johnson’s Night Lecture and Exhibit

Thursday, June 21 at 7:00 p.m. Quincy Historical Society celebrates Quincy’s own Howard D. Johnson and his chain of restaurants and motels. Johnson’s early business efforts were filled with fits and starts, debt burden, and learning experiences, but his ambition and drive won the day. Late in 1925 Johnson purchased the Walker-Barlow Drug Store at 89 Beale Street in Wollaston. In 1929 Johnson opened his first restaurant in the Granite Trust Building, Quincy’s first and only high-rise building at the time. Located in the heart of Quincy Square, the restaurant satisfied the hunger of business people during the day and theatregoers at night. From these humble beginnings Howard Johnson’s became a trusted destination for travelers all across America. Come for the lecture, the photograph exhibits and memorabilia. Don’t leave early or you will miss the ice cream dessert! See Howard Johnson’s Trivia on page 2.

From the collection of Quincy Historical Society

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Lexington (continued)

elevator had failed, as well as 1,000-pound bombs in flooded compartments

Five hours after the attack, the captain gave the order to abandon ship. Over 2,700 men were safely evacuated to cruisers and destroyers at the scene, but 216 crewmen were killed during the battle. Ironically, another Fore River-built ship, destroyer USS Phelps (DD-360), received the order to torpedo the Lexington. She sank eight and a half hours after the Japanese attack. Men at the scene reported the Lexington went down proudly with her head up, and that is how she has rested for nearly 76 years at the bottom of the Coral Sea.

In Quincy, news of the discovery was greeted with surprise and pride. When the Lexington was lost in 1942, workers at the Fore River Shipyard took the news very hard. They successfully petitioned the Secretary of the Navy to rename USS Cabot, an aircraft carrier then under construction. USS Lexington (CV-16), nicknamed the Blue Ghost, went on to devastate the Japanese. Today the second Lexington built in Quincy serves as a museum ship in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Howard Johnson’s Trivia 1. How many flavors does Howard Johnson’s Ice Cream Parlor offer

in the movie Blazing Saddles? 2. What product did Howard Johnson sell for his father after

returning from WWI service? 3. Where did Howard Johnson open his first roadside restaurant in

1935? 4. HOJO slogan: Landmark for ____ ____ 5. Who was on the HOJO restaurants weathervane? (answers next column)

Adams Academy 1872

Quincy History

Published by Quincy Historical Society at Adams Academy 8 Adams Street, Quincy MA 02169 617-773-1144

James P. Edwards President Edward Fitzgerald, PhD Executive Director Wayne G. Miller Editor

Quincy Historical Society, incorporated November 15, 1893, maintains the Adams Academy Building as a museum, library, visitor information center and meeting place. The purposes of the Society are to represent historical interests in the community, to preserve materials and information related to Quincy history through exhibits, programs and educational exhibits, and to publish materials of historical significance.

www.quincyhistory.org waynemiller@comcast.net

The Baxter Pharmacy Building Perhaps you have driven by the Baxter Pharmacy at the corner of Washington Street and the Southern Artery and thought George Jetson of cartoon fame designed the building. It is actually old enough to be considered for the National Register of Historic Places, if anyone cared to apply. (The building would have to meet other standards as well.)

1968 advertisement for NEBA Roast Beef

Those of a certain age might remember the original occupant of the building as NEBA Roast Beef, part of a very small chain of fast food restaurants along the East Coast. Mike Davis, who founded Mike’s Submarines in Albany in 1957, and later created the NEBA Roast Beef Sandwiches brand, often paired the two in adjacent storefronts as NEBA Mikes. After the roast beef stopped selling, the building was occupied by Tech Hifi (an electronics store), followed by Fin, Fur & Feather (a pet shop) before Baxter Pharmacy took occupancy in 2007. Howard Johnson’s ANSWERS 1. Just one 2. Cigars 3. Orleans on Cape Cod 4. Hungry Americans 5. Simple Simon and the Pieman

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Charles H. Porter First Mayor of Quincy

1889-1890

When Charles H. Porter reached the pinnacle of local politics by becoming Quincy’s first mayor, it was not his first experience as chief executive. He brought with him a variety of life experiences in the military, business, and public service that more than prepared him for the job.

Courtesy of Thomas Crane Public Library, Warren S. Parker Collection (Warren S. Parker, Photographer).

Born in Weymouth April 3, 1843, Porter’s family moved to Quincy six weeks after his birth. He graduated from Quincy High School and shortly thereafter enlisted as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Massachusetts 39th Infantry. He saw action for nearly three years, was promoted twice, and mustered out as captain, which he declined. Two hundred seventy-four men in his regiment died from battle wounds, disease, accidents, and other causes. He must have considered himself fortunate to be alive at the war’s end.

In 1866 Porter joined the G.A.R. and was a charter member of the Paul Revere Post, which was formed in 1867. He was elected commander multiple times. He married Hannah French in 1870 and they had three sons, Charles H. Jr., Henry W., and Robert B. Porter. The family lived in a home at the corner of Adams and Hancock Streets, a stone’s throw from the Adams Academy.

Porter worked at his father’s insurance business, Whitcomb Porter & Company, until an exciting offer came along. In the 1870s organized baseball burst upon the scene and the citizens of Boston embraced the game. In 1873, when only 30, Porter assumed the presidency of the Boston Base Ball Association, owners of the Boston Red Stockings. He sold his controlling interest in the team after the 1874 season, but one could say Porter retired undefeated as his team won the National Association championship in 1873 and 1874. Considered one of the all-time great baseball teams, five of its players from the 1873-1874 teams have been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Team photo of the championship 1874 Boston Red Stockings Courtesy Wikimedia Commons, Source: www.baseballfever.com

Porter never lost his passion for baseball or the desire to own a team. In 1900 he placed a competitive bid to own the Boston franchise of the new American League, but lost out to a man with deeper pockets and connections to Bancroft Johnson, the founder and first president of the league. That Boston team would eventually be known as the Red Sox.

After his father died in 1881, Porter became the owner of the insurance company and he ran the business until his death in 1911. He also gave his time to Quincy by serving on the school committee, as a selectman, and as state representative. When he had time outside of politics and his insurance business, Porter also served as president of the Quincy Water Company, director of the Quincy Mutual Fire Insurance Company, trustee of the Quincy Savings Bank, and member of the first board of management of the Adams Academy in 1871.

A man of who put his heart and soul into every facet of his hometown, Charles H. Porter will always be remembered as Quincy’s first mayor.

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The Winfield House and Presidential Motel

In 1935 when Winfield Strout purchased the old house at 803 Hancock Street he envisioned a place of hospitality. He created a formal restaurant, a place for entertainment in the cocktail lounge, and a venue for weddings and large parties. The business prospered, and in 1957 Strout added the Presidential Motel, Quincy’s first motel, to the property.

Winfield House ca 1940s. From the collection of Quincy Historical Society

Due to its Queen Anne Style, the property became a landmark in Quincy long before Winfield Strout owned it. Atop the center section of the house’s angled façade was the onion dome, an unusual design in Quincy. John Chamberlin (1829-1902), a Selectman for the Town of Quincy in the late 1870s, built the house about 1883. Chamberlin probably needed to create more living space as his son John Charles Chamberlin, married at that time and brought his bride and family to the household. When the elder Chamberlin died in 1902, the sale of the house was dictated by the terms of his will, which was written a couple of weeks before his death on April 4, 1902. The property passed in 1904 to James H. Penniman, of a prominent Quincy family in the leather business. In 1915 the Deanes, owners of A. M. Deane & Co., granite cutters, purchased the house. The beauty of the house and architectural significance to Quincy made it a natural for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. The fact that the house was added to the register on September 20, 1989 makes it even more painful that it was demolished in 1998. Fortunately, the Winfield House lives on in memory and in vintage postcards.

UPCOMING LECTURE AT QHS!

Quincy Massachusetts: A Shipbuilding Tradition

with author Wayne G. Miller Thursday, June 7, 2018 at 2:00 p.m.

The Day the President Came to Quincy: William Howard Taft

Quincy is proud to be called the City of Presidents, the birthplace of two U.S. presidents, John Adams and John Quincy Adams, as well as John Hancock, President of the Second Continental Congress. But it has also been a place where presidents and would-be presidents have stopped to campaign. Quincy has seen a number of presidents on Hancock Street through the years. It is exciting to host the president, but it comes with media frenzy, an overwhelming security detail, and crushing crowds. President Taft and his family summered in Beverly, MA, each year of his presidency (1909-1912), making it an easy trip to the South Shore. Taft, an automobile enthusiast, was the first president to own and drive an automobile. Although he used a chauffeur in Washington, D.C., perhaps he drove himself to Quincy on one of his numerous Sunday drives. Taft came to Squantum to watch the daredevil aviators and their innovative aircraft at the historic 1910 Harvard Boston Aero Meet. Billed as the first international air-meet ever held in the U.S., it drew almost every major aviator from around the world, including Wilbur Wright, Glenn Curtiss, and Claude Grahame-White.

1910 Harvard Boston Aero Meet Photo. At left John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, Mayor of Boston, Claude Grahame-White (center), President William Howard Taft (right) Courtesy Wright State University, Anthony Philpott photographer Taft could not have asked for a better promotional opportunity when the effervescent and photogenic Grahame-White came up to the president’s car to shake his hand. Grahame-White won the Boston Globe’s $10,000 prize at the aero-meet, and he was possibly more popular than Taft at the time. As a bonus, John “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, Mayor of Boston, and future grandfather of President John F. Kennedy, jumped into the photo. Taft also campaigned in Quincy for reelection in the three-way presidential election of 1912. A tremendous crowd (continued)

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Taft (continued) came to the train station to greet Taft and hear him speak. With former President Theodore Roosevelt belatedly entering the race, Taft never had a chance, winning only Utah and Vermont. Taft and Roosevelt split the Republican vote, resulting in an easy victory for Democrat Woodrow Wilson.

Photos above and below show President Taft at the Quincy Railroad Station in 1912. Photos courtesy of Thomas Crane Public Library, Warren S. Parker Collection (Warren S. Parker, Photographer).

Taft had much in common with John Quincy Adams. Both continued public service after leaving the White House: Adams as a congressman and Taft as chief justice of the Supreme Court. No other president has served as a congressman or member of the Supreme Court after leaving the presidency. Stay tuned for the next issue of Quincy History, which will feature another presidential visit to our City of Presidents.

Doughboy Statue on the Move If you have not been to the Adams Academy recently, there is a hole in the ground where Bruce Wilder Saville’s “Doughboy” stood for over a half century. The statue was moved to a small park at the corner of Furnace Brook Parkway and Hancock Street, a logical location across the street from the Armory. On Tuesday, May 8, a crane from the Quincy Park Department lifted the 93-year-old memorial dedicated “To the men of Quincy who served in the World War 1917-1918.” The statue now has its own setting and the street view of the Adams Academy has returned to its nineteenth century appearance. Saville, who was born and raised in Quincy, was among the men who served in the Great War as a member of the the French Ambulance Corps and US Army Corps of Engineers. He experienced the horrors of the war firsthand and many of his works honor those who served in that war. A July 4, 1915 article in the Boston Herald speculated about the promising young Saville. “Although he is still in his early twenties and has studied but three years, he is said to be on the way to acquiring more than a national reputation.” The newspaper proved to be correct, as Saville’s statues and memorials are located all around the United States. In the early 1920s Saville became Head of the Department of Art at Ohio State University. It was while he taught in Ohio that he conceived of the statue, which he named the ”Victorious Soldier.” Saville completed the “Victorious Soldier” early in 1925 and it stood in one of the wings of the Ohio State Historical and Archeological Society. Saville offered to sculpt a replica for his hometown and it was dedicated on November 11, 1925, at a ceremony in front of the Coddington School. Eventually the “Doughboy,” as it has been locally called, came to the Adams Academy. The original “Victorious Soldier” has also been moved from place to place in Columbus, Ohio. Today it can be seen at the Ohio History Center.

“Doughboy Memorial” March 17, 1927. Photo courtesy of Thomas Crane Public Library, Warren S. Parker Collection (Warren S. Parker, Photographer).

Quincy Historical Society 8 Adams Street Quincy, MA 02169

Two Major Quincy Historical Society Events in 2018

HOWARD JOHNSON’S NIGHT Lecture & Exhibit

Adams Academy Thursday, June 21, 2018

7:00 p.m.

QUINCY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

125TH ANNIVERSARY

CELEBRATION The Grand Ballroom at Granite Links

Tuesday, October 16, 2018