 The establishments profiled in The Historic Shops and Restaurants
of Boston—all in business for a century or more—embody
the city’s spirit and embrace its history and strong
sense of tradition. Author Phyllis Méras takes the reader
to some of the most beautiful, evocative locations in Boston,
all the while weaving the shops’ and restaurants’ histories
with that of the city.
Whether offering ornamental hardware for the fine old residences
of the city; gold, silver or platinum flutes made in a 160-year
old former carriage house, or candies with a romantic history
that includes a shipwreck and an enterprising young widow, the
superlative quality of the goods and services they provide has
allowed them to endure in a city of discriminating shoppers and
diners. From a restaurant with the oldest hand-carved bar in
America, to a vintage clothing shop where future Presidents sold
their second-hand clothing, to bakeries, bookbinders, art galleries,
and farm stands, these venerable establishments continue to provide
the best of what Boston has to offer.
The guide profiles:
• 52 businesses including booksellers, barber shops, food and spirits
shops, general stores and clothiers, art galleries and societies, stonecutters,
and more;
• 7 places to eat and drink, including fine restaurants, cafes, and pubs;
• 6 inns and hotels.
The address, phone, transit stops, and opening hours for each
establishment are included.
In addition, more than 30 additional establishments are mentioned
in brief.
In this book, which covers not only downtown Boston
but its outlying districts and its neighboring towns, are hardware
stores, bookshops, tobacconists, fishmongers, grocers – what
is said to be the nation’s oldest family-run barber shop.
There are shoe companies and flag companies and locksmiths, florists
and bakeries and clothing stores, art galleries and music stores.
Founded by Puritans as it was, Boston has always taken its social
obligations seriously and among its long-standing enterprises are
an animal hospital and a thrift shop for those in need.
Through the years, immigrants from many lands
have settled in the city and established their own communities. Often restaurants
and bakeries are in first and second-generation Italian hands; taverns and stone-cutting
yards are Irish-American-owned; clothing stores owned by the descendants of Jewish
immigrants.
From its very beginning in 1630, Boston was a bustling port with energetic tradespeople
clustered around its docks. In 1996, conscious of this enterprising past, the
city inaugurated a Boston Business Heritage Project that pinpointed city businesses
that had existed and prospered down through the centuries. Some were 200 years
old; some 150, some 100. Nearly 200 were found that were more than a century
old. Not all of these have survived in this last decade, but many have, and in
this book their histories are recounted. |