Walking tour this Sunday of Port Norfolk
Earl Taylor
The Friends of the Boston HarborWalk are delighted that Ed Roche, AIA, former member of the BRA under Mayor Flynn, will lead us on a guided tour of the Port Norfolk section of the HarborWalk at the mouth of the Neponset River.
All are welcome, but please only RSVP if you plan to come, as space is limited and we want to be able to contact you in case of inclement weather. The tour will begin in front of the Venezia Restaurant. There is plentiful parking. The MBTA #201 bus goes to within 1/2 mile of the restaurant.
Port Norfolk, located in the southeast corner of Dorchester, is a scenic, secluded neighborhood with mid-19th century Greek Revival and Italianate housing along the banks of the Neponset River.
European settlers first named this area Pine Neck in the 1600s, for its pine-covered hill then-surrounded by marshland. It was only settled in the 1850s and 1860s after the Old Colony Railroad opened Port Norfolk up to residential and commercial development and the area was filled in with hundreds of loads of gravel. The grand architecture of its residences dates from this time.
The railroad brought with it industrialization of the Neponset River shoreline. Remnants of the former Putnam and Company Nail Works, the A.T. Stearns and Laban Pratt Lumber Companies and the George Lawley & Son Inc. Shipyard buildings can all be seen along the HarborWalk. Ed will be joined by longtime neighbors Maria and John Lyons. Together they will tell the most recent chapter of the Port Norfolk story--the successful expansion of Pope John Paul Park.
The Friends of the Boston HarborWalk is a volunteer organization affiliated with Boston Harbor Now (formerly The Boston Harbor Association). We meet monthly and work to promote and enhance Boston's 47-mile HarborWalk. To get involved, contact Mike Manning at m...@avsglp.com.