BLACKSTONIAN EXCLUSIVE
BLACKSTONIAN Finds Historical Archaeological Artifacts!!!!
by: Blackstonian Publisher/Editor Jamarhl Crawford
I just may be the Boston version of the Dos Equis guy.
Boy do I have a story to tell you….
So over the summer I was doing renovations on my house, which is an old school Roxbury classic right off of Humboldt Avenue. The house was built in 1875 and my Grandparents bought the house in 1938. They were the first Black family on the street. The second Black family to move in was Art Carney of the Duke Ellington Band.
During this entire renovation process I found alot of interesting things throughout the house; my grandfathers boyhood sled from the 1920’s, an old washboard from the 1930’s and when I cleaned out the basement I even found some Coal, as in Coal that used to get shoveled into a furnace for heat.
When I got to the front of the house and began ripping up the old floorboards on the front porch, I was amazed to find a pile of “Stuff” in the middle of wet sand and bricks. Upon further inspection I found hundreds of documents, a few intact glass bottles and an old toy car.
DOCUMENTS
The documents turned out to be several stacks of receipts “Record for the sale of liquor” they were all dated from 1938-1940. Back then liquor was delivered to a home like a pharmaceutical, with a receipt given describing the type of liquor, the amount, the price and the use, they all cited “medicinal” reasons.
Many of the liquors purchased are prominent companies like J&B scotch for example.
There were also receipts and invoices from a Company called SS Pierce which delivered goods to the local pharmacies on Humboldt Ave.
BOTTLES
1) Dark Half Pint Bottle which bears the embossing “Federal law forbids sale or reuse of this bottle”
2)Whiting’s Milk Bottle: Whiting’s was an old school Milk company from Somerville/Charlestown from the days of horse drawn carriages which delivered Fresh same-day Farm Milk packed under ice. The Whiting’s company was one of many small, local companies which ultimately got bought out by Hood Milk.
