Back in April, Mark posted about “Grab Village,” a completely forgotten district of Roxbury and Boston that extended on both sides of Tremont street around Ruggles, in the no man’s land where the southwest corridor, BPD headquarters, and the future site of Tremont Crossing. He’d heard of Grab Village, but had to do some serious sleuthing to find out where it had been.
His search led him to the Sunday, September 23, 1888, edition of the Boston Daily Globe and a lengthy article titled “Roxbury Explored.” The article dives into all sorts of great tidbits about Roxbury during its heyday 125 years ago, including descriptions of the stores at Dudley, the crowds in Grab Village, the Roxbury peach crop, the animosity of Roxbury youths towards Boston “chucks,” the parting stone at Eliot Square, and much more.
It took me a while to locate a PDF of the page in question, but I’ve found it and am hosting it online here. Take a look for yourself, and think about Grab Village next time you drive down Tremont Street.