This row of buildings at Paul Gore and Lamartine Streets was once known as Jacob’s Block. The corner building was a pharmacy with a soda stand. Older Jamaica Plain residents recall pharmacists Mr. Wholley and Charlie Tuite. A bar stood on the corner across from the pharmacy and featured entertainers on Saturday nights. This property later became the center of a battle waged between the landlord George Carroll and a group of residents supported by community activists and organizations.
Carroll bought this rundown property from the City of Boston at auction for a few thousand dollars, hoping to cash in as values soared. His treatment of the tenants caused him to be sentenced by a housing court judge to live in the building himself. After 11 years of being thwarted from cashing in by local affordable housing activists, Carroll was finally forced to sell the building to Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation to be developed as the Nate Smith House, units of affordable housing for families and frail elders.
Photograph taken by and provided courtesy of Mark Hoffman.
