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History time: When JP and Boston streets were lit by gas lamps

Print | Comments (0) Posted by Matt Rocheleau November 29, 2011 09:00 AM

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(Courtesy: Historical Society of Riverton)

An example of an original gas lamp.

Part of an occasional series highlighting a piece of neighborhood history. The following is the first installment in a two-part series about the history of gas street lighting in Jamaica Plain and elsewhere in Boston. Based on interviews with Bob and Dick Shields.

By Peter O'Brien, Guest Columnist

"He made the night a little brighter wherever he would go
The old lamplighter of long, long ago.
His snowy hair was so much whiter, beneath the candle glow
The old lamplighter of long, long ago."
-- By Charles Tobias and Nat Simon, 1946

The Old Lamplighter song was introduced in 1946 by singer Sammy Kaye and it became an immediate hit; topping the charts for several weeks. Our family's copy, on an old RCA Victor shellac-type record, was nearly worn-out on our old wind-up Victrola!

The song was, however, a bit anachronistic in that we had a lamplighter in our neighborhood when the song came out; not "long, long ago" as the song's timeline states. His duties were a little different, but he still patrolled his assigned routes and kept the gas streetlamps clean, working properly and, during wartime, properly blacked out as required by the War Department's Air Raid Regulations.

Our lamplighter
Columbus McDonnell Shields, also known as George, was born on October 26, 1899 at 19 Plainfield Street, between Williams Street and Brookley Road, Jamaica Plain. George attended St. Thomas Aquinas grammar school but a search of family memories doesn't find a high school for him.

(Courtesy: Bob Shields)

George Shields

George married Catherine Veronica Sullivan who was born in 1898 at 82 West Selden Street, Mattapan. Catherine claimed kinship to the great boxer, John L. Sullivan of Roxbury, known as the "Boston Strong Boy," who was the first heavyweight champion of gloved boxing. George and Catherine were married at St. Angela's church in Mattapan.

The Shields family moved a lot; living first at 50 Burnet Street, then 21 Rosemary Street, followed by 9 Hall Street, 149 South Street and, finally, 199 South Street. Moving a lot was very common in the dreary depression days of the 1930s.

The Shields' had four children, Anna, Marylou, and the twins, Richard and Robert, who were born on July 16, 1931. Richard is the older twin by 12 minutes. The girls graduated from St. Thomas Aquinas High School and the boys from Commerce High in the classes of 1949 and 1950 respectively. Bob had a long and varied career in accounting including 20 years at the Boston Athenaeum and Dick worked for 39 years at Boston Edison Company, now known as NSTAR.

The Shields children were raised on Hood's milk because George worked there from about 1930 as a home-delivery driver of a horse-drawn wagon or, in season, a pung, or sleigh out of Hood's barn on Anson Street. George worked with long-time Hood's driver, Louis Sabadini, who was a legend at Hood's and is still fondly remembered throughout the southern end of Jamaica Plain

George's employment was abruptly terminated when Hood's policy of a $50 bonus upon the birth of a child was hit with the birth of the Shields' twins. Hood's reneged on the double bonus and George was gone. Thereafter, milk on the Shields' table came from Griffin's, Knapp's, Weiler-Sterling's or Whiting's dairies.

Fortunately, George was able to find a job as a gas lamplighter at the height of the depression in 1935.

History of gas street lighting in Boston
Gas street lighting was started in England in 1807. The gas was generated from burning coal. In 1816 the first gas streetlamps were installed in Baltimore. By 1822 gas streetlamps were running in Boston and in 1823, the Boston Gas Light Company was formed along with several small gas street lighting companies. In 1850, the Jamaica Plain Gas Light Company joined the growing field of local street lighting firms.

The development of Edison's electric streetlights in 1879 slowed the growth of gas street lighting, so in 1903, eight local companies formed the Boston Consolidated Gas Company with its long-time headquarters, built in 1927, at 100 Arlington Street, Boston. In 1932 the company's McBride Street Service Center was built on the site of the present Boston English High School. In 1953 the company changed over to natural gas from manufactured coal gas.

Boston Consolidated Gas became Boston Gas in 1955. Eastern Enterprises later acquired it and in 2000 it became Keyspan, which is now part of National Grid Company.

There are several clusters of gas lamps still operating in certain neighborhoods and at individual homes around Boston.

The Welsbach Street Lighting Company
George's new job was with the Welsbach Street Lighting Company of America. Welsbach's local office was at 331 Belgrade Avenue, Roslindale. Bernard A. Fitzgerald, of Quincy, was the Welsbach District Manager.

Carl Auer von Welsbach (1858-1929) was an Austrian scientist and inventor whose patents included the metal filament light bulb, the flints used in cigarette lighters and a significantly improved mantle for gas streetlamps. His patented new cloth mantle was given the charming German name of Gluhstrumpf, or "glow-stocking" and they were made from about 1890 to 1941 in Riverton, New Jersey. The energetic inventor founded several other companies including the Welsbach Street Lighting Company that manufactured the gas streetlamps used in hundreds of cities across America. He even got into electric street lighting.

At some unknown date and for an unknown duration, Welsbach obtained a contract with Boston Consolidated Gas Company for operation and maintenance of the company's gas streetlamps. We're not sure of the full scope of the contract, but it definitely included the southern end of Jamaica Plain where our lamplighter was employed.

The early lamplighters had to light and extinguish the gas lamps each day. Later on, mechanical timers were installed to automate the on/off cycle. The early lamplighters were paid an annual flat rate per streetlamp of about $8 to service and maintain the lamps on their assigned route. So, the duties and pay were somewhat changed when George Shields came aboard at Welsbach.

Acknowledgements: Special thanks to: Bob Matthews, a longtime former resident of Boynton Street, who suggested this story; and John McCormick, Gaslight News editor at the Historical Society of Riverton, New Jersey, for the information about Welsbach and use of their gas lamp images. Their website is at www.rivertonhistory.com.

This column is a submission from the Jamaica Plain Historical Society.

To read more about the rich history of Jamaica Plain, visit the Jamaica Plain Historical Society website at: http://www.jphs.org/.