Our Site's History & Our Neighborhood

Our Site's History

The former Upham’s Corner Comfort Station was built in 1912 to support the expanding streetcar system in Boston and is listed as a Historic Boston Landmark. This is part of the inspiration for our name, Comfort Kitchen.

Enjoy these photos courtesy of historicboston.org and a bit of the history:

The Upham’s Corner Comfort Station served Boston’s streetcar system and is near the MBTA’s Fairmount commuter rail line, as well as being within the City of Boston’s Upham’s Corner Main Street District. The Comfort Station is a one-story stucco and tile “mission style” building built as a convenience station in 1912 to support the expanding streetcar system in Boston.

It was designed by Dorchester architect William H. Besarick, who also designed the nearby municipal building at the corner of Columbia Road and Bird Street, as well as many triple-decker residences in the area.

The Comfort Station lies on what was once part of the Dorchester North Burying Ground, which is listed in the State and National Register of Historic Places and within the cemetery’s Boston Landmark designation — the oldest landmark in all of Dorchester, 1634.

 

Our Location: Upham's Corner Dorchester


Comfort Kitchen is so proud to be coming to Upham’s Corner, Dorchester.

Before it was a rural town and its own municipality, Dorchester was home to the indigenous Massachusett tribe. Now it is the largest neighborhood in Boston and home to the most diverse population in the city! Dorchester has many firsts in the country: first supermarket (store with a butcher shop) right across from Comfort Kitchen, first chocolate factory “Baker Chocolate”, first elementary school “The Mather School”, first community health center, and also Boston’s oldest house: “James Blake House” dating back to 1661 when Boston was a village of only 3000 people.

Upham’s Corner, Fields corner, Codman square, Savin Hill, Ashmont, Cedar Grove, Harrison square, Columbia Point, Lower Mills, Neponset/Port Norfolk, and South Bay makes up Dorchester bringing in it’s own culture and identity.

Nyacko & Biplaw have the pleasure of calling Dorchester their home. The vibrancy, diversity, and innovation that Dorchester offers make it the right place for Comfort Kitchen and we are so grateful to live and work in such a historic place!

 

The Strand Theater


In continuation of our neighborhood and history appreciation posts, we’re highlighting the Strand Theatre . We’re looking forward to the continued investment, programming, and updates in the works as well as the new library to come next door. The Strand is an essential beacon for our neighborhood that we and the city as a whole must continue to steward and promote.

Excerpt from Boston Magazine:
https://www.bostonmagazine.com/property/2018/08/24/dorchester-strand-theatre/

“it was dubbed ‘New England’s most beautiful theatre’ by the Boston Sunday Post, which declared it ‘a lasting monument to an ideal—the ideal of building a great people’s theatre’ with tickets ‘at prices so moderate that all the people could easily pay.’”

Between the 80s and 2000s the Strand welcomed an exciting and diverse lineup of performers and speakers that include: Tracey Chapman, the Count Basie Orchestra, Billie Holiday, BB King, Julius Hemphill, Boogie Down Productions, Public Enemy, New Edition, Strand Teen Players, Louis Farrakhan speaks, Savion Glover, the first American performance by the group STOMP, Phish, The Urban Nutcracker, Kirk Franklin, Boney James, Pro Arte Orchestra, LL Cool J, among others. We even heard a young Jay Z may have performed here?!

Excerpt from Historic Boston Inc:
https://historicboston.org/the-historic-heartbeat-in-uphams-corner-commercial-buildings/

“Built in 1918, the Strand Theatre is significant as one of Boston‘s first great movie palaces, as opposed to earlier theaters that were built to accommodate live shows and were later adapted into cinemas. The building’s distinctive terra-cotta and arched façade was designed by Funk & Wilcox, but after only four decades The Strand closed in the late 1960s in a state of disrepair. In the early 1970s, the City of Boston took the Strand by eminent domain to rehabilitate and bring life back to the theater. It reopened in 1979 and entered into a 25-year agreement with the M. Harriet McCormick Center for the Arts. The City has retained a management role for the Strand, now refurbished, and has actively marketed it recently for urban arts performances.”

 
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