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 Dorchester Maps
Note: if the quality of these maps is too low for your use, please get in touch. We have better quality images, but the digital files are larger than we feel comfortable putting on the web.
Some maps depicting Dorchester appear below. These are not the only ones to include Dorchester. Anyone interested in this topic should consult institutions with large collections, such as the Massachusetts Archives, the Boston Atheneum, the Boston Public Library, etc.
See especially the atlases below which each have many plates that are quite detailed.
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Certainly the most useful maps for tracing the development of Dorchester after its annexation to Boston are the so-called fire insurance maps. Griffith M. Hopkins produced an atlas of Boston including a volume for Dorchester in 1874 and again in 1882. George Bromley followed in 1884 with new volumes every five years or so. Richards produced one atlas in 1899. Richard Heath in From Pear Orchard to Multi-Family Housing: A History of the Marshall P. Wilder Estate. Jamaica Plain, 2003, cites a 1931 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map.
Illustrations of details of one small corner of Dorchester are given to show how the development of Dorchester proceeded over the course of 60 years after annexation. Some neighborhoods filled in a little earlier than our example at the corner of Carruth Street and Adams Street (now Gallivan Boulevard), but all of Dorchester was substantially complete by 1933 when the Bromley company issued its last Dorchester atlas.
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Here are some images from the Atheneum archive related to this topic. Click on any of these images to open a slideshow of all 948 images.
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Created: July 24, 2003 Modified: May 21, 2009
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