No. 20734 Dolan Funeral Home, 1140 Washington Street, Dorchester, image from Google Street View, October, 2020.
1140 Washington Street
In 1905 Charles B Dolan, undertaker, was listed at 2262 Dorchester Avenue in the 1905 Boston City Directory. He lived at 2260 Dorchester Avenue. By 1925 he was living 37 Radford Lane in the Carruth Street area, not far from Ashmont Station.
The family-owned Dolan Funeral Services has served the Dorchester, Milton and surrounding South Shore communities for 125 years. The original Dolan Funeral Services was established in 1885 by James W. Dolan who was born in West Roxbury. He was listed in the 1885 city directory as an undertaker, and his business and residence were located at 755 Dudley Street. By 1905 he was listed at 1429 Dorchester Avenue. Located in Boston’s “Fields Corner” neighborhood, the building was operated by Mr. Dolan until his death in 1935. In 1974, the home was donated to New England Medical Center for its North Dorchester Outpatient Clinic. In 1905 Charles B. Dolan was also listed as an undertaker but with an address at 2260 Dorchester Avenue in Lower Mills.
James Dolan’s son, the late Frederick J. Dolan was an engineering major and 1925 graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He joined the family business during Boston’s influenza outbreak of the 1930’s. He purchased the funeral service and building at 1140 Washington Street, Dorchester from his uncle, Charles B. Dolan, in 1954. The Dorchester site is currently one of two locations for Dolan Funeral Services. The Dorchester site dates from the earliest part of the 19th century and is considered a historic landmark. In 1968, Frederick Dolan purchased property on either side of the building and expanded the funeral home to twice its original size. The company is now led by Frederick’s son, W. Craig Dolan.
From Pat Dolan:
My grandfather, Charles B. Dolan, started the funeral home there after working for a while for his older brother, James’s funeral home at Field’s Corner, then on his own at or adjacent to the site in Lower Mills that is now the large red brick apartment building on Dorchester Ave, and for a while on Welles Ave.
James Dolan’s son Fred inherited the Field’s Corner business, started the East Milton funeral home, and bought the Lower Mills business following my grandfather’s death.