Postcards, Posters, and Other Vintage Travel Images #3
Envelope Park Postcard1
I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising that some vintage tourism images from the first half of the last century will not match the current reality. In many instances, the original subject may be renamed, demolished and/or redeveloped. The fate of this postcard’s Envelope Park is not well documented online.
In searching online for “Envelope Park,” the only direct reference to the park is this post card in several different online location. Something that came up, though, in the search on “Envelope Park, Dedham, Mass” were references to something called “Mother Brook.”
Mother Brook is a stream that flows from the Charles River in Dedham, Massachusetts, to the Neponset River in the Hyde Park section of Boston, Massachusetts. Dug by English colonists in the early 17th century, it was the first man-made canal in the colonies, providing the only water power for mills in Dedham. “Eventually, dams and mills were constructed at five locations called ‘privileges’ in Dedham and in what is now the Readville section of Hyde Park, which was originally part of Dedham. Mother Brook provided water power at various times for industrial mills of several types, for the manufacture of cotton, wool, paper, wire, and carpets.2”
From the early 1930s to the mid 1970s, the mill on the second “privilege” (mill pond) was owned and operated by Boston Envelope Company, for making paper drinking cups. “The swimming area at present day Mill Pond Park was considered a perk of working at the Boston Envelope Company in 1936.3”
I suspect that, perhaps, the modern Mill Pond Park is the site of the postcard’s Envelope Park.
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- “Envelope Park, Dedham, Mass.” Card. Tichnor Bros. Inc., Boston, Mass., [ca. 1930–1945]. Digital Commonwealth, ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/cj82k8668 (accessed December 18, 2017).
- Industrialization of Mother Brook – Wikipedia
- Mother Brook – Wikipedia
Postcards, Posters, and Other Vintage Travel Images is a Haw Creek project that shares vintage travel related images that, for the most part, have been found on line.
Unless otherwise stated, there are no known copyright restrictions.
