Hyde Park, incorporated as an individual town for a mere fifty years before being annexed to Boston, is a picturesque and vibrant neighborhood of considerable natural charm. This remarkable new photographic history chronicles the development of the area from its earliest days through the mid-twentieth century. The development of Hyde Park began under the direction of a group of well-to-do businessmen who plotted the course of streets and built their own homes along Fairmont Avenue. By the turn of the century, Hyde Park was a bustling community with many local industries: the American Tool & Machine Company, the Brainard Milling Machine Company, and the paper mills of Tileston & Hollingsworth were all located here. Despite the existence of this strong industrial base, however, Hyde Park never sacrificed the natural beauty of attractions like the Neponset River, the Blue Hills, and Stony Brook Valley. Mr. Sammarco's book celebrates the coexistence of industry and natural surroundings throughout Hyde Park's rich past.
Anthony Mitchell Sammarco is a well-known area historian who writes bi-weekly articles on local history in the Hyde Park-Roslindale Gazette and has authored several popular visual histories in the Images of America book series. He is a member of the Hyde Park Historical Society, from whose archives many of the images in this collection have come.