Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Wollaston Charms

Wollaston is a quaint neighborhood located in the city of Quincy, Massachusetts boasting a beach on Quincy Bay with distant views of the Boston Skyline and a small downtown area with friendly shops and historic nuances. Quincy is known as the city of Presidents (where it all began!) as well as Adam's hometown. Obviously, I've been to the neighborhood more times than I can count, but this weekend while we were dog sitting combined with warm temperatures conducive to long walks and explorations, I took a few photographs and decided to share.
Setting out to Wollaston Beach with Buddy.
We actually walked the beach twice - on an overcast Friday afternoon... ...and then a longer stroll on a sunny blue skied Saturday morning. (We were up at 8:30 which is pretty early for us on a Saturday, believe it or not!)
Coffee in one hand, dog leash in the other, it was a perfect morning.
The strolls continued around the tree lined residential neighborhood streets.
I love this dog! The edge of the neighborhood is defined by a vast stretch of marshland area.
We definitely tuckered Buddy out after all these long walks.But apparently not ourselves, we only worked up an appetite and were back out a couple hours later in search of breakfast.
Newcomb Farms at 31 Beale Street did the trick. It's not fancy food, just your basic breakfast and brunch fare served at a reasonable price.
Their weekend special menu displayed a healthy dose of Red Sox pride!
Hot coffees were delivered promptly.
I ordered the New England Breakfast ($6.75) consisting of French Toast, Scrambled Eggs and four sausage links. I half expected this plate to have home fries accompanying but I ordered pretty quickly without fully scanning the menu listings. 
Across the street is The Wollaston Theater which closed down a number of years ago. Adam recounted dollar movie nights and expressed a fondness for the single screen theater venue that once housed live performances and motion pictures.
It's too bad the cinema closed down, it would definitely be a welcome addition to the neighborhood if it were re-opened.
Peering in the window front, the antique ticket booth still stands among an abandoned looking space.
Speaking of abandoned buildings, the one pictured below just up the street holds quite a significance in terms of popular culture icons.
As evidenced by a small "HJ" orange logo embedded in the stonework of the front stoop, this was the first ever Howard Johnson's.
It wasn't a motor lodge as we know them today but simply a corner drugstore operating a soda fountain.
I thought that was pretty cool.
I also liked this vintage Mobilgas pump that sat at on display at the auto body shop next door. The last sale clocked in at $4.40, probably from as long ago as when the HoJo's was alive and kickin'.
Flash forward to present time, the current pop culture trend of cupcakes sees business booming at the locally owned Babycakes.
At 163 Beale Street it was our last stop before heading back. I ordered four signature cupcakes to-go and later enjoyed the Boston Cream (front right.) It was an excellent cupcake!!
Also pictured is the Peanut Butter Cup, Tiramisu, and "The Babycakes". The cupcakes are baked fresh daily using ingredients from local suppliers. Each day of the week features different flavors. 
One last photograph of a building with historical significance to end the Wollaston montage. The picturesque Josiah Quincy House, the country home of the revolutionary war Colonel sits tucked away on Muirhead Street.
Hope you enjoyed the tour!

20 comments:

  1. As soon as I saw that your post was about Wollaston, I said to myself, I really hope she went to Babycakes!! Phew, glad to see you did :) I love their cupcakes and the owner Kerri is the sweetest. I haven't checked out the rest of Wollaston but now I want to. It's charming! Thanks for the tip.

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  2. Oh man, can I bring Indigo with me to come visit. How adorable each place was.

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  3. I love these photos! You make everything seem like an adventure!

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  4. What a great tour of Wollaston! My bf and I both live in Quincy (he in Wollaston and myself near the center) but I've never really investigated the history. I do love walks at Wollaston Beach with my pup though... and now I need to go to Babycakes!

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  5. I love that area and hope to move there at the end of the summer

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  6. Hehe 830am is so late for us on a Saturday. It's amazing how much dogs will change your schedule! I need to make it down to the south shore more often!

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  7. That's my 'hood! I love it, what a great post, you guys covered a lot of ground.

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  8. Looks like a great day...nothing better on a warm spring day than a walk on the beach - a dog in hand is just an added bonus!

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  9. Buddy is so cute! I love the look of those cupcakes too!

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  10. I would like to spend every morning walking on the beach... and then I'd like one of those cupcakes!

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  11. this is kind of unrelated, but i about lost my beans last night watching some show on the food network that showed a restaurant in boston with the most amazing looking lobster roll. i totally thought of you when i saw that lobster dripping in butter being piled on the roll. so much so that i completely blanked and forgot the name of the establishment.

    i bet you've eaten there. like 10x though.

    jealous.

    xo,
    c

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  12. Great photos/recap! And those cupcakes look pretty darn awesome.

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  13. whoa thats a big doggie. It must be so nice to be able to take walks alongside a beach

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  14. Wollaston is very quaint...I love New England towns like that. Great recap Daisy!

    A cup of coffee and a dog and a beach. Nothing could be more perfect on a weekend!

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    1. Wollaston is a section of a much larger city. The last time it could even remotely be considered “quaint” was in the 40s or 50s and that’s only due to the perspective of time.

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  15. Babycakes is probably my favorite cupcake place in Boston - so good!

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  16. Cool pics of the HoJo. Those were actually the original business offices of the early HoJo chain. Howard Johnson's first store (where he first sold ice cream) was across the street where the Wollaston train station parking lot now is. His first full restaurant was actually in Quincy and his first franchised location was in Orleans, MA.

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  17. There is a marker over near the t-station marking where the building was. The Howard Johnsons candy factory was a couple blocks away as well. Its now owned by Eastern Nazarene college

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  18. That was NEVER a Howard Johnson’s store. They were offices mostly used for storage. The first Howard Johnson’s was on the other side of the T station in what now is the Wollaston MBTA parking lot. There is a granite marker at the Beale Street edge of the parking lot noting this. Ithe whole block burned down in the 70s when it was scheduled for demolition.

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