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Always Something Doing: Boston's Infamous Scollay Square
Boston's legendary Scollay Square is still fondly remembered today as the home of vaudeville and burlesque theaters, tattoo parlors, hot dog stands, barrooms, bookstores, shooting galleries, and other entertainment attractions. Located in the heart of downtown Boston, Scollay Square was a place where people of all ages and walks of life, from Harvard College students to transient sailors on shore leave, went to forget their troubles and have a good time.
Now the long, colorful, and occasionally uproarious history of "Good Old Scollay Square" is recaptured in this lively look at the notorious Boston district. David Kruh chronicles the story of the Square from its origins in the Colonial era, through its heyday as an entertainment mecca, to current plans for the redevelopment of City Hall Plaza. He interweaves the personal reminiscences of Bostonians and entertainers with historical narrative to re-create the flavor and essence of Scollay Square. Here one will revisit the Old Howard Theater, Crawford House, and Joe & Nemo's hot dog stand, and relive the days when vaudevillians, slapstick comedians, and stripteasers Ann Corio and Sally Keith ruled the Square.
Always Something Doing will refresh the memories of those old enough to recall the good times in Scollay Square, and it will provide younger Boston residents with a rich portrait of an enduring part of their city's fascinating history.
Now the long, colorful, and occasionally uproarious history of "Good Old Scollay Square" is recaptured in this lively look at the notorious Boston district. David Kruh chronicles the story of the Square from its origins in the Colonial era, through its heyday as an entertainment mecca, to current plans for the redevelopment of City Hall Plaza. He interweaves the personal reminiscences of Bostonians and entertainers with historical narrative to re-create the flavor and essence of Scollay Square. Here one will revisit the Old Howard Theater, Crawford House, and Joe & Nemo's hot dog stand, and relive the days when vaudevillians, slapstick comedians, and stripteasers Ann Corio and Sally Keith ruled the Square.
Always Something Doing will refresh the memories of those old enough to recall the good times in Scollay Square, and it will provide younger Boston residents with a rich portrait of an enduring part of their city's fascinating history.
- GenresHistory
192 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1990
About the author
David Kruh
7 books2 followersDavid is the published author of several books, notably the only two written exclusively about Boston's erstwhile entertainment district, Scollay Square.
This year saw the publication of Little Mister Victory, the story of co-author Tina Drzal's decades-long search for the woman who abandoned her father on VJ Day. Using cutting-edge DNA analysis and good-old-fashioned detective work (burrowing into newspaper archives, ecclesiastic and government documents) we found the mother, along with a surprise; abandoning her newborn baby was not the most shocking act of her life.
David's 2022 novel is based on the audacious 1962 escape by three inmates from Alcatraz. INSEPARABLE tells the story of a thirteen year-old Sausalito boy who discovers two of the escapees near death on a Sausalito beach. The adventure begins when he decides to help them to freedom. His writing has also appeared in the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, History Magazine, Yankee Magazine, Boston Magazine and elsewhere. A published and produced playwright, his musical about the Boston Red Sox (The Curse of the Bambino) premiered at Boston's Lyric Stage in 2001 and still ranks among the most successful productions in this equity theater's history.
This year saw the publication of Little Mister Victory, the story of co-author Tina Drzal's decades-long search for the woman who abandoned her father on VJ Day. Using cutting-edge DNA analysis and good-old-fashioned detective work (burrowing into newspaper archives, ecclesiastic and government documents) we found the mother, along with a surprise; abandoning her newborn baby was not the most shocking act of her life.
David's 2022 novel is based on the audacious 1962 escape by three inmates from Alcatraz. INSEPARABLE tells the story of a thirteen year-old Sausalito boy who discovers two of the escapees near death on a Sausalito beach. The adventure begins when he decides to help them to freedom. His writing has also appeared in the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, History Magazine, Yankee Magazine, Boston Magazine and elsewhere. A published and produced playwright, his musical about the Boston Red Sox (The Curse of the Bambino) premiered at Boston's Lyric Stage in 2001 and still ranks among the most successful productions in this equity theater's history.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 17, 2022
Boston is my workplace for nearly 20 years. I always try to learn about the place, its historical significance, and about popular and not so popular places of the city/ town I work .
Boston Commons, Public gardens, Commonwealth Avenue, Copley square, South station , small lanes behind State house - all are my regular wandering places.
Green line and red line are my favorite subway lines and it looks like the Green line was the first Subway in the US. Most of the green line trains stop at Government center.
One of the day's I noticed "Scollay Square" the name crafted on the Subway station wall. After many enquiries, one of my friends said that "Scollay Squar" was gone during the Boston's Urban Renewal in the '60s . From then on I learnt about Scollay Square, Old Howard, Pemburton Square and about old popular places in bits and pieces from many of my friends and aquiantances. ( I did not Google - I wanted to hear from people who knew thos e places from their near and dear)
A few months before the COVID lockdowns, CIty of Boston started a Little Free Library in the Washington street near OLD corner book store (Chipotle - there now, Borders book store used to be there a few years back). On one of the days, I got my hand on this old little book "Always Something Doing - Scollay Square" at this Free library.
I read this book very slowly (4-5 pages a day). Most of the days, I go and visit the areas described in the book - the new City plaza - the lost Penburton Square, JFK Building - OLD Hanover street . OLD Steam Kettle is still there though with Starbucks on the old Sears cresent, Brattle books is there in different part of the city. OLD state house remains as a museum now. However, I felt a sadness in my heart, that Boston has lost one of its livley places.
This book is a great book describing the birth, life and the end of Scollay Square.
Boston Commons, Public gardens, Commonwealth Avenue, Copley square, South station , small lanes behind State house - all are my regular wandering places.
Green line and red line are my favorite subway lines and it looks like the Green line was the first Subway in the US. Most of the green line trains stop at Government center.
One of the day's I noticed "Scollay Square" the name crafted on the Subway station wall. After many enquiries, one of my friends said that "Scollay Squar" was gone during the Boston's Urban Renewal in the '60s . From then on I learnt about Scollay Square, Old Howard, Pemburton Square and about old popular places in bits and pieces from many of my friends and aquiantances. ( I did not Google - I wanted to hear from people who knew thos e places from their near and dear)
A few months before the COVID lockdowns, CIty of Boston started a Little Free Library in the Washington street near OLD corner book store (Chipotle - there now, Borders book store used to be there a few years back). On one of the days, I got my hand on this old little book "Always Something Doing - Scollay Square" at this Free library.
I read this book very slowly (4-5 pages a day). Most of the days, I go and visit the areas described in the book - the new City plaza - the lost Penburton Square, JFK Building - OLD Hanover street . OLD Steam Kettle is still there though with Starbucks on the old Sears cresent, Brattle books is there in different part of the city. OLD state house remains as a museum now. However, I felt a sadness in my heart, that Boston has lost one of its livley places.
This book is a great book describing the birth, life and the end of Scollay Square.
July 17, 2018
If you've ever wondered about the Steaming Tea Kettle near Boston's Government Center or who came up with the idea of exotic dancers wearing tassels, this is the book for you. Kruh, a transplanted New Yorker, wrote this book to memorialize Scollay Square, a section of Boston that was famous (infamous?) as a commercial and entertainment center before it was bulldozed in the name of progress. Find out how it all started with a patriot during the American Revolution, how a group of Christians anticipating Doomsday paved the way for one of the greatest burlesque theaters in history, and what Calvin Coolidge was up to before he became President of the United States. Along the way you'll hear about the importance of Scollay Square to the war effort in the 40s, the lessons available to Harvard students studying medicine and the classics, and a peripatetic statue. A fun read for people who love Boston and for people who love history that textbooks overlook.
January 30, 2013
While the writing skews to the hokey sentimental at times, ASD still manages to be an interesting book about the destruction/relocation Boston's former red light district and the working class West End neighborhood to make way for Boston's brutalist City Hall complex in 1968.
Leonard Nimoy grew up in the West End...
How crazy would property values in the West End be if it'd been gentrified?
Leonard Nimoy grew up in the West End...
How crazy would property values in the West End be if it'd been gentrified?
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews