Topic: Business
Businesses, corporations, executives, those commonly identified with a business
Charles Bulfinch is regarded as the first American-born architect. He rose to prominence designing public buildings, including the Boston State House and US Capitol Building, and was a West Boston native whose designs still dominate the historic portions of the West End today.
Harrison & Sally Otis Harrison Grey Otis was a major political and business figure in Boston during the Federalist Period. He is best known as a supporter of Charles Bulfinch, as Boston’s third mayor, and as a leader of the Hartford Convention. His wife, Sally, was a skilled socialite and hostess, who provided significant support for…
Boston stockbroker Thomas W. Lawson owned a racehorse, Boralma, who won $5000 in Kentucky’s Transylvania Stakes in 1900. The earnings were donated to the West End Nursery and Infants’ Hospital, with an amusing letter exchange between “Boralma” and “The Babies.”
Augustus Mantia and his family owned the West End parking lot Staniford Street during the 1960s. Cars parked on an unpaved field where vibrant tenements once stood before their demolition by the Boston Redevelopment Authority in the late 1950s. Public backlash against the Mantias’ monopoly over the lot – with high profits, abnormally low rent, and no competitive bidding process – led the City to close the parking lot in January 1971.
Leon Bishop lived in the West End in 1902 when he became one of the first amateur radio pioneers in Boston and the United States, broadcasting wireless radio concerts to listeners throughout the city.
The Williams Sisters occupied the Otis House in the mid 19th century, operating the grand Bulfinch Mansion as a boarding house.
“Doc” Sagansky, the Jewish gambling boss who became the oldest organized crime figure to serve prison time, is one of the old West End’s more notorious residents. The money Sagansky made from illegal bookkeeping funded his business ventures and philanthropy: legitimate on the surface, corrupt at the source.
Sumner Redstone was a West Ender and controlling shareholder of Viacom CBS. Redstone worked with his father to establish a series of companies, eventually forming one of the U.S.’s largest media companies.
