Thane Street Historic District

Thane Street is located in central Dorchester, extending roughly south from Harvard Street toward the Codman Square area. The historic district encompasses three brick apartment houses extending from the Harvard Street corner south along the west side of Thane Street. All are three stories in height, with stone foundations, flat roofs, and a shallow setback from the sidewalk. 22-24 and 26-28 Thane Street are virtually identical, with four-bay facades that have rounded bays at the outside, and a recessed entrance with elaborate surround at the center. 30-32 Thane Street is wider, with frontage and an entrance on Harvard Street, as well as a polygonal projecting bay at the street corner.^[2]

The Thane Street area was a sparsely developed area with a few single-family residences prior to 1910, when Thane Street was laid out. The Dorchester area had become the destination of a major migration of Jews from Boston's North End and the adjacent city of Chelsea, spurred by the extension of electrified streetcar service, and a major 1908 fire in Chelsea which left more than 15,000 Jews homeless. These three buildings were construction by Louis Silverman and Isaac Shapiro on land purchased from the Carlton family. 30-32 Thane Street was originally built as a mixed-use property, with retail space on the ground floor which has since been converted to residential use. The Jewish population migrated out of the area in the 1950s, accompanied by an influx of African Americans to the area. The Thane Street area was the subject of an early urban housing development program of the city of Boston in the 1960s known as the Model City program.^[2]

• National Register of Historic Places listings in southern Boston, Massachusetts