Boston Consolidated Gas Company scrapbook

Collection — Box: 1

Identifier: BC-2025-036

Scope and Contents

One scrapbook created by Boston Consolidated Gas Company employee Oliver V. Hernandez (1908-1996). The scrapbook primarily contains images and articles from the company newsletter, "Gas Lines". Employee headshots are accompanied by information about each individual’s job title and length of service with the company. Hernandez added annotations noting dates of death when applicable. Additional newsletter clippings highlight company events such as Golden Anniversary parties, Irish Night dances, Quarter Century Club dinners, and softball games. The scrapbook also includes photographs documenting Boston Consolidated Gas Company buildings, equipment, and workspaces, as well as newspaper clippings. There is one loose photograph of employees from 1998 which was added to the scrapbook after Hernandez's death in 1996.

Dates

Creation: 1938 - 1998

Creator

Hernandez, Oliver V. (Oliver Vincent), 1908-1996 (Person)
Boston Consolidated Gas Company (Organization)

Access Note

Open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

These materials are made available for use in research, teaching and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright Law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source. The original authors may retain copyright to the materials.

Biographical note: Oliver V. Hernandez

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Oliver Vincent Hernandez was born on November 3, 1908, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Eleuterio C. V. and Esther (Wise) Hernandez. He married Roberta Mary Eaton in 1929, and they had three children: Paul J., Janet M., and Oliver V. Hernandez, Jr. Hernandez worked for the Boston Consolidated Gas Company as a gas mechanic in the mid- to late-twentieth century. He died on July 5, 1996, in Randolph, Massachusetts.

Sources:

Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, U.S., Birth Records, 1840-1915. Ancestry.

Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, U.S., Marriage Index, 1901-1955 and 1966-1970. Ancestry.

Ancestry.com. 1950 United States Federal Census. Ancestry.

Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947. Ancestry.

“DEATHS. 1996”. Boston Globe. July 8, 1996, Boston Globe.

Historical note: Boston Consolidated Gas Company

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The Boston Gas Light Company was incorporated in 1823, and for thirty years was the sole company producing coal gas in the City of Boston. In the second half of the nineteenth century, several additional gas light companies were established in and around Boston due to its rapid industrial growth. New companies continued opening until it was determined that due to the overlap of service areas and the proximity of competing pipelines it would be more efficient to form a single company. The companies that merged to become Boston Consolidated Gas Company included: Bay State Gas Company, Boston Gas Light Company, Brookline Gas Light Company, Dorchester Gas Light Company, Jamaica Plain Gas Light Company, Massachusetts Pipe Line Gas Company, New England Gas and Coke Company at Everett, Roxbury Gas Light Company, and South Boston Gas Light Company.

The Boston Consolidated Gas Company was chartered in 1903 and filed its acceptance of its charter with the Massachusetts Board of Gas and Electric Light Commissioners on June 12, 1905. In 1955, the name of the company changed to Boston Gas Company and by 1980, the Boston Gas Company was the largest gas utility in New England. The company became KeySpan Energy Delivery New England in 2000, and then National Grid in 2008.

Sources:

"Boston Consolidated Gas Company Building // 1927". Buildings of New England. March 27, 2021, Buildings of New England.

Dorchester Illustration no. 2484 Dorchester Gas Light Company. Dorchester Historical Society. November 15, 2020, Dorchester Historical Society.

Early, Shane. Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities. “RE: Legal Analysis of Brookline Special Town Meeting Article 21.” Letter to Margaret J. Hurley, Chief, Central Massachusetts Division at Massachusetts Attorney General's Office. March 17, 2020, Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities.

Richards, J. L. “The Boston Consolidated Gas Company: Its Relation to the Public, Its Employees and Investors.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 31 (1908): 59–65. JSTOR.

Full Extent

1.5 Linear Feet (1 container)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Provenance

Gift of the Massachusetts Archives on the authority of John D. Warner, Archivist of the Commonwealth, 2025.

Related Materials

Boston-area photograph albums, BC.2023.014, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

Boston Elevated Railway Company photograph album, MS.2016.041, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

Boston Consolidated Gas Company case, circa 1930s-1940s, VII, Box: 46; Box: 47. Law Department records, 0700.007. City of Boston Archives.