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Community Corner

The Curley Mansion: Meet the "Rascal King" Who Built It

Residents of Boston still tell stories from the life James Michael Curley. Just who was this man, and how did he help shape Boston's identity?

News that the dormant Curley Mansion on Jamaica Pond might have you wondering who this Curley fellow was.

Boston Mayor James Michael Curley built the Georgian Revival style mansion in 1915.

His name is synonymous with turn of the century city politics – the kind encapsulated in the words of Martin Lomasney – Curley’s Boston contemporary and fellow Irishman who ran West End’s Ward 8: “I think that there’s got to be in every ward somebody that any bloke can come to – no matter what he’s done – and get help. Help, you understand; none of your law and justice, but help.”  

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Curley was an expert at giving help, but his old world politics aroused the ire of the old school Yankee elite – they were called the “Boston Brahmins” for a reason - who traditionally ran Boston and disliked his all too expedient, and often corrupt, methods of getting things done.

On the other hand, it commanded the love and devotion of the Boston Irish – many were poor working class immigrants residing in the city – who were rapidly challenging the Brahmins’ hold on Boston city politics.

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So just who was Curley, and what was his story?  Using one of Thomas H. O’Connor’s histories of Boston: “The Hub: Boston Past and Present,” JP Patch provides some significant points of his life:

• James Michael Curley was born in 1874 to Irish immigrants, and “grew up in the mudflats behind the City Hospital in Boston’s South End,” according to O’Connor.

• In 1899 Curley became a member of the Common Council (precursor to the City Council), and in 1900, he won the leadership of Roxbury’s Ward 17 – becoming the youngest ward boss in the city at that time.

• In 1903, Curley ran for the city’s Board of Aldermen, but was “caught taking a Post Office civil service examination for two young Irish immigrants.”  After getting caught and sentenced to two months in jail, he explained that he “did it for a friend,” and proceeded to win his seat on the Board of Aldermen.

• Curley was elected mayor of Boston in 1914.  He served four non consecutive terms as mayor of Boston (the Republican controlled state legislature passed a law “making it illegal for a mayor of Boston to succeed himself,” according to O’Connor); 1914-1918, 1922-1926, 1930-1934, and 1946-1950.  He was also governor of Massachusetts from 1935-1937, and served two terms in the U.S. Congress, from 1911-1914, and 1943-1946.

• Curley was indicted for mail fraud two years into his last term as mayor of Boston, but his sentence was commuted by President Truman.

• Edwin O’Connor’s book The Last Hurrah and the 1958 film adaptation is said to be loosely based on James M. Curley’s life.  The Boston band the Mighty Mighty Bosstones also made a song entitled "The Rascal King" about Curley on their album, “Let’s Face It.”  There's a YouTube video of the song embedded above and right.

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