Recently, I had the pleasure of teaching a small cooking class at the Roxbury Branch of the Boston Public Library. In preparation for the class, I tracked down a Roxbury-born cookbook from the women of the Dudley Street Baptist Church (The Kimball Class Cookbook, 1913). It would be my starting point to learn a bit about Roxbury history and the life of a first generation American, Sabina Morris.
First, the recipe, then, the history.
I actually started by attempting a recipe called Delicate Pudding, which including whipping and then boiling egg whites. And while the egg whites did indeed whip, the boiling bit turned them into a weird curd and it never firmed up. I’m still unsure how to make that recipe, so I decided I’d take a recipe that I saw multiple times in the book and see what I could do with it. Rarebit. I’d actually never had a rarebit before, but had heard it was Welsh, and I had heard it was cheesey, and I had heard you put it on bread. The first time I made it, I noticed it was a bit thin, so I bolstered and tweaked to match our current measurements. I was met with a lovely fondue level concoction perfect for dipping or, as the women of the Dudley Street Church recommended, putting on crackers. I dipped breadsticks as well as peppers, broccoli and peapods and was delighted with each bite.
Sabina Morris
I then dove into the archives to track Sabina Morris and see what I could find out about her life…
Sabina was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts in 1880. Her mother, Mary Boutencourt, was from Portugal and her father, Frank Morris, was from Honduras. Her mother emigrated to the U.S. in 1870 and her father in 1865. Her father worked on his own account as a cigar maker for most of his life. In Chelsea, Sabina lived on Broadway Street, which was largely an immigrant neighborhood. Neighbors hailed primarily from Russia, Poland and Canada.
Sabina attended Williams Grammar School in Chelsea, Mass, and graduated in 1893, before moving onto, and completing, high school… and then moving to Roxbury.
Roxbury (19th and Early 20th Century)
In the 19th century, Roxbury was mostly farm and estate land, but with the advent of the trolley system in 1887, it began to expand. By 1900, high rises and apartment buildings were beginning to flourish. At that time, there was a large Irish population, spurred decades ago, by Irish fleeing the potato famine. Germans followed suit, fleeing from war. A large Jewish community settled on Blue Hill Avenue, and in the 1940s, Roxbury became the home to a large African American community fleeing the Jim Crow South.
As transportation evolved, Roxbury transformed to city, making it the bustling hub we see, today, but if you look around you can still see the historic estates tucked in amidst the high rises. This estate, seen below, still stands in Roxbury and is currently the National Center of Afro-American Artists.
Life in Roxbury
By 1910, Sabina’s mother had passed away. Her father and she lived in a small place in Quincy Terrace. Sabina was working as a stenographer in the Photo Industry and her father was still making cigars. It was around this time that she would have attended the Dudley Street Baptist Church. The Baptist church conducted a women’s club, which was called the Kimball Class. They held social gatherings, worked on projects to benefit the church and conducted classes on Christianity that would likely throw this heathen into a fit of cold sweats… but to each her own. The Kimball Class Cookbook was created in 1913. This type of project often funded church renewal.
In 1917 and 1918, Sabina was taking classes for Business Administration at Boston University. I wondered if she was going to start a business of her own, but never did find any paper trail indicating she had begun one. By 1920, at the age of 40, she was living the single life in Roxbury. She was still working as a stenographer for the photography shop. She lived with a French Canadian family, the Chamillards, on Blue Hill Ave. Her neighbors were made up of shoe workers, painters, secretaries, and teachers. Many were immigrants from Ireland, Scotland and Canada.
Marriage to John Lock Larrabee
Sabina Morris married John Locke Larrabee, a black-haired, blue-eyed house painter from Newburyport, Massachusetts. He began his career working on automobiles and then went into the Coast Artillery Corps. By 1918, he purchased his way out of the military, returned home and met Sabina.
Sabina had aged in reverse and was just 31 (one year younger than John) when they got married in 1921. While we don’t have a description of Sabina, we can guess she was gorgeous and ageless. They were married in Manhattan, New York.
John and Sabina were married for 23 years and lived in Somerville for the majority of the time. They lived on Fenwick, Walnut and Dartmouth streets at different times during their marriage.
Sabina passed away on 13 May 1944 of lung and breast cancer, which she had battled for over a year. She is buried in Highland Cemetery in Newburyport, Ma.
Roxbury continued to grow and become the bustling city it is, today, full of modern apartment buildings amidst historic estates. The Dudley Street Baptist Church also continued to grow and change over time, preaching to a largely Black community within its gothic revival walls. And as I followed its history, I saw that in 1960s, the urban renewal project took the church, replacing it with a police station and, later, a parking lot.
While that community feature may be gone, the library seems to have picked up the slack. On the day I visited, the front entrance was thumping with music, vendors and people. Plants and food were on sale and the library doors were flung open, welcoming all inside.
I made my way through the colorful entrance and up the stairs to their modern teaching kitchen. As we shared stories and vintage images, we peered out the large kitchen windows, pointing out familiar features, historic buildings, and empty spaces where an imaginative eye could conjure up the features of the past. As I munched on a pepper, marveled that a simple recipe, a simple life, and a few old maps could simultaneously bring us together over a warm bowl and back in time.
If you try Roxbury Rarebit, I’d love to see it! Please feel free to share by sending me a picture, tagging me on instagram @erinemoulton or #soulspunkitchen