Joseph Barbieri in the Boston Globe

Before ‘Gulf of America,’ there was Boston’s own ‘Curley Common’

February 22, 2025
By Joseph Barbieri

Decades ago, artist Joseph Barbieri imagined Boston and Cambridge landmarks renamed in memory of former mayor James Michael Curley. JOSEPH BARBIERI

Jeff Jacoby hit the nail on the head about the absurdity of President Trump’s changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico (“A pox on both sides in the ‘Gulf of America’ brawl,” Opinion, Feb. 19).

In 1979, I proposed to the Globe that the soil removed from the Alewife extension of the T be used to form the Curley River in memory of the noted mayor of Boston, James Michael Curley. Regrettably, and to my great surprise, my plan was not found to be of any use at all.

The accompanying image shows what might have been.

Joseph Barbieri

Cambridge