Dear Members and Friends:
Some important Breaking News!
Berklee Completes Purchase of 2 Charlesgate West
November 20, 2025: in a letter posted on their site, Berklee announces:
The property presents an exciting and unique opportunity to address our acute need for more space in a way that connects our campus across the Fenway and increases Berklee’s visibility. Berklee has attempted to purchase 2 Charlesgate West several times over the last 20 years because of the strategic value it provides.
The Holidays are Here!
This week, as we celebrate Thanksgiving, let’s look back a bit – at why this day gained national importance. The federal holiday was born of a desire to heal a divided nation during the Civil War. On October 3, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued this Thanksgiving Day proclamation to help unite a war-weary nation, and made a plea during the ongoing, horrific hostilities that the American people would:
“with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.”
Lincoln was not the first President to issue a Thanksgiving proclamation, but his order set a precedent to “observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving” every year for decades to follow.
PARDON ME
Abraham Lincoln is credited with the first turkey pardon. In 1863, the Lincolns received a live turkey for the family to feast on at Christmas. Young Tadadopted the bird, naming him Jack and teaching him to follow behind as he hiked around the White House grounds. On Christmas Eve, Lincoln told his son that Jack would no longer be a pet. “Jack was sent here to be killed and eaten for this very Christmas,” he told Tad, who answered, “I can’t help it. He’s a good turkey, and I don’t want him killed.” The boy argued that the bird had every right to live, and as always, the president gave in to his son, writing a reprieve for the turkey on a card and handing it to Tad. The modern tradition of a formal presidential turkey pardon began much later, with President George H.W. Bush in 1989, but the story of Lincoln’s act is the origin of the practice.
Fenway Civic Association 