Born: Unknown, United States (assumed)
Died: 1990
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following is republished with permission from the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail.
Sisters Helen S. Rush (1900-1985) and Mary Sherkanowski (1902-1987) ran a boarding house at 22 Monument Square. They wrote about their adventures in the 1952 book “Rooms to Let”.
Rush and Sherkanowski operated the Monument Square House, a well-known boarding house at 22 Monument Square. Their book, Rooms To Let, captures their journey of transforming a filthy, abandoned house of shady reputation into a clean, shining home for wartime strays. The book, filled with spontaneous and heartwarming stories, recounts experiences like discovering a diamond smuggling ring and learning to identify their roomers by their footsteps. Despite challenges, including theft by a seemingly harmless tenant, they persevered, eventually earning enough to buy their own house in Charlestown’s Monument Square.