Dr. J Clears The Way

The word on Winthrop Avenue Thursday was: sidewalks.

Jacinto ​“Dr. J” DaGraca oversaw a construction crew replacing topsoil, planting grass seeds, patching asphalt on the street, installing new granite curbs — all accompaniments to the main act of putting in new sidewalks.

The crew has been working for weeks remaking that well-traveled stretch of Winthrop between Chapel Street and Edgewood Avenue.

“We’re cleaning up this area, making it nice,” DaGraca said during a conversation on the ​“Word on the Street” segment of WNHH FM’s ​“LoveBabz LoveTalk” program.

DaGraca works for Hill-based White Owl Construction. The firm, run by Clayton Henderson, is redoing sidewalks throughout town under contract with the city. City Engineer Giovanni Zinn called White Owl a success story in the city’s efforts to boost local contractors: At first the company won low-six-figure contracts through a city program that gives priority to minority-owned firms. The company grew enough to win competitive bids with no extra help, including the approximately $1.3 million contract for replacing large stretches of sidewalk like Winthrop’s, Zinn said. White Owl is one of five contractors replacing more than 200-plus sidewalks at smaller locations around the city in 2022.

DaGraca learned the trade while growing up in the Cape Verde Islands; he would follow his father to jobs on construction sites. 

He found he particularly enjoys masonry work: ​“It’s like art, you know? Nice art. It lasts forever.” (White Owl’s Henderson also learned masonry following his father on jobs.)

DaGraca has worked as a mason and carpenter since arriving in the U.S. 20 years ago. He said he has worked for White Owl upwards of eight years.

One day his boss noted his facility with his hands, including his ability to preserve steps rather than needing to destroy them before rebuilding them.

“You’re the concrete doctor,” his boss said. ​“You can do anything.” From that day on he was known as ​“Dr. J.” Three years ago he became his crew’s foreman.

He had on three layers in Thursday morning’s chilly weather: two long-sleeved shirts covered by a hooded sweatshirt. He expected to shed the hoodie by late morning.

He also expected the crew to be done by week’s end with the weeks-long remaking of the west side of the extended Winthrop block. Next week the crew crosses the street to begin replacing the sidewalk on the eastern side.

“It was very bad. Bumpy. Kids riding bikes and complaining” and falling, DaGraca said of the sidewalk before his crew replaced it. ​“It’s always nice when you finish a project like this. You walk away, you keep looking back: It looks nice. People are happy. The kids. The young ladies walking with the strollers and babies on new sidewalks.”

At 46, DaGraca is too young to have followed the original Dr. J — basketball Hall of Famer Julius Erving — in his heyday on the court. He has watched videos from back in the day. He appreciated how that Dr. J, too, mastered his craft and brought beauty to the world.

Click on the video to watch the full conversation with Jacinto DaGraca on the ​“Word on the Street” segment of WNHH FM’s ​“LoveBabz LoveTalk” program. (Apologies: The video incorrectly places him on Norton Street, not Winthrop.) Click here to subscribe to WNHH FM’s ​“LoveBabz LoveTalk” and here to subscribe to other WNHH programs.