Where am I? The photo contest

So, I found this old photo of an old mile marker on the Library of Congress website.

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On the back of the photo was a description. It says the photo was taken in the late 1950's or early 1960's. The stone was built into the retaining wall of the "Conins" school, which was apparently at the corners of Tremont and Terrace streets, near what is now the Roxbury Crossing Orange Line MBTA stop. The school no longer exists but the retaining wall does ... or a close facsimile.

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And, lo and behold, the mile marker is still there! It's shorter and it looks to be polished/smoothed down but it's the same stone. I couldn't tell for sure but I think they cut it in half; the other half isn't in the ground, but it could be.

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One of my friends did a presentation on the PD stones. It's a cool story. They were set up for the mail system. I can't remember the exact address, but IIRC, it's past Brigham Circle (I think in the 700-800 Huntington range).

Many of them still remain and later structures had to be built around them (such as that wall ^ and there's another one that required some weird interaction with a brick-building facade). Actually, I think the Huntington one is the one that's built into the brick building.
 
The marker on Huntington has been integrated into the totally unnecessary, street-killing brick wall surrounding the Mission Park suburbia-in-the-city cul-de-sac.
 
briv said:
The marker on Huntington has been integrated into the totally unnecessary, street-killing brick wall surrounding the Mission Park suburbia-in-the-city cul-de-sac.
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Ah yes, how could I forget? That's not the one I'm thinking about then. There's one like literally built into the stoop of a building somewhere around Boston.

Why is that Mission Park wall even there? There are beautiful green lawns on the other side. It would make the street a lot more pleasant.
 
datadyne007 said:
...Why is that Mission Park wall even there? There are beautiful green lawns on the other side. It would make the street a lot more pleasant.
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Green lawns, or brick walls, have no place on Huntington Ave.
 
Like the lawn in front of the Museum of Fine Arts? Or the one in front of Northeastern University?

The brick wall around Mission Park is left over from when that site was a convent and orphanage. It dates back to some time in the 1800s.
 
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^Sure. Or the fenced lawn of the Charlesbank Coop. I think pointless brick walls and mindlessly placed lawns are disruptive to the cohesion of Huntington Ave.

Being a major cultural institution, I think the MFA's incongruity can be justified easier than the others. However, I think the grassy lawns surrounding it are awkward and poorly thought-out.

Huntington Ave is unified and incredibly urban in many places, but there are too many spots where this unity unravels--mostly due to street-deadening features like blank walls or lawns.
 
I happen to like the lawn (they call it Krentzman Quad) in front of Northeastern University. It serves as a ceremonial public gateway into the campus from the street, and also is a place where students hang out in nice weather.
 
Nothing is more welcoming to a student than a streetwall as the entrance to the campus.
 
They have plenty of streetwall across the street as well as just east of this quad. But I wouldn't begrudge a large and important university a proper ceremonial entrance.
 
Ron Newman said:
They have plenty of streetwall across the street as well as just east of this quad. But I wouldn't begrudge a large and important university a proper ceremonial entrance.
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Of course not. I was being sarcastic.
 
I wasn't sure. Emerson College is nothing but streetwall, but that's a very different sort of institution. A lot of BU is streetwall, but they do have Marsh Plaza which has a similar formal and ceremonial purpose.
 
I wouldn't like this city nearly half as much if Huntington Ave was one solid street wall. The breaks in the wall and trees/lawns are why I love this area so much. I specifically remember one night returning from NYC getting off the Acela at Back Bay and walking down Huntington Ave just to get fresh air that I had been lacking. After being in dirty, treeless NYC for a few days, I wanted to kiss the grass and trees as I took a breath of fresh air.
 
I agree, this is one area I would like to see even less street wall, between Opera Place and Brigham Circle.
 
I know I've seen this and I can't for the life of me remember where.
 
Yeah, I think dat's Sully's old place.
He got a better place up the hill when he picked up that job with UPS after he quit doing dope and left that skeezy hag.


I've think I've seen too many Boston Movies recently.
 
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