Photo of the Day, Boston Style - Part Deux

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pelhamhall said:
Still there - home to Fugakyu (sushi place) - it is apartments. I love that building, it's like an old 1920s slice of New York in the middle of Brookline.

The list of retailers in that store is the very story of Brookline itself...

1) Drake's (as in the snack cakes) had a soda jerk there. Back in the 1930s FDR's son lived there and there was secret security in the building.

2)Then it became an Irish pub/family restaurant (the 1284) where JFK and the Kennedy crime syndicate ran a lot of their business. I believe it is also where JFK launched his bid for the presidency, or at least where all the plans were.

3) Now it's uppity and very pricey japanese food - one of dozens in Coolidge Corner.

The building has been very carefully and lovingly restored by Nordblom Company - the same company that has owned it since the 1930s. How's that for stable, long-term ownership???
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I really like the atmosphere at Fugakyu, but if you make reservations they may try to stick you up on the third floor. Don't let them.
 
I'm surprised that little row of single story retail (home of Boca Grande) was also single story in the '30s. Blech.

Good riddance @ the billboards
 
International Place this time as viewed on my way to work in this snow and rain.

And Check out the COOL COBBLESTONES underneath. COOL

: - )

2085132120_7f85de38d7.jpg


Link back to flick'r

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gmack24/2085132120/
 
pelhamhall said:
SS Pierce Building in the foreground with Pelham Hall in the background.

Coolidge Corner, Brookline MA 1930s.

PelhamHall.jpg
Click to expand...
Great picture, pelhamhall, though, based on the cars, I'd assign it the date 1947.

After the war ended, pre-war models were carried over. Studebaker was first out of the blocks with an all-new, modern, postwar model --and there's one parked against Beacon Street's westbound curb. That was a 1947 model.

There's also a Jeepster wagon angle-parked against the eastbound curb (third from the bottom --the original SUV!!). That car came out as a 1948 model; so, since cars were unveiled in the fall before their model year, 1947 is a plausible year for this photo.
 
In that photo, there are 26 cars in the sun; I can identify 24.
 
Ablarc - after reading your reply I was stunned because I got that image from the Brookline Historical Society and it was labeled "1937"

I thought, "why would they lie to me? What did I ever do to earn their scorn?" and then I remembered that incident at the Coolidge Corner Clubhouse and realized that this must be an elaborate payback plan to humiliate me in front of my peers.

But then, I re-checked their website and realized that I grabbed the wrong image. They have the an almost exact same image from 1937 and then one labeled "1940s" - I showed you the one from 1947.

Here is the one labeled "1937" - you can see the difference that one decade makes... most notably in the post-war zeal for advertising.

The SS Pierce building has an open-air copula that was closed off. Pelham Hall looks exactly the same as it does today.
coolidgeCorner1937Large.jpg
 
ablarc, I consider myself a car nut, but I'm envious of your knowledge on older cars. I only wish I could come close to you in being able to identify all these sweet old rides.

As an aside, the bassist in my band owns a '50 Dodge Meadowbrook (original upholstery and everything), and I just got to ride around in it last month. What a freakin blast!!
 
Why'd they change the copula on the SS Pierce?
 
Dunno, but the difference between the two tops is rather severe:

brooklinecoolidge1905.jpg


brooklinecoolidge200801.jpg
 
Subtle point, but they actually changed the style of that building from Queen Anne to the less adventurous version of half-timber Gothic that found its way into the housing stock of many American suburbs in the Twenties. If you look carefully, they re-thought the half-timber patterning and generally made the building more strait-laced and generally orthodox than it was in its original incarnation.
 
Same style. Palaces, houses and shop buildings are Tudor, especially when half-timbered. Churches are Gothic and generally all stone.
 
Gothic in brick is generally referred to as Venetian Gothic and it's considered the feminine side of the style. The dominate sex of a particular institution usually can be observed in the use of brick versus stone. For example Yale versus Wellesley.

The S.S. Pierce Building's cupola, a few of the arched windows, and decorative half timber was probably remodeled due to weather damage and cost cutting in the resultant repairs.
 
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