45 Milk Street's "Stairs to Nowhere"

[shmessy]

What’s up with those blocked-off stairs in downtown Boston? An answer, one year later - The Boston Globe

The curved stairs have long been blocked off by metal gates, making them all the more intriguing. The more inquisitive among us will peek through the openings, but all they will see is a forgotten bit of the city’s history, dark and dusty, sloping toward a frosted window and doorway.

www.bostonglobe.com

45 Milk St · 45 Milk St, Boston, MA 02109

45 Milk St, Boston, MA 02109

www.google.com

 

[shmessy]

Also a great write-up on the building referenced in the Globe Comments section:

The International Trust Company Building - The Next Phase Blog

When I wrote the post on Milk Street, I focused on its history rather than the buildings that currently line it. The Great Fire of 1872, truncated that history when it destroyed Milk Street’s structures from one end to the other. That does not mean, however, that some of the buildings that rose...

aknextphase.com

 

[shmessy]

Evidently, the above blogger has a series of Boston Hidden Gems:


Boston’s Hidden Gems Series

1. Tenshin-en
2. The Mapparium
3. Boston Public Library Courtyard
4. The Ether Dome
5. The Tiffany Sanctuary
6. The Salada Tea Doors
7. Museum Restoration
8. St. Francis Garden
9. History Dioramas

 

[Suffolk 83]

I cant see the article at the Globe... I remember a lunch spot down there about 15 years ago but I may be wrong

 

[Charlie_mta]

"Stairs to Nowhere" sounds like a Led Zeppelin song.

 

[DBM]

As the Globe article points out, how astonishing that this dazzling architectural gem, in the heart of Boston's CBD, was threatened with demolition just 45 years ago in 1977, well within the memory of the region's Baby Boomers, in order to create

(checks notes)

a surface parking lot

Few anecdotes capture the apathy, disinvestment, and horridly misguided urbanism of the mid-1970s in America's cities, as the accumulated weight and trauma of 3 decades of white flight, abandonment by the federal government, "the car is king" pathologies, and influential movies highlighting urban decay like "Taxi Driver" (1976) combined in Boston with the psychosis of busing to produce that kind of (what is in hindsight) appalling mentality.

 

[shmessy]

I cant see the article at the Globe... I remember a lunch spot down there about 15 years ago but I may be wrong

Clear the history in your browser. The Globe then gives you 2 free article clicks.

 

[shmessy]

I cant see the article at the Globe... I remember a lunch spot down there about 15 years ago but I may be wrong

Cafe Dino.