An architectural whodunit... Harvard's granite lions

S

stellarfun

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2006
Messages
5,690
Reaction score
1,506
Sorry there is no picture (yet).

Perhaps these came from a building demolished to make way for the Central Artery. Earlier than that, you would have to consider the Great Boston Fire.

These were found at the construction site on Western Ave.

Christopher M. Gordon, the chief operating officer of the Allston Development Group, closed his slideshow presentation at yesterday?s meeting with the image of one of ?about a dozen? granite lion statues that construction workers have found buried at the site of the science complex under construction on the University?s new Allston campus.

The science building?s site was formerly a construction dump area, so the lions may have once graced the tops of a building somewhere in Boston, Gordon said. The development group has not yet determined from which building the lions originally came, but Gordon said they are working with a historic research company to ascertain their origin.

In the meantime, Gordon said, the lions are being stored in a warehouse.
Click to expand...

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=523510
 
I read this as loins.......fascinating story, though. It'll be interesting to see what they use them for.
 
Also could be from buildings demolished to build the Mass. Pike -- which runs very close to this location.
 
Likely remnants of 19th c. ritual greek sacrifice preceding Columbia game.
 
There was an hotel on Boylston street, I think it was featured in Lost Boston, which had such lions and it was a mystery what happened to them. Perhaps this is where they wound up?
 
Was it torn down to build 500 Boylston or 222 Berkeley?
 
Instead of resorting to some high-priced researcher(s) Harvard should have paid (in the form of a contribution) this forum to solve the mystery; and
probably done it for less cost too.
 
The lions from the Kensington, after many years standing in front of an empty lot, ended up being gilt gold and are standing in front of the Copley Plaza Hotel.

I want to see the lions returned to the Chinatown gate....only two are there now and the other two were absconded by a developer.
 
No part of the Hancock Tower (or other Hancock buildings) abuts Boylston Street.
 
Padre Mike said:
The lions from the Kensington, after many years standing in front of an empty lot, ended up being gilt gold and are standing in front of the Copley Plaza Hotel.
Click to expand...

I found my edition of Lost Boston. Unless the Hotel Kensington had a lion motif, the Copley Plaza lions that once graced the Kensington seem to be too large to be companions for the dozen lions that Harvard now possesses.
 
Last edited:
Ron Newman said:
No part of the Hancock Tower (or other Hancock buildings) abuts Boylston Street.
Click to expand...

True. But my recollection is that the Kensington was torn down to make way for the "new" Hancock Tower.
 
I believe the Bailey mansion on Columbus Ave used to have lions; there are lions there now, I think, but they are a poor-man's reproduction.
 
From the forthcoming week's construction info page for the science complex:

"Select pieces of architectural granite will be transported to the former Sears site for storage."

So are they continuing to unearth a whole building's worth of carved granite, which must be in pretty decent shape if they are storing it, or are these the lions getting moved?
 
Ron Newman said:
Former Sears site? What's that?
Click to expand...

I think there was a Sears warehouse south of Western Ave., near Windom St. in Allston Landing by the tolls. According to a 1997 Harvard press release, the Sears building was vacant when Harvard announced it had bought 52 acres in Allston.
 
Thanks. Definitely not as well-known as the former Sears sites in the Fenway and Porter Square.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top