"Dirty Old Boston"

[atlantaden]

Whoa!!!

 

[Charlie_mta]

View attachment 33687Whoa!!!

Should've done an implosion like this on the beastly GC garage demo.

 

[chrisbrat]

Should've done an implosion like this on the beastly GC garage demo.

Except, as has been repeatedly noted, that would have destroyed the station below, causing even more hassle than the long, slow demo we're currently living through.

 

[DZH22]

^^^Cool pic up above but I can't click "like" on that... Tragic loss architecturally.

This is a follow up to my post in 594. It specifically zooms in on an area that was discussed.

https://tedsvintageart.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2124-3.jpg

 

[DowntownDave]

It looks almost as if the artist has smooshed India Street and Broad Street together - you can see the One India St. apartments right behind the custom house, but immediately to its left is 33 Broad street. The Grain Exchange building is shown sorta where the Insurance Exchange building is today (the big grey building with Warehouse Bar & Grille). Perhaps the small group of buildings to the left of the row of structures where the Central Wharf co and Granary Tavern are now are imaginary? That is where the Grain Exchange building should be.

 

[DZH22]

City Point, South Boston, MA, aerial by Dave MacKenzie, on Flickr

 

[DZH22]

Clearing of Boston's West End by Todd Van Hoosear, on Flickr

 

[Charlie_mta]

Clearing of Boston's West End by Todd Van Hoosear, on Flickr

That photo almost makes me physically ill.

 

[kz1000ps]

sLuM cLeARaNcE

 

[Charlie_mta]

sLuM cLeARaNcE

They weren't slums, and what is to be the determinant of that anyway?

 

[JohnAKeith]

Whole buncha stuff I found online:

28 State Street in the 70s

70s Prudential

A lot of Fed Building stuff from the 70s

Hancock

BPL McKim building

Quick bonus: Pru in the very early 2000s

Sorry, there was a museum inside the Boston Fed building??

 

[kz1000ps]

They weren't slums, and what is to be the determinant of that anyway?

You misinterpreted my joke and/or the meme. That's "Spongebob Chicken" and it's used when someone is talking out of their ass. As in "I'm an idiot and I think the West End is a slum and I think the West End Slum needs to be cleared!!!1!" ....tongue is planted very firmly in cheek.

 

[Charlie_mta]

You misinterpreted my joke and/or the meme. That's "Spongebob Chicken" and it's used when someone is talking out of their ass. As in "I'm an idiot and I think the West End is a slum and I think the West End Slum needs to be cleared!!!1!" ....tongue is planted very firmly in cheek.

I figured it was a joke, but I was addressing not you, but whoever the fools were who perpetrated this idiocy back in 1959, although they're all long gone by now. I remember as a kid in the 1950s riding the GL viaduct inbound, east of Science Park Station, and looking out the PCC's window to see a vibrant, colorful urban community that seemed like a village in Italy to me. I knew no one who lived there (except Leonard Nimoy, I learned much later), so I had no skin in the game when it was later demolished. But just the sheer stupidity on a massive scale of demolishing this dense, interesting neighborhood and replacing it with suburban apartment blocks struck me to the core as a kid, and still does.

 

[DZH22]

Same scar in the context of downtown, to the upper right.

Aerial view of West End by Boston City Archives, on Flickr

 

[LexSEDotVille]

Just did a quick look at historic images to better understand how this site was passed down.

It's pretty amazing just how empty the site/campus is given how many buildings and uses were present on the site historically. It'll be interesting to see just how dramatically the site changes with whatever may come from this public/private partnership (ideally mixed use.)

Best angle for context. N Station looking BIG! (photo credit: Leslie Jones, 1935)

Railroad sidings where the athletic fields are currently located. (photo credit: Leslie Jones, 1935)

This part of Charlestown really got hollowed out. New Rutherford Ave appears to have cut through the site of the prison. (photo credit: Leslie Jones, 1935)

Demolition of the prison in 1965. (Also, much of the surrounding neighborhood is hollowed out. (photo credit: The Boston Globe)

Charlestown urban renewal area, Massachusetts R-55. Plan developed in 1962. BHCC has a more sizable built footprint in this plan and explains the 'void' left around the campus for unrealized athletic fields.

Gilmore Bridge under construction with a BHCC present in 1973. (is that a spire on the N side of campus?)

 

[DZH22]

https://media.gettyimages.com/id/845722918/photo/aerial-views-of-boston.jpg?s=1024x1024&w=gi&k=20&c=Ur_amJvOcYLfw1AAa8GBpx604hp1vjNtcNRCcXOGBSc=

https://www.leekuanyewworldcityprize.gov.sg/images/features/2023/boston-aerial-1.jpg/

 

[atlantaden]

 

[DZH22]

Mechanic's Hall. According to the reddit thread this sat where 111 Huntington now is.

https://i.redd.it/9mnb0uncbnha1.jpg

 

[DZH22]

ALAM bag - IM slides - 199 by Massachusetts Dept. of Environmental Protection, on Flickr

 

[chrisbrat]

Liking the additional (red) lights on the old John Hancock. I remember when there was (briefly) uplighting along the sides of the tower, but the red lights precede me.

Bring back both!