Photo of the Day, Boston Style - Part Deux

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Hey! I like having an old cobbler in my gentrified neighborhood (Davis Square). I patronize him from time to time. Why should I throw out shoes that I like if I can have them re-soled and re-heeled?
 
^ Seconded. Actually, the shoes I'm wearing could use some help...

It's the check-cashing places that bum me out the most...
 
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If you know anything more about the Selwyn Theatre (especially if you know whether it ever showed movies), please reply. Thanks.
 
The Boston & Providence Station was torn down and replaced by the theater (I assume a movie theater based on the era) and a parking lot in the late 1920s. Part of the freight storage for the station was turned into that gas station in one of the photos. The office building, later converted into the current hotel, was built shortly thereafter.
 
I assumed it was a legitimate stage theatre, with the ad for No, No, Nanette. Sometimes stage theatres also showed movies -- the Colonial and Majestic being local examples. If we can determine that a movie was ever shown there, I can add it to CinemaTreasures.com .
 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The ones I took: Sunday. The old ones: September, 1925.
 
So this theatre existed for what... less than five years?
 
Per some insurance maps the station was torn down by 1917 except for the outbuilding which became the little gas station. If the Bostonian Society's search wasn't down, there are dated demolition photos of the station's train shed that would give the exact date.

The plans for the station are on file, with an appointment, with most of Peabody & Stearn's work at the special collections desk of fine arts in the BPL.

The Hotel Statler officially opened in 1927 as the first hotel in the world to offer radio service in its guest rooms. The back of the theater in those photos has a billboard for the future home of the hotel, so whenever that photo is dated is likely the demolition year of the theater.

The NYT has this abstract from way back when,

"A NEW THEATRE FOR BOSTON. PLANS DRAWN FOR A BIG HOUSE ON PARK SQUARE. BOSTON. April 11.-The latest popular theatre project la by James Stevenson, who contemplates building on his Park Square property from plane submitted by C. H. Blaekwell, architect of the Bowdoin Square Theatre. The main entrance will bo on the corner of the triangle opposite the front part of the Providence Station, and fronting upon the square. The vestibule will be '25 feet wldo and free from all supports. A round tower is to flank the facade on each side, with an open arcade between, over the stores . This will be used as an open-air promenade. Inside the vestibule there will be a lobby of ample dimensions, and from the lobby will open a smoking room and series of arcades, beyond which la to be a garden on the land behind the stores Columbus Avenue. This uow unused land Mr. Stevenson proposes to lay out In a park, where one may stroll between the acts. Mr. Stevenson has also arranged for a hippodrome in the " Battle of Gettysburg " building on Tremont Street. It will be run much Ilka the old Barnnm hippodrome in New-York. There will also be a museum of curiosities in connection with it. i* ___________ rn ____________"
 
That really isn't a suspension bridge, those cables are strictly decorative.
 
That really isn't a suspension bridge, those cables are strictly decorative.

Actually, when originally built it was a suspension bridge, but subsequent strengthening of the deck took away this distinction.
 
Sure would be nice to anchor that corner with that proverbial board favorite: the tall slender "towerette". I'm not saying make it Times Square, but just something that sets the corner better and is alot jazzier!

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If "The Donald" comes to town, that may be a good site for him. It'd be a shame about those little buildings -- wish they were in the Bulfinch Triangle.
 
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