Where am I? The photo contest

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bigpicture7

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DZH22 said:
by David Z, on Flickr
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OK DZ, I'll be the one to swallow my pride and shamelessly admit I have no idea what/where that is. I would guess somewhere rather outlying from the Boston city core, like Jamaica Plain, Dorchester, Chelsea...
Maybe someone else will humble me and actually be able to identify it, but my 2 cents on this photo contest is that the further from the most common areas of Boston that the shot originates from, the more context should be provided in the photo. But who knows, maybe someone will yet nail this :D. And I'll be the first to admit striking the right balance is very tough. Let's keep 'em coming.
 
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DZH22

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bigpicture7 said:
OK DZ, I'll be the one to swallow my pride and shamelessly admit I have no idea what/where that is. I would guess somewhere rather outlying from the Boston city core, like Jamaica Plain, Dorchester, Chelsea...
Maybe someone else will humble me and actually be able to identify it, but my 2 cents on this photo contest is that the further from the most common areas of Boston that the shot originates from, the more context should be provided in the photo. But who knows, maybe someone will yet nail this :D. And I'll be the first to admit striking the right balance is very tough. Let's keep 'em coming.
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It's a view of Everett Hospital from Malone Park in Chelsea.
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.4067886,-71.0387215,82a,35y,352.5h,79.18t/data=!3m1!1e3

The pic you posted looks familiar but I can't place it off the top of my head.
 
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bigpicture7

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Per usual, it's always tough to know whether this will be too easy or not. In any case, it's been a while since we've done one of these, so here goes:
(two angles so I can show more of this without giving away the background):

waipc-22-2.jpg

waipc-22-1.jpg
 
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bigpicture7

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Alright, I will give till the end of today before revealing. I will say that this is not some far-off, remote/mysterious place by any means. It is a mere 1.8 miles from Government Center, and in the middle of an area that otherwise looks nothing like this. That's it for hints!
 
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DZH22

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Is it part of the burial ground on the common?
 
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chrisbrat

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Is it a utility building tucked away somewhere on the Esplanade?
 
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bigpicture7

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stefal said:
Last guess.

This time I used the context that your photo updates aren't around the southwest corridor usually.. Not sure if that's cheating or not

25 Hampshire St

https://maps.app.goo.gl/dd51pKNBkd9rzTVk8
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Not cheating as far as I'm concerned, and you nailed it. Nice work!

Here's the full view I snapped recently:
waipc-44-1.jpg


I believe this is some sort of garage/stable that is very old.

I think most people who pass by assume it is part of the old Cambridge Electric Light station at left...

waipc-44-2.jpg


But I do not believe it is. I looked up some historic maps from Ward Maps, and the structure I featured looks as though it has been there since long before the electric station. Plus, today it is physically attached to the car repair place next door.

The other nifty thing...
In the summer it is covered with ivy, as shown on google street view: https://goo.gl/maps/LMwjBc7bffviZQEG8
And you can see from this view how very intense the vines are:
waipc-44-3.jpg


So it basically just looks like a rectangular lump when it is covered with ivy. But it actually has an interesting church-like shape to it when the ivy is gone.

Furthermore, historic google street views (for instance, check out 2011 or 2013 in the link above) show that it was absolutely engulfed in foliage to the point where you couldn't even tell it was there. So this is some sort of relic that has re-emerged in recent years, and is quite visually interesting (to me anyway); especially if you think about how out of place it is with all the glossy biotech labs going up around it. Just spinning around in streetview is kind of funny.
 
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bigpicture7

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cooper said:
I believe this structure was a switching sub station for the Cambridge Electric Light Company. Bottom center in this link https://www.historicmapworks.com/Map/US/1568062/Plate+009/Cambridge+1903/Massachusetts/
Also mentioned in this archived article. https://cambridge.dlconsulting.com/...13-01.2.72&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------
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Amazing find, thank you for sharing. That is an incredibly high-res view of the map. I concluded it wasn't related to the electrical station because the bigger parcel next to it, as shown on your map link, wasn't designated as such back then, even though today that is what occupies the parcel. Yet, from the high-res map you found, it seems that this structure pre-dated the other one and was an initial earlier piece of the electrical system. There was no legible label on the parcel in the poorer quality version of the map I was looking at.

In all, I find this a really cool and quirky looking historic building that, for years, wasn't particularly visible due to all of the overgrowth.
 
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