1910s Archives - Page 40 of 57

Sherman Building, Boston

September 10, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The Sherman Building at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Newbury Street in Boston, on October 28, 1911. Image courtesy of the City of Boston Archives.

The building in 2015:

This building at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Newbury Street was built in 1908, and housed a few of the many car dealerships in the Back Bay in the early 20th century. The first photo shows two different companies occupying the first floor: Oldsmobile had the more prominent corner storefront, and the Thomas B. Jeffery Company had the storefront on the far right. Like most early car companies, Jeffery didn’t survive the 1910s, but Oldsmobile lasted for almost another century.

Over time, car dealerships moved out of city centers and into the suburbs, so the building as used for a variety of other purposes, from apartments to an indoor golf course. It narrowly escaped demolition for the construction of the Massachusetts Turnpike; the building directly across Newbury Street was replaced with a highway on-ramp when the Turnpike was extended through Boston in the 1960s. Today, the building is the Boston location of the Room & Board furniture store. It opened in 2014 following a massive renovation that modernized and expanded the building while retaining its original appearance from the street.

Hotel Buckminster, Boston

September 6, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The Hotel Buckminster at Kenmore Square in Boston, around 1911. Image courtesy of the City of Boston Archives.

The hotel in 2015:

The present-day Kenmore Square area was once just swampy land along the edge of the Charles River, separated from Boston the tidal flats of the Back Bay. Boston began to fill in this land starting in the late 1850s at Arlington Street and steadily moving west. The landfill project in the Fenway area was completed by the 1890s, and in 1897 the Hotel Buckminster opened as the first hotel at Kenmore Square, in between Brookline Avenue to the left and Beacon Street to the right. Even by 1911, as seen in the first photo, the neighborhood was still sparsely developed. Just a year after the photo was taken, the Red Sox would open Fenway Park on a vacant lot just two blocks south of here along Brookline Avenue.

Because of its proximity to Fenway Park, visiting teams would often stay at the hotel while they were in town. Babe Ruth had a favorite room on the top floor along the Brookline Avenue side that overlooked Fenway Park, and it was also here that Boston bookmaker Joseph “Sport” Sullivan met with Chicago White Sox first baseman Chick Gandil and conspired to fix the 1919 World Series. Later on, the radio station WNAC had its studio in the hotel, and in 1929 the world’s first network radio broadcast was sent from here. From 191 to 1953, the Storyville nightclub was located in the building, and featured a number of notable jazz musicians, including Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, and Charlie Parker.

Over a century after the first photo was taken, the Hotel Buckminster is still around, although the neighborhood around it has grown significantly. Although visiting teams probably don’t stay at this hotel anymore, the Kenmore Square is the primary subway station for fans going to and leaving Fenway Park, and there are a number of restaurants and other businesses that benefit from the sizable gameday crowds. It is also a major intersection, with Beacon Street, Commonwealth Avenue, and Brookline Avenue all converging here above ground, and the “B”, “C”, and “D” branches of the Green Line meeting underground. State Route 2 passes through here as well, and US Route 20, the longest road in the country, ends at Beacon Street, right in front of the hotel.

Enfield Congregational Church, Enfield, Connecticut

September 4, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The Enfield Congregational Church on Route 5 in Enfield, around 1911. Image from Some Old Time Meeting Houses of the Connecticut Valley (1911).

The church in 2015:

In terms of churches, Enfield is probably best known as the place where Jonathan Edwards preached his famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” The actual church that he preached in no longer exists, but it stood about a third of a mile south of here along present-day Route 5. In 1775, a new church was built on this spot, and it was later moved across the street, where it still stands today as the Enfield Historical Society. The current church, seen here, was built in 1849, in the Greek Revival style that was popular in the first half of the 19th century. Its design was outdated almost as soon as it was finished, though. Not long after its completion, Greek Revival architecture went out of style, and most new church buildings in the second half of the century were either Gothic Revival or Romanesque. However, over the years it has been the wood, white-steepled churches of the early 19th century that have become a symbol of small-town New England, and Enfield’s example survives today, essentially unchanged on the exterior from the photo over a century earlier.

Stone Church, Portsmouth, NH

August 10, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The Stone Church at the corner of State Street and Court Place in Portsmouth, around 1905-1915. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

The church in 2015:

Portsmouth’s South Church was established in 1713, and like many other churches in New England in the early 19th century, they became a Unitarian church under the pastorate of Dr. Nathan Parker in 1819. Construction on this stone church began five years later, and it was completed in 1826. The design reflects the popular Greek Revival style of the era, with a portico supported by pillars at the front entrance. Most of the churches built in this style were either wood, such as the 1819 Old First Church in Springfield; or brick, as seen in the 1807 First Church of Christ in Hartford. Here in Portsmouth, the South Church was built of stone, which was not as common in early 19th century New England churches as it would be later in the century. However, there were some that were built with stone, including the 1828 United First Parish Church in Quincy, Massachusetts, which may have been partly based on the plans for this church.

Today, the church is a Unitarian Universalist church, having merged with Portsmouth’s Universalist congregation in the 1940s. The stone walls are no longer covered in ivy, but otherwise this scene hasn’t changed much. The church was extensively restored in the 1980s, and today even the fence surrounding the building and the archway over the main gate are still there, as is the brick building on the left-hand side of the photo.

Market Street, Portsmouth, NH

August 4, 2015 by Derek Strahan

Looking north on Market Street from the corner of Daniel Street at Market Square in Portsmouth, around 1914-1920. Historic image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

Market Street in 2015:

These photos show a view very similar to the ones in this post, and as was the case there, not much has changed here either. Market Street is located at the northeastern end of Market Square, and is lined with historic early 19th century commercial buildings on both sides, most of which were built in the immediate aftermath of several disastrous fires in the first couple decades of the 19th century. These were constructed with fire safety in mind, with brick walls, slate roofs, and firewalls extending above the roofs between buildings. Most of this street was destroyed in a 1802 fire, and the buildings on the left were built by 1807, when Daniel Webster opened his law office on the second floor of either the building with the yellow storefront or the one beyond it with the maroon awning.

The fireproofing efforts seem to have been successful, because this street was already considered historic when the first photo was taken. Today, a century after the first photo was taken, and two centuries after most of the buildings were built, everything from the first photo is still there. Even one of the businesses is still there: Alie Jewelers on the far right side, which was established in 1914 and provides the earliest possible date for the first photo.

Union Church of Christ, Ludlow Mass

June 26, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The Union Church of Christ on Center Street in Ludlow, before 1904. Image from The History of Ludlow, Massachusetts (1912).

The church following its 1904-1905 renovation, photographed sometime between then and 1912. Image from The History of Ludlow, Massachusetts (1912).

The church in 2015:

When the town of Ludlow was established in he 1700s, the center of the town was located in what was approximately the geographic center of Ludlow, at the corner of present-day Church Street and Center Street. It was there that the first meetinghouse was built, and the location served as the religious and civic center of the town. However, with the start of the Industrial Revolution, the town’s economic center began to shift to the southwest, along the Chicopee River. The development of factories along this area, and the subsequent increase in population, meant that the workers needed a local church, and the owners of the Springfield Manufacturing Company decided to provide such a church.

The building was completed in 1845, and at first was used both by Congregationalists and Methodists. However, neither group stayed long – the Methodists built their own church in 1847, and a year later the Springfield Manufacturing Company went bankrupt. The Congregationalists disbanded, and the church was used only occasionally until 1867, when a new Congregational church formed.

As seen in the difference between the first two photos, the building was extensively remodeled in 1904-1905, with the addition of stained glass windows, a cupola, and a front porch, among other decorative elements to the exterior. Another change came in 1961, when a wing was added to the south (left) side of the building; it is partially visible behind the small tree on the left. Today, the building still looks very similar to its post-renovation appearance, and it continues to be an active United Church of Christ congregation.