The Colonial Inn at Monument Square in Concord, on October 15, 1929. Image courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leon Abdalian Collection.
The scene in 2023:
These two photos show a view of the Colonial Inn that is very similar to the previous post. It is taken just a little farther to the east, near the center of Monument Square, and the top photo was taken about a decade or two after the old photo in the previous post.
As explained in more detail in a post from several years ago, the Colonial Inn is a combination of several different historic buildings that were constructed during the 18th and early 19th centuries. The oldest section is on the far right side, and was built around 1717. The section in the middle was built later in the 1700s as a one-story structure, but was later expanded with a second story around 1800. Then, the section on the left side was constructed sometime around 1812-1820.
The three different sections sat on different parcels, and they had different ownership histories, but they were eventually all acquired by John Maynard Keyes in 1897. He opened the Colonial Inn here, and it has remained in operation as a hotel ever since. The top photo was taken by photographer Leon Abdalian on October 15, 1929, showing the scene outside the building just two weeks before the stock market crash triggered the start of the Great Depression. In nearly a century since then, not much has changed in this view of the building, although the hotel was significantly expanded in 1960 with an addition in the back that is partially visible on the far left side of the bottom photo.