A commercial building on Boylston Street, just east of the intersection of Fairfield Street, on April 11, 1912. Image courtesy of the City of Boston Archives.
The building in 2015:
Taken three days before the Titanic hit the iceberg and eight days before Fenway Park opened less than a mile away, the first photo shows a building on Boylston Street that appears to ave been some sort of an early parking garage. It was built in 1901, around the same time as the other buildings around it, and the 1912 photo shows a few cars parked inside that are visible through the windows. Two men are standing on either side of the open garage door, and the sign above the door reads “All cars must come to a stop before entering.” Today, this view is essentially unchanged. Their uses are different over a century later, but all of the 1912 buildings are still standing, and unlike the ones in the previous post they have seen only minor exterior alterations.
This was the Massachusetts Automobile Club. It could house 160 cars and had a workshop and car lift. Originally it was just the right section of the building (now Atlantic Fish Co) but was expanded to up to 793 Boylston.