Schools Archives - Page 17 of 23

Matthews Arena, Boston

November 4, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The Matthews Arena on St. Botolph Street in Boston, sometime during the 1920s. Image courtesy of the Boston Public Library.

The building in 2015:

Here’s a question that would stump a lot of people: What is the oldest professional sports venue in Boston? The logical answer, of course, is Fenway Park, which opened in 1912. However, less than a mile away from Fenway Park on the other side of the Back Bay Fens is the Matthews Arena, which was completed two years earlier as Boston Arena. Over the years, this seemingly nondescript building has been used for various sporting events, political rallies, concerts, and other major events. Both Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt held rallies here, and boxers such as Jack Dempsey and Joe Louis participated in matches here.

Many professional sports teams have had Boston Arena as their home arena; the Boston Bruins played their first home game here in 1924, and they remained here until the completion of the Boston Garden in 1928. Later on, several minor league hockey teams played here, and from 1972-1973 the New England Whalers, later the Hartford Whalers and now the Carolina Hurricanes, played here. The Boston Celtics also played here from their founding in 1946 until 1955, when they began playing all of their home games at Boston Garden.

Over the years, the arena has undergone some substantial changes, both outside and inside. After several major renovations, the original exterior windows were bricked up, and the ornate entrance to the left has been replaced by a much simpler arch. As built, it only had one level of seating, but the balcony was added in 1926, and today the it has a capacity of 6,000 for basketball and almost 5,000 for hockey, which is still a respectable capacity for a century-old arena. Northeastern University has used it for their athletic teams since 1930, and they purchased it in 1979 and later renamed it the Matthews Arena in 1982. Today, it is used by their Division I hockey and basketball teams, and it is among the oldest indoor hockey arenas in the world.

Boston University East, Boston

September 9, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The Boston University East MBTA station on Commonwealth Avenue, around 1939. Image courtesy of the City of Boston Archives.

The scene in 2015:

The first photo shows passengers boarding a Boston Elevated Railway trolley at the Boston University East station, in front of the Charles Hayden Memorial Building at Boston University. It appears to be a Type 4 trolley, which was found on Boston’s many streetcar lines from 1911 until 1950. Most of those lines have long since been converted into buses, but the line along Commonwealth Avenue is still in use, as the MBTA “B” branch of the Green Line.

The Charles Hayden Memorial Building in the background of both photos was completed in 1939, and it provides an earliest possible date for the photo, which the City of Boston Archives estimated as being in the 1930s. The building was the first to be built on BU’s Charles River Campus, and just over two years after it opened the United States entered World War II, postponing other construction projects on the campus. The other buildings along this section of Commonwealth Avenue would not be completed until 1948, but today this area between the Massachusetts Turnpike to the south and the Charles River to the north has become the school’s main campus.

Beecher Street School, Southington, Connecticut (3)

September 1, 2015 by Derek Strahan

Another view of the students at Southington’s Beecher Street School, taken in May 1942. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, FSA-OWI Collection.

The school in 2015:

This is a rather depressing contrast, with a field full of schoolchildren in one photo, and an abandoned parking lot with cracked pavement and overgrown weeds in front of a vacant former school building in the second scene. The first one was one of a number taken at the Beecher Street School by the Office of War Information during World War II, and the first photo is captioned: “Southington, Connecticut. At Beecher Street School, whose student body consists half of Americans of Italian descent and half of Americans of Polish descent. The Queen of May was Emily Shuvak, of Polish extraction; the King was Philip D’Agostino, of Italian descent.”

Assuming it is the same person, Philip D’Agostino was about 13 years old at the time. He was a local baseball star who turned down a minor league contract for the Brooklyn Dodgers and later served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. Much later on, he served as Southington’s police chief from 1983 until 1991, and he died in 2008 at the age of 78. The school building is still standing today; it was last used as the school department offices, and although now vacant it is planned to be redeveloped into apartment units.

Beecher Street School, Southington, Connecticut (2)

August 31, 2015 by Derek Strahan

Another color photo of students at the Beecher Street School, in May 1942. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, FSA-OWI Collection.

The scene in 2015:

The caption of the original photo is “Children stage a patriotic demonstration, Southington, Conn.” Like the one in the previous post, it was taken at the Beecher Street School, and was probably intended by the Office of War Information to show the patriotic zeal that even young American children display. At the time, the Beecher Street School was an elementary school; it had been built in 1911, and it would later be converted into offices for the school department. The students in the 1942 photo would be in their 80s today, and the school building itself now stands vacant, although it was purchased by a private company last year to redevelop into apartment units.

Beecher Street School, Southington, Connecticut (1)

August 30, 2015 by Derek Strahan

Students in front of Beecher Street School in Southington, in May 1942. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, FSA-OWI Collection.

The school in 2015:

The first photo is one of several color photos taken by the Office of War Information of the people of Southington during World War II. The original caption reads, “School children, half of Polish and half of Italian descent, at a festival in May 1942, Southington, Conn.” As with the other photos in the collection, it was intended for a pamphlet, which would be distributed overseas in order to gain support for the American cause. The mention of Italian and Polish students is probably deliberate, because at the time Italy was allied with Germany and Poland was under German occupation.

Built in 1911, the Beecher Street School was an elementary school for many years, and more recently it was used by the school department for their central offices. As of 2015 it is vacant, and the overgrown weeds and cracked pavement paint a bleak picture, in stark contrast to the original photo. However, last year the historic school was sold to a private company, who plans to convert it into housing units.

Main Street, Agawam, Mass

August 11, 2015 by Derek Strahan

Looking north on Main Street in Agawam, from just south of the corner of School Street, around 1895-1896. Image courtesy of the Agawam Historical Association.

Main Street in 2015:

These photos were taken from almost the same spot as the ones in this post, just facing up Main Street instead of across it. The building on the far right in the first photo was Agawam’s town hall and elementary school; it was built in 1874 and remained in use until 1938, when it was demolished and replaced by the Benjamin Phelps Elementary School, which is located on the site today. In the distance, beyond the school and just to the left, is the Captain Charles Leonard House, which was built in 1805 and still stands today, although it is hidden from view in the 2015 photo by the trees.