Boston

North End, Boston

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The North End of Boston from the Charlestown Navy Yard, in 1870, with the USS Kearsarge in the foreground. Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library.

The scene in 2021:

Boston’s skyline has obviously changed significantly over the past 150 years, but at least one constant remains in both photos: Old North Church, which is barely visible behind some masts, just to the left of the Kearsarge, in the 1870 photo.  The Kearsarge was a famous ship by this point – during the Civil War, she defeated the infamous Confederate commerce raider CSS Alabama.  After she was decommissioned, a US battleship was named after her; she is the only non-state to have a US Navy battleship named after her.

Trinity Church, Boston

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Trinity Church in Boston, in 1920. Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

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The church in 2013:

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Located at Copley Square in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood, Trinity Church was built between 1872 and 1877, to replace the parish’s previous church, which had been destroyed in the Great Fire of 1872.  The church was designed by noted American architect Henry Hobson Richardson, and is generally regarded as his magnum opus.

The surrounding of the church have changed, even though the building itself has remained essentially the same.  Originally, Huntington Avenue (foreground in the 1920 photo) cut diagonally in front of the church; this was changed in 1966, and the former roadway is now part of a park in front of the church.  Behind the church is the Berkeley Building, also known as the Old John Hancock Building, and not to be confused with the John Hancock Tower, which is located immediately to the right of Trinity Church, just out of the picture.

Lefty Grove at Fenway Park, Boston

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Lefty Grove warming up at Fenway Park in 1937. Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

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The scene in 2006:

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In an earlier post, I looked at the present-day location of a photo of a Red Sox pitching legend, Cy Young.  Less than 30 years later, the Red Sox would have another stadium and a new ace pitcher, Lefty Grove.  Although he spent the majority of his career with the A’s, Grove remains the only pitcher to be inducted into the Hall of Fame wearing a Red Sox cap.

Today, Fenway Park hasn’t changed a great deal, although it now has lights, electronic scoreboards, and bullpens beyond the outfield fence.  The Green Monster now has seats atop it, and is no longer adorned with any racist ads.

Fenway Park, Boston (4)

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The exterior of Fenway Park in 1914. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Bain Collection.

The same view in 2006:

The scene in 2024:

This is probably the only part of Fenway Park that is virtually unchanged since it opened nearly 102 years ago.  Several fires, a massive reconstruction in 1934, and a number of smaller changes along the way have left very little remaining from the original park.  However, the Jersey Street façade hasn’t changed much, aside from the addition of various championship banners that the team has won since they first made Fenway their home.

2024 update: I have added a 2024 photo of the same scene. Not a whole lot has changed, but there are a few additional World Series championship banners in the distance.

Old Corner Bookstore, Boston

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The Old Corner Bookstore in Boston, around 1865. Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library.

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The building in 2014:

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Once a meeting place for authors such as Longfellow, Emerson, Dickens, and Hawthorne, the Old Corner Bookstore is now a place to grab a burrito.  Present use aside, the building has remarkably survived over 300 years in downtown Boston.  Built in 1712 as an apothecary shop, it was later used as a bookstore in the 19th century, when the aforementioned authors were known to frequent it.  Today, it is a landmark along Boston’s Freedom Trail, and is one of the oldest buildings in Boston.

Cy Young at Huntington Avenue Grounds, Boston

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Cy Young, warming up at Boston’s Huntington Avenue Grounds in 1908. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Bain Collection.

Sports

The scene in 2014:

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Finding the precise location of this photo is tricky, since nothing in the 1908 photo still exists.  The top photo was taken of Cy Young, the winningest pitcher in baseball history, during his last year with the Red Sox.  At the time, the Sox played a few blocks south of what would become Fenway Park, at the Huntington Avenue Grounds.

The site of the field is today part of the Northeastern University campus, and in this courtyard is a tribute to Cy Young and the old baseball field.  In the foreground is a granite home plate marker, and 60 feet away in the distance is a statue of Cy Young.  The Cy Young statue is on the approximate location of the pitcher’s mound (which can be seen behind and to the left of Cy Young in the 1908 photo), but home plate would have actually been further to the right of where the 2014 photo was taken (which is now a building).

Because of that, it is likely that the 2014 photo was taken from approximately the same location, looking in roughly the same direction, as the 1908 photo, although the lack of any landmarks makes it difficult to be exact.