Detroit Publishing Company Archives - Page 104 of 113

Court Square Theater, Springfield

June 25, 2017January 3, 2014 by Derek Strahan

Springfield’s Court Square Theater, as it appeared between 1900 and 1910. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

The building in 2015:

The Court Square Theater was built in 1892, and substantially expanded in 1900. Originally, the building was symmetrical, but the 1900 addition gave the building an extra five rows of windows on the front facade, and also extended the right-hand side of the building all the way back to State Street. A photo on this blog shows a rare glimpse of the building prior to the expansion. The other two buildings visible along Court Square are the the 1835 Byers Block, and the 1889 Chicopee Bank Building. Neither buildings have changed much in appearance since the first photo was taken.

Right now, the Court Square Theater building stands vacant. The theater section itself (not visible) was demolished in 1957, and there have been various proposals for restoring the building, but so far none have begun.

Grand Central Terminal, New York

March 31, 2019January 2, 2014 by Derek Strahan

Grand Central Depot in 1871. Image courtesy of New York Public Library.

The newly reconstructed Grand Central Station around 1900. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

The present-day Grand Central Terminal in 2019:

The three photos show the three different versions of the railroad station on 42nd Street. Originally built in 1871 and named Grand Central Depot, it was a joint effort between three New York railroads, hence the term “grand central.” It was extensively rebuilt from 1899 to 1900, as shown in the second photo, but it didn’t last for long. Starting in 1903, it was demolished in stages and replaced with the current structure, which was completed in 1913. This building itself was threatened in the 1960s – it was designed to be able to support the weight of a tower above it, and several proposals were considered, one of which would have kept the original structure, while stripping it of most of its historic significance. Ultimately, the city declared the building a landmark, thus preventing it from being altered or demolished.

Ellis Island, New York

January 23, 2016December 31, 2013 by Derek Strahan

Ellis Island, as it appeared around 1905. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

The view in 2012:

Opened in 1892, Ellis Island served as an immigration center until 1954, and during that time about 12 immigrants were processed there. The first building burned in a 1897 fire, and the present building was opened in 1900. The island itself was significantly expanded both before and after the 1905 photo, which was the subject of a border dispute between New York and New Jersey. The Supreme Court ruled that only the original part of the island is New York, and the artificial fill is New Jersey, meaning that the New York section is completely surrounded by New Jersey.

Union Station, Washington DC

January 22, 2016December 28, 2013 by Derek Strahan

Union Station in Washington, DC, between 1910 and 1920. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

The same building in 2012:

Union Station was built in 1907, by the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Since then, a lot has changed in the city, but the building has remained the same. Neither the Pennsylvania nor the Baltimore & Ohio Railroads exist anymore, but the station is now a major Amtrak hub, and is the southern terminal of the Northeast Corridor, which stretches from DC to Boston, and is the busiest passenger rail line in the country. The modes of transportation to the trains, however, has changed a lot in the past 100 years. While the first photo shows trolleys unloading passengers at the station, they have been replaced by cars and buses in the 2012 photo.

Central Congregational Church, Boston

January 22, 2016December 10, 2013 by Derek Strahan

Central Congregational Church at the corner of Berkeley and Newbury in Boston, around 1904. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

The same building, now the Church of the Covenant, in 2015:

The church was built in 1867, one of the first in Boston’s then recently filled in Back Bay. By the time the 1904 photo was taken, the Back Bay looked very much like it does today, albeit with fewer skyscrapers. Still, though, many of the low-rise residential buildings from 1904 are still there, including a few visible in both of these photos. At the time of its construction, the church was the tallest building in Boston, and retained its title until the construction of the Custom House Tower in 1915.

Back Bay, Boston

January 22, 2016November 20, 2013 by Derek Strahan

The view of the Back Bay, from the top of the State House, in 1857. Image courtesy of the Boston Public Library.

The same view from the same spot, between 1900 and 1910. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

This post is a bit unusual, since I don’t have a modern-day view of the scene, but I thought that the differences between these two photos, taken only about 50 years apart, was particularly compelling, and illustrates just how much of Boston is built on reclaimed land. If I did have a present-day photo, it would show the John Hancock Building, the Prudential Tower, Hynes Convention Center, the Massachusetts Turnpike, and one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Boston. Yet, less than 160 years ago it was just a heavily polluted mud flat.

To help identify a few prominent locations in the swamps of 1857, the row of trees at the end of the water is present-day Arlington Street, and the road built across the water is Beacon Street, originally built in 1814 as a dam and toll road. The dam was intended to use the power of the outgoing tides for factories in the area, but it had the unintended consequence of preventing the mud flats from being washed out twice daily by the tides, leading to a shallow basin filled with sewage, garbage, and other pollution. Another dam connected Beacon Street to the point of land in the distance on the left. The left-hand side of the dam ended at the present-day intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Commonwealth Avenue. In the extreme distance of the 1857 photo, Beacon Street reaches the mainland at present-day Kenmore Square.

Most of the Back Bay up was filled in only a short time after this photo was taken, and completely filled in by 1882. The Fenway section (so-called because of the swamps, or “fens” in the area) was mostly finished by 1900, putting the finishing touches on the Boston that we now know today.