Street Scenes

Beacon Street looking west from Charles Street, Boston (1)

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The view looking west on Beacon Street from Charles Street, between 1865 and 1870. Image courtesy of the Boston Public Library.

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The same view in 2014:

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The buildings in the distance in the first photo would have been almost brand-new; these are part of the Back Bay neighborhood, and would have been built within about ten years before the photo was taken.  The buildings in the foreground, however, are much older.  The granite rowhouses just past the brick building on the far right of the first photo are still there; they were built in 1828, almost a decade before the Public Garden across the street was even established.  The brick townhouse next to it in the foreground was probably even older, although it was demolished at some point, probably around 1917, when the tall apartment building in the 2014 photo was built.

Beacon Street looking east from Charles Street, Boston

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Looking up Beacon Street toward the State House, sometime in the 19th century. Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library.

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The same scene in 2014:

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The first photo was probably taken around the 1860s or 1870s, and many of the townhouses predate even that photo by half a century.  One of the houses in this view, featured in this post when Theodore Roosevelt came to visit, was built in 1819, and many of the other houses likely date to the same period, which was around the time when Beacon Hill was first being developed.

For being close to 150 years apart, the two scenes are remarkably similar – most of the townhouses in the foreground appear virtually unchanged, and trees in Boston Common and a wrought iron fence (probably the same one) still line the left-hand side of Beacon Street.  It’s a picturesque neighborhood, and also a pricey one – the house featured in the Roosevelt post is currently on the market with an asking price of $11.9 million.

Beacon Street, Boston

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Looking west on Beacon Street in Boston, near the State House, sometime in the 19th century. Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library.

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The same scene in 2014:

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These views show Beacon Street looking down the hill, just past the Massachusetts State House (the State House would be behind and to the left from this angle).  The street to the right in the foreground is Joy Street, and Boston Common is to the left.

Ever since Beacon Hill was developed in the early 1800s, it has been a wealthy neighborhood, and given its location adjacent to the State House, it has been the home of a number of prominent politicians over the years.  Aside from wider, paved streets, and automobiles instead of horse-drawn carriages, not much has changed with the appearance of the neighborhood. The streets are still lined with brick townhouses, and many of the ones from the first photo (which I suspect was probably taken around the 1860s-1870s) are still around today, including the one on the far right in the foreground, and the one in approximately the center of the 19th century photo, which is partially obscured by trees in the 2014 photo.

Pell Street, Chinatown, New York City

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Looking down Pell Street in Chinatown, around 1900-1910.  Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

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The same scene in 2014:

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Taken from the intersection of Doyers Street, this scene on Pell Street in New York’s Chinatown, this scene is taken from almost the same spot as the photos in this post, just turned about 90 degrees to the right. Several of the buildings are the same, including the ones on either side of the photo, and Pell Street remains at the center of Chinatown.

East Longmeadow Rotary (2)

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Another view in downtown East Longmeadow, looking up present-day Route 83 from the rotary, around 1900-1910.  Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

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The view in 2014:

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This view shows the scene looking north on North Main Street in East Longmeadow, toward Springfield, from the rotary.  The house on the far left appears to be the same in both photos, but otherwise everything else has changed, showing the increase in commercial development in the center of East Longmeadow over the past century.  Another change seen here is the trolley tracks, which are visible in the lower left of the first photo.  As mentioned in this post, streetcars once connected Springfield and its surrounding towns, much in the same way that PVTA buses now do.

East Longmeadow Rotary (1)

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The view looking up modern-day Route 83 in East Longmeadow at the rotary, between 1900 and 1910.  Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

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The same scene in 2014:

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Reportedly, the rotary in the center of East Longmeadow holds the record for most roads in a single intersection.  I don’t know whether this is actually the case, but either way its seven roads make it an unusual and confusing intersection.  It contains a rotary-like feature, but unlike conventional rotaries, the traffic in the rotary doesn’t necessarily have the right of way – sometimes rotary traffic does, sometimes incoming traffic has to yield, and sometimes incoming traffic has to stop.  One thing it does lack, though, is a traffic light.  Although I can only imagine what a traffic light with seven different streets would be like.

A century ago, the intersection still had seven roads, but with far less traffic, and at much lower speeds.  However, it did have one thing that modern-day drivers don’t have to contend with – trolleys.  Part of one trolley is barely visible on the far left of the first photo.  This location on the rotary, directly in front of town hall, was the southern end of one of the many streetcar lines that linked the towns in the Connecticut Valley at the turn of the century.