1890s Archives - Page 51 of 68

Portland Head Light, Cape Elizabeth, Maine (1)

December 2, 2015December 1, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The view of Portland Head Light, possibly around 1890. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

The lighthouse in 2015:

Aside from perhaps lobsters and pine trees, Portland Head Light is one of Maine’s most recognizable symbols. The iconic lighthouse is among the most famous in the world, and in the past few years it has been featured in lists such as USA Today’s “10 best lighthouses around the USA“, The Weather Channel’s “11 Amazing Lighthouses of the World“, and Mental Floss’s “10 of the Most Beautiful Lighthouses in the World.” However, this is not a recent phenomenon; the picturesque lighthouse overlooking Portland’s Casco Bay has attracted generations of photographers, as seen in the photo from the Detroit Publishing Company over a hundred years earlier.

The lighthouse was completed in 1791, in what was at the time part of Massachusetts. As its name suggests, Portland was, and still is, one of New England’s major commercial ports, so a lighthouse was needed to mark the southern edge of the main shipping channel into the harbor. It was the first lighthouse to be built by the United States government (all earlier lighthouses were built prior to the Revolution or prior to the federal government assuming control over lighthouses), and it was also the first of many lighthouses in present-day Maine.

As built, Portland Head Light looked very different from today. It was only 72 feet tall, but poor construction of both the tower and the keeper’s house became evident within 20 years. The leaking lighthouse was lowered by 20 feet in 1812, and the keeper’s house was replaced in 1816 by the one seen in the first photo. This website provides more details, along with a few historic photos of the lighthouse, including one from 1859 that is barely recognizable compared to the two views shown above.

The tower’s height continued to fluctuate throughout the 19th century. In response to a deadly 1864 shipwreck, it was raised 20 feet for better visibility, only to be reduced again in 1883. Two years later, though, the third and final height change gave the tower its present appearance. This is still noticeable today; the ring around the upper section of the tower separates the 1885 addition from the original 1791 structure.

The only obvious difference between the two photos above is the keeper’s house to the left, and this is where there is somewhat of a discrepancy with the date of the photo. The Library of Congress estimates that the first photo was taken around 1902. However, the records indicate that the present-day keeper’s house was built in 1891, and assuming this is correct, it would make that the earliest that this photo could have been taken. This is far earlier than most of the other photos in the Detroit Publishing Company collection, though, so the exact date seems to be questionable.

Date questions aside, the lighthouse is still an active aid to navigation for one of the busiest ports on the east coast, although the keeper’s house is no longer used as a residence. The light was automated in 1989, eliminating the need for a full-time lighthouse keeper. so today the house is owned by the town of Cape Elizabeth, and is operated as a maritime museum as part of Fort Williams Park.

First Baptist Church, Boston

February 9, 2018November 7, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The First Baptist Church in Boston, at the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Clarendon Street in the Back Bay, as seen around 1890-1901. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

The church in 2015:

The First Baptist Church was one of many prominent Boston churches that relocated to the Back Bay in the late 1800s, although this building wasn’t originally built for them. It was designed by Henry Hobson Richardson, whose later works would include Trinity Church a few blocks away at Copley Square. The top of the tower features carvings by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, who also designed the Statue of Liberty. The building was completed in 1875 for Brattle Street Church, a Unitarian church that had previously been located where City Hall is today. However, the church didn’t last long here; they disbanded in 1876 and sold their new building to the First Baptist Church in 1882. They are one of the oldest Baptist congregations in the country, dating back to 1665, and they are still located here on Commonwealth Avenue over 130 years later.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

November 7, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The old Museum of Fine Arts building at Copley Square in Boston, probably sometime in the 1880s. Image courtesy of the Boston Public Library.

The building around 1890-1901. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

The location in 2015:

Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts was established in 1870, and six years later it moved into this Gothic Revival building on the south side of Copley Square. Because of the museum’s presence here, it was originally named Art Square, but in the 1880s it was renamed in honor of colonial Boston painter John Singleton Copley. The museum has a substantial collection of his works, including portraits of prominent figures such as John Adams, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Paul Revere.

In 1909, the museum relocated further down Huntington Avenue in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood, on a larger plot of land that allowed for more expansion as the museum grew. Today’s museum is many times larger than the original Copley Square building, and it is among the most visited art museums in the world, attracting over a million visitors each year. The old art museum was demolished soon after the museum moved, and in 1912 the Copley Plaza Hotel, which is still standing today, was built on the site.

Copley Square, Boston (2)

October 20, 2015 by Derek Strahan

Copley Square as seen from in front of the New Old South Church in Boston, in 1893. Image courtesy of the Boston Public Library.

Copley Square in 2015:

The first photo shows Copley Square as it appeared only about 20 years after this section of Boston was developed. In the second half of the 19th century, the Back Bay was transformed from a polluted marsh to one of the city’s premier neighborhoods. Many of the city’s important cultural institutions moved here, with many of them surrounding the Copley Square area, including the New Old South Church on the left, the Trinity Church in the center, and the Museum of Fine Arts on the right. Also under construction, but just out of view of the camera on the right, was the main branch of the Boston Public Library.

Today, the Copley Square area has seen some significant changes from the 19th century. It remains the focal point of the Back Bay, but what started as neighborhoods of Victorian rowhouses evolved into low-rise commercial buildings, and eventually modern skyscrapers, especially in the area south of Boylston Street. The two churches from the 1893 photo are still standing, but all of the other buildings are gone, including the Museum of Fine Arts, which moved to a larger facility further down Huntington Avenue in the early 1900s. The old building was demolished, and replaced in 1912 with the Copley Plaza Hotel, which still stands today.

The most prominent new building in the 2015 scene is the John Hancock Tower, which was completed in 1976 and is the tallest building in New England. Beyond it, near the center of the photo, is the 1947 Berkeley Building, which is also known as the Old John Hancock Building. Together, these skyscrapers, along with the ones seen facing the other direction in this post, make up Boston’s High Spine, a string of skyscrapers extending west from downtown Boston, roughly along the Boylston Street and the Massachusetts Turnpike.

Park Street Subway Station, Boston (4)

October 20, 2015 by Derek Strahan

Another view of the Park Street station on the Tremont Street Subway, taken on July 31, 1897. Image courtesy of the City of Boston Archives.

The station in 2015:

The first photo shows the interior of Park Street station as it appeared about a month before it opened as one of the first two subway stations in the United States. It was taken from around the same location as the one in the previous post, just facing the opposite direction. These two photos, taken nearly 120 years apart, show some of the changes that have taken place over the years inside this historic station. The original 1897 trolley platforms soon became inadequate for the number of passengers that used the station, so from 1914 to 1915 they were extended to the south, which is why the station appears much larger in the 2015 photo. Other changes have included removing the two stairwells that can be seen at the southern end of the platforms in the first photo; today, the station can only be accessed through the entrances closest to Park Street.

Not everything has changed, though. One of the defining features of the Green Line is that it still runs trolleys rather than conventional rapid transit subway cars like those on the other three subway lines. As a result, the station platforms are level with the tracks, and there is no third rail, with power instead being supplied by overhead wires. Many of the destinations haven’t changed either. Although Boston’s trolley network is significantly smaller than it was in 1897, many of the places on the sign in the first photo can still be accessed from here, including the Back Bay, Copley Square, Brookline, Allston, Brighton, and Newton.

Boston and Maine Station, Boston

March 6, 2016October 17, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The Boston and Maine Railroad station at Haymarket Square in Boston, around 1894. Image courtesy of the City of Boston Archives.

The Boston City Hospital Relief Station, on the site of the former railroad station in 1905. Image courtesy of the City of Boston Archives.

The location in 2015:

Of the eight major railroads that served Boston in the late 1800s, the Boston and Maine came the closest to the downtown area, with its depot at Haymarket Square. It was opened in 1845, and over the years Boston and Maine became the dominant railroad in northern New England, with many of its lines converging here. However, because there were four different railroads that had their own stations within a few blocks of here, the companies built North Station in 1893, about 300 yards up Canal Street from here.

The old station had been built in the early years of railroad travel, and it stood until 1897, when it was demolished to make way for a new type of rail travel. Boston’s Tremont Street Subway was the first subway tunnel in the country, and the northern entrance of the tunnel was built on the site of the station. From here, the tracks ran along the surface between Canal and Haverhill Streets, where the station platforms used to be. The only new building on the site was the Boston City Hospital Relief Station, as seen in the 1905 photo. It was built in 1902 as a branch of the Boston City Hospital, in order to provide emergency services in the downtown area, and it stood until the early 1960s.

Today, there isn’t much left from either of the first two photos. A few of the buildings on Canal Street are still standing, such as the one on the far left in both the 1891 and 1905 photos. It is barely visible on the left of the 2015 photo, above the bus in the foreground. Haymarket Square itself is completely changed, though, through a series of urban renewal projects in the 20th century. To the left is a parking garage, with the Haymarket Square subway station underneath it. On the right-hand side of the photo, the elevated Central Artery once passed through here. Built in the 1950s, it cut a swath through downtown Boston until 2003, when the highway was rerouted through the Tip O’Neill Tunnel as part of the Big Dig. The building under construction in the background is being built on land that the Central Artery once passed through.