1890s

Court Square, Springfield (6)

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Springfield’s Court Square, sometime in the 1880s or earlier. Photo from Springfield Present and Prospective (1905).

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The scene in the 1890s. Photo from Our County and Its People: A History of Hampden County, Massachusetts (1902).

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The scene in 2014:119_2014

The three photos show the progression of the appearance of Court Square in the past 125+ years. In the first photo, the buildings along Elm Street are all 1830’s-era three story commercial buildings, most of which were replaced by the Court Square Theater in 1892, which can be seen in the second photo, a rare view of the building before the 1900 expansion on the right side. That is essentially the only change between the second photo and today’s scene – not much has changed with the four major buildings in this angle. One notable survivor on the far left is the Byers Block, which was built in 1835 and is the last remaining part of the Elm Street commercial blocks from the first photo. Wedged in between two much larger late 19th century building, it is the oldest surviving commercial building in the city, although not the oldest building in the photo – Old First Church on the far right dates to 1819.

John Hancock Memorial, Boston

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John Hancock’s grave in the Granary Burying Ground, around 1898. Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library.

The same site in 2023:

Although John Hancock died in 1793, his grave wasn’t memorialized until 1896, about 2 years before the first photo, when the monument was dedicated.  The graveyard itself remains much the same as it was in 1898, down to the fence between it and the surrounding buildings, but the buildings themselves are very different from the ones at the end of the 19th century.

 

 

Old Man of the Mountain

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The Old Man of the Mountain, between 1890 and 1910. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

New Hampshire

The same view in 2013:

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“Discovered” by surveyors in 1805, New Hampshire’s famous rock formation lasted for almost 200 more years, before collapsing in May 2003 as a result of centuries of freezing and thawing.  Concern over the figure’s eventual collapse began even before the first photo was taken.  Frederick Wilkinson Kilbourne wrote in Chronicles of the White Mountains in 1916 that “Professor Hitchcock’s fear, expressed more than forty years ago, that, owing to the friability of the granite of which the ledges are composed and its consequent rapid disintegration, the ledges might soon disappear, has so far not been realized”  Kilbourne went on to write, “Sad will be the day (may it never come!) when that marvel of Nature shall be marred or be no longer to be seen.”

Concerns about the stability of the rocks continued through the 20th century, and in 1958 steel rods and other equipment were used in an attempt to secure the rocks.  Several of the rods are still visible at the top of the cliff.  The Old Man of the Mountain also influenced the construction of Interstate 93 through Franconia Notch; the segment of highway is one of the few two-lane Interstate highways, and was built that way partially because of concerns that construction of a wider highway could damage the rock formation.  Regardless of these efforts, though, the rocks collapsed in May 2003.

Paul Revere House, Boston

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Paul Revere’s House in Boston, around 1898. Image courtesy of Boston Public Library.

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The house in 2014:

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Built in 1680, Paul Revere’s house is the oldest building in downtown Boston, and was owned by Paul Revere from 1770 to 1800. He actually added a third floor, as seen in the 1898 photo, but shortly after the photo was taken, the house was purchased by one of Revere’s descendants and restored to its 1680 appearance. Despite all of the modifications, it is estimated that about 90% of the structure is original to 1680, which is impressive, considering how different it looks in the two photos.

Buckman Tavern, Lexington, Massachusetts

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The Buckman Tavern in Lexington, between 1890 and 1901.  Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

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Between 1910 and 1920.  Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

Lexington

In 2013:

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This building, located just to the east of the Lexington Green, was built around 1710 by Benjamin Muzzy. His son John operated it as a tavern for many years, and the tavern was eventually acquired by John Buckman after his marriage to John’s granddaughter Ruth Stone in 1768.

It was during Buckman’s time here that the tavern gained attention as the site where many of Lexington’s militiamen gathered on the morning of April 19, 1775, just before the Battle of Lexington. This battle—really more of a small skirmish—occurred directly in front of the tavern on the Green, and it marked the start of the American Revolution. There was at least one bullet that passed through the front door of the tavern, and later in the day there were two wounded British soldiers who were brought here, and one of them died here in the tavern.

After the battle, John Buckman continued to operate this tavern until his death in 1792. Two years later, it was acquired by Rufus Merriam, who had witnessed the battle nearly 20 years earlier as a 13-year-old boy. He later became postmaster, and the town’s post office was located here starting in 1813, but the building does not appear to have been used as a tavern for much longer after that.

The property would remain in the Merriam family for many years, and it was eventually acquired by the town of Lexington in 1913. The interior was subsequently restored to its colonial-era appearance, and the old tavern is now leased by the Lexington Historical Society, which operates it as a museum.

2023 update: I have added some photos from the interior of the tavern, which were taken during a May 2023 visit:

The kitchen in the back of the tavern
The ladies’ parlor
The room in the northwestern corner of the ground floor
The front entryway. On the left side, behind the plexiglass, is the original front door, with a yellow arrow pointing to the bullet hole.
The tap room, where the militiamen gathered prior to the battle.

Cape Neddick, York, Maine

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The view of Cape Neddick from Long Sands Beach in York, Maine, between 1890 and 1910. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

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The same view in 2011:

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In the past 100 years, Cape Neddick went from being almost deserted, to being covered with vacation homes.  The only readily-identifiable structure in both photos is the Cape Neddick “Nubble” Lighthouse, located at the end of the peninsula on a small, rocky island known as the Nubble.  However, with close examination, at least one of the cottages from the old photograph still exists – the one with the tower in the center of the roof on the far-left side of the photo.