1900s

Huntington Avenue Grounds, Boston (1)

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Huntington Avenue Grounds in Boston, around 1903. Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library.

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The same location in 2014:

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The first photo shows the stands along the third base line at Hunting Avenue Grounds and its expansive outfield. The field measured 350 feet down the left field line, and at the time of the 1903 photo center field measured an almost unheard-of 530 feet, which was later expanded to 635 feet in 1908. Beyond center field is the apartment block that is visible in the photos on this post, although none of the buildings are visible from this spot today, and there is no evidence here that a ballpark ever existed. The building that dominates the foreground here is the Cabot Center, an athletic facility on the campus of Northeastern University.

Huntington Avenue Grounds Groundbreaking, Boston

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The groundbreaking ceremonies on March 12, 1901 for what would become the Huntington Avenue Grounds, the first home of the Boston Red Sox. Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library.

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The scene in 2014:

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Today, the Boston Red Sox are without a doubt the most popular baseball team in New England, but in 1901 they were merely another upstart team attempting to challenge the well-established Boston Beaneaters. The American League itself wasn’t officially established until January, but after that things started to happen fast.  The team leased land along Huntington Avenue, right across the railroad tracks from the South End Grounds where the Beaneaters played.  Then, on March 12, presumably with the ground just beginning to thaw, the official groundbreaking ceremony occurred and construction began, less than two months before the May 8 home opener.

The field, which became known simply as the Huntington Avenue Grounds, was home to the Red Sox (a name they officially adopted in 1908 – before that they wore blue stockings) for 11 seasons, before the construction of Fenway Park not too far away.  Today, the site is part of the Northeastern University campus, but there is at least one structure visible in both photos – the brick apartment building in the background on the left-hand side of the 1901 photo is still there today, with newer buildings on either side of it.

Public Garden Incline, Boston (1)

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Trolleys entering and exiting the Tremont Street Subway at its southern end at the Boston Public Garden, around 1904. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

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The scene in 2014:

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When the Tremont Street Subway opened in 1897 as the first subway in the country, trolleys ran underground from downtown all the way until the corner of Arlington and Boylston, where the tracks emerged here and continued along Boylston Street to points west.  The three cars in the first photo represent three different routes, with the one on the far right returning from Newton, the one ahead of it coming from Roxbury, and the one in distance is heading toward Huntington Avenue.  Today’s Green Line still has four different branches, all that is left of what was once a much larger streetcar system.  The subway portal itself closed in 1914, when the subway was extended under Boylston Street to Kenmore, and no evidence remains on the surface to suggest that trolleys once emerged here from underground.

Park Street Station, Boston

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Tremont Street during construction of the Park Street subway station in 1897. Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library.

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Park Street Station after completion, taken in 1906. Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library.

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Park Street Station in 2014:

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As mentioned in previous posts, the Tremont Street Subway (today’s MBTA Green Line) was the first subway in the country, and Park Street was one of the first two stations, along with Boylston.  The station opened in 1897, and helped to relieve congestion on Tremont Street by removing the trolleys from the surface, as seen in the first photo.  Today, the station is still there, as is Park Street Church behind it.

See this post and this post for a few photos of the interior of the station.

Tremont Street and King’s Chapel, Boston

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Looking south on Tremont Street in Boston, toward School Street, around 1906. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

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The scene in 2021:

These photos were taken from right across the street from the ones in this post, although the “then” photo here was taken nearly 50 years after the one in the other post.  Aside from King’s Chapel, which predates the first photo by about 150 years, a few other buildings survive from the 1906 scene.  The most obvious one is the Tremont Temple, the third building on the left after King’s Chapel.  It was built in 1896 and continues to serve as a Baptist church.

 

Washington Street, Boston

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Looking north on Washington Street in Boston, toward Stuart Street, in October 1909. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, National Child Labor Committee Collection.

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The scene in 2014:

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Like many other photographs by Lewis Wickes Hine of the National Child Labor Committee, the scene in the 1909 photo has almost a Charles Dickens-like appearance to it.  In the photo, a couple young girls struggle to haul wood back to their homes, presumably to use for heat in the upcoming winter months.

Several buildings survive from the 1909 photo, including the three buildings along the right-hand side of Washington Street in the distance.  The closest of the buildings is the former Unique Theatre, which was built in 1888 and opened as a theater in 1907, where it operated as a nickelodeon, an early, no-frills movie theater that cost five cents admission, hence the name,   According to the Massachusetts Historical Commission, it is likely the last surviving nickelodeon in Boston.

The other two surviving buildings are the former Globe Theater, and the office building beyond it. The Globe Theater was built in 1903 and substantially renovated later on, including the addition of several stories,  The other building, which is located at the corner of Washington and Beach Streets, was built around the same time, and is largely unchanged in appearance since the first photo was taken.