Quincy Market, facing west toward Faneuil Hall, sometime in the 1800s. Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library.
The scene in 2014:
Another view of Quincy Market, showing the difference between the business-oriented market in the 1800s, and the tourist-oriented scene today. In this particular 2014 view, it was taken during the Urban Raid, a 5k race and obstacle course that went through the City Hall area of Boston.
Another Quincy Market scene, facing west, looking toward Faneuil Hall, around 1904. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.
The same scene in 2014:
Another view of Quincy Market, with the 1904 photo showing the various food vendors outside the building. Today, the market is oriented toward tourists instead of Boston residents, although the exterior of the building is largely the same. The South Market building, on the extreme left-hand side of the photos, is also there, as is the corresponding North Market building on the opposite side of Quincy Market.
The view of Quincy Market looking east from in front of Faneuil Hall, sometime in the 1800s. Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library.
The same view of Quincy Market in 2014:
Built in 1825, Quincy Market has been a major commercial center for nearly 200 years. However, its role and the surrounding neighborhood have certainly changed. Originally, as seen in the first photo, it was a place for Bostonians to buy and sell food products, ranging from fruits and vegetables to cheese and meat. It was also built right along the waterfront; today it is several blocks from Boston Harbor. But, the building hasn’t moved – the waterfront has. Over the years, Boston has significantly expanded its land area, both through annexing surrounding towns but also through landfill, which included dumping dirt, rocks, construction debris, and even old ships into the harbor and building atop it.
Because of that, Quincy Market is no longer has a waterfront location, but it is still a commercial center, although today it consists of fast food vendors that primarily cater to tourists and workers from nearby City Hall. The Quincy Market area also offers shopping, gift stores, and in this particular scene, photos with Spider-Man. It is also located along the Freedom Trail, which is marked by the brick path in the foreground.
A woman feeding pigeons along the Boston Common next to Park Street station, sometime between 1900 and 1920. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.
The same scene in 2014:
The first photo was probably taken not long after Boston built its subway network, and the Park Street station was where it all began. As mentioned in these posts (Post 1 and Post 2) of the interior of the station, Park Street and Boylston were the first two subway stations in North America, and today Park Street is still a major hub on the “T”, where passengers can transfer between the Red and Green lines. It is also near the start of the Freedom Trail and the Massachusetts State House, so it is frequented by tourists as well.
I don’t know who the woman in the picture was, but it is safe to say that everyone in the photo has probably been dead for over 30 years. And, unlike the people in the two photos, the pigeons that still inhabit Boston Common are still dressed pretty much the same way.
Another view, around 1887, looking west on Beacon Street from Charles Street. Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library.
The scene in 2014:
A similar view to the photos in this post, these photos show how Beacon Street has changed in the past 127 years. Not a whole lot of dramatic changes have occurred; the street is now a paved, four lane thoroughfare, but the Public Garden is still there on the left, and many of the rowhouses on the right are still there, including the granite ones from 1828 on the far right of the photos.
The view looking west on Beacon Street from Charles Street, between 1865 and 1870. Image courtesy of the Boston Public Library.
The same view in 2014:
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.