Arcade Theatre, Springfield

by

The Arcade Theatre on State Street in Springfield, around 1933. Photo courtesy of Cinema Treasures.

1930s

The same scene in 2012:

113_2012

The building in the foreground of the 1933 photo is the Arcade Theatre, which opened two years earlier.  The marquee advertises the film College Humor, a Bing Crosby comedy that was released in July of 1933, hence giving the approximate date of the photo.  The theater closed in 1971, and was demolished a year later to allow for Dwight Street to be extended up the hill to Maple Street.  This enabled Dwight Street and Maple/Chestnut Streets to function as a one-way pair to help with traffic around the newly-built Civic Center (now the MassMutual Center, barely visible on the far right of the 2012 photo).  The building in the center of the photo is the Epiphany Tower, which is being renovated to become a Holiday Inn Express.  Several other buildings that still exist are the c.1893 old Masonic Building at the corner of State and Main (with the green tower) and 1200 Main Street just beyond it, which was built in 1908.

Notice also the road itself – 1933 seems like a rather late date for a major road in Springfield – at the time it was part of Route 20 – to be paved with cobblestone, but apparently that was the case.  Notice the trolley tracks as well, and the trolley in the distance – very different from the PVTA buses that now navigate the streets of Springfield.

Court Square Theater, Springfield

by

Springfield’s Court Square Theater, as it appeared between 1900 and 1910. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

112_1900-1910-2Bloc

The building in 2015:

 

The Court Square Theater was built in 1892, and substantially expanded in 1900.  Originally, the building was symmetrical, but the 1900 addition gave the building an extra five rows of windows on the front facade, and also extended the right-hand side of the building all the way back to State Street.  A photo on this blog shows a rare glimpse of the building prior to the expansion.  The other two buildings visible along Court Square are the the 1835 Byers Block, and the 1889 Chicopee Bank Building.  Neither buildings have changed much in appearance since the first photo was taken.

Right now, the Court Square Theater building stands vacant.  The theater section itself (not visible) was demolished in 1957, and there have been various proposals for restoring the building, but so far none have begun.

Trinity Church, Boston

by

Trinity Church in Boston, in 1920. Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

111_1920-2Bbpl

The church in 2013:

111_2013

Located at Copley Square in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood, Trinity Church was built between 1872 and 1877, to replace the parish’s previous church, which had been destroyed in the Great Fire of 1872.  The church was designed by noted American architect Henry Hobson Richardson, and is generally regarded as his magnum opus.

The surrounding of the church have changed, even though the building itself has remained essentially the same.  Originally, Huntington Avenue (foreground in the 1920 photo) cut diagonally in front of the church; this was changed in 1966, and the former roadway is now part of a park in front of the church.  Behind the church is the Berkeley Building, also known as the Old John Hancock Building, and not to be confused with the John Hancock Tower, which is located immediately to the right of Trinity Church, just out of the picture.

American Falls, Niagara Falls, New York (2)

by

The American Falls at Niagara Falls, seen from the Canadian side around 1905. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

Niagara Falls

The same view a century later in 2005:

110_2005

As mentioned in my previous post, the American side of Niagara Falls has changed a great deal, with erosion contributing to the large pile of rocks at the base of the waterfall.  In 1969, the water was diverted away from the American Falls, and work was done to stabilize it and prevent it from becoming just a series of rapids, but the existing rocks at the base were not removed.  As a result, the American Falls looks far less dramatic than it did 100 years ago, but the Falls nonetheless remain just as popular a tourist destination as ever.

At the base of the Falls is the Maid of the Mist, one of of two such boats that brought tourists to the base of the Falls.  Both of these boats burned in a fire in 1955, but newer Maid of the Mist boats continue to give tours of Niagara Falls.

American Falls, Niagara Falls, New York (1)

by

A young man and woman, seated in front of the American Falls at Niagara Falls, around 1858. Photo courtesy of Library and Archives Canada.

109_1858-2Blib-2Barch-2Bcanada

The scene in 2005:

109_2005

Niagara Falls has been a popular tourist destination since the 19th century, and was particularly popular as a honeymoon destination – perhaps that was the occasion for the young couple in the first photo.  Much has changed at the Falls since then, both the surrounding area and the waterfalls themselves.  In the distance, the high-rise buildings reflect the increasing popularity and tourist-oriented nature of Niagara Falls, and if the cameras were turned around, one would see even more striking changes on the Canadian side of the gorge.

One obvious change with the American Falls is the accumulation of rocks at its base.  The 2005 photo shows a much shorter distance from the top to the rocks at the bottom, which were deposited by rock slides and erosion caused by the waterfall’s steady retreat upstream.  By the 1960’s, there was great concern that the American Falls would erode to the point where they would become a series of rapids rather than a true waterfall, so the water was diverted from it and the American side of the Falls was temporarily shut off.  Geologists secured and stabilized some of the most erosion-prone areas, but they determined that it would be too costly to remove the rocks that had already fallen.

Calvin Coolidge at the White House, Washington DC

by

President Calvin Coolidge on the South Lawn of the White House in 1925. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, National Photo Company Collection.

Presidents

The South Lawn in 2012:

108_2012

In my previous post on the White House, I mentioned some of the changes that have occurred to the building since it was first occupied by John Adams, so I’m not going to go into great detail about the structure itself.  What I do find interesting about these two photos is not the building itself, but rather the people in the photos.  President Coolidge is clearly visible in the first photo, but look carefully at the second photo – President and Mrs. Obama are sitting on the second floor balcony, right between the two middle pillars.  So, not only do these two photos document changes in the building, in transportation (note the truck to the right of Coolidge, compared to the SUV on the left-hand side of the 2012 photo), and in presidential security (note the lack of Secret Service agents in Coolidge’s photo); they also document two presidents, who served 80 years apart, and who held very different political views, but who nonetheless occupied the same office and the same building.