From trains to cars: The evolution of Park Square

I would love them to add a photo of the male and female junkies / prostitues passed out on benches in various states of undress behind the Four Seasons in the early 1990's after swiping sugar packets from me at Ben & Jerry's to string them along a little longer. The Four Seasons had had enough and had them (the benches)taken away. Good times.

Please don't wax nostalgic about Park Square based on these photos. What is there now is vibrant and productive. My mother and then I worked in there for years. It was "gritty" and not in the romantic way people sometimes like to pine. Lets put it this way. If there you were holding an iPhone up to your ear at night there up until about 1995, your would iPhone would be stolen, along with your ear.

Three cheers to the people who helped squash the Park Plaza development proposals of the early 1980's. The row between Arlington and Charles would have been one long block of glass and steel 500 feet high lording over the Public Garden. Cheers to Jack Fallon of R.M. Bradley for holding out against Mayor White and the New York money trying to replicate Detroit's Ren Center on Boylston. This is a better city for it.

I never pictured a watery South End. Fascinating.

Most of this is visible from my office window - so of personal interest.

couple of things:

1) the parking lot Adam mentions was turned into the Motor Mart - if I'm not mistaken and understanding the captions correctly that's Berkeley in the foreground and the Park Square building to the left - not the Hotel? If so the front of that parking lot is what became the Liberty Mutual building and the far end of that block is the Paine Furniture Bldg. In between was the bus station which has been replaced by 10 St. James office building. I believe all three are now owned by Liberty Mutual and many of their employees here will be consolidated into the new office building around the corner which is nearing completion (which by the way - is a very handsome structure now that that scaffolding has been removed with lots of curved facade etc.)

2) The Lincoln Statue is still in the same place as in the photo - but the location is indeed a lot less prominent. Lincoln used to look out to the Boston common and Beacon Hill. Now he mostly looks at the back of the One Charles residences.

3) I believe the Boston and Providence is now the end of the Northeast corridor from NY to Boston(or as we call it from our Boston perspective - the Southwest Corridor) the crossover is roughly where it merges with the B&A at Back Bay Station.

4) The Gas building pictured west of the Motor Mart was most recently the Rennaissance Charter school and is now being converted to 100 units of housing. Thanks to some generous contributions by the businesses in the square - the park next to that building has recently been renovated and looks fantastic. Nice place to grab lunch if you are in the area - which you can buy cheap at Viga across the street - cool old building which I fear is not long for this world.

Anyone else think that Park Square needs a re-do today? In my opinion there's far too much space dedicated to asphalt and parking (e.g. what rationale is there for perpendicular parking by McCormick?) and far too narrow and bare sidewalks. Pedestrian access is confusing and dangerous all around.

I think they can pedestrianize Columbus Ave between Lincoln Square and Arlington/Stuart except for local access to the hotel/restaurant - make it a shared space like Winthrop Street in Harvard Sq.