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A man in his bowler hat in the snow, but where?

By adamg on Wed, 10/02/2019 - 10:03am
A man in his bowler hat in the snow in old Boston

The folks at the City of Boston Archives wonder if you figure out where and when Mr. Bowler-Hat Man was photographed (hint: note the Boston boundary marker he's leaning against). See it larger.

Neighborhoods: 
Boston
Topics: 
History


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Comments

By anon on Wed, 10/02/2019 - 11:09am.

Looks like he's next to one of the border markers - could be anywhere on the border of Boston before other towns were annexed.

I think this was a New Year Tradition for a while - perambulating the bounds.

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By Rob on Wed, 10/02/2019 - 11:52am.

Nice, level street. Fence. It reminds me of Boston Street near the Dorchester Historical Society, but that wasn't where the boundary was. I think one of the previous borders: Boston-Dorchester or Boston-Roxbury.

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By Rob on Wed, 10/02/2019 - 12:09pm.

Well, definitely wasn't Boston Street. I cheated and found the Perambulation of the Boundaries flickr, so I won't go ahead and spoil it for anyone else.
...
It is gratifying to go the Bromley for the area & dated closest to the photo and clearly see the outline of the same house that's in the photo.

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By bostnkid on Wed, 10/02/2019 - 2:13pm.

great-grandfather?

ive got a picture of my great grandfather. the thing took six hours to take. back in those days every guy had just one picture. in the future people will say "Hey Wanna see 100,000 pictures of my great grandfather? and everything he did every day of his life?"

norm is a genius

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By Ward8Mahatma on Wed, 10/02/2019 - 2:12pm.

... this guy would be a dead ringer for silent film comedian Ben Turpin. As it is though, I think he might be a doctor making a house call. A friend, who came from a long line of doctors had his great-grandfather’s housecall case and it looked just like the one this fellow is carrying.

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By anon on Wed, 10/02/2019 - 3:22pm.

No clue as to where it was taken, however this historical photo is fantastic! Guessing that the date is 1899.

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By chaosjake on Wed, 10/02/2019 - 4:36pm.

We can maybe start our research with the recent Hub History episode about perambulation. (Starts at about 38:17)

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By Kristen Coughlin on Wed, 10/02/2019 - 11:01pm.

...on Monmouth Street in East Boston. I heard it was once the governor’s house.

[url] https://goo.gl/maps/n2t2HcVDsMbUcS6D8

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By Boston City Archives on Thu, 10/03/2019 - 8:56am.

Thanks for playing, folks! This photo taken during the 1896 Perambulation of the Boundaries and shows a "Monument 22" on Nonantum St. You can see a map with the exact location of the marker here: https://twitter.com/ArchivesBoston/status/1179486313264926720

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