Heading into Kenmore Square, then and now

By adamg on Tue, 11/28/2023 - 11:54am

Traffic heading into Kenmore Square on Commonwealth Avenue and Beacon Street in 1946

Jam and cram in front of the Hotel Buckminster. See it larger.

Richard Merrill photographed traffic heading into Kenmore Square on Commonwealth Avenue and Beacon Street past the Hotel Buckminster in March, 1946.

Roughly the same view via Google Maps in November, 2022:

The Yankee Network was one of the nation's first broadcast networks, initially connecting stations across New England via telephone lines. The Beacon Street "letterboard" - now a parking-lot entrance - was actually the rear of the network's offices, which had their front door on the Brookline Avenue, roughly where the Popeyes used to be, at the other end of the Hotel Buckminster.

Another view of the "letterboard" sign, in June, 1942, also by Richard Merrill:

Photos from the BPL's Richard Merrill collection. Posted under this Creative Commons license.

H/t David Yamada.

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Kenmore Square

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Comments

still sad about Hotel Buckminster

By SharpWave on Tue, 11/28/2023 - 12:01pm.

...and the general slow Kendall-ization of Kenmore. Such a shame that the rents are too jacked up for the area to cater to BU students and staff.

Bu staff cannot afford it.

By anon on Tue, 11/28/2023 - 12:28pm.

Bu staff cannot afford it.

Blame the interstate

By BostonDog on Tue, 11/28/2023 - 1:01pm.

The part of Kenmore Square in the photo got decimated when the interstate was extended downtown and BU was mostly a commuter college. I'm not sure when the nice building on the corner got demolished and replaced with the eyesore that is the Citizen's bank. 1965?

BU didn't do away with what remained of the old Kenmore Square until the mid 1990s.

Today the rents are high because it's Boston and rents are high everywhere. I'm bummed they built offices in the square and not housing. The Buckminister would have been prefect to convert back to efficiency units as there's a real need for small apartments. Although given the weakening of demand for lab/office space, maybe there's still a chance.