Looks like a Boston square

By adamg on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 10:25am

One probably wouldn't be going too far out on a limb to say that many people will immediately know where this is. But the folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can figure out when. See it larger (or see it even larger).

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Comments

Kenmore

By Steeve on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 10:38am.

Kenmore facing inbound. My guess is from the roof of the Buckminster around...1970?

A car aficionado around here will be able to nail this one down.

I'm going to go with mid 60's

By Cliff clavin on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 10:34am.

I'm going to go with mid 60's based off the cars on the road.

Kenmore, early 1960s

By jmeltzer on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 10:44am.

After a more careful look at the cars.

Kenmore obviously. 72?

By MattyC on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 10:43am.

Kenmore obviously. 72?

/edit/

Nope. Bonnie and Clyde on the marquis. Released in 1967.

I think you have it

By jmeltzer on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 10:45am.

Good eyes.

Just a smidge later.

By John Costello on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 11:02am.

I would say 1969. Bonnie and Clyde is a giveaway but also remember, pre-VCR days, movies stayed in theatres for a while and Boston was blanketed with small movie theatres that showed movies for a while or movies were re-released. It took the original Star Wars 14 months to come to the Puritan in Dorchester.

The few clues I think it is later is one the Kerrigan sign down on the right. 69 would have been an election year for local Boston offices and that racist piece of filth, a resident of Ashmont Street, was on the Boston School Committee then.

28 State Street is up in the back left under construction, whilst the Hancock is not yet under construction, nor is One Beacon, which started in 1970.

Can anyone make out the other movie title?

By jmeltzer on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 11:24am.

At maximum magnification on my screen all I get is "The [At Least 10 letters in Word]"

"Underground"

By Allstonian on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 11:45am.

I think it says "Underground," which was a midnight-screening series there according to comments here: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/6418/comments

Makes sense....

By Irma la Douce on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 11:59am.

I can't make out the words at all, but "Bonnie and Clyde" is in quotation marks and the wording below isn't, suggesting it's not a film title but possibly an event.

Ewwww

By Paula Mickevich on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 11:30am.

Ewwww, Kerrigan. He gave the speech at my high school graduation at the old War Memorial auditorium. I had just read a piece about him in the old Phoenix/Real Paper and was much struck at how the other media reported on him vs that paper. Was angry that he was the one to speak. Slime ball I thought.

The Kenmore was a revival/art movie house

By Ron Newman on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 12:22pm.

It showed second- and third-run, foreign, and old Hollywood films -- similar to the Brattle Theatre today. I doubt that any film on its marquee was in current first-run release when the photo was taken.

Yeah, At Least '67

By Suldog on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 10:53am.

Cars look right for then. The Pru in the right background narrows it down to after '65.

The Kenmore Theater was one of my favorites. I saw Python's "And Now For Something Completely Different" there, my first exposure to them when I was 17. I laughed so hard I actually got a headache from oxygen deprivation.

Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com

Yes 72-75

By paul on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 10:07pm.

I say somewhat later than '72 because there appear to be two joggers coming up Comm Ave (!). As I recall the jogging outbreak didn't hit until mid-70's.

Because there is a Kerrigan campaign sign and people are wearing heavy-ish coats but no snow, likely in October or early november.

Also, is that smog?

Marathon Route

By SwirlyGrrl on Tue, 02/02/2016 - 11:39am.

Don't forget that this is on the marathon route - running here would be a tourist attraction.

As for the smog, well, that's the Hazy Shade of Winter that used to descend on cities where a lot of heavy sulfur heating oil was burned for heat, and a lot of bunker oil and coal was burned for electrical power in places like the Everett power plant and L-street and the power plants along the Charles River in Cambridge. Add in the car exhaust component (pre-catalytic converters and newer fuels) and you have a fine stew during a winter inversion. It disappeared with new regulations on sulfur to combat acid rain in the 1990s.

Ah yes

By roadman on Tue, 02/02/2016 - 11:36am.

Back in the day when the Marathon was a REAL amateur race where anyone could participlate in a single race.

Sad it's become just another commercial enterprise where you have "elite' runners that must run their own race insulated from the riff raff.

The where is easy but the

By russ on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 10:44am.

The where is easy but the when is more difficult. Kenmore around 1970?

Not much changed until the early 2000s

By BostonDog on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 10:49am.

I remember Kenmore looking like this in the late 1990s before the inbound side of the block was demolished to build the gaudy Hotel Commonwealth and the bus depot was demolished and replaced shortly thereafter.

1998

By Steeve on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 11:02am.

1998 was the real turning point. If you recall, around July or August of that year the building with the Chinese/Pizza place went up in flames (where's there's smoke, there's insurance), and there was just an air of inevitability that the old Kenmore was dead. The Rat had closed November of 1997 so there was already that hole in Kenmore. Mr. Butch had been exiled to Allston. Deli Haus croaked around the time Hotel Commonwealth made its debut.

It took about 5 years, but the wildfire of new development started into the Fenway with Trilogy, and now the area on Boylston from Jersey to Park Drive is barely recognizable.

Deli Haus

By BostonDog on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 11:11am.

Deli Haus kept going for a while after the hotel had opened but I agree with you on the rest. Still, I remember the bus stop and the configuration of the stores (if not the same tenants) in 1999. It took a week or so to demolish the bus stop (I preferred that design) and seemingly took many years after year with a ton of delays to build the new one. I forget the details but they had opened the whole thing but then suddenly remembered they needed an elevator on the hotel side which entailed another year+ of construction on that side of the street.

Ah, Deli Haus

By crispino on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 12:52pm.

I bow my head in a moment of silent remembrance for thee.

Me too

By cybah on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 1:12pm.

Spent many post-club nights there, and many mornings hung over there too. Good place. Miss it.

The old bus stop

By anon on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 1:15pm.

came down the day after Patriot's day, 2005.

I lived in Myles Standish Hall at the time, it scared the crap out of me at 7 am when they started the demolition. Always a fun way to wake up.

In taking down the bus shelter, they repaved and repainted a bunch of the roads to make space for the "temporary" busway. A week later, NSTAR came through and dug them right back up.

Didn't Deli Haus' overall run

By anon_wd on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 11:01pm.

Didn't Deli Haus' overall run in that spot end as The Underground? Recall my last visit there around 2000-01 when it was still open as DH, but they'd taken the booths out and temporarily replaced them with tables- and maybe stayed open as the Haus another week- still got the Deli Haus shirt I still got that day
Also- am old enough to recall the pre-IHOP Charlie's Cafeteria

Bonnie and Clyde

By GeeJimmy on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 10:50am.

With Bonnie and Clyde playing at the movies, that puts it in or after August 1967. (I can't make out the other movie title.) The trees are empty of leaves, people are in long coats and hats, but there's no snow on the ground, and there are two joggers in shorts, so I would put it early spring of '68. The new bus shelter does not yet seem to have opened, but I cannot find when it originally did open.

Bus shelter

By aldos on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 10:52am.

The only reference I could find for the bus shelter was "1960s-era". The Bowker overpass opened in 1965 and appears to be in service here, so 1967-68 fits perfectly.

The sidewalks look pretty empty.

By jmeltzer on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 11:00am.

I'd expect more BU kids, so - spring break 1968?

That is, if B&C was still in theaters then. If not, fall 1967 during a break (Thanksgiving? But that seems a bit late for joggers).

Mr Butch!

By Josh R W on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 10:53am.

Mr Butch!

Bowker Overpass (Charlesgate) opened in 1967

By Ron Newman on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 10:57am.

according to this Mass. HIstorical Society page. So the photo is not earlier than that date.

Looks like this one had everyone stumped!

By E on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 11:49am.

I'll take a guess that it's Spring 1968.

1968

By Lecil on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 1:53pm.

The entrance way for buses is blocked off, making me suspect the busway is still under construction. The picture looks like it was taken right about the same time as this one:

http://www.theglobecollection.com/boston/new-mbta-busway-in-kenmore-squa...

Good eye!

By Allstonian on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 2:47pm.

Good catch on that - I hadn't even noticed the barriers closing off the busway.

Kenmore Sq used to have a bus shelter, why not now?

By Christie-Baker 2016 on Mon, 02/01/2016 - 4:59pm.

So Kenmore Sq used to have an actual bus shelter! That would be nice, the 1/2 arc of glass is pretty but useless to protect against the elements when waiting for a bus, but then again, it was another Menino vision, and with his famous disregard for people who take public transit its not surprising. Now it stands as one of his hair brained schemes for pushing useless architectural elements, like the lights around the perimeter of government center, which was supposed to transform the area, and only cost a few million!