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A lot of streetcars

By adamg on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 11:09am
Trolleys in old Boston

The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this photo. See it larger.

Neighborhoods: 
Boston
Topics: 
History


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Comments

By anon on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 11:22am.

Copley Square. The Fairmont Copley is at right. Trinity Church is at left. Current site of the John Hancock Tower is at center.

By alex on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 11:23am.

Approx view today: https://goo.gl/maps/t5xrNzs3P9m

By Allstonian on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 11:24am.

Copley Square. Trinity Church on the left, the Hotel Westminster in the middle (now the site of the John Hancock tower,) and the Copley Plaza on the right. The Westminster was forced to lose the top bit because of a law limiting buildings in Copley Square to no more than 90 feet in height.

By Sarah on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 11:25am.

You can even compare it with a new version: https://goo.gl/images/RcfUsM

By anon on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 11:26am.

Current site of the Park Street station? Late 1800's with the bend in the track to get around the half-dug subway tunnel?

By Saul on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 11:27am.

Easy one today.

Copley Square.

The Fairmont Hotel at right and Trinity Church at left.

https://goo.gl/maps/NuT5mZ6okr32

The building that the Hancock Tower replaced is identified as the Westminster at http://www.wardmaps.com/viewasset.php?aid=1706

By Rob on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 11:29am.

Copley Square

Hotel Westminster, near the site of the Hancock Tower:

http://lostnewengland.com/2016/01/hotel-westminster-boston/

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/det.4a22997/

By Morgan on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 11:32am.

In front of the Fairmont Copley Hotel looking east towards Trinity Church and the Hancock Tower on St. James Ave

By Hugo on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 11:33am.

Looking east on St James from Copley Sq with Trinity Church peaking out from the left would be my guess.

By Kamell on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 11:35am.

Copely Sq, between the church and hotel.

By Chocolate Chip on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 11:51am.

Copley Square...Trinity Church on the left.

By downtown-anon on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 11:54am.

All references to the Hancock tower are wrong.

By Section77 on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 1:11pm.

John Hancock is now in the center if this pic

By downtown-anon on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 2:23pm.

So the name is now 200 Clarendon.

OK, Previously know as Hancock Tower.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/200_Clarendon_Street

(I doing my best to insert important new names of long established landmarks. Shilling for the Real Estate people.)

By APB on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 3:34pm.

No Bostonian in her right mind would call it that simply because some realtors told her to. Yes, they changed the name but that doesn't mean we need to pay attention.

It's the Hancock, and it will always be the Hancock. And the old one will always be the old Hancock.

As I've said before, if the Hancock Insurance people don't want us calling their buildings whatever the heck we want, they shouldn't leave so many of them lying around in our neighborhood.

By downtown-anon on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 10:11pm.

Since identification of the location was so simple I felt compelled to mix it up a bit. I didn't anticipate the complexity identifying the date.

By Allstonian on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 2:24pm.

downtown-anon is nitpicking over the fact that the building commonly known as the Hancock Tower was renamed "200 Clarendon" about a year ago. Given that my husband mocks me for still occasionally referring to the Hynes Convention Center stop on the Green Line as "Auditorium," I find this quibble silly and deeply un-Bostonian.

By Lee on Thu, 04/20/2017 - 6:13am.

... except when giving directions to tourists.

By Nate on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 11:58am.

My guess is 1919 or 1920 based on the 1919 Pierce Arrow limo in front of the Copley Plaza. Also because the John Hancock Building isn't there yet (completed in 1922).

IMAGE(http://www.woodrowwilson.org/assets/images/pierce_limo_3.jpg)

By Ari O on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 12:44pm.

Probably summer 1913 (short shadows). Fairmount opened Aug 20, 1912, so it wasn't that summer.

And, aha! Saint James was cleared in late 1913, so the photo is from 1913.

By bohhh on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 1:04pm.

Correct. Streetcars are on St. James Ave in lieu of Boylston St. because of construction for the Boylston Street Subway, which opened in 1914.

By Nate on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 2:15pm.

You're right. More research on Pierce Arrow indicates that the headlights were on the fenders starting in 1914. So this is likely a 1912 or 1913 model.

http://theoldmotor.com/?p=2275

By Ari O on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 3:56pm.

It was completed in '45.

By Nate on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 5:07pm.

Not the one with the weather thing, but the smaller one connected to it. It's at 197 Clarendon and is now called the Stephen L. Brown Building.

1928 Bromley Atlas: IMAGE(http://i66.tinypic.com/dvhxsg.jpg)

By theszak on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 8:07pm.

Check out the underground miniature railway for moving mail between the older Hancock Buildings. A group of urban archeologists from Waltham Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation tour mechanics of the railway from time to time.

Please post photos!...

By JohnAKeith on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 7:53pm.

Where are the chutes? On the map? I did research on the pneumatic tube network several years back.

By theszak on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 8:12pm.

Copley Square Library may still have the pneumatic tube systems for viewing by folks with an interest as well as the giant walk in safe pictured in an old National Geographic with the then Boston Public Library Director Milton Lord.

By downtown-anon on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 10:18pm.

This is on wikipedia, and appears to be early-mid 20s. Lot of open space. Matches buildings on map.
Larger version here: http://memory.loc.gov/award/mhsdalad/120000//12007...
IMAGE(http://memory.loc.gov/award/mhsdalad/120000//120077v.jpg).

By anon on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 12:04pm.

No question.

By perruptor on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 12:19pm.

This is a picture of the long-forgotten 1916 Indy Car race.

By theszak on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 3:21pm.

Boston City Archives could do more to acquire Documents of Boston City Council/Councilors/Council Staff !... please see Archives at https://budget.boston.gov/img/pdfs/volume-3-by-cabinet/14-non-mayoral-de...

Get to know RAIN Records and Archives in the News
at
http://paper.li/RAINbyte/rainbyte#/

By anon on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 1:46pm.

I love these old pics!

By anon on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 2:35pm.

These old pictures fill me with lament.

I miss how quiet the city was on Sunday mornings, before the blue laws went away.

By Russ on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 1:54pm.

Interesting to see what was there before the Hancock Tower was built. This was back when Copley Square was mostly roadway (Huntington Ave) and just two small triangles of open space.

By Ron Newman on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 3:51pm.

Was it a hotel?

By Allstonian on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 4:20pm.

Yes, the Hotel Westminster. See my earlier post. The name is visible in the photo.

By City of Boston Archives on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 4:35pm.

Looks like this might have been a bit too easy for you all!

This is indeed Copley Square, we estimate to be about 1914.

It is part of our Transit Department photograph collection, you can see some of the other photographs on our Flickr page: https://flic.kr/p/nmeKW1

We'll work on finding some trickier photos for you!

By JohnAKeith on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 7:43pm.

So this pre-dates the Hancock, the Old Hancock, and the Old Old Hancock, right? Cool.