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Men getting sacked in old Boston
By adamg on Mon, 09/25/2017 - 11:23am
The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this photo. See it larger.
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The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this photo. See it larger.
Comments
Easy
That's someone's cool $1.7m luxury loft apartment. Probably in down-town or maybe Harrison Ave...
Some clues
Clothing looks to be 1920s or 1930s.
Probably sand or mortar or cement in the bags - cotton and wool come in bales that are much larger.
Hotel Kenmore?
I'll Guess
Sand bags stockpiled before the hurricane of 1938 at some waterfront warehouse that is now luxury condos.
Brinks job 1927
Brinks job 1927
Ahead of the 1938 hurricane?
I don't think so. The 1938 hurricane was a complete surprise to everyone but a young weather forecaster who was overruled by his superiors because "hurricanes don't do that".
"That" being "travel at a forward speed of 60mph into New England".
And that young weather
And that young weather forecaster was.....Harvey Leonard!!!!!
Not really.
I have 2 guesses:
Maybe...
1. One of the warehouses in Fort point-- given the amount of sunlight, I'd narrow it to A Street
2. The Williams Building, back when it was still a customs warehouse. The first floor windows overlooking the harbor sort of fit.
A street or Melcher Street
Looks a lot like the inside of Mayhew Wines.
Not lumpy
Not lumpy seems to rule out Charlestown potato sheds, also I think they were mostly wood. So, maybe bags of sugar? Must be somewhere on the old waterfront.
Flour
is my guess. Those sacks look too big, and are piled too high, to be cement, or anything really heavy like that. Sugar’s a pretty good guess, but flour sacks look just like that and are required in large quantities.
Or barley. Maybe it’s a brewery.
The Answer
Thanks for playing, folks! This photo was taken in the basement of the John Hancock building in 1947. Its from a report about the construction of the building's basement. We suspect that these bags serve some sort of purpose for the foundation's construction, but we're not sure what. Any ideas?
Ballast?
Perhaps the sand bags help prevent the foundation from being buoyant while the building was under construction. That is, the basement would float up like a boat without the weight of the steel and concrete of the rest of the building holding it down against the water table. Just a guess.
Because that is A LOT of very heavy sand.
Back BAY
get it? Water? Swamp land. Back Bay.
Grout or sand for cement?
Grout or sand for cement?
Really???
I was sure it was the MBTA money counting room before privatization!