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Men getting sacked in old Boston

Men with sacks in old Boston

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

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That's someone's cool $1.7m luxury loft apartment. Probably in down-town or maybe Harrison Ave...

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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?

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Sand bags stockpiled before the hurricane of 1938 at some waterfront warehouse that is now luxury condos.

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Brinks job 1927

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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".

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And that young weather forecaster was.....Harvey Leonard!!!!!
Not really.

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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.

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Looks a lot like the inside of Mayhew Wines.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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get it? Water? Swamp land. Back Bay.

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Grout or sand for cement?

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I was sure it was the MBTA money counting room before privatization!

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