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Before we lost Usen & Co.
By adamg on Wed, 11/01/2017 - 11:23am
The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this photo. See it larger.
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With thanks to Google
Below we see Prof. Frank Howard, the "Original Tattooed Man" who had a shop at 153 Court Street near Scollay Square from 1907 to 1925.
http://www.lyletuttle.com/collections/prof-frank-h...
He made news in 1915
In 1915 "Professor" Howard, who sometimes used the honorific "Captain" instead, notified police that his one-time assistant stole $500 worth of tattoo designs and equipment, police made an arrest. Arrest notice and other documents at (where else?) Tattooed Boston blog:
http://www.tattooedboston.com/new-blog/
Let us go to plate 4, then:
http://www.wardmaps.com/viewasset.php?aid=437
Corner of Alden Street and Court. A building for Verizon New England now occupies where the block was.
That section of Court Street is now instead part of the sweeping curve of Cambridge Street. Nary a scrap of Alden Street remains. Perhaps the exact location is where today's Sudbury Street meets today's Cambridge Street.
Perfect!
If you look at the building on the Ward Map labeled "CHARITY BUREAU - City of Boston" you can line it up with the same building in Google Maps to get your bearings. (I think)
https://i.imgur.com/nnQAArq.png
https://i.imgur.com/GiIXKta.png
Interesting
So I walked by the building today and it had a cornerstone the read 1924. That may be for a later addition though?
Alden Street...
.... and its little brother Alden Court were where today's JFK Federal building and plaza are located.
Nearby, on the other side of JFK, is where 109 Court Street once stood, where Alexander Graham Bell made his contributions to the invention of the telephone. The building was where that attractive cement patch currently is, once City Hall Plaza's water fountain.
And AJ Houghton and Co.,
And AJ Houghton and Co., brewers of Vienna Lager, operated until 1918, which helps pin down the date a bit more.
Barber Shop
I love that "Sanitary" used to be a selling point for a barber.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Sanitary - Barbers used to do blood-letting
The red and white pole outside barber shops references a time when barbers were expected to perform blood-letting and other medical procedures to "heal the sick"; red represented blood and white represented bandages.
Not sure when they stopped this practice but they were still doing it thru much of the 1800's...The "Sanitary" might be in reference to this.
The Answer
Thanks for playing, folks! Those of you who guessed Court Street are correct. This is 141 Court Street in 1914. You can see more information about the photo here: https://cityofboston.access.preservica.com/file/sdb%3AdigitalFile%7C46cc...