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When Boston kids actually played sandlot baseball - on actual sandlots
By adamg on Wed, 04/18/2018 - 11:28am
The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this scene. See it larger.
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Comments
That looks like Asbestos
That looks like Asbestos Shingle Lane in Mesothelioma, West End, circa 1954.
Not necessarily asbestos
Not necessarily asbestos shingle, more likely asphalt
Uhhh ...
The two went together.
Definitely asphalt
My former house in Roslindale came with asphalt siding on the upper floors and asbestos on the first floor. That sh*t would have lasted forever, if it wasn't all so incredibly fugly.
Something about it ...
...makes me guess East Boston.
Dorchester, 1970s
I mean, that could be just about anywhere where one can find triple deckers. The clothes make me say the 1970s.
Many Gaps between Houses
That implies that this was over by Newmarket after the huge Bellflower Fire was all cleaned up.
Many gaps
The crazy people today who do not believe in open space would have six story buildings, 24 units there with no parking.
Today
It would be covered in asphalt and have cars parked there
Bellflower
Bellflower was my first thought
Back then, if it wasn't
Back then, if it wasn't baseball, it was street hockey.
https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/group-of-children-play-street-hocke...
My old neighborhood in Lower Allston
c. 2010
Under Utilized Space
Why waste valuable real estate just so neighborhood kids could have fun? That lot could have been built out to provide convenient housing for richer people, so that the richer people wouldn't go down the street and take their parents house instead. If kids wanted to play stickball with their friends, they could have moved to Brockton or Lynn. There were plenty of places to play stickball there.
Check the map
There's a park very close by.
You can say that now
But even though Mr. Riccio doesn't want to believe it, the Mayor of Boston, in his youth, was shot while at that park.
McBride St, JP
McBride St, JP
I was thinking
Child St but I don't remember any vacant lots back then. There were a few down near Spaulding but we never played ball in them, too much rubble.
Somewhere
Somewhere
- flat neighborhood
- gives the impression that it was along two straight, parallel streets
- - houses/lots seem rectangular, squared-up to each other
- triple deckers:
- - all that we can see are flat-roof
- - not that it may mean much now, but seems like none of them were "updated" (vinyl
siding, balconies torn off, no satellite dishes)
- maybe 1970s, judging by the kids' clothes
- probably the back of a row of garages/sheds on the lot behind the sandlot
My guess would be somewhere either in Dorchester - like between Pleasant St and Dorchester Avenue - maybe along Pearl St and Thornley St; or Polish Triangle between Boston St and Dorchester Avenue (maybe between Howell and Bellflower).
Well, yah, the 3-deckers
Well, yah, the 3-deckers could be in any of a dozen different neighborhoods, but this pic is from the only place where the kids were Zorba-the-Greek dancing instead of playing stickball.
this looks exactly like the
this looks exactly like the lot across from my grandparents' house on East Cottage St - the lot has now been paved over to be parking for the house next door.
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3185597,-71.0579327,3a,75y,10.86h,84.21t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1slJgsYvSPqPoCfYo34R3URA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Empty lot
Looks like it might be Harborview Street in Dorchester across from Grant Street 02125.
Wow
This is impressive! What do you win?
The Answer
Thanks for playing, folks!
This photo shows the lot next to 19 Harborview St in Dorchester in 1977.
Still vacant...
...if a parking lot for #17 counts as vacant.
Looks like the building on the right....
... has pretty much doubled its length -- maybe this is why it acquired the vacant in-between lot?
https://tinyurl.com/y9q85f4x