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Clang, clang, clang went the trolley

Trolley in old Boston

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

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Bennington St, outside of Cental Square

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https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/bostonglobe/obituary.aspx?n=rhoda-butt...
BUTTERS, Rhoda Rhoda Butters, one of the longest living residents of Massachusetts, has died at the age of 105. Born Rhoda Kachelnik in Boston, MA on 8/22/1910, she graduated from Winthrop High School and in her 20's married Saul Butters. The two owned Butters Furniture in East Boston

Cry of the City is a 1948 black-and-white film noir
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cry_of_the_City

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4 minutes from original post to correct answer!

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Bennington Street East Boston ( central sq) ahead
Lacey’s dept store to the right
Arkin clothing store to the right
Santoro’s subs further ahead to right at corner
East Boston savings bank at corner on left side

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My mother went there all the time when I was a kid in the 60s. :-)

But what's that movie theater? The Seville was around the corner on Meridian Street.

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It’s quite sad that the old movie theater’s East Boston once had are no longer.
Starlight bowling alley use to be a theater as you can see in photo.
Take a look inside at the Somerville theater everything is preserved back to its glory days.

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"Double Parking in the Bus Lane, 1941 version"

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Well great now I have the song stuck in my head!

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Caught the movie last week on the big screen

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Truck double parked?

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But you can't really tell if it's standing still or being driven ahead of the trolley. I went back to the original photo the Archives folks posted and it sort of looks like there's nobody behind the wheel, but that might just be glare:

Old truck
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gets the power to move without overhead wires?

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Just not visible due to the exposure or resolution of the image. But the trolley pole does appear to be there. Looks like an outbound trolley, too, headed to Revere Beach & Orient Heights.

Might even be around Christmas, 1948, since there appears to be a Christmas tree in Central Sq. and the other trees are quite bare.

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Pretty much in the same spot where the Christmas tree is now. Except the Christmas tree in Central Square for the past several years, including this year, has a decided and noticeable slant, like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. You'd think they'd be able to do something about it, or put the tree in a different location.

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The minute someone said bennington street, the minute I saw the big pine tree in the background, I knew that was Central Square, East Boston.

This must be pre-Liberty Plaza, and the vehicles make this late 1940s..

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I remember when the Liberty Market supermarket was actually in Liberty Plaza in the pre-Shaw's days. it wasn't where Shaw's is now (that was originally a bank, if I'm not mistaken), it was more where Kappy's is now. Owned by the Lombardo family (who also had a popular function hall called "Lombardo's" where the Walgreens is now), even then it was one of the last of the independent supermarkets. Sweet Life was their discount store brand. As far as generic brands went, Sweet Life had excellent products.

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Thanks for playing, folks! This does indeed show Bennington Street, right outside of Central Square. The year is 1948. We think this was taken in December, because of the Christmas tree.

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