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Long gone are the days when you could go dancing above a pharmacy
By adamg on Tue, 03/02/2021 - 11:34am
The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this scene. See it larger.
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Comments
Packard"s
?? amirite?
That looks like Codman Square
On the right is where the health center and charter school are, and on the left appears to be a forerunner of the Great Hall..
Grieg & Patterson
Their auto repair shop is listed on Stanhope Street.
Stanhope Street is in the Back Bay
This appears to be in an outlying neighborhood with hills, such as Roxbury or Dorchester.
The architecture of the building suggests that it may have been converted from being a church.
Right
Sign on right "Stanton Pl" sign on left "Rockville."
Looks like Warren Street before Warren Gardens was put in and streets were rerouted.
I'm with you
The road going to the right with the tracks is Walnut Ave, while the other set of tracks go up Warren Street.
Ron - Not A Church
Social Hall. It was called Highland Hall. Mr. Boston History - Anthony Sammarco, has already pegged this as Warren Street in Roxbury. (P.S - Thanks Urban Renewal - Every Building in the pic is gone).
There are lots of buildings like this with ground floor retail and second story high ceiling rooms which were used for social groups.
Hibernian Hall on Dudley Street and the KoC in City Square are two which were like this before conversion with floors inserted into the interior. The dance studio in Central Square in Cambridge is one too. The Odd Fellows in Wollaston was one until it burned a few years ago.
Yes!
I see someone else actually got it first, but wasn't logged in so theirs wasn't showing.
Also, interesting that there was a Highland Hall here as well as the one in John Eliot Square.
Highland Hall
Corner of Warren St. and Walnut Ave. in Roxbury, maybe c. 1920?
https://www.historicnewengland.org/explore/collections-access/gusn/195167/
This one was really tough. The location looks entirely different today!
The gothic grandeur brings to mind a RR depot.
And there is a bridge to the left which appears to be spanning something. Although Stanhope street was right near the old Boston & Albany tracks (as well as lost Trinity Station), I feel there are too many trees and it's too hilly for that spot. Out in the street-car suburbs says I suppose.
It's not Somerville, but ....
there was once a ballroom on the second floor of the Somerville Theatre building, and a pharmacy in a first-floor storefront.
I believe the basement, where
I believe the basement, where there's a few small movie screens and the Museum of Bad Art, was once a bowling alley.
Has anyone ever put together a list of all the defunct bowling alleys (mostly in basements) around Boston?
MOBA is gone now
They moved out a couple of years ago.
Who cares about the dancing?
I'm more fascinated by the Ice Cream Soda sign. Those could be terrific (or at least, that's my recollection from a few years ago, like when Coolidge was President).
Ice cream sodas
Ice cream sodas are still terrific, but very few ice cream shops know how to make them any longer. My go-to is Cabot's, in Newton, where it is still possible to get an excellent soda. (Depending on who fills the order, they are occasionally even topped with a small squirt of whipped cream and a cherry! Very old-school.)
When travel is possible, the Goldenrod in York Beach, ME also preserves the knowledge.
It's really not a difficult thing to make, but nowadays most ice cream shops lack the necessary ingredients/tools. The key items are a carbonated drink fountain with a line for plain soda water - most now only have Coke/Pepsi, etc. - and a few appropriate flavors of syrups.
INSPIRATION!
Makes me wonder what with all the flavored soda waters now, one could fashion a bang-up ice cream soda at home, say mandarin orange seltzer+vanilla ice cream=orange julius ice cream soda!
Also, is that the Addams Family manse in the background, right side?
And yes, I'm aware it's not the same thing, my dad was a soda jerk in the 40's and made them for us when we were kids, I'm sayin' this could be a whole new territory for fizzy water and ice cream.
Not quite
No, the drink part of an ice cream soda is made with soda water, a sweetened syrup, and light cream or half-and-half, rather like an egg cream with a little bit more dairy fat. Flavored seltzer wouldn't be the same thing at all.
So sick of doing everything
So sick of doing everything at home. Sick of the Amazonification of the world. If I want an ice cream soda, I want to go out and get one in the community.
Easy there, Covid dude...
Next year when everyone's vaccinated and it isn't spreading, that sounds great.
For now, please stick to doing these things at home with your own family.
For sure
Post-COVID, of course. This was more of a general sentiment.
Spooky
Are we going to ignore that fact there is a spectre in this photo?
Warren St. at Walnut Ave.
Roxbury, Warren St., looking south, with Walnut Ave. branching off to the right.
I looked at a map of streetcar lines in 1925, and there were only a few locations that had a junction looking like this one. I then looked at those intersections on the Bromley atlases, and this was clearly the right one.
The intersection has been reconfigured and none of the buildings shown are still standing. Walnut Ave. now joins Warren St. to the south of where the streets used to meet.
Here's a Google Street View approximation of the scene today:
https://goo.gl/maps/px313KfZJkuDHiEVA
The Answer
Thanks for playing, folks! Walnut Street at Warren Ave is correct. We believe the date is about 1930.
If you want to take a super close look at the details, you take a look at the original: https://cityofboston.access.preservica.com/uncategorized/IO_17bd43ea-b10...
Despite the fact I recently sat at that light several times.
I never would have figured this one out.
Back when buildings were built to last
and not put up with the cheapest materials possible just to get a quick profit.
Except
The building no longer exists, torn down within 30 years of the photo being taken.