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Just a quiet day on one Boston street
By adamg on Mon, 11/14/2022 - 9:34am
The folks at Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this scene. See it larger.
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The folks at Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this scene. See it larger.
Comments
A, West Fifth and Dot Ave.
Today you could be looking east from Cabot Garage at Dot Ave towards that new condo building which got built next to the T credit union last year.
This was probably taken around 1909-1910.
The Boston Elevated Railway along with the city widened Dorchester Avenue here when Broadway Station was built. The trolleys from Dorchester and South Boston would enter a mid-level platform above where the Broadway platform is now. The trolleys would leave the station just behind Dot Ave and to the north of the Broadway Bridge.
You can see the northbound entrance now as a T Police training center. The southbound exit / entrance is just to the north of Doughboy and got sealed up when I assume a lot of the trolley traffic went to Andrew a few years later when the Red Line got extended. That is why Dot Ave gets wider at A Street.
Good observation, John!
I'm not from South Boston but you are probably right...what gave it away was Gold Street and the big finger pointing to it...
Here is the map of the current area. Current Map
Nice! My guess is 1914.
Nice! My guess is 1914. Looking at the poster for Loew’s New Globe on the Dot Ave and A St building, it references the “week of May 31”. May 31 falls on a Sunday in 1908, 1914, and 1925. 1908 would have been too early for Irving Berlin to get featured on that poster, and my gut feels that ‘25 is too late.
The company name made it easier
I just looked up C.I. Brink Electric Sign Company and found that address to be 2-18 A Street.
You can talk all ya wanna, but it's different then it was.
The Uneeda Biscuit in an air-tight sanitary package made the cracker barrel obsolete.
...but you've got to know the
...but you've got to know the territory!
The Answer
Thanks for playing, folks! This shows West 5th St at Dorchster Ave and A Street. The photo isn't dated but we put it at about 1914. You can see a high res version here: https://cityofboston.access.preservica.com/uncategorized/IO_1b1e019b-3ba...