If Pompei had a T stop, it might look like this
By adamg - 10/6/10 - 8:29 pm
ChinatownKicks took this awesome shot of the entrance to the old Essex stop on the Orange Line.
Copyright ChinatownKicks. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.
Comments
Nice. I was a little punk
Nice. I was a little punk using 'Essex St' station at the old Combat Zone back in the mid 80's. Used to be a dirty book store on one side and an XXX theater on the other.
Reminds me of one of the 'Planet of the Apes' movies.
Can't remember which one though. Beneath the Planet of the Apes I think.
Which way
... to the bath house?
"South Station Under"
There's a tiled sign like that in nicer condition on the South Station Red Line platform to Alewife. I believe it says "South Station Under."
Scollay Under
As well as one at near end of the Blue Line Outbound? platform which identifies it as "Scollay Under". See this, which I ripped from this site after a quick bing search
It looked just as bad when I
It looked just as bad when I was using it in the '70s. There were music stores on Tremont st. just around the corner.
Sadly most of the subway
Sadly most of the subway stations had nice mosaic tile like this before 'modernization' covered it over. A good cleaning and new signage would have sufficed, but instead we got lots of vinyl, heavy layers of spray paint, and cheap partitions to bury it all forever.
Think of how decent the Blue Line platform at Government Center would look if the Scollay Under tiles were cleaned and the 1960s 'modernized'tile was removed from the tunnel walls opposite the platform. Chinatown Outbound, Haymarket, State Street, Hynes, and the remaining concrete partitions put up over the tunnel walls at Kenmore are all examples of places were removed partitions and a bit of cleaning would go really far.
Thankfully old mosaic panels
Thankfully old mosaic panels have been restored at South Station (Under) and Arlington. A few examples in need of a good cleaning are visible at Central Square too, and the Harvard busway.
The NY subway also had the same philosophy in the '60s and '70s of covering over old mosaics, but did a fantastic job in restoring and enhancing the old panels on the BMT Broadway Line station rehabilitations a few years ago. And most of the original IRT stations still have a good deal of their original mosaics and tiling, even if they're often not in the best shape.
http://www.mta.info/mta/aft/about/history.html
On our most recent trip to NYC....
... we enjoyed seeing both the restored and unrestored mosaic/tile work in the subway stations.
More
I think this has been posted before, but here are some photos of other mosaics, including Broadway: http://sery2831.smugmug.com/Other/Mosaic-Signs-of-the-MBTA/1064138_KFbrx#78359293_KCUBp
It would take a lot more than
It would take a lot more than a little cleaning. Those tiles were heavily damaged when the 1960s/70s modernization programs put new tile or brick walls over the old. Platform extensions, elevator shaft construction, escalator installation, and lighting/electrical system modernization work also either damaged or destroyed a lot of the original wall materials. The preserved South Station Under and Arlington station tile signs were actually restored using many pieces of tile from some of the other temporarily exposed station name locations within the same stations. At Copley, the tile showing the station names was completly removed during the early 1970s modernization and replaced by plaster covering over new electrical conduit piping. Some tile was still left around the old advertising panels, and that was briefly exposed during the present construction at Copley.
I remember the mosaics
at Symphony Station well. These were completely intact and survived into the 1980s, when somebody in T management made the decision to replace (not cover over, but actually replace) the individual tiles with blank white tiles.
From a time when it wasn't always about the bottom line
I love this because it reminds me of a time when we built things in our country with an eye towards the beautiful, not just the bottom line. At least some people still do that, and we should keep this in mind for things like Government Center.
Man, that is so god damn
Man, that is so god damn awesome.
But that's in Paris...
...so it would be un-American to imitate this (or even take inspiration from it).
;~}
Tiles like that probably
Tiles like that probably aren't that much more expensive than modern signs, (although they probably are a bit more expensive) I'd have to imagine a big part of it is just a style thing.
Boston pictures 70s and 80s
Does anyone know of any online galleries of downtown Boston during the 70s and early to mid 80s?