Hey, there! Log in / Register
When scally caps ruled the street
By adamg on Wed, 02/19/2014 - 10:47am
The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can figure out when and where these corner dudes were hanging around in their scally caps. See it larger.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Ad:
Comments
Don't know where
it is but Benicio del Toro is the third guy from the left.
As your attorney I advise you
As your attorney I advise you to get a scally cap.
^nailed it
^nailed it
Blackstone Street?
The only clue I could find was the sign on the market that said "Blackstone Market" - so guessing Blackstone Street near the North End?? Great photo!
Tremont Street
Tremont Street past Cunard Street
http://www.damrellsfire.com/cgi-bin/directory_search.pl?ds=5&ln=90503
Walter Whitmore, candymaker, at 1074 Tremont.
http://books.google.com/books?id=3fACAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA471#v=onepage&q&f=false
O'Keeffe grocers at 1056 Tremont.
Same view today.
http://goo.gl/maps/p0jWK
Dunno
But googling for "Boston" and "Blackstone Market" turns up a paleo-Yelp from 1883 for the Blackstone Market:
http://books.google.com/books?id=WkdYcDP1MG0C&pg=RA8-PA6&lpg=RA8-PA6&dq=...
proto snark
Slam!!!!
Cambridge Street
Might be Cambridge Street looking easterly from say where the firehouse is now. It's after 1904 based on the condition of the tracks in the road.
I see a lot of Noodles, David, Popeye, and the rest of the Once Upon A Time In America crew across the street.
Cambridge Street was widened in the 20s or soon thereafter.
I wanted to say Cambridge
I wanted to say Cambridge Street, too, but the Blackstone Market made me think it was somewhere in the Blackstone Block.
Solar Powered Clothes Dryers!
Another couple of buildings in this picture are sporting those rooftop barricades again. This time though, clotheslines are clearly visible and laundry is hanging on some of them. Apparently, they really are solar/wind powered clothes dryers!
Thompson Square C Town , Cha
Thompson Square C Town , Cha Cha RIP !
Plenty of ghosts crossing the street
Plenty of ghosts crossing the street, whenever it was.
Tricky
One of the few really legible shop signs is M. O'Keeffe Inc. grocery store, but the 1918 Boston Register and Business Directory (cited earlier by another commenter) reveals that was a chain with more than 80 stores in the city! The same directory, unfortunately, reveals no results for Walter Whitmore or Everybody's Shoe Store. It cites a Blackstone Market at 1951 Washington St. on the South End-Roxbury border, but I don't think that's it, since there's no elevated line in the photo, and the types of buildings (wood vs. brick) don't match the 1895 Bromley Atlas
The 1870 directory reference for Walter Whitmore (also cited above) is irrelevant because that Tremont Street neighborhood was destroyed by fire in 1894 -- and this photo, with electric trolley wires, is almost certainly after 1894.
But based on the building types and the fact that the street is straight, not curved, I'd venture a good guess that it is somewhere in that Tremont Street area between Roxbury Crossing and say Lenox Street, sometime in the 1890s.
The Answer
Thanks for playing! This photo shows the north side of Cambridge St. between North Russell and Chambers Streets. The date is November 6, 1912.
I was wrong!
All of the buildings in that block on the left were demolished shortly after the photo was taken, to make way for a subway portal (what's now the Blue Line). That's why none of the stores showed up in the 1918 business directory that was cited here. The brick buildings in the background lasted until 1925, when they were removed for another street widening project. The Harrison Gray Otis House and Old West Church would be behind some of those brick structures.
Just a guess but. . .
I'd have to guess Tremont Street just past Cunard Street but I could be wrong. its hard to tell from this photo