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Beacon Hill gas lamp gets a little full of itself
By adamg on Tue, 08/19/2014 - 3:51pm
Tin Roof Rusted captured a flaming gas lamp on Mt. Vernon Street around 3:40 p.m. Boston firefighters, of course, quickly arrived to douse the flames.
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Historical Reenactment?
Looks very historical, only with less carbon monoxide than coal gas.
Don't think the gas comes
Don't think the gas comes from the coke plants anymore . That would be historical, shoveling the coke to make the gas.
Also, response was probably not historically accurate
No horse-drawn pumps, no bucket brigades.
History of gas street
History of gas street lighting in Boston
Gas street lighting was started in England in 1807. The gas was generated from burning coal. In 1816 the first gas streetlamps were installed in Baltimore. By 1822 gas streetlamps were running in Boston and in 1823, the Boston Gas Light Company was formed along with several small gas street lighting companies. In 1850, the Jamaica Plain Gas Light Company joined the growing field of local street lighting firms.
The development of Edison's electric streetlights in 1879 slowed the growth of gas street lighting, so in 1903, eight local companies formed the Boston Consolidated Gas Company with its long-time headquarters, built in 1927, at 100 Arlington Street, Boston. In 1932 the company's McBride Street Service Center was built on the site of the present Boston English High School. In 1953 the company changed over to natural gas from manufactured coal gas.
Boston Consolidated Gas became Boston Gas in 1955. Eastern Enterprises later acquired it and in 2000 it became Keyspan, which is now part of National Grid Company.
There are several clusters of gas lamps still operating in certain neighborhoods and at individual homes around Boston.
http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/jamaica_plain/2011/11/history_time_w...
More than just "clusters"
In addition to Beacon Hill, there are still fairly large sections of Charlestown, Bay Village, the North End, and the Back Bay that are lit by gas lamps. A few thousand lights in all.
In the Back Bay at least, they've all been on auto ignitors for years, but when I first moved here and was living on Commonwealth, there was still a human lamplighter that made the rounds of the neighborhood every day.
That was probably a good job
That was probably a good job back then. My Da took his shovel off the farm and came to Boston to first shovel the coke to make gas , then graduated to digging the pipe trench for the gas. Couldn't rate the lighter's job before it disappeared.
A protest against the curb
A protest against the curb cutting and yellow dot mats!
Alert Alert, Red Alert
I found a curb cut that had brick and cast nubbed concrete mats near the Park Plaza today. Somebody alert the mayor that this should be torn up and replaced immediately.
Damned government workers, tourists and office folk - wadda they think they are - special or sumpin! Give 'em plastic like the rest of Boston's peasants!
Gotta love that volunteer Fire Department
With their hand-drawn, hand-operated Ephraim Thayer pumper.
You know, to keep with the character of the Neighborhood.
Isn't it great
That people who like historic preservation can have Beacon Hill, and people who don't, can have Penn Station, and we can each be happy?
Before:
After:
Historic preservation without the hysteria
I'm guessing that most people who read this blog are pro-historic preservation.
It is very unfortunate about Penn Station and I'm sure a great many lessons were
learned since then. However, I don't think Beacon Hill is going to be demolished anytime
soon. If anything it will survive as a floating island with yachts as the sea levels
continue to rise.
However, I think we could all do without the hysteria surrounding the disability access
for the sidewalks and roads in this part of Boston. I've read (probably in the Globe) that
there is some "payback" from the new mayor against some of these well-heeled folks
on BH who didn't support him in the election. Somehow, I think he's got better things to do.
So do we all. I don't know if you're a BH resident and have a personal stake in what
materials are used in the ramps. I do know that you've beaten this issue to death.
Life is going to go on anyway. There must be something else that needs your attention.
It is generally acknowledged that
were it not for the destruction of Penn Station, most current historic preservation laws would not exist.
And it was those laws, in part, that prevented the destruction of Grand Central Terminal (the name Grand Central Station refers to the adjacent Post Office, not the train station).
And, I would venture forth that some folks who lived in the
West End of Boston, during the Urban Renewal period, liked historic preservation also. Alas, they did not have the money, power and/or pull to preserve its historic-ness like those on The Hill.
A more apt comparison.
Would be the beautiful and restored Grand Central Station.
Complete with yellow tactile warning strips on its platforms.
Further aptness
..would acknowledge that the north slope of Beacon Hill has more in common with the lower photo,.
It's crappy design driven by cheap expedience in order to set up servants quarters and rental rooms for riffraff.
The upper photo of the old station, while grandiose, looks as if someone borrowed the Vatican as a model.
Dear God
Clutch the pearls!
Beacon hill renovation danger
Localized concentration of hot air