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Christmas baskets in old Boston
By adamg on Wed, 12/24/2014 - 10:05am
The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can figure out what's going on with the baskets in this photo, taken Christmas, 1903 - and where it was taken. See it larger.
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Happy Holidays Everyone
No matter what holidays you celebrate - peace, health, happiness and prosperity to all the Uhubbah's!
Which hotel is that on the
Which hotel is that on the left?
everyone is wearing a hat.
Well, obviously Huntington Ave, since the trolley says Via Huntington Ave., twice. I think the large building on the left is what is now the Copley Square Hotel.
Why the hats?
Because it's cold! You'll catch your death a cold if you don't wear your hat. William Henry Harrison didn't wear a hat to his inauguration, and he was dead a month later of pneumonia. Every president afterwards wore hats until Kennedy, and he, too, died while in office. The lack of hat didn't do it, but still.....
Merry Christmas to all!
Huntington Avenue
Yes, that's the Copley Square Hotel and the street is definitely Huntington Avenue.
Pre-urban renewal and pre-Pike that stretch of Huntington was filled with row houses as seen in the photo.
http://www.wardmaps.com/viewasset.php?aid=307
Wild Guess
Huntington Ave by Mass Ave.
They are taking charity baskets to a low income area for the time - like, maybe, the North End or West End.
Just to be different
I'll say Mass Ave by Huntington Ave. 1899
I think the boys are doing deliveries. My theory is that they are delivering things for S.S. Pierce.
I remember those days.
That's dickety baskets full of onions. We had to say "dickety" back then because the Kaiser had stolen our word "twenty". I chased that rascal to get it back, but gave up after dickety-six miles.
I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Give me five bees for a quarter, you'd say.
Now where were we? Oh yeah: the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...
Anyway, that's dickety baskets full of yellow onions. Somewhere on Huntington Avenue.
You know your onions, my man ;-)
You had an onion on your belt & the Kaiser's cannon fodder had "Gott Mit Uns" inscribed on the buckles of theirs. Remind me again which side won?
Another Wild Guess
East Broadway in Southie?
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Destinations?
There's a lot of information on that trolley, but it raises more questions than answers.
1) Back Bay Stations via Huntington Ave
2) Dorchester St via Huntington Ave
3) Cambridge
My question is where is that trolley coming and going to? I have no idea.
This Was Not Easy...
I searched through my archives -- twice -- and only found a few vague descriptions of a route that served all those points.
It appears that two streetcar lines were discontinued on September 16, 1901:
- Route 522 Dorchester Street (Southie) - Pleasant Street Station
- Route 771 Mount Auburn - South Station via Harvard Bridge, Back Bay, and South End
Route 500 South Boston - Harvard Square via Huntington was established the same day.
I could not find a detailed route description for Route 500, but based on the ones for the 522 and 771 it very likely ran:
Starting at Perkins Square, South Boston; thence via Broadway, Dorchester Avenue, West Fourth Street Bridge, Dover Street, Berkeley Street, Columbus Avenue, Dartmouth Street, Copley Square, Huntington Avenue, Massachusetts Avenue, Harvard Bridge, Mass Ave, Harvard Square.
Later records allude to joint operation of the route with Division 7 (Cambridge), so it is likely that cars continued in service a short distance beyond Harvard Square to the old Murray Street Carhouse (roughly across the street from Charlie's Kitchen and IHOP).
Route 500 was discontinued on February 11, 1905 and all joint operation by Division 7 (Cambridge) dropped. Route 500 service was replaced by Route 505, Dorchester Street - Boylston & Mass Ave. Route 505 definitely zigzagged through the South End between the Back Bay and Southie. Service was running as far as Boylston/Mass Ave as late as June 1917, but had been cutback to Copley Square by August 1919. By the summer of 1924 cars just ran from Broadway Station to Boylston/Berkeley. That short crosstown route has apparently been temporarily suspended since at least the summer of 1926.
Happy Holidays!
Boston archive picture
Looks like Mass Ave to me.
Mass Ave at St. Botolph looking south
Towards future Melnea Cass.
The Answer!
These Bostonians are leaving a Salvation Army dinner that was held at the New Mechanics Hall on Huntington Avenue. The baskets are food baskets from the Salvation Army that they are taking home with them.
We've loved sharing some of our photos with you all this year.
Happy Holidays!
The City Archives
Even Though I Invariably Get Them Wrong...
... it's always enjoyable. Thank you! And Happy Holidays!
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
These usually get solved
These usually get solved while I am busily off on a tangent. This weeks tangent was the name of the hotel on the left "Wu Hotel?" and the very large spire next to the hotel in the distance. (You have to go into negative view and zoom in).
Not Wu
To me it looks more like SQ. There seems to be some faint lettering to the left, so I'm guessing it says Copley Sq. Hotel. No idea about the spire, but it looks like the Marriott & associated development would be there now.
Wow 1903, looks like Beacon
Wow 1903, looks like Beacon street Brookline/Boston just past Kenmore. Definately Beacon street..The baskets are filled with gifts maybe from a few people waiting for a trolley that are from a charitable organization .
baskets contain
Chinese takeout.
Dorchester Street via Huntington Avenue?!
How does that even happen?!
Left on Mass Ave.
Then left on Southampton, then Dorchester Street begins at Andrew Square, so left-ish (full left is Dot Ave.)
1903
great photo