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A horse-drawn wagon blocking a trolley under an el

Horse blocking a trolley in old Boston.

The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this photo. See it larger.

Earlier:
Another horse-drawn carriage blocking another trolley.

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Comments

Since it appears to be the old North Station elevated platform in the background, I think this is near to where the Atlantic Avenue El met up with the Charlestown El at North Station. You would be a couple of blocks from The Garden currently. I'll hazard a guess at 1920 or so.

Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com

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Centre street JP

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n/t

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Somewhere around Thompson Square?

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You weren't kidding.

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Corner of Park St & Main St in Charlestown

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Because of the straightaway in the background, I would venture to guess on Washington St near Blackstone and Franklin Squares, though the street doesn't look particularly wide there, so it could be further down the line, near Egleston Sq or Green St, or between Thompson and Sullivan Squares in Charlestown. As far as time goes: 1900/01 if it was in Charlestown or north of Dudley, 1908 of it was south of Dudley. It appears that the elevated structure is almost completed but not in service yet: the ties and tracks have yet to be installed. Also, what appear to be the remnants of scaffolding on the pylon indicate that construction has finished recently.

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Though not sure exactly where - the trolley says Needham on it - so that's a giveaway that it's headed in the direction of Forest Hills so Egleston sounds like a possibility. Based on your observations and information - 1908 would thus be about right. The one geographic clue I see is the hill on the left close to the tracks which would make me think it's where the Arborway now crosses over the decrepit, soon to be demolished bridge just east of the Forest Hills station.

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I can't quite think of a spot with an upward slope like that. But I also wonder what kind of colossal wagon that is and though maybe brewery wagon which would make sense for that locale.

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Cross posted - but that's the only place I can think that might have a slope that close to the tracks granted that's a spot where Washington street jogs a bit - so the el wouldn't have been that close - though perhaps this was changed dramatically when the overpass and/or Forest hills were built pushing the slope to the north a bit. There's been a lot of construction here over the years.

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Dont think it is a brewery wagon, there would be more than one guy on it, plus the horse drawn wagons I am familar with dont load that high , or in that manner.

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Looks a little precarious--no one would do that with beer. :)

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O yes they would......

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Roxbury, on Washington St, with Cedar entering on the left.

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I feel it is on Washington st between Egelston and Dudley. Cedar street by the housing might be it. Not sure about the trolley.

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Charlestown. Corner of Park Street and Main Street.

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There are two objects lying on the sidewalk just to the left of the wagon. They look a lot like fish. What are they?

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over some darkish objects on the sidewalk--the white doesn't match the rest of the photo.

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Tears in the photo.

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Probably tears or scratches in the negative, before this positive print was made from the negative.

Remember when photos required negatives?

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Adam left out the fact that ArchivesBoston referred to it as a "Storrowing".

"Boston City Archives @ArchivesBoston · 7h 7 hours ago
Its a special #storrowing edition of our #mysteryphoto! When and where do this storrowing occur? http://ow.ly/i/7mqRB @universalhub"

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Very funny Boston archives! Looks like he's trying to make a left turn and his load can't clear the center beam of the El which is why the trolley is stopped and the people are standing around watching and taking pics.

He's probably done this 100 times but with the El now he can't make the clearance.

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The anon above was right on the money -- the photographer is standing just about right opposite Cedar Street. Guild Street is next to the brick building in the background. Note the El curves leading into the Guild Street Shops; a few bits of steel can still be found among the bramble on the bluff.

The trolley is a "foreign car" of the Old Colony Street Railway. The car would run down Washington Street from Dudley to Forest Hills (on BERy tracks) and thence follow the route of the 36 to Charles River (tracks in Rozzy and West Roxbury were bought by the city and leased to the El in 1903) and off into Needham. Interestingly enough, the Needham portion of the route became one of the first streetcar lines to be converted to bus (well, jitney) in 1919; a few years before the ancestor of the Route 64 was changed over.

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The other commenters (especially Div2Supt) are pretty close, but if you are standing at Cedar Street you can't see all the way down to Bartlett Yard. That puddingstone wall with fence on top of it looks similar to the wall at Cedar and Washington, but down by Cedar it's much taller and doesn't taper down.

This would have been taken right at the intersection of Washington and Guild, just a few steps south towards Circuit St. The old Bartlett Carhouse is the brick building in the back (here's a scan I made from the MassDOT archives last summer of the same building: https://www.flickr.com/photos/turgeon/9045729044/)

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Thanks for playing folks! This shows the Washington Street side of Guild Street. The "high-loaded" wagon has just hit the trolley wire. It was taken at 11:45 am on May 12, 1906

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