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What would Boston be without the Hancock Tower? New owner aims to find out

Banker and Tradesman reports the Hancock Tower is now officially just 200 Clarendon St. Seems Hancock objected to having its name remain on the tower once it no longer owned it or rented any space in it.

For a city with residents who still refer to Rte. 128, that's going to be a hard sell, Hancock.

Hancock. Hancock. Hancock. Hancock. Hancock. Hancock. Hancock. Hancock. Hancock. Hancock. Hancock. Hancock. Hancock. Hancock. Hancock. Hancock. Hancock. Hancock. Hancock. Hancock. Hancock. Hancock. Hancock. Hancock. Hancock. Hancock.

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Comments

You just wanted to say HanCOCK a buncha times, didn't you Adam?

But seriously, as I said in my tweet... locals will still call it the Hancock tower.

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...than renaming things.

Like the European invaders renaming Shawmut to Boston or like the yuppies renaming Southie to SoBo.

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never stick, as it is simultaneously risible and appalling.

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Almost as bad as innovation district

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.

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Midtown is technically a real thing though (along with the Theater District and Ladder District). SoBo, EaBo, SoWa (seriously wtf, washington st is west), etc.

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Or the Wall Street invaders renaming Shawmut

to BayBank
to BayBank / A Bank of Boston Company
to BankBoston
to FleetBoston
to Bank of America.

Did I miss anything?

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It's a good thing it's easier to scrub the internet of references to the Property Formerly Known As The Hancock Tower than it is to purge it from the memory of locals. For instance, I'm sure Google will never find any mentions of the Hancock Tower anywhere, now that we've all collectively agreed to stop referring to the Hancock Tower as the Hancock Tower. Nope, not a single place on the internet will call it the Hancock Tower after today.

Hancock Tower.

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... was vacated by Sears eons ago, but I think it is still usually thought of as the Sears Tower (and I can never remember its alleged new name).

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... has been renamed for action movie star Bruce Willis, apparently.

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Willis group holdings. They lease in the building and have the naming rights. It's an insurance group based in London.

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Can't put anything over on you, huh?

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Like this one.

But only when its done right.

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can watch it whizzing over someone's head.

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What you talkin' bout, Willis!?

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Yeah, that'll work about as well as it did with the Sears Tower.

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...by 2 minutes.

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Willis?!

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By ten minutes.

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Don't you mean the Plywood Palace?

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Here I was thinking that your head was going to explode (and waiting for you to return fire!) just at the sight of people referring to the semi-circumferential highway around Boston, running (roughly) from Peabody to Canton as Route 128.

The heat must really be getting to us.

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I don't allow myself to be baited THAT easily. Especially when it's Adam that made the reference.

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Especially for a division of a Canadian insurance company, who uses the name of our Commonwealth's first governor, member of the Committee of Safety, president of the Continental Congress, signatory of the Declaration of Independence, among other things. Boston Properties should put up a statue of Gov. Hancock and and rename the tower in Governor Hancock's honor. Problem solved.

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John Winthrop was the first governor yo.

Tsk tsk.

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Yes, but it's still true that Hancock was the first governor of the Commonwealth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_of_Massachusetts#Commonwealth_of_...

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Rt. 128 has a different name? Since when?

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And it's not just "residents" who cling to the old 128 designation.

Every morning, the radio traffic reports warn of heavy traffic on "128 from Braintree to Rte 20".

And there are still lots of ads that refer to "Rte. 1" in Dedham and West Roxbury.

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a peeve of mine, is how some of the local traffic reporters (especially on WBZ during the morning rush) have taken to dropping the "225" part from the Route 4/225 exit in Lexington, now just referring to it as "Route 4".

And we wonder why drivers in this area get confused so easily.

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128 has another name? What is it?

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Yankee Division Highway, of course. (MGL Chapter 360, Acts of 1941).

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When Dedham rebuilt Washington Street by the Dedham Mall 3-4 years ago, they put up a large Rte. 1 JCT sign.

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What the proper name for Rt 1 in Dedham?

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I believe he is referring to "Providence Highway" or w/e. Rt. 1 technically "ends" at the 95 junction now and it was rerouted onto 93 north. Used to be Providence Highway -> VFW -> J way -> etc. Most still consider at least the dedham west roxbury parts to be still rt 1.

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It is part of 95, but it splits off up north. It is still, technically, its own route. Should we be referring to it by some other designation?
Meh, just another bad piece of prose on this website....

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Yes, 128 still officially exists north of the city, but the state wants us to refer to the part of the circumferential highway from, oh, 93 north of the city all the way to the Braintree split south of the city as (variously) 95, 93 or 1, and damnit, some of us are still going to call that 128, even if it means absurdities like getting on 128 South to go north to the South Shore Plaza.

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Between the I-93 cloverleaf on the Woburn/Reading line to the junction with I-95.

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Although the principal designation of the highway between Canton and Peabody is I-95, FHWA has let the state continue to post 128 markers on the highway, but not on the large green signs**.

** from the "exception to every rule" department, note that a handful of green guide signs on secondary streets at the Salem Street and Walnut Street interchanges currently have both I-95 and 128 markers - these signs were recently installed by a private developer, not the state.

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You mean the Yankee Division Highway?

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There are a lot of cocks in this post.

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It's time to re-open The Top of the Cock. .

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If the (formerly) public space on the top floors of the Hancock Tower were reopened and included a bar called "TOP O' THE 'COCK" the place would be mobbed all of the time. I can already see all the selfie stick wielding tourists knocking over martini glasses whilst waiting in line to by T-shirts emblazoned with silly lines like:

"I got cocked at the Top"
"Top O' The 'Cock to you!"
"I sucked one down at Top O' The 'Cock"

and much, much worse. They could even throw in a rooster on the logo to complete the multiple entendre.

Just in case some knucklehead does this, be advised that my copyright and trademark applications are on the way in.

Addendum: all of that said, I do think that we need more public drinking establishments in high places. As cliché as it is, I do enjoy an adult beverage at the Top of the Hub (even though it has been years) - looking out from up there reminds me that notwithstanding our issues, this really is a fundamentally good city and region.

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that space. Naturally, it will be called "La Tête de Coq."

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n/t

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cock au vin
cockilles
cock monsieur
cock madame (feminism, etc.)

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I kid, I kid.

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He'd probably say that this blog post isn't going to get past your family's content filter.

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Granted, as the largest tower in town, it's definitely going to have some staying power over their new "Hancock Tower/Building/whatever" in the SeaportInnovation District. But it's not even the first Hancock Tower, it's the third.

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So, when I speak of the Old Hancock (the one with the blue/red light on top) should I call it the Really Old Hancock? Then again, I'm still using the long-gone Coke plant near the Alston Pike exit as a landmark when giving directions.

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Just take a left at the jughandle where the McDonald's used to be ...

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Central Square in Lynn.

Historical note - The McDonalds in Central Square Lynn was the very first one in the entire chain to be closed soley due to poor sales performance - it was constructed as part of the City's Union Street Pedestrian Mall failure and was only in business for less than a year.

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The one just before the Dedham line on VFW Parkway in West Roxbury, across from the still open other McDonald's. You know, next to where the Chuck E. Cheese used to be.

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Who thought SoBo would take off as a name?

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it hasn't. And won't.

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Don't you mean Great Woods?

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No, he means CMGI Stadium.

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I believe you mean CMGI Field

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Hancock? Sounds like a bird. Hancock. Flying around.

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n/t

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Whatever it's called, hopefully they'll reopen the observatory.
I know wishfull thinking.

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Same thing as The Garden (The Gahhden), I know of no one who called it one of it's trendy names (Fleet Center, TD something... ). Honestly when they changed the name, most of us didn't listen.

It will always be the Hancock Tower.

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I know of no one who called it one of it's trendy names (Fleet Center, TD something... ).

Except for sports reporters, who called it the Fleece - excuse me - Fleet Center, lest they risk losing their jobs. And the "FleetCenter" name didn't last long enough for it to really stick.

And the current name is TD Garden, so calling it simply "The Garden" is a logical nickname.

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Sure...but the reason that's a logical nickname is reverse engineering. Everyone was still calling it "The Garden" so TD changed the name to fit instead of the other way around.

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At least TD Bank was smart enough to know the name wasn't going anywhere so they might as well put "Garden" back in there.

(Sorry, tried to delete this redundant comment but the software doesn't allow for that. :/)

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Sorry, but it's still the Hancock! Just like the Sears Tower is still the Sears Tower, as is the Garden, and so on and so forth.

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Gee, you don't mean /the Hancock Building/ you mean the /new/ Hancock Building.

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Check out the miniature railroad for moving mail that runs underground between the old John Hancock buildings. The Urban Archeologists at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation have a tour from time to time.

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If they are going to keep leaving their towers lying around, we're going to call them whatever we want.

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Didn't they recently rename South Station Michael Dukakis Station? I've yet to hear anyone call it that.

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I am half serious about that.

Still, I would think that having one's name attached to the tallest building in New England, free of charge, would be great advertisement.

As far as resisting name changes go, in addition to my "let's call Roslindale Square/Village/Triangle Tafts Tavern, since that was it's first name" campaign, I still call CMGI Field by that name, since that's what it was called when I saw my first game there.

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CMGI Field

ugh what an awful name for a stadium.. was so glad when they changed the name. Gillette is better fitting.

However, do you call the TD Fleet BankBoston Center Garden the "Shawmut Center", since that's the original name for that building?

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When I'm not calling it the TD Bank North Fleet Center.

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ugh what an awful name for a stadium.. was so glad when they changed the name. Gillette is better fitting

What the heck was CMGI anyway?
Ask people what Gillete does. Response: duh, they make shaving products.
Why did CMGI do? Um, I think they had something to do with the internet.

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