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Back in the day, even street urchins wore ties - and scally caps
By adamg on Tue, 06/21/2022 - 12:54pm
The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this scene. See it larger.
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Comments
What's so amazing is how
What's so amazing is how clean the sidewalks are in the photo. Today's sidewalks are nasty.
Street Refuse
Everywhere I go I see discarded scratch tickets, nip bottles, cigarette butts, masks and, most curiously of all, those little plastic dental floss picks. They're everywhere. Are that many people walking down the street flossing? I wonder if they are used as some kind of drug paraphernalia?
No. But any time you see
No. But any time you see discarded small pieces of Brillo pad or Choir Boy, it's used for the crack pipes that are openly sold in any smoke shop or cannabis shop.
huh
"opening sold at any smoke or cannabis shop"
really now? Name some, please.
You're truly uninformed.
First off.. brillo pad? You would never use that. Its steel wool (iron) that has been bathed in soap. All you would taste is soap and it'd be nastier than the crack rock. And that says alot considering crack smells and tastes like burning plastic.
Plus you dont want to get steel wool hot, it would flake and you'd inhale it. And probably have mega lung issues.. fast.
And I think you mean CHORE BOY.. not Choir Boy. Chore boy is all copper, which far better and most sought out.
This is why at some bodegas and gas station stores you they may not have much in terms of household goods, but they always have an ample supply of Chore Boy, along with those tiny fake roses in small glass bottles that are corked at either end............
read: this shit ain't being sold at pot shops or smoke shops. Its being sold at your local corner store.
Huh?
The kids are literally standing in front of a pile of horse manure in the street.
And today's sidewalks you'll
And today's sidewalks you'll be standing in dog poop and/or homeless human poop.
I mean sure
the city has it's share of problems but that street is spackled with feces.
And I can't even imagine the smell that must've risen from that cobblestone river of sick and filth.
picture
Looks like Main Street in Charlestown.
Main Street?
Main Street does not have any incline like that.
Charles Street on Beacon Hill?
Not Charles Street
This street does intersect with Charles Street though.
Charles Street is flat, 'tis aint.
well then
So does that mean it's the old west end on Cambridge Street near the Whole Foods/library?
Incline or camera angle?
Hard for me to tell the difference here.
It does look to me like a hill rises to the left of this street.
99.43% Sure
It's Cambridge Street by say Blossom or North Anderson Street. Right about where the drive way into Whole Foods is now.
Neither Blossom or N. Anderson are the driveway…
… to the Whole Foods/Chas. River Plaza parking lot.
Maybe
Broadway in Somerville?
Not going to be anywhere in Somerville
Since the picture is from the Boston City Archives.
Very good point
My next guess would be packards corner.
Only a feeling
Bunker Hill and School Street Charlestown
Cambridge Street
I think this is the site of the Whole Foods now. Photo is from 1912.
we used to be a proper country
with proper urchins
The Answer!
This photoshows the north side of Cambridge St between North Russell and Chambers Streets. It was taken on November 6, 1912. If you want to zoom in on those urchins, here's a high res version: https://cityofboston.access.preservica.com/uncategorized/IO_d3182711-6e7... Thanks for playing, folks!
What are those what look like….
… ghost bushes growing across what would have been North Russell Street?
People
Those shadows are people walking while the photo was being taken.
Maybe. However the other
Maybe. However the other people in the image are not blurred. Yet they could not have been holding still for as long as it took to walk across the street. So it remains a mystery.