Football 1903 Style

 

In honor of the Super Bowl, football 108 years ago.  Princeton vs. Yale, 14 November 1903

Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division Washington, D.C.

Fenway Park, 1912

Fenway Ball Park, in preparation for World Series, 1912

Red Sox tickets went on sale this morning.  This year marks the 100th anniversary of Fenway Park and I think they're still using the same seats seen being installed here for the 1912 World Series (or maybe it just seems that way).  This photo is taken from about the same place where I watched the Red Sox win the first game of the 2004 World Series.

Photo from the George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress, Washinton, D.C.

Boston Museum, c. 1903

The Boston Museum, 28 Tremont Street, Boston c. 1903

Library of Congress Image

Constructed in 1846, designed by Hammatt Billings.

From an 1850 newspaper advertisement:

"The museum is the largest, most valuable, and best arranged in the United States. It comprises no less than seven different museums, to which has been added the present year, besides the constant daily accumulation of articles, one half of the celebrated Peale's Philadelphia Museum, swelling the already immense collection to upwards of half a million articles, the greatest amount of objects of interest to be found together at any one place in America; and an entirely new hall of wax statuary.... and the immense collection of birds, beasts, fish, insects and reptiles;... paintings, engravings and statuary; ... Egyptian mummies, ... family of Peruvian mummies; the duck-billed platypus;... the curious half-fish, half-human Fejee Mermaid;... elephants and ourang-outangs..." Source.

Interior of the Boston Museum

Boston Public Library, Print Department

Bird's Eye View of Boston, 1902.

A Bird's Eye View of Boston c. 1902

Compliments of Beach & Clarridge Co. of Boston

Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division.

At the left edge of the image are the "Base Ball Grounds" on Huntington Avenue where the Boston Americans played in the first World Series in 1903.

Harrison Avenue, Boston 1893 to 2006

(click on any photo to enlarge) 

Top photo:  Harrison Avenue before widening, looking north from Beach Street to Essex Street, c. 1892.
Middle photo:  Harrison Avenue after widening, looking north from Beach Street to Essex Street, c. 1893.
Bottom Photo: Harrison Avenue, looking north from Beach Street to Essex Street, March, 2006.


A few years ago I took some pictures of Harrison Avenue looking north from Beach Street towards Essex Street in Boston's Chinatown to match up with some photographs taken in the 1890s.  In comparing the old with the new, we can see that the three middle buildings on the right hand side of Harrison Avenue have survived, while the building at the head of the street in the modern photo may be the same as the one as the building shown in the old photo, albeit with a makeover.  The uppermost photo shows the fronts of buildings being removed so the street can be widened.  It appears to me from looking at the side of the building along Oxford Place (the street which interrupts the block, seen most clearly in the bottom photo) that the fronts of the buildings were removed and new facades were attached to remains.

The 1894 Street Laying Out Deparment Report notes: "The section of the avenue which has been thus improved [between Beach and Essex] had formerly a width of 49 feet at Beach Street, 40 feet at Oxford Place, and 37 feet at its angle, near Essex Street.  The improvement was secured by widening to the distance of about twelve feet on the westerly side, thereby making a uniform line with that part of Harrison Avenue north of Essex Street, and the widening on the easterly side on a line 67 feet distant from the westerly line, near Beach Street, and 78 feet distant at a point corresponding with the old angle, near Essex Street, from which point the new easterly line diverged and was continued so as to conform substantially to the easterly line of Chauncy Street."  The total estimated cost for widening: $298,870.

Map of the Great Boston Fire of 1872

Map showing the extent of the Great Boston Fire of 1872, burned area in pink.
For reference, the intersection at the upper left corner of the pink area is the location of the Filene's building at Washington and Summer Streets.

Published by Haskell and Allen, 1873

Source: private collection.

After the Great Fire, Boston, 1872

Boston, after the fire, November 9th & 10th, 1872

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

South End Baseball Grounds in 1888

South End Baseball Grounds in 1888, Boston, MA.

Photo from: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.