(click on any photo to enlarge)
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment