Boston Molasses Flood

Place: Boston Molasses Flood

Address: Commercial Street, near Copp's Hill

Neighborhood: North End

TheMBTADog is back from winter break. Due to lack of time, I will not post as often as I had during the autumn of 2015, but I will try my best to create at least two posts a week.

On December 12, 2014, I looked for the site of the Great Molasses Flood! 97 years ago, there was a great flood of molasses in the North End. At the time, there was an elevated rapid transit line called the Atlantic Avenue Elevated on Commercial Street, which was taken down in 1938.
To visit the site of the Boston Molasses Flood, get to North Station and walk east onto Causeway Street and Commercial Street until you reach a park. Bus route 4 can also take you there, but service is limited to weekday rush hour, so it is better to walk from North Station. The North End is best traveled by foot.

"On January 15, 1919, a molasses tank at 529 Commercial Street exploded under pressure, killing 21 people. A 40-foot wave of molasses buckled the elevated railroad tracks, crushed buildings and inundated the neighborhood. Structural defects in the tank combined with unseasonably warm temperatures contributed to the disaster."

To learn more the Boston Molasses Flood:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Molasses_Flood
http://www.historytoday.com/chuck-lyons/sticky-tragedy-boston-molasses-disaster

Merry Christmas!

TheMBTADog will be going on a winter break. New posts will return in late December or January. 
Merry Christmas!

Old Corner Bookstore

Place: Old Corner Bookstore

Address: 281-3 Washington Street

Neighborhood: Downtown

Another very important landmark that I took pictures of in Downtown on December 12, 2012 was the Old Corner Bookstore. This charming little building is located at the intersection of Washington Street and School Street. I had to wait a while be able to get this shot with nobody in the scene, as there is always a lot of people walking in Downtown!
To visit the Old Corner Bookstore, ride the Orange Line or Blue Line to State Street.

"Thomas Crease built this structure as his apothecary and residence shortly after the great fire of 1711 destroyed Anne Hutchinson's house on this site. Timothy Carter opened the Old Corner Bookstore here in 1829. Between 1845 and 1865, the booksellers Ticknor and Fields inhabited the building as the publishers of Hawthorne, Longfellow, Stowe, Emerson, Thoreau and other prominent American and British authors, who often gathered here. In 1960, civic leaders raised money and established Historic Boston, Inc., to acquire and preserve this site."

To learn more about the Old Corner Bookstore:
https://www.thefreedomtrail.org/freedom-trail/old-corner-book-store.shtml
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Corner_Bookstore

Old State House

Place: Old State House

Address: Washington Street at State Street

Neighborhood: Downtown

One of the most important landmarks in Boston... the Old State House!
I have passed by this location numerous times while walking in Downtown. The following pictures were taken on December 12, 2012. A more detailed post about the Old State House may be created in the future.
To visit the Old State House, ride the Orange Line or Blue Line to State Street. A fun fact is that the Old State House includes an entrance to State Street Station and the Orange Line platforms are underneath the historic building.

"The Old State House, Boston's oldest public building, was built in 1713 as the seat of British colonial government. Here the Royal Governor and the Massachusetts Assembly debated the Stamp Acts and the Writ of Assistance. The Declaration of Independence was first read to Bostonians from the east balcony on July 18, 1776. The building served as the State House until 1798, and was also Boston's City Hall from 1830 to 1841."

To learn more about the Old State House:
http://www.bostonhistory.org/?s=osh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_State_House_(Boston)

Boston Pilot Site

Place: Boston Pilot Site

Address: 28 State Street

Neighborhood: Downtown

As I ventured around Downtown Boston on December 12, 2012, I found the site of another newspaper printing press along the former "Newspaper Row".
To visit the Boston Pilot Site, ride the Orange Line or Blue Line to State Street.

"This was the original site of the first Catholic newspaper published in the United States, founded here in 1829 as the Catholic Sentinel. In 1835, publisher Patrick Donahoe changed the name to The Boston Pilot. By 1850, it had become the voice of Boston's Irish community, serving both the local and national interests of thousands of immigrants who fled famine in Ireland. The Pilot enjoyed a national circulation under the editorships of famed poet John Boyle O'Reilly and his successor Katherine Conway. In 1908, The Pilot became the official paper of the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston."

To learn more about the Boston Pilot Site:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pilot_(newspaper)