Boston: Getting into the Details

After 5 weeks of complete immersion in Boston’s history and architecture, I have passed the written and the oral exams to become a Boston By Foot guide. Now I can concentrate on learning my tour. And by “my tour” I mean the Victorian Back Bay tour, which I signed up to give for the first time on June 7th.

I have been enjoying looking through old photographs of Boston uploaded by the Boston Public Library. The Trinity Church in Copley Square was completed in 1877, but at the time it did not look the same as we know it today. The following photos show Trinity Church before the western porch was added in 1897. At the time, the towers above the western entrance were also replaced. In these photographs you can see the church with the original entrance towers.

Stereograph of Trinity Church taken circa 1875

This stereograph of Trinity Church is not dated, but I dare to guess that it was also taken circa 1875

This photo of Trinity Church was taken in August, 1888, and there are no towers above the western entrance.

Trinity Church today as seen on a postcard

While doing homework on Victorian Boston...

While doing research for my Victorian Boston paper (for the Boston By Foot Guide In Training program), I went back to the Boston Public Library flickr account. Thus I came across a whole set of old photographs documenting the construction of the McKim building.

Amongst those photos, I came across this gem (the photo above), capturing Trinity Church before the western porch and the west facade towers were added.

On the right in this same photo you can see Sturgis & Brigham's original Museum of Fine Arts building of 1876.

New Year's Eve in Boston

We have lived in Boston for several years now, but this year was the first time we welcomed the New Year in our hometown. We considered going "out on the town", but decided to keep our outing short, especially when the temperatures got down into single digits (Fahrenheit). In fact 40 mph wind gusts forced the authorities to cancel the traditional midnight fireworks!

We started celebrating New Years on the Boston Common looking at several ice sculptures. I really wanted to see the parade, so we secured a great spot along Charles Street between the Boston Common and the Public Gardens. In fact our spot was so great that there were very few people standing next to us. As it turned out our "great" spot was just a few hundred feet past the point where the parade ended.

The snow sparkled as it fell turning us into snowmen while we walked down the middle of the Commonwealth Avenue on our way to Copley Square. There were more ice sculptures in Copley Square, including my favorite ice sculpture ever--The Dance by Eric Fonteccio and Alfred Georges from Brookline Coal and Ice Company. For me this sculpture really stood because of its design and craftsmanship.

By this time, my toes were sufficiently frozen to end our celebratory walk. So we jumped in the T and headed to Ginza, one of our favorite sushi restaurants, where the house green tea and excellent food revived us. We topped the evening off with a movie and champagne at midnight.