Spring Scenes -- Boston Public Garden

Some photos from April and May 2009.

Industrial Heritage - Vassar Street at MIT

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was built on filled tidal marsh land between the industrial Cambridgeport and what is now the bank of the Charles River Basin. Being principally an engineering school, MIT always had a close tie to industry. For decades, the western fringes of the MIT campus overlapped with the factories and warehouses of industrial Cambridge.

Over time, industry departed Cambridge, replaced by research and development, with biomedical and pharmaceutical businesses predominating.

The MIT thermal energy plant on Vassar Street still beckons back to an earlier, more industrial age, with its tall stack and characteristically industrial architecture. In the failing fall sunlight, it could be 1959, but it is 2009.

Lagoon in the Public Garden

Photos taken April 16, 2009.



Above: Looking across the lagoon, the Hancock Tower provides a backdrop for the historic Arlington Street Church steeple.

Below left: The ducklings island on the right with the sun reflecting off the Taj Hotel (formerly, the Ritz).

Below right: The office towers that ring Beacon Hill are the backdrop to the lagoon.


















Below left: The Taj and Hancock Towers are in the left background behind the lagoon. This same view in winter, with the lagoon frozen and snow-covered, is the 4th photo in my post "Scenes of Winter in Boston".

Below right: Sunset on the lagoon silhouettes the ducks at the water's edge.

Urban Rails

Rail yard in Worcester, March 2008:







































Above: Street tracks, elevated tracks, Causeway Street in Boston (from archieves of University of Connecticut)


Below: Trolley stop in Lowell, Massachusetts

Above: Compromise joint bar connects rail of different thicknesses. On the left is 115RE rail and on the right 100NH rail.

Below: Locomotives in the Providence and Worcester Railroad yard, Worcester, Massachuestts, March 2008.

Below: Tracks at train station in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Back Bay Boston Photos

Below: Bank clock and Prudential Tower



Above: Converted Industrial Building at Mass. Av. and Newbury St.

Below: Boston Conservatory along The Fenway

Above: St. Clement's Church on Boylston Street

Below: Trinity Church reflected in the windows of the Hancock Tower

Winter Evening

January 21, 2009. Berkley Street, Boston: Spire of the Church of the Covenant (which hosts the Women's Lunch Place, an important outreach center for women who find themselves homeless).

Scenes of Winter in Boston

Photos taken January 12, 2009.

Above: Trinity Church reflected in the Hancock tower.

Below: frozen pond at Public Garden

Below: Tree in Public Garden

Sun has set on Commonwealth Avenue:

Above: Boston Common in the fading light

Below: Gas lights and brick sidewalks line Beacon Hill