CultureNOW - Thompson Square: Peter Vanderwarker

Thompson Square

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ABOUT THE HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHS
One generation's exciting new technology can become the next generation's eyesore. That was the fate of the elevated railway on Main Street in Charlestown. In both photos, we're looking south toward Thompson Square. The 1910 photo is labeled "Column 94W." It was one of a series made by the Boston Elevated Railway, and it probably documents reconstruction work done to adapt the elevated to changes in the Thompson Square Station. The Main Street EI (later part of the Orange Line) opened in 1901 and was demolished in 1975. A developer planned to convert the station into a cocktail lounge, but vandals torched it in 1976.

Who are the eight boys, and what are they doing here? No doubt they spotted the photographer and horned in. Perhaps they feel a theatrical pleasure in being so small, next to massive 94W with its elephant foot. By today's standards, they're amazingly well dressed. Four are wearing ties. Being cool, in that era, meant dressing up, not dressing down. Maybe they were among the Charlestown boys who used to memorize the history of the Bunker Hill Monument and then recite it for tips from tourists. That's what tough Townie kids did then, instead of igniting transit stations. One of the Bunker Hill reciters grew up to be Dave Powers, aide and pal to John F. Kennedy.

Residents, like transit technologies, have changed. In the census of 1900, Charlestown was almost 90 percent Irish. Many of these immigrants came from Donegal to work on the docks and in the Navy Yard. Today, Charlestown is being repopulated by so-called yuppies, and housing prices have skyrocketed.

In the new photo, the buildings look old, but some of them were built recently in traditional styles. The stage set gaslights absurdly disfigured by traffic signs try weakly to maintain the retro theme. Once Charlestown was proud of its future; now it is proud of its past, or what someone imagines was its past. But if the street lacks a little of the old vitality, it's a pleasant place with a human scale. The new plane trees cast a kindlier, if less dramatic, shadow than did the old El.

-Robert Campbell and Peter Vanderwarker, "CITYSCAPES - Thompson Square, Charlestown", Boston Globe, 8 May 2000

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Location

Main St & Austin St
Charlestown, MA 02129
United States

Nearby Items

Charlestown Branch Boston Public Library		145 feet
Warren Tavern		975 feet
Colonel William Prescott		0.3 miles
Bunker Hill Monument		0.3 miles
Bunker Hill Monument		0.3 miles
Davit Lights		0.4 miles
Charlestown		0.4 miles