CultureNOW - Causeway Street at North Washington Street: Peter Vanderwarker

Causeway Street at North Washington Street

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ABOUT THE HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHS
"The year is 1899 in the old photograph, and, as usual, one of Boston’s streets is being rebuilt. It’s Causeway Street, at the complicated intersection with Endicott, Commercial, and North Washington (then called Charlestown Street) in the North End. Causeway is being regraded at a higher elevation, probably to raise it to the level of the new Charlestown Bridge, which opened on November 27 of the same year and still exists. The new trolley tracks appear to veer left off Causeway Street, onto Charlestown Street, heading toward the bridge. Soon there will also be an elevated railway through this intersection.

The building in the middle, the one with the round corner, reminds us that the North End wasn't always Italian. It’s Doherty, McGuigan and Co., with ‘Wines and liquors for family trade a specialty.’ A street sign reads ‘Ward 6 Endicott St.,’ reminding us of the lively local ward politics of the era. Legendary pol James Michael Curley turned 25 in 1899, and James ‘Honey Fitz’ Fitzgerald, grandfather of JFK, would be elected mayor in 1906. The intersection was known in those days as Keany Square. Matthew Keany was the Democratic boss of Ward 6.

Many Bostonians today will know the site best as the location for many years of the landmark Polcari’s restaurant, on the same corner as Doherty, McGuigan. Polcari’s has been supplanted by Filippo Ristorante. The change in language from English to Italian tells us something about the North End’s recent efforts to market itself as an ethnic enclave, during an era when it is becoming ever less Italian. Politics is still alive - a big sign reads ‘Union carpenters demand the vote’ – but a new street sign is aimed at tourists, pointing the way to Faneuil Hall, the Haymarket, and the waterfront.

Rising behind the liquor store in the older view is a vent stack for the Boston Gas Light Co. We can’t see them, but big holding tanks and other industrial structures surround the stack along both sides of Commercial Street. Much of the former Gas Light property is now filled by a parking garage, as shown in the new photo. This same garage, in 1950, was the scene of the ‘Crime of the Century’ robbery of the Brink's armored car company, the largest armed holdup in US history."

-Robert Campbell and Peter Vanderwarker, "CITYSCAPES - Causeway Street," Boston Globe, 28 November 1999

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Location

Causeway Street & North Washington Street
Boston, MA 02114
United States

Nearby Items

North Washington Street Bridge		309 feet
North Terminal Garage		592 feet
Causeway Street at Beverly Street		678 feet
Telltale LIghts		856 feet
Brink's Garage		948 feet
Skinny House		0.2 miles
Langone Park (Joseph and Clementine Langone)		0.2 miles