CultureNOW - Washington Street at W Concord Street: Peter Vanderwarker

Washington Street at W Concord Street

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ABOUT THE HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHS
"The old photo is by Nishan Bichajian, a photographer who made many views of the streets of Boston in the 1950s and who had a remarkable eye for composition. We’re in the South End, looking north along Washington Street from the intersection of West Concord. You can see the tower of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross down Washington at the right, rising above the old El. The El was regarded as a blight, but Bichajian has made it look almost as elegant as a row of shade trees on a Parisian boulevard. At left, we see a congenial clutter of city life: a drugstore with soda fountain (and, in the window, a poster for the nearby Uptown Cinema, featuring movies with Tyrone Power, Kim Novak, and Pier Angeli), a tavern, a Chinese restaurant, a laundry, a deli, and much more, with apartments on the upper floors.

The new photo looks very different, but what it reveals is an attempt to revive the kind of life we see in the old one. A vacant lot for years, the land is again being built on, with a similar mix of uses. There will be retail stores along the sidewalk, including a cafe and pharmacy – although the pharmacy won’t be another Archie Andrews soda shop; Walgreens and CVS are under consideration. Above the stores will be the South End Community Health Center on two floors, then three floors of condominiums. Nineteen town houses are also being built as part of the same development. All the new buildings will be red-brick South End-style jobs; the architects are Rothman Partners.

This part of the South End was devastated in the early 1960s. Big chunks were demolished. The removal of the El let in some sun but also left Washington Street looking too wide and naked. As the neighborhood began to revive, a paradox developed. The residents liked the vacant lots, often using them as community gardens, and were sometimes reluctant to see new construction. The project we’re looking at is the result of a decade of negotiation among the advocates of divergent blessings: vigorous street life, open space, affordable housing and health care and historic preservation. A compromise was reached: affordable health care but market-rate housing (the town houses will be in the half-million-dollar range), plus an enlargement of a community garden, guaranteed in perpetuity, that occupies much of the next block.

And in a year or so, the city will begin transforming Washington Street into a boulevard. As currently proposed, there will be wider sidewalks, each with a double row of trees, and a new Silver Line transitway, with natural-gas-driven buses running in a dedicated lane."

-Robert Campbell and Peter Vanderwarker, "CITYSCAPES - Washington Street," Boston Globe, 20 December 1998

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Location

Washington Street & W Concord Street
Boston, MA 02118
United States

Nearby Items

Washington Street at Massachusetts Avenue		991 feet
Alexandra		0.2 miles
South End		0.3 miles
Washington Street at Northampton Street		0.3 miles
Art on View at the Moakley Building		0.4 miles
Boston University School of Public Health		0.5 miles
Betances Mural		0.5 miles