CultureNOW - North End at North and Lewis Streets: Peter Vanderwarker

North End at North and Lewis Streets

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Description

ABOUT THE HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHS
Part of a nice old building has been demolished and replaced by a squat modem intruder at the comer of North and Lewis streets in the North End, as demonstrated
by this pair of photos dating from 1865 and 1990.

Or has it?

Deciphering changes in the city over time isn't always as simple as it looks. A closer examination of the photos reveals that all important parts of the old buildings still exist (with one minor exception: The last bay on the far right of the old photo, the" 16th
window from the comer, has been shorn off). It's a detective game. By counting windows and figuring angles, you realize that Lewis Street, the one on the left, must have been realigned at some point. Both the one-story brick box on the comer
(now a social club) and the building beyond it - the one that's three windows wide, with a sloping attic studio - must have arrived after the date of the old photo.

Buildings on city streets shouldn't be too high, but they shouldn't be too low, either. The clubhouse, the Madonna del Soccorso Society "Fisherman's Club," spoils the harmony of the street and the corner not only by its uninviting blankness but by its inadequate height. Equally disruptive is a vent structurefor the Callahan Tunnel, at the far right of the new photo. Between them, these two newcomers ruin a marvelous streetscape.
Poetry and logic are on display in the older buildings. The ground floor is a strong base of granite that frames big openings for shops. Above come three stories of a lighter material, brick, and then at the top come still lighter wooden dormers. The dormers
stand like a row of little cottages along the roof, engaging the sky and reaching for daylight.

There are other changes. At the old comer stands a pharmacy and doctor's office. Another sign advertises a "Mariners Exchange" and "Reading and News Room" that served the waterfront, only a block away, where Lewis Street becomes Lewis Wharf. The former cobblestone paving, granite crosswalks, and iron tracks for horse-drawn trolleys have given way to today's bland texture of asphalt and painted lines. The dormers have disappeared, too, sometimes replaced by new fifth and sixth floors. Storefronts have been filled in. Fire escapes and balconies improve the safety but not the appearance of the street.

Finally, quaint new streetlights, imitating gas lamps, fake the past without equaling it. This is one of those Boston scenes in which nothing that is new is as good as what it replaces.

-Robert Campbell and Peter Vanderwarker, "CITYSCAPES - More is Less",Boston Globe , 1990

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Location

Lewis St & North St
Boston, MA 02113
United States

Nearby Items

The Paul Revere House		599 feet
Fulton-Commerical Streets District		678 feet
Pierce-Hichborn House		686 feet
Hanover Street at Clark Street		843 feet
St. Stephen's Church		880 feet
North End		895 feet
Paul Revere		985 feet