CultureNOW - North Station: Peter Vanderwarker

North Station

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Description

ABOUT THE HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHS
Union Station, which was finished in 1893, is the subject of the earlier of these two photos, made by T. E. Marr in 1905. It was tom down and replaced by the present North Station-Boston Garden complex in 1929. The later photo, made this year, tells of change not only in buildings but, equally strikingly, in social mores.

The people in the old photo are obviously quite concerned with looking dignified. All wear dark clothes, all wear hats, and all are leading busy and purposeful lives - or at least they would like to give the impression that they are. By contrast, the five teenagers of today I are perhaps equally concerned with not looking dignified. Calculated disarray of dress and posture is the keynote. From left, they are Matthew Albrecht, Stephen Heywood, Duncan Moss, Andy Swett, and Jamie Heywood. They are all from Newton and have stopped for hamburgers on their way (by car) to the beach.

Like the people, the architecture has undergone a transformation from dignity and unity to nonchalance and pluralism. Union Station, designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, was, for all its grandeur, a sort of nonbuilding. It was really not much more than an enormous gateway and arcade that connected two previously existing railroad stations. Its object was not so much practical use as the expression of civic dignity and permanence. But permanence was a quality that American cities were destined to lack. Today, Union Station is long gone, and there is talk of replacing its successor.

The beer billboard above the Boston Garden and the mural on the Green Line MBTA bridge are reminders of our media dominated age. They are part of a general visual polyphony, disorderly but not unpleasing, that is not unlike that of the boys. The mural is by Karen Moss (no relation to Duncan) and was finished in 1977. Called "Leaves 'N' Link," it represents a luxuriance of growing plants and perhaps also a hint of fluttering birds, trapped behind a chain-link fence.

-Robert Campbell and Peter Vanderwarker, "CITYSCAPES - Changing Trains",Boston Globe, 4 August 1985

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Location

Nashua St & Causeway St
Boston, MA 02114
United States

Nearby Items

TD Bank North Garden		199 feet
Currents		210 feet
The Sports Museum		236 feet
Causeway Street at Canal Street		238 feet
Causeway Street at Beverly Street		522 feet
Telltale LIghts		762 feet
Causeway Street at North Washington Street		0.2 miles