CultureNOW - Oliver Street at High Street: Peter Vanderwarker

Oliver Street at High Street

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Description

ABOUT THE HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHS
"We’re at the comer of Oliver and High streets in downtown Boston. We’re looking along High toward the waterfront. The older photo was made in 1934, the newer in 1987.

The space in the foreground was once part of Fort Hill. Fort Hill was one of the three hills – along with Beacon and Copps – that made up the natural topography of Boston. (This Fort Hill should not be confused with the other Fort Hill that still exists in Roxbury.) Once 80 feet high and fortified with cannons that commanded the harbor, Fort Hill was cut down to level ground in about 1870 to create fill. The fill was used to extend the harbor shoreline nearby, creating the land for what is now Atlantic Avenue. Fort Hill, which as a hill had been a fashionable residential neighborhood, became, as flatland, a commercial area.

The little park in the 1934 photo, planted with new trees and fronted by a handsome row of buildings, was known as Washington Square. The most handsome building is the Chadwick Lead Works of 1887. It’s the one with four large arches near its top and a tower behind it. The tower was used for manufacturing lead shot. Molten balls were dropped the full height of the tower to shape and cool them. The Chadwick’s versatile architect, William Preston, also designed such Boston landmarks as the Museum of Natural History (until recently Bonwit Teller), the old Hotel Vendome, and the First Cadet Corps Armory in Park Square.

As Boston prostrated itself before the automobile in the 1950s, Washington Square gave way to a Central Artery ramp and a city parking garage. In 1987 the first phase of a huge office development rose on part of the site (at right in these photos). Known as International Place, the development will eventually fill the space next to the ramp. The round-topped object in the new photo is an International Place billboard. At some time in the next few years, the ramp – the element that has destroyed all sense of human habitability – is expected to be removed."

-Robert Campbell and Peter Vanderwarker, "CITYSCAPES - Highs and lows: How fast times devoured a handsome square," Boston Globe, 17 January 1988

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Location

Oliver Street & High Street
Boston, MA 02110
United States

Nearby Items

High Street		11 feet
State Street Bank Building (225 Franklin Street)		337 feet
Two International Place		600 feet
Langham Hotel / Former Federal Reserve Bank		638 feet
Post Office Square		727 feet
Central Artery at High Street		817 feet
Trellis Dance		961 feet