CultureNOW - Beacon Hill: Peter Vanderwarker

Beacon Hill

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Description

ABOUT THE HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHS
In two photographs that measure the astonishing evolution of Boston's downtown in one generation, the city's skyline changes from a prickly row of pins and thimbles into a row of massed shoe boxes. judging from the style of the pleasure boats in the foreground, the date of the earlier photograph must be about 1950. The photographs was made by Samuel Chamberlain from a vantage point at MIT, looking across the Charles River Basin toward Beacon Hill. The Longfellow Bridge, nicknamed the "Pepperpot Bridge" (visible at the far left in both photos), sets the motif for the rest of the skyline with its four ornamental towers that resemble the tops of buildings elsewhere.

Dominating the old photo is the Custom House Tower of 1915, pointing skyward like a rocket, for 30 years Boston's tallest structure. Except for church steeples, the only other element s with much height are four buildings in the Art Deco style, all of which have the characteristic stepped-back, hat like tops typical of the style. They are the "new" Suffolk County Courthouse of 1939, just left of the Custom House; the hotel Madison (recently demolished), farther left; the Post Office Square, just right of the State House dome; and at the far right, the United Shoe Machinery Building of 1930, the best of the lot, a minor masterpiece by Parker, Thomas and Rice that is soon to be renovated after barely surviving a recent demolition threat.

In the newer photo, the new Boston rises dramatically behind the old, providing a deep curtain behind Beacon Hill that gives the hill, paradoxically, more presence than it had before. New and old are more foils for each other, and the resulting city has a tension that gives vitality. The towers look their best like this, seen from a distance, lined up like a natural rock cliff, their big, squarish shapes contrasting nicely with the delicate white triangles of sailboats. The towers change the scale of the Charles River Basin; they domesticate it, making it feel more like an urban water park, less like a natural lake,

The delicate, moth like boats navigating past the giant towers add a surreal, delightful touch. If you wait long enough, everything comes around again in architecture. Several new downtown buildings resemble the Art Deco towers of the past, and the city's planners are currently considering regulations that would encourage lower heights and stepped back tops for all new high rises.

-Robert Campbell and Peter Vanderwarker, "CITYSCAPES - A Study in Silhouettes", Boston Globe, 1984

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Location

Cambridge St & Charles St
Boston, MA 02114
United States

Nearby Items

Bay Village		11 feet
Liberty Hotel (Charles Street Jail)		640 feet
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Paul S. Russell, MD Museum of Medical History and Innovation at Massachusetts General Hospital		0.2 miles
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