Boston Pictures & Travel Journal

Tuesday, September 10, 2002; 8:55AM

    Boston amazes me!  It’s changed so little in 20 years!  Last night, after dropping my things off at the College Club (more on that later),  I took an evening stroll, first tempted to the east to see if I might see the Boston Public Garden.  It was already fully dark (maybe about 8:20 PM), and I wondered if it’d be in any way safe to go into the Garden (essentially a big park) at night.  My question was pretty well answered when I saw a young woman, alone, serenely walking out the west entrance.  I noticed quite a few other strollers in the park, mostly in groups, any number of young couples, walking, sitting on benches.  "Ah, Boston, I love you."

    I walked across what I call the swan bridge and imagined it’d make a pretty picture at dusk.  The large ponds were quiet, with numerous ducks (and geese?) resting around the shoreline for the evening.  I marveled that, despite the abundance of water foul, there were very few bird droppings on the walkways.  How well Boston has these birds trained (not at all like the geese in Gaithersburg, the nasty things)!  Either that, or Boston has some very diligent park maintenance/cleaning people.  I’ve always taken delight in the fact that a large park (Boston Public Garden ("BPG") and Boston Common) should exist in the heart of a major city, with skyscrapers and the state capitol building in plain view. Beautiful garden landscaping.  Of course NYC has Central Park, but I wouldn’t dare stroll in there at night.

    Exiting the Garden, I came out walking west on Boylston.  What a fabulous street it is!  All is just as I remember from 25 years ago, at least all the major buildings.  What architecture, historic period-pieces, very well maintained classic structures, with a few modern ones mixed in. I walked past Copley Plaza, one of my favorite spaces . . . the Boston Public Library’s simple classical massing, beautiful stone (I take it for granite).  Boylston is the type of street with lots of Starbuck’s and young people (the Starbuck’s are a new development).

    I walked all the way down to the Prudential Center’s Star Market (a full size supermarket in the heart of the city), exploring what they had to offer and buying some shredded wheat and soy milk.  On the way back to my lodging (the College Club), I walked 4 or 5 blocks east on Newbury Street, a classy shopping street with numerous restaurants and sidewalk café’s, most in exquisitely restored townhouses, many of which have apartments on the upper floors.  Last time I was in Boston (5 years ago), I stayed in Newbury Guest House in a small walk-up room on the fourth floor, overlooking Newbury Street, not far from Prudential Center.  This time I’m staying on stately Commonwealth Avenue, a block to the north and about 6 to the east, at the College Club.

I’m quite pleased with the College Club (44 Commonwealth Ave.--at the eastern end of Back Bay, just half a block from the western edge of the Public Garden).  It’s a bed and breakfast type place, except that the breakfast is very small (continental) and very few people show up for it (I saw five others in the dining room this morning).  I wondered why they went to the trouble of the elaborate place settings, given that only self-serve breads, a cereal, milk, juice, and coffee were available.  Nonetheless, I availed myself of two English muffin slices (toasted) and a slice of toasted bread, all with raspberry jam, and two glasses of juice.

College Club

    My room is pretty decent and the overall feel of this ‘grand townhouse’ is just as I might have hoped--genteel & atmospheric.  Not to mention that it was the only place in Back Bay I could find for under $100 a night . . . no minor feat.  I was concerned my room might not have air-conditioning (the common rooms aren’t air-conditioned (except maybe when there’s a function) but was pleased to find a window unit just able to get the job done.  My room is almost a perfect square, with moderately elaborate ceiling molding . . . it looks as if it’s been in this configuration for quite some time . . . I wondered if it was this way when the building was first built . . . probably not . . . it’s been The College Club for quite a while . . . I wonder if students once lived in some of these rooms.

As I write this, I’m sitting in the bay window of the CC’s grand room on the main floor, overlooking Comm Ave and it’s noonday strollers & shaded bench-sitters.  Comm Ave has a very wide, center-strip, median park walkway, grassy, treed, and statued, dividing eastbound and westbound traffic.  It’s just so civilized!  What city of this size could be more elegant!

Comm Ave median

    This morning, before 7 AM, I was up and jogging around the Boston Public Garden & Common, watching the old Chinese couples stretch (one doing Tai Chi).  I jogged over to the building on Beacon Street that used to house old Goodspeed’s Bookshop, where I once worked.

Wednesday, September 11, 2002; 8:39AM

    Yesterday (it was already early afternoon as I was getting out), I headed east, through BPG and Boston Common.  In BPG, I enjoyed the landscaping, the duck ponds graced with a few willows & many ducks, as well as the ‘swan boats.’  Of course, there were the flowering plants and the large, old, leafy trees.  Again I noticed a number of couples among those relaxing in the Garden.  I can see it’s being a romantic place.  There was some renovation work being done on one of the Garden’s landmark statues, it being trussed-up in a sling, looking ready to be craned off its pedestal.

Restoration	'Getting the Job Done'

    I continued east through Boston Common, where I took pictures of the State House (state capitol building) with its golden dome, a vendor’s stand, and sunbathers at the Frog Pond.  The best picture taking of the day was yet to come, however.

Downtown

    But this was not the end of my day!  I strolled a bit in the old downtown, not far really, just a few blocks, but so very richly urban in architecture, the old and new! I took a detail shot of the entrance to the Old City Hall and also much enjoyed the pleasing proportions of the urban landscape around a very small park (with statues and benches) that was dedicated to the many who’d suffered in the Irish Potato Famine (and made their way to Boston).  I stopped in the Border’s Books that fronted on that park for my first nutritious meal of the day (a chicken and vegetable wrap, served cold).  Afterwards, I headed back to the College Club (through the Common and the Garden) to see how my pictures came out. 

Old City Hall	Downtown, composition	Downtown, history	Park Street Church with skyscraper

Friday, September 13, 2002; 10:05AM

    Yesterday in Boston was an excellent, if not always easy, one for me.  I was up early on a day that promised to be clear as a bell, getting out just about the time the sun was rising, wearing my flannel shirt and a jacket against the cool morning NW breeze.  I took quite a journey . . . first heading south on Berkeley past Boylston to Stuart, before heading west, hoping to get some perspective on the old John Hancock building.  Continuing westerly on Huntington, I saw that this was an area where there’s been substantial development in the past 25 years . . . it was well-done.  I toured the grounds of the Christian Science Mother Church, then headed north on Mass Ave., just as I used to when I went from the Y to Charlesgate East.  In fact, I went past Charlesgate East, taking a picture, then on westward on Commonwealth past the entire stretch of Boston University (it stretches for quite a ways, maybe a mile, its grounds long and narrow between Commonwealth and the Charles River basin, for the most part.  Before walking past the University, however, I stopped for breakfast and a newspaper at a bagel place (lox and tomatoes on a big, soft, square ‘bagel’). 

Modern Classic	Composition from Stuart Street	Composition #2
Hancock Buildings, old & new	Prudential Building & environs over reflecting pool	Mother Church, Christian Science

Once past BU a ways, I got on a T (streetcar), which continued westerly down the middle of Commonwealth for a bit, before turning off to the left.  Here I looked closely to see if I recognized the place where Janet used to live . . . I didn’t, though there were some buildings of the same general description close by.  I don’t know if her building was no longer there or if it just was not as I remembered.  After that, I took the Green Line back (inbound) toward Kenmore Square, where I switched Green Line trains to the Riverside fork (again now heading westerly, outbound).

BU & Green Line trolley

    The Riverside Line, west of Kenmore Square, is a real treat!  I’d never been on it before.  It’s heavily wooded along most of the route . . . deciduous trees . . . leafy, green, deep shade against the bright blue sky & late morning sun!  This was all through well-to-do residential, ‘suburban,’ neighborhoods (when the houses could be seen through the woods or foliage).  Further out, we passed a pristinely-cool-looking, clear-blue lake and, just a bit later, a golf course, before the end of the line at Riverside.

    From there, I came back in to town, all the way to Park Street Center station, where (close-by) I picked up a T (MBTA) day pass, good for all trains and buses.  From here, I took the Red Line to Harvard Square, Cambridge.  I walked through Harvard Yard (the oldest part of the University) on my way up to the Law School.  It looks pretty much the same as it did 25 years ago, but has grown some.  There’s a completely new classroom & faculty office building on the north of the quad behind Langdell. 

From the Law School, I walked through Cambridge Common (not much happening), stopping briefly to look at the Civil War Memorial with the statue of Lincoln.  I also stopped at the historic (clapboard exterior) church across from the Common, which has seen the presence of George Washington and other notables . . . there is a spot of damage on one of the interior walls (unrestored) where a musket ball fired during the Revolutionary War made its mark.  Passing the building housing the Cambridge adult education office, I took a look at the generous course offerings, before heading back to Harvard Square.  At the Square, I was fortunate to stumble into a Au Bon Pain, where I had a delicious turkey, tomato, honey-mustard on wheat loaf sandwich.  After visiting with the attendant at the Harvard Square information booth for a while, I took the Red Line back to Park Street (at Boston Common), switching to the Green Line for two stops to Haymarket.  From there, I walked under the expressway a block to the south side of the North End, continuing more-or-less north up Salem Street to the Old North Church.

Cambridge Clapboard Dwelling

    It was my first time in the North End, and I was pretty much amazed to find it quite different in character than other neighborhoods I’d seen.  It is, I suppose, one of the oldest parts of the city.  The streets are narrow & crooked, the shops, homes, and other buildings abut side-by-side down the streets, mostly brick, 2, 3, & 4 stories.  Quite atmospheric, a European feel.  It’s largely an Italian neighborhood. 

    I walked up the Hull Street hill to get a shot of the tower of the Old North Church (known for the "one if by land, two if by sea" signal from the belfry that started Paul Revere on his ride to warn that "the British are coming."  At the top of the hill, if found the Copps Hill Burying Ground, with its markers dating back hundreds of years. 

North End, detail	Old North Church Steeple	A view from the Copps Hill Burying Ground	Copps Hill Burying Ground headstone

    As I headed back to the Haymarket Station, I stopped to take a couple of pictures of the construction going on under & around the expressway.  The project is known as "The Big Dig."  It’s been ongoing for quite a few years now and will eventually (soon?) replace the elevated roadway (which, among other things, has served to isolate the North End from the rest of the city) with a wholly underground system.

    From Haymarket Station, I took the Green Line to the Prudential Center area, where I went up to the Skywalk on the 50^th floor the get a panoramic view of the city as the sun sank below the horizon.  

Charles River sunset (Mass Ave bridge)	Charles River sunset with Comm Ave	Downtown skyline & Hancock