Boston Foot Tour No. 5: Fenway--Part Two
Jan. 29th, 2011 12:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
earlgreytea68(I did this tour SO long ago. I can't get over how green everything is!)
76. Wentworth Institute
In 1937, it trained “young men in the mechanical arts.” It’s co-educational now.
77. Massachusetts College of Pharmacy
Established in 1823 “as an association of Boston pharmacists who fostered the training of apprentices in apothecary shops.” I am sad that the word “apothecary” has fallen out of use.
78. Angell Memorial (animal) Hospital
I think this must be it, as it’s “opposite the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy” and is “a handsome three-story brick and granite building.” It was named for George T. Angell, the found of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the editor of Our Dumb Animals.
79. Harvard Medical School
I have to confess, I had no idea Harvard Medical School was located over here, but it makes sense, as there are a ton of hospitals in this area. Built between 1903 and 1906 “entirely of white Vermont marble,” it “is of simple classic designed adapted from the Greek and made impressive by its formal setting upon a terrace.” The book then goes on to babble about the symmetry of the four laboratory buildings flanking the administration building, which is “approached by broad steps leading up from the terrace to a gigantic Ionic portico.” I am quite sure the author of this book graduated from Harvard. Just wait until we get to the Cambridge walking tour.
80. Boston Public Latin School
Founded in 1635, the school occupied “a three-story brick building, three blocks deep, with granite Corinthian columns” in 1937. Pretty sure that’s the building it occupies today as well. It has the distinction of being “the oldest public Latin school still in existence,” a distinction it held way back in 1937, and, as it’s still in existence today, is possibly even more noteworthy now.
81. Emmanuel College
“A massive four-story brick and granite edifice in English Collegiate Gothic, with a broad, square, open bell-tower and wide lawns adorned with shrubbery.” “A non-resident Catholic institution for women, directed by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur.” I have no idea how accurate a description of the college that still is, but the building is clearly still the centerpiece of Emmanuel today.
82. Simmons College
In 1937, this was an all-female college. I’m not sure if it still is or not, but, as with Emmanuel above, it still occupies the same building, “a wide three-story yellow-brick building dating from 1902.” “It was the first college for women in the United States to recognize the desirability of giving students such instruction as would fit them to earn an independent livelihood. It offers courses in science, household economics, literary and secretarial work, and is affiliated with schools of physical education and store service.” In 1937, it boasted 1,600 students.
83. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
I admit I have always thought this an extremely ugly building, but the museum it houses is quite gorgeous. In the book, the museum is subtitled “Mrs. Jack Gardner’s Venetian Palace,” because that’s how the house was known in the days when “Mrs. Jack” (aka Isabella Stewart Gardner) lived there. If you don’t know anything about Isabelle Stewart Gardner, you should look her up, because she was fascinating. Married to Boston aristocrat John Lowell Gardner, she “was the most picturesque figure in the social, art, and music world of Boston in the Mauve Decade,” a woman who “flaunted social tradition” and “gathered about herself a salon of artists and musicians.” The book describes her portrait by Zorn, which represents “her as flinging open her palace doors, her face a mysterious vague blur without features, but her shapely arms and hands very prominent, even reflected in the doors.” The book says this embodies “her shrewd acceptance of drawbacks in her personal appearance, and her capitalization of her good points.” I find it interesting that the book chooses to describe the Zorn portrait, since the more famous portrait of Mrs. Jack is the John Singer Sargent portrait of her, which provoked such a reaction from the public when it was unveiled that Jack Gardner ordered it never be shown to the public again during his lifetime. Mrs. Jack hung it in her house, where it is now shown to the public every day.
Because the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is nothing more than Mrs. Jack’s very impressive personal art collection. The house was built in 1902 as “a composite of fragments and materials from Venice and other parts of Italy,” and the book describes it as “obviously the work of a collector indulging an unbridled fancy.” The museum’s collection boasts Raphael, Titian, Rembrandt, and Cellini. Mrs. Jack chose every painting very carefully, and arranged them in her house just so. And then she got herself the world’s best lawyers who constructed her an iron-clad will. None of the paintings can be moved from where Mrs. Jack placed them, the upshot being that one of the rooms is plagued with empty frames. Why? Because the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was the site of the biggest art heist in history, and the paintings have never been recovered. However, because of the strict terms of Mrs. Jack’s will, the paintings cannot be replaced within the museum, and so the empty frames sit there, waiting. It’s actually a very sad story, romantic in a tragic way.
Another fun tidbit about the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: If your name is Isabella, you always get in for free.
84. The Fenway
Its official name is “the Back Bay Fens,” but this park area is always called the Fenway. Constructed of “reclaimed mud flats,” it’s a lovely park right in the middle of the city, giving “a rustic touch to the surrounding residential district and the art and educational institutions.” In 1937, they contained “bridle paths and motor roads.” Today, they paths wending through the Fenway are mainly used for jogging.
The book notes that they “begin a long strip of parkway winding through Brookline and Roxbury.” Nowadays, we call those parks the Emerald Necklace, but the book doesn’t mention that nickname, so I don’t know if it’s a modern one, or what.
The other side of the MFA building, as seen from the Fenway.
The Forsyth Dental Infirmary for Children. Or, at least, it apparently was in 1937. I have no idea why the book makes the effort to point this out.
85. Boston Medical Library
All the book has to say about this place is that it was built in 1901, so I guess it’s not such a huge tragedy that I couldn’t find it. To be honest, the walking tour fell apart around here, because the Massachusetts Turnpike cuts through, and it’s clear the roads were all re-routed, and who knows what happened to the buildings he’s referring to.
86. Massachusetts Historical Society
Couldn’t find this, either, which actually made me wonder where this is headquartered nowadays. Anyway, we can still learn about it: Found in 1791, it is the oldest historical society in the United States. What does it have? Well: “a suit of clothes worn by Benjamin Franklin in Paris, of lilac poplin, with cuffs of pleated lawn, Governor Winthrop’s Bible, Shem Drowne’s Indian weathervane from Province House, Peter Faneuil’s mahogany wine chest, and a British drum from Bunker Hill. Casually tucked away among these is the pen with which Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.”
Now, why has this area been all torn up in modern times? For the obvious reason that it houses the most famous building in the Fenway area, Fenway Park, which is inexplicably not included on the walking tour. Fenway was opened in 1912, so it was there. I guess the book didn’t deem it important enough. Anyway, here are the lights of the stadium from the literal parks called the Fenway:
Kenmore Square’s famous Citgo sign, so beloved a view from the seats at Fenway that it’s now protected and can’t be torn down.
Aww, look at those two amazing red banners right in the front.
76. Wentworth Institute
In 1937, it trained “young men in the mechanical arts.” It’s co-educational now.
77. Massachusetts College of Pharmacy
Established in 1823 “as an association of Boston pharmacists who fostered the training of apprentices in apothecary shops.” I am sad that the word “apothecary” has fallen out of use.
78. Angell Memorial (animal) Hospital
I think this must be it, as it’s “opposite the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy” and is “a handsome three-story brick and granite building.” It was named for George T. Angell, the found of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the editor of Our Dumb Animals.
79. Harvard Medical School
I have to confess, I had no idea Harvard Medical School was located over here, but it makes sense, as there are a ton of hospitals in this area. Built between 1903 and 1906 “entirely of white Vermont marble,” it “is of simple classic designed adapted from the Greek and made impressive by its formal setting upon a terrace.” The book then goes on to babble about the symmetry of the four laboratory buildings flanking the administration building, which is “approached by broad steps leading up from the terrace to a gigantic Ionic portico.” I am quite sure the author of this book graduated from Harvard. Just wait until we get to the Cambridge walking tour.
80. Boston Public Latin School
Founded in 1635, the school occupied “a three-story brick building, three blocks deep, with granite Corinthian columns” in 1937. Pretty sure that’s the building it occupies today as well. It has the distinction of being “the oldest public Latin school still in existence,” a distinction it held way back in 1937, and, as it’s still in existence today, is possibly even more noteworthy now.
81. Emmanuel College
“A massive four-story brick and granite edifice in English Collegiate Gothic, with a broad, square, open bell-tower and wide lawns adorned with shrubbery.” “A non-resident Catholic institution for women, directed by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur.” I have no idea how accurate a description of the college that still is, but the building is clearly still the centerpiece of Emmanuel today.
82. Simmons College
In 1937, this was an all-female college. I’m not sure if it still is or not, but, as with Emmanuel above, it still occupies the same building, “a wide three-story yellow-brick building dating from 1902.” “It was the first college for women in the United States to recognize the desirability of giving students such instruction as would fit them to earn an independent livelihood. It offers courses in science, household economics, literary and secretarial work, and is affiliated with schools of physical education and store service.” In 1937, it boasted 1,600 students.
83. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
I admit I have always thought this an extremely ugly building, but the museum it houses is quite gorgeous. In the book, the museum is subtitled “Mrs. Jack Gardner’s Venetian Palace,” because that’s how the house was known in the days when “Mrs. Jack” (aka Isabella Stewart Gardner) lived there. If you don’t know anything about Isabelle Stewart Gardner, you should look her up, because she was fascinating. Married to Boston aristocrat John Lowell Gardner, she “was the most picturesque figure in the social, art, and music world of Boston in the Mauve Decade,” a woman who “flaunted social tradition” and “gathered about herself a salon of artists and musicians.” The book describes her portrait by Zorn, which represents “her as flinging open her palace doors, her face a mysterious vague blur without features, but her shapely arms and hands very prominent, even reflected in the doors.” The book says this embodies “her shrewd acceptance of drawbacks in her personal appearance, and her capitalization of her good points.” I find it interesting that the book chooses to describe the Zorn portrait, since the more famous portrait of Mrs. Jack is the John Singer Sargent portrait of her, which provoked such a reaction from the public when it was unveiled that Jack Gardner ordered it never be shown to the public again during his lifetime. Mrs. Jack hung it in her house, where it is now shown to the public every day.
Because the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is nothing more than Mrs. Jack’s very impressive personal art collection. The house was built in 1902 as “a composite of fragments and materials from Venice and other parts of Italy,” and the book describes it as “obviously the work of a collector indulging an unbridled fancy.” The museum’s collection boasts Raphael, Titian, Rembrandt, and Cellini. Mrs. Jack chose every painting very carefully, and arranged them in her house just so. And then she got herself the world’s best lawyers who constructed her an iron-clad will. None of the paintings can be moved from where Mrs. Jack placed them, the upshot being that one of the rooms is plagued with empty frames. Why? Because the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was the site of the biggest art heist in history, and the paintings have never been recovered. However, because of the strict terms of Mrs. Jack’s will, the paintings cannot be replaced within the museum, and so the empty frames sit there, waiting. It’s actually a very sad story, romantic in a tragic way.
Another fun tidbit about the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: If your name is Isabella, you always get in for free.
84. The Fenway
Its official name is “the Back Bay Fens,” but this park area is always called the Fenway. Constructed of “reclaimed mud flats,” it’s a lovely park right in the middle of the city, giving “a rustic touch to the surrounding residential district and the art and educational institutions.” In 1937, they contained “bridle paths and motor roads.” Today, they paths wending through the Fenway are mainly used for jogging.
The book notes that they “begin a long strip of parkway winding through Brookline and Roxbury.” Nowadays, we call those parks the Emerald Necklace, but the book doesn’t mention that nickname, so I don’t know if it’s a modern one, or what.
The other side of the MFA building, as seen from the Fenway.
The Forsyth Dental Infirmary for Children. Or, at least, it apparently was in 1937. I have no idea why the book makes the effort to point this out.
85. Boston Medical Library
All the book has to say about this place is that it was built in 1901, so I guess it’s not such a huge tragedy that I couldn’t find it. To be honest, the walking tour fell apart around here, because the Massachusetts Turnpike cuts through, and it’s clear the roads were all re-routed, and who knows what happened to the buildings he’s referring to.
86. Massachusetts Historical Society
Couldn’t find this, either, which actually made me wonder where this is headquartered nowadays. Anyway, we can still learn about it: Found in 1791, it is the oldest historical society in the United States. What does it have? Well: “a suit of clothes worn by Benjamin Franklin in Paris, of lilac poplin, with cuffs of pleated lawn, Governor Winthrop’s Bible, Shem Drowne’s Indian weathervane from Province House, Peter Faneuil’s mahogany wine chest, and a British drum from Bunker Hill. Casually tucked away among these is the pen with which Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.”
Now, why has this area been all torn up in modern times? For the obvious reason that it houses the most famous building in the Fenway area, Fenway Park, which is inexplicably not included on the walking tour. Fenway was opened in 1912, so it was there. I guess the book didn’t deem it important enough. Anyway, here are the lights of the stadium from the literal parks called the Fenway:
Kenmore Square’s famous Citgo sign, so beloved a view from the seats at Fenway that it’s now protected and can’t be torn down.
Aww, look at those two amazing red banners right in the front.
