From Dave Brigham:
Let's get right to this review of the Copley Square/Back Back area of Boston. Like Monty Hall, I'm gonna show you a bunch of doors. I'm also going to go on perhaps too long about a travesty of architecture amid all the poshness (is that a word?) of Back Bay. And I'm going to showcase a sign unlike anything I've ever seen.
That's quite an entrance, don'tcha think? This is the Berkeley Building. Well, one of them.
Huh?
This one is located at 420 Boylston Street, on the corner of Berkeley Street. Completed in 1906, this Beaux-Arts building "was designed by Stephen Codman and Constant-Désiré Despradelle; the latter was a noted architect and professor at MIT, which at the time was located diagonally across from here," per this Lost New England article. For more pictures, inside and out, check out this web site from Finegold Alexander Architects, which renovated the building in 1989.
Tenants include CargoMetrics Technologies, Overall Capital Partners, Girl Scouts of America and the Lux Bond & Green jewelry store.
As for the other Berkeley Building, it's located at 200 Berkeley Street and is more commonly known as the Old John Hancock Building. Completed in 1947, this structure is known for a beacon atop a spire that lets Bostonians know the weather by using light patterns ("Steady blue, clear view. Flashing blue, clouds due. Steady red, rain ahead. Flashing red, snow instead").
Moving along. Let's look at some more fancy doors.
The entryway above is at 352 Boylston Street, about which I've found out very little other than that the building is owned by well-known Boston developer Ronald Druker. The Druker Company, of which he is president, has a portfolio that includes tony condo development Heritage On the Garden and the Colonnade Hotel.
The building dates to at least 1919, as this photo shows. Tenants 100 years ago included interior decorators Schervee Studios, ladies clothing store Solov-Hinds and Edward Kakas & Sons, furriers, per the photo.
The doorway below is also on Boylston Street, at #419. This building is known as Warren Chambers, and was once called the Office Building for Doctors. I'd love to know what the mosaic on the sidewalk looked like in its heyday. Tenants here include furniture retailer Pompanoosuc Mills.
No entryway in this area is as massive as the one at 501 Boylston Street.
Built in 1940 as the New England Life building, this place is now known as The Newbry. Constructed on the original site of M.I.T. and the former Boston Society of Natural History, 501 Boylston is home to a series of dioramas commissioned by the natural history museum in 1863 (see February 2, 2018, "Not at the Museum").
I'll get back to some doors and plenty of other cool stuff, but first we need to discuss two hideous Back Bay anomalies and a rare row house for this area of the Back Bay.
First, the good stuff. On the right is 406-410 Boylston, which dates to 1861, although obviously the ground floor has been severely altered. The original owner was, I kid you not, Studley Fox (actually, I think this reference provided by my pal MACRIS is incorrect; I found a listing elsewhere online for an architectural firm in Boston named Fox & Studley. Still, cool names.). "Notable building architecturally for its 19th century panel brick row structures, some of only a few which remain on Boylston St., but are typical of the remainder of Back Bay," per MACRIS.
This still mostly beautiful building has some nasty neighbors.
What the everloving Christ is going on with these buildings?!
Located smack dab in the middle of a very nice shopping district -- neighbors include the aforementioned Pompanoosuc Mills, Sassoon Salon, Au Bon Pain, Neena's Lighting and the Parish Cafe -- the buildings that many years ago housed designer shoe retailer The Tannery look like they belong on Skid Row.
Founded in Cambridge in 1973 by Lebanese immigrant Hicham “Sam” Hassan, The Tannery was by the 1990's a very successful business with at least two stores, including one in Boston. Celebrities, politicians and the well-to-do sought out shoes from the retailer, per this Boston Magazine story from 2019. In 2009, Hassan opened a three-story flagship at the corner of Boylston and Exeter streets (below), just a few blocks from the abominations above. I believe those eyesores at the time were home to a Tannery outlet store.
All seems great, right? "Outwardly, the Tannery was a thriving success story. But behind the scenes, Hassan and his business were slowly falling apart like an old pair of heels," write Chris Sweeney and Abby Bielagus in the above-linked article. That's a great line. Let's try to shorten this story: In 2016 Hassan shuttered his Cambridge store; in 2017 he filed for bankruptcy for The Tannery's parent company.
The bottom line: Hassan still owns these buildings (although I'm not sure about the one at Boylston and Exeter, which is closed). The one in the photo above with THE TANNERY sign dates to 1861; the taller one dates to 1908. These are relics of a long-gone age and if somebody had cared for them properly, they'd be architectural gems. But these things, evidently like other buildings Hassan owns in the area, have been allowed to fall into disrepair. In July 2018, a piece of one of these Boylston Street buildings fell to the sidewalk, narrowly missing pedestrians.
What a shame. I fear that by the time these buildings are sold to someone who gives a crap about preservation, it will be too late.
Alright, let's get back to our regularly scheduled programming. How about a door and its church?
Cool entryway, eh? This is the First Baptist Church of Boston on the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Clarendon Street. The congregation formed in 1663 in Charlestown. This building dates to, well, I'm not sure, and I don't know what congregation was in this house of worship prior to the the Baptists moving here in 1882.
Here are three more shots of the church:
The tower is currently under renovation, as a frieze by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi has suffered over the decades, per the church's web site.
One of my favorite buildings in Back Bay is 220 Clarendon Street.
Currently home to an L.A. Burdick Chocolates shop, this quaint little building dates to 1883 and was formerly home to Simon's Men's Clothing, among other shops. MACRIS lists its prior use as apartment house.
On Newbury Street, most folks look at the building below and think, "Oh, lovey, I need some stretch relaxed fit chinos from Ralph Lauren." But I think, "A pig who murdered his wife and unborn baby used to work in this building."
Two-thirds of the way up the building, you can see "KAKAS" carved into the facade. Ninety-five Newbury Street was for decades (I assume) the home of Edward F. Kakas & Sons, a company founded in 1858. In 1989, Charles Stuart was general manager at the furrier when his wife, Carol, was murdered on a Roxbury street. Stuart claimed an African-American man had shot her in the head, and him in the stomach. Stuart's story unraveled once his brother confessed that he and Stuart had conspired to murder Carol for insurance money and because Stuart was allegedly unhappy about impending parenthood. Charles Stuart jumped to his death off the Tobin Bridge not long after this information came to light. You can read more about this sordid tale here.
A little further down Newbury Street, at the end close to the Public Garden, is the hotel formerly known as the Ritz and the Taj.
This isn't a great picture, I know. Anyway, here's some history: from its opening in 1927 until 2007, this high-end hotel was the Ritz-Carlton. From that point until last fall, it was the Taj. Now refreshed and renovated after a sale, it is known as The Newbury.
The building in the photo below is a pretty cool, in my opinion.
This is the rectory for the well-known Trinity Church in nearby Copley Square. Located at the corner of Clarendon and Newbury streets, this property dates to 1880 and was built by the very famous architect Henry Hobson Richardson. It no longer serves as a rectory, but rather as office space.
I've got one more door for you.
This is the entrance to the Tennis & Racquet Club on Boylston Street, across from the Hynes Convention Center. "The Tennis and Racquet Club was founded in 1902 and remains the oldest athletic and social club in the city of Boston," per the club's web site. "The club is known for its century-old tradition of court tennis (the regal, slate-walled ancestors of all racquet sports), the unique and exciting game of racquets, and its top-rated squash program." I swear, I don't know what any of that means.
I'm zigzagging here. Back down Boylston Street near the Public Garden I found this ghost sign of sorts.
The Rattlesnake Bar opened in 1990, offering patrons, I don't know, food and drink, I guess. And a rooftop bar. No snakes, though. I went there once. I think. I had food and beer. But not on the rooftop. And there were no rattlesnakes. Anyway, the place was kind of an institution for young alcoholics, but it closed in 2016. The Globe Bar & Cafe moved from another spot on Boylston Street, where it had been for 10 years, into the space in 2018 and closed last year. Seriously, people, there's a message here about this space. Probably haunted.
I want to wrap up this completely random survey of Copley Square and part of Back Bay with what I consider a less than stellar photo of a completely unique and supercool sign. I'm guessing you haven't seen something like this; I know I haven't.
Yes, the photo isn't great, but the sun, while warm and pleasant, was a pain in my ass that day. Anyway, what this sign at 647 Boylston Street, across from the Boston Public Library, says is:
I guess we can call this a ghost sign, as it advertises a business that's long gone. But this advertisement is also art, and if left alone, it could last as long as the Great Wall of China or the Egyptian pyramids or Betty White.
From the Historic New England web site, in an article entitled, "Discoveries at the Eustis Estate: What we found in the attic":
"Lucas Haberstroh (1822-1883), who came to Boston by way of Germany and England, founded the firm L. Haberstroh & Son in 1848. His son Albert (1855-1912) joined him in 1877. The firm operated on School Street in Boston until Lucas’s death in 1883; Albert then moved the business to 9 Park Street, where it remained for more than twenty years. In 1905 Albert bought a building at 647 Boylston Street, where the firm operated until his death in 1912. To this day the façade bears the firm’s name and decorative ornamentation."
So this sign, which has been etched into metal (I think that's the material) has notified those coming to and going from 647 Boylston Street about the artisanal skills of the Haberstroh family through the sinking of the Titanic, two world wars, the Great Depression, Prohibition, the Vietnam War, the birth (and death) of Kurt Cobain, Watergate, the launch of MTV, the release of "Showgirls," the birth of my two children, the entire 86-year gap between Red Sox World Series victories, the rise and fall of Harvey Weinstein, the debut of Twitter, the Grammy domination of Billie Eilish, the first foreign film to win a Best Picture Oscar and oh so much more.
Damn, that's cool.
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