If you think Kenmore Square is impossible
nowadays, here's a taste of what it was like when
the subway station was a surface station. Until
October 1932 the Green Line emerged just east of
Raleigh Street, adding streetcars to the growing
automobile congestion of the square. This
late-1920s view shows a three-car train of
center-entrance trolleys heading toward
Commonwealth Avenue and what would soon be BU's new
campus. At the top of the photograph is 660 Beacon
Street, the Peerless Automobile Showroom and the
original anchor of Automobile Row, now the home of
Barnes & Noble at Boston University. Today the
auto legacy of Commonwealth Avenue is commemorated
with the restored Citgo sign atop 660 Beacon. Older
readers will remember it as the Cities Service
sign, and before that, as the Socony sign.
|