Tuesday, December 12, 2023

1917: A Water Main Break (and a Flood of Details)

Since May of this year, I've been contributing a regular feature to Brookline News called Then....and Now. It compares old photos of different parts of Brookline with current photos, noting changes over time and offering a little bit of the history of the particular spot.

The latest of these -- you can check it out here -- features photos from a stretch of Boylston Street in 1917 and 2023. The change from then to now is dramatic. 



But a broader version of the 1917 image, from one of a group of photos documenting a water main break between Cameron Street and Cypress Street, has so many fascinating details that I thought I'd do a deeper dive into the scene.


Here is the broader photo, with different parts of it highlighted. 


It may be cliche to say that every picture tells a story, but there are so many little stories in this one photo that I couldn't resist.


Perhaps my favorite detail in this photo -- I've marked it #1 among the highlighted parts of the picture -- is an image of a man and woman watching the scene from a second floor window on Boylston Street. I even think I know who they are.


This and other details spilling out of this one photo call for a bigger format than my usual blog posts, so I've put them in a separate site. 


Check it at https://bit.ly/1917watermain or click on the headlines below for the whole tale.





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