Quiz...

[The EGE]

Northampton and Washington, let's say 1901 when the El was being built.

[ferroequinarchaeologist]

Beyond the intersection, on the right hand side, is what may be an automobile, with license plate. The intersection is flooded. There is construction going on at three of the four corners. I would put it at 1910 - 1915, installing fire hydrants.

PBM

[Leo Sullivan]

Not Northampton but Ferro has the timespan right.
LS

[The EGE]

I'm not sure where else it could be. The only sections of double trolley track that crossed the El (to my knowledge) at a nearly straight intersection were at Dover and Northampton. If this was Dover there'd be Dover station in the frame, but Northampton station was at Mass Ave, a block north.

[Leo Sullivan]

The crossing of Northampton was not plate girder.
There are other places where double track crossed under the El
some at right or close to right angles. I just looked it up.
One of them really surprised me. That's another good question.
LS

[The EGE]

Seems there was briefly a line running down Lenox as well, so that's my second shot.

[3rdrail]

I think that I know where it is...but I don't want to get Leo mad at me. (Those Roxbury guys have a tough reputation.) So, I'll offer a tip. Maybe it's good, maybe it's not. Two things to notice here- Look at the distance from the street to the El and notice the level (or lack thereof) of the El.

[Leo Sullivan]

Paul, if you were thinking of the place in this picture, good idea but not it.
LS

[3rdrail]

Nope, I have another, albeit close location in mind. In case I'm off, I don't want to mislead, so I'll just come out with it. I think we're at Broadway/Wash. The El looks new and not fully floored yet, so I'm going to guess that we're looking at 1908 before the Essex Portal was put into use. The construction may be the tie-in between high voltage underground wiring for Surface Cars and the El.

[joshg1]

Summer- fall, 1912. We are indeed looking NW along Dover St at Washington. The workmen at right are rebuilding Dover station from a center platform to side platforms. I have no idea what is going on in the street- perhaps a red herring having to do with drains. The key is the Boston Cadet (cigar factory) sign on the NW corner. I spent an hour chasing down Chinese restaurants of 1916 (sign above the elevated, left) and the route from the first elevated portal from Tremont St. I just realized the sign at left was for the Hub theatre and not Chinese script.

The internet is wonderful source of sources, such as city directories, if you look.

[Leo Sullivan]

That is correct in all particulars.
Specifically Sept. 9 1912.
The work on the street corners is footing work for the platforms and stairs which are structurally
semi-independent of the Structure itself.
One thing I noticed and might follow up is the fact that in the picture, the Dover St. surface through
track alignment is not straight. I thought it was and now wonder if changes were made at some point.
By way of explanation, I'm including here a picture of the temporary station north of the
regular location.
LS

[The EGE]

Some days you're right, and some days you're wrong. Today was a good day to be wrong - that's a neat piece of history I just learned.

Where are the images from?

[BigUglyCat]

From that last photo, I love the Smith Brolthers sign:

UP TOWN EXPERIENCE (i think -- can anybody see it more clearly?)

[joshg1]

I thought the track closest to the camera was further from the curb, but I dismissed this as lens distortion. I also considered that the el might bend outside of the image.

Smith Bros. Furniture 1211 Wash. It says "Up Town Expense", which seems odd. Maybe they meant Downtown Quality at Uptown Prices?

Before resorting to Google, I try these two sites-

https://sites.google.com/site/onlinedir ... ma/suffolk, with links for a more cities.

http://www.wardmaps.com

Giving away the secrets.

[3rdrail]

Leo- Dover/Wash is a sharp ninety degree intersection with a full grand union and without a jig as pictured within the parameters of the intersection itself as pictured after @ 1850 roughly. When they pushed the Fort Point Channel back around this time from Harrison Ave. to Albany St., they straighted out the slight bow that was there previously. This photo would have to be after the land fill. Are you sure that this isn't Wash/Broadway or Wash/Kneeland ? Even without the station, I don't get the feel of Dover/Wash.I would expect to see the Roosevelt Hotel in it's then glory but cannot find it here. If anyone has a good sharpening device, there's a street sign pole over on the far right there (next to the guy with the nap sack) which is displaying two streets. The bottom one is Washington.