Kenmore Square
Kenmore Square | |
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Citgo sign |
Kenmore Square is a
History
In early Colonial times the land that is now Kenmore Square was an uninhabited corner of the mainland where the narrow
An 1821 map shows the area known as Sewell's Point, with Great Dam, Brighton Road (Brighton Ave and Commonwealth Ave), and Punch Bowl Road (now Brookline Ave)[2] intersecting at Sewell's Point[3] then connected to the mainland to the west, in addition to the southern connection shown in 1777.[4]
The portion of
The town of
Governor Square was renamed Kenmore Square on December 31, 1931. The new name was taken from the streetcar stop, itself named for the short Kenmore Street.[6][7] The park in the center of the square was replaced by a bus terminal in 1943.[8]
In 1915, the Kenmore Apartments were built on the corner of Kenmore and Commonwealth Avenue. Later, the apartments became the Hotel Kenmore with 400 guest rooms. The Kenmore was owned by Bertram Druker, a prominent Boston developer and was known as the baseball hotel.[citation needed] It housed every one of the 14 out of town teams in Major League Baseball teams in the years following World War II.[citation needed] From the 1960s to 1979 it was used by Grahm Junior College as a residence hall, cafeteria, library, and classroom facility. Later, after Grahm Junior College closed and larger hotels like the Sheraton were built, the Hotel Kenmore started to show its age and eventually became apartments again. It is now called Kenmore Abbey.
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Streetcars crossing Governors Square in 1930
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Kenmore Square in the 1930s, after the subway station opened
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Kenmore Square in the 1950s, after the bus terminal was built
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The modern bus terminal in 2016
References
- ^ See Image:Middlesex Canal (Massachusetts) map, 1852.jpg or 1844 Brookline map Archived August 11, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Boston Fire Historical Society". Bostonfirehistory.org. Archived from the original on December 18, 2015. Retrieved October 12, 2013.
- ^ "Photo". Bostonhistory.typepad.com. Retrieved October 12, 2013.
- ^ "Photo". Bostonhistory.typepad.com. March 16, 2007. Retrieved October 12, 2013.
- ^ "Boston in 1880 : Showing all ground occupied by buildings : Map". Lib.utexas.edu. Retrieved October 12, 2013.
- ^ "Governor Sq now officially known as Kenmore Sq". Boston Globe. January 1, 1932. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Ask the Globe". Boston Globe. March 14, 1990. p. 54 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Kenmore Busway Station Open Today". Boston Globe. November 4, 1943. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
Further reading
- Daniloff, Caleb (September 28, 2009). "Icons Among Us: The Citgo Sign". BU Today. Archived from the original on March 28, 2010 – via Wayback Machine.
- Logan, Tim; Nanos, Janelle (April 3, 2021). "For Kenmore Square, does the end of an era mean a promising future?". The Boston Globe. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
- Tarkulich, Bill (December 2020). "A History of Kenmore Square". grahmjuniorcollege.com.
External links
Media related to Kenmore Square at Wikimedia Commons