Sunday, June 14, 2009

The Time Machine

Awhile back, I did some sleuthing online to figure out when our apartment building was built. I came across a lot of old maps of this area from the late 1800s and early 1900s. And found out this building was built around mid 1920.

Check out the old maps...

1880...not much of anything


1899...vacant land


1916...we have some neighbors



Current map


The original city planners wanted Commonwealth avenue to be a "grand boulevard" that rivaled those in Europe. After building the road, and supplying it with the commuter train, mostly apartment buildings were built, which ruined their plan. They had wanted mansions to line the street. Today, for most of Commonwealth are all apartment buildings dating back to the 1920's.

2 comments:

Rachel said...

These are really cool...note that all of our pictures, including the maps are expandable. You just have to click on them.

kitkatknit said...

This is hilarious!! My son Graham and his girlfriend Rachel just moved to East Cambridge so we did the "when was the building built" with their apartment address. Theirs dates back to 1877! Your place looks bigger than theirs but I'm passing on your blog so they can see how you've fit things.