Charlestown and “Market Square were laid out in 1629. The heart of the town, on this site, disappeared on June 17, 1775, as British cannon fired on the rebels at Breed’s Hill. It was felled again sixty years later by a fire that wiped out the square and the waterfront. City Square was transformed in 1868 with the construction of the massive Waverly Hotel, now gone and the a new City Hall (now the District Court).
Charlestown voted to join Boston and became part of Boston’s world. Several decades later, the famed elevated rail line, known as the El, was built and cut diagonally across the Square and right down Main Street in 1901. Noise, shadows, and the obstruction of the El supports detracted from City Square’s appeal.
With the opening of the Tobin Bridge in 1950, the area really fell on hard times. Bridge traffic emptied into City Square. Then, new overhead ramps were built on the Chelsea Street side of the Square and guaranteed that traffic no longer emptied into the Square but by-passed Charlestown altogether. Businesses failed and buildings emptied and were demolished or boarded up as the Square took on the appearance of a wasteland. Those days are gone now and City Square, revitalized by the “Big Dig,” soldiers on as an attractive one-acre park with lawns, plantings and sculptures.
The Charlestown Municipal Building dates to 1868; today it serves as a district court for the city of Boston.
No comments:
Post a Comment