Boston, MA - Chinatown

FOUND, THANKS TO GOOGLE MAPS "STREET VIEW."

When I looked at Hine's photo of this street scene, I really had no idea where it was in Boston. I saw that ornamentally arched building on the right hand side and my first thought was that it was the Opera House on Washington Street, near Downtown Crossing, but at further glance, that was wrong!(Although this scene IS on Washington Street... just further down, and on the other side of the street. Well, I was kind of close!)

I went to Google and perused the "Street View" function which lets you basically scroll through given streets and see what you'd see if you were actually driving walking down them ... and I couldn't believe where this actually was. It's at the far end of Washington Street, just at the end of Chinatown (close to New England Medical Center) and the closest cross street is Stuart Street. (A favorite restaurant my niece and I like to visit when we're in Chinatown (Pho Hoa) is on Beach Street, just on the other side of these buildings, actually. We highly recommend their chicken noodle soup and pad thai, by the way!)

As you'll see in today's photo, the ornamental arch has had another level added to it since Hine snapped his photo. And, the dark brick building to its right is occupied by a McDonald's on its ground level today. (This photo by Hine was captioned "Little Girl Woodpickers Making Up a Load.")Photo taken October 1909

Photo taken March 4, 2008

*****
Lewis W. Hine photograph credit:
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, National Child Labor Committee Collection, LC-DIG-nclc-04558