| Kenmore Square |
Article Index for Kenmore |
Limousines in Kenmore |
Website Links For Kenmore |
Information AboutKenmore Square |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT KENMORE SQUARE | |
| squares in boston | |
| u.s. route 20 | |
|
Kenmore Square is a Square in Boston , Massachusetts , United States , consisting of the intersection of several main avenues, (including Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue ) as well as several other cross streets, and Kenmore Station , an MBTA subway stop. Kenmore Square abuts Boston University , and is synonymous with Lansdowne Street, one of Boston's nightlife centers; it is also near Fenway Park . HISTORY The land that is now Kenmore Square was originally the swampy, uninhabited corner of the mainland, which marked where the narrow or 1844 Brookline map The portion of Beacon Street west of Kenmore Square was laid out in 1850, intersecting with Avenue Street (now the Allston portion of Commonwealth Avenue), Mill Dam Road (now Brookline Avenue), and Western Avenue, a road traversing the Back Bay mill dam in approximately the modern location of Beacon Street. The Boston And Worcester Rail Road and the Charles River Branch Rail Road combined here to cross the Back Bay on a separate railroad bridge, making a beeline for the Leather District. The railroad lines still exist on more or less their original alignments, with the city developing around them. Minor adjustments have been made for the construction of South Station , what is now the MBTA Green Line , and the Massachusetts Turnpike . The city of Brighton was merged with Boston in 1874, and the Boston-Brookline line was redrawn to connect the new Back Bay neighborhood with Allston-Brighton. Even as late as 1880, Kenmore Square was only sparsely developed.http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/boston_ground_1880.jpg By 1890, the Back Bay landfill project had reached Kenmore Square, for the first time fully connecting it with parts of the city to the east. Streetcar tracks were laid on Beacon Street in 1888, passing through Kenmore Square on the surface, from Coolidge Corner to Massachuetts Avenue . These would eventually become the Green Line "C" Branch . Tracks were laid on what by then was called Commonwealth Avenue in 1896, from Union Square in Brighton. These would later serve the Green Line "A" Branch and Green Line "B" Branch . The Boylston Street Subway was extended to Kenmore Square in 1914, where it rose above ground. In 1932, the Kenmore Square portion was put underground, and branch portals opened at Blandford and St. Mary's Streets. THE CITGO SIGN A large, double-faced sign featuring this logo overlooks Kenmore Square, and has become a landmark, partly because of its appearance in the background of televised , which is a subsidiary of Petróleos De Venezuela S.A. , refers to its logo as the "trimark." .]] The first sign, featuring the Cities Service logo, was built in 1940 , and replaced with the trimark in 1965 . In 1979 Governor Edward J. King ordered it turned off as a symbol of Energy Conservation . Four years later, Citgo attempted to disassemble the weatherbeaten sign, and was surprised to be met with widespread public affection for the sign and protest at its threatened removal. The Boston Landmarks Commission ordered its disassembly postponed while the issue was debated. While never formally declared a landmark, it was refurbished and relit by Citgo in 1983 and has remained in operation ever since. In 2005, during a major renovation, the neon lights of the Citgo sign were removed and replaced with a Light-emitting Diode display.1 There is no associated Citgo gas station -- the sign is now a historical landmark, visible over the left field wall of Fenway Park during most televised Boston Red Sox games. It was highlighted in the 1968 Short Film ''Go, Go Citgo'' and a 1983 '' Life Magazine '' Photograph feature. The association with Fenway and the Red Sox is so strong that local Little League fields often are decorated with replicas of the Citgo sign, as is Hadlock Field in Portland, Maine . The sign is caricatured in Neal Stephenson 's 1984 book '' The Big U '' as "the Big Wheel sign", worshipped by members of a fictional American Megaversity fraternity. In September , 2006 , Jerry McDermott, a Boston City Councillor , proposed that the sign be removed in response to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez 's insults toward American President George W. Bush . McDermott also suggested draping an American Flag or Boston Red Sox banner over the sign until Chávez is out of office. 2 SEE ALSO
REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|