Boston 1958, 1962 and 1974, taken by my father

[James Bond Agent 007]

A few weeks ago I gave a sneak preview of a bunch of photos my father took back in his younger days. I finally got around to doing some cleanup/editing work on them and downloading them into my Flickr account. Here they are.

All of these photos were originally slides that my father (with some help from me at one point) scanned several years ago. He recently visited and brought the hard drive that he scanned them onto, and when I saw all these I told him I just had to have copies of them and show to my online skyscraper friends.

Many of them have faded to red while others haven't. Not sure why - different kind of film? Anyway I'm sure there's a way to Photoshop out the red, and if anyone knows how to do that you are free to copy them and edit them - just be sure to share your work by posting them here if you do.

But first, here is a photo from 1958 of the man who took all these photos (taken by a friend, obviously). Age about 26. Just so you get an idea of the guy who took them. He looks nothing like that anymore.

[James Bond Agent 007]

We'll start with some of the photos from 1958. With captions.

I've put all the photos in album on Flickr here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/138263...h/35559230064/

Welcome to Boston, 1958!



Building on the right is 371 Harvard Street (in Cambridge I think?) in the snow.



Stuart Square



Filene's



Charles River and old Hancock Tower. This is foreshadowing of a pic of the new Hancock Tower under construction in my 1974 set.



Jordan Marsh



This is the corner of Boylston and Berkley



More ...

[James Bond Agent 007]

Boylston Ave from Copley Square



Stuart Street. My father has said that Boston back then was kind of a dump. I suppose like this photo.



Washington Street. I like this one.


This is in Cambridge, Mass Ave to Werdiner(?). Please note that for the titles I'm just copying my father's own captions, and his spelling isn't always great.



Boylston Street



More ...

[Martin Mtl]

Great stuff

[James Bond Agent 007]

This is the entrance to the subway station on Harvard Square



The Harvard co-op. My father had a job at the Harvard library at one point (he went to college at Emerson, however).



This one is apparently from 1959. It's Newbury Street and the offices of WBCN.



More ...

[James Bond Agent 007]

Originally Posted by Martin Mtl

Great stuff

I will later also have some old photos of Montreal, Quebec City and Pictou, NS that he also took in the 50's-60's. Not to mention some old NYC photos and a whole bunch of photos of Europe from 1957-58.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Having spent much of his teenager-hood and the first half of his 20's living in Boston, my father became a Red Sox fan. So these next ones are all Red Sox themed.

The Green Monster. Calso, not Citco.



That's Mickey Mantle at bat. Nice shot.



#25 (whoever that was) of the Yuckees crossing home plate after hitting a home run.



That's Mickey Mantle running toward 3rd



Frank Malzone at 3rd



Jackie Jensen receiving an award



This was the taping of a TV show with some Red Sox players on WHDH (I think that's where my father worked for a while, though he was on radio - he was actually a DJ for a bit). Notice the camera says "color television." Yes they had color TV in 1958, though I don't think it was very common yet.

Anyway, here is Ted Williams and Kurt Gowdy.





Jackie Jensen was the player I showed above receiving an award.





Close-up of Ted Williams



A bit out of the blue, but here's an unrelated shot of Mitch Miller talking to WHDH's Bob Clayon

[James Bond Agent 007]

I'll do the rest tomorrow. In the 1974 set you get to see me when I was 10 years old.

[The North One]

Your dad was pretty hot.

Was he living in Boston at the time?

[James Bond Agent 007]

Originally Posted by The North One

Your dad was pretty hot.

Sorry, he's not your type.

Was he living in Boston at the time?

Yes.

[Coldrsx]

Great stuff.

[photoLith]

The color is fixeable in Lightroom, wouldn't be 100 percent accurate but wouldn't be too hard to correct. I could do that.

[Murphy de la Sucre]

I burst into tears cuz those were good old times, the 70s 80s 90s.

Now everything is pos.

[OhioGuy]

Love seeing old city scenes like this, especially from a great city like Boston. Thanks for sharing these!

[Centropolis]

spectacular

[streetscaper]

these are amazing!!

[James Bond Agent 007]

Originally Posted by photoLith

The color is fixeable in Lightroom, wouldn't be 100 percent accurate but wouldn't be too hard to correct. I could do that.

If you want to do that it would be immensely appreciated!

[Sonog]

An awesome retrospective.

[James Bond Agent 007]

OK now we're on to 1961 and 1962. Not as many here as 1959. In 1960 my parents married so we've got a shot of her in this set.

Here is the start of Prudential Center under construction



Here is Scollay Square being torn down to make way for the Government Center.



And again ...



After they married they moved to an apartment in Brighton on Commonwealth Ave. These next 3 are the view from their apartment. Don't know the address, but maybe one of the Bostonians here could figure out where this is.





This is the 3rd. It would appear that somewhere between 1958 and 1961 Calso changed to Citco.



This is my mother shoveling some snow.



And here is their car (a Plymouth) buried in the snow. With streetcar in the background.

[the urban politician]

This is an incredible set! Can't wait to see it all.

Interesting how it always seems like it snowed more heavily back in the old days