multimedia monday: "automobile row"

Hanna and I live in the Allston neighborhood of Boston, just west of Boston University's main campus. Commonwealth Avenue stretches from Kenmore Square (near Fenway Park) to Boston College out in Newton. We live in an apartment building sandwiched between Comm Ave to the north and the town line of Brookline to the south, and the neighborhood in this little documentary is one through which we walk and ride the "T" on a regular basis:

The Kenmore Square building that now houses Barnes & Noble at BU was home to a dealer of Peerless automobiles. The Star Market by Packard’s Corner was once a Chevrolet dealership. And in between lay more than a mile of storefronts selling cars, parts, and accessories or repairing cars. In the 1920s there were more than 100 such businesses on and near that strip of Comm Ave. Downtown Boston had its “Piano Row” and its “Newspaper Row.” This was Boston’s “Automobile Row.”

 

The article which accompanies this video is quite interesting in its own right. I'm really impressed by the research that went into making the video -- obviously a few people spent some time in the BU college archives! -- and the way in which the historical images were edited into the present-day footage.