Kenmore Square
The Kenmore Square is a public space in the Boston area Fenway-Kenmore in the state of Massachusetts of the United States . Several major roads converge on it, including Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue, as well as other major thoroughfares. The Kenmore underground station of the MBTA is located on the square and thus connects it to the public transport network . The Kenmore Square is located in the immediate vicinity of Boston University , the Fenway Park and Lansdowne Street , a center of Boston's nightlife . Finally, the longest street in the United States ends at the square with US Highway 20 .
history
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The land on which Kenmore Square is today was originally a swampy , uninhabited corner of the mainland that marked the confluence of the narrow Charles River with the wide, marshy Back Bay . The area was part of the colonial settlement of Boston until 1705 when the small village of Muddy River declared itself independent as the Brookline . The piece of land belonged to Brookline from then on, as the Muddy River marked the eastern boundary of the new city (see Figure 2).
The portion of Beacon Street to the west of the square was planned in 1850 and has connections to Avenue Street (now the portion of Commonwealth Avenue that runs through Allston ), Mill Dam Road (now Brookline Avenue ) and Western Avenue , which runs through Near what is now Beacon Street. The Boston and Worcester Rail Road and the Charles River Branch Railroad united here to cross the Back Bay on a separate railroad bridge that led directly to the Leather District . The railroad tracks exist to this day and still largely follow their original course. Minor adjustments were necessary in the course of building the Massachusetts Turnpike and Boston South Station to accommodate today's Green Line .
In 1874 the city of Brighton merged with Boston. In the course of this, the borderline between Boston and Brookline was redrawn to connect the new Back Bay district with Allston-Brighton .
In 1880, Kenmore Square was sparsely developed (see Figure 3). By 1890, the landfill measures had reached the area, connecting the square with parts of the city on the eastern side for the first time.
In 1888, the first streetcar tracks were laid on Beacon Street , running above ground from Coolidge Corner to Massachusetts Avenue across the plaza. Today they are used by the Green Line C of the MBTA . Other tracks were on Commonwealth Avenue to Union Square in Allston moved that later from the Green Line A and Green Line B were busy. In 1914 the Boylston Street Subway was extended to Kenmore Square , where it was brought to the surface. In 1932 the Green Line was moved underground in the area of the square and stops were opened at Blandford and St. Mary's Street .
The Kenmore Apartments , built in 1915 on the corner of Kenmore and Commonwealth Avenue , were later converted into the Hotel Kenmore with 400 guest rooms. The owner Bertram Druker made it a well-known baseball hotel , which housed all 14 teams after the war. From the 1960s until 1979, it was used for various purposes by Grahm Junior College . After the college closed, apartments were restored to what is now known as Kenmore Abbey .
The CITGO sign
A large, double-sided sign with the logo of the CITGO - petroleum company (a subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela SA ) towers above the Kenmore Square and is among other things by its visibility in television broadcasts of games of the Boston Red Sox to the landmark became the square. The current sign with an area of 18 m² was presented to the public in March 2005 after being restored for over 6 months. In the course of the renovation work, thousands of LEDs were installed that illuminate the sign every day until 1 a.m. In 2010 the light-emitting diodes were replaced with new ones, which should be more resistant to winds and temperature fluctuations. Earlier versions of the sign were illuminated by neon tubes - most recently 5,878 of these were installed with a total length of over 5 mi (8.05 km ). CITGO itself describes the logo as "trimark".
The first sign, in the same spot since 1940, featured the logo of Cities Service , which operated a local branch on the ground floor of the building on which the sign is mounted, and was replaced by the trimark in 1965. In 1979, Governor Edward J. King ordered the shield to be switched off to symbolize energy conservation . Four years later, CITGO wanted to dismantle and scrap the badly battered sign, but was completely surprised by public protests against the dismantling. The Boston Landmarks Commission therefore ordered the scrapping to be postponed to allow a discussion of how to proceed. Although the sign was never officially declared a landmark, it was completely refurbished and re-lit for the first time in 1983. It has been in continuous use since then.
The sign was featured in the short film “Go, Go Citgo” in 1968 and again in a photo series in Life Magazine in 1983 . The connection between Fenway and Boston Red Sox is so strong that the baseball fields of Little League - eg that. Hadlock Field in Portland , Maine - are often decorated with the CITGO icon. The sign was also caricatured by Neal Stephenson in 1984 in his book The Big U as "the Big Wheel sign" , which is revered by members of a fictional brotherhood.
In September 2006, Boston City Councilor Jerry McDermott announced that the sign would be dismantled in response to continued insults by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez against United States President George W. Bush . Alternatively recommended McDermott , the flag of the United States or the logo of the Boston Red Sox to hang over the plate until Chávez is no longer in office.
On 15 October 2008 a small fire caused inside the shield material damage amounting to about 5,000 US dollars and led to a partial melting of the plastic and visible smoke trails.
In the media
Gary Cherone reminisces about the music scene that dominated Kenmore Square in the 1980s on CD 1 (song 6) of the album Take Us Alive by the band Extreme .
The song "Blood" by the folk punk band Dropkick Murphys begins with the line "Trouble underground in Kenmore Square".
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Megan Tench: Kenmore Sq. sign gets high-tech makeover. In: Boston Globe . March 16, 2005, accessed April 27, 2012 .
- ↑ Sign Facts. (No longer available online.) CITGO Petroleum Corporation, archived from the original on January 16, 2017 ; accessed on April 27, 2012 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Boston Official Wants Citgo Sign Removed. In: The Washington Post . September 22, 2006, accessed April 7, 2013 .
- ↑ John Tlumacki: Omen? Citgo sign burns in small fire. In: Boston Globe . October 15, 2008, accessed April 27, 2012 .
Web links
- bostonsquares.com - Boston Squares Guide Overview of restaurants, bars and shops in Kenmore Square
Coordinates: 42 ° 20 '55.4 " N , 71 ° 5' 44.2" W.
