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Just one of those rainy Mondays

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By adamg on Mon, 03/28/2016 - 8:22am
Woman walking on the street in the rain in old Boston

See it larger.

The info with this Leslie Jones photo doesn't say where or even exactly when it was taken, but it kind of feels like Boylston Street in the late 1930s or early 1940s, no?

From the BPL Leslie Jones collection. Posted under this Creative Commons license.

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Comments

By cybah on Mon, 03/28/2016 - 8:31am.

Corner of Clarendon and Boylston

As seen here today

By JohnAKeith on Mon, 03/28/2016 - 4:41pm.

Yeah. The same bus station, too, right? lol

The New England Life building is still there (concrete), of course. The brick building isn't, of course. Refresh our memory - Hotel Clarendon? Hotel ...?

By MC Slim JB on Mon, 03/28/2016 - 5:20pm.

when the New England Life building (now the Newbry) was built.

The brownstone hotel at 535 Boylston Street in those days was the Hotel Bristol, confirmed by this photo: http://lostnewengland.com/2015/09/hotel-bristol-boston/

By KristenC on Mon, 03/28/2016 - 10:35pm.

....but I think she's on Clarendon, near the current Burdick's location, looking across the street at the same building you showed (500 Boylston - The New England). I work in the building, so I spend a good deal of time nearby.

By JohnAKeith on Tue, 03/29/2016 - 5:08pm.

I liked your idea but further research points to it being Boylston Street across from NEL building.

Here's a 1944 image by Leslie Jones looking up Boylston toward the Old South Church. You can see a similar building to the right as above as well as what appears to be the same clock.

https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:8c97nb36n

The building on the left, the one housing Howard Johnson's, is gone now, replaced by 500 Boylston / 222 Berkeley.

By John-W on Mon, 03/28/2016 - 9:57am.

By Elmer on Mon, 03/28/2016 - 5:45pm.

          IMAGE(https://elmercatdotorg.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/rainlady.jpg)
( Perhaps she's worried about someone fighting overseas during World War II. )

By louielouie on Tue, 03/29/2016 - 7:27am.

http://stoptellingwomentosmile.tumblr.com/

By PeterGriffith5 on Tue, 03/29/2016 - 2:26pm.

Thanks for the Tumblr site, it was a hoot.

I ordered two tee-shirts and a tote bag.

By MC Slim JB on Mon, 03/28/2016 - 5:11pm.

about 1937. I'd never heard of Leslie Jones, but he was a longtime Herald-Traveler photographer from 1917--1956.

Edited to add: as I note above, it's actually no earlier than 1940, based on the presence of the New England Life building in the photo.

By Elmer on Mon, 03/28/2016 - 7:18pm.

New car production ceased during the war so that the factories could build tanks and airplanes instead of passenger cars. It wasn't until after WWII ended that new models of cars were produced again. So, the picture is no older than the cars, but the cars in the picture could have been several years old when it was taken.

A better clue to the date is the woman's hemline. It looks mid-1940's to me.

          IMAGE(https://elmercatdotorg.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/hemlines.jpg)

By MC Slim JB on Tue, 03/29/2016 - 7:06am.

I think she's wearing a raincoat or overcoat, which is typically be longer than the hemline of the skirt underneath it for practical reasons. Can't tell if that's a shadow or a skirt peeking out from under that coat.

Could her headgear be a clue? The closest thing I could find to that rain hat is in this ad from 1957: http://vintagedancer.com/wp-content/uploads/1957-rain-coats-dress-362x50... But I don't know how period-specific items like that are.

By Ishmael Jones on Mon, 03/28/2016 - 12:00pm.

Looks like a scene out of any film noir.

By capecoddah on Mon, 03/28/2016 - 11:42pm.

I am surprised that Google links to very little information about Boston parking meter history. January 1948 seems to be the date of the first meters installed and working. Thank you Mayor Curley.

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/30830710/

By Elmer on Tue, 03/29/2016 - 12:12am.

          According to the 1949 "Reports on the City of Boston Departments".

By commodore on Tue, 03/29/2016 - 11:18am.

and wondering if they were any shorter back then. as my mother was recalling a time when she was worried as she watched my dad and his best friend showing off by straddle hopping parking meters as they walked down the street. crazy kids! so i wondered if her long term memory was as bad as her short term memory and maybe it was fire hydrants, not parking meters.