Recently I was in downtown Boston visiting a friend, and walked to nearby Copley Square. I remembered a collection of historic images I’d seen from the Boston Public Library, looked them up on my iPhone, and tried rephotographing some of the same locations. This image turned out the best, so I made an animation showing the massive buildup of Boston around Trinity Church over the course of 127 years. The caption for the older image is “Laying granite blocks for foundation, construction of the McKim Building (Boston Public Library), in August of 1888.” The more recent image I shot on September 5, 2015, while standing in front of the Old South Church, approximately here.
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Read moreAn animated comparison of Boston’s Copley Square as seen in 1888, and again 127 years later, in 2015. The central building in both images is Trinity Church, which was completed in 1877. The dark-colored building at right in the 1888 image was the original Museum of Fine Arts building, opened in 1876. In the 2015 image, the skyscraper that reaches offscreen at upper right is the John Hancock Tower, the tallest building in New England, built in 1976. #
(1888) Courtesy trustees of the Boston Public Library / (2015) Alan Taylor -
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