Copley Square and Stuff

Continuing on my walk and very ambitious itinerary, I found myself on Huntington Avenue by mistake which is behind the Pru, and I couldn't figure out how to actually get to the Pru itself because I wanted to go to the observation deck.  A lot of new buildings have gone up in the past 30 years so I couldn't cut through to get back to Boylston Street without back tracking by several blocks.

When I finally found the road through to Boylston Street, I found I overshot the skyscraper and I just didn't feel like heading over there as time was rapidly growing shorter, so I continued on my way.

Finish line of the Boston Marathon which was of course the site of that awful bombing in 2013.

Old South Church, another fave of mine with great architecture.  This is on Boylston Street.

Old and new John Hancock Buildings. The 'new' one opened in 1976 and for awhile some of the windows would pop out and crash to Copley Square below.

I worked in the old one at Boston's Hot Hits WZOU, The Zoo, answering the request line, my senior year in college.  It's hard to see, but that spire is a weather beacon with it's own little rhyme:  "Steady blue, clear view. Flashing blue, clouds due. Steady red, rain ahead.  Flashing red, snow instead." Although in the summer flashing red means the Red Sox game was canceled due to bad weather.

Boston Public Library.  I never really appreciated this place in the 80s, as it was a place I had to go to do research for classes and papers, and it was always filled with homeless people (esp. in winter) who could be somewhat aggressive. My roommate told me she was in there sitting at a table doing work and a homeless guy sat down right next to her and started eating coffee grounds.  She had to cut her visit short. Plus you had to dodge pee puddles on the carpets and the place smelled really bad.  You literally ran in and out to get what you needed or hit the microfiche room.  I don't know if that's changed at all in 30 years but I hope it has.

Old South Church again.  I could shoot this for hours too.

Trinity Church in Copley Square.

The tortoise and the hare in Copley Square.

Sort of looks like Gringotts, but I think it's supposed to be the State House.

Arlington Street Church.

By this point my feet were literally screaming for me to end the torture...but I still had a lot of things to see, and less than an hour to get my bus.  

Back Bay

I had to get a shot of this old church that's being torn up and remodeled into...you guessed it...condos. This used to be the Church of Scientology and this creepy guy with a vacant look in his eyes used to stand out front and ask passing students if they wanted to take the free personality test.  Since this was on the way to Emerson's dining hall (if you missed the shuttle bus it was just faster to walk than wait for the bus to circle around again), we were asked to take the test frequently.  One time some friends and I caved in to curiosity and agreed to take the test.  We were literally waylaid inside that church, forced to watch an old black & white movie of L. Ron Hubbard, forced into listening to their schpiels, then the test which was unbelievably long and with questions worded so that a yes or no answer would be appropriate.  Then instead of analyzing all the tests at once with four counselors, they did it one at a time and took a half hour or more with each person.  Two of us bailed and never got our results...after the four of us were able to be together again, we demanded to be let out and they finally let us go.  It was after dark and by the time we got back to the dorm at the other end of campus, everyone was looking for us.

Crossroads was THE Emerson bar.  Of course the two biggest dorms were down this end of Beacon so that's why it attracted so many students.  But I lived nine blocks in the other direction so I didn't go here very often.

The MIT Frat houses are also located along this strip of Beacon between Mass Ave and Charlesgate East.  You did not want to be walking on the sidewalk on a weekend night....you never knew what was going to come out the windows....

This is the old Charlesgate Hotel, which has a long history of hauntings due to the deaths and suicides that took place both when it was a hotel and as Boston University and Emerson dorms.  I only went inside a couple of times and the rooms were really cool.  Many had gorgeous fireplaces (non working), some of the rooms were suites with 3 bedrooms and their own bathroom.  

It's humongous.  And of course.....now high priced condos.

Directly across the street is the old Fensgate dorm.  Our dining hall, which was known as SAGA, was on the first floor.  That was the extent of my visits to Fensgate as I didn't know anyone that lived here well enough to visit.  Guess what they are now?  

Had to grab some more pics of Charlesgate though.  Beautiful concrete work.

This is on the Marlborough Street side and it has some very unique architecture.  I have heard that this building was expanded upon and they just kept wrapping new layers, which is why the side looks like this.

This is just the coolest part of the building.

Continuing on my walk in the Back Bay and leaving the old Emerson campus, I crossed over Commonwealth Ave to get a shot of the famous Citgo sign in Kenmore Square.  You can see this at Fenway Park and it's all lit up at night, but the way the lights come on is really cool to see. I can watch it for hours...it's mesmerizing.

A shot of the Prudential Building, aka The Pru.

The Fens.

Statue on Comm Ave....no idea of what or who since the lettering appears to be in Greek or something.

This is on Mass Ave.

The Exit Ramp to I-90 West, known as the Mass Pike.  It ends 3,000 miles away in Seattle.

This is on Haviland Street near Berklee College of Music.

I was so bummed my old fave hippie store wasn't open!  I think it opens later in the afternoon but I was there right before noon.  This used to be one of the only places where I could find any Grateful Dead stickers, shirts and other cool hippie clothing.

Then I walked over to the Christian Science Church and campus.  I wanted to go to the Maparium, which used to be a self tour type of thing, but when I went into the building (not this church), the receptionist said that it's now a paid 20 minute tour and the next one was in 3 minutes.  Unfortunately I was starting to run out of time because I wanted to be on the 1:15 bus and it was now about 12, and I still had a ton of places to see plus walk all the way back across town to the bus station, so I had to bail on the tour. 

Not sure what this is but it's a cool old building.

A new high rise near The Pru.

Reflection pool at the Christian Science campus.

The Old Emerson College Campus

After I was sufficiently out of breath from hiking up and down Beacon Hill looking for those little courtyards, I walked down to Charles Street which has most of the shopping for Beacon Hill residents.  I always loved browsing the shops when I was in college even though I couldn't afford to buy anything.  Most of the stores I remember are gone now of course. 

The Paramount restaurant has been in this location since the 30s and we always ate here.  The prices were reasonable and the food was amazing, and judging by how packed it was at 10:30 AM on a Wednesday, nothing has changed.  This is the restaurant that gave birth to John Belushi's famous routine, 'Cheeburger! No Coke! Pepsi!'  The owners/cooks really did talk like that.

Rounding the corner from Charles Street to Beacon Street, I of course had to take pics of Cheers,which is really the Bull & Finch, and apart from it being below street level like the TV show, that's pretty much where the similarities end.  I've been in Cheers a couple of times and it looks nothing like the bar on the show.  It's way smaller.

Cute gardens.

Liked the running shoes but I'm not sure if those are real or fake flowers.

This is the old Emerson College student union.  I really didn't spend much time there at all, but they did have a fairly decent cafe' which served sandwiches.  So if you lived at this end of campus and didn't have time to get down to the dining hall at the other end (9 fairly long blocks away), you could grab a sandwich here.

This was my junior year dorm, at 100 Beacon, in 1984/85.  The first 5 floors were administration, then 6-9 were the residence floors, and 10 was administration.  Now they are all very high priced condos.

My room was on the 6th floor, middle two windows.

The black iron fence wasn't there in the 80s when Emerson owned these properties and this was known as 'The Wall' where everyone hung out & sat between classes. 

130 Beacon Street where most of the classrooms were located, as well as AM radio station WECB, FM station WERS and the TV studios were housed in the basement.  Spent a lot of time in this building!  I had a radio shift at WECB and I was a TV major.

Another shot of 130 Beacon.

This was my senior year dorm, 132/34 Beacon.  My room was on the top floor but in the back, facing the Charles River.  The tiny elevator (that always broke down) stopped on the 4th floor and I had to walk up one flight to the 5th. Half the time it was faster to just walk the whole way.  132 was the right side, the part that sticks out, and was very narrow.  134 is the flat part to the left. 

But now they are also condos and just known as 134.  Spent a lot of time sitting on those steps with my friends.

Here I am with my friends Ellen, Rochelle, [me] and Eileen, fall of 1985 on those steps.  

Kept on walking past campus, into Back Bay.  Had to get this shot of the Hancock Building from Dartmouth Street.

Then decided to continue heading west but on Marlborough Street because it's soooo beautiful with the trees and flowers and stuff.  Back Bay is wicked nice.  

So much interesting architecture.

Back on Beacon Street...so many pretty flowers!