Scollay Square (MA) (Images of America) Review

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(More customer reviews)Being a Bostonian, and studying the History of Boston at Harvard, I am painfully familiar with all the reasons why Scollay Square was decimated in the name of "urban renewal" to make way for Government Center, one of the most awful public spaces in the country.
Boston itself is a superb city, with a rich and varied history. Being a seaport, it was always a haven for immigrants, and with them, came new ideas. One rather infamous place for congregating, which later became somewhat of a den of iniquity, was Scollay Square. The area was a hotbed of activity, where international seamen and merchants frequented rather bawdy taverns, took in vaudeville and burlesque shows, and other intriguing entertainment.
The idea behind the tearing down Scollay Square was that if you removed the places that attracted the "seedy element", the "seedy element" would vanish. What was never taken into account was who would congregate in this very public space afterwards - which was basically no one. Government Center proved to be one of the most alienating, ugliest, out of scale, non-public places ever created. Knocking down Scollay Square resulted in making everything vanish - good and bad.
However, in looking back, what is saddest about the destruction in my mind, is the architecture we can never have back. So much of historic downtown Boston was destroyed by fire, that to knock down perfectly good historic buildings is a crime.
This wonderful book chronicles all the unpublished secrets of Scollay Square. It is especially poignant for Bostonians.

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Scollay Square is a pictorial history of the infamous Boston entertainment district that was wiped away by urban renewal in the 1960s. Now Government Center, this twenty-two-acre area was once an entertainment hub where entrepreneurs, scientists, politicians, performers, and even con artists worked side by side. Inside are dozens of never-before-published photographs of the Old Howard and Ann Corio, the Crawford House and Sally Keith, Joe and Nemo, and the Casino Theater, along with the many characters and landmarks that made this area a favorite of high-school truants, businessmen, and sailors on leave.

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