Ghosts and Shadows of Automobile Row, with Ken Liss (episode 180)

In the early 20th century, car dealerships, tire companies, parts distributors, and other related businesses lined a section of Commonwealth Avenue in Allston that was known as Automobile Row, a sort of urban forefather of the suburban Auto Mile today.  Local historian Ken Liss joins the show to tell us what made these early dealerships special, who some of the personalities behind Automobile Row were, and where you can see traces of this history today.




Please check out the transcript and full show notes at: http://HUBhistory.com/180/



And support the show (Patreon: HUBhistory)  on Patreon.


Ghosts and Shadows of Automobile Row



Ken Liss is the president of the Brookline Historical Society (http://www.brooklinehistoricalsociety...)  who writes and speaks frequently on local history.  Head of instruction for the Boston University libraries.  He also writes about the history of Brookline and the surrounding area on his blog (https://brooklinehistory.blogspot.com/) .  After you listen to Ken tell us about Automobile Row, you can get an alternate version of this story via WBUR City Space:




 
    (https://i2.wp.com/www.hubhistory.com/...)
 

   
   Alvin Fuller’s Packard dealership in 1967 via Historic New England (https://www.historicnewengland.org/ex...)
   
 
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   Another view of the Packard dealership in 1940 or 1941. via Historic New England (https://www.historicnewengland.org/ex...)
   
 
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   Harry Noyes had a Buick dealership near the via Digital Commonwealth”
    (https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/s...)
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    (https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/s...)  (https://i1.wp.com/www.hubhistory.com/...)
 

   
   A ground level view of the Buick showroom. via Historic New England (https://www.historicnewengland.org/ex...)
   
 
    (https://i2.wp.com/www.hubhistory.com/...)
 

   
   Noyes’ Buick, right next to the BU Bridge. via Historic New England (https://www.historicnewengland.org/ex...)
   
 
    (https://i2.wp.com/www.hubhistory.com/...)
 

   
   Peerless Motors, via Historic New England
   
 
    (https://i0.wp.com/www.hubhistory.com/...)
 

   
   Packard’s Corner via Historic New England (https://www.historicnewengland.org/ex...)
   
 
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   The Auto Mile was more than just car dealerships. via Historic New England (https://www.historicnewengland.org/ex...)
   
 
    (https://i1.wp.com/www.hubhistory.com/...)
 

   
   Multi-modal transportation in 1943. via the Boston City Archives (https://cityofboston.access.preservic...)
   
 


Boston Book Club



Originally published in 1995, The Forgotten Aquariums of Boston, by Jerry Ryan (http://www.neaq.org/wp-content/upload...)  is a history of the Aquariums in Boston that preceded today’s magnificent New England Aquarium, mostly focusing on the several incarnations of the Boston Aquarial Gardens, which originally opened in April 1859.



The preface to the third edition notes that just 85 years after Paul Revere’s famous ride,



an entirely different kind of ride was taking place in the heart of Boston’s Downtown Crossing. This ride was performed by a woman seated in a nautilus-shaped boat being pulled by a beluga whale through the largest tank in the first aquarium in the United States. If you think that’s incredible, then keep reading. You’re about to unravel a complicated story featuring a brilliant inventor (named Cutting) and an infamous show biz entrepreneur (named Barnum), who managed to circulate 600,000 gallons of seawater from Boston Harbor to Boston Common without electricity. The story begins with banjo-playing, gun-toting harbor seals, proceeds through a den of serpents, and, without giving too much away, features a tragic one-way trip to an asylum.



And the story doesn’t stop there.  The book recounts how PT Barnum gradually transformed Boston’s original Aquarial Gardens into more of a zoo, before seizing control and turning into ...