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The most Boston intersection that ever Bostoned a Boston
By adamg on Thu, 08/17/2017 - 9:53am
Adam Pieniazek introduces us to the intersection of Boston Street and Boston Street in the Polish Triangle (waves to the intersection of Tremont and Tremont).
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Comments
I don't see it on a map but I
I don't see it on a map but I remember a trip years ago to Greenwich Village where I saw street signs for West 4th and West 4th which appeared to show West 4th intersecting itself. Confusing streets are fun.
Not itself, but W4 intersects
Not itself, but W4 intersects W12 and several other numbered streets.
https://goo.gl/maps/tNgFUdLJyvr
Must be
the nexus of the universe!
Put in a rotary!
Put in a rotary!
Weird Intersections
Park Drive and Boylston Street intersect ( or maybe just meet) twice.
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3453621,-71.0970499,17z
Twinned intersections
Not quite the same, but I've always liked how Boston has two separate intersections of Washington and Lagrange streets (one in Chinatown, one in West Roxbury).
My personal favorite
My personal favorite is the intersection of Harvard Ave, Harvard St and Harvard Ct near Coolidge Corner in Brookline. For good measure, Harvard Pl is the next street over:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Harvard+St+%26+Harvard+Ave,+Brookline,+MA+02446/@42.3365286,-71.1228338,17.5z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x89e379bd7db692b5:0xedbd19364e326165!8m2!3d42.3365553!4d-71.1212181
And Harvard St.
in Brookline becomes Harvard Ave. in Boston/Brighton.
I lived on the short Harvard Ave. in Brookline years ago and it was impossible to convince cab drivers that it even existed.
Me, too.
Me, too.
Check out Maspeth in Queens
Where 60th Street, 60th Avenue, 60th Road, 60th Place, 60th Lane, 60th Court, and 60th Drive can all be found within a two block radius: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.716217,-73.9039103,17.75z
Ah, yes...
Ah, yes...
The lovely land of triangular (and then some) street layout.
Not to be outdone
You can meet someone in Cambridge at the corner of Kirkland Street and Kirkland Road.
A block from this Boston St
A block from this Boston St and Boston St intersection is intersection of Dorchester Ave and Dorchester Street (along with Boston Street and Preble Street and Southhampton Street all at the same intersection for good measure)
Andrew Square
Where Dorchester Avenue and Dorchester Street Meet.
I think the city gave the roadway an address of Boston Street because 200 Expressway Off Ramp might not have been the most marketable address when the SExway was laid out.
The plans at the Suffolk Registry of Deeds calls the part that comes off of the Expressway by Sleepy's and the old Bickford's now hotel extension, as Southeast Expressway Frontage Road, though the Sleepy's has an address of 65 Boston Street.
Remember Boston Street is called Boston Street because in the old Town of Dorchester, it was the road to Boston as Dorchester Street in South Boston, was, wait for it, the road to Dorchester after 1804. What we know as Andrew Square was called Washington Village until it was changed to Andrew Square to honor Civil War era governor, Hingham / Beacon Hill resident, John Andrew.
Therefore this new planned development at Andrew (Never Andrews by the way, just as it is Fields Corner, not Field's Corner, since it was named for two brothers named Fields, not Field), is only hankering back to the pre-civil war era name of the intersection . We don't say Harvard's Square or Sullivan's Square, why do people say Andrews?
Boston Street ends by the way at Edward Everett Square, not Eddie Everett Square, like he was some neighborhood pol, that some hair do at Channel 25 once called it.
Washington, Washington, New Washington, and South
I dunno, the area around Forest Hills where Washington(s) and South(s) are is pretty messed up.
Yep!
You're on Washington Street, minding your own business, when all of a sudden it just changes into South Street, and if you want to stay on Washington, you have to turn right on New Washington Street and then left on Washington, which is what Hyde Park Avenue turns into, only it sort of already was Washington, at least based on the addresses for some of the stores on what you think are Hyde Park Avenue across from the T stop.
We also have the bits and pieces of South Street squirming all over JP and Roslindale (now you see, it, now you don't). Same with Canterbury Street in Roslindale.
Ah, Boston...
I used to know someone who lived at the intersection of Savin Hill Ave and Savin Hill Ave. Was hard to get pizza delivered, apparently, they used to think it was a joke.
Interesting
Interesting that the Boston st example has two physically separate streets named the same. I'm used to seeing a street name 'take a right' while the straight path changes name (a-la Tremont and Tremont downtown)
Map
Freeport St does the old hide
Freeport St does the old hide and seek with Morrissey Blvd.
Adams St in Dorchester does
Adams St in Dorchester does too! I always felt bad for people who didn't know the quirkiness of our roads trying to navigate before GPS.
For my part I've always liked
For my part I've always liked the corner of Batterymarch St. in the financial district. It's a T-intersection between Milk, Broad, Franklin, and Oliver that's the same street in all directions.
As always with odd features of the Boston street 'grid' there are perfectly good reasons for why this happened. The City Street Laying Out Department had an excellent book that can be found online that discusses the streets and their history.
That's really weird. Both
That's really weird. Both streets are just named Boston Street for a small section. Seems pretty pointless that they both had to be Boston St. Couldn't they have named one of them literally anything else?
I don't entirely trust Google
I don't entirely trust Google Maps on street names, as they get snippets of unofficial information and put it in.
Somebody in my condo complex - which has our addresses by the property's number on the street (and then by unit number) - had the bright idea of ordering an imitation street sign with the name of the Association, putting it at the bottom of the driveway and calling the driveway a Court. And was trying to use the unit number as the address.
Mild annoyance that Google somehow picked up on that (probably got the fake sign in a Street View) and put the fake name on their map.
Big problem and argument when I pointed out that you can't just make !%#$^ up like that, that the USPS might not deliver to a fake address, and that if they were calling 911 they would want to use the real address....
This.
This.
Google labeling a street doesn't mean anything. This street likely doesn't have an official name, but it functions as both an extension of the expressway frontage road, and a driveway for a couple buildings with Boston St addresses.
What likely happened is the parcels now occupied by the two hotels originally fronted Boston St, and then when the expressway was built, they built the road in question to connect to Boston St, essentially cutting those parcels in half.
"Southbound Frontage Road"
"Southbound Frontage Road" would be accurate, and marginally more palatable than "off-ramp" or Allstate Road (a.k.a. "back of South Bay Center's parking lot"). I'm sure the hotels are happier with "Boston Street" as an address.
...then there was the time my mother was driving into town for a visit. Traffic disasters on the Pike led to me telling her to come in on route 9, which she had never used for this destination. Gave her careful* directions to destination in Dorchester: come in 9, turns into Huntington, turn at Brigham Circle, along Tremont, past Mission, follow Tremont until it turns into Dudley Street, straight on until Columbia Rd.
* "careful" meaning "careful except forgetting that when the Tremont name turns left at Roxbury Crossing, the street that continues the previous direction (past Reggie Lewis, O'Bryant, post office) is Malcolm X - NOT Dudley".
Meanwhile, Mom is faithfully following directions, following Tremont as it turns because according to #1 son, it's supposed to run directly into Dudley Street - and thinking to herself "When in the name of the BVM and glorious Saint Patrick is this gonna get to Dudley Street? I need to get to a restroom!!!" - through the South End and across the Pike. Fortunately, she recognized my office building and was able to find parking before it was too late.
MassGIS shows that segment of
MassGIS shows that segment of roadway as being Boston St., so it's not just Google
I didn't claim that Google
I didn't claim that Google was wrong in this case. I just said and explained that I don't trust them. In this case somebody above in the comments referred to city or state official maps that confirmed the name Boston Street.
Yes, somebody made that clear
Yes, somebody made that clear further up the comment chain - they checked official maps.
I'm making the point that Google is not necessarily a reliable source (and certainly not an official one) though what they showed in this case was correct.
For this particular example, I wish the powers-that-be had given it a related name, like "Boston Place", instead of the same name as the intersecting street (which happens to continue in both directions on either side of the intersection).