Let's play Attention to Detail! We give you a close-up clue and you have to figure out where you've seen it around Boston.
Here are some hints:
- Today this building has changed very little from the way it looked in the early 1900s.
- That may be due to having had the same owner for many years.
- During certain hours of the day, you are welcome to come in and look around the inside of this building.
- It has a very prestigious history.
- It is located in the Back Bay.
Ready? Click through or scroll down past this great book about Boston for the answer.
Here is a very early photo of the building with the French doors and balcony – 28 Newbury Street. (From the Boston Public Library Collection.)
Here it is today.
For many years, it was home to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
This organization was founded, "In 1780, sixty-two individuals – clergymen and merchants, scholars and physicians, farmers and public leaders – signed their names to the Charter of the American Academy. Along with John Adams and James Bowdoin, the founders included Samuel Adams, then a delegate to the Continental Congress; John Hancock, Governor of Massachusetts; and Robert Treat Paine ..."
According to the history of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, “During the nineteenth century the Academy shared quarters with the Boston Athenæum and later the Massachusetts Historical Society. It next moved to 28 Newbury Street in 1904 and remained there until 1955.”
The Academy is now located in Cambridge, MA.
Banana Republic currently occupies the building.
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Details:
Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2017 Penny & Ed Cherubino
Adapted for BostonZest from one of our Attention to Detail Newspaper columns.