Thomas F. Galvin Florist Shop.

 Thomas F. Galvin's florist shop, Boylston and Fairfield streets, circa 1900, courtesy of the Library of Congress image collection.

Boylston street, 1902.


Google has made changes to how images are shown in Blogger, but I'll cross my finger and hop you can click on the panoramic photo above and see it at full size. I've been meaning to share this photo for quite a while, but I lost track of where I had seen it. The circa 1900 photograph shows the then-new Thomas F. Galvin florist shop on Boylston street at 9:10 AM one morning.

While the building is a handsome one, I particularly like the image for the number of horse drawn carriages that are shown. You have one and two horse carriages, and drivers on the top and in front. And although there were autombiles on the street at the time, this photo shows none, and gives us an idea of what pre-automobile Boston looked like. The streetcar on Boylston street had been electrified, and an electric street lamp can be seen near the corner of Fairfield street, so times were changing. Before looking down Boylston street, I should mention that as shown on the following map, the streetcar hides our view of the train yards of the Boston and Albany line across the street. The first, tall  building we see looking down the opposite side of Boylston street is the then-new Lenox Hotel. Beyond we seem to see the Public Library, but Harvard Medical College was between the two. The tower of the Old South Church rises opposite the Library.

At this time of this photo, Mr Galvin had another shop at 124 Tremont street, directly opposite Park Street Church, and by 1925 he had moved the business to Federal street.