Misplaced Pages

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37-613: An elevated railroad right-of-way separates the Brickbottom area from the Inner Belt District located to the east. The two areas resemble each other in terms of use. However, Brickbottom has older dense development in a grid pattern and has a couple of small neighborhoods. Somerville is currently engaged in an ongoing community process, begun in 2011, to determine a long-term Master Plan for the Inner Belt and Brickbottom region. A draft of

74-575: A cost of $ 36,000. Then, in July 1997, the dome was once again re-gilded, in 23k gold. The estimated cost this time was $ 1.5 million. The dome is topped with a gilded, wooden pine cone, symbolizing both the importance of Boston's lumber industry during early colonial times and of the state of Maine, which was a district of the Commonwealth when the Bulfinch section of the building was completed. In front of

111-516: Is entitled "Columbia Knighting Her World War Disabled". Brodney could not afford to pay models, and friends and family posed. The model for Columbia was Brodney's sister Norma Brodney Cohen, and the model for the soldier on one knee in the foreground was his brother Fred Brodney. In 1938, he painted a second mural under the dome called "World War Mothers". The models were again primarily friends and family members, with sister Norma sitting beside their mother Sarah Brodney. The New York Times notes that

148-743: Is now the Storrow Drive Connector interchange (exit 18 [old exit 26] southbound) in Somerville (which would have been the northern terminus of I-695) and at the Massachusetts Avenue interchange in Boston (which would have been the Route ;3 /I-95 junction at the southern terminus of the beltway). Some, but not all, of these remnants have been demolished as part of the Big Dig; in particular,

185-593: The Cambridge Chronicle criticizing the highway plan and disseminated maps of the route to residents, highlighting the Inner Belt's potentially disastrous effects on Cambridge's urban landscape. With the help of Father McManus, a local priest, the UPA mobilized Cambridge residents against the state's highway plan, and the anti-highway activists won over the Cambridge City Council, which became committed to stopping

222-669: The Civil War . The stained glass skylight above contains the seals of the original Thirteen Colonies of the United States, with the Massachusetts seal in the center. The Samuel Adams and Paul Revere time capsule is a metal box located in a cornerstone of the State House, placed there in the late 18th century and rediscovered in 2014. The contents include coins, newspaper clippings, and other historical artifacts. The State House contains

259-700: The Grand Lodge of Massachusetts , presiding. Before the current State House was completed in 1798, Massachusetts's government house was the Old State House on what is now Washington Street. For the building's design, architect Charles Bulfinch made use of two existing buildings in London : William Chambers 's Somerset House , and James Wyatt 's Pantheon . After Maine separated from Massachusetts and became an independent state in 1820, Charles Bulfinch designed Maine's capitol building with architectural influence of

296-601: The Inner Belt ) was a planned six-lane auxiliary Interstate Highway in Boston, Massachusetts , that would have run through parts of Boston, Brookline , Cambridge , and Somerville . The highway would have been called I-695 and would have provided a circumferential route inside the Route 128 corridor. A 1955 plan suggested this routing: (A 1948 plan called for the Southeast Expressway and Southwest Corridor to meet

333-500: The Leverett Circle Connector Bridge uses the northern pair of ramps in Somerville and had to be built around the southern pair of ramps. A still-extant but barricaded spur just north of the new Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge on both levels of I-93 north was intended to connect to the Inner Belt. An industrial park in Somerville, built on the remnants of the Boston and Maine Railroad 's Yard 8, near

370-610: The Massachusetts General Court ( state legislature ) and the offices of the Governor of Massachusetts . The building, designed by architect Charles Bulfinch , was completed in January 1798 at a cost of $ 133,333 (more than five times the budget), and has repeatedly been enlarged since. It is one of the oldest state capitols in current use. It is considered a masterpiece of Federal architecture and among Bulfinch's finest works, and

407-454: The 1940s and soon the project became nationally recognized as the largest artist community under one roof in the U.S., with 155 units. The lofts continue to offer a living opportunity for artists, and provide the City with cultural events and exhibits that include the popular "Open Studios" every November. In 2001, after installation of fiber optic infrastructure, a major telecommunications building

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444-614: The Governor's offices (on the west end) with the Massachusetts Senate occupying the former House of Representatives Chamber under the dome. The Massachusetts House of Representatives occupies a chamber on the west side of the Brigham addition. Hanging over this chamber is the " Sacred Cod ", which was given to the House of Representatives in 1784 by a Boston merchant. The Sacred Cod symbolizes

481-718: The Greater Boston Committee (GBC) on the Transportation Crisis, was founded in 1968 to coordinate the anti-highway movement. The GBC's work culminated in the People Before Highways protest on January 25, 1969, when hundreds of residents flooded the Massachusetts State House, demanding that Governor Francis Sargent (who assumed office just three days prior when Volpe was confirmed as President Richard Nixon 's secretary of transportation ) cancel

518-593: The House and Senate clerks, House and Senate counsel, and Legislative Information Services. One corridor of the building's fourth floor is a sort of Newspaper Row , anchored by the large Press Gallery suite where reporters from a range of publications maintain desks. The central Press Gallery room was given to use of reporters by the Legislature in 1909. The Massachusetts State House Press Association, established in 1909, governs these shared workspaces. Some individual news outlets have separate offices. A suite of rooms on

555-410: The Inner Belt and Southwest Corridor. The project was canceled in 1971 after intense protests organized by community activists , and following Sargent's 1970 moratorium on highway construction inside Route 128. It would have displaced some 7,000 people from their homes, created what opponents at the time called a "Chinese wall" dividing long established neighborhoods, and gutted large parts of

592-663: The Inner Belt at the same point.) Organized community opposition to the project began in 1965, when three city planners at the Boston Redevelopment Authority (now the Boston Planning & Development Agency )—Tunney Lee, Fred Salvucci, and Dennis Blackett—founded the Cambridge Committee on the Inner Belt. The group, which later became incorporated as the Urban Planning Aid (UPA), published articles in

629-544: The Massachusetts Capitol building with a simplified Greek Revival influence. The Commonwealth completed a major expansion of the original building in 1895. The architect for the annex was Bostonian Charles Brigham . In 1917, the east and west wings, designed by architects Sturgis , Bryant , Chapman & Andrews, were completed. In July 2016, Governor Charlie Baker proposed to the state legislature to sell 300 square feet (28 m ) of permanent easement on

666-677: The Universe", stems from a remark by Oliver Wendell Holmes from his 1858 book The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table in which he mentions the State House: "A jaunty-looking person ... said there was one more wise man's saying that he had heard; it was about our place—but he didn't know who said it. ... Boston State-House is the Hub of the Solar System. You couldn't pry that out of a Boston man if you had

703-547: The area to accommodate the Interstate, provide automobile circulation and parking, and establish single-use zoning. Simultaneously, American manufacturing began a long decline and the Somerville Industrial Park that came online in the late 1960s barely ever broke even. The failure of the ambitious Inner Belt project precipitated the relative decline of activity in the neighborhood, which allowed partial colonization of

740-499: The building is an equestrian statue of General Joseph Hooker . Other statues in front of the building include Daniel Webster , educator Horace Mann , and former US President John F. Kennedy . The statues of Anne Hutchinson and Mary Dyer are located on the lawns below the east and west wings. Inside the building is a statue of William Francis Bartlett , an officer in the Civil War. The original red-brick Bulfinch building contains

777-470: The city of Cambridge and the Boston neighborhood of Roxbury . There was also speculation that the construction of the Inner Belt would essentially bypass Downtown Boston completely, resulting in economic stagnation in a city that was already having considerable financial problems. Unresolved traffic problems resulting from the cancelation were among the factors eventually leading to Boston's Big Dig highway project, decades later. The Northwest Expressway

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814-678: The fifth floor is home to the Massachusetts headquarters of several veterans' groups, including the American Legion , American Legion Auxiliary , AMVETS , Disabled American Veterans , Italian American War Veterans of the United States , Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America , Korean War Veterans, Marine Corps League , Military Order of the Purple Heart , Persian Gulf Era Veterans, Polish Legion of American Veterans , Veterans of Foreign Wars , and Vietnam Veterans of America . One of Boston's most enduring nicknames , "The Hub of

851-427: The highway terminating at a traffic circle in northwest Cambridge , where it intersected Route 16 . In the 1980s, the rotary was replaced by a traffic light and the highway was connected to the park-and-ride garage at Alewife station on the newly extended Red Line . An outer belt, I-495 , was completed by 1982 around Greater Boston. With the cancelation of the "Southwest Corridor" route for I-95, and

888-472: The importance of the fishing industry to the early Massachusetts economy. The House Chamber is decorated with murals by Albert Herter , father of Massachusetts Gov. Christian Herter . Murals on the second floor under the dome were painted by artist Edward Brodney . Brodney won a competition to paint the first mural in a contest sponsored by the Works Progress Administration in 1936. It

925-638: The intended northern terminus of the highway is built around a street known as "Inner Belt Road". Massachusetts State House The Massachusetts State House , also known as the Massachusetts Statehouse or the New State House , is the state capitol and seat of government for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts , located in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston . The building houses

962-544: The murals are relatively rare examples of military art with women as their subjects. A staircase in front of the Bulfinch building leads from Beacon Street to Doric Hall inside the building. The large main doors inside Doric Hall are only opened on three occasions: Memorial Hall, also known as the Hall of Flags, is a room that sits central to the state house's second floor. The room displays regiment flags of returning Massachusetts soldiers from various regiments across every war since

999-451: The plan should be available for public comment by the end of 2013. Although the Inner Belt highway was cancelled due to local opposition, the municipal government had already razed entire swaths of Brickbottom during the 1950s in anticipation of the plan. Nonetheless, the city decided to carry on with their urban renewal campaigns in the area. The purpose of the renewal plan was to destroy the existing neighborhood grid pattern and reorganize

1036-591: The primary offices of all the commonwealth's constitutional officers with exception of the Attorney General, who is based at the nearby McCormack Building . The majority of State House office space is given over to the Legislature. Every member of the House and Senate is assigned an office. Large third-floor suites are assigned to the House Speaker (Room 356) and Senate President (Room 332). Other offices include

1073-565: The project. The following year, in 1966, Cambridge residents protested the Inner Belt outside the Massachusetts State House , leading then-Governor John A. Volpe to order a restudy of the highway's route through Cambridge. The Black United Front (established in 1968) also mobilized residents in Roxbury against the Inner Belt and broader racial justice issues, working with the UPA to mobilize residents across Greater Boston . A new group,

1110-669: The resultant alternate usage of much of that right-of-way for a significant length of the relocated southwest section of the Orange Line subway's above-ground run, Route 128 between I-95 south and I-95 north was made part of the Interstate System as I-95. The right-of-way for the I-695 portion of the beltway in Roxbury had already been cleared and now contains an arterial road , Melnea Cass Boulevard . The former Southwest Corridor portion of

1147-498: The right-of-way was converted into Southwest Corridor Park and the new route for the new depressed southern section of Boston's Orange Line subway, from Tufts Medical Center station southwestward. The older elevated Orange Line right-of-way along Washington Street was subsequently torn down by 1987 and eventually replaced by the Silver Line rapid bus service. Remnants of the Inner Belt were visible for many years on I-93 at what

Brickbottom (Somerville, Massachusetts) - Misplaced Pages Continue

1184-534: The site by artists and craftspeople. In 1988, the redevelopment of the A&;P food-storage and bakery warehouse located at the corner of McGrath Highway and Fitchburg Street enabled establishment of the Brickbottom Artists Cooperative. The group of 85 artists purchased the warehouse, providing affordable housing for artists. This live-work space was the first return of residential use to Brickbottom since

1221-436: The west side of the State House lawn to a neighboring condominium. The land in question was once pasture owned by John Hancock and the easement would allow for the addition of au pair units. Through legislation passed by the legislature the land surrounding the state house is considered "open space". [2] The original wood dome, which leaked, was covered with copper in 1802 by Paul Revere 's Revere Copper Company . Revere

1258-826: Was completed at 200 Inner Belt Road in the Inner Belt Industrial Park. The hope was that this would spark high-tech interest in the area; however, a drastic downturn in the economy brought the telecom movement to a halt across the region. Some of the companies that came to revitalize the area left, leaving vacant buildings once more. East Somerville station on the Green Line Extension opened in December 2022, at Washington Street. 42°22′40″N 71°5′11″W  /  42.37778°N 71.08639°W  / 42.37778; -71.08639 Interstate 695 (Massachusetts) Interstate 695 ( I-695 ; also called

1295-727: Was designated a National Historic Landmark for its architectural significance. Today the building officially functions and is maintained under the auspices of the Superintendent of the Bureau of the State House. [1] . The building is situated on 6.7 acres (2.7 ha) of land on top of Beacon Hill in Boston , opposite the Boston Common on Beacon Street . It was built on land once owned by John Hancock , Massachusetts's first elected governor. The Masonic cornerstone ceremony took place on July 4, 1795, with Paul Revere , then Grand Master of

1332-417: Was the first American to roll copper successfully into sheets (for copper sheathing ) in a commercially viable manner. The dome was first painted gray and then light yellow before being gilded with gold leaf in 1874. During World War II , the dome was painted gray once again, to prevent reflection during blackouts and to protect the city and building from bombing attacks. The dome was re-gilded in 1969, at

1369-689: Was to carry Route 2 and Route 3 along a four-lane highway from the northwest (the current outer intersection of US 3 and Route 128 in Burlington) via Cambridge to connect with the Inner Belt in Union Square, Somerville . Instead, the Route ;2 highway was never rerouted to the Fitchburg Line right-of-way and alternately now terminates along the right-of-way of the old Cambridge and Concord Turnpike (Route 2). That intersection left

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