Demolished

Dexter Asylum // 1828-1958

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C.1958 photo before demolition. Courtesy of Library of Congress.

Built in 1828, Dexter Asylum was a “poor farm,” an institution housing the indigent, elderly, and chronically unemployed, located in the East Side of Providence, Rhode Island. Poor farms were common before the introduction of Social Security and welfare benefits in the United States, considered a progressive method for dealing with poverty. Ebenezer Knight Dexter (1773-1824) was a wealthy mercantile trader in Providence, who in 1800, built Rose Farm, a gentleman’s farmhouse on what was then, the outskirts of Providence. Upon his death in 1824, he bequeathed to the town 40-acres of the farmland to the north for use as a poor farm or almshouse site. The building was completed by 1828 and was originally three stories, and later expanded with a mansard roof and dormers sometime later in the 19th century. Dexter also stipulated that a stone wall would surround the site, and parts of it remain to this day. As with many poor farms and almshouses of the period, residents worked farmland and cared for pigs and a herd of dairy cows; they lived in this large building, strictly segregated by sex. Residents were essentially inmates, indentured for periods of six to twelve months, and could not leave the property without a ticket of permission. In the interwar period, “inmate” population there declined and changing views on how to assist the poor caused the City to abandon the facility. After decades of legal troubles and stipulations of the Dexter will, in 1956, the plot was auctioned off, and Brown University purchased the site. The grounds are now used by some of the Brown University athletic facilities. The city set aside the money from the sale to create the Dexter Donation, which gives annual grants to assist the city’s poor, providing an enduring legacy of Dexter’s Asylum.

Rockland Custom House & Post Office // 1873-1969

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Photo included in HABS documentation

It saddens me to see photos and learn about some of the amazing buildings demolished in the name of “progress”; it is even more disappointing when said building is replaced by a surface parking lot (over 50 years later)! This great stone building was built in Rockland, Maine, in 1876 as the town’s post office and custom house by the Federal government. Relatively unknown architect Alfred B. Mullett is credited with the design as he served from 1866 to 1874 as Supervising Architect of the United States Treasury Department. The building can be classified as Italianate-Second Empire in style and is constructed of massive, rough-faced granite block walls with a shallow mansard roof above. The building was offered for sale by the U.S. Government in 1967, likely due to the upkeep costs and a shrinking local population with the dependency on maritime trade diminished. The building was ultimately razed in late 1969, with a new, uninspiring, post office built next door to this site.

Poland Springs House // 1876-1975

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In 1844, Hiram Ricker (1809-1893) of Poland, Maine, drank spring water on his property and found that his chronic dyspepsia was cured. As a result, he began touting the medicinal qualities of the water and in 1859 started selling the water commercially. While the first water was bottled and sold in 1859, it was not until after the Civil War that Hiram Ricker and his sons began heavily promoting the spring as a destination for medical cures – and at the same time promoted the inn and resort that they were building in association with the spring. From this, the Poland Springs Resort (and Poland Springs bottled water) was born. The development saw swarms of tourists looking to escape the polluted cities for clean Maine air and natural spring water, therefore, the Ricker Family built the great Poland Spring House in 1876 to cater to resort visitors taking its waters. The original hotel was Second Empire in style and stood four-stories tall containing 100 rooms. Throughout the 1880s and 1890s, the resort building was expanded, quadrupling its size to 450 rooms as the demand for the resort increased every summer. An annex was also built nearby, named the Riccar Inn, providing even more hotel rooms for guests. By the early 20th century, the 1870s hotel was completely remodeled in the Beaux Arts style by architect Henry Wilkinson with domed roofs and sweeping verandas. After WWII, the resort saw diminishing visitors and would ultimately close in the 1960s. During a period in the 1960s, the hotel was operated as the country’s largest Women’s Job Corps Training Center, but deferred maintenance caught up to the building and it was ultimately shuttered, suffering a devastating fire in 1975, it was demolished soon after. While the large hotel no longer stands, there are many other amazing buildings on the grounds, stay tuned!

Hotel Manger // 1930-1983

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Built on the site of the former Boston & Lowell Train Station the Hotel Manger (later renamed the Madison Hotel in 1959) was part of the first redevelopment of North Station in Boston. When the Boston & Maine Railroad announced that plans had been finalized for the construction of a new North Station facility, which would include a sports arena, hotel, office building, and distributing terminal, Manger Hotels, a national hotel chain, and the Boston & Maine Railroad announced that the two parties had signed a contract for the construction of the hotel on the site with each party holding a 50% stock in the building. Designed by the architectural firm of Funk & Wilcox in the Art Deco style, the 17-story hotel was completed in 1930 and contained 500 rooms and at the time of its opening, the hotel was said to have had proportionately more marble than any other building in New England! As railroad traffic declined, the neighborhood surrounding North Station lost its importance as a commuter center and the hotel began to suffer financially, leading the hotel to close in 1976. Plans to convert the old hotel into elderly housing fell through, and in March 1983, the Boston Redevelopment Authority purchased the hotel and demolished it as part of their urban renewal plan for the area. The site is now occupied by the mundane Thomas P. O’Neill Jr. Federal Building.

North Station & Boston Garden // 1928-1998

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In the 1920s, plans began to build a contemporary train station that tied in both the Boston subway and regional train lines. The complex would replace the former North Union Station and help propel Boston as a more contemporary city. Seeing the opportunity, Boston real estate developer James Walsh realized the potential of adding a sporting stadium atop the station. Walsh had also contacted New York boxing promoter Tex Rickard, who built the third iteration of New York’s Madison Square Garden, and was eyeing boston as a location for a second Madison Square Garden. The duo hired the New York firm of Fellheimer and Wagner (designers of New York Grand Central Station) to design the exterior of the building in the Art Deco style. The building opened in November 1928 as the Boston Madison Square Garden, later shortened to the Boston Garden. The arena was built specifically with boxing in mind, with Rickard believing every seat should be close enough to see the “sweat on the boxers’ brows”. Due to this layout, fans for decades later were much closer to the players during Bruins and Celtics games than in most arenas, leading to a distinct hometown advantage. Storied franchises became dynasties and the grit and determination of Boston sports was fostered under this roof. The small size of the Boston Garden, paired with electrical issues and lack of air-conditioning, led to its demise. The present Boston Garden opened in 1995, behind the old Garden and was known as the Fleet Center, later renamed the TD Garden. The 1920s Garden sat vacant for three years before it was demolished in 1998. The site where the building once stood is currently a commercial development called The Hub on Causeway.

Old Boston North Union Station // 1893-1927

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Photo courtesy of Library of Congress.

By the 1890s, many of the regional train lines in New England consolidated and as a result, union stations were built. All north-bound train lines including the Boston & Lowell and Boston & Maine railroads would consolidate into North Union Station with southbound trains consolidated into South Station. North Union Station, actually three adjoined buildings, was completed in 1893 and included the former Boston & Lowell Station, a Second Empire masterpiece which dated from 1873. The other sections of Union Station were designed by the firm, Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, and comprised of an office tower at the rightmost section and a central building serving as the main entrance and concourse with waiting rooms and baggage holding. The central entrance exhibited an elaborate columned block of brick with stone trimmings. The station lasted until 1927 when the entire complex was razed for the new North Station (The Boston Garden), which itself was replaced. The demolition of the Old North Union Station was one of the biggest architectural losses in Boston’s history, a stain on its historical legacy only compounded by the sterile development we see there today.

Former Boston & Lowell Railroad Depot // 1871-1927

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Courtesy of Boston Public Library collections

The Boston and Lowell Railroad was established in 1830 as one of the first rail lines in North America. The first track was completed in 1835, and freight service began immediately connecting Boston to the newly established town of Lowell, which had just 6,400 residents at the time (compared to Boston which had 10x that). The original Boston depot was a modest structure, but after the Civil War, it was decided that a new station connecting two of the most important industrial cities in Massachusetts, should be built. Architect Edgar Allen Poe Newcomb and his father’s firm, L. Newcomb & Son, was selected to design a new station on Causeway Street. The French Second Empire masterpiece was built between 1871-1878. Inside, the concourse was lined with oak walls and marble flooring. The depot was added onto in 1893 and incorporated into a Union Station of multiple former lines, and ultimately demolished in 1927 for the first North Station.

Boston City Hospital Relief Station, Haymarket // 1902-1960s

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Image courtesy of City of Boston Archives

In 1858, as Boston began to see a massive influx of immigration into the city and rapid industrialization, the City of Boston authorized the creation of a new hospital whose purpose was the “reception of those sick and injured: citizens of Boston who, from any cause, were unable to otherwise obtain care and treatment,” especially in cases of “acute illness and for the victims of accident or injury.” This was the Boston City Hospital, which was established in the South End, and is now known as the Boston Medical Center. The hospital was thought to be too far away for victims of injury of illness to get to promptly, so a relief station was built in Haymarket Square, replacing the recently demolished Boston & Maine Railroad Station. The new, standalone hospital building was constructed of brick and stood three stories tall and opened in 1902. On its first day of operation, doctors and staff saved the life of a man who had attempted suicide by ingesting carbolic acid. A Boston Globe reporter speculated that had the patient been  transported to the more distant Massachusetts General or City Hospitals, he would have surely died. The Colonial Revival style building was designed by the firm of Kendall, Taylor & Stevens, who specialized in medical facilities and other institutional building designs. The structure was demolished by the 1960s, when much of the Government Center/West End areas were razed for urban renewal.

Former Boston & Maine Railroad Station // c.1845-1893

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Photo courtesy of City of Boston Archives

The Boston & Maine Railroad opened in 1845, and over the years, became the dominant railroad in northern New England with many of its lines terminating at this station for a half-century until the original Union/North Station was built in 1893 consolidating many of these northbound lines under one roof. The Boston & Maine Station was located in Haymarket Square, southeast of the present North Station and the building was a landmark in the Greek Revival style. The brick building with monumental pilasters and pediment at the facade commanded the heavily trafficked site until it was demolished in 1893 when the lines relocated to the newly built Union Station on Causeway Street. The architect for the station was Richard Bond.

Sayles Mill // 1882-2023

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Dayville, a mill village in the town of Killingly, Connecticut, is typical of many similar 19th century villages in the region. Dayville was named after John Day (1756-1838) a Revolutionary War veteran who later owned the water privileges on the Five Mile River. With the opening of the Norwich and Worcester Railroad in 1830, Dayville became a stop along the route and also became a hub for freight transport for other manufacturing villages along the river. In 1858, brothers Harris (1817-1893) and Sabin Lorenzo Sayles (1827-1891) from Rhode Island, purchased a mill site in Dayville and established a woolen manufacturing company. Harris retired in 1879 and Sabin continued the business as the Sabin L. Sayles Company. Sabin had a modern brick mill building constructed here in 1882-1883 which employed 250 people in production of woolen broadcloth. After Sabin’s death, the company was sold and modified numerous times, eventually becoming a metal products plant and later was left vacant. In the 2010s, funding and plans were begun to redevelop the old mill, but that was abandoned after a massive fire in 2023 destroyed the building, leaving just the six-story tower intact.

Photo courtesy of Journeysthrumylens