Talk:Government Center, Boston, Massachusetts
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[edit] Couple bits...
One, I did not mean to keep the broken-link on "college" to point to Harvard University. That was NPOV of me. The sources for this article must have gotten some glee out of pointing fingers at Harvard for having horny male students -- but it is NPOV to suggest that only Harvard kids were going to the Howard for strip shows. There are literally dozens of colleges in Boston that likely had students making trips to Scollay.
Also, I excised this edit from Wetman:
- Proper Bostonians and the affluent intellectuals called "Boston Brahmins" resided on the opposite side of Beacon Hill, away from the early hours, lively noise and market tang of Scollay Square..
which was a correction of my earlier statement:
- The area rapidly became a cultural status symbol for the affluent intellectual Brahmin class.
My source material (see references section) suggests that early Scollay Square grew to become a cultural center for the Boston intellectual elite, which in my experience is more or less synonymous with the Boston Brahmin class.
Certainly in the square's days as a red light district later on (1920s[?]-1950s), proper Brahmins would have stayed far away, but my statement referred to the period before all that (1850s-1890s). I'm not sure either Wetman's or my statements re Brahmins are necessarily incorrect, it just depends on the timeframe of context.
KeithTyler 17:10, May 24, 2004 (UTC)
[edit] Government Square protest in 1971
During the Vietnam War, Government Square was the scene of a number of protests. One of the more dramatic ones occurred on May 16, 1971 when 5,000 protesters trained by a group inspired by radical Boston University professor, Howard Zinn massed in Government Square. They surrounded the federal building with the goal of "shutting down the U.S. government (in Boston)for the day." For all intent and purposes, they succeeded as every window in the building was crowded with the faces of government workers watching the proceedings below them. The protesters, committing civil disobedience, surrounded the building to prevent employees from entering the building. Some hearty souls insisted on approaching the building, in which case police escorts pushed their way through the throng who were linked arm and arm. Authorities put up with the protest throughout the morning. Sometime in mid afternoon a mass of police arrived at the scene equipped with shields and rubber trungeons. They marched into the crowd swinging their clubs causing a number of injuries. A large number were arrested, which was the objective and intent of the organizers.
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- Source: Firsthand account by author who was present at the scene on this date.
--Olearyscow 06:01, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC)
[edit] One of the worst examples of sixties urban renewal
This article should address Government Center's failure as a public space and catalyst for historic preservation in Boston. What an atrocious architectural creation. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 216.237.84.142 (talk • contribs) .
- Atlant 12:38, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
If memory serves, the building was constructed in the Brutalism architectural style. --JSleeper 06:59, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
- Your memory serves you correctly.
- Atlant 12:38, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
