No Ostriches

[deguspice]

Hidden behind WBZ's headquarters in Allston is a small alley called "Speedway Ave". Many years ago, I heard a story that it got its name because of ostrich racing. It turns out the rumor was half right. Where Soldiers Field Road is now, there used to be a race track for horses and bicycles called the Charles River Speedway

Comments

[bikergeek]

As a train geek, I had always wondered why the railroad yard in Allston/Brighton was called "Beacon Park".

[deguspice]

It describes the location of Beacon Park as where the Double Tree hotel is now located. For me, that's still the location of the old Coca Cola bottling plant. On its roof was a giant "Coca Cola" sign made up of "moving" lights. It used to be an important part of the Boston skyline. When they tore down the bottling plant, the sign was preserved with the hope finding a new site for it, but after a few years it disappeared.

Here's a picture of the old sign:
http://www.boston.com/blogs/yourtown/boston/dirty-old-boston/2013/07/things_go_better_in_allston-brighton.html

[paradoox]

Actually, it says "Today's Doubletree Hotel would be at the top right." which leads me to believe that the CSX Frieght Yard also was within or mostly within the area of the what was once the Beacon Park Trotting Park.

[whitebird]

My mother has ridden an ostrich, but I doubt she was in a race on it.

[paradoox]

In a related vein, if anyone has better Google-foo than me, a couple of weeks ago I was trying to research when Birmingham Parkway was built. (Birmingham Parking is the road behind Staples and the IHOP which was the original extension of Soldiers Field Road from Western Ave to Nonantum Road.) Also, when was the Soldiers Field Road Extension built. (The road in front on the river side of the Staples and IHOP was built on what was a slaughterhouse.) I'm pretty sure Soldiers Field Road Extension was built sometime in the late 1950s or 1960s as I can find pictures of the slaughterhouse buildings being torn down in the late 1950s, but I can find no reference to when Birmingham Parkway was built.

[deguspice]

I didn't know the road was called the "Birmingham Parkway" until Sunday (Siggy's GPS decided that was the best route from Soldier's Field to your house). I thought Market St ran all the way to Soldier's Field.

I'd try searching historic maps of the area to see when the road appears. A library or a map seller might have them.

[frotz]

Had you noticed H. 4359, “An Act to Preserve the Historic Speedway Administration Building in the Brighton Section of the City of Boston”?