We just wanted to thank the members of the Advisory Panel who visited the studio last Saturday for your time and insights. Richard, Ben, Tommy, Dave and Victor, all of your feedback was wonderful and is now making its way into the public art.
We don’t know where to begin but we especially love the new additions to the map sculpture you suggested, in particular for catching our omission of “The Gassy”!
And thank you Tommy for tracking down the photo of the gas tank that was located on the site of the current Defilippo Playground (and the reason why locals call the place “The Gassy”!).
“The Gassy” Park is named after the gigantic natural gas storage tank that was removed after the North End molasses flood of 1919 due to safety concerns. This is the photo Matt Conti posted on Northendwaterfront.com that the Boston Public Library’s Digital Services department uploaded to its Flickr page in 2010.
Thanks so much for posting these old photos of the North End that is a part of our lives. I lived across ( 122 Prince Street ) from the Gassey! I played there everyday. We played ice-hockey.. ( the city erected a ice rink and flooded it with water one winter ). We organized a baseball ” pimple-ball league “. The gassey team would travel to other surrounding North End playgrounds.. and we would play against each other!
Sincerely,
joel…@yahoo.com