Leslie Jones

The search for aerial and bird's-eye imagery of the site led me to the work of Leslie Jones, a celebrated Boston Herald-Traveler photographer from 1917 to 1956. His 30,000 images are archived at the Boston Public Library, and include many photographs taken from high buildings and airplanes. Several show the Financial District:

1930 Financial District, site center top

1930 detail

1932 aerial

1932 aerial detail, site in center

New England Telephone 1946, under construction
(on left, note what seems to be demolition under way)

New England Telephone 1953, partly obscuring
what appears to be a cleared site
(126 High St. seems to have a narrow building clinging to it)