February 2nd, 2011

Maverick Square Mural
East Boston, MA

I was waiting for my bus in Maverick Square, when I looked up to notice this mural overlooking the streets. As I tried to find a decent angle, an older gentleman started chatting with me. He introduced himself by way of explaining that he has a copy of that mural, which was actually painted from a turn-of-the-century postcard.

It turns out that he was an East Boston native, up visiting his daughter from Florida with his wife. He explained that there is an entire set of East Boston postcards from that era, which can often be found at local fleamarkets. He gave me some tips on where to find fleamarkets, and chatted a bit more about how the face of the square had changed over the years. He and his wife took off on the 116 bus a few minutes later and I was left wondering how hard it would be to locate one of these postcards when fleamarket attendees hardly have business pages documenting the goods they have for sale.