(Chickering, Elmer). HEADHOUSE AND RECREATION PIER, SOUTH BOSTON. Original photograph, 1906. 8 3/4 x 16 1/4 inches. Signed, titled and dated in the negative. In very good condition. The Headhouse, which contained a bathouse and a restaurant, was built in 1893, designed by architect Edmund M. Wheelwright, who based it on the design of a building erected by the German government for its pavilion at the Columbian Exposition of 1892. Wheelwright was the official architect of the city of Boston, as well as designer of Horticultural Hall, the Longfellow bridge and New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall. The pier is alluded to in the 1908 book "A Civic Reader for New Americans: "From Franklin Park, Columbia Road and the Strandway connect with Marine Park at City Point, South Boston, with its long recreation pier and Pleasure Bay, terminating a continuous pleasure drive of twelve and a half miles from the Public Garden." The Strandway is now William J. Day Boulevard, named for the Congressman and father of the South Boston activist and politician Louise Day Hicks. Elmer Chickering (1857-1915) was an active and successful Boston photographer with a studio at 21 West Street. Although best known for his portraits of celebrities, Chickering also did architectural photography. On our website we have posted two examples from the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica which are credited to him.
