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Ghosts and Shadows of Automobile Row in Brookline and Boston

The stretch of Commonwealth Avenue from Kenmore Square to Packard’s Corner in Allston was once home to more than a hundred auto dealerships and other auto-related enterprises. The businesses that made up the former Automobile Row are, with just a few exceptions, long gone. But reminders of this former mecca of the Motor Age – from street names to tire icons to gargoyle-like figures of auto mechanics — remain, many of them hidden in plain sight. Learn about the 20th century growth and decline of Boston’s Automobile Row and the modern reuse of its historic infrastructure, much of it as part of Boston University.

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