Photographer Leon Hampartzoum Abdalian was born in Cilician Armenia, Ottoman Empire (now Turkey), circa 1884. He moved with his family to the United States in April of 1896 and eventually settled in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston.
Abdalian was largely self-taught. For most of his career as a photographer, which lasted from 1913 into the 1960s, he also worked full-time as a conductor on the Boston Elevated Railroad.
Abdalian was primarily a large-format photographer, specializing in photographing historical sites and the park system. Locally, his photographs were published in the Boston Globe, Boston Traveler and Boston Herald newspapers.
In 1930 during the Massachusetts Tercentenary celebration, the Boston Daily Record hired Abdalian as the “Photographer of Historic Shrines” and published a series of his photographs of historic monuments and buildings. He also had photographs published in the National Geographic magazine in March of 1920 as part of an article on business in Massachusetts.
Abdalian retired as a conductor in 1951 but continued his career as a photographer into the 1960s almost to the year of his death in 1967.
These amazing photos from Boston Public Library . are part of his work that Leon Abdalian took street scenes of Massachusetts in the 1920s.
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| 57–59 Mt. Vernon Street, 57 was home of Charles Francis Adams, 59 was home Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Beacon Hill |
Amazing Pics Capture Street Scenes of Massachusetts in the 1920s
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| 83 Mt. Vernon Street, home of William Ellery Channing |
Amazing Pics Capture Street Scenes of Massachusetts in the 1920s
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| Beach and Atlantic House hotel, Nantasket |
Amazing Pics Capture Street Scenes of Massachusetts in the 1920s
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| Charles River Bridge, West Roxbury |
Amazing Pics Capture Street Scenes of Massachusetts in the 1920s
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| Church of the Presidents, Quincy |
Amazing Pics Capture Street Scenes of Massachusetts in the 1920s
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| City Hall, School Street |
Amazing Pics Capture Street Scenes of Massachusetts in the 1920s
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| City Point, South Boston |
Amazing Pics Capture Street Scenes of Massachusetts in the 1920s
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| Copley Plaza, Copley Square |
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| Copley Square Library, New Old South Church and Copley Plaza |
Amazing Pics Capture Street Scenes of Massachusetts in the 1920s
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| English High School |
Amazing Pics Capture Street Scenes of Massachusetts in the 1920s
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| Garrison Inn (doorway and stage coach), Newburyport |
Amazing Pics Capture Street Scenes of Massachusetts in the 1920s
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| Granary Burial Ground and Park Street Church |
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| Hotel Pemberton, Nantasket |
Amazing Pics Capture Street Scenes of Massachusetts in the 1920s
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| Hotel Somerset, Commonwealth Avenue view |
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| King's Chapel at Tremont Street and School Street, Boston |
Amazing Pics Capture Street Scenes of Massachusetts in the 1920s
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| Louisburg Square, surrounded by Pinckney Street and Mt. Vernon Street |
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| Mechanics Building, Huntington Avenue |
Amazing Pics Capture Street Scenes of Massachusetts in the 1920s
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| Nantasket Beach, view of chairs and bathers |
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| New armory, 856 Commonwealth Avenue |
Amazing Pics Capture Street Scenes of Massachusetts in the 1920s
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| New State House, taken from Boston Common |
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| Old South Meeting House, view of Washington Street and Milk Street |
Amazing Pics Capture Street Scenes of Massachusetts in the 1920s
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| Palm garden, Nantasket Beach |
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| Revere Beach |
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| Roller coaster, derby racer, Revere Beach |
Amazing Pics Capture Street Scenes of Massachusetts in the 1920s
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| The First Church in Plymouth and Burial Hill |
Amazing Pics Capture Street Scenes of Massachusetts in the 1920s
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| The Moseley Memorial Building, Massachusetts General Hospital |
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| Washington Street looking toward Spring Lane, School Street, Milk Street, and Old South Meeting House |
Amazing Pics Capture Street Scenes of Massachusetts in the 1920s
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| Whitney Building, Clinton Street and Commercial Street |
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| Wolfe Tavern, Newburyport |
Amazing Pics Capture Street Scenes of Massachusetts in the 1920s
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