Library of Congress on Flickr

Would the subway pic be Washington Street, in the South End? The main elevated line of that period ran from Sullivan Square to Dudley, and I think that was the first El we had, before the system was expanded in the 40s, and then killed off beginning in the 60s.

It looks like Washington, yeah -- though when you and I were growing up, Joe, there was never that kind of hustle and bustle in that part of the South End. I used to take the train from Green Street (in Jamaica Plain) to Dover Station (South End) to visit my girlfriend, and it was deserted around there... How times change.

Of course, the LoC has tagged this as a Boston photo because of the sign. (I assume.) But the "Boston Candy Store" wasn't necessarily in Boston. I know there was one in Philadelphia. So perhaps this is really a photo of, say, Chicago?

The Massachusetts Street Scene photo with Syvia Sweets Tea Room was taken in Brockton, MA. This building is at the corner of School St. and Main Street, AKA The Bixby/Homebank Building.

My father feels the photo looks to be from the 1950s.

The Massachusetts street scene on pg. E3 of today's 1/27/08 BOSTON GLOBE that you inquired about in your "Brainiac" column is Brockton,Massachusetts. Sylvia Sweet's luncheonette was on the corner of Main Street and School Street in a very busy downtown Brockton. It was located one block from the Brockton Police Station and often supplied food for prisoners. The photo was most likely taken by recently deceased BROCKTON ENTERPRISE photojournalist Stanley Bauman. Mr. Bauman's extensive collection was donated to Stonehill College in North Easton.

Glad to help from a proud former Brocktonian.

The top (and largest) of the photos with your article is without a doubt a scene from the Brockton of my youth-(I am 63 years old).
It is the northeast corner of Main St. and School St, looking north on Main St. My mother was coincidentally named Sylvia, and she liked to get a dish of ice cream there while shopping.

The Sylvia Sweet's Tea Room was in downtown Brockton at the corner of School and Main Streets in the Bixby Building. The street floor was also the location of a popular department store, McCarthy's, and a jewelry store.The upper floors contained mainly law offices. In the 70s the building was being remodeled for housing when a fire destroyed it. The building was later rebuilt following its original design. It currently contains apartments on its upper floors and commercial space on the street floor. Sylvia Sweets was a popular lunchroom, especially for people waiting for buses at the nearby bus stop

The picture of Sylvia Sweets is in Brockton MA...corner of Main St and School Street. It was there for a long time and had soda fountain and luncheon menu. The Dayos family from Brockton owned and operated it for many years.

The original building is gone and I believe a "replica" of the building was constructed into older age apartments, without the lower floor lunch space. Attorneys , and general office space was above the original restaurant.

The street scene pictured in your column of this week's Sunday Globe brought back two memories.
The first was of my hometown of Brockton, Massachusetts and one of Main Street's popular lunch spots, Sylvia Sweets.
The second was of the same picture, misidentified in the book AMERICA A CELEBRATION! by Martin Sandler.
Thanks for the opportunity to remember.

That's in Brockton, at the corner of Main and School Streets. I went through that intersection just last Friday and was remembering it. In the early 1950's we used to take the bus from Hanson, shop in the wonderful Brockton downtown, and get a snack at Sylvia Sweets before taking the bus back home. How the city has changed. No more bus, no more Sylvia Sweets.

The Sylvia Sweets Tea Room was a restaurant on Main Street in downtown Brockton, Mass. I don't remember the corner street, but Sylvia Sweets was in the center of the downtown area during the 1940s and probably before and later. It was owned and operated by a man whose last name was Dayos. I don't know his first name, but he lived with his wife and three (I believe) children on a street off West Elm Street on Brockton's west side. His son, Nicholas Dayos, was a friend of mine during our elementary, junior high and high school days. He was killed a few years ago in a car crash. I am 75, and he was perhaps two years older. A guy who would give you the shirt off his back, as the saying goes, if you needed it.

Your column suggested the LOC photo captioned "Lowell, Mass. - Strikers Before Merrimack Mill" might actually be of the Bread and Roses Strike in Lawrence, but it appears to indeed be the Merrimack Mill in Lowell. It may be of the strike in Lowell that followed the Bread and Roses Strike, one of several follow-up strikes in New England textile cities, whereby the gains achieved in Lawrence spread throughout the region. (fyi I worked at the National Park in Lowell, and now work at Lawrence Heritage State Park)

I think the mill photo is the the now Charles River Museum in Waltham.