Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Newbury Street, Boston

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of the debate was - kept

Newbury Street, Boston

Nothing establishes notability. — Bill 21:16, 15 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Well, it really is a "popular destination for tourists" as the article suggests. Keep.--Samuel J. Howard 01:04, Oct 16, 2004 (UTC)

• Can you add something to it? Seriously, at that length and that amount of content, it really isn't doing a whole lot. I'm indifferent to its staying, but it really would be nice if it indicated that it was a shopping district or a museum area or pedestrian friendly or ample parking or served by mass transit or the gateway to the Bay or something. Geogre 02:05, 16 Oct 2004 (UTC)
• The article doesn't tell us why this street is notable. The link to Wikiquote was also bogus, so I deleted it. Delete. RickK 05:44, Oct 16, 2004 (UTC)
• Delete unless notability is established. It's not too hard to write a decent article on a street if this is the case, but this article sure ain't it. Ambi 05:58, 16 Oct 2004 (UTC)
• Keep and improve. Notable enough that this Englishman has heard of it. It's a 'trendy' shopping district with late 19th and early 20th century buildings. Small shops, galleries and restaurants. Average Earthman 18:25, 16 Oct 2004 (UTC)
• Merge/redir w/Back Bay, Boston. I asked my brother (who lived in Boston a few years) about it, and he said that unless there was something particularly special about its history that he was unaware of, it wasn't really that notable--he compared it to Castro Street, Mountain View (we've both lived in the SF Bay area a few years). He went on to note that the nationally (at least) famous Bourbon Street does NOT have it's own article (it's a redir to French Quarter), nor does Castro Street, San Francisco. So it has some 100+ year old buildings--the same can probably be said for most downtown streets of East Coast US cities. Heck, even Seattle, whose downtown was leveled by a fire about 110 years ago, has numerous 100+ year old buildings still standing. I actually went to the external link with the intent of beefing up the article's claim to notability, and the only building that had a related WP article (Trinity Church by architect Henry Hobson Richardson) isn't actually on Newbury Street, but a block or two away. Westlake Avenue has some old buildings that have been converted to galleries and other touristy shops, but I'm not going to write an article about it--most cities probably have equivalents, to attract tourist's $$$. Actually, Westlake is probably more notable--since the 1961 Seattle World's Fair it has been at the intersection of one end-point of the Seattle monorail, and was prominently featured in the movie Sleepless in Seattle. Niteowlneils 19:28, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)
• Merge and redirect with Back Bay, Boston unless greatly expanded before end of VfD period. Newbury Street is locally quite notable, and deserves at least a redirect. Kids in the suburbs talk of taking the train in to Boston "to go to Newbury Street." I can't really address the question of why some streets such as Fifth Avenue, Canal Street, New Orleans and Canal Street, New York have articles, but not Bourbon Street. I would think that a decent two-or-three paragraph article on Newbury Street could easily be written at the point where it got to be too bulky to include in Back Bay, Boston it could be merged back into its own article. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 01:15, 18 Oct 2004 (UTC)
  • What the heck, I'm chucking in random factoids as they occur to me and as I have time to look them up. That doesn't mean I necessarily think the street is particularly notable. It does have instant name recognition throughout the Boston area, but does not define a neighborhood or district or subculture. If one were to rank Boston-area streets and squares in order of article-worthiness--let me be ridiculously specific--it would probably be in the top fifty but certainly not the top three. I have no strong opinions on whether it deserves to be separate from Back Bay, Boston. See Talk:Newbury_Street, Boston for two indications that it was not especially notable in the past. I haven't been able to find any really good description of just how and when it became a retail mecca; it was certainly not in the 1960s and certainly was by the 1980s. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 13:06, 18 Oct 2004 (UTC)
  • Re Niteowlneils comments. You can make a case for Newbury Street as being of architectural interest, but you have to make that case, and it's not any more interesting than the rest of Back Bay. Just another street you might include on an architectural walking tour, and probably as an excuse to grab a bite to eat or do some shopping. An interesting/relevant comment from Photographer's Guide to Boston: probably sums it up:"There are two nice places in the city to photograph old architecture and Victorian ironwork: Back Bay and Beacon Hill. Commonwealth Avenue along the Back Bay is particularly attractive because it has a tree-filled median strip. If you want sleekly dressed yupsters in the foreground and a lively commercial air, visit Newbury Street. On Beacon Hill, you'll want to focus on Louisburg Square, off Mt. Vernon Street. This is a small square lined with $1 million townhouses, best on overcast days so that you can get detail in the buildings."
  • P. S. Donlyn Lyndon (can that really be his name?) devotes approximately 20 out of 300 pages to "Newbury and Boylston Streets" in his architecture guide to Boston. Most of the buildings mentioned are in fact on Newbury Street or corner on it, so you could say that Newbury Street accounts for 5% of Boston's notable architecture. How's that for quantitative? [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 01:46, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)
  • Well, I have now improved it or bloated it but definitely have expanded it, so my own vote (on what is now practically my own article) is obviously Keep in present form. But still no strong feelings about whether this should be its own article or part of Back Bay, Boston. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 12:27, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC)
• Keep, with Extreme Predjudice. Perhaps Boston's most famous street (think Boston's versions of Champs-elysee (sp?)). Even more so now than Boylston Street. No less notable than any number of Boston landmarks (Fenway Park, Copley Square, etc.). Terrapin 18:58, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.