COVID 5 years later: Boston scenes then and now

By Grant Welker • Published March 7, 2025 • Updated on March 10, 2025 at 9:43 am

Dewey Square outside South Station looked like a ghost town in March 2020, left. Today, right, it is largely back to its normal bustle.

In March 2020, normally bustling areas of Boston were essentially turned into ghost towns.

Everywhere — that is, except for people's homes — the scene was the same: Empty offices, restaurants, trains and highways. Boston Business Journal photographer Gary Higgins was there five years ago, and this week he went back to some of those places to see how things have changed in five years. Here are three examples. The differences are striking.

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