Nomination for Canton Viaduct

From the form

The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.

NPS Form 10-900 (3-82) OMB No. 1024-0018 Exp. 10-31-84 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form See instructions in How to Complete National Register Forms Type all entries - complete applicable sections 1. Name For NPS use only received AUG 2 | 1984 date entered SEP 2 0 1984 historic THE CANTON VIADUCT and/or common 2. Location The Canton Viaduct street & number NEPONSET AND WALPOLE STREETS / city, town CANTON N/A._vicinity of N/A not for publication state MASSACHUSETTS 3.

Classification Category Ownership district public building(s) private X structure both site Public Acquisition object in process N/A being considered code 025 county NORFOLK code 021 Status occupied N/ A unoccupied - work in progress Accessible X yes: restricted yes: unrestricted no Present Use - agriculture commercial educational _ entertainment - government industrial military museum - park private residence religious scientific X - transportation other: 4. Owner of Property name Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority street & number 10 Park Plaza city, town Boston N/Avicinity of 5. Location of Legal Description state MA 02116 courthouse, registry of deeds, etc. Norfolk County Registry of Deeds street & number High Street city, town Dedham state MA 6. Representation in Existing Surveys title Historic American Engineering Record has this property been determined eligible?

- yes .no date Inventory (1973); Photos (1977; 1982) depository for survey records HABS/HAER, National Park Service city, town Washington, D.C. 20240 X federal - State county local state 7. Description CANTON VIADUCT, NEPONSET AND WALPOLE STREETS, CANTON Condition _ excellent X - good fair _ deteriorated ruins unexposed Check one unaltered altered Check one original site moved date Describe the present and original (if known) physical appearance

Description of the property

NA The Canton Viaduct is a multiple-arch granite viaduct 615 feet in length, 22 feet wide, and approximately 70 feet above the surface of the East Branch of the Neponset River. The viaduct was the principal structure on the Boston & Providence Railroad's main line, and the last to be completed, opening July 28, 1835. At the time, noted Hayward's Gazeteer of 1847, the structure was "widely conceded the most elegant and massive structure of masonry in the United states."1 In an unusual departure from contemporary construction practice, the structure is not solid, composed instead of two parallel walls, 4 feet apart and each 5 feet thick, extending the entire length of the viaduct.

At intervals of 27-1/2 feet, the walls are connected with buttresses 5-1/2 feet thick, extending transversely across the walls and projecting 4 feet beyond their faces.2 A series of segmental arches link the buttresses at the top of the viaduct, supporting the cantilevered roadbed. At the base of the viaduct, six rounded arches 8 feet 4 inches in span allow the East Branch to pass beneath, while Neponset Street passes through a larger 22-1/2-foot arch. Foundations of the structure extend to a depth of eight feet below the ground level. The entire viaduct is built on a 1-degree curve. In 1860 a second track was laid on the narrow structure.

To accomplish this, the original parapet walls were removed and a skeleton platform constructed of transverse double-cantilever wooden beams on top of the masonry and under the track rails.3 This placed the outer rail of each track directly over the arches. Although the wooden beams were replaced by those of iron in 1880, the increasing weight of trains directly on the arches finally caused a failure of several arches in 1909. In 1910, the railroad, by then the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad, reinforced the exterior arches with concrete.4 The final alteration to the structure occurred in 1952, when a second arched opening, lined with reinforced concrete, was cut through the viaduct for Neponset Street traffic. I John Hayward, A Gazetteer of Massachusetts (Boston: John Hayward, 1847), 2. 121. Edward D.

Galvin, "The Canton Viaduct," Railroad History Bulletin 129 (Autumn 1973), pp. 71-85. Robert Rogers, "The Canton Viaduct" (unpublished, Canton Historical Society), in Galvin, "The Canton Viaduct," pp. 81-82. 4 "Improving a Granite Viaduct," Engineering Record 66 (10 September 1910), p. 296-297.

From the form

The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.

Significance CANTON VIADUCT, NEPONSET AND WALPOLE STREETS, CANTON Period prehistoric 1400-1499 1500-1599 1600-1699 1700-1799 1800-1899 1900 Areas of Significance - Check and justify below - archeology-prehistoric - community planning - archeology-historic conservation agriculture economics -architecture education art X engineering _ commerce exploration/settlement communications industry invention landscape architecture law literature military .music philosophy politics/government -religion - science - sculpture social/ humanitarian theater - transportation - other (specify) Specific dates 1834 Statement of Significance

Statement of significance

(in one paragraph) Builder/Architect William Gibbs McNeill, Dodd and Baldwin The Canton Viaduct possessesintegrity of location, design, setting, materials, and workmanship. The viaduct is significant structure as well as for its association with the development of the Boston & Providence Railroad. The engineers responsible for its construction, William Gibbs McNeill and George Washington Whistler, were then among the nation's preeminent railroad engineers. Together with the Baltimore & Ohio's Carrolton and Thomas viaducts (constructed in 1829 and 1835 respectively), the structure is one of the oldest surviving multiple-arch stone railroad bridges in the United States. The structure thus meets criteria A, B, C, and D of the National Register of Historic Places.

The East Branch of the Neponset provided one of the most important collection of mill privileges in this part of the county, and from 1700 on, the nearby village of South Canton was the industrial center of town and the surrounding area. In addition to the ordinary saw and grist mills, a gunpowder mill operated here prior to and during the Revolution; Leonard & Kinsley produced some of the first steel implements in the country; and in 1800, less than 100 yards above the future site of the viaduct, Paul Revere constructed one of the first copper rolling mills. The same distance downstream is the site of the earliest cotton spinning mill in Massachusetts, established by James Beaumont in 1803. Later manufacturers would include large factories for the production of silk and stove polish. The coming of the railroad was an important factor in the industrial growth of South Canton.

The Boston & Providence Railroad was incorporated in 1831. In laying out the railroad, nine different routes between Boston and Providence were considered. South Canton's prominence as a manufacturing village undoubtedly played a significant part in the choice of the "Eastern Route" over the eight other surveyed lines. Canton residents figured prominently among the new railroad company's stockholders, and among its directors was Joseph warren Revere (1777-1868), son of the Revolutionary hero and inheritor of the copper works. Construction of the railroad was begun in 1832. Early in 1834, work crews reached Canton, where the vale of the Neponset River's East Branch was the last and largest of the obstacles to be overcome. Here, the original decision to use inclined planes like that on the Granite Railway at Quincy was abandoned after a runaway car on the incline killed several visitors.

Engineer for the structure was the Boston & Providence Railroad's chief engineer, William Gibbs McNeill (1801-1853), assisted by William Raymond Lee and George Washington Whistler (1800-1849). Both McNeill and Whistler had served on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad's Board of Engineers 1827-1830, and were certainly familiar with the 100-foot masonry arch Carrollton Viaduct (1829), the first masonry railroad bridge in the U.S. Even as the Canton Viaduct was being constructed, the B & 0 built the Thomas Viaduct under the 9.

The rest of the file

Bibliography, boundary description, and the people who prepared and reviewed the nomination.

Major Bibliographical References see continuation sheet 10. Geographical Data Acreage of nominated property - 124,230 sq. ft. (2acres) Quadrangle name Norwood, MA UT M References A L1,9 13/2 1/9,8,0 14,66,9/3,4,9 Zone Easting Northing Zone CLILLILLI LLLLLL ELI LULLL F GLULLILLI LIILLL Verbal boundary description and justification Quadrangle scale 1:25,000 Lililud Easting Northing LLlu See assessors map attached, for legal boundaries List all states and counties for properties overlapping state or county boundaries state code county code NONE state code county code 11. Form Prepared By name/title Peter Stott with George T. Comeau and the Canton Historical Commission organization Massachusetts Historical Commission date street & number 294 Washington St. telephone April, 1984 (617) 727-8470 city or town Boston, state MA 02108 12.

State Historic Preservation Officer Certification The evaluated significance of this property within the state is: national X_ state local As the designated State Historic Preservation Officer for the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (Public Law 89 665), I hereby nominate this property for inclusion in the National Register and certify that it has been evaluated according to the criteria and procedures set forth by the National Park Service. State Historic Preservation Officer signature atun hWesbouski title State Historic Preservation Officer Massachusetts Historical Commission date 7/23/84 For NPS use only hereby certify that this property is included in the National Register ves Entered in the date National Register 9-20-54 Keeper of the National Register Attest: Chief of Registration date NPS Form 10-900-a (3-82) MB No. 1024-001 xp.

10-31-8 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form CANTON VIADUCT, Continuation sheet CANTON, MA For NPS use only recelved date entered Item number 8 Page 1 direction of Benjamin Latrobe. Unlike the Carrollton Viaduct, both the Thomas and Canton viaducts are multi-arch stone structures each built on a curve, completed within a few weeks of each other, and almost exactly the same length. Both McNeill and Whistler would ! later go on to build other important railroads in Massachusetts and elsewhere. McNeill became chief engineer of the Boston & Worcester, while Whistler became consulting engineer for its counterpart, the Western Railroad, and was responsible for locating the line through the Berkshires.5 The contractor responsible for building the Canton Viaduct was the partnership of Dodd & Baldwin.

Stone for the viaduct was quarried locally: its interior rubble stone came from a Canton source known as the Dunbar Quarry; granite for exposed surfaces was extracted from a quarry in the adjoining town of Sharon, and hauled to the viaduct site on flatcars over the completed portion of the track. (It is reported that the draft horse -- "Charlie" -- that hauled the empty cars back to Sharon was also the first to cross the completed viaduct when disagreement broke out among the structure's builders as to who should have the honor.) Although Irish laborers were engaged for rough stone laying and the construction of the gravel roadbed, the stone cutters and masons who cut and laid the finished stone were Scottish Freemasons, and many of the viaduct's surface stones bear the identifying symbols of the men who shaped them. In recent years, many of these marks have been outlined with paint.

The railroad was opened from Boston as far as Canton by September 12, 1834. In the meantime, construction had begun from the Providence end, and by early June 1835, all but the viaduct had been completed. During June and July 1835, the line was operated with a jitney bus carrying passengers around the still unfinished viaduct. In 1835, the viaduct was one of the most visible pieces of evidence of man's power to conquer nature. One traveler wrote of the "stupendous work," testifying to "man's dominion over nature, and his ability to overcome any obstacle to any undertaking that is not morally or physically absurd."6 The Boston & Providence Railroad was one of three passenger railroads to be completed in Massachusetts in 1835, along with lines from Boston to Worcester and to Lowell. Until 1888 the Boston & Providence maintained an independent existence.

At that time it was leased to the Old Colony Railroad, which in turn was absorbed by the New York, New Haven, & Hartford in 1893. Today, as the most direct route between Boston and Providence, the line remains in heavy use, carrying both MBTA commuter trains and AMTRAK'S Northeast Corridor Service between Washington, D.C. and Boston. 5 Carl W. Condit, American Building Art: Ehe Nineteenth Century (New York: Oxford University Press, 1960), pp. 241-242; A Biographical Dictionary of American Civil Engineers (New York: American Society of Civil Engineers, 1972), pp. 86, 126. 6 Quoted in Harlow, p.11l. NPS Form 10-900-a (3-82) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form CANTON VIADUCT Continuation sheet CANTON, MA Item number OMB No. 1024-0018 Exp. 10-31-84 For NPS use only received date entered 9 Page Edward D.

Galvin, "The Canton Viaduct," Railroad History Bulletin 129 (Autumn 1973), pp. 71-85. Edward D. Galvin, "Canton Junction," Shoreliner 14 (1983), pp. 6-16. Alvin F. Harlow, Steelways of New England (New York: Creative Age Press, 1946), pp. 108-112. WASO Form - 177 ("'R" June 1984) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES EVALUATION/RETURN SHEET Canton Viaduct Norfolk County MASSACHUSETTS resubmission nomination by person or local government owner objection appeal Substantive Review: Reviewer's comments: -sample Lrequest Working No. AUG 2 | 1984 Fed. Reg. Date: _ Date Due: 120/54 -10/5/84 Entered In Action: ACCEPT_ 9-20-5x National Register -_RETURN _ REJECT. Federal Agency: . Lappeal L NR decision Recom./Criteria Reviewer Discipline. Date .

see continuation sheet Nomination returned for: _technical corrections cited below _substantive reasons discussed below 1. Name 2. Location 3. Classification Category Ownership Public Acquisition 4. Owner of Property 5. Location of Legal Description 6. Representation in Existing Surveys Has this property been determined eligible? yes I no 7. Description Condition excellent good fair deteriorated ruins unexposed Check one unaltered J altered Describe the present and original (if known) physical appearance summary paragraph completeness clarity alterations/integrity dates boundary selection Status Accessible Present Use Check one - original site - moved date 8.

Significance Period Areas of Significance--Check and justify below Specific dates Builder/Architect Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) summaryparagraph completeness clarity applicable criteria justification of areas checked relating significance to the resource context relationship of integrity to significance justification of exception other 094 9. Major Bibliographical References 10. Geographical Data Acreage of nominated property Quadrangle name UTM References Verbal boundary description and justification 11. Form Prepared By 12. State Historic Preservation Officer Certification The evaluated significance of this property within the state is: national state local State Historic Preservation Officer signature date title 13.

Other Maps Photographs Other Questions concerning this nomination may be directed to - Signed - Date - Phone: Comments for any item may be continued on an attached sheet Canton Viaduct Canton, Massachusetts Photo #1 of 2 HISTORIC AMERICAN ENGINEERING RECORD (Library of Congress !! 2atve) ackC.Bouches Photographer Date .. apiil ... 19.77 HAMIAE Canton Viaduct Canton, Massachusetts Photo #2 of 2 HISTORIC AMERICAN ENGINEERING RECORD Library of Congress Nogn*ive) Lack)CCruhe pho:ograher ....19.77 5-1-84 CJ 6Legion st CunfecAareg Ii- 1984 Dedr Commission: MASS. HIST. COMM. I definitely beliere the Canton Viaduct should be nominated to the National Register. It is à beautiful structure and a necessary one, Also the struggle and hard work of the laborers who built it should not be forgotten.

they hid hat have any moder ioniveniences in Those days .Ind the genius who dreamt of building it should be remembered. I love it. Jennie Duguay