Boston City (part 2 of 67)

One of the most striking features of old Boston was the mill-pond at the north end of the town. Like so many other landmarks of the original peninsula it has disappeared completely. The proprietors of the mills and adjoining lands obtained an act of incorporation from the General Court in March, 1804, as the Boston Mill Corporation ; and proceeded at once to belie their name by obtaining from the town the right to cut down Beacon Hill, and to use the material in filling up the pond, agreeing to give for this privilege one eighth of all the land filled in twenty years. The process was a slow one, and twenty-five years elapsed before it was finished. Blackstone Street, which follows the line of the mill-creek, through which at one time boats and small vessels could pass from the harbor to Charles River, was not laid out until 1833. All the stations of the railroads leading out of the city in a northerly direction - the Fitchburg, Lowell, Eastern, and Maine railroads - stand upon land filled by the Mill Corporation. It should be added that Copp's Hill was also drawn upon and mutilated for the purpose of this im¬ provement, in 1806 and subsequent years; and Pemberton- Hill was also transferred to the mill-pond. The area filled was about seventy acres, of which fifty acres were available for building purposes.1

The event which more than any other determined the future of Boston, and which ultimately led to a complete change in its physical conformation, was the act of the General Court, in 1814, granting a charter to the Boston and Roxbury Mill Corporation. The projector of this, as it was justly described at the time, "gigantic enterprise" was Mr. Uriah Cotting, who deserves the title given to him by Mr. Bowditch in the "Gleaner" papers, of Chief Benefactor of Boston. At this day we can look back upon the building of the Mill-Dam and see that the train of consequences which have followed its construction have alone made it possible for Boston to become a great city. The importance of the subject is a sufficient excuse for treat¬ ing it at length, and - disregarding for the time all other improvements - for bringing the history of the Mill-Dam and the Back Bay down to the present time.

When the charter was granted, there was but an expanse of water and salt marsh from the foot of the Common to the uplands in Brookline. The only communication between the two towns was by way of Roxbury and the Neck. There was ample room in Boston for all the population then residing here, and nothing seemed to be more unlikely than that there would ever come a time when all the land which could be reclaimed from the Charles River basin would be eagerly sought after for building purposes. Nothing was further from Mr. Cotting's plans than to bring about such a result. The improvement which led to the changes we see to-day was undertaken solely from commercial motives. The Mill Corporation was authorized to build a dam from the end of Beacon Street, at Charles Street, to Sewall's upon real estate in Boston which had in view the 1 [The condition of this territory, as filled in symmetry and appearance of a street when fully but not built upon, is shown in a view from the built upon. Later restrictions have concerned dome of the State House, in 1826, in Snow's Bosthe size and materials of buildings. ton, p. 316. - Ed.]

' The Blue reprc: n» Will T f The Yellow, Ma >h Land. V \ The Red Lines, Street* ar £ The contetuplat d lmpro1 ^fuloura lounci ed, thus, ph«d Cami a J Hoad'.

Roxbury Of Those Parts Of

Primed and coloured Typographically, bv BmjAJii* Du iiBoa*. in hi* new THIS FLAM ia probably iha Furr tm Panrrr.s ia a similar manner, as the common Priming Prtia cannot be thus applied, las*, or other Drawing*, can be accommodated, at the Balance-Factory, where appropriate Dciigas and Engraving* can be bandit

Topography, Etc., Of The Last Hundred Years

Point in Brookline , and a cross-dam from Gravelly Point in Roxbury to the main dam. It was empowered to make a roadway of each dam, and to levy tolls for the use of it; also to build a road from the western end of the main dam to the 1 unch-bowl lavern in Brookline. It had authority to con¬ fine tide water within the area bounded by the Mill-Dam and the uplands, and to build mills to be run by the water-power so created, or to lease the water-power.1

The original proposition of Mr. Cotting and his associates was to con¬ struct such a dam for the use of tide-water on the other side of the town, and to overflow the South Boston Flats. The Back Bay project was, like many a subsequent scheme, sprung upon the Legislature in the last days of the session, and the bill was passed by the House of Representatives when there were less than fifty, out of more than five hundred, members present.2 But in spite of opposition the charter was granted, the bill having been signed by Governor Strong on the last day of the session. The enterprise was a stupendous one for those days.3 The work of construction was be¬ gun under the direction of Mr. Cotting, but he did not live4 to see it com¬ pleted, and Colonel Loammi Baldwin succeeded him as engineer. The Mill- Dam was finished in the early summer of 1821, and opened for travel5 on and four colors were used in printing it, - blue for water, now appearing like a tea-green ; yel¬ low for marsh, now a light brown ; red for the roads ; and black for the lettering, etc. The scale is "eighty rods, or one quarter of a mile, to an inch." It is called " Plan of those parts of Boston and its vicinity with its Waters and Flats adjacent, which are immediately or re¬ motely connected with the contemplated design of perpetual tide-mills. This Vast Design, in the Wide Range of its Utility, will un¬ doubtedly exceed any Undertaking hitherto ac¬ complished in this Quarter of the World.

* Printed and coloured Typographically by Ben¬ jamin Dearborn, in his new-constructed LETTER-PRESS. This plan is probably the First ever Printed in a similar manner, as the Common Printing Press cannot be thus applied. Gentlemen desirous of having works printed in Colours, either Plans or other Draw¬ ings, can be accommodated at the Balance-Fac¬ tory, where appropriate Design and Engravings can be handsomely executed. Boston, February, 1814." The line of the Jamaica Plain aque¬ duct is traced on it. In the heliotype the yellow is the darkest tint, the blue is the medium tint, representing the water. See also Drake's Town of Roxbury, p. 345. - Ed.]

papers. A communication in the Daily Adver¬ tiser of June 10, 1814, signed "Beacon Street," be¬ gins as follows : " Citizens of Boston 1 Have you ever visited the Mall ; have you ever inhaled the Western breeze, fragrant with perfume, refresh¬ ing every sense and invigorating every nerve ? What think you of converting the beautiful sheet of water which skirts the Common into an empty mud-basin, reeking with filth, abhorrent to the smell, and disgusting to the eye ? By every god of sea, lake, or fountain, it is incredible." Al¬ though it was many years before the prophecy was verified, it was at last true enough ; and it was because the Back Bay became such a nui¬ sance as to be no longer endurable, that the im¬ provement was rendered possible.

3 It is related that on the day the books for subscription to the stock were opened, the street was blocked by the throng of persons eager to make an investment, so strong was their faith in Mr. Cotting's project. One determined person is said to have gained access to the room, where the signatures were received, by way of the win¬ dow, and thereby to have incurred the ill-will of those whom he had outwitted. Yet the corpo¬ ration did not pay a dividend for forty years.

5 " The road over the Boston and Roxbury Mill-Dam was opened for passengers for the first time yesterday morning, when a cavalcade of one hundred citizens and upwards, headed by General Sumner and Major Dean, passed over.

July 2, of that year, without great ceremony. Mills were erected in pro cess of time to use the water-power which had been created. In 1824 the mixed character of the business of the corporation led to a division of it. The Boston Water-Power Company was chartered for the -purpose of pur¬ chasing and holding any part of the water-power owned by the Mill Corpo¬ ration, or any land contiguous thereto. The new company was organized by the stockholders of the old, and at the beginning each shareholder had an equal proportional interest in each. The actual transfer of property to the Water-Power Company did not take place until 1832, when that corpora¬ tion took possession of the city mills, of the entire water-power, and of all lands lying south of the main dam. The Boston and Roxbury Mill Corpo¬ ration retained the roads and all property north of the dam. Meantime a controversy had arisen between the Mill Corporation, the city of Boston, and other owners of uplands bordering on the basin, involving the extent of the right of flowage by the company, and the right of owners of marshes covered by the tide at high water to fill in their land and thus exclude the flowage. It was terminated by a compromise in 1826. A boundary line was established, - the Mill Corporation relinquishing the right of flowage above it, and the land-owners giving to the company all the lands below the line as far as their rights extended. Some owners declining to ac¬ cept the compromise, a suit at law was brought, and the rights of the Mill Corporation were fully established by the decision of the Supreme Court in 1832. The compromise with the city, as will presently be seen, placed Boston at a disadvantage in pressing its claim to a share of the Back Bay lands when the grand scheme of filling them was about to be undertaken.

The Boston & Providence, and the Boston & Worcester Railroad com¬ panies were both incorporated in 1831. The line of each road was laid out across the water basins of the Water-Power Company. It was foreseen that the construction of these roads would largely diminish the area to be flowed for mill purposes, and there was a depreciation of one half in the stock of both the Mill Corporation and the Water-Power Company in consequence. These corporations endeavored to prevent encroachment. Having received a legislative grant of privileges for public purposes, they refused to admit that those privileges could be taken away even for other public purposes ; but in 1839 the contending parties came to an agreement which secured to the railroad companies all they desired. The concession to owners of the right to fill their lowlands, and the crossing of the territory by the railway lines were of the nature of direct injuries to the interests of the Water-Power Company for the purposes indicated by its title, and served to transform it dertaking the completion of which they were met open and well spread. Charlestown, Cambridge, to celebrate. ... He reverted to the position of South Boston, and Craigie's Bridges have added Boston thirty-four years ago when there was each a finger, and lately our enterprising citizens only one passage from the peninsula to the main, have joined the firm and substantial thumb over 'It was then,' he said, 'our town resembled which we now ride.' " - Boston Daily Advertiser, a hand, but it was a closed one. It is now July 3, 1821.

In 1849 there was an elaborate report to the city council on the question of drainage, the mayor and aldermen, as a Board of Health, having declared the condition of the Back Bay " to be one of nuisance, offensive and injuri¬ ous to the large and increasing population residing upon it." The abomi¬ nably filthy state in which it was, - - an open cesspool, receiving the sewage of a large community, - together with the claims made to the land and to jurisdiction over it by the cities of Boston and Roxbury, by owners of the shores, and by the Water-Power Company, attracted the attention of the State authorities. A commission was appointed, consisting of Simon Green* leaf, Joel Giles, and Ezra Lincoln, by whom the whole subject in all its bearings was thoroughly considered. In their final report, made in 1852, after an able review of the whole history of the Back Bay and of the vested rights established, and after showing the amount of filling already done, the uncontested conveyance of lands by the corporations both north and south of the Mill-Dam, and the building which had already taken place upon these lands, the commissioners suggested that the following principles should be sanctioned by the Legislature : -

1 . The corporations should be permitted to hold and use their property for land purposes, and abandon their business as mill and water-power owners. 2. All filling within the tide-water basin should be done with clean gravel. 3. Provision should be made for perfect drainage. 4. The streets to be laid out on the made-land should be wide and ample. 5. The Mill-Dam, or Western Avenue, and all other roads within the territory, should eventually be made free highways. 6. The filling should be done in such a manner that the scouring force of the water should not be diminished, and the harbor not be injured. 7. The flats north of the Mill-Dam should be included in the improvement. 8. The receiving basin should be filled up and laid out, and so dis¬ posed of as " to secure for it a healthy and thrifty population, and, by inherent and permanent causes, forever to prevent this territory from becoming the abode of filth and disease." 9. All this should be done by authority and under the direction of the State.

The commissioners also discussed at length the question of riparian rights, coming to a conclusion which the General Court during the same year (1852) adopted, when, by a solemn declaratory act, it asserted the right and title of the Commonwealth as owner of all flats " lying below the ordinary line of riparian ownership." The General Court also adopted so much of the commissioners' system as was necessary to be acted upon at the time. A resolve was passed appointing commissioners to determine the respective rights of the parties claiming an interest in the flats, and to secure those of the State ; which commissioners were empowered to sell or exchange the lands owned by the Commonwealth, and were instructed to devise a plan for filling and laying out the new lands. The corporations were, as the former commission had advised, authorized to change the purpose of their associations from mill to land holding and dealing. The new commissioners set about their work with diligence. They made an agreement with the Boston and Roxbury Mill Corporation by which the title of the company to the lands north of the Mill-Dam, claimed by it, was confirmed uncondition¬ ally, and the corporation came under an obligation to make all its toll-roads free to public travel in a specified time A contract was made with the Boston Water-Power Company in which a line of division running from the uplands westward was substituted for the line representing the limit of riparian ownership. Thus the Commonwealth became possessed of all the unfilled lands north of an east and west line starting near the present station of the Providence Railroad, and south of the Mill-Dam, while the Water- Power Company took the rest of the flats.

The city of Boston was not a party to be so easily managed as were these corporations. The history of municipal obstruction to an enterprise which was to be of such vast benefit to the city is one of the least creditable chapters in the record of Boston. The commissioners first proposed to the city to extend Boylston Street to the cross-dam (Parker Street), and to lay out a street at aright angle with the Mill-Dam, from that road to Tremont Street. The space enclosed by Beacon, Boylston, and the new street was to be given to the city, on condition that the city should fill its own land, build one half the surrounding streets, add the land to the Public Garden, and engage that it should never be built upon. The land so proposed to be given was about half a million square feet. The offer was rejected. Another, nearly similar to it, was made in 1853, and was also rejected. At this time, as before, there was a strong party in the city council in favor of selling the land of the Public Garden as it then was. An elaborate report was made sustaining the legality of such a sale and advocating the measure on eco¬ nomical grounds ; but it was more than hinted in public and private that the controlling reason in favor of such a disposition of the land was not economy but selfishness. Many of the city fathers were mechanics, who saw a chance for good building-jobs in case the land were sold.

In 1854 a third proposition was made to the city, which the council intimated it would accept if the State would convey to the city the land lying westward of the Public Garden, - about three and a half million square feet. Of course the commissioners would not listen to this condition. In their report to the Legislature they expressed their minds pretty freely as to the course of the city government. .Touching the assumption by that government that it ought to own the lands to be reclaimed, they showed very clearly that the city had long before expressly resigned and made over to the Water-Power Company all the rights it possessed over these flats. In fact, a large part of the very land to which the city of Boston laid claim was actually within the municipal limits of Roxbury. With the intention of disposing completely of the city's assumption, the commissioners wrote:

" The city of Boston is not now the owner of any lands or flats in the Back Bay, nor does it possess any proprietary or municipal right in or over the waters or flats of the Back Bay that can in any way limit or control the power of the Commonwealth or of its assigns, touching the mode of filling up, laying out, draining, or occupying its lands and flats in the Back Bay." 1 Another argument employed by the city fathers was somewhat sarcastically answered thus: " It may be true that the city would be able to use that valu¬ able property with very great advantage to the municipal treasury ; but the Commonwealth is quite as able to use it for the benefit of the State treas¬ ury." And in reference to the assumption by the city that it would be best able to judge how the territory should properly be drained, the com¬ missioners say : " The city has used and now uses the Back Bay as a cesspool."

A fourth report was made to the General Court in 1856. The city had proceeded, in disregard of the commissioners' plan for laying out the new lands, to sell its own land already filled ; and this land had been built upon in such a way that some of the proposed new streets were out of the ques¬ tion. At the same time the city persisted in its refusal to come to terms with the commissioners, or rather neglected to take any action in regard to the matter. The time for beginning the work had come, however, and after renewed effort by the commissioners an agreement was reached in December, 1856, a few months before the work was actually begun, be¬ tween the State, the city, and the Water-Power Company, and by a formal vote of the citizens the Public Garden was forever devoted to park pur¬ poses, and the city council was forbidden to erect upon it, or to allow to be erected, any building except a City Hall, or such structures as would be appropriate in a public pleasure-ground.2 Under the law as it then existed, no appropriation having been made for the expense of filling the flats, the commissioners asked for authority to make contracts for filling, to sell the land as fast as it was made, and to use the proceeds in continuing the work. This authority was granted in 1857. Private individuals advanced money to the contractor, Mr. Munson; the land filled was promptly sold; and the State was never called upon to advance a dollar.

It had been a long struggle.3 The practicability of such extensive filling had been called seriously in question. The desirableness of the land when filled was doubted by many. The city of Boston, by its government, had played a part of obstruction and of arrogance. The city of Roxbury had disputed the jurisdiction over a major part of the flats, with Boston; but through it all there were many men whose faith in the enterprise never faltered, and who pressed it upon the public attention with dogged per¬ severance. They long ago had their reward in the brilliant success of the scheme ; and many of them were wise enough early to become large pur¬ chasers of the filled land, which they afterward sold at a handsome advance.

1 The city council was advised to the same 2 [See further on the history of the Public effect by Mr. Peleg W. Chandler, the city solic- Garden in Colonel Wilder's chapter in the presitor during a part of the time when this contro- ent volume on "The Horticulture of Boston versy was going on. Mr. Chandler was one of and Vicinity." - Ed.]

The filling has been going on for more than twenty years, and is now nearly completed. A few acres only of " the beautiful sheet of water which once skirted the Common are now covered by the tide, and every day sees that little area diminished. The improvement has given to Boston its West End, its fashionable quarter, and has put millions of dollars in the State treasury.

East Boston, now one of the most important divisions of the city, was, only half a century ago, a barren and almost treeless island, having upon it but a single farm-house,1 and being inhabited but by a single family. 1 he improvement of Noddle's Island had long been a favorite project of General William H. Sumner, and its accomplishment was due very largely to his sagacity and persistence. Elis mother was a part owner of the island; and as early as the death of his father in 1799, although he was then only nine¬ teen years of age, he conceived plans for improving the estate. He made an unsuccessful attempt to secure the location of the turnpike road from Boston to Salem byway of Noddle's Island; and made a pilgrimage to Washington in 1801 to obtain a reversal of the decision to locate the Navy Yard, then about to be established at Charlestown. Although he failed also in this plan he did not despair, and lived to see the fulfilment of his boy's dream of a city on the then barren island. Five years after his mother's death, in 1810, a division of the estate by lot gave the share in Noddle's Island to one of his sisters, greatly to his disappointment. Although he acted as agent for this sister, and had still much at heart the object of improving the island, it was many years before the opportunity came to set energetically about carrying through the enterprise to completion.

It was in or about 1825 that the project began to take form, but no prog¬ ress whatever was made for several years. By 1830 the number of people who had more or less interest in the property was quite large, and the task of uniting them all in one company, having for its object the development of the island, appeared to be hopeless. Nevertheless, General Sumner set about it. He interested several large capitalists in his plans, bought the interest of some of the owners outright, and engaged the co-operation of others by paying them part in cash and part in stock of a company to be formed. Finally, all difficulties were cleared away, the East Boston Com¬ pany was chartered in May, 1833, 2 and the corporation succeeded to the ownership of the whole island by a clear title.

East Boston at that time consisted of six hundred and sixty-three acres of upland and marsh, and several hundred acres of flats, which had been declared 3 by the General Court to belong to the island by a special act of

2 It is interesting to note that when the ques- marking that he wished to reserve the designation tion of incorporating the company was first "North" for Charlestown when it should be anbrought before the Legislature, it was proposed nexed to Boston.

to call it the North Boston Company; but on 3 "It is declared that the flats round about the motion of Lot Pool, an influential member Nodle's Island do belong to Nodle's Island to

May 13, 1640. To illustrate the lack of faith in the land enterprise of one who should have been enthusiastic over it, General Sumner relates that the single inhabitant of the island, Mr. Williams, who had lived there forty years and had grown rich as a tenant farmer, was offered an acre of land for nothing if he would build a house upon it. The offer was contemptu¬ ously declined.

The charter of the company provided that land, not exceeding four acres in all, should be set apart for public purposes, - for sites for school and engine-houses, and burial-ground. In accordance with this provision of law, the mayor (Mr. Wells) and aldermen of the city visited Noddle's Island in company with the directors, May 4, 1833, to select the public lots. This was the first time that any officers of Boston had ever visited the island in a capacity which implied that the municipal jurisdiction extended over it. The first dwelling-house was erected that year by Mr. Guy C. Haynes, and was occupied by him in September. The enterprise being now fully started, a public sale of lands was held, which with the proceeds of previous private sales netted the sum of $86,000, or $6,000 more than the company had paid for the whole island. From that time onward the history of East Bos¬ ton was one of almost uninterrupted prosperity. At the end of 1833 only eight persons were living on the island, of whom five were temporary residents who moved away soon afterward. The valuation of the whole property in the same year was only $60,000. The growth was so rapid that in 1835 the population had increased to six hundred, and the taxable valuation was $806,000. The location of the Eastern Railroad terminus at East Boston the next year, the erection of the Maverick House, and the establishment of the Cunard Line to Liverpool in 1840 made the future of the island sure. Its further history is merged with that of the city of which it so quickly became an important part.1

The South Cove improvement is a good illustration of the energy and enterprise of the Bostonians of half a century ago. It was devised as an auxiliary and supplement of the Boston & Worcester Railroad enterprise, to give a terminus and yard room for the railroad. The originators of the scheme, who were known as the South Cove Associates, were incorporated

1 East Boston was, in 1834, the scene of a novel experiment in railroading. This was in the very infancy of the railroad system, when as yet neither the Worcester nor the Providence Railroad, chartered in 1831, was in operation, and less than ten years from the opening of the first railroad in the world. Colonel Henry Sargent, having invented a suspension railroad, solicited permission from the East Boston Com¬ pany to make his experiment on their land. This was readily granted, although no great confidence was felt in the invention, as it was supposed that the novelty of the affair would bring people across the ferry and make the island a place of resort. The peculiarity of the road was that it had but one rail. The car was hung in the middle, and was kept in position by lateral wheels. The wags likened the affair to saddle-bags. The experiment met with but little success, and the trains were after a short time discontinued. The incident is in¬ teresting at this time from the fact that a railroad on this plan, with a very slight modification, was proposed in 18S1 for the projected elevated sys¬ tem in the Boston streets, as something new under the sun.

as a company in 1833. The capital subscribed amounted to $414,500, in $500 shares. The company obtained from the Boston & Worcester Rail¬ road Company an agreement to buy a large amount of land, and to estab¬ lish and maintain the terminus of the road upon the reclaimed land forever. The South Cove company bought two million three hundred and seventyfive thousand feet of flats, at an average price of twelve cents a foot. This purchase, together with some pieces of other property which the company was forced to take in order to secure the flats, and a tract of marsh and upland in Roxbury, cost $316,084. Other estates were subsequently added, until the property in the South Cove, in 1836, amounted to more than three million square feet, or seventy-three acres.

The filling was carried on at an extremely rapid rate, considering the limited facilities; but it was only in November, 1839, that it was completed. In a little more than six years the company had reclaimed fifty-five acres of land from the dock tide-waters, and had added seventy-seven acres in all to the area of the city. The material was brought chiefly in boats from the company's gravel pit in Roxbury and from Dorchester, but a part of it was obtained in Brighton and transported by the railroad. The amount of such material was but little less than a million and a half cubic yards. In addition to the work of filling, the company built a sea-wall three hundred and eighty feet in length. The new streets added to the city had an aggre¬ gate length of fifteen thousand three hundred and fifty feet, or nearly three miles.

The enterprise made ultimately a financial success ; but it saw many dark days. Soon after the land was ready to be put into the market, the finan¬ cial crash of 1837 interfered to postpone the realization of many hopes. The construction of the United States Hotel, too, an enterprise in which the corporation directly engaged, was so serious a drag upon the resources of the company that at one time failure seemed to be inevitable. The hotel was, when constructed, the largest in the country.1 Finally the two undertakings were divorced, and both were. eventually successful. The Old Colony Railroad Company, when first built, made use of what was until lately the inward station of the Albany Railroad ; but afterward bought land of the corporation and erected station buildings upon it. The com¬ pany paid for the land in its own stock, at par; and the South Cove Cor¬ poration distributed one share of railroad stock for each share of its own stock, as a dividend, making a twenty per cent dividend.

The annexation of Roxbury to Boston was a measure of great import¬ ance in itself and in its consequences. The subject was agitated many years before anything resulted except agitation. At first the idea was

1 The freight station of the Boston & Wor¬ cester Railroad Company was also said, at the time, to be the largest structure of the kind in the country. Mr. Francis Jackson, agent of the South Cove Corporation for fifteen years or more, argued, in his report for 1S3S, that the United States Hotel was not likely to be too large, and gave as one evidence of the growth of Boston that "the Worcester Railroad now transports about one hundred passengers daily." favored by only a few people, and though they were persistent in their presentation of the matter before the Legislature, they were treated with little patience and scant respect at the State House. In a city document of Roxbury, of the year 1852, it is mentioned that the question of annexation was then before the Legislature for the third time.1 There was a protracted hearing that year before the committee on towns, the matter being brought up on the petition of Isaac T. Allard and others. The committee reported their conclusion "that although Boston at some future period may include within her limits not only Roxbury, but all the towns and villages within a circuit of four to six miles," yet the exigency had not arrived when Rox¬ bury could advantageously unite her destinies with Boston ; that the respec¬ tive wants of the two cities could be as well met without annexation as with it; that it did not appear that a majority of the people of Roxbury desired the union : and consequently that the petitioners should have leave to withdraw.

The next serious attempts to carry through the project were in 1859 and i860, in both of which years reports were made by committees in favor of the union; but the bill submitted was in each case stifled in the House to which it was reported. Previous to this time the city government of Rox¬ bury had submitted the question to the legal voters, with the result of show¬ ing but two hundred and sixty-two persons in the city favorable to the project of annexation. In 1865 it came up again, and this time it was deemed of sufficient importance to be referred to a select committee, who made a unanimous report in favor of the union. The report was made in the Senate, and remained on the table of that body a long time before action upon it was taken. Finally it came on for discussion, and, on a division, was refused a third reading by eighteen to fifteen. Subsequently the rejection was reconsidered and the bill was amended, after which it was again refused a third reading. A second motion to reconsider was lost by a tie vote. The bill provided for a submission of the act to the voters of the two cities, and it was not to have force unless it was accepted by a ma¬ jority of the voters of each city. Of course it never reached the House of Representatives.

In April, 1866, the city council of Boston passed an order providing that whenever the municipal authorities of any city or town adjoining Bos¬ ton should give notice of a desire to be annexed, it should be the duty of the mayor to appoint three commissioners to meet an equal number of commissioners from such city or town, and to make a full report to the city council upon " the financial, industrial, and sanitary condition of the city or town applying for annexation, with such suggestions as they may think proper regarding conditions which would make annexation desirable." The city council of Roxbury during the same year adopted an order pro-

1 The occasion was the severance of West to the change, and claimed and obtained a sepa- Roxbury from Roxbury, after the grant of a city rate town charter in 1851, five years after Roxcharter. West Roxbury was originally opposed bury became a city.

viding for a conference, and under its provisions William Gaston, Theodore Otis, and James Ritchie were made commissioners; and the mayor of Bos¬ ton appointed William Gray, Moses Kimball, and A. S. Wheeler to meet them. The commissioners reported to their respective city councils the next year, - those for Boston on Feb. 1 8, 1867, and those for Roxbury two or three weeks later. The reports were unanimous in each case in favor of the union. The Boston commissioners entered largely into sta¬ tistics, comparing the area, population, debt, taxes, valuation, schools, and other facts regarding the two cities. The proposition " that a large addi¬ tional territory will soon become a necessity for the healthful growth of Boston " was argued at some length. The report concluded as follows : -

" We are led, by our investigation of this subject, to the conviction that immediate annexation is equally important to Boston and Roxbury. If Boston would be the gainer by the addition of vacant territory, she will be the greater gainer by annexing a territory already occupied and improved by a people who have accompanied her own in the progress which they have already achieved. We are satisfied that in all material respects the two communities are nearly equal in the advantages which each offers to the other ; and we believe that the welfare of both will be greatly promoted by the early consummation of annexation."

The Roxbury commissioners likewise discussed the subject in all its bearings. The chief argument employed was that the sanitary condition of a part of Roxbury, which could not be efficiently protected from filth and disease, except by such a comprehensive system of drainage as Boston alone could supply, demanded the union; but the commissioners further expressed the opinion that annexation was inevitable sooner or later, and that the time was opportune on many accounts. " The few local and tem¬ porary interests which oppose it must yield to the pressing demands and wants of a great people. The interests of both cities, and to a large extent the interests of the Commonwealth, are involved in it, and these must soon overwhelm all opposition."

There was opposition, but it was slow in manifesting itself, and was at a disadvantage from the start. The project had gained great headway. Both city governments were in favor of it, and the reports referred to above greatly strengthened the movement. A meeting was held in Roxbury, and a committee was appointed to advocate the union before the legislative committee. The county of Norfolk, however, prepared to resist being robbed of the most important community within its limits. The local opponents pointed out the weak spots in the commissioners' reports. The one great need of Roxbury was an additional water supply, and the strongest argument among Roxbury people in favor of annexation was based upon that need ; but water was the one thing which Boston, by the admission of her own commissioners, could not supply with existing facili¬ ties. Moreover, it was urged that Boston was then about to enter upon a number of large improvements within the city proper, which would call for heavy appropriations and increased taxes upon Roxbury, were the union to take place. The hearing at the State House was held at the end of March and early in April. The petitioners introduced a great number of gentle¬ men representing a large variety of interests, all of whom warmly advocated the union. The opponents offered no testimony; but Mr. Safford, chair¬ man of the Norfolk County commissioners, made a long and able address, in which the argument against annexation was forcibly presented.

During all the preliminary discussion it had never been suggested by anybody that the Legislature should take the matter into its own hands absolutely, and marry the two cities without formally consulting their wishes. Many old opponents of the annexation had withdrawn from resistance so far as to express a willingness that the question should be submitted to the people of the two cities, and decided by their votes. The Norfolk County Journal , edited by Mr. George H. Monroe, who was personally an opponent of annexation, had hardly noticed the progress of the measure further than to print the reports and accounts of the hearing. Great, therefore, was the surprise, indignation, and consternation of the opposition, when the com¬ mittee reported to the Senate, in May, a bill providing for a summary union of the cities. The unanimity of the committee, the strong Boston influence in favor of the absorption of Roxbury, and the activity of a well trained lobby, left the opponents very little reason to hope that their rights, as they regarded them, would restrain the Legislature from consummating the union.

The debate in the Senate was not a long one. An amendment to the bill, providing for a submission of the question to the voters of the two cities, was rejected by twenty-four votes against four, and the bill was ordered to a third reading by twenty-six to three. It was afterward passed to be engrossed without a division; and a reconsideration being moved, was refused by a tie vote, - thirteen against thirteen. In the House of Repre¬ sentatives the submission amendment was brought forward, and was there also rejected, but by a close vote ; ninety-three being in favor of it, and one hundred and three opposed. Among the prominent men in the House that year may be mentioned the Hon. P. Emory Aldrich, Francis W. Bird, Rich¬ ard H. Dana, Jr., and John S. Potter, who voted for submission; and Daniel L. Harris, Harvey Jewell, and Moses Kimball, who voted against it.1 The

1 It is interesting to notice the reasons urged by the advocates of the summary annexation for refusing to allow the voters of the two cities to decide the matter. The opponents of annexa¬ tion taunted the other side with being afraid to trust their measure to a popular vote. They maintained that the sentiment in favor of union, as indicated by the action of the city govern¬ ments, was fictitious, and that a popular vote would show it to be so. To this it was replied that the State had full power over the boundaries of cities and towns, and might obliterate them altogether ; that there was a grave question if the General Court might make the enactment of a law dependent upon the votes of citizens ; that it was a part of the deep game of the "Antis," having secured the submission clause, to main¬ tain before the Supreme Court the proposition that the act was unconstitutional ; and, finally, that the question of union was not one concern¬ ing the people of the two cities alone, but that other cities and towns, - all the people of the State, in fact, - were interested in the gov¬ ernment of the chief city and should, equally with Boston and Roxbury, be allowed to vote on the question.

bill was ordered to a third reading on May 28, without a count. The next day numerous amendments were proposed, but were all rejected, and the bill was passed to be engrossed without a division. The enactment of the bill was resisted, but it was carried, and the bill was laid before the Gov¬ ernor. It was promptly vetoed, and returned to the Senate June 1, the very day of prorogation. The message of Governor Bullock 1 was a calm and temperate criticism of the high-handed act which the Legislature had attempted to commit. His Excellency did not try to conceal his opinion that the union itself was a measure of questionable wisdom. But he pro¬ tested against its being accomplished without consulting the people of a municipality which had had a corporate existence for two hundred and thirty-seven years, as to their willingness to be absorbed by their greater neighbor; nor those of the city of Boston, who might be decidedly averse to undertaking jurisdiction over new territory, and to assuming the Roxbury debt. On the reconsideration required by the Constitution, the Senate voted to pass the bill, notwithstanding the objections of the Governor, twenty-five to nine. The House rejected it, not even a majority support¬ ing it. The ayes were eighty-three ; the noes, one hundred and twenty-one. A new bill was immediately introduced, being the vetoed bill with the sub¬ mission clause added, which was passed through all its stages, under a suspension of the rules, in both branches, and was signed by Governor Bullock, the whole process having been gone through in a few hours.

The question was thus remitted to the people. At first there seemed to be a chance that the measure would be successfully opposed ; but the advantages of union were too apparent long to leave the hope of such an issue. Some efforts were made to arouse the opposition, but they did not effect much. The campaign was conducted languidly, and appeals to the pride and pockets of Roxbury men met with no response. Even before the vote was taken, the most strenuous opponents of annexation began to reconcile themselves to the inevitable. The election was made September 9. Every ward of both cities voted for union, and, with one exception in each city, by more than two to one. The vote of Boston was four thousand six hundred and thirty-four for annexation, and one thousand and fifty-nine against it. In Roxbury it was one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two in favor, and five hundred and ninety-two opposed. The contest was ended ; and Roxbury was, to use a witticism of which the author has doubtless repented long ago, Sujfolkated. The verdict of the people was instantly accepted with the best of feeling by all, and every trace of bitterness disappeared as if by magic. It had been complained that after union Roxbury would not have her due proportion of represen¬ tation in the city council ; but on a further examination the complaint was

1 The message was accompanied by a long enactment dependent upon their decision, was opinion by Attorney-General Charles Allen, in maintained; and precedents were cited to suswhich the view that the General Court might tain this position. This view of the matter has submit such an act to the voters, and make the obtained ever since.

discovered to be unfounded. The voters of Roxbury participated in the city election in December, and the union became complete at the beginning of January, 1868.1

It is most convenient to add here the brief details of the later annexa¬ tions. The movement in favor of adding Dorchester to the city began very soon after the union of Boston and Roxbury. It met with stren¬ uous opposition, however, in the old town. An act was passed by the Legislature of 1869, and approved June 4 of that year, submitting the question to a vote of the people in the city and town. The election was held June 22. Boston voted more than six to one in favor of annexation, the numbers being three thousand four hundred and twenty ayes to five hundred and sixty-five noes. Dorchester agreed by a small majority, - nine hundred and twenty-eight votes being cast in favor of the union, and seven hundred and twenty-six against it.2 Four years later, in 1873, the pro¬ ject of annexing several municipalities in the neighborhood was taken up in earnest. In Charlestown, in fact, the idea was an old one, having been brought forward at various times in the previous twenty years ; and for some years before 1873 the annexation question had been the leading issue before the voters of that city. As a result of the agitation the Legislature sub¬ mitted the question of annexation to the voters of Charlestown, Brighton, Brookline, and West Roxbury, the consent of the people of each place, and of Boston, being required for each separate annexation. The voting took place October 7. Boston agreed to accept all the new responsibilities offered to it, and only Brookline refused its consent to be absorbed.3 No annexations have taken place since 1873.

The creation of new land by filling, and the cutting down of Beacon Hill gave opportunities for the laying out of streets in a regular system, such as was never thought of in the original planning of old Boston; but great inconveniences grew, as Boston increased in size, out of the narrow¬ ness and crookedness of the old streets. Some enterprises of much impor¬ tance, considering the times and the wealth of Boston, were undertaken, as occasion seemed to require, at the public expense, after the organization of the city government; but the aggregate amount expended in the widening and extension of streets from 1822 to 1866, a period of forty-four years, was but $4,418,283 in the city proper; $75,98° in South Boston; and

2 Between the time of this vote and the actual union with Boston, Dorchester made sure several internal improvements by liberal votes at town-meetings, the money to carry them out being raised by loans which became, in January, 1870, a part of the debt of Boston. [See Mr. Barrows's chapter in Vol. III. - Ed.]

Charlestown, ayes, 2,240, noes, 1,947. As to Brighton, Boston voted, - ayes, 5,629, noes, 1,933; Brighton, ayes 622, noes, 133. As to West Roxbury, Boston voted, - ayes, 6,110, noes, 1,663; West Roxbury, ayes, 720, noes, 613. As to Brookline, Boston voted, - ayes, 6,205, noes, 1,536; Brookline, ayes, 299, noes, 706. [Brookline had been taken from Suffolk County and added to Norfolk County in 1 7 93- It will be remembered that it was originally a grant to Boston men. - Ed.]

The year 1866 marks the end of the period of economy in street im¬ provement, and a season of lavish expenditure set in. The next year the demolition of Fort Hill was begun. This district, which was at one time 2 covered with magnificent residences, had been invaded by a class of in¬ habitants so little to the taste of the people who lived there that it had been abandoned altogether to the new comers. Business had stretched its arms all around the territory, and the hill itself was crowded with tenement houses inhabited by throngs of persons of foreign birth. The renovation of the district was undertaken both for sanitary reasons and because the land was greatly needed for commercial purposes. The territory involved was about twenty acres in extent, and was bounded by Pearl, Milk, and Broad streets. In 1867 and the following years an average reduction of twenty-five feet was made in the grade of the whole district. The hill at its highest point was fifty feet above the present level. The material was largely employed in filling for the extension of Albany Street, between Troy Street and the Dover Street bridge, and in the Suffolk Street district.

The Church Street improvement was undertaken almost wholly as a sanitary measure. The district lying between the Boston and Albany Rail¬ road, where it crosses Tremont Street, and Columbus Avenue was hardly above the tide level, and in some places was below it. In 1868 a commis¬ sion, appointed for the purpose by the authority of the city council, was directed to raise all the street grades to a height of eighteen feet above mean low-water, and back yards and cellars to twelve feet. The work was completed in October, 1869. In making this improvement two hun¬ dred and ninety-six brick buildings were raised and set on new foundations from ten to fourteen feet above their former situation ; seven streets were widened ; and Columbus Avenue was extended through to Boylston Street. The total cost of the undertaking to the city was more than one million dollars.3

The companion improvement, that of the Suffolk Street district, was begun in September, 1870. This enterprise involved the raising of the territory between Dover, Tremont, Pleasant, and Washington streets, - an area of about thirty-one acres. In this work nearly one quarter of a mil¬ lion cubic yards of filling-material were used, a part of it being transferred from Fort Hill. Of seven hundred and forty-nine buildings on the terri¬ tory when the change was begun, about one hundred and fifty were demol-

. 1 The largest sum expended on any one pended upon them ; and numerous other streets street was $394,163 upon Devonshire Street, small sums, amounting to very much in the ag- The gross expenditure upon Washington Street gregate.

was only $291,025 for the whole time. The 3 [The annexed cut represents the view from North End received much the largest share of the slope of Fort Hill about 1806, following an the improvement funds, - Blackstone, Commer- original painting owned by William H. Whitcial, Court, Friend, Hanover, North, and Union more. - Ed.]

ished, and the rest were raised to grade. Extensive alterations were made in street lines. Suffolk Street itself was extended through to I remont Street, and became the northern end of Shawmut Avenue. The total cost of the improvement was not far from two and a half millions. The work was substantially finished in May, 1 872 . 1

The filling in of the water spaces between wharves, for the formation of Atlantic Avenue, was the most costly improvement of the kind ever under¬ taken by the city. The work was mostly done between the years 1868 and 1870, and the total cost of the avenue to the year 1880 was more than $2,- 400,000, making it the most expensive street in the city, with the exception of Washington Street, and but little less than that. This enterprise gave a broad way along the water front, which has proved of the greatest value to the commerce of Boston.2

Boston has been many times visited by destructive fires, several of which, including the worst of all, have occurred within the last century. On April 20, 1787, a fire broke out in Hollis Street Church, which speedily commu¬ nicated to other buildings, and was not extinguished until more than one hundred structures, including sixty dwelling-houses, were consumed.3 Six years later, in 1793, the square from Pearl Street to the water was swept bare; six or seven rope-walks and about one hundred stores and resi¬ dences were destroyed.4 In 1824 a fire originating near the corner of Charles and Chestnut streets, spreading to Beacon Street, destroyed sixteen valuable buildings, and inflicted the (for that time) great loss of $150,000. Plying cinders set fire to many houses at a distance, but fortunately the flames were extinguished. On Fast Day, in 1825, fifty stores were burned in Central and Kilby streets, involving a loss of a million dollars. In No¬ vember of the same year ten buildings on Court Street, in which were many lawyers' offices, were destroyed. On May 18, 1835, a fire destroyed about forty buildings in Blackstone, Pond, and Salem streets, turning more than one hundred families out of doors.

The most destructive fire which ever occurred in Boston broke out shortly after seven o'clock in the evening of Saturday, Nov. 9, 1872, in the fourstory granite block numbered 83, 85, and 87 Summer Street, at the corner of Kingston Street. Before the flames were extinguished, a space of sixtyfive acres, thickly covered with brick and stone warehouses, had been com¬ pletely burned over, involving a loss of property valued at seventy-five million dollars.5 At the time the fire occurred almost every horse in the city was still ill, or was just recovering from the strange disease which, for want of a better name, was called " the epizootic," and which practically disabled them. It has always been a question, however, if the engines were any longer than usual in arriving, and the blame is believed to rest partly upon those who gave the alarm. At all events when the engines arrived it was already a dangerous fire, and another alarm was sounded at once. An open elevator, or lift, lined with wood, had communicated the flames to every story, and in a short time the interior of the building, from cellar to attic, was a mass of roaring fire. Still, it may be questioned if any person who saw even that first brilliant sight felt any apprehension of a dangerous extension of the fire.

The appreciation of danger came gradually, but it came irresistibly. The intense heat of the flames passed through the partition walls and com¬ municated with the next building. The fire passed up and down the street. The building on the opposite corner of Kingston Street caught. Summer Street also was crossed at about the same time, and the whole district was doomed. Alarm had followed alarm in quick succession, and had brought to the scene not only the entire fire department of the city, but a vast throng of citizens. As soon as the extremely dangerous character of the fire was recognized, despatches were sent to all the suburban cities and towns, imploring the help of their engines and firemen ; but by this time not only was the fire beyond the control of any force of firemen which could have been employed, but there was a scarcity of water, without which all effort must be ineffectual. This district, formerly covered with residences, had been newly appropriated for business purposes, and the water pipes had not been enlarged since the change was made. They were too small to carry the enormous quantities of water required; and they were fitted with hydrants of an old-fashioned pattern and ill adapted to the purpose. The flames spread in all directions. They advanced steadily up Summer Street, on both sides, towards Washington Street; they moved southward towards the Albany station ; eastward towards the water ; and northward into the very business heart of the city, - and in the latter direction most rapidly of all. It was an enlarging circle of fire. To attack it methodically seemed to be, and probably at that stage of its progress was, out of the question. Scarcely an attempt was made to stop its movement towards the wharves. Resistance was more effectual on the south side, where the buildings were not high, and by midnight it was practically checked in that direction; but by that hour the fire was close upon Washington Street. A most gal¬ lant and determined effort was made to hold the line of that street, and though it required such energy and fortitude as have rarely been demanded of firemen, it was successful.

The path of the fire was now fan-shaped. It extended in breadth the whole length of Summer Street, and advanced northward with inconceivable fury along the whole line from the harbor front to Washington Street. The streets were narrow and the buildings high. There was no point where a stand could be made. An engine stationed anywhere near the fire could not be got in working order before it became necessary either to remove it with all haste or to abandon it. Those who saw that terrible sight will never for¬ get it, and the sounds were almost as fearful as the sight. The night sky vol. iv. - 7.

was grandly illuminated, and a wild shower of burning brands and cinders was passing over the district which was shortly to be devastated. The crash of falling- walls became an almost continuous roar. The streets were filled, as they were rarely filled at midday, with men and teams carrying away all portable goods to a place of safety. Perhaps there was no single point where the amazing power of the fire was so well observed as from the empty space where Fort Hill had been. The hill had been cut away but not built upon.

granite stores, where the shoe trade of the city had its headquarters. It happened that the fire attacked the whole street at once. Hardly five minutes elapsed after the appearance, to those watching from the Fort Hill space, of the first spark in one of the stores, before the whole block was a mass of roaring fire. The great warehouses were converted into so many furnaces, and the heat and light were so intense that at a distance of several hundred feet it was painful to face the fire many minutes at once. In red-hot, the floor timbers began to fall against the walls, and the great structures tottered and fell like a house of cards, but with a thundering crash.

The fire raged until Sunday afternoon. The firemen, having succeeded in holding the line of Washington Street, undertook to gain on the enemy by narrowing its path at Milk Street. The Old South Church and the new Post-Office were used as barriers, and success was achieved. Point after point was gained by the weary but plucky men, thanks to the division of the fire by the vacant Fort Hill district, and at last it only remained to save single buildings from destruction, leaving those which had taken fire to burn. When this had been done, there was an opportunity to look around and see the extent of the desolation.

The city was in a deplorable condition. The wild excitement of that terrible night and day had unstrung the nerves of the strongest. Thousands upon thousands of people had seen their property consumed, or had been thrown out of employment, for how long nobody could guess. All the open spaces in the city, and even many in suburban towns, together with hundreds of private houses, were filled with merchandise hastily removed and in the utmost confusion. The lawless had taken full advantage of their opportunity, and many men not habitual criminals had been tempted too strongly by the chance to pilfer. The whole community was on the verge of panic. No time was lost in taking measures to reinforce the police, who were not numerous enough for the emergency. A whole brigade of militia was called out for active duty. A cordon of guards was stationed com¬ pletely around the burnt district, and companies were located in various parts of the city, provided with arms and ammunition, to be ready for marching at a moment's notice. The Old South was again devoted to military purposes, and became a barrack for militia. Guards patrolled the streets at night. In short, until the danger of disorder had subsided.

The boundaries of the district burned over were, - beginning at the foot of Summer Street, taking both sides of that street, - Summer, Washington, Milk to the rear of the new Post-Office and around it, Devonshire, Water (both sides), Congress, Lindall, and Oliver, to the water front. One could stand at the corner of Washington and Franklin streets, and see the masts of the shipping in the harbor. Seven hundred and seventy-six buildings, of which all but sixty-seven were of brick or stone, were consumed. Four¬ teen lives were lost, seven being firemen. Comparatively a small number of dwelling-houses were destroyed. The poor suffered rather from the loss of employment than from being rendered homeless. Measures of relief were organized at once, but the assistance which was freely and gener¬ ously tendered by the people of other cities was declined. The sum of $34i-9i3-68 was collected, but it was not all needed, and about $20,000 were returned to the donors.1 The emergency seemed to be sufficiently pressing to render a special session of the Legislature desirable, and at the request of the city council Governor Washburn summoned the General Court at once. The insurance companies of the State, nearly every one of which, having risks in Boston, had been bankrupted, were authorized to reorganize. A building-law was passed to enable the city authorities to prevent the erection of structures which would, like those destroyed, only serve to speed the flames. An act was also passed legalizing an issue of Boston city-bonds to provide a fund loanable to real estate- owners upon mortgages of their property, to enable them to rebuild. This latter act was unsatisfactory to the originators of the scheme, and was amended at the regular session soon after held. Before any action had been taken under this act, the Supreme Court put a veto upon the dangerous precedent by pronouncing the act unconstitutional.2

Private enterprise was, however, equal to the necessities of the case. The work of rebuilding began almost immediately, and was prosecuted energetically. The earliest structures were solid, but plain architecturally. That was, nevertheless, not to be the general fashion. An increasing ten¬ dency to picturesqueness of style and higher ornamentation was observed ; and in the course of two years the whole district had been rebuilt in all respects better than before the fire. Advantage was taken, meanwhile, of the opportunity to improve the avenues. Numerous changes were made. Summer Street was widened, and so were Washington, Hawley, Milk, Devon¬ shire, Oliver, and others. Post-Office Square was laid out. Pearl, Franklin, and other streets were extended. The expense of these changes3 was very

1 [The chief authority for the history of this and several hasty narratives by Ctiffin, Conwell, fire must be the Report of the committee of the and Frothingham, are of doubtful service. - Ed.] city council to investigate its cause and prog- 2 [See Governor Long's chapter in Vol. III. ress ; but an excellent summary will be found in - Ed.]

Mr. James M. Bugbee's paper in the North Amer- 3 The expense of the most important imican Review, cxvii. The newspapers of the day, provements in street lines made at this time was great, but it was wisely incurred. The gain in convenience, in appearance, and in security was worth all the money expended. It would be impossible for a fire to cross the wide streets which now intersect the wholesale district of Boston and divide it by limits which must circumscribe the area of devas¬ tation. At the same time that the streets were remodelled, as it were, new and larger water-pipes were laid, and improved hydrants were fitted to them. At present, as for a number of years past, the " burnt district" makes itself known to the observer only by the more spacious streets which run through it, and by the more elegant structures which adorn it.

Within a few months after the great fire of 1872 there were several others, which at another time would have been regarded as calamitous. Within a very few days, in fact, a threatening fire broke out in the high, narrow, tri¬ angular building which then stood opposite the head of Washington Street, dividing it from Cornhill. The building was so much weakened that it was of necessity taken down, and the opportunity was seized for pressing through to consummation the long-talked-of plan of extending Washing¬ ton Street northward to Haymarket Square.

On May 30, 1873, Decoration Day, a fire broke out in the furniture warehouse of ITaley, Morse, & Co. on Washington Street. It quickly ex¬ tended across the street and consumed the Globe Theatre, Chickering's piano-forte warerooms, Chauncy Hall School, and other buildings. Two acres of land were burned over, and the loss of property was estimated at one million dollars. Ten persons who had been burned out in the fire of November 9 previous were again sufferers by the Decoration Day fire. The improvement, by widening, of Washington and Beach streets, made the only permanent topographical changes which resulted from this fire.

During the last eight years no important improvement, involving a great change in the topographical features of the city, has been undertaken either by public or by private enterprise, unless the project of a Back Bay park deserves to be mentioned as such. The proposed park is really but a part of the extensive filling which has been going on for many years, and which has already been described at length, has rendered necessary an important waters of Muddy River, in Brookline the Back Bay and Beacon Street.1

1 From the time of the city charter, 1S22, to May, 1880, the expenditures by the city in the extension and widening of streets amounted to nearly twenty-seven million dollars. The streets upon which more than half a million dollars each was expended, with the amounts, were : Atlantic Avenue, $2,404,000; Broadway extension, $919,- 000; Columbus Avenue, $524,000; Congress Street, $1,224, 000; Devonshire Street, $1,51 8, 000;

Having now mentioned the more important events which have had their influence, greater or less, in transforming Boston - a small, irregular, rugged, and hilly peninsula - into a great city with many square miles of territory, at the same time converting the ancient town into a broad and spacious tract of comparatively level ground, let us turn our attention to such of the struc¬ tures, ancient and modern, as call for notice in this chapter. These are not numerous. The last one hundred years have seen most of the earlier buildings disappear; and of the modern edifices, many of the most interest¬ ing are more appropriately described in other chapters of this work. In the latter class may be mentioned the churches and most of the public buildings; while of the former, many were described in the second volume.

The North End offers but little that is interesting at present. Its glory has departed. It was long ago abandoned as a fashionable, or even as a respectable, quarter for residences, except in a few small districts.1 The old buildings have gone to ruin from neglect, and have taken on, even in their outward aspect, something of the seedy and degraded air of those who inhabit them. Copp's Hill burying-ground, Christ Church, and Faneuil Hall are almost the only memorials of the past in this quarter of the city which are still worth visiting, and the first two are now substantially as they were a hundred years ago. Faneuil Hall is still one of the most attractive objects in the city to the stranger. It was not only the scene of those stirring meet¬ ings in which the latent patriotism of the Revolutionary fathers was aroused, but it has continued to be the headquarters of every popular movement in which the interest of Boston has been excited. Within its walls have been discussed the various burning questions of the Embargo, the Tariff, Slavery, Secession, and Paper Money. Eafayette, the Prince de Joinville, Ford Ash¬ burton, and other guests of the city have been entertained here. Webster, Everett, Sumner, and other representatives of Massachusetts in the Senate or House of Representatives have from the old rostrum given an account of their stewardship. The wrongs and sufferings of Greece, Ireland, and other unfortunate countries have been told ; the rights and demands of labor have been urged ; the claims of parties have been set forth ; political victo¬ ries have been celebrated. Faneuil Hall has not always spoken with the voice of Boston, but nothing which has profoundly agitated Boston for more than a hundred years has found the old hall silent.

Adjoining the Cradle of Liberty stands Faneuil Hall Market, which, owing to the use that is made of it, is already taking on a venerable aspect. The construction of this great market-house was, at the time it was under¬ taken, the most important enterprise ever assumed by Boston, and its history has been told in another chapter.2

Hanover Street, $1,651,000 ; Oliver Street, $607,- ments, and of course does not include the cost 000; Tremont Street, $717,000; Washington of new streets on the Back Bay.

for these ten streets, $12,645,000. The aggregate End to a time just succeeding the Revolution. - mentioned is exclusive of the cost of the Fort Description of Boston, p. 138. - Ed.]

Upon and near Causeway Street stand four of the railroad passenger stations. Not only the land, but the system of which these structures are the visible reminders, are the creation of the present century. Only one of these stations possesses any interest whatever apart from its connection with the railroad of which it is the terminus. The Fitchburg station is not only an imposing structure architecturally, but it is memorable as the scene of Jenny Lind's first appearance in Boston, in October, 1850. The Swedish songstress at that time gave two concerts in the great hall over the station, to audiences numbering more than four thousand each.1

The district of which State, Court, and Cambridge streets is the very crooked backbone, is by far the most interesting part of the town in its possession of memorials of the past. Some such monuments have been but recently removed. Upon all the old maps of Boston, up to about 1850, there was represented a row of buildings separating Court Street from Tremont Row. These buildings stretched from near the head of 1 remont Street to Hanover Street. With one exception they were of wood, and at the Hanover Street end were very thin and narrow. About thirty years ago these latter were taken down, and " Scollay's Buildings" were changed from plural to singular. The last building of the row was removed about ten years ago, and the whole space was thrown open. Not one of the buildings pos¬ sessed the slightest historical interest; but the removal of them has not only effected an important street improvement, but has left one of the most re¬ markable cases of confusion in street nomenclature which is anywhere to be found. The open space is known as Scollay Square, although it is in fact the most irregular of triangles. Two of the sides, and those two which form almost a right angle with each other, are in Court Street, and the third is Tre¬ mont Row. At the corner of Court and Tremont streets still stands the old building which was Washington's headquarters; but it is threatened 2 with early destruction. Another building, quite famous in its day, has but just disappeared. Joy's Building stood, until the present year, on the site of the second and third3 houses of worship of the First Church. The land was sold to Benjamin Joy by the society of the church in 1808, and the building just taken down was then erected. It has been replaced by a handsome marble structure. The church in Brattle Square, dedicated in 1773, was sold and demolished in 1871. The society removed to a fine new structure on Commonwealth Avenue; but that building has now been sold, and the society is extinct. The Old State House, crowned with a mansard roof,

1 Mr. Barnum paid Jenny Lind $1,000 for each concert. His agent sold a thousand more tickets to the second concert than could be ac¬ commodated in the hall, and was obliged to refund the money next day to the unfortunate holders who were excluded. But although the doors were shut on so many ticket holders, the hall was densely crowded, many ladies fainted, and at one time there was serious danger of a panic. The wonderful notes of the singer, how¬

2 We may, however, remark that it is not threatened for the first time. In 1S41 the Legis¬ lature incorporated the Columbian Hotel Com¬ pany, the projectors of which contemplated the erection of a tavern on this site ; but, as the Boston Almanac for 1S42 remarked, "no prepara¬ tions are yet discoverable for erecting an edifice." still stands, in its conglomerate architecture, a type of the present and the past. Lager beer is dispensed from one end of the basement, while at the other end are telegraph and despatch offices. Above, where once assembled the fathers of the State and the wisdom of the city, the dusty old rooms are occupied by lawyers, insurance agents, and architects. A determined effort was made during the present year to remove the build¬ ing, but it failed.1

The Old South Church still stands, after many vicissitudes and dangers, but has been wholly diverted from its original use. Up to the time of the great fire of 1872 it was used by the society for purposes of worship; but at that time, after a most heated controversy both within and without the church, it was leased to the United States government, and converted into a post-office until the new building on Devonshire Street was ready for occupation. After being almost miraculously saved from destruction by fire, it was " desecrated " by being devoted to the mail service. On its being surrendered by the Government, there was a revival of the old project of selling the church to be taken down. The sentimental spirit was, how¬ ever, so strong in the descendants of the Revolutionary fathers that it was rescued. Funds were raised in various ways, the building was purchased by an association, to be preserved ; and since that time it has been open to strangers, on the payment of a small fee. The interior has been converted into a sort of museum of New England antiquities.2

State Street is now, as it has been for a long time, the financial centre of the city. In 1837 there were thirty-five banks in Boston, of which twentytwo were located on this street. The proportion is not much smaller to-day ; but State Street is much less than it was once the meeting-place of mer¬ chants. The Exchange Coffee-house was erected with the idea of its becoming a headquarters for business. The first building of this name was erected about the beginning of the present century. It was an immense speculation, which was floated for a time by means of the issue of worthless bills by a Rhode Island bank. Having cost the projectors and the public about half a million dollars, disaster overtook the enterprise ; but it was ultimately finished.3 Hardly, however, had the final alterations been made, when the great structure was destroyed by fire, in 1818. 4 Another hotel bearing the same name, but neither so large nor so pretentious, was put up

3 When opened for business it was much the largest public house in the country. It covered an irregular tract of ground measuring 12,753 square feet, and was seven stories in height. It was highly ornamented, but not with good taste, on the exterior, and within was spacious and ele¬ gant. There were a great hall for the meetings of merchants, a dining-room capable of seating three hundred persons, a great ball-room, and a Masonic hall above.

4 November 3. Its end was not without sig¬ nificance to those who believed in retribution upon inanimate things for the wrong doing of sentient persons. One of them remarked after the fire that the building " was conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity, but it is now puri¬ fied by fire." Captain Hull made the Coffee¬ house his headquarters when he was at Boston during the war of 1812, and President Monroe was entertained here at a public dinner in 1817. Business appointments with strangers were usu¬ ally made at this house, which was also the ter¬ minus of most of the stage-coach lines.

Another building, the Province House, which bore a famous part in the history of Boston for a much longer time than the Coffee-house, was descollay's building.1 scribed in the second volume,2 where also the story of its degradation and decay was told as fully as is necessary. The Old Corner Bookstore, on the other hand, is still pre¬ served, and is maintaining its ancient traditions.3

Among the comparatively new buildings which may become famous landmarks two or three gen¬ erations hence, there are several which deserve mention. The new Post Office is the largest of these, and the most costly public building in New England.4 The corner-stone was laid in 1871, President Grant being present on the occasion, which was made one of great parade ; but at that time the walls of the first story were already completed. The Devonshire Street half of the building was completed in 1874, and occupied on December 19 of that year. The other half, front¬ ing on Post-Office Square, has been several years in building, and is not yet finished. The appropriations made by Congress for land and building up to March, to but little less than six million dollars. The migratory institution. The present building is the

1 [This view is down Court Street 'from near Scollay's Building, seen on the left. The tall building on the near right is occupied by the VOL. iv. - 8.

first ever occupied by the department in Boston which was owned by the Government. At times there have been hot controversies over the location, - one of which was occasioned by the removal of the office by the postmaster to Summer Street. For eleven years before the fire of 1872 it was in the Merchants' Exchange building in State Street, then for a short time in Faneuil Hall, then in the Old South meeting-house, and finally in the present structure.

Two of the oldest places of public amusement are within this district, - the Museum and the Howard Athenaeum. The former of these has had a history almost unique in the theatrical history of the country. It has con¬ tinued for more than forty years to be the property and under the general management of one of its original owners. Mr. Moses Kimball opened the Museum at the corner of Tremont and Bromfield streets in 1841. So great was the success of the venture that in 1846 the present Museum building

1 [This follows a cut in Snow's History of Boston , p. 330. There is in the Public Library a view looking up State Street, painted by Salmon in November, 1832. It represents the old State House on fire, with the fire department of that period at work. - Ed.]

1 It is said that there is about as much gran¬ ite, cubic contents, in the Custom House, as in Bunker Hill Monument. The work was done in the most solid and substantial manner, no less than three years being devoted to the matter of securing a proper foundation.

was erected and occupied, and Mr. Kimball is still, as he has been for many years, the sole owner, having previously been the chief proprietor.1

Let us pass now to the adjoining district, which embraces Beacon Hill, the Common, and the surrounding territory. Upon this area stands no building that was erected one hundred years ago. The last to disappear was the old Hancock mansion on Beacon Street, of which an account has already been given in another place.2

But, in spite of the fact that all the buildings in this district are compara¬ tively modern, pages of interesting sketches of famous houses, and of the people who have lived in them, might be written. This is particularly true of the houses on Beacon and Park streets, where have resided, for three quarters of a century, many of the men and women who have been leaders in the social and literary life of Boston, and the great merchants and capi¬ talists whose acts have stood for the enterprise of the town, - but it is impossible to give the details here. Among the most conspicuous are the building at the corner of Beacon and Somerset streets, built by David Hinckley about sixty-five years ago, which was at the time the finest dwell¬ ing-house in Boston, and which, having been occupied by many distinguished persons, fell into the hands of the Somerset Club, and finally of the Con¬ gregational Association ; 3 the building at the corner of Park and Beacon streets, described elsewhere ; 4 the present Somerset Club-house, erected by David Sears ; and the building next west, where lived and died Harrison Gray Otis.

Of more modern and more public buildings, that of the Boston Athe¬ naeum deserves the first notice. The Athenaeum was incorporated in 1807, and at first occupied quarters in Congress Street; it received from Mr. James Perkins, in 1821, a gift of his new house in Pearl Street, and removed thither, where it remained until the present building, begun in 1847, was occupied in 1849.5 The Music Hall, which is a landmark, although only a glimpse of a part of its exterior can be had, was built by an association, and opened in 1852; it contains one of the finest organs in the country.6 The Tremont Temple occupies the site of the old Tremont Theatre, and contains one of the largest halls in the city ; it was burned in 1879, but has been rebuilt and improved. Horticultural Hall, architecturally one of the orna¬ ments of Tremont Street, was built and is owned by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.7

1 This is not the only remarkable fact in its history. Mr. William Warren became a member of the company during the second season of the theatre, and with the exception of one year has been so ever since. The veteran actor is still as capable of delighting the lovers of the drama as ever, and his perennial youth is occasionally demonstrated by his assumption of the part of "Tony Lumpkin." Another veteran, Mr. R. M. Field, the manager, has nearly completed a score of years in that capacity. [See Colonel Clapp's chapter in this volume. - Ed.]

The Common is, in many respects, a more interesting landmark than any one of the buildings in this district. This park, which is so well-known a feature of Boston, has been shorn of its 'proper dimensions in one direc¬ tion, since it originally extended to the line of Beacon Street from Charles toTremont Street; but at the other end it has been enlarged. A field south ton Street. Charles Street, laid out at the beginning of this century, cut off a small piece which now forms a part of the Public Garden. No material change in the dimensions of the Common has taken place for about eighty years. Until 18301 the original use of the tract as a common grazing

1 [When the elder Quincy became mayor in on the Common and selling the milk. The mayor 1823, he found one man keeping thirteen cows caused every cow to bear a label with the owner's giound foi cattle was continued; but long before that the malls on Park1 and Beacon streets had been laid out by direction of the town. This impiovement, which was made in 1815, was carried out partly with the proceeds of the fund raised a few years before for the defence of the town. Further important improvements were made in 1823-24 under Mayor the name which, in spite of official action to the contrary, still clings to it. In 1836 the old wooden fence which formerly surrounded the Common was removed, and an iron fence placed around the enclosure, the owners of neighboring estates pay¬ ing a part of the cost. The subsequent changes have been for the most part the work of landscape gardeners of the elected sort, - men who think name on it. The pound for stray cattle was on the Common, near the junction of Charles and Boylston streets. See Lowell's description of Boston in Mayor Quincy's time, in My Study Windows , p. 95. There are views of the Com¬ mon of about this date in Bowen's Picture of

1 [Park Street, previously known as Centry Street, first appeared as Park Street on the Directorv-map of 1789. Seethe "Introduction" to Vol. III. - Ed.]

inequalities of surface are to be removed, who enjoy a straight path more than a crooked one, who regard black asphalt as an appropriate material for a park walk, who like to line paths with fence rails painted green, who make trees picturesque by sawing off the limbs in such a way as to make the muti¬ lation most conspicuous. Notwithstanding all this, the Common was too beautiful to be spoiled by years of official disfigurement. But the grand

Old Elm2 has succumbed to old age, and the vigorous plant which stands where the ancient tree stood so long must see a century more of growth before it can be an acceptable substitute.

Paddock's Elms, too, in whose grateful shade have waited hundreds of thousands of intending patrons of the horse-cars, are gone. They were watched over in their extreme youth by Adino Paddock, who planted them, and who darted out from his shop opposite to shake a boy who had shaken one of them. In their full vigor, they fell under the displeasure of city foresters who cherish the theory that trees need no moisture for their roots.

1 [This cut follows a water-color owned by the same original is owned by Mrs. E. S. Dix- Mrs. S. H. Swan, of Cambridge, representing the well. - Ed.]

scene about 1843, and by her kind permission 2 [See Vol. I. p. 21 of the chapter on "The is here reproduced. Another reproduction of Flora of Boston," by Dr. Asa Gray. - Ed.]

Branches which spread too far were chopped off remorselessly, and when at last the entire removal of the once magnificent row of trees was de¬ manded in the name of progress, the amputated stumps were unable to plead for themselves to be spared longer.1

I he landmarks in other parts of the city, including the annexed districts, call for no special mention in this place, as all the more important features are noticed in this and other volumes. The changes in the topographical character of old Boston have been so important in the last one hundred years, that all the other changes are made insignificant in comparison. By them have been brought about two distinct migrations of population. A century ago the society of Boston was to be found at the North End, and upon and near Beacon Hill. The tendency at that time was toward the Fort Hill and Pearl Street district. Summer, Franklin, High, and neigh¬ boring streets became lined with fine residences, surrounded by neat lawns and flower-gardens. When business threatened to dispossess the dwellers in this district of their pleasant homes, there was some question whither they should remove, and where was to be the great residence-district of the city. Some people predicted that South Boston would become the fash¬ ionable quarter of the town ;2 but about that time the creation of the South End, by widening the Neck, diverted population thither, and the movement was hastened by the introduction of the horse-railroad system.3 For fifteen years after 1855 the South End was the growing part of the city. Mean¬ while the fashionable quarter, so-called, had been extending down Beacon Street, and broadening over the district lying west of the Public Garden. As the filling proceeded, the land in this part of the city became the most desirable as well as the most available ; and it has been covered with buildings of a class which would do credit to any city in the world.4 The

1 [It was under these trees, in the early years of this century, that the hay-market was kept ; and when it was removed to Charles Street (laid out in 1803), near the pound, the wood-market took its place along the front of the Granary Burving-ground. - Ed.]

2 See an article in the Boston Almanac for 1853, by Dr. J. V. C. Smith, in which the writer urged the filling of the South Boston flats as a measure of which Nature had given a strong hint in the manner in which the flats had been formed. He also prophesied that South Boston was des¬ tined to become the magnificent portion of the city, in respect to costly residences, fashionable society, and the influences of wealth.

3 Soon after the introduction of horse-rail¬ roads in New York, efforts were begun to estab¬ lish the new mode of rapid transit in Boston. In

1852 a petition for a charter was presented to the Legislature, and more than three thousand persons signed petitions in aid of it. The first company, the Metropolitan, was not, however, chartered until May 21, 1853. A few days later the Cambridge Horse-Railroad Company was chartered. The Broadway, Dorchester Avenue, and Chelsea companies were created in 1854. The construction of each and all the lines author¬ ized was made dependent upon the consent of the municipal authorities through whose streets they were to be laid. Strong opposition was made by the omnibus companies. The Cam¬ bridge company was the first to overcome the difficulty, which it did by buying the omnibus franchises, and the line to Cambridge was built and opened in 1856. The Dorchester Avenue line was opened in October, 1856; and the first Metropolitan line, from the Granary Buryingground to the Guildhall in Roxbury, was finished a little later in the same month. All these lines were immediately successful.

Quite different from those which were built between 1840 and 1870. The "swell-front" abomination was then in full control of all the architects, as the mansard-roof affectation was a few years later in the suburban towns. Dr. Smith, in the article in the Boston Almanac for 1853, already referred to, discusses the prevailing style of architecture with characteristic vigor.

movement is, however, both in location and in style of building, of quite recent origin. In 1870 there were not many buildings west of Dartmouth Street, and the area between that street and the Public Garden was by no means fully built upon. The future movement must inevitably be in the same direction, and one need look forward but a few years to reach the time when the new Back Bay Park will be surrounded by elegant and costly dwelling-houses and churches.

Supplementary Notes By The Editor

A series of five views of Beacon Hill, of which three are herewith given considerably reduced, were drawn about 1811-12 by Mr. J. R. Smith, an artist who had come to America about 1S08. They are valuable memoranda of the condition of the summit of the hill just bein size, in Wheildon's Sentry Hill , 1877. The new State House, which is so conspicuous an object in them, was taken possession of Jan. 11, 1798, the Government, in the Representatives' Chamber, listening to the Rev. Dr. Thacher's prayer of dedication.

State House And The Monument

fore the final disappearance of it. The original sketches (now in the Public Library) are slight and scant in detail ; but under the skilful hand of Mr. G. G. Smith they were turned into at¬ tractive pictures in chromolithograph, which, being issued in 1855, under the title of " Old Boston," are thought to have been the first drawings reproduced by that art in Boston. They are given by heliotype, but much decreased

The Thurston House, shown in one of them, was not long after taken down, and, as rebuilt, is now No. 1 Beacon Hill Place. See an account of this house in \V. W. Wheildon's Sentry Hill, p. 94.

A near view of the column, said to follow a painting by Sully, is given 111 Dennie's Portfolio, November, 1811, and has been reproduced in Wheildon's Sentry Hill, p. 65, and elsewhere.