USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Boston of to-day; a glance at its history and characteristics: with biographical sketches and portraits of many of its professional and business men, 1892 > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72
The State House, on the summit of the hill, with its gilded dome, the crowning feature in every picture or "View of Boston," and the first object ,and was taken down in ISHI when the hill at this which attracts the eye of the traveller approaching the city, is the best example -- indeed, one of the few now remaining - of the work of Charles Bul- finch, the pioneer Boston architect who did so much in his day, through the buildings which he designed, to improve the architectural appearance of his native place.1 It stands on that part of the Gov- ernor Hancock estate which was known as the " Governor's pasture,? and the entire lot of land was purchased from his heirs for $4,000. The work of building the Capitol was begun in 1795, and it was completed and first occupied by the Legislature in January, 1798. The corner-stone was laid on the 4th of July, 1795, with much cere- mony. It was drawn up the steep hill by fifteen "milk-white horses," representing the number of States then in the Union, and the ceremonies were
" Mr. Bulfinch designed the first theatre ;the Federal street) ; the Massachusetts General Hospital; the Beviston Market, which so long stood on the corner of Washington and Revision streets, where the Boylston building now stands; the Federalstreet Church; the New South on Cheach green and the Franklin street Cathedral (both long since removed ; the enlargement of F mail Hall; several basi- ness blocks, notably granite buildings on the north side of State street, and blocks of dwellings, - the Tontine building- of his design being the first attempt in Beton at budding residences in Marks. For a dozen years he also served as architect of the Capitol at With. ington. He was a native of Boston and a graduate of Harvard Col. lege. For twenty two years he served on the board of selectmen of the town.
conducted by the Grand Lodge of Freemasons. Governor Samuel Adams, representing the State, in a very brief address expressed the hope that within the walls of the house " liberty and the rights of man would be forever advocated and supported." The approach by the lofty flight of broad stone steps, the generous lawns on either side studded with flower-beds, is exceptionally attractive. The noble Doric Hall, embellished by the marble statue of Governor Andrew, busts of Lincoln, Sumner, Wilson, and others, occupying niches, and Chantrey's marble statue of Washington, with the tattered bat- tle-flags of Massachusetts regiments grouped in the foreground, occupying the glass-enclosed recess, is the most interesting feature of the interior. In the pavement near the Washington statue are fac-similes of the tombstones of Washington's ancestors from the parish church at Brington, near Althorp, North- amptonshire, England, presented by Earl Spencer to Charles Sumner, and by him to the Common- wealth in 1861. Nearby, also, are the tablets from the Beacon-Hill monument of 1790-91, " to com- memorate that train of events which led to the American Revolution and finally secured liberty and independence to the United States." This stood on the site of the old beacon (at about the south- east corner of Mt. Vernon and old Temple street), point was lowered. The two bronze statues in the State House yard, of Daniel Webster, by Hiram Powers, on the right of the steps, and of Horace Mann, by Emma Stebbins, were placed, the former in 1859 and the latter in 1865. Both when first set up were sharply criticised by local critics, - the Webster as clumsy and awkward, and the Mann as crude and ungainly. Thomas Ball's Andrew, within Doric Hall, on the other hand, was generally com- mended, especially the clearly cut features of the face and the sculpture of the hands. Webster is represented as " in the act of expounding the Con- stitution," Mann as addressing an audience, and Andrew, as he so often appeared in the war days, standing on the State House steps to receive the marching salute of Massachusetts regiments going to or returning from the front.
From time to time the State House has been en- larged, the most extensive additions having been made in 1853-56, when the " new part," extending back upon Mount Vernon street, was constructed : and in 1868, when the interior, with the exception of this " new part," was almost entirely recon- structed. But with all these extensions and altera. tions the building years ago proved too small for the Commonwealth's business, and, as in the case of
-
-
------
---------
51
BOSTON OF TO-DAY.
the city government, many departments were forced into neighboring buildings. Finally, the building of the "State House Extension " was authorized, and the construction of that structure was begun in 1889. It occupies the site of the massive granite reservoir (pronounced in its day the nobiest piece of architecture in the city ), bounded by Mt. Vernon, Hancock, Derne, and Temple streets, the latter
Union Club-house and the rooms of the long-es- tablished Woman's Club at No. 5, the Park-street Church, at the corner of Tremont, is reached ; across the way, through dainty Hamilton place, is the side and carriage entrance to Music Hall; and a short walk down Tremont street, the pleasantest afternoon promenade in the retail quarter of the town, brings one to St. Paul's Church, between Win-
-
STATE HOUSE.
street being discontinued and its area included ter street and Temple place, hard pressed by in the State House lot. Built, the first story of business blocks. white Vermont marble and those above of English yellow brick, the main columns and the cornice of white marble, the annex harmonizes with the original buikling, with which it is connected by a structure spanning Mount Vernon street. Messrs. Brigham & Spofford are the architects. The corner-stone of the new structure was laid with some ceremony on the 21st of December, 1889, Oliver Ames, as governor, representing the State.
Down the hill again, through Park street, past the
The Park-street was the first Congregational Trinitarian church established after the Unitarian whirlwind had swept through the Orthodox ranks, and soon after the formation of the society, in 18og, the meeting-house was built. Its designer was Peter Banner, an English architect, and its tall and graceful spire was the most carefully studied feature of his work. The wooden capitals for the steeple were made by Solomon Willard, the local architect who carved the lonic capitals of St. Paul's, and
- -
52
BOSTON OF TO-DAY.
.
.
whose most ambitious work was the design of the Bunker-Hill Monument. The Park-street choir of fifty and more singers, whose singing was accom- panied by flute, bassoon, and violoncello, was a great attraction in the old days. From it were drawn many of the original members of the famous Handel and Haydn Society founded in 1815. The peaceful old Granary Burying-ground, at the end of which Park-street Church stands, contains the graves of more distinguished people than any other in the city. Here are buried seven of the early governors of Massachusetts, - Bellingham, Dum- mer, Hancock, Adams, Bowdoin, Sumner, and Eus- tis ; also Peter Faneuil, Paul Revere, John Hull, Uriah Cotting, Judge Sewall, the parents of Benjamin Franklin, the victims of the Boston Massacre, Robert Treat Paine, John Phillips, the first mayor of Boston, and others of note in their day and generation.
subdued decorations, render the interior attractive to quiet tastes, and the pleasing effect is enhanced by the excellent sculpture displayed - Crawford's bronze statue of Beethoven, the gift of Charles G. Perkins, which stands at the rear of the platform, and the cast of the Belvidere Apollo filling a niche at the opposite end, over the main balcony, flanked by appropriate brackets and busts, presented by Charlotte Cushman. The crowning glory of the interior, however, was taken away with the removal in 1885 of the Great Organ, one of the largest and finest organs in the world, built in Bavaria by the builders of the magnificent instrument in the great Cathedral of Ulm. It had stood here for more than twenty years, a beautiful object in its rich case of black walnut, with finely carved figures surmount- ing the pipes, its bust of Sebastian Bach, and curious figures which seemed to support the pon- derous mass upon their mighty shoulders. The organ was purchased by the Conservatory of Music and removed to its building at the South End. The renowned Symphony Concerts, now the most important feature of the crowded musical season, were begun in Music Hall in ISSI.
Of the Music Hall, the interior only interests. The exterior, indeed, is almost entirely concealed by the surrounding buildings ; but nothing of beauty is thus hidden, as the building is a phin brick struct- ure making no architectural display. The hall proper is 130 feet in length, 78 in width, and 65 in St. Paul's Church (Protestant Episcopal), built of height, proportions carefully studied for acoustic gray granite, with its Ionic hexastyle portico of effect. The walls, broken at intervals by project- Potomac sandstone, and a pediment which accord- ing pilasters, the well-designed galleries, and the. ing to the original design was to be filled by a bas-
... . ...
THE PEMBERTON.
4
.
- -- -- -----
----- ----- -- - -- - ---------. .. ....
ASTROAN PROTECTIVE LEAGUE BINLERAG
200
BUILDING OF THE AMERICAN PROTECTIVE LEAGUE.
. ..--- -
54
BOSTON OF TO-DAY.
relief representing Paul preaching at Athens, is ough. It is a duplicate of that placed by the State described by Phillips Brooks in the " Memorial History " as a " Grecian temple " which " seemed to the men who built it to be a triumph of archi- tectural beauty and of fitness for the Church's service.". It was the design of Alexander Parris and Solomon Willard, and was consecrated in 1820. Conspicuous in the tasteful interior are the memo- rial tablets in honor of three former rectors, Rev. Dr. Samuel F. Jarvis (the first rector of the church), John S. Stone, and Alexander Vinton, and of Dr. J. C. Warren, for thirty-six years vestryman and warden. Daniel Webster for many years owned a pew in St. Paul's, - that numbered 25 in the north aisle.
What may be called the Tremont-street prome- nade ends with the Masonic Temple on the corner of Boylston street, the granite building with oc- tagonal towers rising to the height of 120 feet, which was dedicated on St. John's Day, June 24, 1867, with elaborate ceremonies, a great street parade, President Johnson and other men of dis- tinction in line being the popular feature. Around the corner, on Boylston street, the building of that admirable institution, the Young Men's Christian Union, with its shapely tower, is. a quietly effective structure.
The theatres within the business quarter are described in Chapter X. The great daily news- paper buildings being nearly all on Washington street, between State and School streets, - those of the "Herald," " Post," "Globe," "Advertiser," " Record," and "Journal," and the others in the immediate neighborhood (the "Transcript" con Washington street at the corner of Milk, the "News" on School and the " Traveller" on State), -- that portion of the old thoroughfare is naturally and properly called " Newspaper Row." Many of the leading hotels, too, are crowded in this con- tracted business section, - Young's, Parker's, the Tremont, the Quincy, the American, the Revere, the Tavern, the Adams, Clark's, and Reynolds', the United States, and on the outskirts of the quarter towards the Back Bay district the Thorn- dike.
The only portrait statues set up in the " down- town" thoroughfares are those of Sam Adams in Adams square (already described), of Winthrop in Scollay square, and of Lincoln in Park square. The Winthrop, of light bronze, representing the first governor just after landing from the ship's boat on the shore of the New World, holding in one hand the roll of the colony charter and in the other a volume of the Scriptures, is by Richard S. Green-
in the Capitol at Washington. It was uncovered to the public on the day of the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the settlement of Boston, September 17, 1880. The cost, $7,391, was met from the Jonathan Phillips fund.1 The Lincoln is popularly known as the Emancipation Group. Kneeling at the feet of the strong figure of Lincoln in an attitude of gratitude is that of the slave, the broken fetters falling from his limbs in obedience to the proclamation of emancipation. The slave's face is said to be a likeness of the last slave re- manded to the South under the fugitive slave law. This group was the work of Thomas Ball, and it was presented to the city by Moses Kimball in 1879. It is a duplicate of the "Freedman's Memorial " statue in Lincoln square, Washington.
VI.
THE NEW WEST END.
RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE BACK BAY IMPROVEMENT - DISTINGUISHING FEATURES OF THE DISTRICT TO- DAY - ITS BUILDINGS, CHURCHES, AND DWELL- INCS.
EACON HILL may be said to mark the B boundary line between the old and the new Boston. To the east and north lies the compact old town, and to the west stretches the spacious new, - the famous Back Bay district, with its broad avenues and wide intersecting streets, lined with fine dwellings, stately buildings, churches, art and educational institutions, some of them striking examples of the best architectural work of the time and others most remarkable for eccentricity. Laid out on an intelligent and artistic plan from the beautiful Public Garden to the picturesque Back Bay Fens, the beginning of the superb chain of public parks which when completed will rival those of the fairest cities of the Old World, -this is the ideal West End, the fashionable quarter of a great city.
As everybody knows, the Back Bay district is en- tirely on made land. In the old days, between the marshes at the foot of the Common and the Brook- line hills there was a " beautiful sheet of water " at high tide, spreading to the "Neck " at the old South End. This was formed by the bend which the Charles River made to the west of the penin-
I See note to the paragraph on the Old State House in this chapter.
1
.... . . . ....
55
BOSTON OF TO-DAY.
sula on which the town lay, before its waters, pass- ing the northerly side, reached its mouth at the east. Brookline and the high roads, beyond were reached from Boston only by way of the Neck and Roxbury. This was the situation until the building of the famous Mill Dam and causeway in 1818-21, extending from Charles street at the foot of Beacon Hill to Brookline, and the cross dam from the main dam to Gravelly Point in Roxbury - the project of the Boston & Roxbury Mill Corporation for the double purpose of creating water-power by means of tide-mills and of establishing toll roadways for travel. Thus were enclosed, by solid structures of stone and earth, about six hundred acres of flats over which the tide admitted by the gates ebbed and flowed, and broad thoroughfares forty feet wide were opened between town and country. The com- pletion of the work was rightly regarded at the time as a stupendous enterprise, and an event duly to be celebrated in formal fashion.1 power was seriously encroached upon by the con- cessions to riparian owners of the right to fill their flats, and by the building of the railroads, and sub- sequently the mill company, then the Boston Water Power Company,2 was converted into a land com- pany. Controversies early arose over the rights of individuals, the corporations and the cities of Boston and Roxbury, in the shore lands and the flats ; and when, in 1852, the Commonwealth stepped in, its object was twofold : to protect its own interests in the territory and to advance a scheme for improv- ing the basin, which was then in a deplorable con- dition. In the spring of that year a State commission was appointed to consider the whole subject and devise a plan of improvement. Mean- while the Legislature, then sitting, formally by resolve asserted the right and title of the Common- wealth to all flats " lying below the ordinary line of riparian ownership," basing its declaration on an ancient law known as the "colonial ordinance " The chartering of this corporation (June, 1814) was the entering wedge for the changes which ulti- mately transformed " the beautiful sheet of water " skirting the Common into the richly furnished West End of the Boston of To-day. But such a trans- formation was never dreamed of by the projectors of the Mill Dam enterprise or by the citizens who dated 1641, and judicial decisions founded upon it, by which the State retains the fee of such flats as are below low-water mark, or one hundred rods below high-water mark. The commission made an exhaustive report, and advised legislation author- izing the corporations to change the uses of the territory from mill purposes to land purposes, and celebrated its successful establishment. The Back , providing that the filling within the tide-water basin Bay Improvement, as it was called, was in large should be " with good and solid earth and clean gravel." Provision, it was further recommended, should be made for perfect drainage ; the filling should be done in such a manner that the scouring force of the water should not be diminished nor the harbor injured ; the flats north of the Mill Dam and all the other roadways should be made free of tolls : the streets to be laid out in the new territory should be wide and ample, and the territory should be so disposed of as "to secure for it a healthy and thrifty population ; " and all this should be done by the authority and under the direction of the State. part the result of long years of agitation for the abatement of a nuisance which the Back Bay had become. After the completion of the dams, grist- mills and iron-works, machine-shops and manufac- tories, were built about the enclosure ; in 1835-36 the tracks of the Providence & Worcester railroad were laid across it ; a large part of the city sewage flowed into the basin ; and in time it came to be a most unsightly and unwholesome quarter, "a nui- sance," the Board of Health declared in 1849, " offensive and injurious to the large and increasing population residing" upon its borders. Meanwhile the shores and flats became valuable, the water-
These recommendations were adopted and a permanent commission was appointed with full powers to advance the work and to determine and adjust the rights of all concerned. After protracted negotiations all claims were adjusted, the Tripartite Agreement between the State, the City, and the Water Power Company was executed (in December, 1856), and early in 1857 the work of filling was
1 The Mill Dam was formally opened for travel July 2, 1821. In celebration of the event a cavalcade of one hundred citizens and people in carriages and chaises headed by General William II. Sumner, of Jamaica Plain, as chief marshal, passed over the dam from the Brookline shore, at a signal fired by the South End Artil. lery. They were received on the Boston side by a crowd of towns- people. Then they returned to Brookline and were dismissed with a congratulatory speech by General Sumner. The act under which the Mill Corporation was chartered provided for a turnpike to Water- town. This was completed in 1526. The Mill Dam was generally known as Western avenue. The causeway, from the Brookline marshes to the old Punch bowl Tavern in Brookline (there connect- ing with the Worcester turnpike), was long known as the old " Punch bowl road " and afterwards as Brookline avenue; and the cross dam to Gravelly Point is now Parker street. The Mill Dan and other roadways were made free public highways in December, IS6S.
2 The Boston Water Power Company, organized by stockholders of the Roxbury Corporation, was incorporated (in 1821) to use the latter's water-power, and in 1533 the business was divided, the new company acquiring the mill franchise, the entire water power and privileges, and all the flats lying south of the Mill Dam, the old company retaining the roadways and the lands north of the dam.
-----
-- -
56
BOSTON OF TO-DAY.
actively begun. That done for the Commonwealth was by contract, the contractors taking their pay in land. Its portion of the territory was that south of the Mill Dam and north of an east and west line starting near the present station of the Providence division of the Old Colony Railroad, and the Water Power Company's portion was that south of the line. The territory north of the Mill Dam was reclaimed by the Mill Corporation. The total amount of ter- ritory belonging to the State in 1856 was 4,723,- 856 square feet ; and of this 379,976 square feet have been given to the city and to various insti- tutions, and 2,027,083 devoted to streets, open squares, and passageways. From the land sold in the market, 2,316,798 square feet, the Common- wealth has realized, net, $4,275,644. The avails of these sales have been applied to educational pur- poses and to the endowment of several of the sink- ing-funds of the Commonwealth.
Endowed with ample authority the commission- ers adopted the plan of avenues, streets, and public grounds over the entire territory, -including the lands set off to the Water Power Company and other riparian owners, - designed by the late Arthur Gilman. The streets are all parallel to, or at right angles with, Beacon street, continued over the Mill Dam that was. Of the three avenues between that thoroughfare and Boylston street, two, Marlborough and Newbury (so named in memory of the names which in the early days were attached to portions of the older parts of the present Washington street), are sixty feet wide, and the houses on each side are set back twenty-two feet ; and the other, which lies between them, Commonwealth avenue, the glory and pride of the Back Bay district, is two hundred and forty feet wide between the houses on each side, with a delightful tree-lined parkway in the middle, broken here and there with statutes of famous men. Arlington street, next the Public Gar- den, running at right angles to the three avenues, begins the series of broad cross streets, at intervals of about six hundred feet, across the whole terri- tory. These are named alphabetically, and a tri- syllabic word alternates with a dissyllabic. In 1872 St. James and Huntington avenues, the latter one hundred feet wide, to the south of Boylston street, were laid out ; in 1882 Copley square (for a while known as Art square) was established : and later, West Chester park was extended from the South End across the Back Bay to Beacon street and the Charles river, where it connects with the new Cam- bridge bridge opened in 1861. The most recent development has been in the region west of the extension of Chester park and about the Fens, by
the extension of Commonwealth avenue along the Back Bay park and out to Chestnut hill ; the open- ing of the new thoroughfares, Charlesgate East and Charlesgate West, from Beacon street, on either side of the waterway from the old gates in the Mill Dam, into the Fens ; and the beginning of the new avenue westward to the right from Beacon street, near Charlesgate East, early to become famous as the Bay State road. Thus several more superb roadways for driving have been opened through a quarter of the Back Bay which, when completed, will be most brilliant and picturesque.
Within this favored quarter are the Museum of Fine Arts and the new Public Library building ; the buildings of the Institute of Technology, the Society of Natural History, the Harvard Medical School, Chauncy Hall, and the Sisters of Notre Dame Academy and Convent ; the Prince (public) School, the Normal Art School, and the College of Phar- macy ; the St. Botolph, Art, Algonquin, and Athletic clubs ; Trinity, Arlington-street, Old South, Em- manuel, Central, First, Second, First Baptist (for- merly the Brattle-square), South Congregational (formerly the Hollis-street), and Mt. Vernon churches, and the Spiritual Temple ; the building of the Young Men's Christian Association ; the Bruns- wick, Vendome, Victoria, Huntington, and Copley- square hotels; the Berkeley, Kempton, Bristol, Cluny, Oxford, Ludlow, Exeter Chambers, Hamil- ton, Agassiz, Kensington, Grosvenor, Royal, Charles- gate, and other great apartment houses more or less effective in design and sumptuous in equipment : the permanent Exhibition Building of the Charita- ble Mechanic Association ; and blocks upon blocks of fine and costly dwellings.
Of this striking display of elaborate architecture the beginnings were modest. But they were ex- amples of the best work of our architects of that day, and at once gave character to the new quarter. The earliest buildings here were the dignified struct- ures of the Natural History Society and the Insti- tute of Technology (the main building), W. G. Preston, the architect of both ; and of the churches, the Arlington-street, designed by Arthur Gilman ; the Emmanuel, by A. R. Estey : the Central, by R. M. Upjohn ; and the First, by Ware & Van Brunt (now Van' Brunt & Howe). These were built between the years 1862 and 1868. Within the next ten years were completed the Brattle-square Church, designed by the late H. H. Richardson : the Second, by N. J. Bradlee ; the Old South, by Cum. mings and Sears ; noble Trinity, by the lamented Richardson, with Gambrill of New York : the Hotel Brunswick, by Peabody & Stearns; the Hotel
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.