USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Charlestown > Century of town life; a history of Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1775-1887 > Part 10
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It6 was three stories high, the upper one of them low, as
1 Says Mr. H. K. Frothingham. 2 II. H. Edes (Harv. Ch., 125). 8 Hon. G. W. Warren. 4 Records King Sol. Lodge. 5 D. Balfour. " The description of the exterior of the Jas. Russell house is from the writer's observation ; that of the interior and gardens before alterations, from an old friend who lived there, and was very prominent in the society of the town.
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usual, and the front was covered with smooth boarding, pierced by fourteen handsomely framed windows, and a door in the centre covered by a porch. At each corner there was a Co- rinthian pilaster reaching to the cornice, and on top was a cupola. All the mouldings, capitals, and details were of classic character. Before the house was a good-sized yard, bounded by walls at the sides, and a high open fence in front, and crossed at the middle by a paved walk. In the rear, extending to the river, was a garden with three paths running in that direction, while a paved driveway, entered from a narrow street westward, passed between it and the house. In the house there were four rooms on a floor and a hall through the middle. Details of these two Russell houses are here made rather full as some accounts in print have mixed them and do not appear to be correct.
Of the notable square wooden houses for one family were those of M. Bridge (p. 116), S. Swan (p. 132), Capt. Cordis (p. 143), John Hurd (p. 134), all now standing, and Richard Frothingham, that was at the corner of Main and Eden Streets. The last, very large, three stories high, well finished, having four entrances, and standing a little back from the sidewalks, was near the middle of the original grant of Wm. Frothingham (1630-38), and of what might be called the Frothingham dis- trict (p. 151), that extended nearly across the peninsula. Another square house of one of the family, Dea. Jas., still re- mains, at the corner of Washington and Union Streets ; it is two stories high, elevated on a terrace, and placed several feet back from the sidewalks. Originally it commanded a wide view of West Boston and Charles River. At the corner of Winthrop and Main streets (pp. 133-34) is a very early house.
Several square wooden houses were built for two families, among which were those of D. Wood (p. 149), and another of early date belonging in the same family, subsequently made a tavern, and, to give room for the Harvard meeting-house, re- moved to the corner of Main and Miller streets. There was also one long occupied by Wm. Austin and Capt. Boyd on High and Wood streets, that was, some time ago, converted into a single house, a very good one, for many years the home
BUNKER HILL FROM THE NAVY YARD, ABOUT 1823
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of the late F. B. Austin. An unusually large one stands on Washington Street; and there is another on High Street (52 × 36), originally connected by interior doors, later occupied (north side) by P. Willard, and then modernized. All these houses had three stories (the upper one of them low), and are standing (1887), although more or less altered.
At the end of the last century, and in the earlier part of the present, mansion houses for single families were built on the slopes of Breed's Hill. There were eight that were notable, two of brick, and oblong, six of wood, and square, five of them being of two, and one of three stories. All but two of the latter are now (1887) standing. All had grounds of good, some of large, extent, one of the estates only now remaining of the original size, the others being more or less reduced, and three nearly covered by recent buildings. Besides these eight was the Commandant's house at the Navy Yard, built in 1809, two sto- ries high, of brick, square, with two bold swells towards a garden and the Yard and harbor. It has been continuously occupied by the first officer at this station, and has also been the scene of many large receptions.
Nearly opposite to it is the square wooden mansion (50 x 50 ft.) built by Nathan Tufts, placed far back from the street at the top of terraces covered by grass shaded by a few trees, and commanding a fine view towards the water. The grounds, although reduced in area, are still large. After the death of Mrs. Tufts (1843), who survived her husband eight years, the house was used for a boarding-school, and was called " Rydal Mount." Subsequently it was occupied for over a quarter of a century by the Rev. Thos. R. Lambert, D.D., rector of St. John's. Painted brown on the outside, it is now in fine order. Through the centre of the interior there is a large and handsome hall, at the inner end of which in the middle rises a staircase turn- ing at the top to the right and left, and on each side are rooms of good height and size. All these parts are handsomely fin- ished in the style already described (p. 87), and that was used, more or less elaborated, in all the eight mansions. The plate shows, from right to left, the Tufts, Commandant's, Devens (p. 88), Breed (dark), and Kettell (white, p. 92) houses, and Bunker Hill behind the last.
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At a little distance, but fronting more towards the south, was a very long and comparatively narrow estate where Mt. Vernon Street and the houses on it now are, owned by E. Breed and divided and built upon in 1846. His house, of brick, ob- long (71 ft. long), three stories high, with an end on the present street, is the only original feature remaining ; but this has been enlarged and altered. For many years it was occupied by Com. John Downes ; for several since it has been owned and occupied by Chas. Smith. Originally there was a large lawn in front of the house, while beside it was a greenhouse, and in the rear a garden and orchard.
Beside Mr. Breed's estate was that of N. Adams, not as deep, but wider, and of about as great size, having the largest lawn for a long while, or perhaps ever, on the peninsula, facing which, and the south, is the house (52] x 51 ft), wooden, square, three stories high, changed from the Russell Academy, for which it was built. For over sixty years this has been the homestead of one of the best known families in the town, and has borne the name of an esteemed citizen who long occupied it, Geo. A. Kettell. A former orchard and garden at the rear are now covered by recent brick houses. Internally, the plan is similar to that of the Tufts mansion.
Thence westward for some distance there was no large place until that of Capt. Benj. Swift was reached, nearly opposite the head of Cordis Street. He bought the land (1809) of J. Noble, who had it (1803) of Dea. J. Larkin. It was a large lot bounded by High, Laurel, and Cross streets, now closely cov- ered by brick houses. Here he built a square two-storied wooden mansion with a steep roof, and a gable in front, unlike any of the other older square houses ; as also unlike was a low piazza towards High Street, above which the edifice was con- spicuously placed on the top of terraces ending in a wall that rose a few feet from the sidewalk. In its latter years, at least, the house was divided and arranged for two families, Mrs. H. Forster and D. Snow being for some time occupants.
On the other side of High Street, and extending down Green's lane (now street) to Main Street, was an acre of land that for years belonged to J. Hay (p. 145), and that, like the other land
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along the slope of the hill, as well as on its top, was pasture, much of it until fifteen to thirty-five years after the Revolution. In 1791 Sam. Dexter bought the tract just described, and soon built a square wooden mansion (50 × 45 ft.), two stories high, with a low roof, and a cupola in the middle. Around this were laid out grounds that in combination of extent and elaboration have never been surpassed on the peninsula. There was a car- riage-house at the corner of High Street, along which, farther on, was a high brick wall forming the back of a greenhouse. In front of the mansion was a broad walk paved with chequered marble tiles ; around the garden were paths covered with dark Medford gravel and bordered with box, as well as fruit trees ; while beside Green Street was a noble row of horsechestnuts. In plan and interior finish the house resembled that of the Tuftses and of the Kettells, but there was no side entrance, wing, or front porch, with which both of those houses were provided. Mr. Dexter did not live here a great while, but sold (1800) to G. Alexander, and he (1814) to M. Bridge, who died in a few months, but whose widow occupied the place until it was bought (Dec. 27, 1831) by H. Davidson. He, his daughter Mrs. Lock- wood, and his grandson, successively held the house, the latter leaving it in 1883, and the A. Lincoln Post of the Grand Army buying it (1887). The amount of land has, however, been much reduced, Mr. Davidson selling lots for Dexter Row (1836, p. 145) for the Winthrop meeting-house (1847, p. 58), and to T. T. Sawyer and E. Lawrence on High Street (1850). At no time was the house itself in finer order than when it was left by the Lockwoods, and at no time was it a pleasanter place than during their occupation. By the writer many an agrecable hour is associated with the old garden and with the rooms of the mansion. By the Post the roof has been raised, and a wing has been added (1887), but the exterior otherwise, and the lower story have been only moderately altered.
On the other side of Green Street is the place where the writer was born, where he has always lived, and where this book is written, bought by his father, the late James Hunnewell, May 17, 1831, soon after coming home for the last time from the Hawaiian Islands. Through most of two centuries the land
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here has been held by those who had business on the high seas. On June 17, 1775, a barn that seems to have stood near the lower end of the land escaped the great fire and was used as a shelter for American marksmen during the final attack by the British, when the former were dislodged and it was burned (p. 11). For over forty years the land then remained vacant, at first owned by D. Wood, who sold (1801) to O. Holden. In 1817 it was bought by Joseph Thompson, for whom the house here was built, but by whom it was owned only a short time. Amos Binney, Naval Agent, one of the wealthiest men of Bos- ton in his day, held the estate awhile, and sold it, as stated, in 1831.1 While he owned it, it is said to have been occupied by Com. Perry, U. S. N., afterwards the widely-known commander of the Japan Expedition (1852-54). From the first the place was laid out as elaborately as any in the town. On three sides were rows of horsechestnut trees that for several months in the year formed a dense hedge, hiding from many of the windows of the house all other buildings, except the steeple of the Har- vard Church. Along Green Street the branches of the row there met those of a similar row on the Davidson estate, and made, for a hundred feet, a sort of large arbor above the road- way, to which few rays of the sun penetrated through the dense foliage. At other seasons there was for many years, from the middle of the house, a view down Main Street as far as Dr. Thompson's (p. 147), and from one window a much wider pros-
1 NOTE. - An instance may be given here of stability in a neighborhood, perhaps not now surpassed within an equal distance from State Street. At the corner of Wood and High streets since about 1817 have been the Aus- tin's (Wm., F. B., and his family); next on Wood St., for nearly 60 years, was J. Wilson ; opposite, on Wood and Green, since 1831, J. and J. F. Hunnewell; on Green and Iligh, H. Davidson, his daughter, and grandson, 1831-83; on High, T. T. Sawyer, 1854-86, and E. Lawrence or his son since 1854; on Cordis (adjoining), Mrs. E. F. Adams, 1858-86, on an es- tate in a previous period owned by her father. Adjoining some of these estates are four meeting-houses, Universalist since 1810, Harvard since 1818, Winthrop since 1848, and Trinity since 1867. It may be added that on the repeated repairs and alterations made in the writer's home the same men have been engaged, in not a few instances, through periods of thirty to forty years, and that for fifty-seven years the house has not been closed.
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pect, for there, the writer remembers that he, when a boy, used, with a spy-glass, to watch the carriages on Winter Hill. From the top of the house could be seen all Boston and a large piece of the harbor, as well as the country to the hills of Waltham and Brighton and Blue Hill in Milton. All this view, except of northern and central Boston, is still obtained. Other recol- lections of boyhood, clear to the writer, are those of trains of many sleds, or " pungs " drawn by two or four horses that he used to see bound down Main Street on winter mornings, to find in Boston a market for country produce that they had brought from the distant interior, even, they said, as far off as Canada. Frozen deer, looking a good deal like life, were perhaps the chief wonders that were displayed. At this time, and later, the Square, it may be added, was really a market-place, often half filled with loads of hay, firewood, and other rural products of- fered for sale. The old four-horse stage-coach for Lowell used also to go daily up (and down) the Main Street, and many a time the writer waited for it in that old shop at Craft's Corner, a quainter place than anything now, and as often he had a pleasant ride into the country.
In writing of one's own house there is not a feeling of taking liberties that there is when dealing with the private affairs of others, so that in this case there may be a little more freedom used. Our house was one of the oblong kind (originally 74 x 25 ft.), and was built of brick except a wing that was of wood, and was painted white. Several steps led up to the front door facing the garden, and over the door was a low-arched trellis covered with honeysuckles and roses. In the beds close by, lined with box, were as many old-fashioned flowers as had room to grow, tulips, peonies, iris, Persian lilacs, London pride, lark- spurs, pinks, and more ; and there were bits of hawthorn hedge, plenty of plums and grapes, and, in the sun by the steps, a fig- tree that would bear something after much coaxing. One of the writer's old favorites was a red-berried mountain ash, a nice tree once in fashion, and there was a huge snowball, that made almost another tree of itself, and that was perhaps the last relic of the old parsonage garden (destroyed 1835) from which it was transplanted.
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While the original brick walls remain, the house (entirely now of brick, 74 x 54 ft.) has probably been changed more than any other in town that has not been altered for business, or that has been constantly the residence of one family. It has been, indeed, although of course on a small scale, more like many of the old English family homes, plain but substantial, and without architectural character outside, but quaint or pic- turesque and very comfortable inside ; changed this way or that, as use or convenience suggested, until it is evidently a growth and not the result of a single contract. Bric-a-brac and curi- osities from many a country, besides books, and, still more, the charm of old associations, make the rooms pleasant, and the group they form thoroughly home.
The most notable part is perhaps the private business-room of the writer, -large, oblong, rather old-worldish in aspect, with its red-beamed ceiling and two shafted windows filled with stained glass. Like a good deal of the house the growth of wants and circumstances, it is peculiarly his home-spot made by himself, for he was his own architect, and then librarian to form, book by book, a collection that gives the apartment com- pleteness. Many associations with those who have been in the house linger around, and the books have many besides with their authors and scores of former notable owners and dis- persed libraries.
Outside, the garden, though changed, is still pleasant; eight or ten of the trees, now grown very tall, are standing, while it seems as if all the old human Charlestown were slowly passing away. Still we and the good old home keep together, but the future tells us none of its secrets.
Farther northward, between School Street and Salem Street, James Harrison bought (1799-1802) a large lot (114 ft. on Main St., 126 ft. on High St.) and built there a square wooden mansion, two stories high, resembling the Dexter house, but plainer, without a cupola, and surrounded by far less elaborate grounds. In front there was a lawn reaching to a slat fence along Main Street, and there were a few trees for shade. At the rear was a small orchard with a high, rough board fence, on High Street. Mr. Harrison died in 1812. Somewhat later
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HOUSE OF JAS. F. HUNNEWELL . - 1887 ---
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the house was occupied by Loammi Baldwin, engineer of sundry canals, and of the admirable granite dry-dock in the Navy Yard. In 1870 the land was divided into house-lots, most of which were built upon, but the front is still (1887) dismantled and open.
At the head of Salem Street stands the wooden mansion (42 × 40 ft.), two stories high, that was the residence of O. Holden (married in C., 1791), an active and prominent man between 1790 and 1840, preacher, composer of music, and extensive op- erator in real estate ; indeed, one of the most prominent men in the town immediately after the rebuilding. Afterwards the Huntingtons and Twomblys lived here. Originally the grounds connected with the house reached from close upon High Street to Bunker Hill Street, but they are now much restricted, having been built upon from time to time. The house, however, for some years occupied by Thos. Doane, remains in as good order as ever. There was a wide view from it when few buildings stood in the neighborhood, as is shown by a print made as late as 1827. Although there were few or no large trees, there was a garden with fruit and flowers.
After acquaintance, sometimes intimate, with most of the houses mentioned, and with their occupants, the writer has lived to sce great changes. Already other houses once promi- nent are nearly forgotten, and one by one these still spared must pass away ; hence, it may be hoped that his descriptions of them may help to show what they were.
Here might be added some account of houses showing the fashions or requirements of a closely succeeding generation. The most notable undertakings in buildings of the sort then were of Harvard Row, of Dexter Row (p. 145), and on Monu- ment Square. When the old Parsonage lands (Plan II.) were sold, the Parish Land Co. was formed, and on the tract was built (1835-36) a block of nine brick houses, three stories high, with granite basements, brown-stone doorway-frames, and pitched roofs slated. They were not detached, like the older houses built when land was in less demand, but they formed a block, the largest of the kind that had yet been raised in the town. The owners were James Hunnewell (treasurer of the Co. and promoter), Nos. 7* and 9 (he paying $605 for first
7
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choice of the latter, which is nearest the First Church) ; Josiah Barker (8); Shadrach Varney* (6); Wm. Henry * (5); Eben" Barker (4); Josiah Reed (3); Gilman Stanley (2); and Lem- uel Stetson (1, nearest the Town Hall). J. Doanc, Jr., E. Da- vidson, and O. Vinal before the finish replaced three .* The lots on Monument Square, although sold in 1839, were generally long unoccupied, a few on the westerly side being even now va- cant. On the east side, in order from High Street, brick houses of three stories, and of an excellent class, were built by Geo. B. Neal (1850), still occupied by him; A. Brown (1853, oecu- pied by Col. T. Upham, A. Hollingsworth, F. Jaques, and T. G. Frothingham now there); Wm. Carlton (1861-62); Jas. Lee (1856); P. Hubbell (1846-47); Geo. W. Warren (do.); L. A. Huntington (1847-48); R. Frothingham (1856-57); all these built one house each; and J. S. Small (1857-58) four houses. The dates are from Hubbell vs. Warren. On the north side, the first house (second from Lexington St.) was built by Dr. Wm. Gunton of Washington, D. C., for his daugh- ter, Mrs. Budington. The last two lots were not built upon until 1886. On High Street, in front of the Monument, is the most expensive, as well as the most elaborately furnished, brick house ever on the peninsula, - that of Capt. J. B. Thomas.
LIBRARIES.
After 1715 there was a shop in town, and the only one, for the sale of books and writing materials, kept by E. Phillips (Plan I., 8), who was also a book-binder. His son Eleazer, established at Charleston in 1730, was the first printer in the Carolinas. It has been already stated (p. 14) that among the great number of claims for losses (443) made by individuals in 1775, there is no evidence of anything like a library, although forty persons lost books in the burning of the town. In later years, however, a statement has been repeatedly made that the Mather library was then destroyed,1 but the writer has been
1 "Dr. Mather lost his library " (Frothingham, 1849, "Siege," 203) ; " the fur- niture, plate, and library of Dr. Mather were consumed in the fire" (Wheildon
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unable to find any definite contemporary authority for it, and cannot think that this very important collection was thus lost ; indeed, there seem to be reasons for a belief that it could not have been burned in Charlestown.
After the Revolution the local business in stationery was done by Allen and Cushing, who were the first printers in the town (1785-87). In 1819, in connection with his sale of these articles, and of school-books, appeared a Catalogue of T. M. Baker's Circulating Library, at 24 Main Street. There must have been 2,500 volumes, consisting of History, Biog- raphy, Voyages, Travels, and Novels, Tales and Romances, as they were classified. In 1821, a large addition had been made, including a liberal sprinkling of sensational titles. At Washington Hall (Plan I., 86; Bib. of C., 46) there was for some years after Nov., 1813, a reading-room. Two reading
(1875), Battle of B. H., 44) ; "a considerable portion, if not the whole, of Increase Mather's library is said to have been burned in the destruction of Charlestown in 1775" (Mem. Hist. Boston, I. xviii). Samuel, son of Rev. Dr. Samuel Mather, wrote (Drake's Int. to his ed. of I. Mather's "Philip's War," xxiii) that his "Fa- ther's Library was by far the most valuable Part of the family Property. It con- sisted of 7,000 or 8,000 Volumes of the most curious and chosen Authors, and a prodigious Number of valuable Manuscripts, which had been collected by my An- cestors for five Generations. These he considered worth at least eight thousand pounds sterling."
It seems to have been by far the most precious private library in the region, or in New England, and its fate is a subject of great interest.
A question at once occurs, - why was such a bulky and valuable library, so great a part of the family property, removed to Charlestown ? It must have been carted to the ferry, carried over the river in a boat, and again carted, and to a spot under the British guns. The writer has been unable to find any contemporary au- thority that it was thus moved. Again, if then burned, and after call had been made for claims for losses, and 443 were made, including apparently every sauce- pan and soap-barrel in the town, why does no claim, or trace of one, appear for this, that would have been the most precious thing in the place ? If such a claim has been lost from the file, there is still the Committee's list without it.
The only contemporary statement that the writer has found on the subject is in a letter by John Adams (dated Philadelphia, July 7, 1775) to his wife. He ac- knowledges her letters of June 22 and 25, and after alluding to the burning of Charlestown, and then to the distresses of the people of Boston, he adds : "The loss of Mr. Mather's library, which was a collection of books and manuscripts made by himself, his father, his grandfather, and great grandfather, and was really very curious and valuable, is irreparable." (Letters of, to his wife, 2 vols., Boston, 1841. ) His reference may be rather to Boston than to Charlestown, and he does not dis-
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societies also existed. Dec. 21, 1820, the "Second Social Library" in the town was founded, and the next year its name was changed to the Charlestown Union Library. For 21 years it was the Athenæum, so to speak, of the place, its first proprietors being the members of the Ancient (1743), Phoenix (1795), and Washington (1800) Fire Societies, who gave their funds ($975), and of the Library Society, contrib- uting over 200 volumes. Shares ($10) were also sold, on which there was an annual assessment ($2). Several hundred books were added during the first year, and in 1828 there were 2,500, " many scarce and valuable, which if lost, it would be difficult to replace ; and some there are which could not be replaced " (see Cat., Bib., 1821). In the earlier years an "upper room in the southeasterly corner of the Town Hall" was used ; subsequently the northerly one on the second floor of the
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