USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Charlestown > Century of town life; a history of Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1775-1887 > Part 15
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Along the next four numbers on Plan III., Leach's memoranda are resumed. First comes (85) "HURD," 34 ft. front. BENJAMIN, " leather dresser " (G. and E., 531), appears to have owned here for (perhaps 20?) years. Ile owned several estates, and claimed (28) £1,695. 7. 8d. on buildings, etc., but only £80. 11. 10d. on personal. His account of his losses (on four closely written pages) is the most detailed one that we have, and, with Capt. Henley's (10), supplies us with the best knowledge we have of a good house in the town before the war. HIis was a brick house, 57 X 20, "with a good Suller under the Whole house laid in Lime with Brantra Stones. Three arches under three Stacks of Chimneys, also an Arch under a flue oven for Ashes." On the lower story (8 ft. 2 in. " high in the Clear "), were a kitchen, with fireplace, iron oven, 3 windows (21 lights, 7 X 9), 3 doors (6 panels each), and outside door, all well painted ; also " 2 good keep- ing rooms," 3 doors in 1 and 2 in the other ( panels cach), 2 windows (24 lights, 7 × 9) in each room, with seats and four-leaved "Shet- ters " (3 panels each leaf), fireplaces " with good tiles and a good Con- neticut stone before each hearth," closets, and "each Room well painted and paper'd; " also a shop with a large window each side the door (3 leaves each), these and the door having "78 Squars 8 by 10," shutters, seat, etc., all well painted; an entry from shop to kitchen, and one between the two keeping-rooms with a door having "5 Squars of Glass above Ilead." "There was 3 stayer cases leading up my second storey " (that 8 ft. 2, clear). Front chamber, 4 windows
139
THE TOWN IN 1775.
(24 "Squars," 7 X 9), shutters, doors, and fireplace as below, the whole painted Blue. Two other chambers similar, 3 and 2 windows, and two small chambers, all painted and papered. Two stairs to the third story, where there was a chamber 21 feet long ; over it a "cock-loft with a pitch Roof," and over other parts of the second story a "Garrett" with a "Gambrell roof, hipt'd at the front." All the roofs were double- boarded, and shingled. The yard beside the house was paved 10 ft. wide, and around the land, up the Hill, was a stone wall 7 ft. high. In the yard was a cistern (700 galls.) a pump, and a Breeches-maker's shop (12 × 10) plastered, and with 3 windows. Up the hill were a barn (25 × 15), and a work-house (30 × 14) with two stories and a cellar.
An old, quaint house, of wood and brick, that stood here endwise on the street and faced a narrow area on which grew a large willow-tree, was for many years occupied by his grandson, Dr. J. Stearns Ilurd, who was long well known in Charlestown society, as also was his ac- complished wife. A four-storied apartment-house of brick, with stores on the first floor and two metal bay-windows extending through the three stories above to the flat roof, has been built (1886-87) over this estate by Jos. Gahm.
86 and 87, marked by Leach "BOYLSTON," 48 ft. front, appear to have been held by a family of that name after 1742, and to have been inherited (1807) by Thomas from his father, RICHARD, who claimed (27) £774., stating the loss of a mansion, barn, "colehouse," and several minor buildings, but little on personal estate. In 1813 Joseph Hurd bought of Thomas, and sold (1813) a lot (86) to the Washington Hall Association. On it was erected the existing three- storied brick building occupied by S. Kidder & Co., and successors, druggists, a firm dating from 1804, and one of the very oldest and best known in the town. The association (50 shares subscribed by 34 per- sons, annual payment $5) had for some time on the 2d floor a reading- room, where (the writer has been told) there was a great deal of local gossip. A long note about the Hall is in the writer's Bibliography (p. 46). At 87 there is now an ohl, low, three-storied wooden building. with shops on the lower floor.
A similar, but larger, building stands on 88. Somewhere here is the 20 ft. front marked by Leach " AUSTIN." MARY, the name of the widow of Ebenezer, had a claim (21) for a loss of } end of : " duble house in fore street," and a blacksmith's shop back of it. She sold (1789 ?) a lot 22 ft. on the street, and 81 or 89 ft. N. W. on R. Boylston (G. and E., 30), that seems to fit upon number 87 of the plan. The present corner lot, 88, that must have included part of the exist-
140
MAIN ST .; TOWN HILL.
ing Henley St., is assigned by Leach to "FOSTER." Capt. ISAAC, who died in 1781, held a good deal of real estate, and claimed (24) for a mansion, barn, storchouse, and chocolate mill. He seems to have had this lot, which was sold (1800) by the heirs of his son ISAAC, a distinguished physician, who died in 1782, and who had a claim (313) of £139 for apothecary's stock left in the house and stable.
An estate with 17 ft. front, marked by Leach "Edes," must have been on the present Henley St. along with a part of 88. HULDAII EDES, who had a lot with a house that corresponds (89), and that had been several years under mortgage, claimed (23) for loss in 1775.
Dotted lines here on the plan show the site proposed (1780) for the meeting-house when the town was rebuilt, and, on the hill, other dotted lines show where it was built and stood (1783-1833), while full lines show the place of its brick successor (1833-87) described on page 53. At 90 is a small lot, for many years occupied by a barn in bad condi- tion, but now by two good brick houses built by Jos. Gahm. At the corner (on 84) Dea. John Frothingham owned a small barn. The outline at 91 shows the form of the old brick town-schoolhouse, re- placed (1847-8) by a larger brick edifice extending farther north, and of three stories, with granite trimmings. IIere, or very near here, there appears to have been a schoolhouse from early times, one being mentioned in a deed in 1659, and here was probably one of the two schoolhouses burned, mentioned (466) among the losses in 1775. There is a similar reference to a county jail (1767). (G. and E., 206, not in index.) The scarcity of even any allusion to the definite site of the public buildings is remarkable; that of the meeting-house is obtained from a private plan, the only authority known to the writer.
Before 1795 the area 92 appears to have been Town land, some of it forming the yard of the county jail. In 1813, Jos. Hurd bought a considerable part, now occupied by a two-storied wooden building, old and quaint. At the back of the next lot (83) is an old brick building of two stories, for many years in poor condition, as also has been the rear of 82 and 81.
On the wedge-shaped block along the other side of the northerly slope of the hill, the cross lines should perhaps be put a little farther towards Main St. At the point (93) there has been for a long time a small single-storied building of wood, used for one kind of business or an- other, and now extending northward only to the black line. JAMES BRADISH bought this lot of the Town in 1732, and sold it to the Town in 1790, and part of his claim (132) for loss in 1775 (of blacksmith shop and stock) may have originated here.
141
THE TOWN IN 1775.
At 94 a part of a house was bought by John Burn in 1772, while the other part remained occupied by the widow HANNAHI CALL who had a small loss (40) of personal estate. CALL and BURNS (39) had a claim (81) on Main St., and the § of a house and a barn may have been here.
CALEB CALL, son of Thos., had 95, and claim 38 (dwelling, bake- house, barn, and store) may also have been in part based hierc. Here stands an old, low, three-storied wooden house, capped by a cornice with modillions, and arranged for two families. In the upper half lived Thos. B. Wyman, the genealogist. Northward is a small garden (partly on 94?), and southward are two two-storied wooden houses covering a former garden belonging to the old house.
RICHARD HUNNEWELL'S estate covered 96 and 97, the former bought in 1738 and the latter in 1744, making a frontage of 114 feet. He claimed (137) for a house, shop, stock, and furniture in 1775, and sold the land in 1782. IIere now stand four three-storied brick houses with swell fronts, and (across the north end) an old, two- storied wooden house, with a hipped roof. (The old homestead of the writer's grandfather was three miles out of town.)
EPHRAIM OSBURN appears to have bought 98 in 1746, and to have held it at the Revolution. IIe dicd (in 1783?) and his widow sold (1783) to. Dea. David Goodwin. Claim (154) was made for the estate of Eph. Osbourn. John Center bought lot 99 in 1726, and M. Bridge (who came to town in 1785) sold it in 1793. The lot 100 reaching to Arrow St. belonged to B. Davis (in 1725?) and as a garden was sold (1765) by him to SETH SWEETSER, who lost a dwelling and claimed (219), and whose heirs sold by 1795. Some part here seems to have passed to James DAVIS (son of B.), whose widow SARAH lost half a dwelling and elaimed (156). On the hill at the corner of Arrow St. (parts of 99 and 100) was a garden, and, facing it, an old, white, wooden house, which, like the garden, was small but quaint and well kept. These three lots (98, 99, 100) are now occupied by three brick houses, three stories high, forming part of Moses A. Dow's large estate between here and Warren Avenue.
At the north end of the block between Prescott St. und Bow (now Derens) St., 101 was bought (1701) by Stephen KIDDER, and by his grandson John sold (1803) to J. C. Edmands. Joux inherited in 1770, and claimed (136) for a loss of a shop and end of a house.
Jacob Rhodes had been taxed on property in town for many years before the Revolution. He and his son Jacob were shipwrights (sce p. 127); the latter sold (1803) estate (102) to J. C. Edmands (57} ft.
142
PRESCOTT AND BOW STS.
on Middlegate St., and 49} ft. on Bow St.). Here may have been a dwelling on which was part of their loss (284), one of half a dozen buildings that they owned.
On this Edmands property are now a three-storied brick house (the upper story low), old, but painted and in good order, standing at the corner, and southward, a three-storied, recent, wooden house, painted a dark color.
On 103 are now two similar houses. Richard Devens, who died in 1807, owned here (?) and a large lot between the two streets (100 ft. on Bow St.) forming a considerable part of the area (104) now occu- pied by the Harvard schoolhouse, a high, three-storied building of red brick, with pressed brick facings and granite trimmings, not in one of the old defined styles, yet with dignity, picturesqueness, and better effect than municipal art sometimes secures. Dedicated Feb. 22, 1872, it cost $130,285, and has room for about 800 scholars. (Plans and view in School Report, 1872.) At the southerly end of this area NATHANIEL PHILLIPS bought (1762-66) a house and land of the heirs of E. Dowse, and claimed (134) for a loss on a dwelling (2 rooms on a floor, and 2 chimneys), and a barn 24 × 18.
On the north side of Bow St. 105 was bought (1756) of Isaac Johnson's administratrix by David NEWELL, whose widow MARY claimed (44). She is mentioned (78), and p. 127 (Water St.) Mary Wilcott (45), widow, claimed for a house. His heirs sold (1786) to Stephen Bruce, husband of his daughter. 106 was sold (1773) by Isaac Johnson's heirs to Mercy Wolcut, Walcot, or Willcut, and by her (1773) to Capt. Eleazer Johnson, who seems to have held it until his death (1807). It was a large [ shaped lot reaching to Main St., the easterly arm of which formed 77 on this plan. 107 formed part of a large lot bought on mortgage (1772), with a house, by Jonathan Fowle of Providence, and sold to Josiah Bartlett (1795), and by him (1795) to Capt. A. McNeil, who for some years dealt largely in real estate in the town, although he is said to have lived in New York (G. and E. p. 645). He sold (1798) this land (41 ft. on Bow St .. and 118 ft. deep) to James Frothingham. JON. FOWLE claimed (161) for loss of £80. on a small house. On these three lots there now are wooden houses, except on the westerly part of 107 bought to protect St. John's Church, and occupied by its pictur- esque wooden chapel.
On 108, another part of the Fowle lot, stands the church itself, described on page 59.
76
PLAN JIL
77
40
Main Street
75
78
de
74
108
107
' 106
105
78
34
1
-
72
29
Dotted line, Teach 1700
101
10 %
103
80
93
104
81
١٠
.
94
82
-
95
Harvard Street
83
50
96
92
97
84
63
98
-
64
99
100
Hurd's Alley
85
First Church 1933-877
63
Dotted lines do built 1783
Site for the Church, proposed 1780 (Lerch)
66
: Dobted 1 line from I each 1780
61
88
Town Hill, from a Plan by B.F. Perham, Sep, 1830.
"Henley Street. ..
---- . 89 /
-
60
(9).
(7)
(8)
(17)
.
1
70
69
15 68
2.67
66
65
-
Winthrop Street
62
.
.
87.
71
3%
....
79
140
St. John's Church
--
143
THE TOWN IN 1775.
PLAN IV. Main St., north of Thompson St., northeast side.
The large estate 109, as a part of Katharine Phipps's garden, was sold (1752) to JAS. GARDNER and others, and at once divided into irregular parts, he taking one of them, and D. Wyer and Jos. Rand the others. A claim (178) was made for his estate on account of losses on buildings of £600., but only £30. for personal. He had val- ued a house, barn, and workhouse, at £GGG. 8. 4. Ilis administrator sold (1780) a considerable area to D. Wood, Jr., who traded in land in this neighborhood, and soon sold (1780) to Capt. Joseph Cordis, formerly a shipmaster and then a merchant. The latter also bought (1781) a lot hereabouts of Jos. Frothingham (who had claim 59) and (1801) mortgaged the house where he lived, and store, with land extending 135 ft. on Main St. and 116 ft. on Back St. Capt. Cordis, said Mr. Thos. Ilooper, "was among the first in town to engage in mercantile pursuits on what was then considered a large scale." His house, now standing nearly opposite Union St., is a square, low, three- storied, wooden one, in the first story of which shops have been in- serted. Capt. Cordis owned land back to High St., and through it the street named after him was made in 1799. In the wars between France and England he, like others here, suffered badly, and probably on this account his death was hastened. From this house to the corner of Thompson St. are old brick buildings of three stories, with stores below and dwellings above. In the one next Capt. Cordis's, S. C. Armstrong had his printing works (1810-11). Next northward for many years stood a low two-storied building extending from street to street and occupied for a grocery store by two well-known citizens, Win. and Sam. Abbot. On its site is now a three-storied brick build- ing, with store below and dwellings above, owned by Mr. Klous. Hereabouts, also, stood the distillery of Wm. and David Wyer (1735- 52) that passed through mortgage to Gov. Jas. Bowdoin, and Isaac Rand, with complications it is not here necessary to consider.
At 110, Anne (Rand), widow of John RAYNER, left (1771) a house valued at £1,500. to her children, who claimed for losses in 1775; THOMAS (172), house, etc. ; JAMES (174), furniture (he lived in Dea. Cheever's house) ; and ANN (173), & a shop. ISAAC (255) had an interest in the estate. In 1812, Ann, who ultimately inherited all, devised to Mary, wife of Geo. Bartlett. Here there is now a two- storied wooden building used for business, including for some forty years a store for lamps and gas-fixtures kept by L. F. Whitney, F. A. Titus, and G. S. Poole.
Across a narrow alley (now closed) that extended from street to
144
MAIN ST. ; CRAFT'S CORNER.
street is (1887) a large, new, four-storied, wooden building with shops on the first floor, and forming (at the black line on the plan) a part of the south side of Thompson Square (another Boston "square" without a right angle to it). The old estates, however, extended (as shown by dotted lines) farther north. In 1702 N. Heaton bought 111 and 112, and sold (1723) Jon. Rand, who sold (1725-26) the latter to E. Bennett, and he (1740) Jas. HAY. Jas. sold it (1765) to his son JOHN, of whose large estate, and claim (74) for two houses, bakehouse (2 ovens), "shaise " house, etc., it appears to have formed a part. Jon. RAND held 111 until his death (1760), when his heirs sold half the house to his son, Rev. NEHEMIAH, who (?) claimed (175) for a mansion with 7 "smokes," a hatter's shop, and barn. His widow and administratrix sold (1765) the other part to his son THOMAS, who claimed (176) for a house, workshop, and barn. Es- THER Rand, widow of Jon., another son, claimed (177) for furniture.
From the first rebuilding in the town until recently, the house that stood at the corner, 113, was one of the most notable landmarks in the central parts of Charlestown. Its site is now wholly within the arca of Thompson Square, and a post there bearing an electric light may be considered its monument. It was a long, narrow, wooden building of two stories, with a gable at the end, and a roof sloping towards each street. For many years Mrs. Mercy Boylston lived in the southerly end and upstairs, and on the first floor at the other end Elias Crafts kept a druggist's store, and hence the place got the name of "Crafts' Corner." According to Mr. Cutter (Centennial Reminiscences, 1875), and information in the Hay family, the house was the first erected at the rebuilding of the town. As was the case with 112, this estate belonged to JOIN HAY, and formed part of his claim (74). He had it (1763) of his father, who (1724-25) of Jon. Rand, who (1723) of N. Heaton, who (1702) of Joseph Phipps. In 1802 John Ilay left the estate to his son Wm., who died in 1813, and his daughter Mercy (Boylston), who lived until 1849.
The block 109-113 appears to have been chiefly pasture early in the 18th century, garden about the middle of it, and at the Revolution somewhat closely built upon. Almost every foot of the land is now covered by a roof.
The land to the east and north of Warren St., on Plan IV., ap- pears to have been chiefly pasture until about 1800. Cordis St. and Pleasant St. were opened through it in 1799, and better access was . given to the former in 1805 by laying ont Thompson St.
From the existing passage to the Universalist meeting-house to
145
THE TOWN IN 1775.
Green St., and along that to High St., and also bounded 164 ft. on the latter, was a lot of an acre and a half that John Hay bought (1752) of John Phillips, a sea-captain, son of Col. Judge John Phillips. It was described as Ilay's pasture as late as 1791, when he sold Samuel Dexter one acre, the part on Green St. and High St., with 96 ft. front on Main St. This became the handsomest, and perhaps largest, early post-revolutionary place on the peninsula, and is described on p. 93. JOHN HAY owned several lots of real estate, and claimed (74) for losses. Of him, Capt. J. Cordis (and others ?), Timothy Thompson had acquired after the Revolution, and by 1799, land from Cordis St. to 116, buying 114 in 1803, and 115 in 1799, both from the Hlays. The latter and part of the former were sold by his heirs (1874) to the Five Cent Savings Bank. His old and low two-storied house with an end on the street, and a row of little, quaint, similar houses fronting the passage to the church, all of them painted a dingy white, were pulled down, and the existing bank building was erected, one of the largest and the handsomest business structures ever in the town. It is of briek, with a front of pale olive stone, and has a flat roof with a sharp pitch towards the streets, and large dormer windows. The style may perhaps be called celectic Gothie. On the lower floor are three stores ; on the second are the rooms of the Savings Bank, the Monument Bank, and Charlestown Gas Co. Nowhere else in Boston will there now be found a group of three institutions that, in their respective departments of business, stand better. In the upper part of the building are the spacious and handsome quarters of King Solomon's Lodge.
The portion of the Hay lands, 116, after being held about thirty years by the Stevens family, was used with the part of 117 on Main St. for Dexter Row, a block of six three-storied brick houses with areas and iron fences, and rather high granite basements in front, built 1836 and later, and occupied, 1, successively by S. Varney, N. A. Tufts, Mr. Damon, Dr. Biekford, and Dr. Blood; 2, by Hon. Benj. Thompson ; 3, by H. P. Fairbanks; 4, by Daniel White ; 5, by J. Forster and his son Dr. E. J. Forster until recently ; and 6, by Rev. Geo. E. Ellis, D. D., until 1871.
David Wood and his son David, Jr., owned a good deal of land north of Green St., most of it unimproved. In 1801 Oliver Holden bought a tract from the N. W. corner of 118 to Green St., and ex- tending up the hill. Wood St. was laid out (1801), and he sold (1802) to Jos. Reed the lot between it and the passage way north- ward. On the corner of Wood St. is a plain three-storied brick
10
146
MAIN ST., GREEN TO UNION ST.
bonse, the paper story low, and formerly, a shop half in the cellar at the end towards Main St. It was boft before 1818, and in ir and around it was Lynde's carriage factory, stierwards removed across Main St. Two three-storied brick houses. por as old. stand on ibe martberly para More potable was the pam of the lor at the order ci Green St. Here, after the war. stood the Indian Chief Tavern That had a vambery of morgages on it as well as landlords in it. cotil it was moved to the corner of Miller St. and replaced (1818-19) Ey the brick meeting-house of the Second Congregational Soc .. or Harvard Church. Dow standing (1557). and described st page of. Davis Wood seems to have acquired this estate (1763) from Jas. Roberts, who had i: (1761) from Hannah (Sartell) Bacorn, who in- bemited it as a part of a Inge estate hereabouts belonging to bez inmily. On it and on Green's lane, was a bonse occupied (1:01) by widow Margare: Goodwin. There was also s barn frem which Ameri- cans Bred on the left of the British line in the letter part of the battle. and which was in consequence destroyed by a party from the 47th and Marines. Losses bere in 1775 were probably cisimed for by DAVID Woon (130). who valued s dwelling. barn. ? shops, and " shaybons." s: 5866. 13. 4 (see p. 149): - femsen smi." E80. 18. 4: dwelling. barm, and ~ shaybons my son David in." 6666. 18. 4: (here?) and "ome poe in the mestimbons" FAL 5. 6.
Other parts of the Samell estate were borghi by him (1740. 1758). and extended beyond the limits of Plan IV.
Con ale memeniz side of Main St. is the lot marked 120 that seems to have belonged to ELLATER JOHNSON. Claim 263 is in this name. 121 seems to have been held by Mrs. Aligal Bradich inherited from ber farber. Eleaser dobasta (1768), and forming (?) a part of the claim (46) of her husband Jonathan (a house, 8 rooms on s Boor. lately thoringhly repaired?). This lo: extended 157 ft on the pres- ezt Umion St The Ind forming the end of that a: 122. was sold (1769) by Abigail Carey to W. HARRIS, who claimed (43) for loss of a large new house. Sf x 21. three stories, and a kitchen 15 x 15. two stores ; also for a bara 20 x 16. Om 120 sad 121 stand three brick houses. three stories high, with sloping roofs, that were for many years orempied hy E. Piddle. Henry Forster. and Dr. H. Lyon. Jons Atszy had 123. and Timothy occupied. cz owned the prem- ises. The former claimed (30) for a dwelling with four rooms on s Soor. Not long after the war Jacob Forster bought this lot, and for Many Tears it was oporpied by him or his successors for a large fur- mirare more. kept in a long, low. three-moried wooden building. 49 ft on Main St .. 106 EL deep and still here.
147
THE TOWN IN 1775.
Dea. JOHN FROTHINGHAM bought (1747) of the widow of W. Sweetser, lot 124, claimed (29) for loss in 1775, and sold in 1785. The lot changed hands often after that, being held by J. Lynde, J. Cordis, who sold (1798) J. Sivret, who (1799) to S. Brown. E. Larkin sold it (1802) to Artemas Ward, who (1810) to A. Adama, and he (1815) to E. Wheeler. On this site is an old, low, three- storied wooden house, with its end towards the street, and on a former garden a recent wooden building, both now with shops.
Martha and Eliza ABRAHAM3 may have inherited 125 from their father Wm., after 1763, and have sold after the war. Elizabeth stated a loss of a "yard house " and furniture. MARTHA had a small claim (195) for personal, as had a RALPH (278), and JOANNA, a widow (306). Richard Boylston, who levied on Win., brother of M. and E. (1774), afterwards held it (1784-1807), and it was inherited by his son Wm., who died in 1836. On the S. part stands a two- storied brick house, built since his time, and now used for a restaurant.
Win. Barber, who lost a house, appears to have mortgaged 126 to T. Mason (1765), who came in possession (1781), and after whom Dr. A. R. Thompson bought (abt. 1807) and held or occupied it until his death (1866). His garden on a part of 125 was subsequently cov- ered by a wooden building one story high, with stores, and his three- storied white wooden house - the end of which was on the street, and the upper story low - was raised and shops were put under it. He was for half a century one of the most familiar and esteemed persons in the town; and for nearly forty years the family physician in the home where these lines are written.
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