USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Fifty years of Boston; a memorial volume issued in commemoration of the tercentenary of 1930; 1880-1930, Pt. 2 > Part 36
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THE DIVINING ROD
In the beginning of Boston, the clear brooks and the springs provided water for the households. In the first century, when brooks became defiled and the springs were inadequate, the witch-hazel wand (so they said) showed where wells could get water. The wand could not fail. Water abounded everywhere. By the year 1840 wells, pumps and cisterns were the chief water- getters of Boston, but they were not sufficient in their supply. Therefore, water was soon brought by pipes from the streams and ponds of Sudbury, Cochituate, Medford (subsequently from Clinton), and from other then distant country districts to Boston and to sister towns. No divining rod was needed then to show where water was in Boston. It overflowed from every house. The problem was to get rid of the effluent water. Cesspools could not contain it, therefore sewers were hastily built to the Charles, the Mystic and the Nepon- set, from all the cities and towns which were not on the sea.
By 1890 the sewers, so expeditiously built, had created intolerable nuisances in all those streams. Death walked abroad along the rivers and streams of Boston, Medford, Malden, Newton, Brookline, Dorchester and all other . nearby towns and villages. Death in this guise could not be combated by the individual cities and towns acting alone. The common enemy forced the communities to act in concert and the Greater Boston we hear much of began to be. It is only a beginning as yet. The problems of water supply and drainage led to the creation of metropolitan commissions, but in 1930 there is still no political union linking the cities and towns.
COULD BOSTON HAVE BEEN PLANNED EARLIER?
As we noted in the beginning, the planners Imhotep and Ictinus preceded the founding of Boston by thousands of years. If they had lived later, they could not have planned Boston. To Bostonians a plan, especially when it comes from without, always seems an affectation, if not a presumption. The future physical needs of a town so frail yet so self-motivating, and having so hot a temper at heart to discard the commonly accepted forms, even in the realm of
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government, could not have been foreseen by a Bostonian and still less by that Egyptian or Greek. The futility of making a plan for Boston in those days was so vast that the thought of a plan occurred only to the simple-minded cows who are said to have laid out the narrow, meandering streets of the young city.
A century and a half later, Boston might have made a plan to guide its own growth if it had followed the lead of the Federal City and Philadelphia and the capital of Virginia, all of which had made plans following English and French prototypes, adapted to American ideas, but Boston chose to continue its growth in the old-fashioned way by adding to its original self at each step only where the footing for man and beast was the surest at the moment.
Far from being an arraignment of Boston, this account of the practical Bostonian attitude toward planning makes clear the source of the series of astonishingly original forward steps which were taken by Boston, in the same matter-of-fact way but with a wholly different emphasis, about 1880. Boston realized then before any other American city that the moment had come to make plans of a new kind for modern life in great communities, plans having a reach far beyond the mere patterning of local streets and their relation to small structures.
Having arrived at this conclusion, Boston immediately planned and built a system of generous, well co-ordinated local parks. Within about two decades afterward Boston created a unique system of metropolitan water supply and sewage disposal. About 1893 Boston planned and established the first Metro- politan Park System and followed this by building a system of metropolitan parkways. In 1907 Boston made the first American metropolitan plan, which embraced Boston and the thirty-nine surrounding cities and towns.
In still later years, when the tests have come, Boston has led other cities in planning, as the records contained in this volume will show. Looking back- ward, who would have been able to improve Boston in the early days as she grew? Who would change the ancient plan of the older part of Boston now except to widen and straighten where absolutely necessary? The early Bostonians might have built straight streets, but who would thank them today for that gesture of monotony? Among American cities, Boston has been saved from the brand of the gridiron, first because the Boston mind did not run in such parallels, and secondly because the good sense of the townspeople and their limited pocketbooks could not disregard the crooked shore line and the hills and hollows of the upland. Those hard-headed men saw no virtue in straight streets. That the early Boston mind did not create a commonplace gridiron of the type which makes the plan of New York exactly resemble the plan of Chicago, Indianapolis and thousands of other American cities, should be a source of satisfaction to us today.
Most phases of modern planning could not have been foreseen by the most discerning of the old planners. Steam and electric railroading with the great yards, shops, stations and trackage above and below ground could not have been foreseen. Similarly, the motor traffic, the vast, deep water docks and anchorages, the airports, the widespread industrial plants, the great storage warehouses, arsenals, stores, hospitals, schools, asylums, prisons, and the need
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HEAD OF TERCENTENARY PARADE ON TREMONT STREET LIEUT. GEN. EDWARD L. LOGAN, CHIEF MARSHAL
BRIG. GEN. CHARLES H. COLE, CHIEF OF STAFF
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for great recreation areas for the host of pleasure seekers could not have been foreseen. They are out of scale with the wildest dreams of the carly times.
However, those early Bostonians could have bequeathed to us at least one enduring legacy of a kind which lay within their grasp and their means but which we cannot afford to buy. That legacy would have been a series of ordinary public squares, which in 1930 would add distinction to central Boston and would relieve it of the monotony of the endless panoraina of streets and buildings.
It should be recorded of Boston in 1930 that her citizens of today have been among the first in America to awaken to an appreciation of the handiwork of the early men of this country and to take part in that most modern of all plan- ning movements which attempts to save the ancient work from destruction and to preserve it to enrich our own times. The day is fast approaching when a city cannot call itself modern if it lacks evidence of this practical appreciation and understanding of its own origins.
CHAPTER XIV THE TERCENTENARY OBSERVANCE
By FRANK CHOUTEAU BROWN
The year 1930 was to bring to the inhabitants of Boston, as well as to those of many another eominunity within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the opportunity of appropriately marking the three hundredth anniversary of the settlement of that eity and of the founding of the Great and General Court of Massachusetts.
It appears that the celebration of any important anniversary of this sort beeomes the more difficult the larger the community and therefore the greater the number of people involved. In the ease of Boston further obstaeles were imposed. In part, these may properly be considered as innate in the eon- seiousness of a conservative Anglo-Saxon group, such as comprised the older eitizenry of this eastern metropolis; in part, they arose because of eertain political cireumstances that conspired to bring about a change in the city government to eoneur with the opening of the anniversary year.
In consequenee, the year 1930 eame to be well upon its way before it was possible for the newly re-elected Mayor, the Honorable James M. Curley, an ardent supporter of the celebration, to appoint the members of a committee authorized to arrange a program that would worthily place before the people of the country the importance of this date in the history and development of the entire nation, as well as of the seetion, state and eity most intimately eoneerned.
As soon as the initial membership of this committee was announced, a meeting was called at the Old South Meeting House on the afternoon of January 30, 1930. The Mayor, who presided, introdueed some of the offieers and mem- bers of the committee, ineluding its ehairman, the Honorable John F. Fitzgerald, a former Mayor of the eity, and ealled upon several of those present for sugges- tions. An unexpected amount of enthusiasm was developed at this meeting, and the constructive work of the committee went on weekly - and almost daily - from that date and hour.
Such records of the celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary as had been preserved were searched, and from the study of these records were evolved several of the more important and suecessful details of the subsequent celebration. Among other interesting items was the discovery that the chief marshal of the eity parade on that oceasion had bequeathed his baton of office, along with an aecompanying greeting, to his successor of fifty years later. These relies were found and used again.
Fortunately for the final suecess of the celebration, it had been found possible to inaugurate the work of preparation, in part at least, some time in advanee of the actual year. Mr. Curley, during a former administration (1922 to 1925), had asked for a preliminary report to be made, and had turned for adviee to an organized group of eitizens that sinee 1912 had assisted the eity
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officials in planning and furthering public celebrations. This volunteer citi- zen's organization, known as "The Citizens' Public Celebrations Association," had been formed during a previous adininistration of Mayor Fitzgerald. It had as its aim the improvement of the character of the celebration of public holidays and, as it had helped to supervise such celebrations for several years, it had gained much practical experience in this field. Its membership, therefore, was awake to the importance of the oncoming anniversary, as well as acquainted with the difficulties that would probably be encountered in carrying out the commemorative program.
A report was prepared by this organization, which included the formation of a committee so broadly representative that it would avoid all social and polit- ical complications. This was submitted to the present Mayor and approved by him near the end of his previous adininistration in 1925. He even appropriated money for inaugurating the scheme proposed, and appointed a committee which would have authority to work out a plan for the celebration, a few months before he went out of office; but the activities of this committee unfortunately ended with the passing of his administration.
Shortly afterward another effort was made to bring to the attention of the public the importance of the anniversary from its wider aspects and especially as it concerned the Commonwealth,- for the event to be commemorated was not the founding of Boston alone but the establishment of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. From this broader movement came about the inauguration of many town celebrations, as well as the formation of a State Commission,- while general interest was aroused not only within the state but in the country at large.
Since many western and middle western communities today contain a large representation of people of New England birth or origin, it was believed that it would be easy to arouse in individuals or family groups a desire to plan for a summer vacation or visit of return to those communities in Massachusetts or New England in which they might still have family associations. No exposition or great central feature formed part of the plan. It was decided rather to make a feature of the local celebrations all over the state as a means of interesting prospective visitors.
And so an effort was made, in advance of the anniversary, to organize pro- grams in the various communities of Massachusetts that would illustrate with some approach to historical fitness the progressive steps of the settlement of New England, and at the same time to correlate the various dates that might be selected and combine them into some general preliminary program for nation- wide distribution and circulation.
As things worked out, the State Commission spent most of its energy and the bulk of its appropriation on a single event, an imposing program of oratory, given on Boston Common from a structure known as the "Tribune," erected for use on that occasion. Other than this, the direct participation of the Com- monwealth was restricted to the commemoration on October 20, by a legal group, of the anniversary of the founding of the General Court. The only endeavor to appeal to the public for participation came from the Music Com- mittee, which rather late in the year organized a public concert of American
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music, representative of different periods during the last three centuries; and from another committee, working with representatives of certain foreign groups, which planned and carried through during midsummer a varied series of racial programs. These included exhibitions of native arts and crafts, as well as entertainments consisting of native songs, dances and inusical and dramatic interludes, which proved to be particularly popular with the citizens of foreign birth and descent, who either participated or were invited to attend.
A detailed history of the city celebration has been published separately in one of the official city documents issued during the following year. Those who are interested in securing particular information in regard to its various features may be referred to that publication, which is entitled "The Tercentenary of the Founding of Boston." The present chapter is necessarily more condensed and will treat the subject from a somewhat different and more general point of view.
A comparison with the last great celebration presents points of interest. So far as the older records can now be interpreted, it would appear that the floats paraded fifty years ago were in many instances as well designed and as artistically conceived as those we were able to present this year. In size they were, perhaps, less impressive. So far as the motor truck has made improve- ment possible, we may possess an advantage, and yet those floats in the 1930 parade that had recourse to several pairs of horses, with accompanying festive trappings, evidently made a special appeal to many of the spectators.
Of course, we have today more effective means of lighting,- particularly when the light is played indirectly upon some feature or dominating group. Here electricity is an invention of great helpfulness; though this year it is to be doubted if full use was made of its possibilities, either in the night parade of floats or the lighting of public monuments and historic buildings. And it, too, lacks the inoving flare and flicker of the older-fashioned flambeaux!
Coming to the actual program, as it was finally worked out by a public- spirited committee, we find, first of all, that an especial character appropriate to the year was given to all the usual holiday celebrations. In this part of its program the committee was greatly aided by the experience of the Citizens' Public Celebrations Association and the loyal and intelligent co-operation of Mr. J. Philip O'Connell, the City Director of Celebrations. New Year's Day had already been marked with especial ceremonies, and the Washington-Lincoln exercises on February 16 and the March 17 celebration of Evacuation Day in South Boston were made impressive by appropriate features, including on the latter date the dedication of a tablet on lower State street, marking the point of embarkation of the retiring British troops.
On April 19 the usual reproduction of the rides of Paul Revere and William Dawes from Boston and Roxbury to Lexington was amplified and extended by including for the first time the ride of Samuel Prescott from Lexington on to Concord. The fight at Concord Bridge was also reproduced on its own terrain at a later date during the year.
On June 6 Dorchester presented a program planned to commemorate the landing of its Puritan founders in 1630, which included a reception to Mayor
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Wheeler and a party of visitors from Dorchester, England. In the more ancient parts of the town, where historic dwellings were still preserved, the old houses were thrown open and many of the residents received visitors in their ancestral gowns of different colonial periods. This feature was also carried out on Beacon Hill, on June 12, with great success, under the title, "Old Days on Beacon Hill," and similar revivals in other Massachusetts towns proved among the most popular and interesting events of the anniversary year.
The celebration of Bunker Hill Day on June 17 was another occasion on which especial historical features were appropriately provided, including the reproduction of an early colonial public meeting in the Old South Meeting House. Soon afterward, beginning with June 23, Medford started. a week of performances of a historical "Pageant of the Mystic," and on June 25 Cam- bridge inaugurated its celebration by a parade and reception to Harry A. Franklin, the Lord Mayor of Cambridge, England. On June 27 Boston wel- comed Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, returning from his Antarctic voyage, with a large public meeting on the Common and a dinner in the evening,- not quite a Tercentenary feature, perhaps, but not wholly irrelevant, either, since Rear Admiral Byrd is said to be a descendant of Pocahontas, who, if the legend is to be believed, rescued the bold explorer who gave New England its name and even visited and mapped Boston Harbor.
Meanwhile one of the earliest of the regular Tercentenary features was held in Fenway Park on June 10. This was a commemorative festival, con- ducted by the School Department. The program consisted of an historical pageant, together with music, athletic exhibitions and other features illustrating the multifold activities of the public schools. A grand march of all the par- ticipants, brilliant in the color effect of the variegated costumes and admirable in its dignity and discipline, concluded this school festival.
For Independence Day, in the afternoon and the evening, a special pageant, called "The Beacon," was produced at the Frog Pond on Boston Common.
On July 14 began a series of exhibitions at Symphony Hall, by different races represented in the population of present-day Boston, which continued through two weeks. These were made possible largely through the interest and generosity of Mrs. William Lowell Putnam. Perhaps the most remark- able of these exhibitions was a performance of the "Œdipus Rex" of Sophocles given in English, as a contribution of the Greeks of Boston. Several of the programs were repeated on later evenings at the Tercentenary Tribune, the structure erected by the state on the Charles Street Mall of Boston Common, and in Franklin Park.
The following day, July 15, was the date of the "Great Meeting," for which the Tribune had been built. At this meeting, which was arranged by the State Commission, a notable oration was delivered by the Right Honorable Herbert Laurens Fisher, F. R. S., Warden of New College, Oxford, England. Robert Grant of Boston read a poem and Governor Allen and Mayor Curley addressed the gathering, which was estimated to number 40,000. Sound amplifiers, a device not known fifty years ago, enabled the voices of the speakers to be heard in all parts of the audience.
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The following evening the Tribune was first used for a city program, called "Mayors' Night," having been taken over by the City Tercentenary Committee, wired for night lighting, and equipped with dressing rooms and other facilities. The stage also was made over to suit it to dramatic perform- ances and dancing. The building became, from that night on to the first of Sep- tember, the center of the Tercentenary entertainment program, as well as the headquarters for information and housing bureaus, which had been organized for the convenience of visitors to the city.
On July 22 the first concert was given by the Tercentenary Municipal Band, an organization that was inaugurated at the suggestion of the Mayor to supply music for the remainder of the summer. This new Municipal Band was selected from the best material available. It was of full concert size, consisting of seventy players, and able to undertake the highest class of band music. The series of Esplanade Concerts, so-called, given by members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler on the banks of the Charles River Basin, had started earlier in July and continued to August 19.
Upon August 1 and 2, the annual regatta of the National Rowing Associa- tion was held on the Charles River Basin, and during this month the series of evening entertainments, featuring the music, dancing, gymnastics and drama of various races, was continued on the Tribune stage on Boston Common and at Franklin Park. The nightly attendance at these performances was esti- mated at from 4,000 to 15,000 people. They were thus the most popular events of the year, attracting more spectators than any other features except the great civic and military parade which took place during Boston Week.
For the strangers visiting New England, these evening programs given by the city upon the Common were unquestionably the most important part of the city celebration. Many visitors probably came in to see the great parade or to participate in some of the numerous events of Boston Week; but these were mostly from the suburbs or comparatively near at hand. And, of course, a large part of the audience on all these occasions was representative of the summer population of the city itself. The Franklin Park programs drew from the suburbs and the parts of the city in that direction. The Symphony Hall events were of especial interest to the different racial groups comprising so large a part of the population, and to those who were informed, or wished to be, about the arts and industries of these European groups. Something of the same appeal was contained in inany of the Common evening programs; and here, too, the major part of the audience in attendance came from the densely populated portions of the old city back of Beacon Hill or the adjacent West End. Persistent attendants, night after night, were the Chinese, the Italians and other southern Europeans, as well as the descendants of the northern nations. The 2,500 seats provided in front of the Tribune were usually filled an hour or more before the announced start of the programs, and the overflow of standing spectators ran well back on the slopes of Monument Hill.
Among the most successful features of the two hundred and fiftieth anni- versary celebration had been a large parade. The committee decided to con- centrate its best efforts on a similar feature in 1930. And so a parade of civic
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organizations, racial groups, fellowships, societies of every description, and business houses or trade organizations, as well as military units, was arranged. Besides the marching groups, especial emphasis was placed upon the illustra- tion of historic events by incans of floats. Thesc floats not only formed an important element in the daylight parade, but were used later in a separate night procession, when they were shown again, assuming a different aspect under the varied effects of electrical illumination.
Of all the events given during the year, this magnificent parade utilized the greatest number of participants, and was seen by the greatest number of spectators. Extending over a route of about five miles in length, it began early one beautiful September day, and continued moving past the reviewing stands erected along the route for fully eight hours, during which the constant variety in color, form and invention, displayed by the different participating groups, proved so entrancing that few of the spectators were able to leave their posts. The Mayor of Boston, England, who was the guest of Mayor Curley on the principal reviewing stand, was particularly enthusiastic about this remarkable exhibition of the manhood, womanhood and youth of the new Boston in America.
The week of September 14 to 20 was selected for the climax of the city celebration. This week was called "Boston Week," and a number of the most imposing official events were scheduled for the successive days, making a cumulative and dramatic finale to the year's program.
These included special services in the churches on Sunday, the dedication of a new Health Unit in the West End of Boston on Monday, followed next day by the unveiling of a large bronze relief on Boston Common. This mcmo- rial, which forms part of a gateway opening on Beacon street, was designed by John F. Paramino and dedicated to the founders of the city. The archi- tectural setting is by Charles A. Coolidge. The address at the dedication was given by Hon. Charles Francis Adams, Secretary of the Navy, a descendant of Presidents John and John Quincy Adams and a long line of Massachusetts statesmen, and a commemorative poem by Edwin Markham was read by the author. Fifty years ago the corresponding event was the dedication of the statue of John Winthrop, now standing on the grounds of the First Church on Marl- borough street.
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