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 39
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Laws.
Maritime Affairs.
Commission appointed to study the feasibility of constructing a traffic tunnel to East Boston. Drydock, largest in the United States, built by the state, sold to the United States Government, July 22.
Memorials.
Statue of Robert Burns, by Henry H. Kitson, erected in Back Bay Fens.
Necrology.
Professor Edward C. Pickering, astronomer, February 2. Darius Cobb, artist, April 25.
Josiah Quincy, third Mayor of that name, Septem- ber 8.
Parades.
Henry L. Higginson, founder of Boston Symphony Orchestra, November 14.
Great parade in honor of General Clarence R. Edwards and regiments returning from the World War, April 25.
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1919
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Strikes.
Strike of street railway employees July 17-20. Quickly settled by a board of arbitration, Henry B. Endieott, ehairman.
Great poliee strike, week of Monday, September 8. Disorderly elements destroyed property. Prom- inent citizens enrolled as special polieeinen. The State Guard ealled out. Order restored, the strike completely broken and all strikers discharged from poliee foree. Calvin Coolidge, Governor, beeaine nationally known.
Visitors.
President Wilson landed in Boston, returning from the Peace Conference, February 24, and spoke in Meehanies Building.
Cardinal Mercier of Belgium eame to Boston Oetober 4. Exereises in his honor at Faneuil Hall, Harvard University and elsewhere. King Albert of Belgium eame October 5.
Women.
Pauline R. Thayer, appointed Director of the State Division of Immigration and Amerieaniza- tion. Ethel M. Johnson appointed Assistant
. Commissioner of Labor and Industries. First women to hold these positions.
1920
Mayor. Population. City Government.
Andrew J. Peters. 748,060.
Only 242 inmates confined in the House of Corree- tion at Deer Island on January 1. In 1909 the average had been 1,479.
Epidemie. Finance.
Infantile paralysis outbreak in the summer. Five large trust companies failed.
Ponzi arrested and convicted of fraud.
Boston subtreasury discontinued and funetions taken over by Federal Reserve Board.
Fire Protection.
The high pressure water system, using powerful pumping stations, instead of portable engines, for the extinetion of fires, was put into effeet in December.
Hospitals. Laws.
Palmer Memorial Hospital opened.
Automatie sprinklers required to be installed in certain parts of tenement houses having inore than ten suites.
Maritime Affairs.
Maritime Association organized, in eonneetion with the Chamber of Commerce, to further trade and increase port facilities.
Completion of Broad Sound ship ehannel.
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FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
Music.
People's Symphony Orchestra founded, October 31.
Necrology.
John C. Olmsted, landscape architect, February 25.
William D. Howells, author, May 11.
Mrs. Eleanor H. Porter, author, May 21.
Louise Imogen Guiney, poet, November 3.
T. Jefferson Coolidge, former Ambassador to France, November 17.
Welfare.
Community Service of Boston established.
Boston Council of Social Agencies established.
Boston Health League established.
Home and School Association started.
1921
Mayor. Anniversaries.
Andrew J. Peters.
One hundredth anniversary of English High School.
City Government.
City Planning Board project for the widening and extension of Stuart street accepted.
Fires.
Old State House. Priceless relics damaged. April 13. Loss $5,434.
Dover Street Bridge damaged, June 1. Loss $40,086.
Laws.
Women given right to sign nomination papers of a candidate for office.
Music. Necrology.
Boston Flute Players' Club founded, March 16. Professor Barrett Wendell, educator, February 8. Harriet P. Spofford, author, August 15.
Professor Charles R. Cross, physicist, Novem- ber 16.
Pulitzer Prize.
The Boston Post awarded the Pulitzer Prize, $500 gold medal, for its work in exposure of "Get-Rich-Quick" Ponzi.
Visitors.
Madame Marie Curie, discoverer of radium, and Albert Einstein, eminent mathematician, visited Boston in May.
Ferdinand Foch, Marshal of France, came to Boston, November 14.
Weather.
July 9, tropical downpour, 6.04 inches. Light- ning struck 100 points.
Women.
General A. V. Diaz, Italian Commander, came December 9.
November 27-29, great ice storm. Damage estimated in millions of dollars. Six patrolwonen added to the Police Department.
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1922
Mayor.
James M. Curley (1922-25).
Anniversaries.
One hundredth anniversary of the organization of Boston as a city, May 1.
Art.
An Exhibition of Negro Achievement held in the Public Library in October.
Clubs.
Women's Republican Club of Massachusetts in- corporated.
Laws.
Retirement Act providing pensions for the em- ployees of the City of Boston passed. Another great step of social progress.
Necrology.
Maria L. Baldwin, January 9. This admired and beloved Negro educator was principal of the Agassiz School, Cambridge, but lived for years in Boston.
Visitors.
Georges Clemenceau, French statesman, came to Boston, November 24.
Welfare.
Community Health Association established by an amalgamation of Instructive District Nurs- ing Association and Milk and Baby Hygiene Association.
First Nursery School and Training Center estab- lished on Ruggles street.
Mayor. Air Service. Anniversaries.
1923
James M. Curley.
Boston Airport officially opened September 6.
Two hundredth anniversary of Christ Church, Salem street, April 18. Vice-President Coolidge spoke at the exercises.
Buildings.
One hundredth anniversary of the Public Garden. John Hancock Insurance Company Building, 197 Clarendon street, completed April 17.
Park Square Building, 31 St. James avenue, opened September 27.
City Government.
Finance. Fires.
City Planning Board's project for the widening of Cambridge and Court streets accepted. First National Bank opened Cuban branch. 274-294 Congress street. Kelly Company. July 18. Loss $1,269,300.
George R. White, philanthropist, January 27. Left a fund of over $5,000,000 to the city. Josephine P. Marks, poet, December 4.
744 Hospitals.
FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
Maritime Affairs.
Thorndike Memorial Laboratory, devoted to medical research, opened as part of Boston City Hospital. The first of its kind in America. Steamer "Leviathan," largest passenger vessel in the world, berthed in the dry dock.
Necrology.
William R. Thayer, author, September 7.
1924
Mayor. Air Service.
James M. Curley.
United States Army round-the-world fliers made first official landing in United States at Boston Airport, September 6.
Buildings.
New Boston Chamber of Commerce Building, 80 Federal street, opened October 6.
First National Bank building, 67 Milk street, opened September 2.
Conventions.
Grand Army of the Republic Encampment August 10-15. Another great reception to the Civil War veterans.
Memorials.
Lafayette tablet, by John F. Paramino, erected on the Common.
George Robert White Memorial, by Daniel C. French, erected in the Public Garden.
Necrology.
Dr. Henry O. Marcy, physician, January 2. Edwin A. Grozier, editor, Boston Post, May 9. Isabella Stewart Gardner, art patron, July 17. Alexander Pope, painter, September 9.
Henry Cabot Lodge, statesman, November 9.
1925
Mayor. Population. Anniversaries.
James M. Curley. 779,620.
One hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775.
One hundredth anniversary of Boston Traveler, July 5.
Art.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, bequeathed to the public by its owner, opened as a per- manent public museum, February 15.
.
Disasters.
Fires.
Pickwick Club building on Beach street col- lapsed, evening of July 4, while dancing was in progress. Forty-four killed, thirty-two injured. Boston Post Publishing Company, August 29. Loss $219,502.
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Memorials.
Necrology.
Declaration of Independence tablet, by John F. Paramino, erected on Boston Common. Thomas W. Lawson, financier, February 8. Robert A. Woods, social worker, February 18. Amy Lowell, poet, May 12.
1926
Mayor. Air Service.
Malcolm E. Nichols (1926-29).
New York-Boston scheduled air mail service in- augurated July 1, from Boston Airport.
Anniversaries. One hundred and fiftieth anniversary of evacua- tion of Boston by British troops, March 17, 1776.
Buildings.
New police headquarters, 350 Stuart street, occu- pied December 5.
Metropolitan Theater, 252-270 Tremont street, completed, June 7.
Fires.
332-340 Summer street, South Boston. Leatlier storage. January 6. Loss $267,103.
Long Wharf, March 13. Loss $143,501.
Music.
Boston Symphony Orchestra concert broadcast, January 23.
Necrology.
James J. Storrow, public-spirited citizen, March 13.
John W. Weeks, Secretary of War under Presi- dents Harding and Coolidge, July 12.
Charles W. Eliot, President, Harvard University, August 23.
Reverend Edward Cummings, clergyman, Novem- ber 2.
Welfare.
New Public Welfare building opened on Chardon street.
1927
Mayor. Buildings.
Malcolm E. Nichols.
Rebuilt Parker House, 56-74 School street, opened May 12.
Ritz-Carlton Hotel, 13-15 Arlington street, opened May 17.
Statler Hotel and office building, 70-80 Arlington street, opened March 10.
Young's Hotel, famous hostelry, discontinued.
George F. Baker Library at Harvard Business School, opened in June.
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FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
Executions.
Nicola Sacco and Bartolommeo Vanzetti, Italian anarchists, convicted of a pay-roll murder, and executed August 23. Demonstrations of sym- pathy for the accused men and a large funeral procession, passing through the city to Forest Hills.
Memorials.
Kosciusko Monument, by Mrs. Henry H. Kitson, erected in the Public Garden.
Music.
Ethel Leginska became conductor of the Boston Women's Symphony Orchestra.
Beethoven Centenary Festival, March 22-29.
Necrology.
James F. Rhodes, author, January 22.
Sylvester Baxter, author, January 2S.
Abbie F. Brown, author, March 4.
C. S. Sargent, Director of Arnold Arboretum, March 22.
Charles F. Dole, clergyman, November 27.
Charles F. Choate, Jr., lawyer, November 30.
Theaters.
Boston Theater, built in 1854, former home of legitimate drama and grand opera, was torn down this year. Keith Memorial Theater built on its site.
Transportation.
Cambridge-Dorchester Tunnel section from An- drew square to Fields Corner opened.
Visitors.
Prince Wilhelm of Sweden came to Boston January 20.
J. Ramsay MacDonald, British labor leader and statesman, came to Boston April 16.
Charles A. Lindbergh, famous aviator, came to Boston July 22.
Women.
Anna C. Tillinghast appointed Immigration Com- missioner of New England. First woman to hold this position.
Emma Fall Schofield appointed Assistant Attorney- General of Massachusetts. First woman to hold this position.
Mayor. Air Service.
1928 Malcolm E. Nichols.
Art.
Boston Airport leased by state to city for develop- ment as a municipal air field.
New wing devoted to the decorative arts, Museum of Fine Arts, opened November 14.
Statue of Samuel Adams removed to Faneuil Hall square.
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A CHRONICLE
Athletics. Buildings.
Law passed permitting Sunday sports.
Branch of Sears, Roebuck and Company, 191-201 Brookline avenue, opened August 30.
New North Station, Causeway street, opened November 14.
Censorship.
About this time there was much controversy over the best policy of controlling offensive litera- ture. "The American Tragedy," a novel by Theodore Dreiser, "Oil," a novel by Upton Sinclair, and one issue of the "American Mer- cury" were among the publications excluded from Boston.
Fires. Hospitals. Laws.
Back Bay Station. Loss $360,359.
New Beth Israel Hospital opened.
An act providing for payment of compensation to widows and children (under eighteen or in- capacitated so that they are unable to earn a living) of policemen and firemen killed in the performance of their duty.
Music. Necrology.
Schubert Centenary Festival, November 11-22. Archibald C. Coolidge, historian, January 14. Basil King, author, June 22.
Transportation.
Cambridge-Dorchester Tunnel section from Fields Corner to Ashmont opened.
Visitors.
Two German fliers, with Captain Fitzmaurice of Ireland, came to Boston, after transatlantic flight from Europe.
Women.
Amelia Earhart left Boston for Newfoundland on eastward transatlantic flight, June 3.
1929
Mayor. Air Service.
Malcolm E. Nichols.
Regular passenger service, Boston to New York, inaugurated by the Colonial Air Transport Line, April 15.
Anniversaries.
One hundredth anniversary of organizing of Massachusetts Horticultural Society.
Three hundredth anniversary of Colonial Charter granted to Massachusetts Bay Company, March 4, 1629.
Art.
Two granite groups from the Post Office, which had been torn down, were set up in Franklin Park, July 14.
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FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
Athletics.
First professional game of baseball on Sunday, April 28.
Buildings.
Large Motor Mart for stabling of automobiles, 4-18 Columbus avenue, completed May 1.
New Young Women's Christian Association Building, 410 Stuart street, opened January 1. New Back Bay Station, Dartmouth street, opened July 1.
City Government.
Boston Traffic Commission created to regulate congestion in the streets.
Earthquake.
November 18, an earthquake shook New England and Eastern Canada. Upper floors of Custom House swayed. Pendulum clocks stopped in the State House. Twelve Atlantic cables broken.
Finance.
Affiliation of Old Colony Trust Company and First National Bank.
Stock market broke, October 20. Beginning of great decline in stocks and long-continued general depression.
Fires.
Bug Light, famous beacon in the harbor, destroyed June 8.
Maritime Affairs.
Establishment of a board to be known as Boston Port Authority, to promote business for the port.
Music.
First free open-air concert, July 14, by members of the Symphony Orchestra, on the Charles River Esplanade.
Necrology.
Edward H. Forbush, ornithologist, March 8. Morton Prince, psychiatrist, August 31.
George A. Gordon, clergyman, October 25. Dallas L. Sharp, author, November 29.
William F. Warren, President, Boston University, December 6.
Theaters.
In September of this year "Strange Interlude," a much-discussed play by Eugene O'Neill, an- nounced for production in Boston, was with- drawn after a conference with the city authori- . ties. The play was produced in Quincy.
Transportation.
High speed trolley line from Ashmont to Matta- pan opened, making direct connection fromn Harvard square to Mattapan through the Cambridge-Dorchester Tunnel.
Visitors.
Mayor Block of Tel Aviv, Palestine, came to Boston February 6.
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1930
James M. Curley (1930-34).
Population - 781, 188, more than doubled since 1880.
Area - 30,598 acres, an increase of only ten per cent since 1880.
Valuation - $1,972,148,200, three times the valua- tion in 1880.
Bank Clearings - $23,070,000,000, seven times the total in 1880.
Postal Receipts - $17,278,793.59.
Transportation - 1,461 surface trolley cars, 528 rapid transit cars and 319 buses now in opera- tion. No electric cars in 1880.
Vessels - 8,130 entered the port, 7,998 sailed,- fishing boats not included.
Playgrounds - Seventy public playgrounds open in Boston. None in 1880.
Pupils in Schools - In public schools, 131,814; in parochial schools, 31,790; making total num- ber more than three times as many as in 1880. Three hundredth anniversary of the settlement of Boston by Winthrop and the foundation of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Two hundred and seventy-fifth anniversary of the settlement of Jews in the United States.
One hundredth anniversary of the Boston Tran- script.
One hundredth anniversary of the Boston Society of Natural History.
One hundredth anniversary number issued by the Pilot.
As a Tercentenary good will offering, a commit- tee of citizens, with Allan Forbes as treasurer, raised a fund, ultimately amounting to £11,500, for the restoration of the church of St. Botolph in Boston, England.
Athletics.
Clarence A. DeMar, over forty years old, won the Marathon Race for the seventh time, April 19.
Buildings.
United Shoe Machinery Building, the highest business building in Boston, 140 Federal street, opened February 19.
Conventions. Education.
American Legion, October 6-10.
Kirstein Memorial Library, including a Business Men's Branch, given by Louis E. Kirstein in memory of his father.
Mayor. Statistics.
Anniversaries.
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FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
Hospitals.
Baker Memorial Building, for patients of moder- ate means, established at Massachusetts Gen- eral Hospital. A limit of $250 for entire cost of any operation and the requisite nursing.
Memorials.
Bronze relief, commemorating the arrival of Win- throp in Boston, by John F. Paramino, erected on the Common. Architectural setting by Charles A. Coolidge.
Necrology. Parks and Playgrounds.
Ernest H. Wilson, botanist, October 18.
Columbus Park dedicated October 12. The larg- est playground in Boston, containing seventy- nine acres.
Transportation.
A Comprehensive Thoroughfare Plan submitted by the City Planning Board.
A vehicular tunnel to East Boston authorized at a cost of $16,000,000.
Visitors.
President Herbert Hoover. Reuben Salter, Mayor of Boston, England.
Welfare.
The Boston Elevated Railway Company was awarded the Anthony N. Brady gold medal for 1930 (the third time it has received this dis- tinction) as the safest street railway in any of the large cities of the United States and Canada. Among more than 342,000,000 revenue passen- gers not a single fatal accident occurred.
EDITORIAL NOTE.
Miss Guerrier wishes to express her gratitude to more than a score of officials and organi- zations who have rendered generous assistance in the preparation of her article.
Especial thanks are due to the branch librarians of the Boston Public Library and to Miss Margaret A. Crane of the Branch Department.
i
CHAPTER XIV BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS VOLUME AND THE MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE IN CHARGE
By WILLIAM A. LEAHY
THE CONTRIBUTORS
(IN THE ORDER OF THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS)
JAMES MICHAEL CURLEY was born in Boston November 20, 1874, and was educated in the public schools of this city. In minor public offices, such as membership in the Common Council, the Massachusetts House of Repre- sentatives, the Board of Aldermen and the City Council, he received the train- ing which, coupled with his superior natural abilities, fitted him for the notable service which he has since rendered as Congressman and as Mayor. Three. times he has been elected to four-year terms as chief executive of the city - in 1914, 1922 and 1930. During the Tercentenary celebration, to which he gave whole-hearted support, he achieved new distinction by the felicity of his many public addresses. He is noted for his ability as a speaker and not less for his grasp of financial and administrative detail and his advocacy of large projects of enduring as well as immediate public advantage.
ELISABETHI M. HERLIHY is widely known as the executive officer since its inception of the Boston City Planning Board and more and more a personal force and guiding spirit among the group of able men and women who have given that body its country-wide reputation. She was born in Wilton, New Hampshire, and is a graduate of Wilton High School and of Bryant and Stratton College in Boston. From 1910 to 1914 she was successively stenographer and chief clerk in the Mayor's office under Mayor Fitzgerald. In 1914 Mayor Curley appointed her secretary of the newly formed Planning Board. Since 1924 she has functioned also as clerk of the Board of Zoning Adjustment. She is a member of the Board of Governors of the American City Planning Institute and one of the Executive Committee of the Massachusetts Federation of Plan- ning Boards. As representative of the city, she has exchanged ideas with experts at city planning conferences in nearly every large city in the United States and at Paris. She has written many special articles for technical maga- zines and for newspapers and has lectured on city planning at Simmons College and at Harvard University.
JOHN TORREY MORSE, JR., was born in Boston January 9, 1840, and is well launched, therefore, on the last decade of what his fellow-citizens hope will be at least a full century of honored and useful living. After graduating from Harvard in 1860, he practised law for twenty years, publishing valuable
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FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
books on legal subjects, but subsequently devoted himself to literature. Among his works arc lives of Alexander Hamilton, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Colonel Henry Lce, a memoir of Thomas Sergeant Perry, and, in the American States- men series, of which he was editor, biographics of Franklin, Jefferson, John Adams, John Quincy Adams and Lincoln. He was co-editor with Henry Cabot Lodge of the "International Review" for four years and has contributed to various English and American periodicals. He served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1876, was a Harvard overseer from 1879 to 1891 and is a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters.
As the sole survivor after fifty years of the contributors to the Winsor History, Mr. Morse is peculiarly welcome to the company which have prepared the present publication and takes his place rightfully at their head.
HELEN ADAMS KELLER belongs to Alabama by birth, to Virginia and New England by various ancestral strains, to Boston by her education and long residence in this vicinity, to the whole world as an example of triumph over obstacles and a vindication of the modern spirit, which embodies so much of social alleviation and good will, against its detractors. Blind and deaf since her second year, she finished the regular course at Radcliffe College and is today, at fifty-two, a woman of unusual culture and a rare spiritual force. She has lectured, written, and served on many boards for the improvement of the blind and the deaf. She is also the author of several books so well known that it is not necessary to name them here. As the unique interpreter of a unique experience, the conquest of exterior darkness by inward light, she occupies a place apart in American letters. Her style is distinguished for its fervor, fluency and a long, smooth rhythm that allies it to poctry and music, - a music that, in her case, at least, must have its sources elsewhere than in the human ear.
MARK ANTONY DEWOLFE HOWE was born in Rhode Island in 1864, but after graduating from Lehigh and Harvard became identified with Boston by residence and by marriage. He has published more than thirty books, chiefly biographical and historical, but with several excursions into verse, and has edited as many more. He has also served as associate editor of the "Youth's Companion " and the "Atlantic Monthly" and as editor of the "Harvard Alumni Bulletin" and the "Harvard Graduates' Magazinc." He has been an overscer of Harvard University, and is a trustee of the Boston Athenacum and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His "Barrett Wendell and His Letters" received the Pulitzer prize in biography for 1924. His "Boston, the Place and the People," is unequaled as an interpretation of the history and spirit of this city. His "Memoirs of the Harvard Dead" is regarded as a model of its kind. In these and other works he maintains ably the tradition of sanc thinking and distinguished expres- sion which is exemplified in the classic writers of New England.
EDWIN DOAK MEAD, a veteran of many campaigns for social betterment, has told the essential story of his life - or that larger part of it which he has
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
spent in Boston - in the reminiscences which we are privileged to print in this volume. At eighty-two he is still active in generous causes and his voice, heard from time to time on public issues, reminds us that we have among us at least one living link with the great figures of our golden age. It remains only to add that besides liis work as editor of the "New England Magazine," 1889- 1901, and of the "International Library," he has published several historical volumes. Among these may be mentioned "Martin Luther," "The Philosophy of Carlyle," "The Influence of Emerson," and the "Principles of the Founders." No sketch, however brief, of Mr. Mead's activities would be complete without some reference to his wife, Lucia Ames Mead, who has been identified with him in the same movements and has shared his humane and sympathetic spirit. Mrs. Mead is an author in her own right and has been a delegate to several international peace congresses in Europe and at home.
FREDERIC HAROLD FAY was born in Marlboro in 1872 and educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After a long service as engineer in charge of bridge construction and head of the Bridge and Ferry Division for the City of Boston, he resigned in 1914 to become senior member of the dis- tinguished engineering firm of Fay, Spofford and Thorndike. With his partners, . he was engineer to the War Department in the construction of the $25,000,000 Army Base in Boston and has been engaged in enterprises of similar magnitude at home and abroad. He has been president of the American Institute of Consulting Engineers, of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers and of the Alumni Association of the Institute of Technology, and is a fellow of the Amer- ican Academy of Arts and Sciences. As chairman of the City Planning Board he strongly advocated the adoption of the present zoning law and has been earnest in promoting the proposed Central Artery, the East Boston Traffic Tunnel and other major improvements designed for the relief of congestion.
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