USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Metropolitan Boston; a modern history; Volume III > Part 41
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The aversion to anything that sounds like self-advertising is some- thing reprehensible, or at least lacking in good taste, is coming to be a thing of the past. The setting forth of the good points of one's com- munity has become a necessity; there is no excuse for hiding good things except the selfish desire to hold them for one's self. Publicity is one of the ways of letting the world know that there are things of which one is not merely not ashamed, but of which one is proud. It is a method of sharing with all what might be of benefit to the few. If it be
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immodest to glorify one's city or State, it is better to be immodest than apologetic and silent when others cry aloud their pæans in praise of their home place. Bostonians have been reluctant to swing into the modern publicity movement, but once they give assent, because of their racial and educative influence, they seem destined to reach a high degree of efficiency in the very thing they deplore. Until the people of Boston begin to be a bit enthusiastic about their city, one desiring to know the best about it must look to the professional organizations whose business it is to advertise the advantages and progress of the city, and by so doing accelerate that progress and multiply the advantages.
A Good Word for the City-Once upon a time, and a very modern time, a gentleman from the metropolis of New England was inspired to make a few remarks about Massachusetts and Boston. When asked to write them down, he said he would do better and make his own para- phrase of an article which would express his thoughts better than what he had just said. What he wrote, condensed slightly, was this: "Bos- ton has the most interesting history among the cities of this country. It has done the most interesting things, has the most interesting insti- tutions and the most interesting people. It is the center of the most interesting industries, has the most interesting politics, the most inter- esting city government. No city has such a hold on the imagination of the people of the United States; none is more deeply rooted in their affections. She, as the chief city of Massachusetts, has been the mother of the Nation, the torch-bearer of civilization, the prophet of the new order, and the apostle of progress. Think of her wealth-making indus- tries! Think of what she has done for religion, ethics, sociology, civics, history, letters, art, science, learning, education; think of what she has done for industry, trade, commerce, manufacturing, farming, and all the useful and learned arts and crafts. And think of what she is now doing in, and for, all these lines of human endeavor and betterment! Massa- chusetts has focused all her distinctive life in Boston, making the city unique among the cities of the world. There never was a city in history that was so truly expressive of the people of New England. And it is expressive of a strong and consequential strain of people all over the United States. Especially is there a broad and deep flood of folk spread- ing over the entire northern half of the land who acknowledge the influ- ence of Boston and Massachusetts, because their forefathers were of that Puritan flood which crept over the land from Plymouth to San Francisco, leaving settlers all along the route. There is no racial tie in America so strong as that which binds to the Pilgrims, and all Pil- grims went out from Massachusetts." Much more was written, and even more said, but enough has been given to indicate that there are some
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who become fairly articulate when their native place is the subject of conversation.
What Others Think of Boston-There are many other tributes which have been paid to Boston by her sons and daughters which might be quoted ; her history extends over so many years, and her children have been many. No repetition of paragraphs can do more than make clear the appeal the metropolis has made to the writer of them, and there is always a feeling of their inadequacy. The best is not good enough ; the widest view is still incomplete. Emerson's words still resound pleas- antly in the mind when we read again his few sentences which begin : "This town of Boston has a history. It is not an accident, not a wind- mill, or a railroad station, or a cross-roads tavern, or an army barracks grown up by time or luck to a place of wealth: but a seat of humanity, of men of principles, obeying a sentiment and marching loyally whither that should lead them ; so that its annals are great historical lines, inex- tricably national ; part of the history of political liberty. I do not speak with fondness, but with the language of coldest history, when I say that Boston commands attention as the town appointed in the destiny of nations to lead the civilization of North America."
If one cares to read the opinion of a world-wide traveler and writer, one who makes it his business to know intimately all large cities and to write what he knows, there is Robert Shackleton who, in his "Book of Boston," says in the first paragraph of the work, "I shall write of the Boston to which thousands of Americans annually pilgrimage. And if in the writing of Boston of today, there is mention of the past, it will be because in certain aspects, in certain phases, the past and the present are inextricably blended. Boston is dear to the hearts of Americans. It is a city of interest ; a city with much charm, with much of beauty, with much of dignity. A city of idols as well as of ideals, and with some of the idols clay. For it is a very human city, with pleasantly piquant peculiarities. On the whole, in its developments, a comfortable city. A city of traditions that are fine; a city of beliefs and at the same time of prejudices. A city rich in associations, rich in its memories of great men and deeds, rich in the possession of places connected with those men and deeds. No other city so richly and delightfully summons up the remembrance of things past."
The Appeal of the Historic-The Shackleton phrase, "Boston to which thousands of Americans annually pilgrimage" touches upon the tide of visitors which flows continuously into the city and hints at the reason for the visitation. The people of the United States are moving about as they never have in any other decade, either because the auto-
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mobile has made all parts of the country accessible, or from restless desire to see and to know, or from a dozen other motives. There are many sections of America which are listed in the tourist mind as places they must see sometime. Among these places, cities are seldom classed among the desirables with the exception of our national capital and Boston, and the impulse behind the desire to visit these two places is apt to be the same, the impulse which sends one off on a pilgrimage to a shrine. The appeal of the historic in Boston is strong. The city is not old, if one thinks of it in comparison with places in the real Old World abroad. In comparison with the United States, however, Boston is quite ancient, having passed more than half of its life before there was an American republic. Three hundred years means a great deal to the mind of the average American, and he comes to see what those three centuries have wrought in the home of his forefathers. Fortunately, the visitor is not disappointed, for Boston Town still retains a great deal of its pre-Revolutionary colonial flavor. There are historic buildings to be seen ; the narrow streets of the provincial days are disappearing-as is much of the historic-under the press of modern transportation and industrial needs, but there are still many, and some of them have names reminiscent of the days of old. There is "atmosphere" about the Hub ; the city is "colorful"; it is full of "charm." And this is to quite an extent, the atmosphere, the color, the charm of the historic. He who pilgrimages to Boston, the shrine, is not disappointed by what he finds.
The Metropolitan District-It is to be feared that the Bostonian, however well he may know the history of his home place, rather resents the emphasis which is placed upon that history. He knows that it has far more for the delectation of the visitor than historic shrines and monuments. The metropolis is a commercial and business center; it is thoroughly modern and progressive. It is the business, industrial and population center of New England. More people live within a fifty- mile zone than there are in the whole State of Massachusetts ; half the population of the State resides within fifteen miles of the city. In fact, the real Boston is not the limited area upon which in 1927, there lived 860,269 people, but that extensive section wherein there are now forty cities and towns whose interests are bound up with the economic, bank- ing, transportation, merchandising, railroad interests and the port facili- ties of Boston proper. This metropolitan district is the real Boston, and the resident of it, however proud he may be of its history, is even more proud of what it is in the immediate present. To the end that the present day Boston may be appreciated at large, efforts are constantly being made by the business organizations, and by the city itself, to intro- duce modern Boston to the country.
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A Convention City-In 1922, the Mayor of Boston was instrumental in the establishment of the Commercial and Industrial Bureau. One of the duties of this bureau was to publish and circulate data concerning the various attractive features of Boston. The Chamber of Commerce, as well as other organizations, put their hand to the wheel in the pub- licity campaign which followed. One of the results was the immediate increase in the number of visitors to the city, particularly those who came to attend conventions. As for the conventions themselves, there were more than 300 of them held during the year 1924, and for purposes covering almost the entire field of human endeavor. Societies seeking the advancement of Religion, Art, Industry, Finance, Foreign Relations, Municipal Improvements, Patriotism, Fraternalism, Labor, and Science, made a friendly invasion of Boston by the thousands, and were amazed by the natural advantages, the character, the aliveness of the Hub, returning to their home towns with an altogether new understanding of Boston. It may be of interest to note the names of some of the organi- zations which met in the city during the year above mentioned. It is but a partial list, be it remembered: National Shoe and Leather Exposi- tion ; National Association of Purchasing Agents ; Linen Supply Associa- tion of America; American Federation of Labor; National Foreign Trades Council; American Hospital Association ; American Neurological Association ; National Amateur Press Association ; Grand Army of the Republic ; Grand Lodge of Elks; Knights of Columbus ; Supreme Lodge Scottish Rite Masons ; Supreme Lodge Knights of Protection ; American Unitarian Association ; International Federation of Catholic Alumnae ; Spanish War Veterans; and the Military Order of the World War. As will be noticed the list has been confined to nation-wide organizations. Hundreds of other societies were the guests of the city, and it seems cer- tain that they all went away pleased with the welcome and hospitality which was shown them.
There are probably financial advantages to be reaped by the enter- ' tainment of conventions ; the visitor more than pays his way. What is more pleasing is the fact that Boston is becoming known as an ideal convention city, which means that its attractions are not limited to any single sphere. One writer has it:
"Boston is the ideal convention city ; it stands unique among all the cities of the United States in the proportion of its physical, industrial, educational and historical values; it offers for the appreciation of its visitors the wonders of our splendid, though neglected, seaport, with its capacious wharfage and dock facilities; the famous Navy Yard; Com- monwealth Pier with the world's largest drydock; at its outer edge the developing airport; and, broadening out in the vast reaches of shim-
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mering sand, beaches famed throughout the world as healthful summer resorts. It delights the eye with the beauties of its parks and play- grounds; with the splendid roads of the world's finest park system that wind in gleaming ribbons among the contiguous cities and towns, binding the natural splendors within their embrace into one superb gar- land. It impresses the visitor with the character and stability of its citizenship, by the fine American communities situated in natural and beautiful suburbs entirely surrounding the city proper, and radiating in every direction within six miles of the business center. It fascinates the mind with its institutions of learning, of religion, of art and music, and though the contemplation of its historic shrines and monuments, Faneuil Hall, Bunker Hill, Concord and Lexington, Boston Common, Old North Church, Old State House, and Old South Meeting-House, it rekindles in all hearts the sacred fires of love of God and of Country."
Plans for a Municipal Auditorium-While there is little question that Boston is an ideal convention city, it still lacks that great desideratum, a modern large sized convention hall, or municipal auditorium. True, there is the old Mechanics Building, which still retains its usefulness, and there are other large sized buildings which are now in use. But with a continued and increasing popularity of Boston as a place where thousands care to gather, there is a very real need of a place in which they can meet with comfort. In the summer of 1927 Colonel Lindbergh, after winning the hearts of the Nation by his epoch-making flight to Paris, came to the metropolis. No one knows just how many tens of thousands were in Boston that day to greet the flyer. The Common did very well as a meeting place during the day; indeed no building could have been large enough to have held the crowd. When the night came, and an attempt was made to extend formal greetings to the Colonel, thousands jammed St. Botolph Street and Massachusetts Avenue in an endeavor to win an entrance, with ten thousand others, to a most uncom- fortable, most unsuitable arena. Anyone who had the fortune to be one of the ten thousand, saw, heard, and felt enough to convince them that Boston's need of an auditorium was real, actual and pressing. It may be that the planned memorial to the soldiers of the World War from Massa- chusetts may take the form of a public hall. There is a project of the Boston and Maine Railroad to include a great convention hall with other improvements that will transform the present North Station. Or the city may build a coliseum, a municipal auditorium, such as it needs. What- ever may be the way taken, it seems quite assured that the attractions of Boston will fill such a hall with an almost continuous series of con- ventions, national, state and sectional.
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The Student Group-There is an important group of transients, it so they may be called, who are better cared for, the great body of students who make Boston their temporary home. A circle with a radius of Beacon Hill as a center includes nearly a dozen colleges of the high- est rank with a registration approaching twenty-five thousand. There are as many educational institutions of different kinds, but of high grade, with half as many students enrolled. In the metropolitan area, there are more than two hundred universities, colleges, normal and technical schools, music and art institutions and private schools. Among these are Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University, Tufts College, Wellesley College, Radcliffe College, Simmons College, Boston College, the New England Conservatory of Music, and Boston Art School. The first five-among the ten largest educational institutions in New England-have a total registration of twenty thousand students. Many of them are nationally celebrated, and some have reputations that extend to the far quarters of the globe. "First," "largest," "best," are adjectives which may fairly be applied to a number. It is estimated that these 200 schools bring an annual influx to the popu- lation of the Boston district of fifty thousand of the youth of our land. To care properly for these is a problem for the city, but one well solved. Truly, Boston is one of the leading educational centers of the world. Year by year there goes out from the city a stream of young men and women, who, as her adopted sons and daughters, take their places in the affairs of the world-one of Boston's contributions to the Nation and the world. And these young men and women who have come from afar to her institutions bring with them a broadening and stimulating influ- ence which reacts upon the residents of the metropolis and makes impos- sible provincialism and stagnation in mind, manners or growth.
The Casual Visitor in the "Hub"-To the large numbers of attendants upon conventions, and the thousands who come to Boston for educational or cultural purposes, must be added the ever-increasing host of tourists, vacationists, and casual visitors. It seems likely that more strangers come to the metropolis each year than there are residents. Boston is glad to welcome them, wishes them an interesting stay, and is increas- ingly extending them the warm hand of cordial hospitality. The city is the better because so many come to it; and it has treasures, advantages, attractions which benefit the visitor. It is not expected that the stranger is going to like everything about the city. He may find trouble in get- ting about some of its streets "downtown," but he will find some of the finest streets in America, Commonwealth Avenue, for example. If he uses public transportation systems, he may be puzzled by their curious ways of popping in and out of the ground; or by the necessity, while
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already in a subway, of going further down in the ground to take the "elevated." He may be shocked to hear the newsboys use the beautiful soft "a"; and the cultured matron misplace her "r's." Boston and Bos- tonians have just as many oddities as any other place or folk. All these things are of minor import; their very difference but increases the inter- est. One doesn't travel to see and hear what may be seen and heard at home. The stranger comes because he wants to see and learn for him- self.
There are certain things about Boston that the visitor should know about. Some of these will be mentioned, not with any attempt at com- pleteness nor bolstered up with statistics. They will be hints which may help in the understanding of the "Hub"; a few markers which point the way to understanding. What is said will be confined to the modern and the historical aspects of the city, and all will be but conden- sations of what has been said at length in other parts of this work. In other words, the rest of this chapter is for the visitor within our gates, and has nothing in it for the informed home folk.
Modern Boston-We will take for granted that it is well known that Boston is the business, industrial and population center of New England, one of the richest industrial sections of the world. That while the city proper is small in area, and started on one of the smallest almost-islands on which a large settlement was ever attempted, the real Boston is what is known as the metropolitan district, which if consolidated as is New York and a dozen other cities would make it the fourth largest city in America. Nearly five million people trade within this area; there are 25,000 mercantile establishments and 5,000 manufacturing plants within this section. The steam and electric railroad mileage is greater than in any similar area in the Western Hemisphere. The Boston Elevated Railway system carried in 1926 nearly 383,500,000 passengers, and this system does not cover the whole district, or even nearly so. The visitor is immensely pleased with the magnificent park system which stretches from Boston to the far corners of the district ; he is pleased with the beau- tiful suburbs; the Charles River Basin-a lake within a city-always wins the admiration of the stranger. These and many other similar attractions and advantages of this section are made possible by a unique cooperation between the municipalities of the metropolitan district that would be hard to parallel elsewhere. Thirty-eight places comprise the park district, and the chain of boulevards and parks are the results of this joining hands. Fewer towns have combined to make up the Water Department which brings water into them from the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts.
Metropolitan Boston is by right, the center of the "district"; the point
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from which the railroads and highways radiate; the shopping section, the port. One should never leave Boston without becoming familiar with its fine natural harbor, and its modern improvements. It compares favorably with any in the world, and capable of handling three times the commerce which it does. The docks are novel sights. The Com- monwealth Pier, constructed just before the war at a cost of $4,000,000, is classed as one of the finest passenger and freight piers ever built. The Army Base in South Boston, constructed by the United States Government during the war, is said to be the largest of its kind in the country. The Dry Dock is also another of the largest, the one to which the "Leviathan" must come for its regular cleanings and repairs. Then there is the Boston Airport, at present the most advantageously located air field of any large city. The metropolis is served by freight and pas- senger lines to all the main seaports of Europe, and by freight lines to the Far East, South America and Australia. Boston's foreign trade is exceeded by but four other American cities ; in imports and in incoming passengers it ranks second only to New York. These are but a few of the items which make the harbor of interest to the visitor, although one of the most interesting features is the great Fish Pier, for Boston out- ranks every place in the world, save one, in the size of its fishing industry.
Industrial Boston-The city has always made history in its industries and commerce. It took the first place in this country in both of these from its beginnings. When one line of endeavor ceased to be profitable, it engaged in some other. Starting with the fisheries, one source of wealth which has never failed, the story of its progression is but a tale of courageous shifting of its labors through commerce, ship-building, finance, to manufacturing. The mistake is sometimes made in thinking that this is merely historic, one hears murmurs of "decadence," "compe- tition" of the South or West, as though the metropolis had been shorn of its strength. What needs to be realized is, that Boston is still making history in the industrial world ; it is leading as ever, but along less showy lines. Efficiency and economy are the modern watchwords of business, and the canny descendants of those who settled in a most difficult locality and yet made there the most prosperous town in the Colonies, have proven capable of more than holding their own. It is to be remembered as well, that the industrial strength of any place today lies in the multi- plicity of its interests rather than in control or leadership in simply one or a few.
Boston is still our largest wool market, half the wool imported by the United States going through its hands. In textiles, despite all the depression in both cottons and woolens, the city is at the head of one
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of the most important districts in the country. This same thing may be said of the shoe and leather trade. From the beginning of printing in America, Boston has been one of the recognized great publishing centers. Few sections exceed the larger Boston in rubber manufactures ; and how many know that the fifth largest metropolitan industry is the making of high grade confectionery? One might continue indefinitely to recite the various industries in which Boston plays a prominent rôle. The story of the way in which Boston is making its peaceful conquests in commerce, industry, and trade have been recounted at length else- where. He who is interested may read; the transient has but to cast alert eyes about him and see for himself. The point is that Boston's past has but prepared it for its very vigorous present, and one cannot understand her who glances only on the historic and the old.
The Lure of the Historic-The Common-It is to be realized, how- ever, that the tourist on pleasure bent is apt to care more for the romance which clusters about the "Birthplace of the American Nation" than the somewhat prosaic story of business supremacy. The world-known his- toric buildings, famous streets, places forever joined with notable events, are an attraction to every live American. There are many here, but no attempt can be made to enumerate them. Because there are so many of these historic shrines, a few will be mentioned which everyone should visit, some of which may so easily be overlooked. Take the Common, for example. There are parks in many cities as beautiful, although sel- dom does one find such an almost unchanged bit of old-time loveliness in the very heart of a city. If any place stands for the permanence of ideals, it is this Common. "It has always represented liberty, breadth, uniqueness of standpoint. One gathers that the people of Boston will retain their liberty so long as they retain their Common." Fortunately, its preservation has been provided for both by legislation and benefac- tion. It is the oldest park in America, costing Governor Winthrop, in 1634, the equivalent of one hundred and fifty dollars. As early as 1646 a law was passed that the Common should forever be held unbroken until a majority of the people voted otherwise. Thus, one may now wander over the ancient "trayning field" and the place for "the feeding of cattell" and browse among the trees and vision by the imagination the pageantry of history which this spot has known, from the day when Blackstone rode his bull about the rocky peninsula more than three centuries ago, to the modern day events when thousands greeted the soldiers returning from the Great War, or welcomed aviators who had spanned half the world. Whole books have been written with the Com- mon as the one subject of their descriptions.
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