USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Old landmarks and historic personages of Boston.. > Part 24
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Fort Hill Block, on the corner of High and Pearl Streets,
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marks the site of a mammoth structure erected for a private residence, and known as Harris's Folly. Extensive gardens reached up the hill, quite to the enclosure at the top. In 1809 all the land was open to the mall on the summit of the hill. The northwest corner of Pearl and High was for a time the location of the Congress House, altered from a private residence into a hotel.
Proceed we onward to Purchase Street, anciently Belcher's Lane, the birthplace of Thomas Dawes, afterwards a judge of the Supreme Court of the State, and of the Municipal Court of Boston ; and of Samuel Adams, the great central figure of the patriot junta. The elder Thomas Dawes was the architect of Brattle Street Church. He was a high patriot, and the caucuses were sometimes held in his garret, where they smoked tobacco, drank flip, and discussed the state of the country. Dawes was also adjutant of the Boston Regiment. The tories gave him the nickname of " Jonathan Smoothing-plane."
A short descent brings us to Liverpool Wharf. Where now Broad Street winds around the margin of the water, the old footpath under the hill was known as Flounder Lane ; Sea Street was its continuation to Windmill Point. Beyond this point the Sea Street of later times was built straight into the harbor, enclosing the South Cove ; it is now known as Broad Street in its entire length, from State Street to the South Boston Bridge.
Liverpool Wharf, then Griffin's, was the destination of the Tea Party of December 16, 1773. It was a cold wintry after- noon, when
"Just as glorious Sol was setting, On the wharf a numerous crew, Sons of freedom, fear forgetting, Suddenly appeared in view."
The three Indiamen, with their high poops and ornamented sterns, were lying quietly moored at the wharf. They had been for some time under guard of a committee of twenty-five from the grenadier company of the Boston Regiment, of which Henry Knox was one. The hatches were closed, and this vigi- lance committee took care no attempt was made to land the
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cargo. The names of the three ships were the Dartmouth, Captain James Hall, The Eleanor, Captain James Bruce, and brig Beaver, Captain Hezekiah Coffin.
The number of persons disguised as Indians was not more than seventeen, but the accessions from the Old South, and of apprentice lads and idlers, swelled the number to more than a hundred ; as many as sixty went on board the ships. Each ship had a detachment allotted to it under a recognized leader; Lendall Pitts was one of these chiefs. Everything was orderly, systematic, and doubtless previously concerted. The leaders demanded of those in charge of the ships the keys to the hatches, candles, and matches, which were produced. The Dartmouth was first visited and relieved of her cargo of one hundred and fourteen chests. As the chests were passed on deck, they were smashed, and nervous arms plunged them into the dock. The contents of three hundred and forty-two chests mingled with the waters of the bay, and the work was done.
It was low tide when the ships were boarded, and the ap- prentice boys, who formed the larger number of those engaged in the affair, jumped upon the flats, and assisted in breaking up and trampling into the mud such of the chests as had escaped the hatchets of those on board the vessels. The tide beginning to flow, the whole mass was soon adrift.
We give the names of the actors in this conversion of Bos- ton harbor into a teapot, as far as known : Dr. Thomas Young, Paul Revere, Thomas Melvill, Henry Purkett, Captain Henry Prentiss, Samuel Gore, George R. T. Hewes, Joseph Shed, John Crane, Josiah Wheeler, Thomas Urann, Adam Colson, Thomas Chase, S. Cooledge, Joseph Payson, James Brewer, Thomas Bolter, Edward Proctor, Samuel Sloper, Thomas Ger- rish, Nathaniel Green, Edward C. How, Ebenezer Stevens, Nicholas Campbell, John Russell, Thomas Porter, William Hurdley, Benjamin Rice, Nathaniel Frothingham, Moses Grant, Peter Slater, James Starr, Abraham Tower, Isaac Simpson, Joseph Eayres, Joseph Lee, William Molineux, John Spurr,
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Th Da Hu M Pe
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Thomas Moore, S. Howard, Matthew Loring, Thomas Spear, Daniel Ingollson, Jonathan Hunnewell, John Hooten, Richard Hunnewell, William Pierce, William Russell, T. Gammell, Mr. McIntosh, Mr. Wyeth, Edward Dolbier, Mr. Martin, Samuel Peck, Lendall Pitts, Samuel Sprague, Benjamin Clarke, John Prince, Richard Hunnewell, Jr., David Kinnison, John Truman, Henry Bass, Joseph Mountfort, William Hurd, Joseph Palmer, Joseph Coolidge, Obadiah Curtis, James Swan, Mr. Kingson, and Isaac Pitman .*
There are authorities who give Dr. Warren as a member of the Mohawk Band. Many incidents are related of this event. It is said that on their return from the wharf the band passed a house where Admiral Montague of the fleet happened to be, and that he raised the window and cried out, " Well, boys, you've had a fine pleasant evening for your Indian caper, haven't you? But mind you have got to pay the fiddler yet !" "O, never mind!" shouted Pitts, the leader ; " never mind, Squire ! just come out here, if you please, and we'll settle the bill in two minutes." The populace raised a shout, the fifer struck up a lively air, and the admiral shut the window in a hurry. A powerful fleet lay in the roads ; the troops were at the Castle, yet not a move was made to arrest the work of destruction.
Thomas Melvill, in after times a distinguished citizen of Boston, was of the party. On his return home his wife col- lected a little of the tea from his shoes, which was put into a bottle with a memorandum written on parchment, and kept as a precious relic in the family. Many came to see the famous herb, until at last it was found necessary to seal it, to preserve it from vandal hands. This bottle of tea is now in possession of Lemuel Shaw of this city, son of the late Judge Shaw.
John Crane, another of the party, while busily employed in the hold of one of the ships, was knocked down by a chest of tea, falling from the deck upon him. He was taken up for dead, and concealed in a neighboring carpenter's shop under a pile of shavings. After the party had finished they returned, and found Crane living.
* Some of these names are from Lossing's Field-Book.
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Several persons who were detected in the act of secreting the fragrant plant were roughly handled.
"One Captain O'Connor," says Hewes, "whom I well knew, came on board for this purpose, and when he supposed he was not noticed, filled his pockets, and also the lining of his coat. But I had de- tected him, and gave information to the captain of what he was doing. We were ordered to take him into custody, and just as he was stepping from the vessel, I seized him by the skirt of his coat, and in attempting to pull him back, I tore it off ; but springing for- ward by a rapid effort, he made his escape. He had, however, to run the gantlet of the crowd upon the wharf ; each one as he passed giv- ing him a kick or a stroke. The next day we nailed the skirt of his coat, which I had pulled off, to the whipping-post in Charlestown, the place of his residence, with a label upon it."
Griffin's Wharf, as well as Wheelwright's, had a number of large warehouses, in which had been quartered the detachment of the 59th, and the train of artillery which landed in Octo- ber, 1768. A fire caught in one of the stores used as a labor- atory in March, 1760, and an explosion occurred, injuring sev- eral men and terrifying the neighborhood.
Rowe's Wharf coincides with the old Southern Battery or Sconce, an outwork of Fort Hill, and terminus in this direction of the famous Barricado. As early as 1632 a fort was begun on the eminence then called Corn Hill, but soon changed to the Fort-field, and finally to Fort Hill. The Bostonians were aided by their brethren from Charlestown, Roxbury, and Dorchester ; two years after, it was declared in a state of defence.
The Sconce was probably not built until some time after the main work, perhaps at the time of the Dutch war. It was con- structed of whole timber, with earth and stone between, and was considered very strong. In time of peace it was in charge of a gunner only, but had its company assigned to it in case of danger. In 1705 it was commanded by Captain Timothy Clark, who was ordered to furnish an account of the ordnance, ammunition, etc., "meete to bee offered hys Grace the Duke of Marlborough Great Master of her Majestye's Ordnance." In 1743 the battery mounted thirty-five guns ; at this time no work appears on the summit of the hill. In 1774 Jeremiah
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Green was captain with the rank of major. The British con- tinued to hold it with a garrison, and had a laboratory there. Colonel Pomeroy's regiment, the 64th, occupied the hill in November, 1768 ; the Welsh Fusileers, who had won a splendid name for valor at Minden, were posted there in 1774, and in 1775 the works contained four hundred men. After the evacu- ation the works were found greatly damaged, but were occu- pied and strengthened by the Americans. Du Portail, chief engineer of the American army, came to Boston in October, 1778, to make a survey of the works, when this with others was strengthened and put in the best posture of defence. Sub- sequently, in 1779, when Washington was fortifying the passes of the Hudson on a great scale, the heavy guns were removed from all the works here and sent forward to the army against which Clinton was then advancing.
The battery and fort acquire a celebrity as the theatre of the seizure and deposition of Governor Andros. In April, 1689, the news of the landing of the Prince of Orange at Torbay reached Boston, and threw the town into a ferment. The gov- ernor, Randolph, and some others sought the security of the fort ; the drums beat to arms, and the inhabitants ran from all quarters to the Town House, where they joined their respective companies. The captain of a frigate which lay before the town was seized on shore, and held as a hostage. Approaching the hill by the rear, the train-bands divided, a part going around by the water to the battery. A few soldiers in this work retreated up the hill to the main body, and the townsmen turned the guns upon them. Andros cursed and fumed, but was forced to yield himself a prisoner, with his companions. Some were imprisoned in the old jail ; his Excellency was placed under guard at Mr. Usher's house. The frigate still showed fight, and lay with her ports triced up, and her men at quarters ; but after the people had got possession of all the fortifications and pointed the guns at her, the captain was compelled to send down his topmasts, unbend his sails, and send them ashore. The keys of the Castle were next extorted from Andros, and the bloodless revolution was ended. It is said Sir Edmund was
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handcuffed as he was conducted from the fort; we may well believe he was not allowed to pass through the ranks of the townsmen without some reminders of his fallen state.
Probably Old Boston never knew a day of greater rejoicing than that which brought the news of Burgoyne's surrender. The rumor of the falling back of the American army to Still- water had been received with deep forebodings for the future, speedily dissipated by the glad tidings of the greatest victory of the war. A thundering salute was fired from Fort Hill and Dorchester Neck. Hope animated every heart anew, and joy was visible in every countenance.
From the Sconce, the lane leading up the hill to the fort was named Sconce Lane, since Hamilton Street, and the walk along the beach the Batterymarch.
A specimen of the small arms in use at the time of the set- tlement is in the Historical Society's possession. The guns were without locks, match or fuse being used at the rate of two fathoms for every pound of powder and twenty bullets ;. pikes were still in use for foot-soldiers.
" Where are those old and feudal clans, Their pikes and bills and partisans ; Their hauberks, jerkins, buffs ? A battle was a battle then, A breathing piece of work ; but men Fight now with powder puffs."
The building lately occupied by a Glass Company at the corner of Hamilton Street was the residence of Benjamin Hal- lowell, grandfather of the admiral. It became afterwards a noted inn, known as the " Sun," and kept by Goodrich in 1822.
This old Sun Tavern, now while we write nearly demolished, is the third or fourth of that name in Boston. One of the same name was in Dock Square in 1724, kept by Samuel Mears ; another was in Cornhill in 1755, kept by Captain James Day : we may suppose the conjunction of names did not escape the wits of the day. The sign of the Sun in Bat- terymarch Street has been compared in shape to a gravestone, with its circular top. There the likeness ended ; for underneath the rays of a gilded sun was the legend, -
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" The best Ale and Porter Under the Sun."
By a curious transition the sign was afterwards erected in . Moon Street, where it became the proper symbol of Mrs. Milk, whose mixtures were perhaps not as mild as the name indicated. Few of her customers escaped a coup de soleil ; her neighbors were Waters, Beer, and Legg. Sun Court, near by, reflected the name of the greater luminary.
At the east corner of Milk Street and Liberty Square was the Commercial Coffee House, built on the site of Hallowell's shipyard. It was kept by William Meriam from 1817 until about 1830, and was a house of considerable resort for ship- masters. In 1838 John Low was landlord, and later Colonel Whitney. Its place is now occupied by Thorndike's granite building. Here was in 1798 the principal shipyard in the town, from which was launched the ship Genet fully rigged, and named in honor of the then French minister to this country.
Siste Viator. We were about to invite the reader to ascend Fort Hill. The waters of the harbor have swallowed the emi- nence, and it is as completely obliterated as if an earthquake had engulfed it. The base indeed is left, but it requires a strong imagination to picture an elevation eighty feet above us, bearing on its top the elegant mansions of a past generation, with the tops of noble elms waving in the cool sea-breezes. Yet this was the peculiar spot to which residents were invited fifty years ago, with the assurance that the green park on its top would afford a perpetual place of recreation.
The streets which struggled up the sides of the hill were once peopled with a highly respectable class, but Broad Street and the outlying works were soon carried by Irish, and the citadel was yielded to them. From the hill radiated the wharves, like the fingers of the hand ; the eastern slope was peopled by ship artisans and mechanics pertaining to that craft. The summit of the hill was levelled so as to form a plateau, in the centre of which was the grass-plat encircled with an iron fence and studded with trees. On the south side was built the Boylston
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School and gun-house of the Washington Artillery ; the space enclosed by the buildings on the other sides was called Wash- , ington Place. The school received its name in honor of Thomas and Ward Nicholas Boylston, liberal benefactors of Boston and the neighboring University. A windmill was erected on the hill in the year 1701.
The Washington Artillery Company, on one of its annual visits to East Boston for target-practice, gave a sample of their gunnery by knocking over a cow with a twelve-pounder shot. The owner received the price demanded for the slaughtered animal. The company, with a keen eye to business, had the cow dressed and sold at a considerable advance on the price paid the owner.
The land from the hill-top no doubt furnished the material for filling up the docks east of Kilby and Batterymarch Streets. The old fort had disappeared long before the Revolution, and it was not until then that the hill was again fortified. In 1869 the levelling of the hill was ordered, and fully completed within three years. A dreary waste of gravel flanked by bare founda- tion walls, a stump here and there of the once noble elms, are all that is left of Fort Hill. Sic transit.
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CHAPTER X.
A TOUR ROUND THE COMMON.
Long Acre. - Tremont House. - Mr. Clay. - President Jackson. - Charles Dickens. - Little House-lot. - Tremont Theatre. - The Cadets. - Adino Paddock. - Paddock's Mall. - Granary Burying-Ground. - The Granary. - Almshouse. - Workhouse. - Bridewell. - Park Street Church. - Man- ufactory House. - Linen-Spinning Introduced. - Elisha Brown. - Massa- chusetts Bank. - Incident of the Lexington Expedition. - The Common. - Its Origin. - The Great Mall. - Fences. - Winter Street. - Governor Bernard. - John McLean. - Samuel Adams. - St. Paul's. - Masonic Ten- ple. - Margaret Fuller. - Washington Gardens. - The Haymarket. - West Street. - The Gun-House. - Colonnade Row. - Massachusetts Med- ical College. - Haymarket Theatre. - Boylston Street. - John Quincy Adams. - General Moreau. - Charles Francis Adams.
U PON the pavement of Tremont Street once more, we renew our wanderings in the vicinity of the Old Granary Bury- ing-Ground. Common Street was the first distinctive appella- tion received by that part of Tremont from School Street to Boylston, or, to copy the language of the record, " from Melyne's corner, near Colonel Townsend's, passing through the Common, along by Mr. Sheef's into Frog Lane." It did not become Tremont Street until 1829. The name of Long Acre was given to that part of the street between School and Winter by Adino Paddock, of whom something anon. He came from that part of London in which the great plague originated, and which was noted for its mughouses. In London Long Acre is the scene of Matt Prior's amours, when, after an evening with Swift, Oxford, Bolingbroke, and Pope, he would go and smoke a pipe and drink a bottle of beer with a common soldier. This name of Paddock's was generally accepted, though we do not learn that it ever had any official sanction.
The Tremont House, though not an old landmark, is a prom- inent one. The corner-stone was laid on the 4th of July, 1828, and it was opened to the public October 16, 1829. Isaiah
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Rogers was the architect. It was thought to be, and was at this time, a model of luxury and elegance. It has seen some notable guests. Henry Clay, or, more familiarly, Harry of the West, tarried here. So did his antagonist, then President, Jackson, on his visit to Boston in June, 1833. These two men gave rise to two party watchwords which have been perpetuated in a singular manner. Two rival political bands of Kentuckians went to settle on the banks of the Missouri. One party came from the Blue-Grass region, and were Clay men. The other
was from the Big Sandy, and were Jackson men. The battle- ery of the parties was, "Clay and Liberty," "Jackson and Independence." Each little band of settlers named their vil- lages for their war-cry, and eventually the counties for their political chiefs. So they now remain.
Brave Hull came also to see the docking of his old ship, the Constitution. Charles Dickens, on his first visit to America, came to the Tremont House. It took him eighteen days to come over in the Britannia. It is said the first person he asked for on his arrival was Bryant ; but, as the steamer reached her dock after dark, we may conclude the comforts of his hotel engrossed the novelist's mind. He gives a somewhat humorous account of his initiation into American hotel customs : -
"'Dinner, if you please,' said I to the waiter.
".When ?' said the waiter.
"' As quick as possible,' said I.
". Right away !' said the waiter.
" After a moment's hesitation, I answered . No,' at hazard.
". Not right away ?' cried the waiter, with an amount of surprise that made me start.
" I looked at him doubtfully, and returned, . No ; I would rather have it in this private room. I like it very much.'
" At this. I really thought the waiter must have gone out of his mind ; as I believe he would have done, but for the interposition of another man who whispered in his ear. . Directly.
".Well ! and that's a fact !' said the waiter, looking helplessly at me. . Right away.'
"I now saw that 'right away' and . directly' were one and the same thing. So I reversed my previous answer, and sat down to dinner in ten minutes afterwards, and a capital dinner it was.
--
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"The hotel (a very excellent one) is called the Tremont House. It has more galleries, colonnades, piazzas, and passages than I can remember, or the reader would believe."
Lieutenant Derby, better known as John Phoenix, humor- ously reviews the prospect of the burial-ground from the windows, which he considered, not without some degree of plausibility, part and parcel of all Boston hotels. Derby was a very clever artist, and used to draw comic caricatures on the blackboard of Jones's in San Francisco. This was before the merchants had an exchange there, and Phoenix was accustomed to put himself under the head of ship arrivals, instead of regis- tering his name at the office.
The little garden beyond the hotel, and next the cemetery, was once a house-lot, on which stood a modest little brick dwelling, built by a Mr. Newman. The hotel displaced three ante-Revolutionary houses : one, fronting Beacon Street, was the residence of John Parker ; the corner of Tremont was an open lot, with handsome horse-chestnut trees, belonging to an old-fashioned house with the end to the street, the mansion of the Hubbard family. Next was a house built by Thomas Per- kins, whose wife was a Mascarene. It fronted on the street, and had a garden.
The old Tremont Theatre stood on the spot now covered by the Tremont Temple. The corner-stone was laid on the morn- ing of July 4, 1827. The theatre was built so rapidly that a performance took place on the 24th of September. " Wives as they Were, and Maids as they Are," was the piece chosen by Mr. Pelby. Ostinelli, the father of the since famous Eliza Biscaccianti, led the orchestra. W. R. Blake read the prize address, - the same eminent comedian so long connected with the New York theatres.
Mr. Pelby was the prime mover in the project to erect another theatre, which had professedly for its object the elevation of the character of the Boston stage. But little opposition was en- countered from the Boston Theatre proprietors. A company was organized in February, and the work pressed to early com- pletion. We give the cast for the opening night : -
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TREMONT THEATRE. The public is respectfully informed that the Tremont Theatre Will open On Monday Evening, September 24.
for The Orchestra will embrace the most distinguished musical talent in the country. Leader - - Mr. Ostinelli. There will be presented Mrs. Inchbald's Comedy, called
WIVES AS THEY WERE, AND MAIDS AS THEY ARE.
Lord Priory,
Mr. Herbert.
Sir William Dorillon,
Mr. Webb.
Sir George Evelyn,
Mr. Reed.
Mr. Browzly,
Mr. Blake.
Mr. Norberry,
Mr. Forbes.
Oliver,
Mr. J. Mills Brown.
Miss Dorillon,
Mrs. Blake.
Lady Mary Raffle,
Mrs. Young.
Lady Priory,
Mrs. Pelby.
Previous to the Comedy, the Prize address will be delivered by Mr. Blake. The entertainment to conclude with the Farce of the LADY AND THE DEVIL.
The elder Booth succeeded Pelby in the management of the second season, but withdrew before it ended. Wilson and Russell successively conducted, the latter bringing out the cele- brated Master Burke, who produced an unparalleled excitement. For twenty-five nights he filled the house with fashionable au- diences. Messrs. Barrett and Barry were subsequent managers.
The Tremont always maintained a high standing, though its patronage fell off in later years. It is noticeable as the first Boston house in which operas were produced. Many sterling actors have appeared here, among whom the veteran John Gilbert and wife still hold a high place in general esteem. Finn played here, investing his parts with a quaint fine humor that seldom failed to set the house in a roar. In 1842 the Tremont ceased to be a theatre, having been sold to the Baptist Society of Rev. Dr. Colver. The interior was remodelled, and received the name of the Tremont Temple. The present build- ing is the second, the first having been destroyed by fire on Wednesday, March 31, 1852. The falling walls crushed and bruised a number of persons.
The Theatre was a plain substantial edifice with granite front,
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in imitation of the Ionic, with pillars supporting an entabla- ture and pediment. The entrance doors were arched, opening into a wide hall from which ascended a staircase to the boxes of the dress circle. There were lobbies for promenade, with- drawing-rooms, and a pretty saloon in the centre. Isaiah Rogers was the architect. The house had a third tier and pit. It was sold for about $ 55,000.
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