USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Old landmarks and historic personages of Boston.. > Part 31
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Eighty odd years ago there were but three-and-twenty phy- sicians and surgeons in all Boston. Besides the honored names- of Lloyd, Rand, Danforth, Eustis, Jarvis, Hayward, Homans, and Warren, there was Dr. Thomas Bulfinch in Bowdoin Square, father of Charles Bulfinch, the distinguished architect.
The impress of Mr. Bulfinch's genius is seen not only in his native city, but in the Capitol of the nation, which was planned by him after the destruction of the original by the British General Ross. Mr. Bulfinch's early taste for this branch of art was cultivated by travel in the Old World amid the works of Inigo Jones, Sir Christopher Wren, and the old masters of the Continent. Returning, he at once applied himself to the beautifying of his birthplace. Before his day there were but few public buildings that would attract the notice of a stranger. Architectural beauty was but little considered, mere adaptation to the purposes of the structure being all that the builder
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attempted. The Beacon Hill Monument, the Franklin Street Crescent, the new State House, introduced a new era, which Rogers and Willard, Bryant and Billings, have perpetuated.
Of Mr. Bulfinch's public works the State House was indeed considered somewhat faulty in its proportion of length to height ; but it is stated that the original plan contemplated greater length to the wings, - departed from on economical grounds. Mr. Bulfinch was a Harvard man, graduating in the same class with Samuel Dexter and Judge John Davis. He was closely identified with the interests of the town, serving on the Board of Selectmen a period of twenty-two years, during nine- teen of which he was Chairman of the Board.
Besides other works of which mention has been made, Mr. Bulfinch was architect of the State Prison, the Old City Hall, the Cathedral in Franklin Street, Federal Street Church and Theatre, the New South Church in Summer Street, the Mas- sachusetts General Hospital, Haymarket Theatre, and of the enlargement of Faneuil Hall. University Hall, at Cambridge, and numerous private residences, attest his industry and the general estimation in which his services were held.
The names of the early dwellers in the "New Fields," as the pastures of West Boston were called, have or had their names reproduced in Allen, Buttolph, Middlecott, Bulfinch, Lynde, and Southack Streets. Garden and Grove were descriptive of points of rural beauty in Allen's pasture, as was Centre Street, of its equal division. Leverett is from the famous old Governor John, and Staniford and Chambers (part of which was called Wiltshire) and Belknap left their patronymics to those avenues. Cambridge Street terminated in a marsh, from which arose the northwest slope of Centinel Hill, the shore receding a consider- able distance from the line of Charles Street. The ropewalks referred to were situated upon and in the vicinity of Poplar Street. John Steel made bolt-rope, lines, and other cordage there in 1719.
Before the work of demolition began in Bowdoin Square, it was the seat of many elegant old-time estates, with broad acres, gardens, and noble trees, of which but a solitary specimen.
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here and there is left. The Revere House, from which Web- ster harangued the citizens, is on the grounds and residence of Kirk Boott, whose son Kirk Boott was connected many years with the Lowell manufactures. The hotel is named for Paul Revere, first president of the Mechanic Charitable Association, by which it was built. It has enjoyed the distinction of enter- taining President Fillmore, Jenny Lind, the Prince of Wales, and the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia.
On the site of the Baptist Church, erected in 1840, was the dwelling of Theodore Lyman, Sr. The space in front of the church, once ornamented with trees and separated from the street by an iron fence, is at present utilized by a row of unsightly shops, between which one must pass to reach the church. The Coolidge and Parkman estates are covered with modern struc- tures, as is also that of Lieutenant-Governor Armstrong, on the corner opposite the Revere House. The two stone houses fronting the square were built by Samuel Parkman, father of Dr. George Parkman. The range of brick buildings, from Howard Street in the direction of Bulfinch, was the second built in the town, in 1800, and obtained the name of West Row, as distinguished from South Row, near the Old South, and North Row in Anne Street.
Peter Chardon, another of the Huguenot descendants, built a house on the corner of the street bearing his name. He was a man of polished manners, and an influential merchant of the old time. A school-house was erected in 1804, at the corner of Chardon and Hawkins Streets, the eighth in the town. In 1800 Hawkins was commonly known by the name of Tattle Street. A portion of the latter street was occupied by the distil-houses which gave the name of Distil-House Square to the neighboring space.
Mrs. Mary Pelham, mother of Copley the painter, lived in a house between the estate of Governor Sullivan (near the entrance to Maynard's stables) and Alden Court. She was the widow of Richard Copley, tobacconist, and continued to follow the business after her second marriage. The following advertise- ment may be found in the Boston News Letter of July 11, 1748 : -
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" Mrs. Mary Pelham (formerly the widow of Copley, on Long Wharf, tobacconist) is removed to Lindel's Row, against the Quaker Meeting House, near the upper end of King Street, Boston, where she continues to sell the best Virginia Tobacco, Cut, Pigtail, and Spun, of all sorts, by Wholesale and Retail, at the cheapest rates."
At this time the Pelhams lived over the tobacco shop. Pelham possessed a versatile genius. He kept a writing and arithmetic school in 1748, and was one of the earliest teach- ers of dancing to the Bostonians, having had a school at the house of Philip Dumaresq, in Summer Street, as early as 1738.
He is still more noted as the earliest Boston engraver we have an account of, having, in 1727, engraved a portrait of Cotton Mather. He also engraved a number of Smibert's paintings, chiefly of the leading Boston divines of that day. Mr. Pelham also used the pencil with considerable skill .*
Retracing our steps to Green Street, we find a resident who brought the old and new Boston into juxtaposition, until his decease, in 1832, at the advanced age of eighty-one. We allude to Major Thomas Melvill, who lived in an old wooden house on the south side of Green Street, between Staniford and the building formerly the Church of the Advent. Thomas Mel- vill's father was a cadet of the Scottish family of the Earls of Melvill and Leven. He came to this country quite young, and at his death left Thomas, his only son, an orphan at the age of ten years. The latter was educated at New Jersey College, whence he graduated in 1769 ; he took the degree of A. M. at Harvard in 1773. He was a democrat, and a firm friend of Samuel Adams, of whom he had a small portrait by Copley, now at Harvard. Herman Melville, the well-known author, is his grandson.
Major Melvill's long and honorable connection with the Boston Fire Department continued for forty years, and his death was finally caused by over-fatigue at a fire near his house. This connection commenced as fireward in 1779, in the good old times when those officers carried staves tipped at the
* Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
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end with a brass flame, and marshalled the bystanders into lines for passing buckets of water to the scene of conflagration. One of the town engines was named Melvill, in honor of the major.
Major Melvill was a member of the Cadets, one of the mem- orable Tea-Party, and captain in Craft's regiment of artillery in the Revolutionary War. He commanded a detachment sent to Nantasket to watch the movements of the British fleet. In the expedition into Rhode Island, in 1778, he took the rank of major. On the organization of the Custom House, under State authority, he was appointed surveyor, which office he held until the death of James Lovell, when he was commissioned naval officer by Washington, remaining in office more than forty years, until superseded by President Jackson in 1829.
The brick church mentioned in Green Street was consecrated in 1826, at which time Rev. Dr. William Jenks was installed as pastor. He was the first to found a Seamen's Bethel in Bos- ton ; and was the author of a valuable Commentary on the Bible, and many other useful works. The Doctor was a valued mem- ber of a number of learned societies, a pure and much-beloved member of society, and died sincerely regretted. His residence was in Crescent Place.
Gouch Street, which we think should be spelled Gooch, is connected with an incident of American history fitly perpetu- ated by the name.
When Sir William Howe attacked Fort Washington, on the Hudson, and had summoned the garrison to surrender, Wash- ington, who from the opposite shore had witnessed the assault, wished to send a note to Colonel Magaw, acquainting him that if he could hold out till evening, he (Washington) would en- deavor to bring off the garrison during the night. The brave Captain Gooch offered to be the bearer of the note. " He ran down to the river, jumped into a small boat, pushed over the river, landed under the bank, ran up to the fort, and delivered the message ; came out, ran and jumped over the broken ground, dodging the Hessians, some of whom struck at him with their pieces, and others attempted to thrust him with their bayonets ;
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escaping through them, he got to his boat and returned to Fort Lee." *
Gouch Street is further noted for its sugar-houses, of which there were seven in the town in 1794, each capable of manufac- turing 100,000 pounds annually.
The West Church, on Lynde, fronting Cambridge Street, was organized in 1736. Rev. William Hooper, father of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was the first pastor, but after nine years' service he became attached to the Church of England, and crossed the ocean to take orders. He became afterwards pastor of Trinity.
Jonathan Mayhew, one of the - MALLORY greatest lights of the Boston pul- WEST CHURCH. pit, whose eloquence stimulated and upheld the cause of liberty, succeeded Mr. Hooper. His usefulness was terminated by his decease in July, 1766, two months after the Stamp Act repeal, on which he preached a memorable discourse. Simeon Howard, Charles Lowell, and C. A. Bartol have been the successive pastors.
The frame of the original Church was set up in September, 1736, but it was not until the following spring that it was com- pleted. It shared the fate of other Boston churches in 1775, being used for barracks, and also suffered the loss of its steeple, taken down by the British to prevent signals being made to the Provincials at Cambridge. The old house was taken down and the present one built in 1806. The first Sunday school estab- lished in New England is said to have originated in the West Church, in 1812.
The charitable and corrective institutions of the town, after their removal from Park, Beacon, and Court Streets, were located at West Boston. The jail remained in Leverett Street until 1851, when it was removed to its present location on the north-
* Heath's Memoirs.
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VALLEY ACRE, BOWLING GREEN, AND WEST BOSTON. 375
erly extension of Charles Street, situated on land reclaimed from the sea. This was not effected until after twelve years' agitation had demonstrated the necessity for the change. There were two separate prisons within the same enclosure in Leverett Street, one of which was converted into a House of Correction in 1823, and was so used until some time after the completion of the House of Correction at South Boston. The Leverett Street jail was considered very secure, walls and floors being composed of large blocks of hewn stone clamped together with iron, while between the courses loose cannon-balls were laid in cavities hollowed out for the purpose. Such a building neces- sarily occupied some time in construction, and upon its comple- tion, in 1822, the old stone jail in Court Street was taken down, the materials going in part to build the gun-house in Thacher Street.
In the Leverett Street jail debtors were confined, and even when under bail could not go out of the narrow limits of the ward in which it was situated, without forfeiture of their bonds, and subjecting their bondsmen to payment of the entire claim against them. The law which gave the creditor this power over the person of his unfortunate debtor was not repealed until a comparatively recent period, although mitigated in some of its more rigorous provisions.
Charles Dickens animadverted severely upon our prison sys- tem, which he examined when in this country, and pronounced barbarous. The " American Notes " may have wounded our self- love, but they told some unpleasant though wholesome truths.
Among the executions which have taken place in the enclosure of Leverett Street jail, that of Professor Webster is prominent. His demeanor at the gallows was dignified and self-possessed. Before he suffered the penalty of the law he addressed a letter to a relative of the family he had so terribly wronged, in which he eloquently implored that his punishment might fully expiate his crime.
The streets Barton, Vernon, and Minot are of comparatively recent origin. They occupy the site of the Almshouse built in 1800, after its demolition in Beacon Street. At the time of its
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erection here it was situated on the bank of the river, from which a wharf, now forming the site of the old Lowell depot, extended.
The New Almshouse, as it was called, was a brick building of three stories, with a central structure, from which wings ex- tended. This central building was considerably higher than the rest, and had lofty, arched windows, with a raised pediment relieved by ornamental work; on either gable stood a carved emblematic figure. The whole edifice was two hundred and seventy feet in length by fifty-six in depth. It stood until May, 1825, when it was superseded by the House of Industry at South Boston, and the land sold to private individuals. A brick wall, with iron gates, surrounded the Almshouse enclosure. No building having been erected to take the place of the Work- house, or Bridewell, the inmates were obliged to be received into the Almshouse ; but a small brick building was subse- quently erected, adjacent to the latter, for a Bridewell.
It has always been the fate of some who have known better days to become dependants upon the public charity. One nota- ble instance is mentioned of the daughter of a clergyman of the French Protestant Church having sought and obtained an asylum in the old Almshouse. She continued to visit and be re- ceived into the houses of her former friends, who, with intuitive delicacy, forebore to question her on the subject of her residence.
The tract bounded by Cambridge Street, North Russell Street, and the Hospital grounds was once under water. Bridge, Blos- soin, and Vine Streets have all been built since 1800.
At the west end of McLean Street (formerly South Allen), with the front towards Cambridge Street, stands the Massachu- setts General Hospital. It is built of Chelmsford granite, and was considered in 1821, when completed, the finest public or private edifice in New England. It stands on what was for- merly Prince's pasture, four acres of which constitute the Hos- pital domain. In 1846 it was enlarged by the addition of two wings. Charles Bulfinch was the architect of the original. In this hospital ether was first applied in a surgical operation of magnitude, by request of Dr. J. C. Warren.
VALLEY ACRE, BOWLING GREEN, AND WEST BOSTON. 377
Some of the sources from which the Hospital drew its being have been adverted to. A bequest of $ 5,000, at the close of the last century, was the beginning. Nothing further was effected until 1811, when fifty-six gentlemen were incorporated under the name of the Massachusetts General Hospital. The
MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL.
charter likewise granted the Province House, under condition that $ 100,000 should be raised from other sources within ten years. The Hospital Life Insurance Company was required to pay tribute to its namesake by its act of incorporation.
No eleemosynary institution in the country ever accumulated the means of carrying out its humane objects with greater rapidity. John McLean bequeathed $ 100,000 to the Hospital, and $ 50,000 more to be divided between that institution and Harvard. By the year 1816 the trustees were able to purchase the estate at Charlestown, now Somerville, and build two brick houses, which were ready for the reception of the insane in 1818. This is the asylum now known by the name of its noble benefactor, McLean. His name was justly conferred upon the street without loss to its ancient possessor, as there was also North Allen Street, now known simply as Allen.
In Grove Street we have the new location of the Massachu- setts Medical College, after its removal from Mason Street. The building derives a horrible interest as the scene of the murder of Dr. Parkman, the details of which are yet fresh in
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the memories of many. The unsuspecting victim repaired to the College, where he had an appointment with his murderer, from which he never departed alive. No similar event ever produced so great a sensation in Boston. Both the parties were of the first standing in society. The deadly blow might have been struck in a moment of passion, but the almost fiendish art with which the remains were concealed and consumed was fatal to Dr. Webster. Not the least of the touching episodes of the trial was the appearance of the daughters of the prisoner on the witness stand, giving their evidence under the full con- viction of their father's innocence.
. Besides the Howard Atheneum the West End had still an- other theatre within its limits. In 1831 a small wooden build- ing was erected by Messrs. W. and T. L. Stewart on the old Mill Pond, fronting on Traverse Street. This was designed for equestrian performances, and was called the American Amphi- theatre. Mr. William Pelby, formerly of the Tremont, became the lessee, and remodelled the interior so as to adapt it to dra- matic performances, opening it on the 3d of July, under the name of the Warren Theatre. The enterprise proving success- ful, Mr. Pelby was enabled to build a new house in the summer of 1836, which was inaugurated on the 15th of August as the National Theatre. At this house Miss Jean Margaret Davenport made her first appearance before a Boston audience, as did also - Julia Dean, a favorite Western actress. In April, 1852, the theatre was destroyed by fire, but was rebuilt and reopened in November of the same year by Mr. Leonard.
There was a little theatre erected in 1841, at the corner of Haverhill and Traverse Streets, opened by Mr. Wyzeman Mar- shall under the name of the Eagle Theatre. Mr. W. H. Smith officiated a short time here as manager, but the concern proving a serious rival to the National, Mr. Pelby obtained an interest, and closed the house in a manner not altogether creditable to him .*
Several of the companies of the regiment of Massachusetts vol- unteers, raised for service in the Mexican war, were quartered at
* Clapp's Boston Stage.
VALLEY ACRE, BOWLING GREEN, AND WEST BOSTON. 379
the West End. Companies " A " and " B" had quarters in Pitts Street. Lieutenant-Colonel Abbott's company was located in the old wooden building on the east side of Leverett Street, which was afterwards used as a police station. Captain Edward Webster's company was enlisted in the famous building on the corner of Court and Tremont Streets, and in the office of his father, Daniel Webster. Captain Webster afterwards became major of the regiment, and died in Mexico. Isaac Hull Wright was the colonel.
The Mexican war was unpopular in Boston. The regiment was neglected by the State officials, and greeted with oppro- brious epithets, and even pelted with mud, when it paraded in the streets. Meetings were called in Faneuil Hall, at which the war and the soldiers were denounced by the antislavery leaders, Theodore Parker, Wendell Phillips, W. Lloyd Garrison, and others. As soon as the regiment was mustered into the United States service, the State refused to have anything fur- ther to do with it, and after its return home with half its original number, it was severely characterized by the executive.
General Winfield Scott gave the regiment a flag of honor, paid for out of the ransom of the city of Mexico. This was offered to, but rejected by, the State, and is now in the posses- sion of the National Lancers. This flag represents California, with its untold millions ; it should be reclaimed and placed in the State House. The men died off rapidly after their return home, and not many are left. They were in a great measure of the worst description, and desertions were numerous. The uni- form was a cadet gray, with a short coatee and flat cap, which excited the ridicule of the dandy warriors of the State militia, but has been worn by Blucher, the royal princes, and victorious hosts of Prussia.
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CHAPTER XIII.
FROM CHURCH GREEN TO LIBERTY TREE.
Church Green. - New South Church. - Dr. Kirkland. - American Headquar- ters. -- General Heath. - Anecdote of General Gates. - Jerome Bonaparte. - Sir William Pepperell. - Nathaniel Bowditch. - George Bancroft. - Trinity Church. - Seven Star Inn and Lane. - Peter Faneuil. - Governor Sullivan. - Small-Pox Parties. - Duke of Kent. - Sir Edmund Andros. - Lamb Tavern. - White Horse Tavern. - Colonel Daniel Messinger. - Lion Tavern. - Handel and Haydn Society. - Lion Theatre. - Curious Statement about Rats.
THE name of Church Green was applied very early to the vacant space lying at the intersection of Bedford and Sum- mer Streets, from which we may infer that it was looked upon as a proper site for a meeting-house by the earliest settlers of Boston. The land was granted by the town to a number of petitioners in 1715, of whom Samuel Adams, father of the patriot, was one.
There was not a more beautiful site for a church in Boston. The ground was high and level, the old church having an unob- structed outlook over the harbor. Samuel Checkley was the first pastor, ordained in 1718. Our engraving represents the church as rebuilt in 1814. The originators of the movement for the new church held their first meetings at the old Bull Tavern, at the corner of Summer and Sea Streets, of which we find mention in 1708.
The church spire towered to a height of one hundred and ninety
NEW SOUTH CHURCH.
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feet from the foundation. The building was of Chelmsford. granite, and designed by Bulfinch ; a portico projected from the front, supported by four Doric columns. In 1868 it was demolished, and the temples of traffic have arisen in its stead.
Fifty years gone by Summer Street was, beyond dispute, the most beautiful avenue in Boston. Magnificent trees then skirted its entire length, overarching the driveway with interlacing branches, so that you walked or rode as within a grove in a light softened by the leafy screen, and over the shadows of the big elms lying across the pavement. The palaces of trade now rear their splendid fronts where stood the gardens or mansions of the old merchants or statesmen of Boston.
The old wooden house - quite respectable for its day - in which Dr. John T. Kirkland resided was at the corner of Sum- mer and Lincoln Streets. He was the son of the celebrated Indian missionary, Samuel Kirkland, founder of Hamilton Col- lege, who was instrumental in attaching the Oneidas to the American cause during the Revolution, and acted as chaplain to our forces under General Sullivan in 1799. The younger Dr. Kirkland, who possessed abilities of a high order, became, in 1810, president of Harvard. Another eminent clergyman, Jeremy Belknap, was also a resident of Summer Street.
Bedford Street was in former times known as Pond Lane, from the Town Watering-Place situated on the east side. A line drawn due south from Hawley Street would pass through the pond. Blind Lane was a name applied to the lower part. of the street in 1800. Summer Street was called " Ye Mylne Street," from its conducting towards Windmill Point, where a mill was erected, it appears, as early as 1636, the highway to it being ordered laid out in 1644.
As late as 1815 there was a pasture of two acres in Summer Street, and the tinkling of cow-bells was by no means an un- usual sound there. The fine old estates of the Geyers, Coffins, Russells, Barrells, Lydes, Prebles, etc. were covered with or- chards and gardens, and these hospitable residents could set before their guests cider of their own manufacture, or butter from their own dairies. Chauncy Place, named for the distin-
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