USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Somerville, Mass.; the beautiful city of seven hills, its history and opportunities > Part 5
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Nothing inspires more confidence, stimulates the growth of the city and the increase of business, both in manufacturing and on commercial lines, like good lighting and plenty of it-and the streets of Somerville are certainly finely equipped.
CAMBRIDGE GAS LIGHT COMPANY
The Cambridge Gas Light Company ministers to the needs of all that part of Somerville which lies south of the Boston & Lowell Railroad, and is one of the most efficient, enterprising, and accommodating public service corporations in Massachu- setts. It realizes its responsibility to its territory, and in every reasonable way seeks to give the best service at the lowest price, and is generous in its extensions and improvement of the service.
The Cambridge Gas Light Company was incorporated in 1852, the charter bearing date of March 15 of that year, almost exactly sixty years ago. The formation of this company was largely due to the personal efforts of Estes Howe, Isaac Liver- more, Charles C. Little, and Gardiner G. Hubbard, men whose names are closely connected with the development and growth
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SOMERVILLE BOARD OF TRADE.
of Cambridge in other lines of public service. Estes Howe was the first treasurer of the company, and served continuously for nearly thirty-five years until his death in 1887. The first presi- dent of the company was John H. Blake, who served until 1861, followed by Gardiner G. Hubbard till 1867, Abijah E. Hildreth till 18:7, John M. Tyler till 1886, D. U. Chamberlin till 189%, Quincy A. Vinal till 1904, and since then by W. A. Bullard. Following Estes Howe, Adolph Vogl served the company as treasurer from 1884 to 1897, and since then the position has been held by Albert M. Barnes.
The paid-up capital of the company is $1,440,000, and it operates one of the largest and best-equipped plants in Massa- chusetts. The officers are: President, Willard A. Bullard ; treasurer and general manager, Albert M. Barnes; directors, W. A. Bullard, Daniel G. Tyler, Stanley B. Hildreth, Henry Endicott, George A. Sawyer, Arthur C. Whitney, and Edward W. Hutchins. John P. Kennedy is superintendent, and Theo- dore Erhard is assistant superintendent of the company's plant.
Somerville is fortunate in having this important public utility managed by men so largely and so long identified with local in- terests, instead of by outsiders, who would have no local pride in giving good service to the community. Mr. Bullard has been a very familiar figure in our midst for two generations, and has been associated with many of the leading industries of the locality. He has also taken an active interest in its philan- thropies, and given freely of his services in humanitarian work. Hundreds have sought his advice and assistance, and always found him patient, sympathetic, and helpful. Mr. Endicott was for many years the head of a large and prosperous business, employing many men, and is highly respected and esteemed by a large circle of friends and acquaintances. Mr. Hildreth and Mr. Sawyer are lifelong residents and property owners in the community, and Mr. Tyler, though now a resident of Lexing- ton, was brought up and educated in Cambridge, and his father, Colonel John M. Tyler, was president of the company from 1877 to 1886. Mr. Barnes has lived in Cambridge for thirty- five years, and prior to his connection with the Gas Light Com- pany was more or less identified with the affairs of the city,
PRICE
CA
M.
HILLION
METERSE $1.75
1
-
3.8000
CAMBRIDGE GAS LIGHT CO. CHART
OF
26000
640
PRICE OF GAS,
2.5000
--
#160
1886-1912
1.60
600
24000
560
250
22000 $50
21000
6.20
2.0000
480
19000
--
440
-
-
17000
-
400
16000 15000$125
360
-
14000
320
13000
$115
.1.15
280
11000 1.08
240
-
10000
i
9000
200
8000
160
7000
i
12.0
85€
92
. . 85
80
7
00
9
1890
f
3
4
S
V
7
8
1
2
3
S
8
9
1886
/9/0
680
3.70 0
SALES OF GAS, METERS IN USE,
1
195
18000 $35
1,25
NUMBER
SALES
90
-
1900
12.000
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SOMERVILLE BOARD OF TRADE.
serving nine years as a member of the school board, and com- pleting recently his twenty-years' service as a member of the trustees of the public library. On his shoulders, as general manager, falls the active direction of the company's affairs.
The company's works were at first located on the Charles river, at the foot of Ash street, Old Cambridge, and remained there until 1871, when they were removed to the present loca- tion on the Broad Canal at Third street, near Broadway. The carly records of the company do not give any detailed reports of the volume of business, but in 1860 the company had 1,531 meters in use, and manufactured 18,870,000 feet of gas during that year. The price of gas was $3.50 per thousand feet, with a deduction of fifty cents per thousand feet to those who used 75,000 feet in any one year. Amount of coal used that year was 2,100 tons. For the year ending June 30, 1911, there were 29,465 meters in use; the sales of gas amounted to 717,000,000 feet ; the price of gas was eighty-five cents per thousand feet, and the quantity of coal carbonized was 43,000 tons. After July 1, 1912, the price of gas will be eighty cents per thousand feet.
In the year 1885 all the gas companies in Massachusetts were placed in charge of a commission, to which annual returns are made, and from those returns has been compiled a chart, herewith printed, showing, in a concise form, the growth of the Cambridge company during the past twenty-five years, the first return to the commission being for the year ending June 30, 1886.
It is to be noted that the increase in the use of gas has been very rapid, as the price has reached and dropped below $1.25 per thousand feet ; statistics due, undoubtedly, to its use for fuel as well as for lighting. Gas is used very largely now for cooking and heating, not only in our homes, but in factories and stores, because of its cheapness, convenience, and cleanli- ness. In many of the apartment houses gas is the only fuel used in the kitchen, and a very large proportion of the single houses find the gas range or gas cooker a necessary adjunct to the coal range, especially in hot weather. It is also interesting to note from this chart that the increase in the number of
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SOMERVILLE BOARD OF TRADE.
meters in the last two years has just about kept pace with the increase in the volume of sales, whereas one might naturally expect the increase in the use of gas would show an increased consumption per meter. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that, at the lower price, gas is now being used in small quanti- ties by a great many people who formerly could not afford to use it at all; and the result is that a much larger number of people enjoy the comfort and convenience of gas for light and fuel than ever before. The coal used by the Cambridge com- pany comes principally from Pennsylvania, and is brought to the company's dock in barges carrying 1,500 to 1,600 gross tons each, say 3,000,000 to 3,500,000 pounds. Some 40,000 to 45,000 tons are brought in annually.
Few large public service corporations have done so much for the communities in which they do business, and throughout its long career its motto has been to keep its service the best that modern facilities could secure, and at the same time re- duce the price of its gas to a figure commensurate with a fair return on its investment. The public has been given the ad- vantage of constantly lower rates, while the company's service was constantly being improved. For over half a century the Cambridge Gas Light Company has ministered to the needs of the city of Cambridge and a part of the city of Somerville. To keep pace with the expansion of these two great municipalities has been a hard task, but one which the company has met with marked success. The corporation has always been responsive to the idea that the interests of the community which it serves are identical with its own, and, meeting every new demand that modern science has created, the company stands to-day as a splendid example of twentieth century commercial enterprise. The company now has 153 miles of pipe in the streets of Cam- bridge and Somerville. It is constantly making extensions of its street mains where only a few customers reside, with the view to accommodate all who may desire gas for heating or lighting purposes, and this far-sighted policy in the long run has added greatly to its business and increased the good will in which the company is held on all sides.
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SOMERVILLE BOARD OF TRADE.
No more modern plant in every detail of construction and equipment is to be found in this country than that of the Cam- bridge Gas Light Company. There is a long wooden shed for the storage of the company's supply of gas coal, with a capacity of 18,000 tons. A tower contains a new plant for discharging coal from barges, capable of unloading barges at the rate of 100 tons of coal per hour. Adjoining the coal shed is the new re- tort house, containing two stacks of ten benches of retorts. Each bench contains eight retorts for producing coal gas, and the daily capacity of the 160 retorts is estimated at 3,500,000 feet. This building is fitted with the latest machinery and ap- pliances for handling coal and the removal of coke. There is also a water gas plant, with a daily capacity of 3,000,000 cubic feet. The value of the Cambridge Gas Light Company to the local interests is quickly grasped in the fact that beyond its great service to the community in supplying gas, it pays annu- ally $53,000 in taxes. The yearly pay-roll of the company is $173,000. From the foregoing it may be seen that the com- pany is an important factor in our commercial and civic wel- fare. Operating a great and finely-equipped plant, maintaining extensive and thoroughly-stocked show rooms, and giving em- ployment to a large force of employees, it wields a powerful influence for progress and prosperity in this section of New England.
CHARLESTOWN GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY
The Charlestown Gas and Electric Company is the suc- cessor of the Charlestown Gas Light Company, which was char- tered in 1846 and was empowered to furnish gas in Somerville in 1853.
By a tacit agreement with the Cambridge Gas Light Com- pany, it has furnished gas only to that part of Somerville which is north of the Boston & Lowell Railroad track.
It furnishes electricity only in the Charlestown district of Boston.
The gas works are on the Mystic river just outside of Som- erville. During the last few years they have been almost en- tirely rebuilt and very much enlarged. The arduous manual
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labor formerly attendant on the manufacture of coal gas has been almost entirely superseded by electrically-driven machin- ery, most of which was especially designed for these works, which thus are in the very forefront of modern practice.
This is the largest company in the United States which dis- tributes pure coal gas without any contamination of water gas.
Owing to the small area of the territory supplied, the out- put of gas has not increased, as in the case of most of the com- panies in the state. There are now twelve companies selling more gas than this one. Out of these, only three are selling at a lower price. It is the aim of the management to give the very best possible service, and it welcomes the co-operation of its customers to that end.
POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENTS.
Somerville's first postal station was established in 1846, corner of Washington street and Somerville avenue. In 1859 another office was established corner of Perkins and Franklin streets, East Somerville. This office was discontinued in 1874. About 1860 an office was established near the corner of Marshall street and Broadway, and was discontinued in 1875. Our post-office became a part of the Boston postal district in 1873. In 1874 the amount of stamps sold did not exceed $1,000. To-day it is in excess of $100,000 a year. The money orders in 1874 totaled about $5,000, and now they are over $200,000 a year. The registered letters now exceed 50,000 a year. There are three sub-stations, each with a superintendent, as follows: Central station, Union square; West Somerville station, Davis square; Winter Hill station, Gilman square. Each office has clerks and letter-carriers, with a total in the city of twenty-eight clerks and sixty-five carriers. There are 142 street letter boxes, from which seven to eight collections are made daily. The letter-carriers make three to four trips each week day.
TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES CHAPTER IV.
Steam Railroads-Steamship Lines-Electric Railroads
The practicability of operating a railroad by steam having been demonstrated, the legislature of our state in June, 1830, granted the right to build a railroad from Boston to Lowell, Mass. This railroad was built through Somerville, and was op- posed by all the property owners along its entire route. The road was opened in 1835, and since that time railroads have contributed more than any other single influence to change the character of New England inhabitants, and their social and po- litical conditions. The most marked and immediate effect was to increase the importance of Boston as the centre of New England. As Somerville adjoins Boston, it has the transpor- tation facilities of Boston, and, by its location, is nearer the ter- minals of many radiating railroads and steamship wharves than a larger part of Boston territory. There is no city in New England with better transportation facilities.
In 1836 the Charlestown branch was incorporated, it being at first what its name implies, a branch of the Lowell running to the wharves in Charlestown. It was extended to Fresh Pond, and was mainly used for the transportation of ice sent by vessels to places in the torrid zone. In 1842 its franchise was purchased by the Fitchburg Railroad. The first passenger sta- tion in Somerville was on the Lowell road, at its crossing with Washington street, the first on the Fitchburg at its crossing with Kent street ; both are now gone. Altogether on the differ- ent lines of steam railroads there are now eight stations, as fol- lows: North Somerville, Prospect Hill, Somerville, Somerville Highlands, Somerville Junction, Union Square, West Somer- ville, and Winter Hill.
In 1851 the Vermont Central was finished, which gave con- tinuous railroad connection between Boston and Canada. The year 1845 saw the extension of the Boston & Maine through Somerville. The Grand Junction Railroad was built from the Eastern and Boston & Maine to the Fitchburg, and was opened
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in 1851, and was later extended across Cambridge and the Charles river to the Albany Railroad. After considerable liti- gation it passed, in 1869, into the control of the Albany, and by reason of its connection with Western railroads the Grand Junction became the great feeder for European traffic. At this time there were no regular lines of steamers between Boston and foreign ports. They were soon established, however, and proved a success. Very near us, in Charlestown, are spacious wharves for the accommodation of steamships sailing to foreign
HIGHLANDS STATION, BOSTON & MAINE RAILROAD
ports. Here is a ferry slip to admit of freight cars being loaded upon scows and carried to railroad terminals or steamship wharves anywhere along the lines of Boston harbor.
The Eastern Railroad was extended from the town of Re- vere, through Chelsea, Everett, and Somerville to Boston in 1854. One of the principal factors in the phenomenal growth of West Somerville was the building of the Lexington and Ar- lington Railroad. The Lexington Railroad formerly branched from the Fitchburg not far from Fresh Pond, but in 1870 its route east of Alewife Brook was changed so as to connect with
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SOMERVILLE BOARD OF TRADE.
the Lowell Railroad at Somerville Junction. Several years later the Massachusetts Central obtained its location over the Lowell and part of the Lexington branch, which meanwhile had been extended to Concord. All the steam railroads having locations through our city passed into the control of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company in 1910.
STREET RAILWAYS.
The first transportation of passengers in a railway car by horse power was over a track formerly belonging to the Fitch- burg Railroad, between Harvard square, Cambridge, and Union square, Somerville, in 1843. In 1857 the Somerville Horse Railroad was formed, and the first track built under its charter ran from Union square to Charlestown, and was leased to the Middlesex road. In 1865 the legislature authorized the Som- erville road to extend its tracks to West Somerville and through Bridge street to Cambridge street, East Cambridge, and these tracks were leased to the Cambridge road. The Middlesex road meanwhile had extended its lines through the Winter Hill district to Medford, and about 1880 the Charles River Railway built a track beginning at Summer street, Somerville, and ex- tending through Cambridgeport into Boston, and also a track on Beacon street extending to North avenue, Cambridge. This was the total of the street railway tracks operating in Somerville in 1887, about six and one-half miles, at the time of the West End consolidation, and all were operated by horse power. The West End Street Railroad Company consolida- tion of the several railroads radiating from Boston, except the Lynn and Boston, now the Bay State Railroad, was the out- growth of the West End Land Company, formed by Henry M. Whitney and others for the development of real estate in Bos- ton and Brookline. In 1889 electricity was first introduced as a motive power for street cars, Mr. Whitney having introduced it after careful examination of its workings in Richmond, Va. It was first tried out in an underground conduit, between the tracks, on Boylston street, in 1889. A slot along the street between the rails permitted connection with the feed wire and motor of the car. The ever irrepressible small boy soon dis-
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covered that there was fun in placing tin or wire in the slot in the street and grounding the electric current so as to hold up the cars, and for other reasons that system was deemed im- practicable, and was abandoned. The overhead system, how- ever, also tried out, proved successful, and is now in operation. The West End soon after gaining control made many im ..
ELEVATED RAILROAD TERMINAL STATION, SULLIVAN SQUARE
provements. Trips were increased, new cars added, better road beds, better rails and other equipments, the extension of its West Somerville line to Alewife brook, the Medford-street line to Magoun square, opening of a line from Highland ave- nue via Medford street and Somerville avenue to Boston. Re- cently a car line has been constructed through Mystic avenue which extends to the town of Stoneham, through the beautiful Middlesex Fells, a state reservation. Since those days, in 1895, the company became known as the Boston Elevated. A subway was opened through Boston and an elevated structure built to meet in the subway, one end reaching to Dudley street and the other to Sullivan square, Charlestown. This greatly
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decreased the running time from Somerville to Dudley street in Boston. In 1908 the Washington-street tunnel through Washington street, Boston, was completed, and the Elevated connected therewith, giving better and quicker facilities. In 1910 the elevated structure was extended from Dudley street to Forest Hills, in Boston, and surveys and plans have been per- fected for the extension of the elevated structure from Sullivan square to City square, Malden, Mass. At Sullivan square terminal station, Charlestown, Somerville passengers can be transferred, without charge, to Everett, Malden, and Med- ford, and here obtain cars for Lowell, Lawrence, Haverhill, and places between; can go without charge over the ele- vated and through the tunnel or Tremont-street subway, or by surface cars, to Dudley street, and there be transferred to Milton, Franklin park, Dorchester, South Boston, and at the present terminus of the Elevated at Forest Hills can be trans- ferred to surface cars for all points in that vicinity. By the means of an eight-cent check Somerville people can be carried by two rides to any suburb to which the cars of the Bay State Railroad run. With street railroads two ways into Boston and one via the city of Cambridge into Boston, Somerville advan- tages for getting into and out of Boston cannot be excelled.
The new viaduct built by the Boston Elevated Railroad, which parallels Craigie's bridge, was used for the first time for passengers June 1, 1912, and considerably decreased the running time of cars from Somerville into Boston by the way of East Cambridge. All cars over the new viaduct connect with transfer stations on the line of the Tremont-street subway in the city of Boston, and with the elevated at the North Union Station in Boston.
MANUFACTURERS AND INDUSTRIES
CHAPTER V.
Somerville has within its borders industries of great im- portance and ranks well at the head of the list of manufactur- ing cities of the state. These industries are diversified, cover almost every line of work, and several of them are of magnitude and splendid financial standing. As Somerville has many squares, each having a business centre, there are, in consequence, many small stores and business places.
Figures of capital invested, volume and amount of busi- ness done in Somerville are small when compared with our size and population, and are due to the fact that a large number of our business and working men are identified with Boston business enterprises. Many of our wealthy men are members of business firms, or conducting business enterprises in Boston, and many of our salaried men and wage earners are on the pay roll of Boston firms. From a purely local standpoint the value of goods made in Somerville is, in round numbers, $24,000,000 a year, of which eighty-five per cent. are food preparations. In value of goods made in 300 of the largest cities of the United States Somerville ranks eighty, and thirteen in the list of our Massa- chusetts cities. There are eighty-seven manufacturers, of which sixty-three are private firms and twenty-four are cor- porations. In these eighty-seven manufacturing concerns there are 416 partners and stockholders. The capital invested amounts to $13,000,000. The value of the stock used is $26,846,000, and the value of the goods made is $32,500,000. They employ on an average 4,238 men sixteen years and over, 398 women sixteen years and over, forty-one children under sixteen years of age. The total amount paid in wages in a year is $2,200,000, the average yearly earnings of employees being $511. They have 1,064 people on salaries, and their combined salaries amount to $1,175,000, an average of $1,096. They have as motive power forty-five steam engines, ten gas and gasoline engines, twenty-three electric motors, or all told, 4,118 horse power, besides renting 172 electric horse power.
In the trades there are 526 establishments with a total of individual owners, partners, and stockholders, 741. The capi-
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SOMERVILLE BOARD OF TRADE.
tal invested amounts to $1,780,000. The total value of goods sold annually, $6,900,000. In the trades are 1,197 wage earners, and the amounts paid in wages weekly, $12,592.44; average weekly wages, $10.52. There is a salary list of fifty- five who are paid $737 weekly, or an average of $13.40.
There is a national bank, two trust companies, four savings banks, and three co-operative banks under conserva- live and careful management. That some idea may be had of the manufacturing and business interests, for the purpose of study and information of any who may seek to enter business here, we record the number of the more important, as follows : Three dealers in agricultural implements, forty-three apothecaries, six automobile garages, three wholesale beef concerns, eight blacksmiths, twenty boarding and lodging houses, fourteen boot and shoe dealers, twenty-five builders, twenty-five butter, eggs, and cheese merchants, nine carpet cleaning establishments, four caterers, two chiropodists, three cigar manufacturers, thirty-nine coal dealers, forty-one dentists, 145 dressmakers, thirty-eight dry goods dealers, ten electricians, seven employment offices, seventeen expresses, seventeen fish dealers, seven florists, six flour and grain deal- ers, two fresco painters, twenty-two fruit dealers, twenty fur- niture movers, six gas fitters, 246 grocers, twenty hardware dealers, seven harness makers, three hotels, three ice com- panies, thirty-one insurance agents, one iron foundry, seven jewelers, twenty-five junk dealers, nine laundries, five lumber dealers, twenty lunch rooms, three machine shops, ten mas- ter masons, forty-three milkmen, 112 nurses, six opticians, fifty-eight master painters, nine dealers in paints, oils, and glass, fifteen paper hangers, five photographers, 105 physi- cians, ten plasterers, thirty-seven plumbers, eleven printers, forty-six provision dealers, sixty-nine tailors, twenty-one undertakers, forty-four variety stores, twelve tin plate and shect iron workers, five tin roofers, one large tube works, one typewriter key glasses manufacturer, five wall paper dealers, one whip manufacturer.
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