USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880, Vol. III > Part 39
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BOSTON UNDER THE MAYORS.
as the assessments for damages on account of taking property in that way were generally very heavy, and the city was unable to get the benefit of the widening in the increased value of the property for purposes of taxation until the improvement was completed. The whole amount expended by the city for laying out, widening, and extending streets, from June 1, 1822, to May 1, 1880, was $26,691,495.85. Had the city government steadily ad- hered to the " prospective plans for the improvement of the streets," adopted in 1825 under the administration of Mayor Quincy, a considerable portion of this enormous expense would have been saved.
In the charter election of December, 1866, Otis Norcross,1 the Republi- can candidate, was successful, receiving nine hundred more votes than his Democratic opponent, Dr. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff. Mr. Norcross held the office of mayor only one year. His failure to receive the customary re- election for a second term was due, perhaps, to a certain stiffness of virtue, which, in political life at least, seldom receives the reward it merits. His administration is chiefly to be commended for what it did not do. It fell upon a time when some very sensible people were congratulating the country on the blessing of being in debt, and when municipal aid was sought and often granted for the promotion of private enterprises. A great number of projects, involving the expenditure of millions of dollars, were under consideration when Mr. Norcross took office; and had he not been a man of considerable firmness, one who had an intelligent idea of the scope and purpose of municipal government, and old-fashioned notions concerning municipal indebtedness, the city would have been committed to some enterprises of very doubtful expediency. Among other measures which claimed the attention of the government was one for the improve- ment of the flats on the northerly shore of South Boston, extending from Fort Point Channel to Castle Island. The improvement was intended partly for the benefit of the harbor, by deepening the ship-channel and increasing the movement of the water therein, so as to prevent it from shoaling, and partly for the direct benefit of commerce, by providing additional facilities for the delivery at deep water of freight from the West. It was proposed that the city should enter into a contract with the Commonwealth to fill these flats, build docks, streets, sewers, and bridges, and reimburse itself bý the sale of the property to corporations and individuals. It was a magnifi. cent scheme, but the Mayor did not believe that the city ought to under- take to carry it out alone. He endeavored, and successfully, to secure the
1 Mr. Norcross was the descendant of Jere- of correction, a member of the school commit- miah Norcross, who came to this country in tee, president of the water board, treasurer to the overseers of the poor, and for three years (1862-1864) a member of the board of alder- men. In all these positions he performed ser- vices of lasting value to the city, by introducing better business methods, and raising the stand- ard of official duty. 1638, and shortly afterward settled at Water- town. He was born in Boston Nov. 2, 1811, and was educated at private schools and at the Bos- ton high school. At the time of his election he was one of the leading merchants of the city. lle possessed a thorough knowledge of muni- cipal affairs, having been a director of the house VOL. III. - 35.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
co-operation of all the parties interested, - the State, the city, and the railroad corporations which desired additional terminal facilities. Had the city undertaken to do the whole work, it would have been called upon to spend an enormous amount of money, and the property would probably have been thrown upon the market, before it could be utilized so as to cover the cost of the improvement.1
In his inaugural address the Mayor called attention to the unhealthy con- dition of the territory lying south of the Public Garden, caused by the want of suitable drainage. This territory was on the border of the Back Bay, and had been built upon before a grade was established, and when there was a right of drainage into a basin in which the water did not rise more than three feet above low-water. The filling of the basin by the Common- wealth and the Water-Power Company made it necessary to extend the sewers to points where the natural rise of the tide prevented the sewers from discharging their contents during the greater part of the day. The drainage of the whole territory lying west of Washington Street, between the Public Garden and the Roxbury line, was injuriously affected by the Back Bay improvement; but it was only within the district lying between Boylston Street and Dover Street, which had been built upon many years before any scheme for filling the adjoining flats had been seriously con- sidered, that the injury was of a character to call for immediate action. The householders in that locality thought that the city should bear all the expense of providing suitable drainage, but the city authorities took the ground that the estates should be assessed for a portion of the benefit which would accrue from raising the grade of the territory. The subject had been discussed for some years, and with much bitterness. Mr. Nor- cross recommended an application to the Legislature for special authority to abate the nuisance and to recover a portion of the expense for so doing. His recommendation was adopted; and an act was passed during the ses- sion of 1867 giving the city authority to take that portion of the territory known as the Church-Street District, raise the grade, and either reconvey the several estates to their former owners upon payment of certain ex- penses, or sell them to the highest bidder. The act contained provisions new to the legislation of the State; but it was drawn with great care by an eminent jurist, and it enabled the city to carry out a great sanitary im- provement without hardship to the numerous individuals whose property was taken, and without large expense to the city. In the following year the provisions of the act were extended to the territory known as the Suffolk-Street District, thereby covering all the low territory lying between the Public Garden and Dover Street. The net cost to the city of carrying out these improvements amounted to $2,558,745. Forty-seven acres of territory, occupied by one thousand two hundred and thirty buildings, and two thousand one hundred and fifty-five families, were included within the provisions of the legislative acts. The streets, alleys, and back-yards were
1 The plan of improvement which was adopted is described in the chapter on " Boston Harbor."
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raised to the grade of eighteen feet above mean low-water; the cellars were raised to the grade of twelve fect; and the buildings were raised to cor- respond to the grade of the streets. It took four hundred and five thou- sand three hundred and four cubic yards of gravel, mostly brought from the country by steam power, to do the filling. The work was not entered upon until June, 1868, after Mr. Norcross had gone out of office; and it was not completed until 1872.
Near the close of the year 1867 the city council passed orders approv- ing certain plans for the erection of a new hospital for the insane, on a lot of land purchased for the purpose several years before in the town of Winthrop. The hospital at South Boston, erected in 1839, and enlarged in 1846, was reported by the directors for public institutions to be over- crowded at times, and to be lacking in many of the conveniences which medical experts deemed essential to the proper care of the insane. The Mayor, while recognizing the need of some improvements in the accom- modations furnished to the city's patients, was strongly opposed to the crection of a hospital on the exposed headland at Winthrop, and was op- posed to the erection, on any site, of a building projected on the magnifi- cent plans which had received the approval of the city council. He vetoed the orders, and saved the city from building and maintaining a very ex- pensive institution which it was clearly the duty of the State to provide, and which the State did provide some ten years later.
Among the notable events of this year was the annexation of the city of Roxbury to Boston. The subject had long been under consideration. Commissioners appointed by the governments of the two cities in 1866 to confer upon the subject reported early in 1867 in favor of the project, and on June I the Legislature passed an act, to take effect upon its acceptance by a majority of the voters in the two cities, providing that all the territory then comprised within the limits of Roxbury, with the inhabitants and es- tates therein, should be annexed to and made a part of the city of Boston and the county of Suffolk, and should be subject to the same municipal regulations, obligations, and liabilities, and entitled to the same immunities in all respects as Boston. On the second Monday in September the inhab- itants of the two cities voted to accept the act,1 and on the first Monday in January following Roxbury became a part of Boston, constituting the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth wards.
Roxbury at the time of its annexation contained about thirty thousand 2 inhabitants, and real and personal property valued for purposes of taxation at $26,551,700. Most of the wealthy residents had their places of business in Boston ; and the controlling argument for annexation in this case, and in the case of other municipal corporations subsequently annexed, was that many men doing business in Boston were forced by its limited area to live
1 Boston : yeas, 4,633; nays, 1,059. Roxbury: yeas, 1,832; nays 592. [Sce Mr. Drake's chapter in the present volume. - ED.]
2 Twenty-eight thousand four hundred and twenty-six, by the census of 1865.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
outside of the city, and to lose the privilege of voting on questions of local government where they had the larger interest. Another argument in favor of the union, and one which had some influence probably, was that the relations between the two municipalities had recently become much more intimate through the occupation of the territory reclaimed from the sea on both sides of the narrow neck of land which had formerly united them by only a very slender tie.
The municipal election held on Dec. 9, 1867, resulted in the choice of Dr. Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff, the Democratic candidate, for mayor, who received about five hundred more votes than Mr. Norcross. Dr. Shurt- leff1 had long sought the office of mayor, but not, it may be said, from any unworthy motives. He had spent a great deal of time in the study of the early institutions of the New England colonies, and had a very intimate and peculiar knowledge of Boston, its history, its traditions, its govern- ment, and its people. To be the chief magistrate of the town he knew so well; and for which he had the love that an antiquary feels for the sub- ject of his studies, seemed to him a very great distinction. His fellow- citizens, recognizing his sincerity of purpose, kept him in the office for three terms, although he lacked the more important qualifications for a good executive. The constitution of his mind was so peculiar that long contact with men and affairs failed to give him any real knowledge of hu- man character, or of the proper methods of government. He took con- siderable pride in the fact that he was the first mayor of Boston who had always belonged to the Democratic party; and it appears that he is the only mayor of Boston, up to the present day, who can claim that distinction. Mr. Wightman, Mr. Gaston, Mr. Cobb, and Mr. Prince, who belonged to the Democratic party at the time of their election, had formerly been mem- bers of the Whig party. But it cannot be said that Dr. Shurtleff used the office to further the interests of any political organization. He gave so little satisfaction to his party associates that they opposed his re-election for a third term, and he was taken up and elected by the Citizens, who saw in the Democratic opposition an element dangerous to good government.
His administration was marked by considerable activity on the part of the city government, especially in the matter of widening and extending streets in the business portion of the city. In 1868 Atlantic Avenue was laid out across the docks between Fort Point Channel and the East Boston Ferry ways, covering almost exactly the site of the ancient "barricado," 2 which connected the north battery with the south battery, or Sconce. The cost of this improvement amounted to nearly two and a half million dol- lars. In 1869 Broadway, the main thoroughfare through South Boston, was extended across Fort Point Channel to Albany Street, at an expense of
I He was born in Boston on June 29, 1810, is printed in the Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., Decem- and graduated at Harvard College in IS31. A ber, 1874, p. 389. brief memoir of Dr. Shurtleff, by C. C. Smith,
2 [See Vol. II., p. 502. - ED.]
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BOSTON UNDER THE MAYORS.
nearly a million dollars; and Federal Street, which had long been the principal thoroughfare from the old portion of the city to South Boston, was widened at an expense of about half a million dollars. These im- provements were made necessary by the rapid growth of South Boston. During the ten years between 1860 and 1870, the population of that division of the city had increased more than fifty per cent, and the taxable value of property had more than doubled.
A similar development had been going on in East Boston during the same period. For many years there had been great dissatisfaction with the accommodations furnished by the corporations which operated the ferries between East Boston and the city proper. The People's Ferry Company, chartered in 1853, conveyed all its property, except its boats and franchise, to the city in 1859. The interest on the amount paid for the property was in the nature of a subsidy to the company; but owing to the bad location of the ferry landings, and to bad management on the part of the directors, the ferry did not pay its running expenses, and in 1864 the boats were with- drawn and sold, and the city took possession of the ferry-ways, which it had purchased in 1859. The East Boston Ferry Company was chartered in 1852, and, having obtained possession of the ferry landings most convenient for public travel, was enabled to do a business which gave it a small return on the capital invested. But the people of East Boston were unwilling that any corporation should make money out of the highway which, as they said, they were obliged to use in going from their homes to pay their taxes at the City Hall. The large amount of money expended for bridges to South Boston was used as an argument in favor of establishing a free bridge or free ferries to East Boston. In 1868 the Legislature chartered a company to build a bridge over tidewater between the ferry landings; but the United States authorities interposed to prevent the project from being carried out, as a bridge would have obstructed the passage of war vessels to and from the Navy Yard at Charlestown. In 1869 the city en- tered into a contract with the East Boston Ferry Company to purchase its franchise and property for the sum of $275,000; and on April 1, 1870, the city government took possession of the ferry, and has since operated it through the agency of a board of directors elected by the city council. The tolls are fixed by the board of aldermen, at a rate which pays a little more than the actual running expenses.
On June 22, 1869, the inhabitants of Dorchester and Boston voted to accept an act of the Legislature uniting the two corporations ; 1 and on the first Monday in January following the ancient town, which received its name in the same order of the court of assistants that gave Boston its name and its corporate existence, became the sixteenth ward of the city. The State census of 1865 gave Dorchester a population of ten thousand seven hundred and seven; and the national census of 1870 gave the same terri-
1 Vote of Boston : yeas, 3,420 ; nays, 565.
Barrows' chapter on "Dorchester in the Last Dorchester : yeas, 928; nays, 726. ĮSec Mr. Hundred Vears," in the present volume. - En.]
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
tory a population of twelve thousand two hundred and fifty-ninc. The old town organization was maintained in all its strength and purity up to the time of the union with the city. Most of the inhabitants belonged to the well-to-do class, who had an interest alike in their native town and in the city to which they resorted for business. The valuation of the real and personal property in Dorchester for purposes of taxation in 1869 amounted to $20,315,700.
The valuation of property in the whole city on May 1, 1870, amounted to $584,089,400, an increase of $307,228,400 during the previous decade, or 110.96 per cent. The total funded debt of the city at that date amounted to $18,687,350.91. The total tax levy made on May 1, 1870, amounted to $8,636,862, an increase of $6,106,862 since 1860; and the rate of taxation had risen during the same period from $8.99 to $13.65 on $1,000. The ninth census of the United States, taken on June 1, 1870, gave the city a population of 250,526, divided as follows: native males, 79,599; native fe- males, 82,941 ; foreign males, 40,318 ; foreign females, 47,668
By an act of the Legislature of 1870 an important amendment was made to the city charter. All the powers formerly vested in the board of alder- men, in relation to laying out, altering, or discontinuing streets or ways in the city, were transferred to a board of street commissioners, consisting of three persons, elected by the qualified voters of the city for a term of three years, one to be elected each year. By subsequent enactments the powers of the board have been somewhat curtailed. Where the estimated ex- pense of the street improvement exceeds $10,000, the concurrence of the city council is necessary to make the action of the commissioners binding ; and by a two-thirds vote of the members of each branch, the city council may require the commissioners to lay out, alter, or discontinue any street. The power to abate taxes was also transferred from the aldermen to the commission. The establishment of this board was the beginning of some important changes in the organization of the city government. In the original organization the aldermen took the place of the selectmen, con- stituting the executive board of the government, of which the mayor was the chief officer. They also formed one branch of a council which took the place of the town-meeting. The legislative and executive powers of the corporation were therefore united in the same body. This was well enough in a city of small size, with a homogeneous population; but in 1870 Bos- ton had ceased to be a small city, and there was not that readiness on the part of the substantial men in the community to serve the city gratuitously which had been shown at an earlier day, when the service was less ardnous, and when it was felt to be more of a neighborly office. The aldermen who happened to be in office, however, at the time any change was proposed by which their powers or duties would be curtailed, generally put them- selves in opposition to it; and it was only when the departments which they administered were found uncqual to any emergency, that they gave way to the popular demand for the transfer of their more important exec-
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utive powers to persons specially selected for the purpose, and compensated for their services. These changes, and the influences by which they were brought about, will be described when I come to deal with the administra- tions under which they occurred.
The charter election on Dec. 12, 1870, resulted in the choice of William Gaston,1 the Democratic and Citizens' candidate, for mayor, who received three thousand more votes than his Republican competitor, Mr. George O. Carpenter. An able lawyer, and a man of high character, Mr. Gaston had the respect of all classes in the community; but he lacked that essential requisite for a good executive, - determination. He made up his mind with great difficulty, and it required a painful effort for him to act on any new or important question. He held the office of mayor for two years, and would have been re-elected for a third term had not an emergency arisen calling for a more energetic chief magistrate.
The most important act of the city government during his administra- tion was the adoption of an ordinance to establish a new board of health. The city charter vested in the city council ample powers for the preserva- tion of the public health, and authorized them to constitute either branch, or any committee of their number, or any other persons appointed for the purpose, a board of health for all or for particular purposes. For many years the aldermen had constituted the board of health, and the chief executive officer of the health department was elected annually by the city council. In cases of emergency, such as the prevalence of contagious or infectious diseases, the aldermen were aided by a board of consulting physicians, who were also elected by the city council, and who, like the aldermen, received no compensation for their services. As the city in- creased in size many important questions affecting the public health were constantly arising, - questions which the aldermen were not competent to deal with; but they were slow to recognize their incompetency, and were quick to take offence at the advice tendered by their medical assistants. As a consequence, the leading physicians refused to serve in a position where they had no power to carry out the measures which they recom- mended; and the aldermen soon found themselves losing the respect and confidence of the community. In the year 1871 a joint committee appointed to investigate certain complaints relating to the sale of unwhole- some meat found that there were no proper restrictions upon the intro- duction of bad meat into the city markets, and that the health of the inhabitants was endangered by the want of an efficient board of health. In
1 Mr. Gaston was the descendant of a Hu- guenot family that came to this country in the first half of the eighteenth century; and was born in South Killingly, Conn., on Oct. 3, 1820. He was graduated at Brown University, Provi- dence, R. I., in 1840, and began the practice of law in Roxbury in 1846. He was a member of
the common council of that city five years (1849- 53), and its president two years (1852-53) ; was city solicitor five years (1856-60), and mayor 1wo years (1861-62). He had formerly been a mem- ber of the Whig party, but the Antislavery agi- tation had carried him, with many of his eminent associates of the bar, into the Democratic ranks.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
his address to the city council, at the beginning of 1872, Mr. Gaston urged the passage of an ordinance to establish an independent board; and his recommendation was enforced later in the year by the negleet of the alder- men to take any effective measures to check the small-pox, which prevailed to an alarming extent. The aldermen were unable to withstand the force of public opinion, and on December 2 an ordinance was passed authorizing the mayor to appoint, with the approval of the city council, three persons to constitute the board of health, to serve for a term of three years each. As a sort of compromise, the duty of cleaning the streets and cesspools, and collecting offal and ashes, - the work in which a considerable number of laborers were employed, - was placed under the charge of a joint com- mittee of the city council. The appointment of a superintendent of health, a city physician, and a port physician, was given to the new board, but the- exercise of this power was subject to the approval of the mayor. Mr. Gaston failed to make any appointments on the board before retiring from office, and the duty of carrying the ordinance into effect devolved upon his successor.
In the year 1871 the supply of water from Lake Cochituate was found to be insufficient for the growing wants of the city, and a competent en- gineer was appointed to make an examination of all sources of supply within fifty miles of Boston. This examination resulted in an application to the Legislature the following year for authority to take water from Sud- bury River and Farm Pond. The authority was granted, and a temporary connection was immediately made between Sudbury River and Lake Cochit- uate, which furnished an adequate supply during the summer of 1872; but this connection could not be made permanent without interfering with the. privileges of the mill-owners along the line of the river; and it became a serious question for the government to consider, whether the need for an additional supply of pure water was so imperative as to justify the very heavy expense which would be involved by taking all the waters of the river, within or above Framingham, as authorized by the act of the Legis- lature. During the unusually dry season of 1874, a temporary connection was made with the Mystic water works, which supplied Charlestown; but it was soon found that the connection could not be maintained without de- priving Charlestown and its dependents of an adequate supply; and on Jan. 2, 1875, orders were passed authorizing the Cochituate water board, as the agent of the city, to take the waters of Sudbury River and Farm Pond and conduct them by a separate conduit to Chestnut Hill Reservoir, a distance of eighty-three thousand nine hundred and twelve feet. The city is now receiving from this source a supply equal to twenty million gallons daily, which can be doubled by the construction of additional storage basins. The cost of the additional supply has already amounted to over $5,000,000; and the entire cost of the Cochituate and Sudbury works on April 30, 1880, amounted to $16,341,908.25. The cost of constructing the Mystic works amounted at that date to $1,614,648. The average daily
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