The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. IV, Part 7

Author: Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897, ed; Jewett, C. F. (Clarence F.), publisher
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Boston : Osgood
Number of Pages: 760

USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. IV > Part 7

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Brighton, Boston voted, - ayes, 5,629, noes, 1,933; Brighton, ayes 622, noes, 133. As to West Roxbury, Boston voted, - ayes, 6,110, noes, 1,663: West Roxbury, ayes, 720, noes, 613. As to Brookline, Boston voted, -ayes, 6,205, noes, 1,516; Brookline, ayes, 299, noes, 706. [Brookline had been taken from Suffolk County and added to Norfolk County in 1793. It will be remembered that it was originally a grant to Boston men. - ED.]

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

$4,742 in East Boston, - the total being barely more than $100,000 a year on an average. 1

The year 1866 marks the end of the period of economy in street im- provement, and a season of lavish expenditure set in. The next year the demolition of Fort Hill was begun. This district, which was at one time 2 covered with magnificent residences, had been invaded by a class of in- habitants so little to the taste of the people who lived there that it had been abandoned altogether to the new comers. Business had stretched its arms all around the territory, and the hill itself was crowded with tenement houses inhabited by throngs of persons of foreign birth. The renovation of the district was undertaken both for sanitary reasons and because the land was greatly needed for commercial purposes. The territory involved was about twenty acres in extent, and was bounded by Pearl, Milk, and Broad streets. In 1867 and the following years an average reduction of twenty-five feet was made in the grade of the whole district. The hill at its highest point was fifty feet above the present level. The material was largely employed in filling for the extension of Albany Street, between Troy Street and the Dover Street bridge, and in the Suffolk Street district.

The Church Street improvement was undertaken almost wholly as a sanitary measure. The district lying between the Boston and Albany Rail- road, where it crosses Tremont Street, and Columbus Avenue was hardly above the tide level, and in some places was below it. In 1868 a commis- sion, appointed for the purpose by the authority of the city council, was directed to raise all the street grades to a height of eighteen feet above mean low-water, and back yards and cellars to twelve feet. The work was completed in October, 1869. In making this improvement two hun- dred and ninety-six brick buildings were raised and set on new foundations from ten to fourteen feet above their former situation; seven streets were widened; and Columbus Avenue was extended through to Boylston Street. The total cost of the undertaking to the city was more than one million dollars.3

The companion improvement, that of the Suffolk Street district, was begun in September, 1870. This enterprise involved the raising of the territory between Dover, Tremont, Pleasant, and Washington streets, - an area of about thirty-one acres. In this work nearly one quarter of a mil- lion cubic yards of filling-material were used, a part of it being transferred from Fort Hill. Of seven hundred and forty-nine buildings on the terri- tory when the change was begun, about one hundred and fifty were demol-

1 The largest sum expended on any one street was $394,163 upon Devonshire Street. The gross expenditure upon Washington Street was only $291,025 for the whole time. The North End received much the largest share of the improvement funds, - Blackstone, Commer- cial, Court, Friend, Hanover, North, and Union streets having had the sum of $1,142,234 ex-

pended upon them ; and numerous other streets small sums, amounting to very much in the ag- gregate.

2 [The annexed cut represents the view from the slope of Fort Hill about 1806, following an original painting owned by William H. Whit- more .- ED.]

8 [See Mr. Bugbee's chapter in Vol. III .- ED.]

TOPOGRAPHY, ETC., OF THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS.

MILBAN

FROM FORT HILL, 1806.

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

ished, and the rest were raised to grade. Extensive alterations were made in street lines. Suffolk Street itself was extended through to Tremont Street, and became the northern end of Shawmut Avenue. The total cost of the improvement was not far from two and a half millions. The work was substantially finished in May, 1872.1

The filling in of the water spaces between wharves, for the formation of Atlantic Avenue, was the most costly improvement of the kind ever under- taken by the city. The work was mostly done between the years 1868 and 1870, and the total cost of the avenue to the year 1880 was more than $2,- 400,000, making it the most expensive street in the city, with the exception of Washington Street, and but little less than that. This enterprise gave a broad way along the water front, which has proved of the greatest value to the commerce of Boston.2

Boston has been many times visited by destructive fires, several of which, including the worst of all, have occurred within the last century. On April 20, 1787, a fire broke out in Hollis Street Church, which speedily commu- nicated to other buildings, and was not extinguished until more than one hundred structures, including sixty dwelling-houses, were consumed.3 Six years later, in 1793, the square from Pearl Street to the water was swept bare; six or seven rope-walks and about one hundred stores and resi- dences were destroyed.4 In 1824 a fire originating near the corner of Charles and Chestnut streets, spreading to Beacon Street, destroyed sixteen valuable buildings, and inflicted the (for that time) great loss of $150,000. Flying cinders set fire to many houses at a distance, but fortunately the flames were extinguished. On Fast Day, in 1825, fifty stores were burned in Central and Kilby streets, involving a loss of a million dollars. In No- vember of the same year ten buildings on Court Street, in which were many lawyers' offices, were destroyed. On May 18, 1835, a fire destroyed about forty buildings in Blackstone, Pond, and Salem streets, turning more than one hundred families out of doors.

The most destructive fire which ever occurred in Boston broke out shortly after seven o'clock in the evening of Saturday, Nov. 9, 1872, in the four- story granite block numbered 83, 85, and 87 Summer Street, at the corner . of Kingston Street. Before the flames were extinguished, a space of sixty- five acres, thickly covered with brick and stone warehouses, had been com- pletely burned over, involving a loss of property valued at seventy-five million dollars.5 At the time the fire occurred almost every horse in the city was still ill, or was just recovering from the strange disease which, for want of a better name, was called " the epizootic," and which practically disabled them. It has always been a question, however, if the engines were any longer than usual in arriving, and the blame is believed to rest partly

1 [See Mr. Bugbee's chapter. - ED.]

2 [The previous water front of Broad and India streets had been laid out in 1808-9 .- ED.]

8 [See Vol. III., Introduction, p. vii. - ED.]

4 [Ibid., p. viii .- ED.]

[See Mr. Bugbee's chapter .- ED.]

TOPOGRAPHY, ETC., OF THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS.

upon those who gave the alarm. At all events when the engines arrived it was already a dangerous fire, and another alarm was sounded at once. An open elevator, or lift, lined with wood, had communicated the flames to every story, and in a short time the interior of the building, from cellar to attic, was a mass of roaring fire. Still, it may be questioned if any person who saw even that first brilliant sight felt any apprehension of a dangerous extension of the fire.

The appreciation of danger came gradually, but it came irresistibly. The intense heat of the flames passed through the partition walls and com- municated with the next building. The fire passed up and down the street. The building on the opposite corner of Kingston Street caught. Summer Street also was crossed at about the same time, and the whole district was doomed. Alarm had followed alarm in quick succession, and had brought to the scene not only the entire fire department of the city, but a vast throng of citizens. As soon as the extremely dangerous character of the fire was recognized, despatches were sent to all the suburban cities and towns, imploring the help of their engines and firemen ; but by this time not only was the fire beyond the control of any force of firemen which could have been employed, but there was a scarcity of water, without which all effort must be ineffectual. This district, formerly covered with residences, had been newly appropriated for business purposes, and the water pipes had not been enlarged since the change was made. They were too small to carry the enormous quantities of water required; and they were fitted with hydrants of an old-fashioned pattern and ill adapted to the purpose. The flames spread in all directions. They advanced steadily up.Summer Street, on both sides, towards Washington Street; they moved southward towards the Albany station; eastward towards the water; and northward into the very business heart of the city,-and in the latter direction most rapidly of all. It was an enlarging circle of fire. To attack it methodically seemed to be, and probably at that stage of its progress was, out of the question. Scarcely an attempt was made to stop its movement towards the wharves. Resistance was more effectual on the south side, where the buildings were not high, and by midnight it was practically checked in that direction ; but by that hour the fire was close upon Washington Street. A most gal- lant and determined effort was made to hold the line of that street, and though it required such energy and fortitude as have rarely been demanded of firemen, it was successful.

The path of the fire was now fan-shaped. It extended in breadth the whole length of Summer Street, and advanced northward with inconceivable fury along the whole line from the harbor front to Washington Street. The streets were narrow and the buildings high. There was no point where a stand could be made. An engine stationed anywhere near the fire could not be got in working order before it became necessary either to remove it with all haste or to abandon it. Those who saw that terrible sight will never for- get it, and the sounds were almost as fearful as the sight. The night sky VOL. IV. - 7.

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

was grandly illuminated, and a wild shower of burning brands and cinders was passing over the district which was shortly to be devastated. The crash of falling walls became an almost continuous roar. The streets were filled, as they were rarely filled at midday, with men and teams carrying away all portable goods to a place of safety. Perhaps there was no single point where the amazing power of the fire was so well observed as from the empty space where Fort Hill had been. The hill had been cut away but not built upon. Between it and the flames was Pearl Street, solidly built with handsome granite stores, where the shoe trade of the city had its headquarters. It happened that the fire attacked the whole street at once. Hardly five minutes elapsed after the appearance, to those watching from the Fort Hill space, of the first spark in one of the stores, before the whole block was a mass of roaring fire. The great warehouses were converted into so many furnaces, and the heat and light were so intense that at a distance of several hundred feet it was painful to face the fire many minutes at once. In almost as little time as it requires to read the account, the walls grew red-hot, the floor timbers began to fall against the walls, and the great structures tottered and fell like a house of cards, but with a thundering crash.

The fire raged until Sunday afternoon. The firemen, having succeeded in holding the line of Washington Street, undertook to gain on the enemy by narrowing its path at Milk Street. The Old South Church and the new " Post-Office were used as barriers, and success was achieved. Point after point was gained by the weary but plucky men, thanks to the division of the fire by the vacant Fort Hill district, and at last it only remained to save single buildings from destruction, leaving those which had taken fire to burn. When this had been done, there was an opportunity to look around and see the extent of the desolation.

The city was in a deplorable condition. The wild excitement of that terrible night and day had unstrung the nerves of the strongest. Thousands upon thousands of people had seen their property consumed, or had been thrown out of employment, for how long nobody could guess. All the open spaces in the city, and even many in suburban towns, together with hundreds of private houses, were filled with merchandise hastily removed and in the utmost confusion. The lawless had taken full advantage of their opportunity, and many men not habitual criminals had been tempted too strongly by the chance to pilfer. The whole community was on the verge of panic. No time was lost in taking measures to reinforce the police, who were not numerous enough for the emergency. A whole brigade of militia was called out for active duty. A cordon of guards was stationed com- pletely around the burnt district, and companies were located in various parts of the city, provided with arms and ammunition, to be ready for marching at a moment's notice. The Old South was again devoted to military purposes, and became a barrack for militia. Guards patrolled the streets at night. In short, until the danger of disorder had subsided,

' TOPOGRAPHY, ETC., OF THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS.

the city was under military rule. Happily the precaution was sufficient to prevent a breach of the peace.

The boundaries of the district burned over were, - beginning at the foot of Summer Street, taking both sides of that street, - Summer, Washington, Milk to the rear of the new Post-Office and around it, Devonshire, Water (both sides), Congress, Lindall, and Oliver, to the water front. One could stand at the corner of Washington and Franklin streets, and see the masts of the shipping in the harbor. Seven hundred and seventy-six buildings, of which all but sixty-seven were of brick or stone, were consumed. Four- teen lives were lost, seven being firemen. Comparatively a small number of dwelling-houses were destroyed. The poor suffered rather from the loss of employment than from being rendered homeless. Measures of relief were organized at once, but the assistance which was freely and gener- ously tendered by the people of other cities was declined. The sum of $341,913.68 was collected, but it was not all needed, and about $20,000 were returned to the donors.1 The emergency seemed to be sufficiently pressing to render a special session of the Legislature desirable, and at the request of the city council Governor Washburn summoned the General Court at once. The insurance companies of the State, nearly every one of which, having risks in Boston, had been bankrupted, were authorized to reorganize. A building-law was passed to enable the city authorities to prevent the erection of structures which would, like those destroyed, only serve to speed the flames. An act was also passed legalizing an issue of Boston city-bonds to provide a fund loanable to real estate owners upon mortgages of their property, to enable them to rebuild. This latter act was unsatisfactory to the originators of the scheme, and was amended at the regular session soon after held. Before any action had been taken under this act, the Supreme Court put a veto upon the dangerous precedent by pronouncing the act unconstitutional.2

Private enterprise was, however, equal.to the necessities of the case. The work of rebuilding began almost immediately, and was prosecuted energetically. The earliest structures were solid, but plain architecturally. That was, nevertheless, not to be the general fashion. An increasing ten- dency to picturesqueness of style and higher ornamentation was observed ; and in the course of two years the whole district had been rebuilt in all respects better than before the fire. Advantage was taken, meanwhile, of the opportunity to improve the avenues. Numerous changes were made. Summer Street was widened, and so were Washington, Hawley, Milk, Devon- shire, Oliver, and others. Post-Office Square was laid-out. Pearl, Franklin, and other streets were extended. The expense of these changes 3 was very

[The chief authority for the history of this fire must be the Report of the committee of the and Frothingham, are of doubtful service. - ED.] city council to investigate its cause and prog- 2 [See Governor Long's chapter in Vol. III. - ED.] ress ; but an excellent summary will be found in Mr. James M. Bugbee's paper in the North Amer- 3 The expense of the most important im- provements in street lines made at this time was ican Review, cxvii. The newspapers of the day,

and several hasty narratives by Coffin, Conwell,

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

great, but it was wisely incurred. The gain in convenience, in appearance, and in security was worth all the money expended. It would be impossible for a fire to cross the wide streets which now intersect the wholesale district of Boston and divide it by limits which must circumscribe the area of devas- tation. At the same time that the streets were remodelled, as it were, new and larger water-pipes were laid, and improved hydrants were fitted to them. At present, as for a number of years past, the " burnt district " makes itself known to the observer only by the more spacious streets which run through it, and by the more elegant structures which adorn it.

Within a few months after the great fire of 1872 there were several others, which at another time would have been regarded as calamitous. Within a very few days, in fact, a threatening fire broke out in the high, narrow, tri- angular building which then stood opposite the head of Washington Street, dividing it from Cornhill. The building was so much weakened that it was of necessity taken down, and the opportunity was seized for pressing through to consummation the long-talked-of plan of extending Washing- ton Street northward to Haymarket Square.

On May 30, 1873, Decoration Day, a fire broke out in the furniture warehouse of Haley, Morse, & Co. on Washington Street. It quickly ex- tended across the street and consumed the Globe Theatre, Chickering's piano-forte warerooms, Chauncy Hall School, and other buildings. Two acres of land were burned over, and the loss of property was estimated at one million dollars. Ten persons who had been burned out in the fire of November 9 previous were again sufferers by the Decoration Day fire. The improvement, by widening, of Washington and Beach streets, made the only permanent topographical changes which resulted from this fire.

During the last eight years no important improvement, involving a great change in the topographical features of the city, has been undertaken either by public or by private enterprise, unless the project of a Back Bay park deserves to be mentioned as such .. The proposed park is really but a part of the extensive filling which has been going on for many years, and which has already been described at length. The work, which is still going on, has rendered necessary an important change in the channel by which the waters of Muddy River, in Brookline, reach the Charles River, in crossing the Back Bay and Beacon Street.1

as follows, as estimated in the auditor's report : Washington Street, widened, $338,000 ; Summer Street, widened, $294,000; Congress Street, wi- dened, $515,000 ; Federal Street, widened, $342,- 000; Pearl Street, extended, $170,000: Milk Street, widened, $297,000; Franklin Street, ex- tended, $170,000; Oliver Street, extended, $131,- 000; Hawley Street, widened, $278,000; Arch Street, widened and extended, $335,000; Water Street, widened, $212,000; Post-Office Square, laid out, $112,000. The total estimated cost of

these and other changes exceeded three and one half million dollars.

1 From the time of the city charter, IS22, to May, 1880, the expenditures by the city in the extension and widening of streets amounted to nearly twenty-seven million dollars. The streets upon which more than half a million dollars each was expended, with the amounts, were : Atlantic Avenue, $2,404,000; Broadway extension, $919,- 000; Columbus Avenue, $524,000; Congress Street, $1,224,000; Devonshire Street, $1,518,000;

TOPOGRAPHY, ETC., OF THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS.

Having now mentioned the more important events which have had their influence, greater or less, in transforming Boston-a small, irregular, rugged, and hilly peninsula-into a great city with many square miles of territory, at the same time converting the ancient town into a broad and spacious tract of comparatively level ground, let us turn our attention to such of the struc- tures, ancient and modern, as call for notice in this chapter. These are not numerous. The last one hundred years have seen most of the earlier buildings disappear ; and of the modern edifices, many of the most interest- ing are more appropriately described in other chapters of this work. In the latter class may be mentioned the churches and most of the public buildings ; while of the former, many were described in the second volume.

The North End offers but little that is interesting at present. Its glory has departed. It was long ago abandoned as a fashionable, or even as a respectable, quarter for residences, except in a few small districts.1 The old buildings have gone to ruin from neglect, and have taken on, even in their outward aspect, something of the seedy and degraded air of those who inhabit them. Copp's Hill burying-ground, Christ Church, and Faneuil Hall are almost the only memorials of the past in this quarter of the city which are still worth visiting, and the first two are now substantially as they were a hundred years ago. Faneuil Hall is still one of the most attractive objects in the city to the stranger. It was not only the scene of those stirring meet- ings in which the latent patriotism of the Revolutionary fathers was aroused, but it has continued to be the headquarters of every popular movement in which the interest of Boston has been excited. Within its walls have been discussed the various burning questions of the Embargo, the Tariff, Slavery, Secession, and Paper Money. Lafayette, the Prince de Joinville, Lord Ash- burton, and other guests of the city have been entertained here. Webster, Everett, Sumner, and other representatives of Massachusetts in the Senate or House of Representatives have from the old rostrum given an account of their stewardship. The wrongs and sufferings of Greece, Ireland, and other unfortunate countries have been told; the rights and demands of labor have been urged ; the claims of parties have been set forth ; political victo- ries have been celebrated. Faneuil Hall has not always spoken with the voice of Boston, but nothing which has profoundly agitated Boston for more than a hundred years has found the old hall silent.

Adjoining the Cradle of Liberty stands Faneuil Hall Market, which, owing to the use that is made of it, is already taking on a venerable aspect. The construction of this great market-house was, at the time it was under- taken, the most important enterprise ever assumed by Boston, and its history has been told in another chapter.2

Hanover Street, $1,651,000; Oliver Street. $607,- 000; Tremont Street, $717,000; Washington Street, $2,517,000 ; Water Street, $564,000,-total for these ten streets, $12,645,000. The aggregate mentioned is exclusive of the cost of the Fort Hill, Church Street, and Suffolk Street improve-

ments, and of course does not include the cost of new streets on the Back Bay.

1 [Shurtleff traces the decline of the North End to a time just succeeding the Revolution. - Description of Boston, p. 138 .- ED.]

2 [Mr. Bugbee's, in Vol. III. - ED.]

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

Upon and near Causeway Street stand four of the railroad passenger stations. Not only the land, but the system of which these structures are the visible reminders, are the creation of the present century. Only one of these stations possesses any interest whatever apart from its connection with the railroad of which it is the terminus. The Fitchburg station is not only an imposing structure architecturally, but it is memorable as the scene of Jenny Lind's first appearance in Boston, in October, 1850. The Swedish songstress at that time gave two concerts in the great hall over the station, to audiences numbering more than four thousand each.1

The district of which State, Court, and Cambridge streets is the very crooked backbone, is by far the most interesting part of the town in its possession of memorials of the past. Some such monuments have been but recently removed. Upon all the old maps of Boston, up to about 1850, there was represented a row of buildings separating Court Street from Tremont Row. These buildings stretched from near the head of Tremont Street to Hanover Street. With one exception they were of wood, and at the Hanover Street end were very thin and narrow. About thirty years ago these latter were taken down, and "Scollay's Buildings" were changed from plural to singular. The last building of the row was removed about ten years ago, and the whole space was thrown open. Not one of the buildings pos- sessed the slightest historical interest; but the removal of them has not only effected an important street improvement, but has left one of the most re- markable cases of confusion in street nomenclature which is anywhere to be found. The open space is known as Scollay Square, although it is in fact the most irregular of triangles. Two of the sides, and those two which form almost a right angle with each other, are in Court Street, and the third is Tre- mont Row. At the corner of Court and Tremont streets still stands the old building which was Washington's headquarters; but it is threatened 2 with early destruction. Another building, quite famous in its day, has but just disappeared. Joy's Building stood, until the present year, on the site of the second and third 3 houses of worship of the First Church. The land was sold to Benjamin Joy by the society of the church in 1808, and the building just taken down was then erected. It has been replaced by a handsome marble structure. The church in Brattle Square, dedicated in 1773, was sold and demolished in 1871. The society removed to a fine new structure on Commonwealth Avenue; but that building has now been sold, and the society is extinct. The Old State House, crowned with a mansard roof,

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The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. IV, Part 7

Author: Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897, ed; Jewett, C. F. (Clarence F.), publisher Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Boston : Osgood Number of Pages: 760

Author: Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897, ed; Jewett, C. F. (Clarence F.), publisher
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Boston : Osgood
Number of Pages: 760