The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. IV, Part 8

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

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1 Mr. Barnum paid Jenny Lind $1,000 for ever, had a magical effect in restoring order and each concert. His agent sold a thousand more quiet. tickets to the second concert than could be ac- 2 We may, however, remark that it is not threatened for the first time. In 1841 the Legis- lature incorporated the Columbian Hotel Coni- pany, the projectors of which contemplated the erection of a tavern on this site; but, as the Boston Almanac for 1842 remarked, “ no prepara- tions are yet discoverable for erecting an cdifice." commodated in the hall, and was obliged to refund the money next day to the unfortunate holders who were excluded. But although the doors were shut on so many ticket holders, the hall was densely crowded, many ladies fainted, and at one time there was serious danger of a panic. The wonderful notes of the singer, how-

3 [This is shown in Vol. II. p. 219 .- ED.]

TOPOGRAPHY, ETC., OF THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS.

still stands, in its conglomerate architecture, a type of the present and the past. Lager beer is dispensed from one end of the basement, while at the other end are telegraph and despatch offices. Above, where once assembled the fathers of the State and the wisdom of the city, the dusty old rooms are occupied by lawyers, insurance agents, and architects. A determined effort was made during the present year to remove the build- ing, but it failed.1

The Old South Church still stands, after many vicissitudes and dangers, but has been wholly diverted from its original use. Up to the time of the great fire of 1872 it was used by the society for purposes of worship; but at that time, after a most heated controversy both within and without the church, it was leased to the United States government, and converted into a post-office until the new building on Devonshire Street was ready for occupation. After being almost miraculously saved from destruction by fire, it was "desecrated" by being devoted to the mail service. On its being surrendered by the Government, there was a revival of the old project of selling the church to be taken down. The sentimental spirit was, how- ever, so strong in the descendants of the Revolutionary fathers that it was rescued. Funds were raised in various ways, the building was purchased by an association, to be preserved; and since that time it has been open to strangers, on the payment of a small fee. The interior has been converted into a sort of museum of New England antiquities.2

State Street is now, as it has been for a long time, the financial centre of the city. In 1837 there were thirty-five banks in Boston, of which twenty- two were located on this street. The proportion is not much smaller to-day ; but State Street is much less than it was once the meeting-place of mer- chants. The Exchange Coffee-house was erected with the idea of its becoming a headquarters for business. The first building of this name was erected about the beginning of the present century. It was an immense speculation, which was floated for a time by means of the issue of worthless bills by a Rhode Island bank. Having cost the projectors and the public about half a million dollars, disaster overtook the enterprise; but it was ultimately finished.3 Hardly, however, had the final alterations been made, when the great structure was destroyed by fire, in 1818.4 Another hotel bearing the same name, but neither so large nor so pretentious, was put up

: 1 [See p. 11 of the present volume for a note on the different views of this building. - ED.]

2 [See view in Vol. II. p. 515. - ED.]

3 When opened for business it was much the largest public house in the country. It covered an irregular tract of ground measuring 12,753 square feet, and was seven stories in height. It was highly ornamented, but not with good taste, on the exterior, and within was spacious and ele- gant. There were a great hall for the meetings of merchants, a dining-room capable of seating three hundred persons, a great ball-room, and a Masonic hall above.

4 November 3. Its end was not without sig- nificance to those who believed in retribution upon inanimate things for the wrong doing of sentient persons. One of them remarked after the fire that the building " was conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity, but it is now puri- fied by fire." Captain Hull made the Coffee- house his headquarters when he was at Boston during the war of 1812, and President Monroe was entertained here at a public dinner in 1817. Business appointments with strangers were usu- ally made at this house, which was also the ter- minus of most of the stage-coach lines.

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

on the same site, and stood until 1853, when it was taken down. The glory of the latter house was not equal to that of the former.

Another building, the Province House, which bore a famous part in the history of Boston for a much longer time than the Coffee-house, was de-

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SCOLLAY'S BUILDING.1

scribed in the second volume,2 where also the story of its degradation and decay was told as fully as is necessary. The Old Corner Bookstore, on the other hand, is still pre- served, and is maintaining its ancient traditions.3

Among the comparatively new buildings which may become famous landmarks two or three gen- erations hence, there are several which deserve mention. The new Post Office is the largest of these, and the most costly public building in New England.4 The corner-stone was laid in 1871, President Grant being present

1 [This view is taken from in front of the Court House on Court Street. Scollay's Build- ing is beyond the horse-car. - ED.]

2 [See view in Vol. II. p. 89. - ED.]

[Ibid., p. 505 .- ED.]

+ [It stands on the original shore line .- ED.]

TOPOGRAPHY, ETC., OF THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS.

on the occasion, which was made one of great parade; but at that time the walls of the first story were already completed. The Devonshire Street half of the building was completed in 1874, and occupied on December 19 of

DOWN COURT STREET.1

that year. The other half, front- ing on Post -Office Square, has been several years in building, and is not yet finished. The appropriations made by Congress for land and building up to March, 1880, have amounted to but little less than six million dollars. The post-office has been a migratory institution. The present building is the

1 [This view is down Court Street from near Scollay's Building, seen on the left. The tall building on the near right is occupied by the VOL. IV .- 8.

Adams Express Company, and marks the site of the Brattle Square Church parsonage. The Old State House is in the middle distance. - ED. ]

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

first ever occupied by the department in Boston which was owned by the Government. At times there have been hot controversies over the location, -one of which was occasioned by the removal of the office by the postmaster to Summer Street. For eleven years before the fire of 1872 it was in the Merchants' Exchange building in State Street, then for a short time in Faneuil Hall, then in the Old South meeting-house, and finally in the present structure.

The Custom House was authorized by Congress in 1835; the building was begun in 1837, and it was occupied in 1848. The exterior, even to the

EXCHANGE COFFEE-HOUSE ; DESTROYED IN 1818.1

roof, is of granite.2 The building is in the pure Doric style of architecture, and cost more than a million dollars.

Two of the oldest places of public amusement are within this district, - the Museum and the Howard Athenaeum. The former of these has had a history almost unique in the theatrical history of the country. It has con- tinued for more than forty years to be the property and under the general management of one of its original owners. Mr. Moses Kimball opened the Museum at the corner of Tremont and Bromfield streets in 1841. So great was the success of the venture that in 1846 the present Museum building

1 [This follows a cut in Snow's History of Boston, p. 330. There is in the Public Library a view looking up State Street, painted by Salmon in November, 1832. It represents the old State House on fire, with the fire department of that period at work. - ED.]

2 It is said that there is about as much gran- ite, cubic contents, in the Custom House, as in Bunker Hill Monument. The work was done in the most solid and substantial manner, no less than three years being devoted to the matter of securing a proper foundation.

TOPOGRAPHY, ETC., OF THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS.

was erected and occupied, and Mr. Kimball is still, as he has been for many years, the sole owner, having previously been the chief proprietor.1

Let us pass now to the adjoining district, which embraces Beacon Hill, the Common, and the surrounding territory. Upon this area stands no building that was erected one hundred years ago. The last to disappear was the old Hancock mansion on Beacon Street, of which an account has ' already been given in another place.2

But, in spite of the fact that all the buildings in this district are compara- tively modern, pages of interesting sketches of famous houses, and of the people who have lived in them, might be written. This is particularly true of the houses on Beacon and Park streets, where have resided, for three quarters of a century, many of the men and women who have been leaders in the social and literary life of Boston, and the great merchants and capi- talists whose acts have stood for the enterprise of the town, -but it is impossible to give the details here. Among the most conspicuous are the building at the corner of Beacon and Somerset streets, built by David Hinckley about sixty-five years ago, which was at the time the finest dwell- ing-house in Boston, and which, having been occupied by many distinguished persons, fell into the hands of the Somerset Club, and finally of the Con- gregational Association ; 3 the building at the corner of Park and Beacon streets, described elsewhere; 4 the present Somerset Club-house, erected by David Sears; and the building next west, where lived and died Harrison Gray Otis.

Of more modern and more public buildings, that of the Boston Athe- næum deserves the first notice. The Athenaum was incorporated in 1807, and at first occupied quarters in Congress Street; it received from Mr. James Perkins, in 1821, a gift of his new house in Pearl Street, and removed thither, where it remained until the present building, begun in 1847, was occupied in 1849.5 The Music Hall, which is a landmark, although only a glimpse of a part of its exterior can be had, was built by an association, and opened in 1852; it contains one of the finest organs in the country.6 The Tremont Temple occupies the site of the old Tremont Theatre, and contains one of the largest halls in the city; it was burned in 1879, but has been rebuilt and improved. Horticultural Hall, architecturally one of the orna- ments of Tremont Street, was built and is owned by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.7

1 This is not the only remarkable fact in its history. Mr. William Warren became a member of the company during the second season of the theatre, and with the exception of one year has been so ever since. The veteran actor is still as capable of delighting the lovers of the drama as ever, and his perennial youth is occasionally demonstrated by his assumption of the part of "Tony Lumpkin." Another veteran, Mr. R. M. Field, the manager, has nearly completed a score of years in that capacity. [See Colonel Clapp's chapter in this volume. - ED.]

2 [See Vol. III. - ED.]

8 [See Vol. II. p. xlv. - ED.]

4 [See a view of it, with description, in Mr. Bugbee's chapter on " Boston under the Mayors," in Vol. III .- ED.]

5 [See the chapter on "Libraries" in this volume. - ED.]

6 [See Mr. Dwight's chapter in the present volume. - ED.]

7 [See Colonel Wilder's chapter on "The Horticulture of Boston and Vicinity," in this volume. - ED.]

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

The Common is, in many respects, a more interesting landmark than any one of the buildings in this district. This park, which is so well-known a feature of Boston, has been shorn of its proper dimensions in one direc- tion, since it originally extended to the line of Beacon Street from Charles to Tremont Street; but at the other end it has been enlarged. A field south

THE TREMONT STREET MALL.

of the Common was bought by the town in 1794 and added to it, and the mall was then extended to Boyls- ton Street. Charles Street, laid out at the beginning of this century, cut off a small piece which now forms a part of the Public Garden. No material change in the dimensions of the Common has taken place for about eighty years. Until 18301 the original use of the tract as a common grazing

1 [When the elder Quincy became mayor in on the Common and selling the milk. The mayor 1823, he found one man keeping thirteen cows

caused every cow to bear a label with the owner's

TOPOGRAPHY, ETC., OF THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS.

ground for cattle was continued; but long before that the malls on Park I and Beacon streets had been laid out by direction of the town. This improvement, which was made in 1815, was carried out partly with the proceeds of the fund raised a few years before for the defence of the town. Further important improvements were made in 1823-24 under Mayor

THE FROG POND.

Quincy the elder, who laid a stone curb and transformed the Frog Pond into a sheet of water which no longer deserves the name which, in spite of official action to the contrary, still clings to it. In 1836 the old wooden fence which formerly surrounded the Common was removed, and an iron fence placed around the enclosure, the owners of neighboring estates pay- ing a part of the cost. The subsequent changes have been for the most part the work of landscape gardeners of the elected sort, - men who think

name on it. The pound for stray cattle was on the Common, near the junction of Charles and Boylston streets. See Lowell's description of Boston in Mayor Quincy's time, in My Study Windows, p. 95. There are views of the Com- mon of about this date in Bowen's Picture of

Boston, 1829; and in his New Guide to Boston, 1830. - ED.]

1 [Park Street, previously known as Centry Street, first appeared as Park Street on the Directory-map of 1789. See the "Introduction " to Vol. III .- ED.]

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

inequalities of surface are to be removed, who enjoy a straight path more than a crooked one, who regard black asphalt as an appropriate material for a park walk, who like to line paths with fence rails painted green, who make trees picturesque by sawing off the limbs in such a way as to make the muti- lation most conspicuous. Notwithstanding all this, the Common was too beautiful to be spoiled by years of official disfigurement. But the grand

INTERSECTION OF WASHINGTON, WINTER, AND SUMMER STREETS. 1

Old Elm2 has succumbed to old age, and the vigorous plant which stands where the ancient tree stood so long must see a century more of growth before it can be an acceptable substitute.

Paddock's Elms, too, in whose grateful shade have waited hundreds of thousands of intending patrons of the horse-cars, are gone. They were watched over in their extreme youth by Adino Paddock, who planted them, and who darted out from his shop opposite to shake a boy who had shaken one of them. In their full vigor, they fell under the displeasure of city foresters who cherish the theory that trees need no moisture for their roots.

1 [This cut follows a water-color owned by Mrs. S. H. Swan, of Cambridge, representing the scene about 1843, and by her kind permission is here reproduced. Another reproduction of

the same original is owned by Mrs. E. S. Dix- well. - ED.]

2 [See Vol. I. p. 21 of the chapter on “ The Flora of Boston," by Dr. Asa Gray. - ED.]

TOPOGRAPHY, ETC., OF THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS.

Branches which spread too far were chopped off remorselessly, and when at last the entire removal of the once magnificent row of trees was de- manded in the name of progress, the amputated stumps were unable to plead for themselves to be spared longer.1

The landmarks in other parts of the city, including the annexed districts, call for no special mention in this place, as all the more important features are noticed in this and other volumes. The changes in the topographical character of old Boston have been so important in the last one hundred years, that all the other changes are made insignificant in comparison. By them have been brought about two distinct migrations of population. A century ago the society of Boston was to be found at the North End, and upon and near Beacon Hill. The tendency at that time was toward the Fort Hill and Pearl Street district. Summer, Franklin, High, and neigh- boring streets became lined with fine residences, surrounded by neat lawns and flower-gardens. When business threatened to dispossess the dwellers in this district of their pleasant homes, there was some question whither they should remove, and where was to be the great residence-district of the city. Some people predicted that South Boston would become the fash- ionable quarter of the town; 2 but about that time the creation of the South End, by widening the Neck, diverted population thither, and the movement was hastened by the introduction of the horse-railroad system.3 For fifteen years after 1855 the South End was the growing part of the city. Mean- while the fashionable quarter, so-called, had been extending down Beacon Street, and broadening over the district lying west of the Public Garden. As the filling proceeded, the land in this part of the city became the most desirable as well as the most available; and it has been covered with buildings of a class which would do credit to any city in the world.4 The

1 [It was under these trees, in the early years of this century, that the hay-market was kept; and when it was removed to Charles Street (laid out in 1803); near the pound, the wood-market took its place along the front of the Granary Burying-ground. - ED.]

2 See an article in the Boston Almanac for 1853, by Dr. J. V. C. Smith, in which the writer urged the filling of the South Boston flats as a measure of which Nature had given a strong hint in the manner in which the flats had been formed. He also prophesied that South Boston was des- tined to become the magnificent portion of the city, in respect to costly residences, fashionable society, and the influences of wealth.

3 Soon after the introduction of horse-rail- roads in New York, efforts were begun to estab- lish the new mode of rapid transit in Boston. In 1852 a petition for a charter was presented to the Legislature, and more than three thousand persons signed petitions in aid of it. The first company, the Metropolitan, was not, however, chartered until May 21, 1853. A few days later the Cambridge Horse-Railroad Company was

chartered. The Broadway, Dorchester Avenue, and Chelsea companies were created in 1854. The construction of each and all the lines author- ized was made dependent upon the consent of the municipal authorities through whose streets they were to be laid. Strong opposition was made by the omnibus companies. The Cam- bridge company was the first to overcome the difficulty, which it did by buying the omnibus franchises, and the line to Cambridge was built and opened in 1856. The Dorchester Avenue line was opened in October, 1856; and the first Metropolitan line, from the Granary Burying- ground to the Guildhall in Roxbury, was finished a little later in the same month. All these lines were immediately successful.

4 Quite different from those which were built between 1840 and 1870. The "swell-front " abomination was then in full control of all the architects, as the mansard-roof affectation was a few years later in the suburban towns. Dr. Smith, in the article in the Boston Almanac for 1853, already referred to, discusses the prevailing style of architecture with characteristic vigor.

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

movement is, however, both in location and in style of building, of quite recent origin. In 1870 there were not many buildings west of Dartmouth Street, and the area between that street and the Public Garden was by no means fully built upon. The future movement must inevitably be in the same direction, and one need look forward but a few years to reach the time when the new Back Bay Park will be surrounded by elegant and costly dwelling-houses and churches.

Erano Vanwood

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES BY THE EDITOR.

A series of five views of Beacon Hill, of in size, in Wheildon's Sentry Hill, 1877. The which three are herewith given considerably reduced, were drawn about 1811-12 by Mr. J. R. Smith, an artist who had come to America about 1808. They are valuable memoranda of the condition of the summit of the hill just be-

new State House, which is so conspicuous an object in them, was taken possession of Jan. II, 1798, the Government, in the Representatives' Chamber, listening to the Rev. Dr. Thacher's prayer of dedication.

STATE HOUSE AND THE MONUMENT.

fore the final disappearance of it. The original sketches (now in the Public Library) are slight and scant in detail ; but under the skilful hand of Mr. G. G. Smith they were turned into at- tractive pictures in chromolithograph, which, being issued in 1855, under the title of "Old Boston," are thought to have been the first drawings reproduced by that art in Boston. They are given by heliotype, but much decreased

The Thurston House, shown in one of them, was not long after taken down, and, as rebuilt, is now No. I Beacon Hill Place. See an account of this house in W. W. Wheildon's Sentry Hill, p. 94.

A near view of the column, said to follow a painting by Sully, is given in Dennie's Portfolio, November, 1811, and has been reproduced in Wheildon's Sentry Hill, p. 65, and elsewhere.

BEACON STREET AND THE COMMON (1804-181[.)

TOPOGRAPHY, ETC., OF THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS.

It is claimed to have been the first monument ever erected to commemorate the war of the Revolution; but Mr. Wheildon could find no reference to it, during its building, in any of the public prints of the day. The Massachusetts Magazine, December, 1790, announces the com- pletion of the brick-work, but says that the "white cement " will not be put on till Spring, when it will be topped "by an eagle of wood, gilt." Mr. Wheildon could not find any mention of the contributors to it, except of Mr. Thomas Russell.

The annexed reduced heliotype follows a water-color found by the late Andrew Ritchie in a shop in Paris, and now owned by his son, Colonel Harrison Ritchie. It represents the Common and neighborhood somewhere between 1804- when the Amory House, seen and still standing on the corner of Beacon and Park streets, was erected (see view of Park Street, in Vol. III. p. 232.) -and 1811, when the monument seen over the stable of the Hancock House was taken down. The mansion of the first governor un- der the Constitution ranges in the line of the Capitol ; and the trees in front of it are probably the ones referred to in a letter of Theodore Lyman, Sept. 25, 1815, when he writes about . the great gale of that month to Edward Everett, his classmate, then in Germany : "How many lamentations has poor Madam Scott made over that beautiful row of elms opposite her house, which, with about fifteen of the largest trees in the mall, have been levelled." - Memoir of Theo-

married one of Hancock's sea-captains, Captain- James Scott, and was still living in the house.

THE MONUMENT, FROM THE CORNER OF TEMPLE AND DERNE STREETS.

· The Editor is indebted to Miss E. S. Quincy for reminiscences of other houses seen in the picture. That on the extreme left was built by Mr. John Phillips in 1804-5, and long occupied by him. It is still standing, with the entrance changed to Walnut Street, which was cut through on 1 001 0 its upper side, and the house is spoken of in a communication by Mr. Wendell Phillips, given in a note to Mr. Bugbee's chapter in Vol. III. It was bought about 1829, and greatly improved, by Lieut .- Governor Thomas L. Win- throp (father of the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop), who died in it. The large house next on the right was built about 1805, by Thomas Per- kins, and fronted on Mount Ver- non Street. The block on that street, just west of Joy Street, now occupies its site. The garden is at this day covered by the houses with deep front yards, which are on the westerly side of Joy Street. The house with columns was built by Dr. Joy, with a garden in front of it. A traveller, a few years earlier (1792), had described this house: " The front is among the

THE MONUMENT AND THE THURSTON HOUSE, FROM BOWDOIN STREET.

dore Lyman. Fr, p. 11 ; also see Shurtleff, Descrip- tion of Boston, p. 321. The widow of Hancock had

VOL. IV. - 9.

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

neatest and most elegant I have seen. It is two stories high, overcast, and painted a kind of peach-bloom color, and adorned with semi-col- umns, fluted, of Corinthian order, the whole height of the edifice."- Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., March, IS71, p. 61. This house was removed about 1835 and rebuilt at South Boston.

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The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. IV, Part 8

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