USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Topographical and historical description of Boston > Part 11
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Norman's Map: Evidently copied in main from Bon- ner's Map, on a small scale, about 9 1-2 by 7 inches; engraved and published for the first Boston Directory, in 1789, by John Norman, a Boston engraver.
Carleton's Map: Drawn in 1795 from actual surveys by Osgood Carleton; and engraved by Joseph Callender for the second Boston Directory, published in 1796 by John West. Size 14 1-2 by 9 inches.
Carleton's Large Map: Called "A new Plan of Bos- ton, from actual surveys by Osgood Carleton, with cor-
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, DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
rections, additions, and improvements "; being a map of the peninsular part of the town only. Issued in 1800. Size 27 by 20 inches.
Directory Map: First printed in 1809 for the Boston Directory, published by Edward Cotton; evidently a new plate from Carleton's Map, with important additions and alterations, and engraved by Callender. Size, about 15 by 9 1-2 inches. This map was continued in use twenty years; when it was superseded in 1829 by a new map, engraved by Hazen Morse.
Hales's Map: Engraved in 1814 by T. Wightman, jun., from drawing by J. G. Hales, giving the position of houses and the bounds of the various estates. Size, 38 by 29 inches.
Annin and Smith's Map: Engraved in 1824 by William B. Annin and George G. Smith, and re-issued every few years by Mr. Smith with additions. Size, about 22 inches square. This map was used for many years by the City Government for the Municipal Regis- ter, and School Documents.
Bowen's Map: A small map, measuring 6 1-2 by 4 inches, was engraved by Abel Bowen, in 1824, for Snow's History of Boston.
Morse's Map: Engraved in 1828, for the Boston Directory of 1829, by Hazen Morse. Size, 14 1-2 by 9 inches. This map was continued in use by the publisher, Charles Stimpson, jun., until 1839.
Bewick Company's Map: Engraved in 1835, by George W. Boynton, from drawings made by Alonzo Lewis. Size, 31 by 22 inches. Mr. Boynton engraved in 1839 a similar map, 18 by 17 inches, for Nathaniel Dearborn; which has since been published by E. P. Dut- ton & Co., with alterations every year from 1860 to 1867
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He also engraved, in 1837 and 1839, maps, 5 1-2 by 5 inches, for the Boston Almanac; and in 1842 a map, 14 by 11 1-2 inches, to accompany Goodrich's Pictorial Geography; and one of the peninsular part of Boston in 1844, measuring 11 1-2 by 9 inches, for Dickinson's Boston Almanac; and finally one in 1850, 11 by 9 1-2, also for the Almanac.
Annin's Small Map of the peninsular part of Boston only, 4 by 2 3-4 inches. Engraved in 1835 for the Bos- ton Almanac.
Morse and Tuttle's Map: Engraved in 1838 by Hazen Morse and J. W. Tuttle, and used in the Boston Directory for the years 1839 and 1840. Size, 15 1-2 by 9 1-2 inches.
English Map: In August, 1842, the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge published in London a very nicely executed map of Boston, much after the plan of Boynton's, taking in the peninsula of Charlestown. Engraved by R. B. Davies, of London. Size, 15 by 12 inches.
McIntyre's Map: Lithographed in Philadelphia in 1852, by Friend and Aub, from original surveys by H. McIntyre, and published in Boston. The sheet, which contains also parts of the neighboring cities, has the names of the principal residents, and views of buildings; and measures 77 by 58 inches.
Dripps's Map : Surveyed and drawn by J. Slatter and B. Callan, engineers; and published in 1852 by M. Dripps, New York, and L. N. Ide, Boston. Size, 57 by 39 inches. Lithographed and printed at Ferd. Mayer's, New York. This map contains the peninsular part of Boston only, with the estates and buildings marked out; and is exe- cuted on much the largest scale of any map of Boston
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
ever printed. The immense labor of altering the bounds of estates, and positions of buildings, has thus far pre- vented the issue of a new edition.
Colton's Map: Similar to Boynton's. Published by J. H. Colton, New York, in 1855. Size, 16 by 13 inches.
Mitchell's Map: Published by S. Augustus Mitchell, jun., in 1860, in Philadelphia. Size, about 11 by 9 inches.
Walling's Map: Engraved for the Map of Massachu- setts, published by H. F. Walling, under sanction of the Legislature, in 1861. Size, 18 by 17 inches.
City Engineer's Map: By James Slade, City Engi- neer; drawn by H. M. Wightman, and engraved by C. A. Swett, under the direction of the City Council of Boston, 1861. Size, 40 by 28 inches. This map has traced upon it the original water-line, and is issued annu- ally with such additions and emendations as changes make necessary. It has recently (in 1862) been reduced photographically, and printed in oil-colors by L. Prang & Co., so as to measure 12 1-2 by 9 inches.
City Engineer's Annexation Map: This large plan of Boston and Roxbury was compiled in 1867, by N. Henry Crafts, City Engineer, by order of the Commis- sioners on the annexation of Roxbury. It measures 53 by 31 inches, and contains what then constituted the peninsular part of Boston, with portions of South Bos- ton, East Boston and Charlestown, and the whole of the city of Roxbury.
City Engineer's New Map: On the union of Boston and Roxbury, in 1868, Mr. Crafts prepared a more per- fect map of the city (53 by 35 inches), with the names of the streets, after the necessary alterations had been made by the Board of Aldermen. The same map was cor- rected by Thomas W. Davis, City Surveyor, and printed
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in 1869 for city purposes. The annexation of Dorches- ter to Boston has made necessary a new map for 1870.
Insurance Maps: A series of sectional maps of Bos- ton, in two folio volumes, for the use of underwriters, was commenced in 1867, by D. A. Sanborn, civil engi neer, 117 Broadway, N. Y., and completed the next year. They were eighty in number, on sheets measur- ing 35 1-2 by 26 1-2 inches, and on a scale of fifty feet to an inch. The various materials of which the build- ings standing are constructed are represented by differ- ent colors; and various particulars deserving of notice are otherwise indicated. A third volume, containing thirty plans, and giving Charlestown and large parts of the Highland Wards and of Cambridge, was also pub- lished by the same engineer in 1868.
Several small maps, being compilations or reductions, some engraved in metal and others cut in wood, have been published during the last twenty-five years by Nathaniel Dearborn and others, in books relating to Boston. Valuable plans of parts of the city have also been printed for state and city documents during the same time; and not many years ago enlarged plans of various sections of the city, similar to the insurance maps, were printed with special reference to their use by underwriters.
The list given above does not include the maps of Boston and vicinity, strictly so called, nor the Charts of the Harbor. Among the principal of these should be mentioned the following :- A map of the vicinity of Boston, (32 by 3 inches) published in Neal's History of New England in 1720; A chart of the Harbor without date, measuring 21 by 17 inches, in the possession of Charles Deane, Esq., entitled "A New Survey of the
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
Harbour of Boston in New England, Done by Order of the Principall Officers and Comissioners of his Maties Na- vy, and Sold by George Grierson at the two bibles in Essex Street, Dublin," which bears evidence of great age, as trees are denoted on nearly all of the islands, and although the " out wharf," built about the year 1673, is fully represented, the " long wharf," built between the years 1710 and 1714, is not shown at all; a small chart of the harbor published in "L'Atlas Maritime" at Paris in 1757 by Bellin, and engraved on the corner of a chart of New England, which measures only 8} by 6 & inches, and is styled "Plan du Havre de Boston," Winnisimmet being designated as "Vin.simit"; "A Chart of the Harbour of Boston," without date, and also without the names of publisher and engraver, (35 by 21 1-2 inches),-evidently issued about 1776, as the ruins of Charlestown are indicated upon it; a curious French "Carte du Port et Havre de Boston" (28 by 23 inches), engraved in 1776, and published by the Chev- alier de Beaurain, containing in a vignette the earliest known printed representation of the Pine-tree Banner; Beaurain's map was also published in Germany ; "Boston, its Environs and Harbour, with the Rebel Works raised against that Town in 1775, from the ob- servations of Lieutenant Page, of his Majesty's Corps of Engineers, and from the plans of Captain Montressor," engraved by William Faden, and published in London 1 October, 1778. The "Atlantic Neptune," published at London about the year 1780 to 1783, contains a Chart of Boston Bay (39 by 30 1-2 inches), bearing date 1 December, 1781, compiled by J. F. W. DesBarres, sur- veyor of the coast and harbors of North America; and also a Plan of the Harbor and Coast from "Nachant" to
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Weymouth River (40 by 28 1-2 inches), accompanied with a valuable series of copperplate views of the islands and landmarks of the harbor. The Charts composed and engraved by Joseph Frederick Wallet Des Barres were from surveys taken by Samuel Holland, Esq., Sur- veyor General of Lands, and by his assistants, who were employed on that service as early as 1764. One edition of his Chart of Massachusetts Bay bears date in May 1774; one of the Boston Bay was published November 13, 1776; and one of Boston Harbor, of much interest, measuring 42 by 30 inches, August 5, 1775.
In 1788 William Gordon compiled a map, represent- ing the seat of the revolutionary war in Massachusetts, chiefly taken from Pelham's map for the country and Lt. Page's for the harbor (13 by 9 1-4 inches) ; and this was copied by Chief Justice Marshall (14 by 9 inches), for his life of Washington in 1806, and later reduced to a smaller scale for subsequent editions of the same work. A map of Boston and Vicinity, from actual surveys by John G. Hales (31 1-2 by 25 inches), was engraved by Edward Gillingham in 1820, and also published in 1829 and 1833 by Nathan Hale, each edition containing the re- quired alterations. Other maps of Boston and vicinity may be mentioned, as :- Dearborn's Boston and Vicinity, taken from the large State Map, 1841; Sidney's Map, published by J. B. Shields, in 1852, from original surveys by F. C. Sidney; Walling's large map of Boston and its vicinity, published in 1857 and 1858, and in 1859 with emendations; Map of Boston and the country adjacent, from actual surveys by H. F. Walling, first issued by E. P. Dutton & Co. in 1860; Dutton's Har- bor Map, 1861, taken from Walling's Map issued in 1860; Map of the City of Boston and its environs, from
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
actual surveys, and drawn by D. J. Lake, C. E., manu- factured by Walling & Gray, New York, 1866, and known as Baker and Tilden's map; "Map of Boston (as it should be) and the Country Adjacent, with Proposed Harbor Improvements, etc.," according to the sugges- tions of Thomas Lamb, Esq., published by E. P. Dutton & Co., in 1866; and other maps compiled and reduced from these. The City Engineer prepared for the Back- bay Commissioners an elaborate plan of Boston and vicinity, showing the drainage area of Stony Brook, which is a valuable addition to this class of maps.
Besides the above-named, many plans relating to the topography of Boston and its immediate vicinity can be found in the valuable reports printed for the United States Coast Survey, the Commonwealth, and the City of Boston; and several of interest have been issued by private individuals and corporations, as well as by the publishers of historical sketches and guide-books.
Besides the various plans that have been made of Roxbury and Dorchester for maps of "Boston and vicinity," the following printed maps of these places have come to the notice of the writer:
Map of the City of Roxbury, surveyed in 1843, by order of the town authorities, by Charles Whitney, and revised in 1849, and engraved on a scale of eighty rods, or 1,320 feet to an inch, upon a plate measuring 34 by 25 inches; and having upon it views of the city hall and fifteen meeting-houses. In 1851, a small map of the City of Roxbury, measuring 9 by 5} inches, was pre- pared by Charles H. Poole, and engraved by Edward A. Teulon for the Roxbury Directory for the year 1852. This last has been revised from time to time, and pub- lished with the directories until the union of Boston
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and Roxbury in 1868. An exceedingly valuable manu- script map of Roxbury, on a very large scale, was made for the use of the assessors of that city, and is one of the most interesting and useful heirlooms that has accrued to Boston in consequence of its union with that munici- pality.
When the State Map was in contemplation, actual surveys of the towns of Dorchester and Milton were made by Edmund J. Baker, surveyor, under the direc- tion of the committees of the two towns. These were lithographed at Pendleton's Lithography, in Boston, and published in 1831, on the scale of three miles to an inch, the map of the two towns being printed on a single sheet measuring 33 by 26 inches. In 1850 a map of Dorchester was printed by Tappan & Bradford, Lithographers, on a sheet measuring 36 by 28 inches, from surveys made by Elbridge Whiting for S. Dwight Eaton. This last-mentioned map contains the views of nine meeting-houses and of Mattapan Bank. A manu- script map of Dorchester, on a very large scale, was made in 1869 by Thomas W. Davis, City Surveyor, for the use of the commissioners on the annexation of Boston and Dorchester, and is now preserved with the maps in the city archives.
A small selection from the list above given will sup- ply the general reader with all that will be required in the way of maps to comprehend the changes that have !
taken place in the topography of the town and city since the foundation of Boston in 1630; viz :- Bonner's Plan, of 1722, republished in 1835; Burgiss's Map, 1728, reproduced in 1869; Lt. Page's Map, 1775, reprinted in Frothingham's Siege of Boston in 1849; Carleton's Map, 1796; Directory Map by Morse, 1828 to 1839;
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
Annin and Smith's Map, 1824 to 1860; the City Engi- neer's Map, 1861-1869, and the New Map of Boston, printed by the city in 1868 and 1869. For harbor purposes no better charts are needed than the old Chart of Boston Harbor by Des Barres in 1775, which exhibits the face of the country and the hills and bluffs of the islands, and that of the United States Coast Survey, and one recently published under the superintendence of Capt. Eldridge. The map of Henry Pelham, 1775, and that of "Boston and its Environs in 1775 and 1776" in Frothingham's siege of Boston, will give the best idea of the fortifica- tions around the town during the war of the Revolution.
CHAPTER VII.
POINTS, COVES, CREEK, OLD BRIDGES, AND BATTERIES.
Points and Headlands . . . Blaxton's Point .. . Barton's Point . . . Hudson's Point . . . Merry's Point . . . Fort or South Battery Point . .. Windmill or Wheeler's Point . . . The Coves . . . Mill Cove, the Site of the Old Mill Pond . . . The Old North Causeway . .. Grist Mills . . . Mill Creek, the Old Canal, now the Site of Blackstone Street . . . Other Creeks . . . North and South Mills . . . Foot Bridge . . . Windmill Walk . .. Saw Mill and Chocolate Mill .. . Mill Bridge, Draw Bridge, Swing Bridge, and Mackrill Lane Bridge . . . Oliver's Dock ... Windmills . . . Great Cove ... North and South Batteries .. . Sea Wall, Bar- ricado, or Out-Wharves . . . Minot's and Brimmer's T . . . Island Wharves ... Atlantic Avenue laid out in 1868 . . . South Cove . . . Back Bay, or West Cove · · · Public Garden.
AMONG the most noted of the landmarks of the old town were its Points, or Headlands. The most distinguishable of these were, Blaxton's Point, Barton's Point, Hudson's Point, Merry's Point, Fort Point, and Windmill (or Wheeler's) Point.
Blaxton's (or Blackstone's) Point, so named on account of the neighboring residence and spring of Rev. William Blaxton, the earliest English resident upon the peninsula, was situated in the neighborhood of West Cedar Street, and between Cambridge and Pinckney Streets, at a point which formerly bore the name of West Hill. East of this was situated Mr. Blaxton's Garden, and not far distant was the memorable spring which sup- plied him with water. The garden is designated on Burgiss's map in 1728, as Banister's Garden.
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Copyrighted 1890 by the Bostonian Society.
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
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Barton's Point, which derived its name from James Barton, a noted ropemaker of the olden time, was at the north-west corner of the town, near the abutments of Canal (or Cragie's) Bridge, and is only kept in remembrance by Barton Street which was laid out in its neighborhood soon after the removal of the Alms- house in 1825, which had been built there in 1800.
Hudson's Point took its name from Francis Hudson, a fisherman, who carried on the ferry from that point to Charlestown. It was situated at the north end of the town near the junction of Charter and Commercial streets, a short distance east of Charles River Bridge.
Merry's Point, since called North Battery Point, was situated a very little to the southeast of the Winnisim- met Ferryways, near where North Battery Wharf is, and owes its name first to Walter Merry, one of the earliest shipwrights of the town, who had his wharf and dwelling house there. Mr. Merry, who may have come over in the Griffin, in September, 1633, -for he was admitted a member of the first church on the ninth of the following February, - was drowned in the harbor on the twenty-eighth of August, 1657; but not until his wharf had been converted into a battery in 1646, and the name of the Point changed.
Fort Point was situated near Rowe's Wharf, east of Fort Hill, and took its name from its proximity to the first fort erected on the peninsula. It gave name to the channel passing by it, which led from the bay just east of Dover Street Bridge. This bay has at times been known as Roxbury Harbor, Gallows Bay, and more recently as South Bay; while the channel has been known as Fort Point Channel, although sometimes it has been called erroneously Four Points or Fore Point
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Channel. After the Sconce was built at this Point it took the name of Sconce (or South Battery) Point.
Windmill Point was at the southerly end of Sea Street, now called Federal Street, near the site of the gas- ometer; and was so called in consequence of its being a noted site for Windmills from the first settlement of the town until long after it became a city. Much of the property at the south end of Sea Street falling into the possession of Jonathan Wheeler and other members of his family, the Point took the name of Wheeler's Point, and has been thus distinguished for a great number of years, certainly ever since the year 1796.
The great changes which have taken place in modern times by filling in the various coves, and by the building of commodious wharves, have almost entirely obliterated the distinguishing features of these points; nevertheless some of these local names are still retained in common parlance, especially by the older inhabitants. But these will soon disappear; as, unlike the streets and byways, they have no written remembrancers in any of the records, nor are they recognized in the printed direr- tories of the city. Traditionary lore, and an occasional mention by some antiquarian writer, will alone help to perpetuate their remembrance.
Between the several Points, or Headlands, of the town were the Coves, as they have been designated from the first settlement of the peninsula, and which were briefly alluded to in Chapter I.
At the north part of the town was situated the Mill Cove, which might correctly have been called the North Cove, being an indentation of that part of the peninsula caused by the widening of the Charles River at its mouth. At the commencement of the present century,
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
this cove, for good reasons, which will appear in this account, was known by the name of the Mill Pond; and comprised the large space bounded by portions of Prince and Endicott streets on the east, and Leverett street, Tucker's Pasture and Bowling Green on the west; and on the south it covered the whole space now occupied by Haymarket Square. Most of the estates on Back street (now the westerly part of Salem street) and on Hawkins and Green streets originally extended to the Mill Pond. Probably the location of the First and Second Baptist meeting-houses, upon its southeastern border, was selected for the convenience of using the water of the pond for baptismal purposes, as was for- merly done, when the water was next to their rear. This cove was originally a salt marsh; and where Cause- way street now is, it is said " that the Indians had a foot- path over the highest part of the marsh or flats, which was raised and widened by a Mr. Crabtree to retain the water of the pond." This may have been the origin of the old North Causeway (now Causeway street), for there was a joiner by the name of John Crabtree, a townsman in 1638, who owned land, as early as the year 1641, which bordered upon the sea. This causeway, however, must not be confounded with another cause- way which will be mentioned hereafter, and which had much to do with the formation of the Mill Creek. In the latter part of the last century, the Mill Pond sup- plied two grist-mills with water, for motive power.
On the thirty-first of July, 1643, a grant was made to Henry Symons, George Burden (he who bought the land of John Crabtree in 1641), John Button, and John Hill, partners, of all this cove, on condition that they would erect "vpon or neere some part of the premises
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one or more corn-mills." After a long lapse of years, the successors of these original proprietors were incor- porated as the Boston Mill Corporation on the ninth of March, 1804, and on the fourteenth of the following May obtained from the town permission to use the soil from Beacon Hill and its neighborhood for filling up the Mill Pond. The corporation, again on the twenty-fourth of July, 1807, made an agreement with the town in reference to the filling up of the pond, whereby the town was to have one-eighth of the lots filled up within the space of twenty years. The filling up of the pond and grading of the land has added about fifty acres to the area of Boston available for building purposes, in a district of the city which now contains many large and costly buildings, and from which proceed all the railroads leading in a north- erly direction.
This Mr. Symons appears to have been a man of con- siderable enterprise, and his commencement in producing good water-power might have led to other improvements in the town, had he not been suddenly removed by death in the September immediately following his mill-dam endeavor. When he and his associates obtained their grant from the town, on the thirty-first of July, 1643, among other rights they had the liberty "to dig one or more trenches in the highways or waste grounds, so as they make and maintain sufficient passable and safe ways over the same for horse and cart." In the performance of this, they dug the trench which will be remembered by our old citizens as the Mill Creek, at the same time making the smaller causeway above alluded to, and which disappeared a long time ago. There was not originally a real creek in the place of the artificial Mill Creek; yet the marshy land was so low in that region
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
that in the highest spring tide it was overflowed, so as occasionally to divide the town into two parts, generally known then, as now, as the North and South Ends of the town. Many persons who read these chapters may not remember that the " old canal," or Mill Creek, ran just east of the present Canal street, on the exact line of the Boston and Maine Railroad, from Causeway street to Haymarket square; thence through Blackstone street
to the present North street; thence on the southerly edge of the same street, but chiefly on the estates on the same side of the street, until it reached Clinton street; thence into the Town Dock, which occupied nearly all of North Market street, for the fronts of all the stores on this street stand over the original site of the old Town Dock. When the great improvement was made by Mr. Quincy, the second mayor of the city, in which he was largely assisted by the able advice and practical skill and knowledge of the late Hon. Caleb Eddy, in laying out North Market street, in 1826, the easterly end of the Mill Creek was somewhat diverted from its old direction, and made to run its course through where Clinton street now is, and terminate at Commer- cial street, just north of the old City Wharf. The canal having been filled up, Blackstone street was laid out in the year 1833, during the mayoralty of Hon. Charles Wells; and although without any special reference to the locality, took the name so well identified with the first settlement of the town, the next year, through the instrumentality of Hon. Charles Leighton, then an Alderman, at the earnest solicitation of his old friend, the late Dr. Benjamin Shurtleff, who had the greatest veneration for the memory of the forefathers of the town. This was not the only creek, it must be remembered,
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