USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Topographical and historical description of Boston > Part 12
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that flowed in the peninsula; for when Boston was first settled there were many other low, marshy places that obtained the name of creeks. For instance, the Town Dock originally extended into Brattle square; another similar creek ran up from Oliver's Dock, near Kilby street, through Water street to the neighborhood of Spring lane, in olden times called the " springate"; an- other was where Congress street now is; another where the lower parts of Milk and Federal streets now arc; and others were in the many low and marshy parts of the old town.
It has been remarked above that there were formerly, nearly a century ago, two gristmills which were supplied with water for motive power from the Mill Pond, which in its turn was supplied from the sea. The causeway formed at the time that the trench was dug by Mr. Symons and his associates was at the easterly part of the Mill Cove, and led to Charlestown. One of these mills, called the North Mill, stood very near the angle in Endi- cott street, close by where Endicott place now is, at the northerly bend of the street, a few paces beyond Thacher street. The other, called the South Mill, had its location in the southerly bend in Endicott street, and was approached by Link alley, which was discon- tinued in the spring of 1858. The old wheels of these neglected mills (particularly the one in the lower work- room of Deacon Samuel Beal's noted furniture ware- house near the Mill Creek) are undoubtedly remembered by many of those who now rejoice in being called North End boys. In modern time, after the laying out of Pond street (now Endicott street), there was a narrow foot-bridge over the canal (known as the Foot Bridge), which connected the mill side with the street; and there
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was another approach, from Hanover street to the east- erly end of Link alley (more recently known as North Federal court), - a wooden platform projecting over the side of the canal, - known familiarly as Windmill walk, which would almost lead to the belief that the South Mill was sometimes moved by other power than that of the waters of the Mill Pond. But be this as it may, both of the Mills situated near the Mill Cove were, in the nature of the case, tidal, and both became inoperative when the Old North Causeway gave way; and the Mill Pond was converted into a receptacle for oyster shells, dry-dirt and the débris and street offal collected from all parts of the peninsula.
Somewhat later in point of time, a saw mill and a chocolate mill were erected in the neighborhood of the pond, and were put in motion by its water. All of these, however, lost their peculiar vocation long before the water was cut off from the canal, in 1828.
The canal running transversely across the main avenues that connected the North End with the other parts of the town, there were besides the Foot Bridge two other bridges which crossed it necessarily; the one in Hanover street was immovable, and called the Mill Bridge, on account of its proximity to the South Mill; the other, which lifted like an old fashioned draw, and therefore called Draw Bridge, was in Ann, now North street. This last is the bridge that fell through (a sad omen indeed) on the twenty-seventh of October, 1659, as the Northenders were returning home from witnessing the execution of William Robinson and Marmaduke Stephen- son, the two Quakers hung on the Common; and per- haps heavy with grief and disappointment, because, at that time, poor Mary Dyer, who had been let off, and
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banished from the colony, after she had been obliged to sit upon the ladder with her arms and legs bound and a rope about her neck, was not hung also. Alas for the philanthropy of our ancient townsmen! But the obsti- nate woman returning to her former home and friends was hung on the first day of the next June upon our delight- ful Common, and perhaps from the great limb of the old elm which was blasted by the gale of the twenty-ninth of June, 1860, within one year of two centuries after her in- human murder. Those persons who passed over the Mill Bridge went in safety, because it had been recently rebuilt in a substantial manner, and was not constructed with a draw. In modern times, after Boston became a city, other small bridges were placed across the canal; one in Haymarket square, one in Market street, one in Traverse street, and one in Causeway street.
Two other bridges obtained considerable note in the old town. One, quite small, called the Swing Bridge, crossed the Dock, and was in the street leading from Merchants row to Ann street, and was removed about one hundred years ago. The other was in the street anciently known as Mackrill lane, now Kilby street, and passed over Oliver's Dock. Remains of the old timbers and buttresses of this dock, and perhaps of the bridge, were exposed to view in December, 1864, while work- men were employed in boxing out dampness from the cellars of the stores in Kilby street. When the streets of Boston were named, on the third of May, 1708, this street, called "the way leading from Justice Dummer's corner in King Street, passing over ye Bridge as far as Mr. Dafforn's corner in Milk Street" was denominated "Mackrill Lane." The water of the dock then extended as far as Milk street, and a small wooden bridge was in
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later years (certainly as late as 1722) to be seen cross- ing the street where Hawes street now opens into Lib- erty square. The southerly portion of "Mackrill Lane" was afterwards, at different times, called Cooper's alley, Miller's lane and Adams street; and when, in modern times, the street was straightened and widened, the whole took the name of Kilby street. The bridge, which was made more substantial in the year 1710, disappeared when that portion of Oliver's Dock was filled up.
Although the mills mentioned above were the chief gristmills in the town, the inhabitants, not trusting en- tirely to the tide waters for motive power, depended in a great degree upon the windmills, which they placed on every eminence and commanding point in the town. They were, therefore, quite numerous in the olden time. There had been mills in the earliest days of the town, upon Copp's Hill, Fort Hill, Fox Hill, the hill on the Neck, the rising ground north of Cambridge street, near the foot of Pitts street, and at Windmill Point. There are many now living who well remember the last two of these, which were not removed until several years after Boston became a city.
The number of coves was almost as numerous as the number of creeks. The Mill Cove, or North Cove, already described as afterwards forming the Mill Pond, the Great Cove, or East Cove, which extended north and south of the present Long Wharf, and the South Cove, extending from Windmill Point to Boston Neck, were the ones most frequently mentioned in the old records.
The Great Cove extended from Clark's, more re- cently Hancock's and now Lewis Wharf, at the easterly end of Fleet street on the north, to Rowe's Wharf on
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the south. In its circuitous course it was bounded on the west by the buildings and wharves on what are now called North street, Dock square, Merchants row, Kilby street, the lower part of Milk street, and Batterymarch street. Westerly it had two smaller coves or docks; one called the Town Dock, extending from the easterly end of the Quincy market to the westerly side of Dock square; and the other, Oliver's Dock, extending from the water at the head of Central Wharf, through Liberty square, across Kilby street, nearly to Congress street.
Not far from the north and south termini of this cove were the North and South Batteries. The first of these was erected as early as the year 1646, to command the harbor and the mouth of Charles River. The South Battery, or the Sconce, as it was most frequently called, was built at the foot of Fort Hill near the present situa- tion of Rowe's Wharf about the year 1666. In regard to these famous constructions of the olden time, we can give a cotemporaneous description of them, in the form of a report made to the General Court of Election, held on the twenty-third of May, 1666. The report is as follows:
"Wee, the subscribers, being appointed a comittee by this honoured Court to vejw the batterjes lately erected by Major Generall Jno. Leueret, with the aduicc of the comittee of militia in Boston, accordingly attended that seruice, and vnder the conduct of the sajd major generall, wee ented a well contriued fort, called Boston Sconce; the artillery therein is of good force & well mounted, the gunner attending the same; the former thereof suiteable to the place, so as to scower the har- bour, to the full length of their shot, euery way; it is spacious wthin, that the trauerse of one gunne will not
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hinder the others course; and for defence, the founda- tion is of stone, & well banked wth earth for dulling the shott & hindering execution; ffinally, wee apphend it to be the compleatest worke of that kind which hitherto hath been erected in this country. Wee also tooke sur- vey of another worke on the north side of Boston, called Merrjes Point, raysed with stones. The foundation is defended from the violence of the sea wth spyles and plancks; the wall of a considerable thicknes, yet lesse safe than the other, by the sharpe edges next the can- non, & widenes of the ports w"hin, which being faced wth strong timbers, as is intended, willbe much better.
" To conclude, wee judge the defence to be consider- able, & the offence to be avajlable (by God's blessing) for the thing intended, for weh the actors & contrivers, whereof Major Generall Leueritt hath beene the cheife, both in contriving, acting, & disbursing, deserues the thankes of this Court, & all due encouragement. Bos- ton Sconce hath nine gunns mounted, & ffower more intended, without seven at Merrjes Point. All wch wee submit to the wisdome of this Court, & subscribe our- selves, your servants,
GEORGE CORWIN, WM. HAUTHORN, FRANCIS WILLOUGHBY, PETER TILTON, THO. BRADBURY,
EDWARD JOHNSON, TIMOTHY WHEELER."
For this excellent work of engineering, Major Gen- eral John Leverett, who in 1673 was elected Governor of the Colony, had a vote of thanks and a gratuity of one hundred pounds.
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Both of these batteries have long since disappeared, and wharves for the accommodation of the largest mer- chant ships have been built in their places. They were both to be seen in 1784, and are delineated on a map of the town engraved that year. They were certainly kept in repair, and supplied with a proper complement of men until the termination of the war of the Revo- lution.
Any person who examines the map published in 1784, or any of the older ones, will notice what appears to be a marginal wharf, extending in nearly a straight line from the present head of Lewis Wharf, across Long Wharf at the T, to Rowe's Wharf; and will find it designated as the Old Wharf. This indicates the exact portion of the Sea Wall, Barricado, or Out Wharves as it was sometimes called, because it was formed of several parts, separated by intervals left for the free passage of vessels. This interesting construction, forming a line of about 2,200 feet in length, was undertaken in the fall of 1673 by a company of forty-one persons, the town having declined the enterprise, who were severally to build a portion of it, from twenty to one hundred and twenty running feet measured in front. This was built in a substantial manner, uniform in all its parts, and was about fifteen feet in height, and twenty feet in breadth at top, of sufficient strength to answer the purpose of a breastwork and for heavy guns mounted " en barbette." It was designed as a defence in case of any inimical har- bor attack; and fortunately proved needless, as no foreign enemy ever passed the Castle previous to the revolutionary war. Being of no special value for mer- cantile purposes it was allowed to go into decay by the proprietors, who had been incorporated by an act passed
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by the General Court of the Colony on the eleventh of May, 1681.
Very little of the Barricado now remains, and what does is so perfectly concealed by improvements, that it would require a great stretch of credulity to point out a vestige of this remarkable enterprise. Brimmer's T (or Minot's T, as it was previously called) was a portion of this structure; and at the north of this there used to be a square wharf, called North Island Wharf, used fre- quently as a storage for plaster of Paris and ballast, and which was removed about the year 1830. Between this wharf and the T was the north opening to the dock in the rear of the Sea wall. On the south side of Long Wharf was the other opening; and the last vestige of this portion of the Barricado was the South Island Wharf, which was incorporated into Central Wharf when it was built in 1816. In 1776, when Henry Pel- ham made his remarkable map of the vicinity of Boston, there were three of these island wharves north of Long Wharf, and two south of it.
In about the same place, where the ancient Barricado of 1681 was stretched from the North Battery to the South Battery, the City Council voted in December 1868 to lay out a marginal street called Atlantic avenue. This great improvement extends from Broad street, at Rowe's Wharf, to Commercial street at Eastern avenue. The resolve and order for laying out the avenue and ap- propriating therefor the sum of twelve hundred thousand dollars was approved by the mayor on the eighteenth of December, 1868. The dredging between India and Cen- tral wharves commenced on the eleventh of March, 1869; the first pile was driven in the dock between these wharves near India Wharf on the sixth of April, and the
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first stone laid in the dock near Rowe's Wharf on the ninth of April of the same year. The westerly part of the building on Eastern avenue was taken down in Sep- tember, 1869. The earth for constructing the avenue is supplied from Fort Hill.
The great changes that took place when Faneuil Hall was built in 1742 and 1743 very much changed the ap- pearance of the westerly side of the Great Cove; and so in modern times did the enlargement of the same build- ing in 1805 or 1806, and the building of the new Market House, which was commenced in 1824, the corner stone having been laid with much ceremony on the twenty-sev- enth of April of that year. This building was opened for use on the twenty-sixth of August, 1826, two years and six days after the land was first staked out.
The South Cove was bounded on the land side, com- mencing on Windmill Point, near where the gasometer is, by the rear part of the estates on Essex street on the northeast, Rainsford's lane and Beach street on the north, and Orange street (now Washington street) on the northwest. At the close of the war of the revolu- tion, there were no streets running parallel with Essex and Orange streets to their southeast, and only a few short streets and lanes ran perpendicular from them to the sea. Orange street, which split the neck lands, was the only street south of Castle street; and very little, if any improvement was noticeable in this part of the town until the thirty-first of January, 1833, when the South Cove Corporation received its charter from the Common- wealth. The work of filling up the cove commenced on the third of May, 1834; and before the close of the year 1837, seventy-seven acres were reclaimed from the sea and the contiguous low lands. The laying out of Front
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
street in 1806 (the name of which was changed to Har- rison avenue in 1841) to South Boston Bridge, which had been incorporated on the sixth of March, 1804, and the building on Sea street and the southerly part of South street, had done much to improve this part of the town; but it was almost entirely due to the grand impetus given by the South Cove Corporation that so great improvements were made in this region, and that so large a tract of waste territory was made habitable.
That portion of the town lying west of the neck and of the Common, and which for many years has been known as the Back Bay, might well have been called the West Cove. In 1784, this part of the town, now making such rapid progress as the region of stylish and comfortable private residences, was entirely destitute of houses, and no streets had then been laid out west of Pleasant street and the Common. The first improve- ment in this direction may be said to have commenced at the laying out of Charles street in 1803, and when the Western avenue enterprise, incorporated on the fourteenth of June, 1814, was undertaken, and the causeways and dams running to Roxbury built and the water shut out of the receiving basin. The removal of the ropewalks west of the Common, in 1823, aided also in this great work. Boylston street was soon afterwards extended west, and on the twenty-sixth of October, 1837, the Public Garden was laid out by the city. Soon after this, the extreme South End began to look up. The rapid growth of this district may be illustrated by the following fact: In No- vember, 1830, a gentleman of the old school, well known in this community for his literary productions, the ema- nation of a powerful mind drawn by an equally powerful pen, was taking his customary ride to his country seat,
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and was, undoubtedly, pondering in his mind what new theme he should next write upon, when his attention was drawn, a short distance north of the Roxbury line, to a small assemblage of persons, and what, to his dis- cerning eye appeared to be an auctioneer, in the form of the well-remembered Stephen Brown. Curiosity, a prominent faculty of the gentleman, Lucius M. Sargent, Esq., who was never afraid to have his name used prop- erly in an illustration, at once checked his progress; and making his way to the gathering, he perceived that a land sale was going on ; and, being of a speculative dis- position, when speculation is a reality, he joined in the bidding, and to his surprise, and it will also be one to the readers of this article, he became the purchaser of three acres three quarters and eight rods of land, or 165,526 feet, formerly the property of the late William Payne and Christopher Gore, and situated between the present Shawmut avenue and Tremont street, and all this for the small sum of two hundred and sixty-nine dollars and eighty cents. The rainy day, then, would only allow ten persons to feel sufficient interest to attend a sale at which acres of land in the now great south ward could be bought at the very contemptible price of about one mill and one half per square foot. In the short space of forty years, the neighborhood of this pur- chase has become so much inhabited that the land would now probably sell for three thousand fold the price given in 1830. But it was not until quite recently that the great change came over the Back Bay, when the Com- monwealth ceded a portion of its land to the city, and put other portions on sale, and when the Public Garden was enlarged and permanently made a desirable and beautiful place of resort for the public. The laying
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out of the spacious parks and avenues on this once dreary waste has largely added to the building area, as well as to the taxable property of the city. When the drainage and grading shall have been completed, and the streets paved and sidewalks laid, it will be by far the most pleasant and desirable place for private resi- dences in this city.
CHAPTER VIII.
DIVISIONS OF THE TOWN.
Divisions of the Town . . North End . . . South End . . . Common and Neck . .. Old Sobriquets . ... New Boston, West Boston, or West End . . . The Hill, etc. . . . South Boston . . . The New Land . .. East Boston . .. South Cove ... Back Bay, etc. . . . Mill-Dam Land . . . Mount Vernon . . . The Fields . . . The Mill Field . . . The Fort Field . .. Neck Field, or Field towards Roxbury . . . Centry Hill Field . . . The New Mill Field, or New Field . . . Boling or Bowl- ing Green . . . Valley Acre . . . The Pastures,-Stanley's, Buttolph's, Tucker's, Rowe's, Wheeler's, Atkinson's, Leverett's, Middlecott's, and others ... Blaxton's Garden . . . Watches and Wards . . . Military Districts . . . Overseers of the Poor . . . Division of the Town into Eight Wards in 1715 . . . Names and Boundaries of the Wards . . . Division into Twelve Wards . . . Numbers and Boundaries of the Wards in 1736.
IN the early days of Boston, the town was not divided into wards as now ; nevertheless, it was not wholly desti- tute of other divisions. The Mill Creek, or Canal, separated one portion very distinctly from the remaining part of the town; and this, being the north part of the peninsula, early obtained the name of the North End, as the other part did that of the South End. Within the memory of the oldest inhabitants, Milk street was referred to frequently as at the South End; and the third religious society of Boston now occupies a meeting-house, which though it was built much more than a century ago and has survived the desecrating influences of a hostile army, still bears the name of the Old South. The Common and Neck were necessarily a part of the South End;
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and in days far from being ancient it was not very un- common to hear of Hatters'-Squarers, Fort-Hillers and Wheeler's-Pointers, - epithets frequently applied to the pugnacious boys of former days, the residents of particu- lar localities, - the Boston boys obtaining from the neighboring towns the generic name of "Chucks." When that part of the town which lies west of Sudbury street was first used as a place of residence, it received the name of "New Boston"; and this designation was afterwards changed to "West Boston," and it is now not unfrequently called the "West End." One portion of this End gained the soubriquet of "The Hill," and sometimes other appellatives not quite so euphonious. In more modern times, when Dorchester Neck and Point were annexed to Boston by an act of the General Court passed on the sixth of March, 1804, the territory acquired by the town took the name of "South Boston." The land which took the place of the Millpond, as it was filled up, was known as the "New Land," from the year 1804. Noddle's Island was called " East Boston " at the time of the establishment of the company which laid it out into lots, and which was incorporated on the twenty- fifth of March, 1833. The land reclaimed from the har- bor by the South Cove Company, incorporated on the thirty-first of January of the same year (1833), retained the name of the "South Cove." The land at the west of Charles street was distinguished as the "Back Bay and Commonwealth Lands," and that on the northerly side of the western avenue was styled the "Mill-Dam Land," while that northwest of the State House was designated as "Mount Vernon."
Very early in the history of the town, the ungranted land around Copp's Hill (or, as it was then called, Wind-
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mill Hill or Snow Hill) was known as the "Mylne Field " or "Mill Field "; that around Fort Hill, the "Fort Field "; that at the Neck, the "Neck Field," or the Field towards Roxbury; that where Beacon Hill Place now is, "Centry Hill Field "; and that west of Lynde street, and north of Cambridge street, the "New Mill Field," or shorter, the "New Field." The land lying between Sudbury and Gouch streets and Bowdoin square and the Mill Cove was known very early as "Boling Green " or " Bowling Green," a name which also was temporarily given to a portion of the land upon Fort Hill, a little more than a century ago. "Valley Acre " was situated south of Howard street, on the northerly slope of that portion of Beacon Hill known as Pemberton's Hill, and extended westward nearly to Bowdoin street, and east- ward not far from the corner of Tremont and Howard streets.
Besides the fields there were many pastures, so called: Christopher Stanley's was at the North End, covering the region of North Bennet street, between Hanover and Salem streets; Buttolph's was south of Cambridge street; Tucker's, in the neighborhood of Lyman street; Rowe's, east of Rowe street; Wheeler's, where the southerly end of Chauncy street is; Atkin- son's, where Atkinson street was a few years ago, and where Congress street now is; Leverett's, one, where Leverett street is, and another, bounded by Winter and Tremont streets; Middlecott's, where the northerly part of Bowdoin street is; Blaxton's Gar- den, west of Louisburg square; and a very large number of other great lots, most of which are kept in remembrance by the streets which have been laid out through them.
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
Very soon after the establishment of the Massachu- setts Colony, the different towns within the jurisdiction were required to keep watches and wards; and con- sequently in these towns military organizations were commenced, and trainbands and companies of horse raised. Boston, of course, complied with all the requi- sitions of the General Court, and raised its troops and armed its able-bodied men. After a while, as its popu- lation increased, the number of its military companies also increased. These were organized according to districts, which were in reality the military wards, where the watches were kept. Wherever there was one of these trainbands, there was also a constable and one or more tithing-men; and to these were entrusted many details, which the townsmen did not require to be per- formed personally by "the men chosen to manage the town's affairs, "-the selectmen of a little later date. Thus was demonstrated the necessity of dividing the town into fixed districts, which, when accomplished, took the name of wards, - a name which they continue to hold to the present day. In the year 1662, there were evidently five of these divisions and five constables; and in 1676, the same number; but in 1686, there were eight captains of companies and as many tithing-men.
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