USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Topographical and historical description of Boston > Part 28
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indenture a narrow strip of land was annexed to the northern part of the Public Garden, and the new avenue eighty feet wide, now known as Arlington street, was laid out.
No sooner had Mayor Quincy secured the title of the land west of the Common to the city, in February, 1824, than an attempt was made to sell it again for building purposes, and the matter was agitated by the City Council. It was considered most prudent to sub- mit the question to the citizens, and a general meeting was called for the twenty-sixth of July, at which the legal voters were called upon to decide whether the City Council should have authority to make sale of the land west of Charles street in such way and on such terms as they might deem expedient. A second ques- tion proposed was, whether the land generally known as the Common, now lying between the malls, should be forever kept open and free from buildings. At the meeting the subjects were referred to a large and very respectable committee of citizens, of which Col. John T. Apthorp was chosen chairman, who in October re- ported adversely to the proposition, and submitted three other propositions, making five in all, which were all negatived (except the second) on the twenty-seventh of December, 1824. The fifth question negatived at the time, by a vote of 1,632 against 176, was in the follow- ing words:
"Shall the City Council, whenever in their opinion, the convenience of the inhabitants require, be author- ized to lay out any part of the lands and flats, lying westerly from the Common, for a cemetery, and erect and sell tombs therein, on such terms and conditions as they may deem proper?"
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After this time arrangements were made with the Water Power Company, by which buildings were kept from being erected upon the Back Bay Lands, and things went on very quietly in reference to the public territory west of Charles street. On the twenty-fifth of September, 1837, however, Horace Gray and others pe- titioned for the use of the land for a public garden, which on the sixth of November of the same year was granted on certain conditions, among which was one that no building should be erected thereon except a green-house and a tool-house, and these not to be over fourteen feet in height. The next year Mr. Gray and his associates petitioned again, and again in January, 1839, the same permission was granted with similar con- ditions; and on the first day of February, 1839, Horace Gray, George Darracott, Charles P. Curtis and others were incorporated as the "Proprietors of the Botanic Garden in Boston," with power to hold property to the amount of fifty thousand dollars. These proprietors of the Garden fitted up a conservatory for plants and birds, just north of Beacon street and west of Charles street, which for a while was a place of considerable attraction, until it was unfortunately destroyed by fire.
In 1842 and 1843 efforts were again made in the City Council for selling the Public Garden, but these proved unavailing; and the matter was allowed to quiet down until the years 1849 and 1850, when the efforts were re- newed with much greater prospect of success, but were finally defeated, although distinguished jurists had given their opinions that the land could be sold. Thus, in 1856, the tripartite agreement before alluded to was made, and the question of building upon the Public Garden was considered as settled against any such pro-
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ject. On the sixth of April, 1859, an act (chapter 210) was approved by the Governor of the Commonwealth, establishing the boundary line between the cities of Boston and Roxbury, and authorizing the filling up of the Back Bay. Provision was made by this act that no buildings should be erected between Arlington and Charles streets, and three commissioners were appointed by Governor Banks and Mayor Lincoln to make an award to the city in consequence of relinquishing the right to erect buildings on the strip of land acquired by the city by the tripartite indenture of the eleventh of December, 1856. The act was submitted to the citizens on the twenty-sixth of April, 1859, who voted on the following question:
" Are you in favor of accepting an Act of the Legis- lature of 1859, entitled ' an Act in relation to the Back Bay and the Public Garden in the city of Boston?'"
Six thousand two hundred and eighty-seven votes were in favor of accepting the act, and only ninety-nine were in the negative; so the act was accepted by the citizens, and on the next day a proclamation to that ef- fect was made by the Secretary of the Commonwealth. The commissioners jointly selected by the Governor and Mayor were Hon. Messrs. Josiah G. Abbott, George B. Upton, and George S. Boutwell, and they on the first of July of the same year published their award, giving to the city two parcels of land containing 44,800 feet, for the relinquishment of the right to build upon the strip of land east of Arlington street containing about 118,000 feet (28 feet on Boylston street, and 155 feet on Bea- con street), both parcels subject to the restriction that. nothing but dwelling-houses shall be erected thereon.
While the negotiations were going on between the
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State and the city, great efforts were made by a philan- thropic citizen for preserving the Back Bay lands as free from buildings as possible, with a lake of salt water for sanitary purposes. As yet he has not been success- ful in his intentions, though he has with him the good wishes of many sensible and scientific persons. The pond proposed was first suggested by Hon. David Sears in 1852, and was to have contained about thirty-seven acres. Mr. George H. Snelling's plan was somewhat more extensive, and the water was to be continued to the full basin. Notwithstanding the present beautiful appearance of Commonwealth avenue and its magnifi- cent edifices, and the pleasant foot-walk between the two carriage ways, there will be many to regret that the refreshing sheet of water of the contemplated "Silver Lake " is never to ornament the city, or to be enjoyed by its citizens.
After the acceptance of the act of 1859, the subject of further improving the Public Garden was taken seri- ously into consideration, and on the eighth of August of the same year an order was offered on the subject in the Board of Aldermen, which was amended by the Com- mon Council, and finally referred by the Board to the Committee on the Common and Public Squares, of which Alderman Samuel D. Crane was chairman, "to report a plan of improvement and the estimated cost thereof." On the thirty-first of the succeeding October, Alderman Crane submitted a report, rich in information and abounding in detail, accompanied with a plan for the laying out of the Garden, and recommending the concurrence of the Board with the Common Council in the passage of the order relating to the subject, as amended by that branch of the city government on the
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twenty-ninth of September; and also advising the pas- sage of an order approving the plan submitted with the report. The report was printed, and is a valuable acquisition to the history of public parks. It was subse- quently adopted, and the order which recommended the plan passed in both branches of the City Council.
The adoption of this important order had the desired effect, and from that time to the present great progress has been made towards perfecting the Garden, and mak- ing it what its most ardent friends desired at its estab- lishment.
The Public Garden now contains about twenty-four and one-quarter acres. The total length of its four sides measures 4,212.47 feet. On Boylston street, 793.94 feet; on Charles street, 1,289.70 feet; on Beacon street, 739.70 feet; and on Arlington street, 1,263.47 feet; and 125.66 feet are given up to the entrances at the cor- ners. The iron fence was erected in 1862 and 1863, at a cost of $25,000. The pond, which is purposely irreg- ular in shape, and which was commenced on the four- teenth of November, 1859, has an area of about three and three-quarter acres.
Soon after the establishment of the Public Garden, a portion of it was filled up with soil and loam, and a small greenhouse, in shape of a lean-to, was built in the year 1853 for the accommodation of the plants used in the Public Squares. This was sold and removed in 1856, and the present conservatory erected on the Bea- con street side of the garden. The new conservatory was occupied a short time by Azel Bowditch, seedman and floriculturist, and subsequently by John Galvin, the City Forester ; then by John Gormley, florist, and in 1871 again by Mr. Galvin.
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While Alderman Crane was chairman of the Com- mittee on the Common and Public Squares, a liberal appropriation was made for completing the Public Gar- den. A large quantity of material was used for grading it, and under the superintendence of James Slade, the City Engineer, the flower beds and paths were laid out by Mr. Galvin, the City Forester, in accordance with the plan of George F. Meacham, of Boston, the architect, who received the award of the committee; and a consid- erable portion of it was sodded. In 1861, five granite basins with fountains were placed in different parts of the area, and much ornamental work was done within the enclosure. In one of these basins is a beautiful statue, wrought in marble, the gift of the late John D. Bates, the first work of art placed in the Garden. An- other figure, presented by Mrs. Tudor, occupies a con- spicuous position; and these will undoubtedly be fol- lowed by other similar objects from other persons interested in beautifying the place.
On the northerly side of the garden, a statue of Hon. Edward Everett, modelled at Rome in 1866 by William W. Story, Esq., and cast in bronze at Munich, was pre- sented to the city on the eighteenth of November, 1867. The Ether Monument, the gift of Thomas Lee, Esq., stands near the northwesterly corner of the enclosure, and was dedicated on the twenty-seventh of June, 1868; on which occasion, Dr. Henry J. Bigelow delivered the presentation address, and the Mayor accepted the monu- ment with a few remarks. The equestrian statue of Washington, modelled by Thomas Ball, Esq., and cast in bronze at the Chicopee Works, was dedicated on the third of July, 1869, by an address by Hon. Alexander H. Rice, and a response of acceptation by the Mayor.
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When the plan for the laying out of the Public Gar- den was made by Mr. Meacham, it was a favorite idea with many persons, in, as well as out of, the city gov- ernment, that the public buildings should be placed within its borders; and, consequently, much was said and done to bring about this project, which was sub- sequently ultimately relinquished by the passage and acceptance of the act of 1859. Upon the plan was designated a place for a city hall, which was to be built, if the measure could be carried through the City Council, upon Arlington street in a line with Commonwealth avenue, the building facing due east and west. This part of the project was given up, and the city hall was built in School street, under the direction of Messrs. Bryant and Gilman, the architects, the corner-stone being laid on the twenty-second of December, 1862, and the building dedicated on the eighteenth of September, 1865. An elegant bridge, consisting of a single arch, was thrown over the pond in 1867, for the convenience of pedestrians, and is esteemed a great ornament and convenience by the frequenters of the Garden. At the northerly end of the pond projects a small promontory, upon which stands a small summer-house supplied with seats, and from which can be obtained an excellent view both of the pond and Garden.
The borders of the several walks of the Garden have been tastefully laid out into flower beds, where can be found, in the proper season, a choice collection of plants of annual growth and of a more permanent character. These walks have now become favorite places for the resort of children during the summer season, and noth- ing has been lost in appropriating the place to its pres- ent purposes, which are far more desirable than those to
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which it previously used to be put. When the weather is such as to permit it, there are upon the pond, man- aged by safe persons, several comfortable and con- venient boats, in which children are transported from one part to another, and thus entertained with an amusing and healthy recreation. In the conservatory are kept plants in great variety.
During the last few years, much improvement has been made in the Garden, and many trees have been set out; to the principal of which, like those on the Common, through the instrumentality of Alderman Clapp, a former chairman of the committee on these grounds, have been affixed the scientific and popular names, as ascertained by the late Dr. A. A. Gould.
The garden has now become one of the most attrac- tive parts of the city, and is a place of much resort in pleasant weather. For many of the late improvements upon this once neglected piece of city property, the citi- zens are indebted to the great energy and good taste of the several Committees on the Common and the Public Squares, to the City Engineers, and to the Superintend- ents, who have usually been designated as the City For- esters. No one can now visit this beautiful place with- out being thankful for the interest and energies which have brought about, and carried to such a degree of per- fection, this ornament to the city; nor should any one be unmindful of those, who, by their wise forethought, have saved this land from the inordinate desire of gain which has several times threatened its sale for building pur- poses.
Now that so many statues and other memorials of the distinguished sons of Boston are to be placed in prominent positions in the city, would it not be well to
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devote the green spaces between the paths of this much frequented Garden to this laudable purpose? The chief European cities have their squares for works of art, and why should not also Boston?
CHAPTER XXVII.
PADDOCK'S MALL.
The Granary Mall .. . Its Situation .. . Its Trees Saved in 1860 . . . Its Establish- ment by Captain Paddock ... Its Two Walks, and the Uses of the Outer Walk ... Mr. Ballard's Agency in the Establishment of the Mall . . . Captain Adino Paddock and his Family ... When the Trees were Transplanted . . . First Imported from England, and Set Out in Milton before their Removal to Boston . . . The Original Number Set Out . . . Eleven now remaining . . . Their Cavities for a time the Winter Resort of Squirrels .. . Size of the Largest Tree . . . Illumination of the Trees on the News of the Repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766 .. . Trees injured wantonly in 1766 and 1771, but preserved dur- ing the Revolution . . . Injury from the Great Gale of 1815.
THERE is another mall in Boston besides those sur- rounding the Common, which is equally as distinguished as they have been; and this should not be forgotten, though the once graceful branches which formerly adorned its noted elms have become decayed in their old age, and have been mutilated by the saw, the trees themselves barely escaping the threatening axe that came so near annihilating them in January, 1860. The Granary Mall, in which these old friends have stood and given an agreeable and refreshing shade for more than a century, is situated in one of the most frequented ave- nues of the city, and occupies the sidewalk in Tremont street, just east of the Granary Burying-Ground. The following description of it is a revision of an account written soon after the escape of the old trees in 1860, when they were so fortunately preserved from destruc-
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tion by the active exertion of Alderman Samuel D. Crane, Clement Willis, and Thomas C. Amory, Jr., and others of the City Council.
In the olden time this mall, or walk (as it is some- times called) about three hundred and fifty feet in length, extended in width some distance westerly into the present limits of the burying-ground; and was cur- tailed of its size a little in 1717, just at the time arrange- ments were in progress for building tombs around the edges of the cemetery. The associations connected with it are of sufficient interest to warrant giving to its history one chapter of the present series of topographi- cal papers.
It is fully settled, by general consent, that Captain Adino Paddock, who served the town of Boston many years as a sealer of leather and as one of the firewards, was principally concerned in the truly praiseworthy un- dertaking of establishing the Granary Mall. Hence the name of Paddock's Mall (or walk) was, without any special municipal sanction, given to this row of trees, and also to the sidewalk which they occupy, and which became quite narrow after the fence of the burying- ground was erected. For a time the footpath barely protected the roots of the trees from passing carriages, so near to the highway was it originally laid out; but in aftertimes it was widened to its present ample dimen- sions by the construction of another walk on the street edge, the two pathways being separated by a curbstone, and the inner promenade being several inches more ele- vated than the outer. On the outermost of the walks it was, that in the good old times, before Boston became dignified by a city charter, the stalls and booths were placed on public holidays and days of general rejoicing,
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for the vending of the smaller matters of refreshment, preparatory to the larger and more varied supply to be found in profusion on the Common and its numerous by- paths, malls and eminences.
Notwithstanding the prominent part taken by Mr. Paddock, the name of another person is often spoken of in connection with the setting out of these trees, - that of Mr. John Ballard, a resident of the north end of the town, an active and public-spirited man, and an enter- prising mechanic. No others are mentioned as taking any part in the laudable endeavor; and to these generous individuals alone, in the absence of all positive knowl- edge to the contrary, must be given the well-merited thanks of those who have lived to enjoy the benefits thus bestowed upon so many generations.
Mr. Paddock, though not an Englishman by birth- for he descended from the good pilgrim stock of the Plymouth colony - was so by training. He had been bred a builder of chairs, as the light one-horse vehicles, which are now called chaises, were then called; and his foreign predilections led him, on settling in business, to give the name of the old street in London, rendered famous for carriage building, to the part of the street where his workshop stood, opposite the Granary Bury- ing Ground; and for a considerable time after Mr. Pad- dock retired from Boston, as he did when the British evacuated the town, that portion of the street extend- ing from King's Chapel to Winter street, and at the time a portion of Common street, was known as Long Acre. In this account the distinctive title of Captain is by preference given to Mr. Paddock, although he also had, even during his sojourn in Boston, a claim to the higher military appellation of Colonel. As an active
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officer, and for a time commander of the Boston train of artillery, he felt himself particularly honored, as he was then in a position of great usefulness; for, in fact, his lessons in military matters, while in the Train, were productive of much good, as laying the foundation of good soldiership in the Province, by giving thorough instruction to many who afterwards became distin- guished officers in the patriotic army of the revolution- ary war. Ardently attached to the interests of the mother country, and one of the foremost of the loyalist party, he left Boston in March, 1776, for Halifax, N. S., and in the following June embarked with his wife and children for England, where he resided till the year 1781; when, receiving an office under the English Gov- ernment, he removed to the Isle of Jersey, and there remained until the time of his decease, which event occurred on the twenty-fifth of March, 1804, he being at the time seventy-six years of age.
Of the descendants of Mr. Paddock, it should be said, that although the immediate family of this gentle- man took up their abode in England after leaving Bos- ton, nevertheless, the oldest son, bearing his father's name, prepared himself for the practice of medicine, and returned to America, and passed his last days in New Brunswick, where he left a family of sons, many of whom attained considerable distinction in St. John.
The exact time when the trees of the little mall were planted by Capt. Paddock cannot be stated with that degree of precision that is desirable; yet there is not room for a reasonable doubt that this event took place about 1762, at which time Mr. Paddock was thirty- four years of age. This date is given by Mr. Emerson, in his report on the trees of Massachusetts, presented to
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the Legislature of the Commonwealth in the year 1846; and his statement was then made from authority which he deemed at the time conclusive, and corroborative evidence sustains him in his opinion. For a time after the importation of the trees from England, they are said to have been in a nursery in Milton, where they were carefully watched until they were of sufficient size and strength to be transplanted in a place so public as that for which they were selected.
The setting out of Paddock's trees must not be con- founded with the transplanting of the trees of the great mall on the Tremont street side of the Common. The outermost row of these trees, it will be remembered, was set out some time about 1728, the year of Paddock's birth; the second row in the same mall was placed there in the spring of 1734; and the third or innermost row was planted by Mr. Oliver Smith and other townsmen, in the fall of 1784.
Although Paddock's English elms do not exhibit, when in full foliage, the gracefulness of the American species, they have the advantage of continuing longer in their dress of green. They put forth their leaves weeks sooner than the natives do, and retain them some time after the limbs and branches of the indigenous trees are entirely leafless. Now, only eleven of these noble trees remain standing in their lot; three, at least, have fallen within a few years, sacrificed by a false taste in paving the sidewalk in which they stood. How many of them there were originally is not known. It is sup- posed that the row extended from Park street meeting- house northerly to the larch-tree in the burial-ground, beneath whose shade slumber the victims of the State street massacre of the fifth of March, 1770. If, how-
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ever, the row extended so as to skirt the whole front of the Granary Burying-Ground, there might have been sixteen trees in all. The usual length of life allotted to this species of tree is about one hundred and fifty years, although some individual trees have been known to sur- vive the effects of storm and natural decay for twice that period. These trees have no doubt stood somewhat over one hundred years, and already begin to show strong symptoms of an approaching end; for most of them have lost parts of their largest limbs, and several of them are already so hollow as to have afforded a win- ter retreat to the few gray squirrels, which, after enjoy- ing the neighboring cemetery as a playground during the summer months, were compelled to find more comfortable quarters from the inclemencies of the cold season of the year, and also receptacles where they could safely and conveniently store their winter's supply of food. These habitations are now deserted, as the squirrels have also left the Granary Burying-Ground within a short time, as they did the Common.
The largest of these trees is the one nearest the Tre- mont House. When it was measured by the writer in the spring of 1860, it was in circumference, near the sidewalk, sixteen feet and ten inches; at a height of three feet, the circumference was twelve feet and eight inches; and at the height of five feet above the sidewalk, eleven feet and eight inches. It may be a matter of wonderment that this tree is the largest of all the trees belonging to the public walks of the city, with the single exception of the great American elm-tree of the Com- mon; for it was set out about thirty or thirty-five years after those of the two outermost rows in the Tremont street mall. Nevertheless there is sufficient reason for
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the fact: for most of the elms in the malls of the Com- mon have died out and been replaced by other trees, and those that remain have almost been choked for want of moisture, which the hard walks have kept from their roots, so that they have in a degree become stinted in their growth by the injury, and put back more than thirty-five years. Notwithstanding the neglect of the other public trees at times, those of Captain Paddock were cherished with the greatest care, and their roots nourished by the richest soil. Even in more recent days, with some exceptions, these trees have been more carefully looked after than those on the Common.
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