USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Topographical and historical description of Boston > Part 30
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55
The best known of the springs is that which gave name to a noted locality, called in the olden time "the Springate," but now, and for many years back, designa- ted as Spring Lane. Any one who walks through this narrow passageway, leading easterly from Washington street, will notice on the left-hand side of the lane an angle in the sidewalk, exactly opposite the northwest corner of a building erected by the Old South society for the purpose of a chapel. At this point, in the gutter, once stood a wooden pump, which many of the
1
1
:
390
TOPOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
older residents of Boston will well remember. This old friend of humanity, with its wooden nose and iron handle, stood in a well dug on the site of the spring, which had failed somewhat when the wells of the neighboring estates had been sunk, after the locality had become thickly settled. The spring was fenced in during the early days of the town government, and was approached through a gate; and from this originated the name of the lane in which it was situated. In later times this was designated as the Great Spring, and was very noted in its day. North of it was the estate of goodman Thomas Oliver, one of the Elders of the First Church, a person held in such esteem by his fellow townsmen, that in the year 1646, when horses were for- bidden to feed upon the Common, exception was made in favor of one horse for him; and his sons, Ensign James Oliver and Sergeant Peter Oliver, were, in 1652, " granted liberty to set up a windmill between the town and the hill called Fox Hill," 'the elevation on the Com- mon formerly known as Flagstaff Hill. Governor John Winthrop and Mr. William Hibbens, one of the Assist- ants, whose wife Ann was executed in 1656 upon the Common for witchcraft, and Mr. John Spoore, had their house-lots on the south side of the lane. Spoore's estate was bounded on the north by the creek that flowed from the lane into Oliver's Dock, and on the east by the marsh commonly known as Winthrop's Marsh, which extended up into the town as far as the present Devon- shire street. This last-named estate in 1671 fell into the possession of Mr. John Winslow (brother of Gov- ernor Edward Winslow of the Plymouth Colony) and his wife Mary Chilton,-she who, coming over in the renowned May Flower, in 1620, has the reputation of
1
-
391
DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
being the first woman who landed upon New England soil from that ever memorable vessel which so joyfully landed its freight of pilgrims upon Forefather's Rock at Plymouth, on the twenty-first of December of the same never-to-be-forgotten year. The last-named estate is now covered by Minot's building, and has been occu- pied many years by printers and type-founders. This spring of living water undoubtedly furnished its grateful liquid draughts to the parched lips of the first Gover- nor, and first ruling elder of Massachusetts, and of Ply- mouth's distinguished pilgrim. When this spring ceased to bubble to the surface of the earth in the Springate, and when the well received its tributary offering, is not known; but the wooden pump is well remembered by those who in days of yore enjoyed its cooling and re- freshing water. During the fall of 1869, while work- men were engaged excavating a cellar for the new post- office building on the lot between Water and Milk streets, and facing upon Devonshire street, this old spring found an opportunity of escape, and commenced anew to discharge the refreshing element, much to the annoyance of the builders, who much preferred a dry cellar to a free supply of pure water.
Within the recollection of many of the old residents of the westerly slope of Beacon Hill, a large spring poured a bountiful supply of water not far from the centre of the grass plat in the enclosure of Louisburg Square. This was unquestionably the identical spring that yielded its benevolence to Mr. Blaxton, and was the earliest inducement that led the fathers of the town to the peninsula. Until Beacon Hill, or rather that portion of it sometimes designated as Mount Vernon, was removed, the spring continued to flow, and gave in
392
TOPOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
bounteous streams its pure and soft water. It was about eighty feet above high-water mark, and in its lat- ter days had three outlets. It furnished water for the negro washerwomen, who frequented the neighborhood of the springs, where they were wont to have their cleansing tubs, feeling very little concern whether the Jamaica Pond aqueduct should give out or not, or whether or not the city should introduce a public supply of pure fresh water from any of the neighboring ponds or streams. Cochituate Lake and its brick culverts and iron pipes and hydrants would have been of little ac- count to them, supplied as they were with enough of the best and purest water from nature's own well-springs, without water rates or taxes. This spring should have been preserved, and allowed to flow into basins of marble, as a perpetual memorial of William Blaxton, and in remembrance of the great act of benevolence which gave rise to the capital of New England.
A spring of considerable consequence used to flow on the northwestern side of Spring street, a short dis- tance east of Milton street, hence the derivation of the name of the street where it was situated. By those who formerly supposed Barton's Point to be identical with Blaxton's Point, this was considered to be Blaxton's Spring. But such was not the case.
A noted spring, endeared to the famous old punch drinkers of the town, was situated just west of West Hill, on the shore of Charles River, and only accessible at low water. The water from this is said to have had special qualities for the manufacture of the once popular beverage called punch, and consequently the spring was much frequented by the jolly fellows of the town, who in days that are past were generally pretty good epicures.
1
I
1
393
DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
Elderly persons often speak of other boiling springs in the town; and, if tradition can be believed, there were springs of this character, one near Fox Hill on the west side of the Common, one running from Pemberton Hill, the eastern head of Beacon Hill, into Howard street, one at the corner of Lynn and Charter streets, one in the yard of the Massachusetts General Hospital, one near Franklin place, one on the west side of Hancock street, and one near the corner of Bath and Water streets. Such of these as ever existed, or continue at times to give evidence of past activity, were of very little value, and were of no importance in supplying the inhabitants with water for domestic purposes. Most of them were considered as inconveniences until they disappeared.
The number of hidden springs, which only came to notice as wells were sunk, was very large; and occa- sionally great virtues were ascribed to many of them. The older inhabitants of Boston can undoubtedly re- member the renowned Hall spring in Hawkins street, the famous mineral quality of which was somewhat aug- mented one morning, about sixty years ago, and as suddenly lost the next day, to the no great annoyance of its proprietor, and disgust of his patrons, who were wont to visit his comfortable seats, and partake of the delicious and rejuvenating beverage of the sulphurous spring. The following advertisement, which was pub- lished in the New England Palladium on the morning of the sixteenth of September, 1808, may recall to mind more vividly the remembrance of this once charmed well:
50
394
TOPOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
"BOSTON MINERAL SPRING.
" Mr. Hall having taken up his well the last week, and deepened it, has the water again ready for public use, and much stronger impregna- ted with its mineral quality than before. The water of this well is so much like the Ballstown water, that it is considered a good substitute in all cases where Ballstown water is useful."
Unfortunately for the proprietor of the mineral spring, a disagreeable story got about, that the well had lost its mineral qualities and medicinal virtues. The source of revenue failed, and in a short time the Boston Mineral Spring was almost entirely forgotten, and kept only in remembrance by those who had no specially good reason for desiring to forget it, and who occasion- ally kept it in their minds as a good story of the uncer- tainty of some kinds of earthly riches.
The first well we have any authentic knowledge of in Boston was sunk by Thomas Venner, a cooper, whose house-lot was situated on "the High Street" (now Washington street). The order granting per- mission for this privilege was passed on the sixteenth of March, 1649-50, in the following words :- "Mr. Venner, and the neighbors thereabout, had libertie to dig a well and set a pumpe therein neere the shop of William Davis, providing without annoyance to the street passage for the waste water." If this is the ori- gin of the first town pump, the "seven men chosen to manage the towne's affaires " were grossly imposed upon by Mr. Venner; for the old pump, which stood in old Cornhill, in the middle of the street, and which was removed as late as the early part of the present century, was one of the greatest nuisances to the neighborhood that could possibly have been tolerated. The pump handle kept going from early morning to late night,
1
-
-
-
1
395
DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
and its music was only interrupted by the clatter of the iron cup and its chain against the pump, as from time to time they dropped from the hands of those who had quenched their thirst with the pure liquid from Mr. Venner's well. Morning sleep was then impossible, and early rising no particular virtue. As late as the year 1760 the selectmen were instructed to do as they might think proper about repairing the Old Town Pump in the well; but, after a while it fell into disuse, and was removed, and the well covered up so as not to be an interruption in the street. This ancient well, one of the oldest landmarks of our forefathers, was exposed to view on the second of July, 1858, when workmen were laying a new drain in Washington street, preparatory to placing in that street the rails of the Metropolitan railroad. The well was found dry, owing to its being partially filled up with dirt; and after the drain was completed, the top of the well was closed with large stones and sealed with cement, proba- bly never again to be opened to mortal view. A large part of its walls was originally laid with stone, but the upper part was carefully constructed of brick. Its exact position is in the centre of the street, about thirty feet north of the northeast corner of Court street.
Perhaps the reason why the Old Town Pump was removed was pretty much the same that is given now- a-days when improvements are to be made, namely : " That there was no need of the old thing"; and this is made apparent when we read the following vote of the townsmen, passed a little less than a century ago :- "At a meeting of the Freeholders and other inhabitants of the Town of Boston duly qualifyed and legally warned in publick Town Meeting assembled at Fanuel
396
TOPOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
Hall on Wednesday 10th Day of May 10 o'clock Forenoon A. D. 1774," and by adjournment to August 30th, 10 o'clock,
" Voted, That the Committee appointed to Consider of Ways and means for employing the Poor of this Town now out of Business by the opperation of the Boston Port Bill, so called, be allowed and empowered to make such an agreement with the Petitioners for a Well to be dug on Dock Square as said Committee may apprehend to be for the advantage of the Town."
The above quoted vote was the origin of the Town Pump, so famous in our younger days; the same that stood so long, and was so noted, at the extreme western end of the square, at the junction of Washington and Brattle streets, and which was removed when the Co- chituate water was introduced into Boston in 1848.
Another ancient pump once stood in a well dug by William Franklin and others in 1653, near the King's Arms Tavern, which formerly, as early as two centuries ago, was the principal place of entertainment in the town, and was at the corner of Col. Shrimpton's Lane, now called Exchange street.
Were one inclined, many other noted wells and pumps of a public character could be mentioned; among these, one stood in North Square, near the old residence of the Mountfort family; one was on the easterly side of Washington street, not far from Castle street; another was at the head of State street, near the old State House; another on T Wharf; another on Long Wharf, and another on South Market street, near the central door. These disappeared like snow before the sun when the hydrants were brought into use after the introduc-
.
-- - ----
-
-
397
DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
tion of water. After Boston became a city, many large reservoirs were dug in the principal squares and broad streets, chiefly for containing water for use in case of fire. These also fell necessarily into disuse at the same time with the public pumps.
On the twenty-seventh of February, 1795, a com- pany was established for supplying the town with pure water from Jamaica Pond in Roxbury. The company did their best to perform what the inhabitants required, but, like the Town Pumps, had to succumb when the larger institution prevailed.
In the early days of the town, the people near the centre of the peninsula were supplied with water from the conduit near Dock Square, and the cows and horses from a pond at the south part of the town in the present Bedford street.
CHAPTER XXX.
THE OLD CONDUIT.
The First Attempt to introduce Water into Boston . . . A Conduit suggested by Capt. Robert Keayne in 1649 . . . Keayne's Bequests, 1653 . . . Capt. William Tyng's Grant to Everell and Scottow in 1649, confirmed in 1656 . . . Conduit set in 1652, and incorporated . . . Description of the Conduit .. . Its Situation ... Conduit street ... Uses of the Conduit ... Great Fire of 1679 . . . Sur- roundings of the Old Conduit . .. Old Sun Tavern . . . Bight of Leogan . . . Old Hancock House in Corn Court ... Old Fish Market . . . Swing Bridge . . . Triangular Warehouse . . . Roebuck Passage . . . Old Feather Store ... Old Museum . . . Elephant Tavern . . . Draw Bridge . . . Golden Candlestick . .. Sign of the Key . . . Scottow's Alley . . . Union Stone . . . Boston Stone ... Mill Bridge . . . Star Tavern . .. Green Dragon Tavern . . . Old Franklin House.
NOTWITHSTANDING the numerous springs which poured out water in various parts of the town, the good people in the olden time were so illy provided with this neces- sary element, that very soon after the settlement of the peninsula resort was had to artificial means for obtain- ing a more plentiful supply of this important and much needed article. Among the most noted of the early at- tempts for procuring water for the daily use of the towns-people was the conduit, a very singular contriv- ance, but one which answered a very good purpose in the limited space in which its benevolence was experi- enced. Most persons who have read the accounts of the old town have undoubtedly noticed allusions to this structure, but few have been able to form a definite idea of this early handiwork of the enterprising forefathers
1
1
399
DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
of the town, or been fortunate enough to designate upon the map its exact position.
If the early constructed wells are excepted, the an- cient conduit may be justly said to have been the first attempt towards introducing water works in the town, and had its origin in the early necessities of the towns- men. The want of something of the kind had become so evident as early as the year 1649, that the subject of a public conduit had been mooted in the town, and Cap- tain Robert Keayne, of the Artillery Company, had made certain provisions for the establishment of such a contrivance in a will written that year, but subsequently superseded by the voluminous instrument of one hun- dred and fifty-eight recorded pages, executed on the twenty-eighth of December, 1653, and proved on the second of May, 1656, he having died on the twenty- third day of the previous March of the last-mentioned year. This remarkable individual in his curious docu- ment used the following language: "Haveing beene trained up in Military Discipline from my young" yeares, & haveing endeavoured to promote it the best I could since God hath brought me into this country [in 1635], & seeing he hath beene pleased to use me as a poore Instrument to lay the foundation of that Noble Society of the Artillery Company in this place, that hath so far prospered by the blessing of God, as to helpe many with good experience in the vse of their armes, . . . I shall desire to be buryd as a Souldier in a Military way." After providing for his family, he sets apart the sum of two hundred pounds for any man or woman, in Old England or New, who could make it justly appear that he had unjustly wronged them. He made bequests for a market house, a conduit (a good
400
TOPOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
help in danger of fire), conveniences for the courts, commissioners and townsmen; a room for a library, a gallery for the elders, an armory, a room for divines, scholars, merchants, shipmen, strangers and townsmen, and many other things, according to his strange fancy. If the town should slight or undervalue his gift for the conduit and other "buildings," then his money, and the books he proposed for the library, were to go for the sole use of the College at Cambridge. While it is cer- tain that Captain Keayne's books did not go to found the library, - for that good act was left to be performed by Mayor Bigelow two hundred years later, - it is un- doubtedly true that the conduit had its origin in the provision of the Captain's will; for it appears that in the year 1649, during his lifetime, Mr. William Tyng, a wealthy and distinguished townsman of Boston, and subsequently of Braintree, gave certain rights and priv- ileges to Messrs. James Everell and Joshua Scottow, and their associates, in a certain estate, " with free lib- erty to dig, find out, erect and set up one fountain, well, head spring, or more, within his land or pasture ground, situate, lying and being on the westerly side of his then dwelling-house in Boston aforesaid, as also from said well or wells, fountain or fountains, to dig or trench through said pasture ground, to lay down such pipes or water-work conveyances as should be necessary for the carrying or conveying of water from the aforesaid fountain or fountains, well or wells, unto such place as the said neighborhood and company shall see conven- ient for the erecting of a conduit or water works." Mr. Tyng died on the eighteenth of January, 1652-3, and subsequently the grant was confirmed by the trustees of' his children, on the twenty-ninth of April, 1656. It is
1
1
401
DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
certain that the conduit was "set up " in March, 1652, for at that time the townsmen voted that Mr. James Everell and the neighbors should have one of the bells which were given to the town by Captain Crumwell for a clock, and enjoy while they make use of it there. In 1652, at the May session of the General Court of the Colony, on petition of the inhabitants of "Conduite Streete in Boston," the water-works company was in- corporated for building the conduit, and provisions were made for the use of the water in case of fire.
From what has been stated, it would appear that the conduit was a large reservoir, about twelve feet square, made for holding water, conveyed to it by pipes leading from neighboring wells and springs, for the purpose of extinguishing fires and supplying the inhabitants dwell- ing near it with water for domestic purposes. Over the reservoir was a wooden building in the olden time, used for storage purposes; but in more modern days the old building was removed, and the conduit covered with plank, raised in the centre about two feet, and sloping to the sides like a hipped roof. On Saturdays, this plat- form was used as a stand for a meal market, which was as noted in its day as the hay-stand in Haymarket Square is at the present time. As it stood in the very old times with Captain Crumwell's bell, it must have been one of the most remarkable of the ancient land- marks of the town.
This strange construction was situated in a square formed by the junction of Wing's lane (now Elm street) and Union street, in the neighborhood of the present North street, and a short distance from Dock Square. The street leading from the Conduit to the Draw Bridge, placed over the Mill Creek (now the site
51
402
TOPOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
of Blackstone street), was one of the first highways laid out by the early settlers of the town, and was for a long time known as Conduit street, because the propri- etors of the conduit owned an estate on the north side of the street, about where the old building stands, now occupied by Joseph Breck and Son as an agricultural warehouse, and which was in the early part of the present century the next east of the old Boston Mu- seum, where so many curious and rare objects used to be exhibited; and one side of which, at no very distant date, was bounded by an open lane or passage-way, which contained a water convenience that may be re- membered by persons who lived in the neighborhood only fifty years ago as the conduit, - a name which was given to it by the boys, who had probably heard of the old reservoir of 1652; and on the east of this lane was the old Elephant Tavern of bygone days. The exact position of the conduit is marked out on John Bonner's plan of the town, engraved in 1722, and has been pointed out by antiquaries as being near where the present North street and Market Square join Union street, just west of the "Old Feather Store," which was taken down between the tenth and thirteenth of July, 1860, to the great regret of many who delighted in looking upon that well-preserved specimen of the build- ings of the first fifty years of the town's history. Old Conduit street, which was sometimes called Draw Bridge street, lost its name in 1708, and the way from the con- duit in Union street over the bridge to Elliston's corner, lower end of Cross street, was named Ann street, in honor of good Queen Anne of blessed memory, just as Union street took its name at the same time in commem- oration of the great British union.
-
-
-- :
i
1
403
DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
The old conduit never fulfilled the expectations of those who devised and built it; and its traces have so entirely disappeared, that not a single vestige of it can be found, and only an occasional mention of the street that bore its name, and of the old estate alluded to, is all that can be found concerning it in the ancient town books and in the records of the conveyances of land in Suffolk Records. No digging in the street for the lay- ing of drains or sewers has, within the remembrance of persons now living, shown any of its remains; although it was well remembered in its last condition by the old persons who have recently passed away.
With the exception of the companies for iron works in various parts of the colony, this establishment was one of the earliest incorporations for private purposes in Massachusetts; and it undoubtedly was of some service on washing days, and at times of "scathfiers " in the neighborhood. On the occasion of the great fire of the eighth of August, 1679, it was put to especial use, and undoubtedly did much to save the property situated north and west of it, although all the business part of the town south of it, from the old feather store corner to Mackerel Bridge near Liberty Square, was completely destroyed by the raging element.
The site of the old conduit was, until the recent im- provements at the South End and on the Back Bay Lands, in the centre of the town; and probably there were more matters of interest within a minute's walk from it than from any other point on the peninsula. Just south of it, a few steps, was the westerly termina- tion of the Old Dock, now filled up, but which extended to the buildings forming the western boundary of Market Square; and this separated it from the old "Sun Tavern, '
404
TOPOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
at the corner of Dock Square and the old Corn Market, favorably known the past sixty years as the grocery store of the famous George Murdock, and of his succes- sor, Wellington. Taking a course around the conduit as a centre, next came the renowned "Bight of Leo- gan," late the Bite Tavern of James M. Stevens, and farther on "Col. Fitch's Lane," known better as Flagg alley or Change avenue, with its narrow passageway, " Damnation Alley," behind Dr. Noyes's old apothecary shop, lately renewed by William Read as a gun store. Then came Corn Court, with the "Hancock House," in which it is said Louis Philippe tarried while he made his short abode in Boston during the French Reign of Terror. Between these and the Dock formerly stood Palmer's warehouse, which gave way to Faneuil Hall and the "Old Fish Market"; and east of these was the " Swing Bridge " over the street that led to Ann street, passing by the "Old Triangular Warehouse," at the corner of North Market street and the ancient "Roe- buck Passage," which was so narrow that only one team could pass through it at a time, and which often pre- sented the curious scene between teamsters, made com- mon by the custom of tossing a copper to see which should back out for the other. Between the conduit and the Roebuck Passage were the "Old Feather Store," the "Old Boston Museum," and the "Elephant Tavern" already alluded to; and not far from these was the " Old Draw Bridge" in Ann street over the Mill Creek, which gave way in 1659 when the crowd returned from the Common after the hanging of the Quakers. East- erly, in old " Ann street," between the conduit and the Draw Bridge, will be remembered Samuel Whitwell's "Golden Candlestick" at the corner of Union street
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.