USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Topographical and historical description of Boston > Part 43
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After passing Nix's Mate, there are many courses that may be taken; one, northeast one-half east, passes over the Middle Ground directly to Nahant, and to sea; one east-by-north one-half north, proceeds also to sea, while it leads to Hypocrite Passage; the southeasterly course leads through the Narrows, between Lovell's Island and Bug Light on the left, and Gallop's and George's Islands on the right. This last course, which is the Main Ship Channel, is about two miles long, in a slightly curved line, and terminates midway between Windmill Point at Hull, and the Outer Lighthouse, which are two miles apart.
Rainsford Island is approached from the Back Way by a northeast-by-east one-half east course, or from the
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
Narrows in a southwesterly direction. Fort Warren, on George's Island, is reached from the Narrows by a southerly course, as is also Pettick's Island and Hull. The way to Hingham passes between these last-named places, and is exceedingly tortuous. South of George's Island lie Nantasket Roads, and east of it is the main channel which leads out of the harbor, running near the Bug Light and Black Buoy No. 5, and Red Buoy No. 8, among Rocks and Ledges. From this point the course is due east about two miles; thence the direction is turned to a course running east-southeast to sea.
The following table of sailing distances, given in statute miles, will show how far the wharf or landing point of each of the principal islands is from the east- erly end of Long wharf.
Miles.
East Boston Ferry
Bird Island Shoal
1
Slate Ledge Buoy
.
1
Upper Middle Buoy
12 2
Governor's Island
Castle Island.
. 24
Lower Middle Buoy (west)
21
Lower Middle Buoy (east)
3.3
Thompson's Island
44
Spectacle Island
4
Moon Island .
5
Apple Island (by Bird Island Passage)
22
Apple Island (by Main Ship Channel) Long Island
5
Deer Island (by Bird Island Passage)
44
Deer Island (by Main Ship Channel)
53
Point Shirley (by Bird Island Passage)
4
Point Shirley (by Main Ship Channel) Snake Island (by Main Ship Channel) Nix's Mate
6
7
52
·
4를
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TOPOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
Miles
Lovell's Island .
6.3
Gallop's Island .
62
George's Island .
7
Rainsford Island (Back Way)
Rainsford Island (by Main Ship Channel)
8
Bug Light .
Pettick's Island
82
Hull .
8₺
Outer Lighthouse
9
Point Allerton
94
Outer Brewster .
103
The Graves (by Main Ship Channel) .
12}
The Graves (by Broad Sound) .
10}
The Graves (by Black Rock Channel)
11}
Thieves' Ledge .
112
Harding's Ledge
11}
Minot's Ledge Lighthouse
. 162
Frequent inquiry is made, by persons passing down the harbor, as to the exact linear distance of certain objects from one another; therefore, in this connection, it has been deemed advisable to prepare the following short table from measurements made in statute miles. The reader must take notice, however, that it requires about one and one-eighth statute miles to make a nauti- cal mile, such as is used by mariners in their computa- tions: -
Miles.
From Long wharf to Fort Winthrop .
2
From Long wharf to Fort Independence
From Long wharf to Fort Warren 6}
From Long wharf to Deer Island wharf 44
From Long wharf to Long Island Light 51 From Long wharf to Gallop's Island, 64
From Long wharf to Bug Light 74
From Long wharf to Hull
From Long wharf to Boston Outer Light
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
Miles.
From Long wharf to the Graves
From Long wharf to Harding's Ledge, 11
From Long wharf to Point Allerton .
9
From Fort Independence to Fort Winthrop 1
From Fort Independence to Long Island Light .
22
From Fort Independence to Fort Warren
43
From Long Island Light to Bug Light 2
From Long Island Light to Boston Outer Light 33
From Long Island wharf to Deer Island wharf . 12
From Windmill Point in Hull to Boston Outer Light . 24
From Hull wharf to Hingham wharf . 44
From Point Allerton to Boston Outer Light
11
From Boston Outer Light to Thieves' Ledge 2 .
From Boston Outer Light to Nahant wharf .
6
From Boston Outer Light to Harding's Ledge
22
From Harding's Ledge to Minot's Ledge
5
The reader having made his way out of the harbor and to sea, can easily return, if he pleases, through Hypocrite Passage, over Broad Sound, through Shirley Gut, to the harbor.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
ANCIENT STYLE OF BUILDING, AND THE OLD LANDMARKS.
Ar.cient Landmarks, mostly demolished .. . Disappearance of their peculiari- ties . . . Location of the First Houses . . . First Buildings framed . . . Mud Houses . . . Stone and Brick Houses rare at first . . . Wooden Structures with thatched roofs . . . Peculiar roofs .. . Change of Style of Building in 1679 . . . Houses with Jetties and Pendills . . . Rough-cast Buildings . . . Different styles of Laying Bricks in different Periods . . . Construction of the Houses of the First Settlers . . . Chimneys and Fireplaces, Arrangement of Rooms ... Style of Windows ... Window seats and Buffets .. . Peculiarity of the Old Public Buildings . .. Public Buildings erected before the year 1800.
BOSTON, like all other old places, has been noted in times past for its peculiar landmarks, as exhibited in its old buildings. The greater number of these have been demolished, to make way for the improvements which a rapidly increasing business, and, consequently, a largely augmented population, have made necessary. The period when these changes came about was that which immediately succeeded the old town regime, during the first few years after the adoption of the city charter, in 1822. Landmark after landmark has disappeared in rapid succession, and a few only of those that were erect- ed during the first century of the town's corporate exis- tence can now, in 1870, be found; and these have been so much altered in their appearance by modern art and innovation, that it is difficult to perceive any of their old characteristics, and the peculiarities of the style of construction which prevailed at the different periods of the town's history. None of these have any notable associations connected with them.
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
Nearly all the first houses were erected on the high- way to Roxbury (which is the present Washington street), and upon the portion of Tremont street that is north of Winter street, with a few on the highways at the north end of the town, one of which was early known as the " way leading from the orange tree to the ferry " (now Hanover street), and the other as the "lowermost highway," beinga narrow lane that occupied the street now known as North street. These streets were crossed by a few other short ones, and the whole, at first, were within a small limit, bounded on the North by the pres- ent Prince street, and south by Eliot street. For the first twenty years, there was hardly a building west of the present Tremont street, the most populous part of the town being on the streets above mentioned, with some small houses around the great cove, and here and there one in the neighborhood of Milk and Summer Streets, and Fort Hill, then known as Corn Hill. Consequently in these regions stood the old buildings, the ancient landmarks of the town, so many of which were removed during the time of the mayoralty of the elder Mr. Quincy.
The first settlers of Boston were generally persons who had been of consideration in the old country, and were not a set of merely mercenary adventurers; there- fore, when they began their town, they generally built framed houses. Mud-houses were, indeed, known in the early days of the town; but these were very few in number, and, of course, were only occupied by the poorest and most abject of the colonists, - or, more cor- rectly speaking, by their menials only. A few houses were built of stone, and some of brick; but these were exceptions to the general rule, until Boston had become over twenty years of age.
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TOPOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
The first wooden structures were mostly one story in height, and had thatched roofs. As time wore on, the houses of those that could afford the luxury had two stories in front, with a shingled roof that ran nearly to the ground behind, leaving but one story to be seen. Subsequently, hipped, or double, roofs were in fashion; and after the great fire in 1679, houses were constructed with projecting stories, called jetties, and these were ornamented at their corners with pendills. About this time, building assumed a new style; the houses with jet- ties were many of them rough cast, covered with cement and small pebbles, and some with broken glass instead. Brick houses, three stories in height, with arched win- dow caps, came in vogue about the same time, the fre- quency of fires making it necessary that a style of building more secure than that which had previously prevailed should be adopted in the thickly settled parts of the town. Gables, and occasionally towers, were first noticed in Boston about this time. The mode of laying bricks had its fashionable periods, also. The earliest style was the old English bond, which consisted of courses of bricks laid lengthwise, alternating with others laid endwise. A more common style that suc- ceeded consisted of a row of bricks laid endwise after every seventh laid lengthwise. About the time of the Revolution, a very neat style was commenced, known to bricklayers as the Flemish bond, in which every row was laid with alternate bricks lengthwise and endwise, so as very neatly to break joints and preserve the bond. This last mode was continued some time into the present century, and then was superseded by the present style of bricklaying, in which the long edge of each brick is shown. Experts can undoubtedly determine very nearly
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
the age of brick buildings, by carefully noticing the bonds of the brickwork, as each style prevailed in use a little more than half a century.
The houses of the olden time were generally con- structed with a large chimney in the centre. This supplied all the rooms with fireplace's, and the kitchen with an oven and ash-pit. The fireplaces were all sub- stantial and capacious, many of them sufficiently commo- dious to accommodate the greatest part of the family during the cold seasons of the year. These were neatly paved with square tiles, of baked clay, and each had its mantle-shelf. Small Dutch tiles, decorated with views and artistic designs, ornamented those belonging to the parlors and sitting-rooms, and the hearths were laid with brick or sandstone tiles. Good housewives kept the bricks neatly reddened, and the stone jambs nicely painted with stone-dust. Although the bricks were generally cemented with plaster, made of shell-lime, the bricks of the chimneys and ovens were laid with clay.
The entrance to the houses was through a small porch into a small entry, which, by means of small doors at the right and left, communicated with the front rooms, one of which served as the parlor, or more generally as the sleeping-room of the old folks, and the other as the common room, which served for sitting-room, eating- room, or work-room, as occasion required, and commu- nicated with the kitchen, pantry, dairy, and several bed-rooms; the last of which were sufficiently warmed from the common room. A portion of the garret, or second story, when one could be afforded, was appropri- ated for the spinning-wheel and loom, and the remainder to lodging-rooms and store-rooms. The windows were small, and the panes of glass correspondingly diminu-
592
DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
tive, - sometimes oblong, and not unfrequently of a diamond, or lozenge shape. Window-seats oftentimes supplied the place of chairs, and buffets in the corner of the rooms answered well for the modern china-closet.
The old public buildings and houses of worship were just as peculiar in their architectural appearance as were the houses of the people. Of those that date back previous to the year 1800, the Old State House, at the head of State street, erected in 1712; Christ Church, in Salem street, dedicated in 1723; the Old South meet- ing-house, the corner-stone of which was laid on the thirty-first of March, 1729; King's Chapel, built in 1749- 1754, Brattle street meeting-house, dedicated in 1773, and the State House, first occupied by the legislature on the eleventh of January, 1798, are all of this class that can be seen at the present day.
Some of these ancient landmarks of the early days of the town were quite notable; and, although they have passed away from sight, yet they remain in the remem- brance of many of the older inhabitants. An attempt will be made in a few of the succeeding chapters to rescue these, while yet there is time, from the oblivion which would necessarily overtake them, unless an effort should be made at the present time, while the memory 's yet sufficiently strong, to describe them as they last appeared to those who remember them well.
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CHAPTER XLIX.
THE PROVINCE HOUSE.
The Province House, one of the last of the Ancient Landmarks of the Colony and Province ... At first the private residence of Peter Sargeant . . . An- ciently first in the possession of Thomas Millard .. . Mr. Millard's Neighbors ... Estate purchased, in 1672, by Col. Samuel Shrimpton, and sold to Mr. Sargeant in 1676 . . . Boundaries and Extent of the Estate . . . House built by Mr. Sargeant in 1679 . . . Offered for sale on the death of Mr. Sargeant . . . The Province in need of a Governor's House, and action of the Legislature in reference to the purchase of Mr. Sargeant's House . .. Purchase in 1716 ... Appropriation for Ornamental Hangings · · · Description of the Mansion House ... How occupied during Provincial times . . . Ineffectual sale to John Peck, in 1796 . .. Granted to the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1811 . . . Leased for ninety-nine years to David Greenough, Esq., in 1817 ... Alterations by Mr. Greenough . . . Hawthorne's Description of the House in its worst days . . . Alterations in 1851 ... Destruction of the Building by Fire in 1864 . .. No recognizable vestige of the Old Province House left.
As Boston was, in the olden time, the chief town in New England, so it was also the place of residence of the most wealthy of the colonists, and contained many costly mansion houses, as well as the necessary buildings for managing the affairs of the colonial and town govern- ments. Among the most distinguished of these edifices was that long known as the Old Province House, so designated on account of its age, and the purpose to which it was put during the time that Massachusetts was under the administration of the Provincial Govern- ors, who were appointed by the sovereign power of the mother country agreeably to the provisions of the sec- ond . charter, which was granted in the year 1691, for uniting the Colony of New Plymouth with the Colony
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TOPOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
of Massachusetts Bay, in New England, and forming the Province of the Massachusetts Bay.
This old landmark, or what remains of it, is the last link of any great importance that can be traced back through the Revolutionary period of our country's history, and through the Provincial days of Massachu- setts, to Colonial times. It has been generally supposed that it was erected, in earlier times, by the existing gov- ernment of Massachusetts, for governmental purposes. But such is not the case. It was built, as a private enter- prise, by one of the most opulent merchants of good old Colony times, Peter Sargeant, Esq. He had purchased the land, on the twenty-first of October, 1676, of Col. Samuel Shrimpton, one of the largest landholders of the town, for the small sum of £350. In the Book of Pos- sessions, which dates back as far as the year 1643, it appears that Thomas Millard, who was a planter (so styled in those days), had, for one portion of his posses- sion, an estate on the "High Street," or great highway leading to Roxbury, described as " one House and Gar- den bounded with Francis Lyle north, Thomas Grubb south, Arthur Perry west, and the Street east."
It may be interesting to some to know of whom the little coterie, the immediate neighbors of Mr. Millard, the planter, consisted. His nearest neighbor on the north was Mr. Lyle (or Lysle), a noted surgeon barber, who could undoubtedly " breathe a vein " or clip the hair to pure puritanic measure, as the case might be. Lyle's estate separated him from Samuel Hough, a disgusted and retired clergyman, who dwelt at the corner of the street that led to the Beacon, and which is now known as the southerly corner of School street, on Washington street. On the south was the residence of Mr. Grubb,
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
the leather-dresser; and on the rear, in a house fronting on the present School street, was Mr. Perry, the tailor.
In the course of events, Mr. Millard died; and his estate, which was encumbered, passed into the hands of Col. Samuel Shrimpton, a noted landholder, in 1672, the title not being perfected until 1674. Col. Shrimpton, as said before, sold the estate to Mr. Sargeant in 1676, at which time it measured eighty-six feet on the street, two hundred and sixty-six feet southerly on Paul Batt, the village glazier, seventy-seven feet westerly on the estate of the heirs of John Blowers, deceased, and two hundred and sixty-six feet northerly on land of the heirs of Thomas Robinson, also deceased.
After Mr. Sargeant had acquired a perfect title to his estate, he commenced building his house in the most substantial manner; and he completed it in the year 1679, and affixed upon the famous iron balustrade over the front door his initials and date, thus:
16 P.S. 79.
Mr. Sargeant was a Londoner, and came to Boston in 1667. He was as remarkable in his marriages as in his wealth; for he had three wives, his second having been a widow twice before her third venture; and his third also a widow, and even becoming his widow, and lastly the widow of her third husband. Mr. Sargeant died on the eighth of February, 1713-14, and his widow took her third husband on the twelfth of May, 1715, Simeon Stoddard, Esq .; and here was a fair race, - for she was his third wife, as well as he was her third hus- band; and, although he lived till the fifteenth of Octo- ber, 1730, and then died in his eightieth year, she kept along until the twenty-third of September, 1738, eight years later, but died ten years younger in point of age.
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TOPOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
When the widow married Mr. Stoddard, she had no further use for the place, for her new husband had one about as desirable; and therefore the estate was offered for sale. About this time (in March, 1713) Elizeus Burgess, Esq., an English gentleman, received from the King a permission to be Governor of the Province; and, in view of his comfort, for the Colonel was exceedingly popular with the Provincials, the Legislature desired to procure for him a commodious and dignified residence in the capital of the Province.
For this purpose a committee was appointed to ascertain what house could be procured, and on the third of June, 1715, "Capt. Noyes, from the committee appointed to consider of a suitable place for the reception & entertainment of Col. Burges upon his arrival to this Government, Reported that inasmuch as there is no suitable house to be let, and the Mansion House, land & garden, &c., of Peter Sargeant, Esq., deceased is now upon sale: The Committee are of opinion that it would be for the interest and benefit of this Province to purchase the same for their use and improvement."
On the fourteenth of the same month the House of Representatives passed the following preamble and order: -
" Whereas this House have credible intelligence that his Excellency Col. Elizeus Burgess is commissioned by His Majesty to be Governor of His Majesty's Pro- vince, and may in a few weeks be expected to arrive here,
"Ordered, That Mr. Speaker, the Representatives of the Town of Boston, and Col. Thaxter, be a committee to provide a suitable Place for His Excellency's present recption, and entertainment when he shall arrive, and to
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
invite him thereto; and compliment His Excellency in the name of this House upon his safe arrival."
The Governor and Council approved of the project, and the sum of £2300 was appropriated for the pur- pose on the 17th of December. In consequence of this action the committee proceeded at once to make the purchase, and the heirs of Mr. Sargeant passed the deeds, on the eleventh and twelfth of April, 1716, to Jeremiah Allen, the Treasurer of the Province, to Jeremiah Dummer, the Treasurer of the County of Suffolk, and to Joseph Prout, the Treasurer of the town of Boston. In June of the same year the sum of £20 was appropriated for the purchase of ornamental hang- ings for decorating the house, in order to make it suf- ficiently grand for the new governor.
When the Mansion-House became public property it was a magnificent building; no pains had been spared to make it not only elegant, but also spacious and con- venient. It stood somewhat back in its ample lot, and had the most pleasant and agreeable surroundings of any mansion-house in the town. It was of brick, three stories in height, with a high roof and lofty cupola, the whole surmounted by an Indian Chief, with a drawn bow and arrow, the handiwork of Deacon Shem Drown - he who made the grasshopper on Faneuil Hall. The house was approached over a stone pavement and a high flight of massive stone steps, and through a magnificent door- way, which might have rivalled those of the palaces of Europe. Trees of very large size and magnificent pro- portions shaded this princely mansion, and added much to its elegance and imposing appearance. In front of the yard stood an elegant fence with highly ornamented posts; and at each end of this, on the street, were small
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TOPOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
buildings, which in the days of the magnificence of the Province House served as Porters' lodges.
Although Col. Burgess was proclaimed Governor of the Province in November, 1715, he never came to America to perform the duties of the office but resigned the appointment in 1716, Hon. William Tailor, the Lieut. Governor, acting in his place until Col. Samuel Shute received the appointment in October, 1716, and probably became the first gubernatorial occupant of the Mansion House.
During the time of the Provincial government, it seems to have been used by the governors; but, after the expulsion of Lord Howe on the evacuation of Boston on the seventeenth of March in 1776, it was converted into accommodations for our own officers, for the trans- action of public business. In 1796, after the building of the new State House on Beacon street, the Province House was sold to John Peck; but the bargain fell through on account of inability of the purchaser to make payment, and, in 1799, the whole estate was reconveyed to the State; and subsequently, on the twenty-fifth of February, 1811, was granted by the State to the Massa- chusetts General Hospital, whose trustees, on the first of April, 1817, leased it to David Greenough, Esq., for the term of ninety-nine years, and for the annual rent of two thousand dollars, or an outright sum of $33,000, which last sum he elected on the first of October, 1824, to pay.
Subsequent to the lease (in 1817), this aristocratic mansion was put to almost all sorts of purposes; and soon after Mr. Greenough's lease the stately trees were taken down, and a row of brick houses and stores
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
built upon the street, excluding it from view until ap- proached through a narrow archway, leading to its front door and the houses which had been erected in the rear of the estate. The following interesting extract from Hawthorne's "Twice Told Tales " will give a vivid de- scription of the old relic, as it could have been seen in later days, during its worst period of degradation, just before the last great alteration of its walls entirely destroyed its identity : -
" One afternoon last summer, while walking along Washington street, my eye was attracted by a sign-board protruding over a narrow archway, nearly opposite the old South Church. The sign represented the front of a stately edifice, which was designated as the 'Old Pro- vince House, kept by Thomas Waite.' I was glad to be thus reminded of a purpose, long entertained, of visiting and rambling over the mansion of the old royal Govern- ors of Massachusetts; and entering the arched passage, which penetrated through the middle of a brick row of shops, a few steps transported me from the busy heart of modern Boston into a small and secluded court-yard. One side of this space was occupied by the square front of the Province House, three stories high, and sur- mounted by a cupola, on the top of which a gilded Indian was discernible, with his bow bent and his arrow on the string, as if aiming at the weathercock on the spire of the Old South. The figure has kept this atti- tude for seventy years or more, ever since good Deacon Drowne, a cunning carver of wood, first stationed him on his long sentinel's watch over the city.
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