USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Topographical and historical description of Boston > Part 48
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When Mons. Julien purchased the house he fitted it up for the purpose of a restaurant; and as such it was used by himself until his decease in 1805, when the same business was carried on in it by his widow until December, 1815, when the house was hired by Frederic Rouillard for the same purpose. This last-named person kept the restaurant until 1823, when, it having being sold to the insurance company, he removed to the old house at the corner of Devonshire street, lately known as the Stackpole House, on account of its having been the residence of William Stackpole, Esq., one of the noted merchants of the past generation. Previous to removing to the ancient house, which he made so famous, Mons. Julien had kept a similar establishment in Congress street, near Lindall street, and opposite the old Quaker meeting-house.
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The Julien house was taken down in July, 1824, and the present substantial building erected on its site by the late Dr. Edward H. Robbins.
The old Bridgham (or Julien) house was framed and built of wood, pretty much in the style of the buildings erected in Boston before the year 1700. It was two stories high with an attic story of gables. The building was very nearly square on the ground, and had a square, projecting porch as high as the main structure. The second story projected with a jetty over the first, as did the attic over the second. An entry extended the whole length of the building from the Milk street front to the rear, and parlors and kitchens were on both sides of it. The second story and the attic contained sleeping apartments, and there was a small room in the projection over the porch. The roof was a compound of gables, six in number, three in front, one at each side and one facing the back-yard in the rear; the roof of the last having a double slant, very much like that of houses of half a century later. A very large, irregular-shaped chimney protruded from the centre of the roof. The whole of the house was surrounded with green, fenced in.
In this old building the epicures of the day were sure to find good entertainment, and perhaps no estab- lishment in the country ever gained such a famous reputation for excellent cooking and good cheer as did that kept continuously in the old Julien House by Mons. Julien, his wife, and Mr. Rouillard.
Mr. Julien died, after a short illness, on the thirtieth of June, 1805. The inscription on his gravestone will be found on page 241.
The fact that Mrs. Julien carried on the establish- ment ten years after the decease of her husband, has led
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many to think that Mr. Julien lived much later; and the old sign over the porch door, JULIEN, might have continued the delusion down to the time the building was demolished. The famous Julien soup, which still finds a place on most of the sumptuous bills of fare, is all that remains to keep in remembrance this worthy man. The following tribute to his memory will be read with satisfaction by those who remember his noted house of entertainment: -
"Mons. Julien's Restorator, which, during his life time, was so long and justly celebrated among strangers and inhabitants of the first distinction and taste, as well as for the urbanity of its respected host, as for the excellence of his various entertainment, will be con- tinued open as a house of elegant resort, under the care and direction of the widow of its late proprietor, and we have no doubt will preserve the high character it has acquired for many years. The sudden death of Mons. Julien was a subject of much regret to all who had known him, either when employed in the discharge of his professional labors, or who had witnessed him in the more interesting scenes of domestic and social life. With an education, and an intellect which would have adorned a higher sphere in society, he performed all the relative duties of his place with meek assiduity and winning politeness. In his connection with man and his manners, he never stooped to pride, nor aspired to ostentation. In his intercourse with his fellow-men he was honest to his own promises, and benevolent to the wants of others. An extensive class of the poor of this town will often, in their orisons to that being 'who doeth the ravens feed,' breathe a pious blessing on the memory of the charitable Julien."
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
Mrs. Julien, the widow, died of consumption on Wednesday, the fifteenth of December, 1815, aged sixty- three years. Her decease is thus noted in the Boston Daily Advertiser of December 20th :- "Died, Mrs. Hannah Julien, relict of the late Mr. Julien, who for many years was celebrated for keeping the best Res- torant in Boston. Her remains were entombed on Sunday last."
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CHAPTER LV.
THE OLD STONE HOUSE IN CROSS STREET.
Deacon Phillips' Old Stone House, erected about 1650 . . . The Old Streets at the North End ... Devise of Elisha Goodnow to Boston, in 1849 . . . Decease of Mr. Goodnow in 1851 .. Estate claimed in 1860 . . . Description of the Old Stone House . .. The Estate originally in the possession of John Milom . . . Sold to Deacon John Phillips in 1648 . . . Decease of Mr. Phillips in 1682 . . . Estate owned afterwards by the Mountjoys, Mortimores and others . . . Purchased by Edward Proctor, and sold to William Williams in 1793, then to Thomas Williams in 1810, then to Deacon John Sullivan in 1816 . . . Neighbors of Deacon Phillips . . . Alterations of the Old Building . . . Popu- lar Rumors about the Stone House .. . The Building demolished in April, 1864.
GREAT as have been the alterations of the streets of Boston within the last fifty years, there has been com- paratively very little change in those originally laid out at the North End. Some of these have, indeed, been widened and straightened; but most of them now run in the same directions they did two hundred and thirty years ago. When Boston was first laid out with high- ways and byways, a marginal street, upon the water's side, near the Great Cove, was designated as "the Fore street"; another, running nearly parallel to it, and beside the Mill Cove, was called the Back street; and a third, lying between these, had three names, as it was intersected at right angles by two other streets. These byways were known as "the Cross Street," and the " Black Horse Lane" (now Prince Street); and the long street, anciently designated as the way leading
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from the Orange Tree to the Winnisimmet Ferry, had afterwards the names of Hanover, Middle and North streets, partially owing to their position. These ancient streets, and the lanes and alleys leading from them, were lined with the estates of the first settlers of the town.
On Cross street there formerly stood one of the ancient landmarks, that was permitted to remain stand- ing till quite recently. The following account of the old building and the estate upon which it stood was prepared for another purpose, and is now reproduced for preservation and for more general publication.
On the twelfth day of July, 1849, Mr. Elisha Good- now, a benevolent citizen of Boston, executed his last will and testament, and, after providing for his family, devised and bequeathed all the rest, residue and remain- der of his estate, real and personal, not otherwise disposed of, to the city of Boston, its successors and assigns, to be held in fee-simple forever, directing, in the words of the instrument, that it should " be sold by the said city and converted into money, and that the net proceeds be held and kept carefully invested by it until a hospital for the sick shall be established within the present limits of the Eleventh or Twelfth Wards of the city of Boston, and that the whole principal and interest of the last devise of said residue, and of the funds and property in which the same and the proceeds thereof may be vested, shall then be applied to and for the benefit of such hospital, in such manner, and upon such terms and conditions as the said city, its government, or officers, shall deem most judicious: Provided, however, that one-half the said fund shall be applied for the establishment and perpetual maintenance of free beds in such hospital, which shall always be at the disposal and
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under the control of the government and officers of the said hospital for the time being. And by such hos- pital, I [the testator] mean an institution similar to the Massachusetts General Hospital, suitably endowed and properly managed, and not such public hospital as may be established or maintained in connection with the City Almshouse or House of Correction, or other muni- cipal establishment, or for the care and relief of paupers supported by the city."
The testator, Mr. Goodnow, died on the eighteenth of June, 1851, aged fifty-seven years and five months, and the will was duly proved on the eleventh of August following, and from that time the fee of the real estate thus devised became vested in the city of Boston. It was not until May, 1860, that the City Council took any action in reference to the matter; and it then appeared that the city had come into possession of a valuable piece of real estate, situated on the easterly side of Cross street, between Hanover and North streets. Upon this estate was then standing the oldest building remaining in Boston, for it was certainly more than two hundred years since the Old Stone House in Cross street was erected. The city authorities having recently resolved upon widening Cross street, and having, on Wednesday, the thirtieth of March, 1864, sold the materials of the building, with a view to the sale of the land on the fourteenth of the following month, it will not be amiss to review the history of this old relic of past ages, and leave on record a description of its appearance before its final demolishment, which took place immediately afterwards.
To casual observers the building appeared to be constructed of wood. This was not so. It was built
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chiefly of stone, the common rocks found in the native soil of the peninsula having been broken into various shapes and sizes, and laid into place in the rough form left by the maul of the workman. In its original state, when it was known as the "Stone House of Deacon John Phillips in the Cross street," it was low in struc- ture, a portion of it only containing two stories. The massive chimneys, with their spacious fireplaces, con- structed of large coarse bricks and stones, of uncommon size, were, as far as practicable, on the outside of the building, and portions of the house were covered with thick slate stones at the top of each of the stories. At the back part of the stone house stood a wooden lean-to, subsequently erected by one of the numerous tenants of the old mansion.
This old estate appears originally to have belonged to John Milom, a cooper, who sold it to Mr. John Phillips, biscuit baker, on the sixteenth of June, 1648, at the time he removed hither from the neighboring town, Dorchester. At this time the estate consisted of a "dwelling house & shop & garden in Boston, bounded on the northeast with John Hill, the lane southwest, Tho. Yow northwest, & the cove southeast." In February, 1652, Mr. Phillips, who in 1650 had become deacon of the second church in Boston, purchased other estate of Augustine Clement, the same having belonged successively to John Milom, George Dell, Mark Hands, John Sweet, and John Farnham; and thus having satis- factorily enlarged his domain, dwelt within these strong walls until he was called to his final earthly home on Copp's Hill, on the twenty-second of December, 1682, at the good old age of seventy-seven years, leaving his lands and other worldly estates to his grandchildren,
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making reservations for the maintenance of Sarah, the wife of his old age, and for his only daughter Mary, the wife of George Mountjoy, sometime of Boston, but chiefly known for his early endeavors at Piscataqua. His goodwife Sarah, who survived him, and whom he married in 1676, very shortly after the decease of Joanna, the wife of his youth, was the widow Minor. In a marriage contract, dated on the sixth of January, 1675-6, he made provision that, in case she survived him, she should have "the south part of his stone house, situated in Boston, that is to say, the low room in which he now liveth, or the room called the hall, which is in the west end (which of them the said Sarah shall make choice of) with one-half part of the cellar which is under the south part of the said house, with the cham- ber and garret over the south part of the said house, with the woodhouse in the yard thereunto belonging, with one-third part of the garden, thereunto adjoining," etc., " with liberty of the wharf" on the south side of the estate, running down to the cove.
On the decease of Deacon Phillips the estate passed down in the possession of the Mountjoys, the Morti- mores, the Pullings and others, descendants of the deacon, being divided and subdivided, generation after generation, in a manner which has caused much per- plexity to modern conveyancers, until it came to Edward Proctor and others; then, in the year 1793, William Williams became the owner of the portion of the estate upon which the old house stood, who sold it to Thomas Williams in 1810, who in turn sold it to Deacon John Sullivan in 1816. Since this time the estate has been conveyed several times, and its history has become well known.
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The old stone house estate was quite small, meas- uring in 1765 only about twenty-eight and a half feet by thirty-one feet; scarcely large enough for the house and outhouses that stood upon it. In after years, it was enlarged, as in former it had been curtailed, by divisions among numerous heirs.
When goodman Phillips resided on the old lot, his neighbor, towards the then middle street, was John Turell, whose estate passed down to his son Samuel, and grandsons John and William; then successively to James, William and Abraham Codnor, and then, in 1799, to Ebenezer Wells. The neighbor on the north- easterly side was George Burrill; and his estate passed in succession to George and Samuel Burrill, Mrs. Martha Lewis (afterwards Goldthwaite), John White, and others. On the southeasterly or North street side, Mr. Phillips may be said to have had no neighbors, because his estate extended across the street (formerly Fish street) to the water; but, a short time before his decease, he sold a lot on Cross street, just southeast of the stone house, to Captain Christopher Clarke, which has been owned in order of time by Joseph Townsend, Thomas Gross, the heirs of Gross, John Fayerweather, Henry Stanbridge and others. Other portions of the Phillips estate on North street were subsequently owned by the Pullings, the Thomp- sons, and in later times by Reeds, Churchill, Loring, Martin, Kast and Sanford.
In more recent times, some of the owners of the old stone house added to the height of the building by placing upon it another story, constructed chiefly of brick; and also changed the appearance of the exterior of the ancient structure by covering nearly the whole of
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
it with boards, clapboards and shingles, lengthening and topping off the chimneys to make them conform to the modern innovations.
When the old building was taken down, and its massive walls, two or more feet thick, were removed, the ancient oven and its immense chimney, in which the good old deacon of primeval days had baked his undoubt- edly delicious corn-cakes and honest weighted biscuits, were exposed to view. These stood on the easterly part of the house, the chimney, as before mentioned, on the outside of the building, and both constructed of stone found on the soil, and of uncommonly large bricks, all laid in clay, although a subsequent tenant had pointed many of the seams with shell mortar, unquestionably indigenous to the neighboring cove, and perhaps cal- cined on the spot. The antique tiles, that formerly decorated the comfortable parlor and best chamber of goodwife Phillips, were (many of them) in good preser- vation, and would have made a respectable appearance in reception rooms of a more modern date. These were five inches square; and were constructed of white enamel, with various devices in the natural colors represented. Two of these, now before the writer, display, the one a hunting scene, with a sportsman and his dog, gun, and game; and the second a rustic love scene, very highly colored and artistically executed. The tiles of the present day appear insignificant in ex- ecution, when compared with these charming relics of bygone days.
Popular rumor has induced many credulous persons to believe that this old mansion was used during the early days of the town as a fortress; and many think it may have been once employed as a jail. But there is
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no evidence whatever that it was ever put to either purpose. Indeed, on the contrary, from the days of Deacon Phillips down to the present time, nearly all the tenants are known; and, moreover, the location of the jail, in its various positions, is also well known. The building was never needed for such purposes, and there is no reason to believe the unauthenticated surmises which would lead to such conclusions.
All of the original estate of Deacon Phillips, lying upon Cross street and west of North street, having come into the possession of the city, in consequence of the bequest of Mr. Goodnow and purchases made in 1860, at the time of widening North street, the city authorities wisely came to the conclusion to sell the same, and it was divided into seven lots, which were sold at public auction on Thursday, the fourteenth of April, 1864. All that remained of the old buildings, except the cellars, disappeared before that time.
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CHAPTER LVI.
THE OLD CORNER BOOKSTORE.
The Old Book Store on Washington and School streets. . . The Centre Quad- rangle of the old Town, 1643 . . . The ancient Inhabitants of the Lots . . . The Old Corner, and its Surroundings .. . William Hutchinson its first known owner in 1634 . . . Removal of Hutchinson to Rhode Island in 1638, and sale of the lot to Richard Hutchinson . . . Boundaries of the Lot in 1643 . . . Estate owned by John Evered in 1658, and by Henry Shrimpton in 1661 . . . School street laid out in 1640 · · · Corner Estate devised by Shrimpton to his daugh- ter Abigail in 1666 · · · Sold to Thomas Crease in 1707 . . . Mrs. Bourne's House destroyed by fire in 1711 . . . The present Brick House built by Mr. Crease in 1712 . .. The Estate sold to Peter Luce and Nicholas Davis in 1727. .. ' Sold in 1755 to the Executors of Thomas Palmer .. . Sold to Edward Sohier and wife in 1784 · · · Estate passed to Elizabeth Inches, and conveyed by her in 1795 to Herman Brimmer . . . Since 1795 owned by the Brimmer and Inches families . .. The old tenants and their neighbors . . . Modern Tenants . . . Description of the Building.
HISTORICALLY considered, there is no part of the peninsular portion of Boston that is so rich with anti- quarian associations as the large quadrangle which has Court street for its northerly boundary, Washington street for its easterly, School street for its southerly, and Tremont street for its westerly. In the olden time, the first-mentioned of these streets was for obvious reasons called Prison Lane, and subsequently, until the close of the Revolutionary War, was known as Queen street, and then designated as Court street, on account of the situation of the old Court house, which formerly fronted upon it. The street forming the easterly boundary was early known as " the Market street," and sometimes as " the highway leading to Roxbury," and in later years
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as " Cornhill" ; all of which names have been given up to adopt that of the father of the country. School street was early known as "the lane leading to Centry Hill," and very early received its present name, on account of the building anciently erected and used as the first school-house. The street on the west of the quadrangle was first known as "the highway to the Common," then Common street, and finally Tremont street.
This quadrangle was divided into lots, some of which were retained for public purposes, and the others were granted to the first settlers for house-lots and gardens. On Tremont street, running north, were, as early as 1643, the burying ground, and the lots of Henry Messinger and Richard Croychley, the latter being at the corner of Court street. Following in course on Court street were the estates of Mr. Croych- ley, Richard Tapping, the prison and its yard and garden, and John Leverett. Turning the corner, and proceeding southward, were the estates of Mr. Leverett on the corner, then of Richard Parker, the meeting- house (on its second site), Valentine Hill, Robert Sedgwick, and Richard Hutchinson. On School street there were only three estates, - those of Mr. Hutchin- son, and Thomas Scottow, and the old burying-place. Richard Truesdale, Thomas Clarke and Robert Turner had rear estates in the same square near where Williams Court now is.
It is the purpose of the present writing to give a brief account of one of the ancient landmarks that now stands upon the southeast corner of this great quadrangle.
There are very few persons, who have dwelt any considerable time in Boston, who are not familiar with
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON. 673
the appearance of the old corner store on Washington and School streets, for many years past occupied as a book-store, and so well known as the head-quarters of the principal literary spirits of Boston and of the neighboring towns and cities. But it is not supposed that all who frequent the store are acquainted with the history of the ancient building and of the estate upon which it stands; nor does it appear reasonable that those who are accustomed to pass by this ancient mansion ever stop to consider and realize how much of the old history of New England has been enacted, as well as published, in the immediate vicinity of the interesting spot. The now gay Washington street was in the olden time simply known as the highway to Roxbury, and upon the opposite side of this highway, over and against the site of the old corner store, dwelt the notables of the town, - the governor, the elder of the church, the captain of the artillery company, and the most needful of the craftsmen and artificers of the humble plantation; and at a short distance from it were the meeting-house, the market-house, the town-house, the school-house, and the ever-flowing spring of pure water.
In the early days of the colony, all the land upon the peninsula of Boston became the property of the town, and subject to the disposal of the townsmen, or of the selectmen chosen to manage the town's affairs when so directed by positive vote. The town's-people may have reserved portions to be kept open forever as common land, but no part of the town was ever given by deed or will to the inhabitants with any condition of possible or probable reversionary interest as has been by many supposed. The corner in question, or rather the
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large estate upon it, extending quite to the present City Hall square on School street, and a considerable dis- tance on Washington street, northerly, somehow or other became during the earliest days of the town the possession of Mr. William Hutchinson, the husband of the famous Ann, and subsequently one of the Assist- ants in the Rhode Island Plantation, and himself the ancestor of a long line of distinguished descendants who held the most important positions in the Massa- chusetts colony, both in civil and military life.
Mr. Hutchinson could not have had the grant before September, 1634, the time when he, with his wife and children, arrived in New England; nor could it have been made to him much later, as it would have been noted among the grants recorded in the town's first book of records, the portion of which in preservation commenced on the seventh day of the same September (1634); and in 1638, about four years after coming to Boston, he removed to Rhode Island. Soon after his banishment from the Massachusetts colony, on account of the peculiar theological views of his remarkable wife, the following record was entered upon the town's book, under date of the twenty-ninth of July, 1639: " Also there is leave granted to or brother Edward Hutch- inson ye younger in behalfe of his father Will™ Hutchinson, to sell his house in this towne to M' Richard Hutchinson of London, lynning draper." When this estate was sold to Mr. Hutchinson in 1639, it contained about one-half of an acre, and was bounded on the east by the street leading to Roxbury; on the south by the lane leading to the common; on the west by the land belonging to Mr. Thomas Scottow (after- wards purchased by the town on the thirty-first of
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