The City Record and Boston News-Letter

Dorchester Day Parade This Sunday

The James Blake House from the Dorchester Souvenir Calendar, 1896, prior to relocation and renovation (Photo courtesy of the Dorchester Atheneum.)

The annual Dorchester Day Parade will be held Sunday June 4th to celebrate the 376th anniversary of the founding of Dorchester.  You can also read my remarks on the  375th anniversary of the founding of Dorchester. 

The Dorchester Historical Society will be having a party on June 4th at the James Blake house, Boston's oldest house, from 11 A.M. to 4 P.M.  There will be a 6-piece band, a Puritan re-enactor, and exhibits and tours of the Blake House.  You can come to the party early, go see the parade, and the come back.  Money raised during the party will help support the restoration of the James Blake House. 

The Dorchester Day Parade starts in Lower Mills at 1 P.M. and ends at the Columbia Road/Dorchester Avenue intersection, close by the Blake House, so you can see the parade and attend the party.  Such entertainment!   If you're planning on coming to the Blake House, be sure to let me know--I'm always interested in meeting my readers.

United States Branch Bank, 1825

(Above) United States Branch Bank, (Below) Ground Plan of the United States Bank, both from the City Record and Boston News-Letter, 5 November 1825, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Images copyright the City Record and Boston News-Letter, all rights reserved)

Abel Bowen not only edited the City Record and Boston News-Letter, he was a wood engraver of some renown and created the illustrations of the United States Branch Bank for the first issue of his new newspaper.  One interesting (and hitherto unknown to me) item from Bowen's description of the new bank:  the original site of the bank was to have been on the site where the Old State House still stands today.  The replacement of the seat of British colonial power with a bank emblematic of the financial strength of the United States would have made sense as a symbolic statement and it also would have been an important urban planning decision.  The new bank would have sat at the head of Boston's most important street, looking down to Long Wharf, making the bank the focal point of commerce in Boston.

Bowen's description of the bank:  "The new Banking-house, which is intended for the accomodation of the United States Bank at Boston, is situated at the corner of State-street and Wilson's lane [see map below].  The building is of granite, about 44 feet in front, and 96 feet deep.  The portico is imitated from the primitive form of the Grecian temple, with little variation, excepting what was necessary to adapt it to the location, and to the refractory material, of which it was to be built.  The form of the Portico belongs to the first class of Temples which is described by Vitruvius, and is denominated the Temple of Antis.  The columns are of the Grecian Doric, 4 feet in diameter, and 24 feet high, the shaft being of a single piece.  [More on columns here.]

In the front part of the building, on the first floor, there is an entry, and two rooms, for the president and cashier; and in the second story over them, a large room for the accomodation of the directors.  The centre of the building is occupied for the Banking room, which is a rotundo, 36 feet in diameter, and 44 feet high to the top of the curb stone.
The rear of the building contains the vaults, which open into the Banking room, and also a number of rooms which are to serve for the various purposes of the Bank.  The building is warmed by an air stove of the Wakefield kind, which is set in the cellar.  The construction of the whole is of the most solid kind,  The first floor and principal room are vaulted in with bricks, and the dress is intended to be of a severe and masculine character becoming a National Edifice of a young Republic.

The first outline was made for the situation which is occupied by the old State-house, and was intended to be an imitation of the purest example of the Grecian Doric Order, with two porticos; but the scite which was finally obtained required a different arrangement.  One of the porticos was dispensed with, and Antae at the angles introduced, according to the primitive form of the Grecian Temple.  The shafts of the columns are frustums of cones, the sides being right lines, which being the most severe and simple form, seemed the best adapted to the occasion....

Mr. Solomon Willard was the designer and architect; Mr. Gridley Bryant, mason; and Mr. James M'Allaster, carpenter.  The foundation was commenced, May 17, 1824; corner stone laid, July 5, (the plate, which may hereafter be found beneath it, says July 4;) the outside work was completed, Jan. 1, 1825."
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From the 1896 Annual Report of the Street Laying Out Department:

Wilson's Lane, B.; from King (now State) street to Dock Square; called Crooked lane, 1708; name changed to Wilson's lane, May 12, 1712; Devonshire street extended through Wilson's lane to Dock square, June 6, 1872.

In this excerpt from John Hales's 1814 map of Boston, Wilson's Lane can be seen running parallel to Exchange Street.   Also note that Quincy Market has yet to be built.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day in Newbury, Massachuetts, 2005 (Photo copyright the City Record and Boston News-Letter, all rights reserved)

Summertime, and the Readin' is Easy

Some of the Editor's books.

Summer means reading and the City Record and Boston News-Letter has some suggestions that you city lovers might find enjoyable. Actually, Fall, Winter, and Spring mean reading too, but since every other publication in the world publishes a summer reading list--why shouldn't I?  Note to Southern Hemisphere readers: this is a winter reading list for you.

Joseph Mitchell, Up in the Old Hotel
Up in the Old Hotel might be the best 20th century reportage about any city (in the English language at least).  In these essays, originally written for the New Yorker, Mitchell explores mid-century New York City with an eye for the unusual, the underappreciated, and the unknown.  His love for New York City's eccentrics is obvious and his ear for conversation will astound you.

Joseph Mitchell, My Ears are Bent
Before Mitchell became a staff writer for the New Yorker, he spent several years as New York City newspaper reporter.  Most of these pieces are newspaper stories: late night patrols with New York City police officers, his coverage of the Lindbergh kidnapping trial, and interviews with all kinds of people, including Gene Krupa and George Bernard Shaw.  My favorites are the burlesque dancers in the chapter titled "Cheese-Cake".   His interview with Florence Cubitt, one of many dancers who hoped to become the Sally Rand of the 1939 New York World's Fair, is a masterpiece.  As Mitchell notes, "It was the first time a woman I had been sent to interview ever came into the room naked.  I say she was naked.  Actually she had a blue G-string on, but I have never seen anything look so naked in my life as she did when she walked into that room."  And Brian McGrory complains about the weather causing women to swathe themselves in Gore-Tex! 

A.N. Wilson London: A History
Can London's history be accounted for in 200 or so pages?  Yes, although this book will likely lead you on to other books about London, like Peter Ackroyd's London: The Biography (which is something like 800 pages long--not exactly beach friendly!)

Jonathan Glancey, London: Bread and Circuses
I've written about this book previously and the themes suggested in it are worth considering as Boston enters the 21st century.

Simon Reynolds, Rip it Up and Start Again: Post Punk 1978-1984
The music of my youth, with a brief (very brief!) account of Boston's own Mission of Burma, but much more about British music in the wake of the punk explosion.  While the book is about music, Reynolds also examines the environments which spawned bands like the Mekons (Leeds) Orange Juice (Glasgow), the Specials (Coventry), and Joy Division (Manchester), among many others--the post-industrial decay in the English hinterlands helped thriving music scenes develop all over the country. 

The Good City: Writers Explore 21st-Century Boston
A collection of essays looking at the problems and possibilities that await Boston, including essays by Robert Campbell and Jane Holtz Kay, Howard Bryant, Jack Beatty, and Susan Orlean.

Read any good books about cities lately?  What will you be reading this summer?  Leave a comment!

I would like to thank my readers who have bought books from Amazon via my website.  Did you know that anything you buy from Amazon gives me a small commission if you go to Amazon from the City Record and Boston News-Letter?  That's right--books, music, blenders, a tub of 9000 ladybugs (don't believe me?  click the link), and special thanks to the person who bought the X-Box.  Now if I can just get 100 people to buy this $225,000 watch, I'll be all set.  So if you're going to buy from Amazon, why not start by going through my site to get there?  It is easy and painless!

The Mill Dam and Boston's Back Bay, 1821

Map of the Mill Dam and the Back Bay from John Hales' A Survey of Boston and Its Vicinity (1821) (Image copyright The City Record and Boston News-Letter, all rights reserved)

I have previously written about Boston surveyor John Hales and his useful 1821 book A Survey of Boston and Its Vicinity; Shewing the Distance from the Old State House, at the Head of State Street, to all the Towns and Villages Not Exceeding Fifteen Miles Therefrom; Also the Intermediate Distance from One Place to Another, Together with a Short Topographical Sketch of the Country.  Today's post shows a map of the completed Mill Dam from the same book.  What follows is Hales' description of the Mill Dam.  The letters in the text refer to points on the map, so click on the map to see a larger version.

"The Mill Dam a. b. c. d. e. just completed by the Boston and Roxbury Mill Corporation [note: initial construction was approved in 1814], from Beacon Street in Boston to Sewall's Point in Brookline, is composed of solid materials and made watertight; its surface is horizontal about three or four feet above high water mark, fifty-feet in width and one mile and a half in length. This Dam cuts off and incloses about 600 acres of the southerly part of the Back or Great Bay, (over which the tide before regularly flowed) and renders the water that is now admitted therein subservient and manageable.

At c. f. there is a cross dam running from the main dam to Gravelly Point, which is also water proof, and divides the part of the Great Bay cut off by the long dam into two parts; the westerly part containing about one hundred acres is intended as a full basin, or reservoir of water.  The easterly part contains about five hundred acres and is intended as an empty or receiving basin.

In the long dam at b. there are five pair of flood doors grooved in massy piers of hewn stone, each pair moves from their opposite pivots towards the centre of the aperture on a horizontal platform of stone until they close in an obtuse angle on a projected line cut on the platform from the pivots in the piers to the centre of the space, with their angular points northerly on the open or uninclosed part of the bay. The object of these doors is to close against the flow of tides and prevent the passage of water into the empty basin, consequently at high tide that basin will be empty, with the exception of the waste waters received, during the flow of the tide, from the full basin after having supplied the mills, which is calculated will not rise to a height sufficient to impede the power necessary to carry the works.

At d. there are six watertight sluices leading into the full basin. These sluices are to open every tide when the water in the outer or uninclosed part of the bay hath the ascendancy over the water in the full basin, in order to admit the flow of tide into the reservoir, and to be closed immediately at high water; by this process the full basin will be left full of water every tide as high as the tide has flown, if so high it is needed. 

Gravelly Point in Roxbury is intended as the scite [sic] whereon mills or factories are to be erected, somewhat in the line g. g. g. between the full and receiving basins, and sluice ways are to be built from the full basin at h. h. & c. of a size sufficient to admit so much water as will move and keep in motion the power contracted for. The waste water therefrom falling into a raceway which conducts it to the empty basin, and this empty basin discharges itself every tide at low water through the flood doors, so that the reservoir is filled at high water and the receiving basin emptied at low water, by which means there will be a continual supply of water through the sluice ways from the full basin, to set and keep at all times in motion the mills, factories, or other water powers that are erected between the basins, and there will be a sufficient fall from the water in the full basin to the water in the receiving basin to prevent the mills from choaking [sic], so that the powers may with propriety be said to be perpetual.

There are two roads leading from the long dam, one west by north to the Brighton road, the other south-westerly to the Punch Bowl village in Roxbury, both whereof considerably shortens the distance to Boston from the west and south-westerly parts of the country, and there is one road leading from the short dam to Roxbury Street."

Be sure to read other posts about John Hales: Circuit Round the Town of Boston and how to gauge one's walking speed along Boston Common.

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St. Peter's Church Dorchester, c. 1888

St. Peter's Church, Eaton Square, Dorchester, c. 1888 (Image copyright the City Record and Boston News-Letter, all rights reserved)

John Daley has a post today about the possible fate of St. Peter's Church in Dorchester.  This c. 1888 view of the church, the first Catholic church built in Dorchester, shows a very different Dorchester than what we know today.  The streets look like country roads.  It should be noted that as late as the 1870s cattle were driven from the Neponset over to Brighton right past the location of St. Peter's, which was constructed in the 1870s.

Beacon Hill Reservoir, c. 1870

Beacon Hill Reservoir Looking Towards Boston's West End, between 1865-1883. (Image copyright The City Record and Boston News-Letter, all rights reserved)

Today's image is a view looking out over the Beacon Hill Resevoir, which was built in the late 1840s to hold water being brought to Boston from Lake Cochituate.  The construction of the reservoir did not have an auspicious start. The Barre (VT) Patriot for 19 November 1847 has a story about an accident which occurred during the laying of the cornerstone.  The derrick swinging the stone into place broke and fell into another derrick which also broke, injuring a young girl who had her leg broken and a boy who suffered bad bruising.  It could have been worse: the accident happened at 11:30 A.M. and the cornerstone ceremony had been scheduled for noon, which meant a much larger crowd would have been present.

 

In 1848 an observed noted, "the reservoir on Beacon Hill advances as rapidly as the nature of the work will allow.  It will be an immense structure of granite masonry, though not as I had supposed, composed simply of four walls.  The basin is separated by many huge granite partitions, which doubtless are intended to secure the walls against the lateral pressure of so lage a body of water.  The water will be introduced into the city before this is completed; [there was a celebration in 1848 when the water pipes reached Boston Common] and when it comes then expect a high time.  Water which costs three millions is worth a fuss."  (Letters by Perth, Brattleboro (VT) Semi Weekly Eagle 25 September 1848)

When completed in 1849, the bottom of the reservoir was about 100 feet above the tidal marsh line, which meant that adequate water pressure existed to drive water to the upper stories of most houses in the area. Supply was not always adequate to demand.  On one day in late January 1854  the water was only seven feet deep in the reservoir at sunrise and the reservoir was dry by noon which meant, according to the Boston Transcript, that "as a consequence the residents in Beacon, Mt. Vernon, Joy and Hancock streets could obtain no water last night after 8 o'clock." [Barre Patriot, 3 February 1854]

Points of interest in the photo include the Massachusetts General Hospital at the middle left edge, Old West Church in the center of the image, and the Boston and Lowell passenger depot on the site of present day North Station at the right middle edge.  The image also gives an excellent sense of the density of Boston's West End, which was demolished in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

At one point in Boston's history, the resevoir site had an even higher elevation:  the Massachusetts Historical Society has a view of the back of the State House as it appeared c. 1811, when the back side of Beacon Hill was being cut down.  Note Charles Bulfinch's triumphal column on top of the hill in the MHS image.  The Beacon Hill Reservoir was demolished in 1883 to make way for a rear extension to the Massachusetts State House.  The extension was designed by Charles Brigham and constructed between 1889 and 1895.

The Bostonian Society has several images of the reservoir, including circa 1860 exterior views here and here, a circa 1865 view, one of the reservoir demolition in 1883 and a glass plate negative which appears to be the above photo.

The Metropolitan Water Resources Authority has a brief history of Boston's water supply here.

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All the Streets in Boston Part 2

Another installment of "All the Streets in Boston"--at least those listed in the 1910 edition of A Record of the Streets, Alleys, Places, Etc. in the City of Boston.  Highlights include the history of Beacon Street, the Barricado, Bedford Street, and several of Boston's earliest streets.  Have fun!

Back Lane to Ballister Street
Ballou Avenue to Barton Court
Barton Street to Beach Place
Beach Street to Bedford Place
Bedford Street to Belknap's Yard
Bell Alley to Berry Street

Master Index here.

A Conference and a New Blog

The registration deadline is approaching for the 2006 Massachusetts History Conference "Outside the Textbook: Writing History for Everyone", sponsored by the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities and the University of Massachusetts Program in Public History.  I will be part of the panel "Creative Publishing Options for Local History" and I will be talking about some of the nuts and bolts of history blogging along with the potential benefits blogs offer history organizations.  The real draw of the conference is the novelist Anita Diamant, who will give the keynote. The conference will be held on Monday, 12 June 2006 at Clark University in Worcester. For more details on the program and for registration information go here.  The registration deadline is 1 June 2006.

Keeping with the "Writing History for Everyone" theme, Adam Gaffin has brought a new history blog to my attention.  Boston 1775 is just the thing for those of you interested in how Bostonians (and other local folks) experienced the American Revolution.

Save the Customs House Columns!

Stereocard of the United States Customs House, Boston, c. 1880 (Image copyright the City Record and Boston News-Letter)

Brian McGrory has a column in today's Globe about the decision to tear down the columns which grace the entrance of the Franklin Park Zoo.  The decision, made by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation has attracted little attention:  apparently the Boston Landmarks Commission approved the destruction afew weeks ago with little fanfare.  McGrory's main point is a good one.  If these columns were anywhere in downtown Boston they would be preserved as a substantial monument.  While I don't believe it is racism, as some think, that made the columns vulnerable, I do believe that the decision has everything to do with a significant undervaluation of Boston's history outside of the Freedom Trail/American Revolution story and the location of the columns away from Boston's history nexus doesn't help.

We're coming up on the 400th anniversary of the founding of Boston in 2030.  The American Revolutionary era represents 5% of Boston's history--what is Boston (and the Commonwealth) doing to save and intepret the other 95%?  Boston profits greatly from its history but a plan needs to be in place to reintegrate the history of Boston's neighborhoods into a larger story.  The story of the columns and how they ended up at the Franklin Park Zoo is a natural way to link and interpret several parts of Boston's history, if only the state and city would see it.

The columns at the Franklin Park Zoo are the interior columns which supported the ceiling of the United States Custom House, which was completed in 1847 and designed by Ammi B. Young (see below).  The columns, Corinithian in style, are three feet in diameter and twenty nine feet high.  The exterior columns, seen in the photo above, are Doric columns of Quincy granite. The exterior columns are single pieces of granite, sixty-four inches in diameter, thirty-two feet high.  Each exterior column weighs about forty two tons and cost about $5200.  The interior columns were removed from the Customs House in preparation for the addition of the Peabody and Stearns designed tower which was completed in 1915, making it the tallest building in Boston at that time.  The columns in Franklin Park are a significant reminder of Boston's seaport heritage--after all, it was the United States Custom House which saw the growth of Boston's wealth and prosperity in the 19th century--and should be preserved.

I encourage everyone reading this to call their state representative and ask what they are doing to help save this Boston landmark.

Edit: A commenter asked who placed the columns at Franklin Park.  The City of Boston did, as part of the creation of the "Zoological Gardens," the plans for which were drawn up by Olmsted Brothers.  This particular component of the Zoological Gardens was called "Greeting".  The cost of repairing the columns for re-use was $13,000.  My guess is that the City of Boston saved the columns rather than dispose of them because of their size and value--they had been stored in Franklin Park since 1913.  The Boston Globe papers from 14 December 1916 and 14 January 1917 have short stories about the columns.

Edit 2:  The more I think about the columns, I am beginning to believe that their appearance in Franklin Park was inspired by the City Beautiful planning movement. While City Beautiful proponents had little effect on downtown Boston (South Station notwithstanding), Olmsted's parks were part of the push for better urban planning and the heroic and monumental aspects of the Customs House columns certainly fit into the style of classical architecture seen in Daniel H. Burnham's White City from 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago.  Peabody and Stearns, the firm which designed the Custom House Tower which made the removal of the columns necessary, had designed the Machinery Hall at the Columbian Exposition.

A website about the Columbian Exposition can be found here.

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Ammi Burnham Young (1798-1874), a native of Lebanon, NH worked all over the country. His earliest work can be found in Vermont, where he designed the State House in Montpelier. He designed the Boston Custom House (1837-1847) and many other buildings including Custom Houses in Norfolk, VA and Charleston, SC while serving as supervising architect for the United States Treasury Department.  In 1840, his Boston office was at 1 Commercial Wharf.