Copy 2 BOSTON'S GROWTH \/ BOSTON'S GROWTH A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF BOSTON'S INCREASE IN TERRITORY AND POPUIATION FROM ITS BEGINNING TO THE PRESENT PRINTED FOR THE STATE STREET TRUST COMPANY BOSTON, MASS. 3 COPYRIGHTED 19 10 BY THE ST A TE STREET TRUST COMPANY COMPILED, ARRANGED AND PRINTED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE WALTON ADVERTISING AND PRINTING COMPANY BOSTON, MASS. f CLA278777 ^ O R E W O R D THE STATE STREET TRUST COMPANY takes pleasure in presenting its fifth monograph upon a subject relating to Boston's History. It gives, with the aid of maps, reproductions of old prints, and a brief explanatory text, a bird's-eye view of what Boston was territorially and how it has at- tained its present size. It is impossible to deal fully with the subject within the limits of so small a book. To tell the story in detail would require volumes. This brief presentation shows, however, many of the salient features of the growth of the shore line of Boston proper and incidentally summarizes what has been accomplished in the districts beyond the peninsula. It also gives the population of the city at various periods. The subject is of much interest because of the consideration of adding further territory to the city, so that it will truly become a Greater Boston. Thanks are due to Mr. Edward W. McGlenen, City Registrar, and to Dr. Edward M. Hartwell, City Stat- istician, for their courtesy in facilitating the preparation of this work, and also to Mr. Charles E. Goodspeed for permission to use the Park Square print. [3] s; <3 c^ < ' ■? ^ "^ ri^ o-o .;>■- ti^ n3 • : : :i : ■ ";": :^ : x^ BOSTON'S GROWTH SINCE the days of William Blackstone, the first white inhabitant, Boston has undergone many changes, but none has been greater than that in its shape and size. Possibly no city in the world has altered more the physical conformation of its site. By levelling and filling, the original peninsula, upon which William Blackstone settled in the spring of 1625 and to which in the summer of 1630 he invited John Winthrop and his companions, has almost trebled in area, and has so changed its water front that hardly a foot of the shore line of the old Boston remains. One may obtain an idea of how extensive the filling has been from the fact that the original peninsula, from the neck north of the line of Dover Street, comprised four hundred and eighty-seven acres, and from the Roxbury line to Dover Street two hun- dred and ninety-six acres, making a total area of seven hundred and eighty-three acres for Boston proper, as it was before any filling of the coves and creeks which indented its shores. The area has since been increased by the addition of one thousand one hundred and twenty-one acres of filled land to one thousand nine hundred and four acres. [5] BOSTON'S GROWTH In 1634 William Blackstone sold for £30 that part of his farm now known as the Boston Common, then about fifty acres, and relinquished any rights that he had in the original peninsula to the town, consisting of John Winthrop and others who had accepted William Blackstone's invitation to settle upon his peninsula. The value of real estate on April 1, 1910, for the city of Boston was $1,118,989,100. CONFORMATION OF THE ORIGINAL PENINSULA. A glance at Boston as it was is necessary to appre- ciate the nature and extent of the filling and levelling process that has so transformed the city. And it is easy from the journals of the early visitors, so full of descriptions of Boston are they, to picture the peninsula as it was when William Blackstone lived in his small cottage about where the Puritan Club now stands on Beacon Street and near that projection of land on the Charles River subsequently known as Blackstone Point. The description will also present Old Boston as it was during the days of John Winthrop and the early settlers and almost up to the beginning of the nine- teenth century, because it was not until about 1804 that extensive fillings began. Although it is impossi- ble to ascertain why the Indians called the peninsula Shawmut, it is known that the Enghsh at Charles- town, whence Winthrop and his companions came, [6] BOSTON'S GROWTH called it Tramount, or Trimoiint, because of the three sharp peaks of Tramount, or Beacon Hill, which sil- houetted themselves against the sky. It received the name Boston by an act of the General Court, Septem- ber 7, 1630, and was so called in honor of Boston, St. Botolph's Town, England, whence many of the settlers came. As described by one of the earliest visitors: — "Boston is two miles N. E. of Roxbury. His sit- uation is very pleasant, being a peninsula hemmed in on the south side by the Bay of Roxbury and on the north side with the Charles River, the marshes on the back side being not half a quarter of a mile over; so that a little fencing will secure their cattle from the wolves; it being a neck and bare of wood they are not troubled with these great annoyances, wolves, rattle snakes and mosquitoes. This neck of land is not over four miles in compass, in form almost square, having on the south side a great broad hill [Fort Hill], whereon is planted a fort which can command any ship as she sails into the harbor. On the north side is another hill [Copp's Hill] equal in bigness, whereon stands a windmill. To the northwest is a high moun- tain with three little rising hills on the top of it, wherefore it is called the Tramount [Beacon Hill]. This town, although it be neither the greatest nor the richest, yet is the most noted and frequented, being the centre of the plantations where the monthly courts are kept." [7] BOSTON'S GROWTH ISLANDS OF BOSTON. Hills, dales, and lowlands covered the peninsula. At extreme high tides it became an island by the sea washing over Boston Neck, the narrow strip of land that connected it with the mainland at Roxbury. At the head of the peninsula stood Copp's Hill. Fur- ther to the west was Trimount, with the three peaks later known as Mount Vernon, Gentry or Beacon, and Cotton or Pemberton Hills. South of Copp's Hill and overlooking the sea was Fort Hill, early crowned with a fort for protection against invaders. Numer- ous brooks and creeks, fed by the springs of the peninsula, indented its shores. Along the line of the present Blackstone Street flowed Mill Creek, connect- ing what was subsequently the Mill Pond, or North Cove, with the Town, or Great, Cove, both now filled in. It made Copp's Hill an island. x4nother creek ran into the heart of the peninsula to about where Federal and Franklin Streets now are. A century and a half after its settlement so little had the conformation of Boston changed that the British were able to dig a moat through the neck in front of their fortifications at Castle Street. The most pre- cipitous part of Boston's shore line was in the neigh- borhood of Beacon Hill, and between it and the Charles River was a spur known as West Hill which formed part of Blackstone Point. The greatest of the indentations of Boston was the marsh land now [8] BOSTON'S GROWTH covered by the Back Bay, which extended approxi- mately from a point on Beacon Street between Charles and Spruce Streets to Commonwealth Avenue and Beacon Street in one direction and from the Charles River to Washington and Dover Streets in another. It comprised in all about five hundred and seventy acres. WEST, NORTH, AND TOWN COVES. The West Cove ran along the northwestern part of the peninsula, from Poplar and Brighton Streets to Revere and Charles Streets, comprising about eighty acres. At the northern end of the peninsula, running well into the mainland, from the Charlestown Bridge and Prince Street to Barton and Lowell Streets, was the Mill Pond, or North Cove, containing seventy acres. The northern shore of the North Cove in- cluded all of what is now Haymarket Square, covered Endicott Street, Thacher Street, North Margin, South Margin, and Lowell Streets, and penetrated to the rear of Baldwin Place almost to Salem Street and to Sudbury at Portland Street. Separating it from the bay was the Causeway, a foot - path used by the Indians on a more elevated part of the marsh and which a Mr. Crabtree early raised and widened into a dam. The Town Cove was on the east, and was known also as the Great Cove. It contained one hundred and twelve acres, and extended from about the junc- [9] BOSTON'S GROWTH tion of Commercial and Salutation Streets to Belcher's Lane. It was the port of the early colonial town, wherein were gathered most of the shipping interests. The Town Cove lay between the headlands of Copp's and Fort Hills, reaching inland to Franklin and Fed- eral Streets, to Kilby and State Streets, and to Dock Square. South of the Town Cove and comprising one hundred and eighty-six acres was the South Cove, a part of Roxbury Bay, and extending from about the corner of Atlantic Avenue and East Street to near the junction of Albany and East Brookline Streets. In a broad way, it was bounded on the north by Windmill Point and on the south by the head of the bridge to South Boston. ORIGINAL SHORE LINE. As accurately as it can be traced from the old maps, the shore line of the original peninsula would follow or touch these streets of the Boston of to-day, begin- ning at Boston Neck where Dover Street now crosses Washington Street. At this part of the peninsula the high tides often overflowed from the South Cove, or Roxbury Bay, to the marshes of what is now Back Bay:-^ Following the neck, the shore line ran between Washington Street and Harrison Avenue, finally touch- ing Washington Street where Washington now crosses Kneeland, and then, swinging to the east, crossed [10] BOSTON'S GROWTH Beach at Harrison Avenue. The bay washed the Beach Street end of Oxford, Edinboro, Kingston, Lincohi, and South Streets, and covered East Street to the corner of Atlantic Avenue. Turning northerly, the beach line followed Atlantic Avenue to the corner of Summer Street, and then ran easterl}^ between Atlantic Avenue and Purchase Street, crossing Gridley and Pearl Streets at Purchase Street, so that the site now occupied by the South Station was originally wholly under water, as well as much of the adjacent territory. Going east again, the line of shore touched Atlantic Avenue at Oliver Street, and then followed Atlantic Avenue to Belcher Lane. The shore then went northwest along the line of Broad Street to Battery- march Street and curved sharply to the south, cross- ing Oliver, Pearl, and Congress Streets, and reaching Franklin at the corner of Federal. It then curved sharply to the north, crossed Federal, Congress, and Milk Streets, and touched Post-office Square along Congress Street. The beach line swung across Water Street, where the Post-office and National Shawmut Bank now stand at the corner of Water and Congress Streets, and, still curving to the east, reached the pres- ent line of Kilby Street, along which it then went northerh'. The bay covered State, then Market Street, at the corner of Kilby, and thence the beach line followed Merchants Row to Dock Square. It is evident, [11] BOSTON'S GROWTH therefore, that OHver Street on one side and Kilby on the other marked the beginning of a long, narrow indentation where the bay reached to Frankhn and Federal Streets. Orange Avenue, Dock Square, Elm and Blackstone Streets, Salt Lane, North Centre Street, and North Street were all washed by the bay. Leaving the line of North Street at Ferry, the beach bent westerly, following Commercial Street to Charles- town Bridge and Wasliington Street North. Then the shore made a curve to the east, almost touching Prince and Salem Streets and reaching Blackstone and Union Streets again at Hay market Square. It then crossed Friend and Portland Streets at Sudbury, and reached Bowker Street. Here the bay went westward to Lyman Street, covering Merrimac and South Margin Streets, and thence along the line of Wall Street, crossing Minot, Willard, and Barton Streets, to Leverett. This sweep from the Charles- town Bridge to Barton Street made the North Cove, also known as the Mill Pond. Brighton Street marked another curve of the bay line, which turned here to the southeast, covering most of the land where the Massachusetts General Hospital now is, and also the line of Anderson Street. It crossed Cambridge Street at the corner of Anderson, and then, bearing west again, touched Charles Street. Turning east, it crossed Branch Street and reached the Boston Common, covering the southwesterly part [12] BOSTON'S GROWTH of the Common and all of Charles Street to Park Square and all of what is now the Public Garden. From Park Square the shore line curved to the east between Pleasant and Church Streets, crossed Shawmut Avenue at Osborn Place, and touched the neck again at Cherry and Washington Streets, and followed closely the line of W^ashington Street to Dover. ORIGINAL LIMITS. As the original peninsula early proved inadequate to meet the needs of the settlers for tillage, pasturage, and wood, a desultory filling of the creeks and shores of the marshes by individuals soon began, but there is no clear record of the date and the extent of these early reclamations. The earliest fillings began at the head of the creeks and the coves, and one of the first to be reclaimed was the land at the head of the creek where Post-office Square now is. Reclamation also took place about Dock Square. Boston also reached out for outlying territory, and in the colonial period exercised jurisdiction over some seventy thousand acres, while its present limits com- prise but twenty-seven thousand three hundred and sixty-four acres, including flats and water. If the movement for the purpose of consolidating adjoining towns into Greater Boston is successful, the greater area will be far less than Boston's original limits. [14] BOSTON'S GROWTH To the town were early granted many of the islands in the harbor, Muddy River, now Brookline, Mount Wollaston, Chelsea, tlie land east of the Neponset River, afterward incorporated as Braintree, Ran- dolph and Quincy, and territory granted as follows by the General Court: — One thousand acres, October 16, 1660, for the use of a free school, laid out in the wilderness, or north of the Merrimac River, incorporated in Haverhill, 1664; three townships six miles square, or sixty-nine thou- sand one hundred and twenty acres in all, June 27, 1735, in abatement of the province tax (these townships later became the towns of Charlemont, Colerain, and Pittsfield, Boston selling its interest in them June 30, 1736); a township of land in Maine, containing twenty-three thousand and forty acres, was granted on June 26, 1794, to build a public hospital, and was sold by the city, April 6, 1833, for $4,200; Muddy River was set off as Brookline on November 13, 1705; Rumney Marsh, as the town of Chelsea, January 8, 1739. The principal dates at which the towns were annexed or set off from Boston were as follows: — November 13, 1705, part of Boston called Muddy River established as Brookline. January 10, 1739, part of Boston called Winnissimet, Rumney Marsh, and Pullen Point (excepting Nod- dle's Island and Hog Island) established as Chelsea. March 6, 1804, part of Dorchester known as Dor- chester Neck or South Boston annexed to Boston. [15] VIKW OK THE SOUTH END OK BOSION, IN NEW ENGLAND, AMERICA, AND OF THE NECK, TAKEN FROM THE IIUA. NORTHEAST OF THE COMMON. (From a skctcli by R. Byron.) VIEW OF THE NORTH END OF BO.STON, IN NEW ENGLAND, AMERICA, AND OF CHARLESTOWN, TAKEN FROM THE HILL WESTWARD OF THE BEACON. (From a sketch by R. Byron.) BOSTON'S GROWTH February 23, 1822, Boston incorporated as a city. March 4, 1822, the act accepted by the town. May 21, 1855, part of Dorchester known as Washing- ton Village annexed to Boston. January 5, 1868, Roxbury annexed to Boston. January 3, 1870, Dorchester annexed. January 5, 1874, acts of annexation to Boston of Charlestown, Brighton, and West Roxbury took effect. April 13, 1894, bounds between Boston and Brookline established. OLD MILL-DAMS AND THE BARRICADO. The outlying land did, however, little to help the lack of space on the peninsula proper, so that the fill- ing in of the coves early began. This work was ulti- mately made much easier by the construction of numer- ous mill-dams, which were early erected to conserve the tidal water for grinding purposes. The Barricado along the front of the Town Cove, which later be- came the line of the old town wharves, helped in the filling of the Town Cove. This was a line of piles and stone-work built for defence against the Dutch, and ran from Scarlet's Wharf at the foot of Copp's Hill to South Battery at the foot of Fort Hill, with openings for vessels to pass. It enclosed and protected the Town Cove in which the shipping lay. Atlantic Avenue follows now substantially the line of the Barricado. To-day the greater part of the commercial section, [17] BOSTON'S GROWTH the residential section in the Back Bay, the largest portion of the raih'oad terminals, most of the great warehouses and wholesale business, and all of the wharves of Boston proper are on filled land. Much of the expansion of East and South Boston and Charlestown is also due to filling, and the growth of Boston in the future will be upon flats and marshes which are still to be filled. COLONIAL ORDINANCE INCENTIVE TO RECLAMATION. An old colonial order, reading "that in all creeks, coves, and other places about and upon salt water, where the sea ebbs and flows, the proprietor of the land adjoining shall have propriety to the low water mark," was responsible for the early individual effort to extend the shore by a reclamation of the marsh land. It offered an incentive in the shape of prop- erty rights to constant extension of the low-water mark, and as early as July 26, 1641, Robert Wing was paid twenty bushels of corn by the town for looking to the low-water mark on Centry Hill. To this old ordinance go back the titles of many of the land corporations of Boston. The earliest reference to a filling is to be found in an ordinance supposed to have been passed b^^ John AVinthrop and nine others on March 7, 1634, which di- rected that a beacon be placed to give notice of stones [18] ii H - o - z 5a '^ G ^ M > ^- C/2 *< d ?5 c S ■ O c Z 'JJ _: a; ~ c: K o o r<» z ;/; — o e_ ■^ C > z n .c ^ c s z > o r «; r BOSTON'S GROWTH and logs that might be laid near the landing-places, the penalty for the violation being damages for any vessel injured thereon. rONRTRT^rTTOX OF T.ONG WHARF. The first real enlargement of the city was the ex- tension of State Street by the construction of Long Wharf in 1709-10. Oliver Noyes and others were granted the necessary permission to build the wharf with sufficient common sewer from Andrew Fan- euil's Corner to the low-water mark. As finally com- pleted, the pier was of the width of Market, or Water, subsequently known as King Street, and finally called State Street, being thirty feet wide and having a space of sixteen feet in the middle for boats to load and unload upon, while the sea-wall end was reserved for a battery, should the town have cause to build one. The original name was Boston Pier. A foreign visitor described it as "a noble pier eighteen hundred to two thousand feet long with a row of warehouses on the north side for the use of merchants," and said that it extended far enough into the bay to admit of the unloading of ships of greatest burden. The con- struction of warehouses and shops on the north side of the wharf some time prior to 1722 made the pier a part of King Street. In fact, buildings on the pier were numbered before such was the general custom in the town. [20] m^mmm\.\Z ^ CHAR ^ ^ ^ ^ 296Acres \ baAk bay lt^57-1894 ^j 570 Acres cyt^ rU %;^ Present Area, north of Line of\ v\ Dover St. anci Dover St. ex- MAI* OP^ TllK OKirilXAI, rKMXSlLA. SII'll E S RIVER Total Land Area of Boston Proper in. 1630-783 Acres " •' " " '• 1000-1876 '• " " " " " 1010-1004 " BOSTON If; FILLIN(;S AND I'RESP^NT SHORE LINE. BOSTON'S GROWTH RECLAMATION OF THE BACK BAY. The most lucrative public improvement was the reclamation of the Back Bay section and its transfor- mation into one of the most beautiful residential sections in America. As in the case of other improve- ments, water power for mills was the purpose of its originator, Uriah Cotting, from whose persistence and executive ability the enterprise sprang, but at no time did he have in mind the ultimate use of the Back Bay as a site for residences. He organized and incorporated in 1814 the Boston & Roxbury Mill Corporation. By June 14, 1814, work had begun on the main dam. At that time the Back Bay was an expanse of water and marsh that extended from the foot of the Common to the uplands of Brookline and from the Charles River to the Boston Neck, and Boston's only connection with the mainland was by Boston Neck and Roxbury. Under its charter the corporation was empowered to build a dam known as the Mill Dam, following what is practically now the present line of Beacon Street, from the end of Beacon Street at Charles, to Sewall's Point at Brookline; and also a cross dam along what is now the present line of Brookline Avenue from the main dam to Gravelly Point in Roxbury. Permission was also given to construct roadways on each dam and to levy tolls for their use. A further provision granted permission to build a road from the [24] BOSTON'S G R O W T H western end of the main dam to Punch Bowl Road Tavern in Brookhne. The avenue thus opened along the Mill Dam was known as Western Aveiuie, and later became the continuation of Beacon Street. Authority was granted to confine the tide- water within the area of the Mill Dam, to erect mills to run by water power, or to lease water power. The company had the right to confine the flood-tide within the area of the dam and to discharge into a so-called empty basin, which was to be drained at ebb-tide. The construction of this Mill Dam furnishes the first record of the importation of Irish laborers. Parker Hill quarry furnished the stone. The opening of the dam was made of considerable civic importance, there being a parade and reception by the city fathers. The flood basin really comprised the whole of the Back Bay from Punch Bowl Road, now Brookline Avenue, to the Public" Garden. The purpose of the corporation originally was to cut a channel through the Boston Neck to drain the Back Bay into the South Bay. A channel was to be cut at Boston Neck about where the present Dover Street Bridge is, and a dam built, which would have completed the entire plan. Tidal mills were erected to use the water power created. [^26] BOSTON'S GROWTH OPPOSITION TO PROJECT AND CONTRO- VERSIES OVER RIGHTS. At first there was much opposition to Mr. Cot- ^ting's plans, and on June 10, 1814, in the Daily Ad- ■vertiser, a citizen under the signature "Beacon Street" wrote a letter protesting against "converting the beautiful sheet of water, which skirts the Common, into an empty nuiddy basin, reeking with filth, ab- horrent to the smell and disagreeable to the eye." Although Cotting began the work, he died before its •completion, and luider Colonel Loammi Baldwin, his successor, the Mill Dam was completed July '^, IS^l. The plan relative to Dover Street was not carried out. The Mill Corporation in 1824 was divided, and the Boston Water Power Company was chartered to pur- •chase and hold any water power of the Mill Cor- poration. The directors in both companies were the same. In 1832 the Boston Water Power Company took the city mills' entire water power and all lands south of the main dam, while the Boston & Rox- bury Mill Corporation retained the roads and prop- •ert}^ north of the dam. Controversies soon arose between the Mill Corpora- tion, the city of Boston, and owners of the uplands bor- dering the basin, as to the extent of flowage rights. The right of owners abutting on the marsh lands, cov- ered at high tide, to fill and thus exclude flo\\'age was a further cause of controversy. These controversies [27] r O ^ Cm a£ 1 < o z z z o z Z« O BOSTON'S GROWTH were finally compromised, and in 1832 the Supreme Court established the right of the Mill Corporation. When, however, the Boston & Providence and the Bos- ton & Worcester Railroads, incorporated in 1831, pro- jected their roads across the water basin of the Boston Water Power Company, the latter's stock depreciated fifty per cent., and strenuous objections were offered against the laying out of the roads. After some con- troversy the railroads succeeded in securing the con- cessions they desired. BACK BAY BECOMES PUBLIC NUISANCE. In the mean time the conditions of the Back Bay be- came a public nuisance. The city, prior to 1827, had held in fee about one hundred acres of land, and for permission to drain into the corporation basin from the adjoining territory ceded this land to the Boston & Roxbury Mill Corporation. The result was the erec- tion of buildings in the surrounding territory of Church and Suffolk Streets at a grade which would drain into this basin, increased, and conditions became so bad that the Back Bay was characterized as "an open cesspool." The State under riparian rights claiming the terri- tory, the city refusing to relinquish any of its claims, and the rights and privileges of the two corporations also being in dispute, a commission was appointed by the State, which in 1852 made a report, recommending [29] BOSTON'S GROWTH that the Corporations should be released from the obli- gations of their rights to forever maintain mill and water rights, and be permitted to use their property for land purposes. It advised that all filling should be done with clean gravel, a perfect drainage system maintained, the streets constructed should be wide and ample, and the Mill Dam, or Western Avenue, and all roads in the territory should eventually be free highways. The flats north of the Mill Dam were in- cluded in these improvements. It was further recom- mended that the receiving basin should be filled and laid out, and so disposed of as to secure for it a healthy and thrifty population. And, to prevent the territory becoming an abode of filth, the commission in conclu- sion advised that the filling be done by authority and under the direction of the State. The agreement between the Boston Water Power Company, the Boston & Roxbury Mill Corporation, and the State, divided the lands so that the State became the possessor of the unfilled lands north of an east and w^est line, starting near the present New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad depot, and south of the Mill Dam, while the other companies took the rest. Nothing, however, was done, and the nuisance continued to grow until 1856, when an agreement was entered into between the State, the city, which resisted all attempts to deny its rights, and the corporations. It called for the building of the sewer on Camden Street and the filling in of the lands of the Corpora- [30] I BOSTON'S GROWTH tion. It was not, however, until 1864, that another agreement, known as the Tripartite agreement, was signed, which concluded the final laying out of streets and led to the rapid prosecution of the work. The area thus filled by the agreement amounted to about one hundred and eight acres of public property, four hundred and sixty-two acres belonging to private owners and corporations. The filling cost, in the ag- gregate, $1,640,300.49, and yielded a gross income from land sales, exclusive of all gifts of land, of $4,708,936.28. The average price of land sold was $3.21 a foot; the highest price, $5 a foot; and the lowest, $2.75 a foot. In all about five hundred and seventy acres were added to the city during the years of the filling from 1857 to 1894. FILLING OF THE NORTH COVE OR MILL POND. The history of the North Cove, or Mill Pond, begins on July 31, 1643, when it was granted to Henry Simonds, John Button, and others, with three hundred acres at Braintree. Permission was conveyed to dig one or more trenches at Mill Creek and to bridge it at Hanover and North Streets with the old stipula- tion that attended all these dam rights, that one or more corn-mills be erected and maintained. The pro- prietors were also permitted to maintain a gate ten feet in width at the dam for mill purposes, but it was [31] BOSTON'S GROWTH ordered that at flood-tide the gate must be open for the passage of boats, so that they could arrive at their ordinary landing-places. Mills were erected at the west end of the creek and at either end of the Causeway. A grist-mill and a saw-mill stood at what is now the junction of Thacher and Endicott Streets, and a little distance beyond a chocolate mill was later erected. Mill Creek, which cut off that part of the peninsula at the north to which in times past the name Island of Boston was given, l)ecame in process of time a canal with walls of stone wide and deep enough to permit the passage of boats as large as sloops from the harbor on the east to the river on the west. This right of passage through the creek had been carefully reserved in the grant to Simonds. The canal, or Mill Creek, eventually became a part of the Middlesex Canal Extension, which was incorporated in 1793, and at the time its use was dis- continued by vessels had an average width of about twenty feet. It was crossed by the old mill bridge at Hanover Street, while at North Street was a draw- bridge, from which that street was sometimes called Drawbridge Street. Blackstone Street is now built upon the line of the original creek. [32] BOSTON'S GROWTH MILL POND CORPORATION. As the heirs of the original proprietors increased, the Mill Pond Corporation was chartered in 1804 to succeed to their rights, and steps were at once taken for the filling in of the Mill Pond. The original obli- gation to maintain the mills and bridges forever was repealed by a vote of the town in 1807. Permission was given to fill up the Mill Pond, and use the soil of Copp's and Beacon Hills for the filling. A condition of the grant was that the town should receive one- eighth of all the lots so filled within twenty years. Much of the rubbish from the streets of the neighbor- hood, as well as material from the hills, also found its way into the Mill Pond. An idea of the amount of material that went into this cove, which took twenty- five years to fill, the work beginning in 1807, may be learned from the fact that at the beginning of the ex- cavation of Beacon Hill for the Mill Pond the crest of the hill was level with the rail at the base of the State House dome, one hundred and thirty-eight feet above tide- water, and was graded down almost eighty feet, or to its present level, in the supplying of the mate- rial for the fill. A great deal of the work was done between 1824 and 1829. About seventy acres were added to Boston, including about twenty acres of street surface, leav- ing fifty acres for building lots, of which the town by agreement received one-eighth. Much land has since [33] BOSTON'S growth: been added beyond the Causeway by the railroad companies filhng in the adjoining flats and by erecting pile structures over the Charles River. On the filled land of the old Mill Pond are now located the ter- minals, freight and passenger, of the Boston & Maine Railroad, the offices and warerooms of the steel and iron industries, the large baking and confectioner}'' in- terests, and other enterprises in that vicinity. RECLAMATION OF THE TOWN COVE. After the completion of Long Wharf little was done to extend the city in the vicinity of the Town Cove until 1780, when there was further filling around Dock Square and about the foot of Merchants Row. Under the administration of Josiah Quincy, between 1823 and 1826, an extensive public improvement took place in the vicinity of Dock Square. This was the filling in about the Town Dock in the neighborhood of Faneuil Hall, and the erection on the made land of a granite market-house, now Quincy Market, two stories high, five hundred and thirty-five feet long, fifty feet wide, covering twenty-seven thousand feet of land, and costing $150,000. Six new streets were added to Boston, — South Market Street, North Mar- ket Street, the street leading to Long Wliarf now con- stituting a part of Commercial Street, Clinton Street, Roebuck's Passage, now part of Merchants Row, and Chatham Street. ■ [34] BOSTON'S GROWTH As the result of filling, one hundred and twenty- seven thousand square feet of land and flats, and dock and wharf rights to the extent of one hundred and forty-two thousand square feet, were added to Boston. The initial cause of this improvement was the crowded condition of the City Hall market-place, and the total cost was about $1,100,000. Mayor Quincy personally secured many of the optioiis on the different estates purchased. The increased real •estate values, as well as the additional property se- cured by the city, more than paid for the whole im- provement. The accompanying map shows the extent of the work. A gradual extension was made in the direction of the bay, until finally the land was com- pletely filled to the line of Atlantic Avenue. Com- mercial Street was completed in 1829, Fulton Street some years later. Atlantic Avenue was projected in 1868, and the filling completed in 1874. The material of which Atlantic Avenue was made came from the cutting down of Fort Hill, which was originally an eminence fifty feet high. With the exception of Washington Street, this avenue was one of the most expensive streets ever laid out by Boston, the total cost being $2,400,000. The material was brought in cars and dumped on the old docks along the line of the Barri- ■cado, and it is estimated one hundred and eighty- seven thousand five hundred and seventy cubic yards -were filled in between low and high water mark along [35] BOSTON'S GROWTH the line of the avenue. The filling completed the reclamation of the one hundred and twelve acres of the Town Cove, levelled the thirteen acres of Fort Hill, and yielded valuable business land along the main harbor front of the city. In the section origi- nally the site of the Town Cove are now to be found the market district of the city, the Custom House, much of the warehouse district of Atlantic Avenue and the coastwise steamship companies, the prod- uce exchange, and much of State Street, now as al- ways the financial section of the city. PUBLIC GARDEN. Another public improvement under the adminis- tration of Mayor Quincy was the securing for the city of the valuable tract now known as the Public Garden. This had been granted in the year 1794 to the pro- prietors of the rope-walks between Pearl and Atkinson Streets during a time of great excitement occasioned by the burning of these rope-walks, which had endan- gered the town. Accordingly, the rope-walks were moved to the site of the Public Garden, which was then known as the rope- walk lands. There were five rope-walks, and they stretched about three-fourths of the distance along Charles Street in the direction of Beacon. In their new location the rope-walks were again burned in 1806, and an agitation was started for their renewal. Although the original grant to the [36] BOSTON'S GROWTH rope-walk proprietors was a conditional one, it became necessary for the city to secure from them a quit- claim before it could take title to the property that it had formerly owned. Release to the whole tract was given by the rope-walk proprietors for $55,000. A vote of the citizens, December 27, 1824, denied the right of the City Council to sell the lands, and declared that they should be forever kept open and free of buildings for the use of the citizens. Thus was es- tablished the Public Garden. SOUTH COVE AND THE SOUTH COVE ASSOCIATES. The South Cove development was due to the enter- prise of the South Cove Associates, who were incor- porated in 1833 with a capital of $414,500, the stock of which was divided into five-hundred-dollar shares. They bought two million three hundred and seventy- five thousand square feet of flats at an average price of twelve cents per foot, together with such marsh and upland at Roxbury as were necessary to protect their rights. Work was begun in 1836, and by No- vember, 1839, fifty-five acres had been reclaimed, and seventy-seven finally added to the city at a cost of $316,084. Material for the fill came from Roxbury and Dorchester in boats and from Brighton by rail- road. The fill required one million five hundred thousand cubic yards, and involved the construc- [37] BOSTON'S GROWTH tion of three hundred and eighty feet of sea wall, and three miles of new streets. The Old Colony Rail- road bought the land where the New York, New Haven & Hartford terminal now is, paying for its land in stock. The United States Hotel, subsequently sold, was erected on their land by the South Cove Associ- ates. The filling of the South Cove rescued from the tide-water all of the low land east of Harrison Ave- nue from Essex Street to South Boston Bridge, and added to Boston a territory almost twice the size of the Common. Further filling in the South Cove was carried on in 1847 under the administration of Mayor Josiah Quincy, Jr., who was given authority to con- tract for filling the marsh lands known as South Bay on the southed V side of Boston Neck. FRONT STREET CORPORATION The Front Street Corporation, composed of persons owning estates east of Washington Street and south of Beach, received its charter in 1804. It constructed a street parallel with Washington Street, called Front Street, now Harrison Avenue, and the owners of the intervening flat lands did their own filling. The filling began in May, 1804, and was completed in October, 1805. The cost was $65,000, and nine acres were added to the city. Additional filling also occurred in this section on lands which the city owned. The material for the filling was from the excavation of [38] BQSTQN-S GROWTH Fort Point Channel, South Bay, and the gravel bank near Willow Court, as well as from gravel pits further away. Oliver Street was laid out by the city between 1847 and 1866, and Harrison Avenue became the main thoroughfare of this section. On the filled land of the South Cove are to be found the large railroad yards and depot of the New York, New Haven & Hartford system, many of the city buildings, mills, factories, and lumber interests; and here, too, the congested wholesale district finds an outlet. HOW THE WEST COVE WAS RECLAIMED. A sea wall along the line of the Charles River, west of the present line of Brimmer Street, made compara- tively easy the filling in of the West Cove, particu- larly as most of the material for the filling came from the cutting down of West Hill and the dumping of city ashes from Charles Street and the vicinity into the area between the sea wall and the shore line. The work was begun in 1803, and was carried on in a desultory way until 1853, but between 1853 and 1863 it was energetically pushed. Most of the work was completed before 1894. The section thus filled reached from Beacon Street to Lowell Street, and comprised an area of about eighty acres, which added $1,000,000 in assessed value to the city. A portion of the filling on the flats west of Charles Street was car- ried on by the Mount Vernon Proprietors, who suc- [39] Lund reclaimed \_ Flats available to be B MAP SHOWING LAMD RKCLAIMED AND LAND AVAILABLE FOR RECLAMATION. BOSTON'S GROWTH ceeded after various sales to the estate of John Single- ton Copley, the artist, who owned eighteen acres on the west side of Beacon Street. DEVELOPMENT OF EAST BOSTON. To the foresight and perseverance of General William H. Sumner is due the development of Noddle's Island into that populous section which is now known as East Boston. Less than eighty years ago East Boston was a barren, treeless island, inhabited by one family and surrounded by marsh. It belonged to the mother of General Sumner. When he was but a youth of nine- teen, he conceived a plan for the development of East Boston, and commenced to discuss the necessary plans, though it was many years afterwards that the pro- ject actually took shape. He had hoped at his moth- er's death that it would fall to his share, but in 1810 the estate was divided, and his sister inherited it. East Boston comprised the island known as Noddle's Island, — which was a part of the original town of Boston, which had been granted by the Colonial Court April 1 , 1623, to Samuel Maverick, — and Breed's Island. The area at the time of its annexation to Boston, Decem- ber 7, 1636, contained about six hundred and sixty- three acres. The marshes and flats surrounding it included one thousand five hundred acres. The General Court had already declared on May 13, 1640, that the neighboring island, Breed's Island, and marshes be- [41] BOSTON'S GROWTH longed to Noddle's Island. For a time General Sumner was content to manage the estate for his sister. Finally, however, he organized in May, 1833, the East Boston Company, raising the necessary money to buy the island, for $80,000. So little did a Mr. WilHams, who was one of the tenant farmers who had grown rich on the island, think of the project of dividing it into city lots, that he refused, with derision, an offer of an acre if he would put up a house on it. In the laying out of the property, four acres were set apart for schools, engine-houses, and burying- grounds. The first dwelling-house was erected by Guy C. Haynes, and occupied by him in September, 1833. The first public sale of lands netted $86,000, a profit of $6,000 over the purchase price. The island had been valued the same year at $60,000. The aggregate area reclaimed by the East Boston Company is about two hundred and fifty acres, and the principal filling has been between 1880 and the present. Much work has been done on the Parkway lands by removing one hundred and eighty thousand cubic yards of earth from Eagle Hill, near Meridian Street, to these lands. Many of the flats around East Boston are in pro- cess of reclamation either by the State, the city, or railroad and private interests which own the involved territory. The location on the Main Ship, Gover- nor's Island and Winthrop Channels makes this land of much value to Boston. [42] BOSTON'S GROWTH RECLAMATIONS OF THE COMMONWEALTH AND OTHER FLATS. The reclamation of the Commonwealth Flats in South Boston began about the same time that the South Cove and Front Street corporations commenced to fill the opposite, or Boston, side of Fort Point Channel. Much of the refuse of the great Boston fire was used here. The section known as the Commonwealth Flats in South Boston is owned by the Commonwealth of Massa- chusetts, and contains about five hundred and ninety- three acres. It lies adjoining the main ship channel, and the filling is for the purpose of increasing Bos- ton's harbor facilities. A substantial sea wall, finished in January, 1894, had reclaimed and enclosed about two hundred and sixty-two acres of the Commonwealth Flats by an average fill of eighteen feet. The New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad already own eighty-seven acres, and the land will probably yield to the Com- monwealth a clear profit of from $3,000,000 to $4,- 000,000. The whole section will probably furnish sites for warehouses, factories, and wharves. Work is also being done on the South Bay by the State, railroad, and private interests. Work is also in progress along the shore front of Charlestown. Re- cent notable fillings have been those of the Charles River Embankment and of the Charles River Basin. The development of the future will be in the nature [43] BOSTON'S GROWTH of increasing the harbor facilities. If all the possible improvements are carried out along the different lines that have been suggested, Boston Harbor develop- ments in the future will be very extensive. ORIGINAL AREA AND FILLING OF BOSTON IN ACRES. Corrected to September 1, 1910. [From Bulletin of the Statistics Department, City of Boston, Vol. XII., Nos. 4, o and 6.] Total area to Original Filled Ward land. land. Land. Flats. Water. Lines. Boston Proper 783 1.121 1,904 — 400 2,304 Annexed Territory: East Boston: Noddle's Island 650 110 700 ;200 36 996 Breed's Island 785 — 785 £1 123 929 South Boston 1,333 538 1,333 586 93 2,012 Roxbury 2,450 322 2,772 121 43 2,936 Dorchester 5,600 9 5,609 530 92 6,231 West Roxbury 8,075 — 8.075 — 45 8,120 Brighton 2,664 1 2.665 — 94 2,759 CharlestowTi 424 416 840 88 149 1,077 22,764 2,517 24,743 1,546 1,075 27,364 POPULATION AT DIFFERENT PERIODS. It will be interesting in conclusion to glance at some of the figures of population from the beginning to the present. The early population of Boston is in doubt, for all estimates prior to the beginning of the Federal Census in 1790 are only approximate. Thus the early esti- mated population was one hundred and fifty in 1638; in 1675, four thousand; in 1722, according to a census [ 44 ] BOSTON'S GROWTH taken by the town, it was ten thousand five hundred and sixty -seven; in 1765 a census taken by the Colony reported fifteen thousand five hundred and twenty; while ten years later a census taken by General Gage at the time of the British occupation in 1775 showed only six thousand four hundred and seventy-three. Between 1775 and 1776 there was quite an exodus of the families who desired to get out of Boston before its siege by the Patriots, so that the population in 1776 as taken by the Colony was but two thousand seven hundred and nineteen. In 1781 it had jumped again to ten thousand, and in 1784 to fifteen thousand eight hundred and seventy -six, while in 1789 an es- timated census taken bj^ the town shows seventeen thousand eight hundred and eighty. When the act was passed establishing the City of Boston on February 23, 1822, including annexations, the population of Boston was about forty-three thou- sand. The total number of votes cast at the town meeting to decide the question of whether Boston should become a city was four thousand six hundred and seventy-eight, of which two thousand seven hun- dred and ninety-seven voted "Yes" and one thousand eight hundred and eighty-one against the acceptance of the City Charter. Nine hundred and sixteen was therefore the majority by which Boston became a city. The following table shows the population of Boston proper, and its annexations from its beginning to the last census: — [45] DEC 31 t9JC Ji an O a. ■3"' .9^00 «§2 n a a; o pqfiK S^ g.-s O iOt^05U5 l-^<:^icin NtOOM ^OOt^OiOWt^iOtOt^OOOOOOOOO <^^. 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