Curiosities of History: Boston, September Seventeenth, 1630-1880 — John Shaqi
Curiosities of History: Boston, September Seventeenth, 1630-1880Wheildon, William W. (William Willder)
History
Curiosities of History: Boston, September Seventeenth, 1630-1880
Wheildon, William W. (William Willder)
Boston (Mass.) -- Description and travel; Boston (Mass.) -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
The Mill Pond, it is said, included about fifty acres,--nearly as large as
the north end island,--and, of course, must have furnished during the time
it was available--from an hour or two after full tide until an hour or two
before the next tide, night and day--a very large and extensive
water-power, and was, no doubt, though probably not half used, a very
valuable property.
It is stated by Drake, as if it were a consequence of the action of the
committee, that, "four years after the above report, a committee took
possession of the premises, as having reverted to the town." These
proceedings, it will be noticed, all refer to the "mill-pond mills," but
may be presumed to include the pond and the whole grant made in 1643; so
that in 1769 the property was in the hands of the town, as appears from
these statements.
After this time, by some means or other, the Mill Pond Company, or
Corporation, came into possession of the property, as Shaw says, "for the
consideration of five dollars;" and in 1807, the town became a partner in
the matter of tilling it up, the town to have the streets, we presume, and
one-eighth of the lots filled within twenty years. Permission was also
given to use the gravel of Beacon Hill for the purpose. The filling was
completed more than fifty years ago, and the entire space has long been
covered with buildings, and in 1832 included a theatre. The Boston and
Maine Railroad Station stands over the creek; and the large depot
buildings of the Fitchburg, Eastern, and Lowell Railroads are all on land
taken from the river outside the ancient causeway: so that no one of the
great railroad depots in the city stands upon the original land of the
town.
CONCLUSION.
Thus we have seen what were the features and topographical characteristics
of the original peninsula which forms the groundwork, as it were, of the
city proper of to-day. In the steady march of progress and improvements
which have marked its growth for two hundred and fifty years, such changes
and enlargements have been made, that neither its early outlines or its
original shape are any where to be observed. The great coves on either
side of the town have disappeared; and the renowned Tri-mountain, around
which so much of history gathered, and so much of puritanism and
patriotism were enshrined, is shorn of its ancient prestige, although
still, as it were, the summit of State authority; and of "Corne Hill,"
whereon the settlers of Boston, Charlestown, Roxbury, and Dorchester, in
1632, built the first fort for the defence of the settlement, not a
vestige now remains.
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