I w$m HP -*v. ■ --■■-'■' m -■-■"■■■'■»■■•. 3h£Sk9R9H ) V? v DEVONSHIRE STREET A COLLECTION OF FACTS AND INCIDENTS TOGETHER WITH REPRODUCTIONS OF ILLUSTRATIONS PERTAINING TO AN OLD BOSTON STREET PERRY WALTON WRITTEN AND PRINTED FOR THE SECOND NATIONAL BANK BOSTON MASSACHUSETTS bVSTUN COLLEGE UBRAK* CHESTNU'" "fLL, .VMSS, Copyright 1912 By the Second National Bank Designed and Printed under the direction of the "Walton Advertising & Printing Co. Boston, Massachusetts INTRODUCTION THE Second National Bank takes pleasure in presenting to you this brief story of Devonshire Street. It does not purpose to be more than a bird's-eye view of the vital and interesting part the street has long played in the develop- ment of Boston. Here are gathered within a few pages the facts and romances relating to Devonshire Street, which are of interest to the business man as well as to the student of history. Much of the material has been gleaned from old deeds and journals and other authentic sources. The pamphlet is in such form that it may be readily bound for preservation in your library. The coat-of-arms on the title-page is a reproduction of that of John Wilson, the town's first pastor and one of its founders. The vignette of the door on the opposite page and that at the end of the book are from a photograph of the entrance to the Second National Bank. In the hope that this brochure is worthy of the passing atten- tion of all Bostonians and that it may be as interesting as it is informative, it is sent to you with the compliments of the Second National Bank. DEVONSHIRE STREET AS a house takes its atmosphere from the character of the r^L people who live in it, so a street owes whatever interest it may possess to the vicissitudes and the romances of those who frequent it. Its story is inseparable from the story of those who have made it what it is. All streets have a beginning and an era of growth, while some have a state of decadence. So vital a part of Boston has Devon- shire Street been that it has never reached a decadent state, but has presented always an appearance of prosperous and interest- ing growth. Since the beginning of the town it has divided with State and Washington Streets the distinction of being one of Boston's principal thoroughfares, and shares with State Street and with Congress Street whatever honor may lie in being the financial centre of New England. During the early days of the old town there were two defined ways used by the settlers. One led from the water front straight up to the Market-place at the head of State Street, and was called the Great Street: the other led from the Market-place along the line of what is now Washington Street, and was at first the old Indian trail that led Roxbury way. Another path led from the Town Dock at Dock Square to the Market-place and thence south from the Market-place to Ann Hibbins's house, on the site of the Second National Bank, and also to the Great Spring at the head of Spring Lane. Later this path continued to the house and garden of John Joyliff, near the corner of Milk and Devonshire Streets, and thence to the house of William Dinsdale, near what is now Franklin Street. These paths were the beginning of Devonshire Street. DEVONSHIRE STREET IN THE BEGINNING As one stands in front of the old State House, the original Mar- ket-place, and looks first towards Dock Square and then towards the post-office, down Devonshire Street, crowded with trucks, wagons, and other business vehicles, and sees the hundreds of 8 DEVONSHIRE STREET people hurrying hither and thither, it is hard to realize that a few hundred years ago peaceful meadows stretched on either side, threaded by a foot-path which for a century or more had only the dignity of a lane. To the north Devonshire Street was a foot- path across the land of the town's first pastor to the Town Dock. And it wasn't even a straight path, for it meandered over the unlevel ground in such a crooked way that for a long time some of the settlers called it Crooked Lane, while others called it Wil- son's Lane, in honor of the town's first pastor. To the south of the old State House the street again was a path which led from the Market-place, at the head of State Street, across the fields of the early residents to the Great Spring and the house of Mis- tress Ann Hibbins, Boston's early witch. And here it crossed the brook which emptied into the cove at the present junction of Congress and Water Streets, and then it traversed likewise the fields to Joyliff's. On either side of this little path, along which the Puritans were wont to wend their way from the Town Dock to the Market-place, and from the Market-place to the Great Spring and Ann Hibbins's, and thence on to Joyliff's house, apple orchards and cherry-trees bloomed and fruited, and the butterflies glanced through the air. and the bees hummed in the clover of the fields. And, morning and evening, cattle strayed down to the creek at the corner of Water and Devonshire Streets, where the post-office now stands, to drink their fill; and at the Great Spring Madam Winthrop and Ann Hutchinson filled their pitchers, Elder Thomas Oliver, Governor Winthrop, and Richard Brackett, the jailer, and other goodmen and dames congregated to wag their tongues over the latest bit of gossip, to discuss perchance the sharp sayings of Ann Hibbins, the latest Indian happenings, or what startling news some incoming ship may have brought from the old country. As the town grew and the paths grew into lanes, shops and houses began to line them. A few years after the opening of the eighteenth century, Crooked Lane had been so officially named by the town, and later in its history it was known for the superior quality of its chop-houses. The old lane calls to mind Tom Hood's description of its London prototype: — fo "3 g" z ■J. ^ -. n 1 £? o g - 09 n> o & m 10 DEVONSHIRE STREET I've heard about a pleasant land where omelets grow on trees. And roasted pigs run crying out, "Come eat us, if you please." My appetite is rather keen, but how shall I get there? Straight down the Crooked Lane and all around the square. It was not long before the path on the south side of the Mar- ket-place had become Pudden, or Pudding, Lane, — a name, some say, derived from the well-known London street, while others de- clare the name came from the savory desserts which were pre- pared in the kitchen of the Blue Anchor Tavern, the grounds of which ran from Washington Street to Pudding Lane, and the odors from which lingered awhile with those who wended their way past. The path which led from the house of Ann Hibbins to the house of John Joyliff was not defined well enough to have a name until the latter part of the seventeenth century. About this same time the path to William Dinsdale's house and garden south of Joyliff's had become the lane to Dinsdale's, and for over a century was known as Dinsdale's Alley. OFFICIAL METES AND BOUNDS The past of a street which has given a home to the first minister of the town, one of the first witches, a pirate of some fame, a governor of much honor, an inn of national reputation, one of the earliest newspapers in America, many of the "bobs" and "nabobs" of early Boston, should have some official chronology, and, therefore, let us see what the official record of the streets, alleys, and places of the city of Boston has to say about the com- ponent parts of Devonshire Street. Crooked Lane was officially so named at a meeting of the select- men of Boston, May 3, 1708, and the name was changed to Wil- son's Lane May 12, 1712, and June 6, 1872, became Devonshire Street, and was made fifty feet wide. Pudding Lane was so called at the same meeting in 1708 that Crooked Lane was named. After the fire of 1760 it was enlarged into a street, and called Devonshire Street April 28, 1766, in honor of Christopher Devon- shire, a merchant of Bristol, who had long traded with Boston, and who was a large contributor to the sufferers from the fire. DEVONSHIRE STREET ll Joyliff's Lane from Water to Milk Street was also officially designated at the aforesaid town meeting of 1708 as Joliff's, JollifT's, Joyliff's, and Joylieffs Lane, according as you want to spell it. Old Bostonians never were particularly strong on spelling. One can find the same name spelled in different ways in many an old deed. In 1784 Joyliff's Lane was called Devonshire Street, though it was still known to many up to 1800 as Joyliff's Lane. Up to 1796 Dinsdale's Alley went under its original name. At this date, however, it became known as Theatre Alley, because it was the way to the rear entrance to the Federal Street Theatre, which in 1793 had been erected at the corner of Franklin and Federal Streets. Through it and Odeon Avenue, as the rear end of Theatre Alley was later known from the Odeon Theatre, Devon- shire Street was extended from Milk to Franklin Street June 22, 1857. Devonshire Street was extended from Franklin Street to Otis and Winthrop Places June 26, 1858, and September 3, 1858. On June 25, 1862, and December 30, 1862, portions of the adjoining estates were taken for the street, and April 23, 1861, the name Winthrop Place was changed to Devonshire Street, while on June 6, 1872, Devonshire Street was extended fifty feet wide through Wilson's Lane across Dock Square, now in part Adams Square, to Washington Street. So much for the official metes and bounds. Now let us stroll through Devonshire Street, gleaning here and there its facts and romances. JOHN WILSON AND HIS HOME According to the Book of Possessions which fixed the residents of the town, in 1645 the home of the Rev. John Wilson, the first pastor, stood where the Merchants National Bank now is. And across his land the villagers went from the Market-place to the Town Dock, and gradually wore the path that became the lane that grew into the street. The ancient landing-place was at Dock Square, at the foot of Wilson's Lane. John Wilson was a man of most independent mind, and quite as independent was his family. His wife long preferred the luxuries of her father's home rather 12 DEVONSHIRE STREET than the privations of the Boston of 1630, and his eldest son, a graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, never did set foot in America. Wilson was the son of the Rev. William Wilson, Canon of Windsor, amid the royal splendor of which John was born in 1588. He was educated at Eton and King's College, Cam- bridge. He early showed the disfavor with which he looked upon the Church of England, and finally came to accept the Puritan belief, going so far as to say "that, if the Lord would grant him the liberty of conscience with purity of worship, he would be content, yea, thankful, though it were at the furthermost end of the world." He had been preaching for fifteen years to the Puritans in the small towns of England, and was forty-two years of age when he joined one of the early bands of adventurers, leaving his wife with her rich mother in London, and sailed March 22, 1630, for the bleak New England shore. Wilson was one of those who with John Winthrop accepted the invitation of William Blackstone, the hermit of Trimount, to settle on the Shawmut peninsula because of the abundant water, which was scarce in Charlestown. x4.s first pastor of the first church of the town, Wilson was given for his residence the most desirable lot, and it stood at the head of the Market, or Great Street of the town, as State Street was then called, and was directly opposite the first church, which stood on the southeasterly corner of Devonshire Street, the present site of the Brazier Building. His land, comprising about an acre, fronted on the Market, or State Street, and on the north ran down to the cove at Dock Square, the landing-place of the town. At one time he and his neighbor complained strenuously to the town fathers of the way in which the fishermen left the remnants of their catch on the shore of his land, to the great annoyance of his nose. His house, as were all those of the early settlers, was at first only a rude shelter from the weather. When it was burned, he built a better house; and, when this was burned, he built again. As John Endicott wrote to John Winthrop, Jr., April 18, 1653, Boston had a great fire, — "eight howses were consumed and three young children burnt . . . [among them] Mr. Wilson's howse and goods," etc. He bore ,.,", ^ : " 10 ' NORTH SIDE OF STATE STREET AT THE CORNER OF WILSONS LANE, NOW DEVONSHIRE STREET, IN 1840. (From an old wood engraving) 14 DEVONSHIRE STREET the affliction of these fires with true Christian resignation; for, when accosted on the street one day with "Sir, I have sad news for you. While you have been abroad, your house has burned," he replied, — "Blessed be God, he has burned this house because he intends to give me a better." . It is strange that the whole town was not burned up, for most of the chimneys were then built of wood and the roofs covered with thatch. An early ordinance directed that no chimneys in future be so built. Wilson was quite a politician as well as a preacher, and entered the contest between Sir Harry Vane and John Winthrop with much ardor, even going to the extent of climbing a tree and addressing the people on political rights, from a bough sway- ing over their heads. He was instrumental in the banishment of Ann Hutchinson and in the forcing of Sir Harry Vane from office. He conducted open-air services for the Indians, to whom he was a true friend. His modesty would never allow him to consent to have his portrait painted, so that perhaps the best likeness we have is the pen portrait by Hawthorne in "The Scarlet Letter," where Wilson is represented as speaking to the woman on the scaffold from the balcony which overlooked it. "There he stood," writes Hawthorne, "with a border of grizzled locks beneath his skull-cap; while his gray eyes, accus- tomed to the light of his study, were winking like those of Hester's infant in the unadulterated sunshine. He looked like the darkly engraved portraits which we see prefixed to old volumes of ser- mons." As he lay on his death-bed in 1667, one of his daughters asked him, "Sir, how do you do?" Raising his hand, he said in a whisper, "Vanishing things, vanishing things," then he made a prayer and died. He lies buried in King's Chapel Burying- ground, while one of his descendants, William Howard Taft, is President; and another, Thomas Minns, Esq., lives in the city that the old man helped to found. DEVONSHIRE STREET 15 BOSTON'S FIRST CHURCH AND ITS SITE No authentic picture exists of his church, the first in Boston, which stood across the street from his house and near the open Market-place that during the first year of the settlers was at the head of State Street; but it was like a large district school- house, with rough mud walls, mainly of sticks, and with a peaked thatched roof. It was built the second summer of the settlement, so that its pastor preached the first summer to his congregation in the field near his house. A more substantial structure soon succeeded the first, and in front of it were the stocks and pillory, so that spiritual as well as physical admonitions were early close together in the regulation of the first settlers. John Cotton succeeded John Wilson as the minister of this old first church, and hither came to worship the leading residents of the town, such as Governors Winthrop and Bellingham. As the town increased, the meeting-house became too small for its congregation, and finally, in 1639, was sold to Robert Thomp- son, a merchant of London, who was then living in Boston. According to Winthrop, Thompson paid 300 pounds for the building and site, "which was 62 feet on the Great Street and 64 feet on the street and an alley [Devonshire Street] running between the church and the house of Henry Phillips, butcher," who lived on the site of the Easton Building. It would be im- possible now to buy the site of the Brazier Building, which stands on the site of this old church, for many times this amount. A sharp controversy arose in the congregation, after the sale, as to where the new meeting-house should be built. Some thought it should be placed on the green given to the town by Governor Winthrop, now occupied by the Old South, while others and mer- chants about the Market-place wanted it built on the site of the market. The new structure was finally placed on Washington Street where the Rogers Building now stands. It was not long before the decayed condition of the old meeting-house became a menace to the town, and it was torn dowm; and in July, 1651, one James Everell, who had become either the agent or the tenant of the property, was ordered by the town to secure "the cellar he 16 DEVONSHIRE STREET hath diged where the ould meeting house was and to clere the highway about it." The site was owned by Thompson's heirs until the nineteenth century, and during most of the time the land was used for market or butcher shops, and had no large buildings. After the fire of 1711 enough land was taken from it to make Pudding Lane twelve feet wide, and in 1712 more was taken off the State Street side, giving the bend in State Street at this place. The agent of the property in 1751 was Andrew Oliver, the brother-in-law of Governor Hutchinson and the Stamp Act agent who was hung in effigy from the Liberty Tree on the Common. A substantial brick building stood upon the property at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the principal occupant of which was Jonathan Hastings, who previous to 1800 had been postmaster. The first government post-office, as well as the first United States Bank, occupied this site in an old two-story wooden building, over the door of which Simeon Skillan, a North End carver, had cut a figure of Mercury holding in one hand his rod and in the other a letter for the president of the bank. And here the United States Bank remained until its removal to the site of the Exchange Building. THE PHILLIPSES AND THEIR TRAGIC STORY The site of the Easton Building, across the street on the south- east corner of State and Devonshire Streets, belonged originally to Henry Webb, a merchant who came to Boston in 1637 from Salisbury, England, and was so prosperous that, when he died in 1660, he left an estate of almost 8,000 pounds, — quite a fortune for those days. One hundred pounds was bequeathed to the town for a poorhouse, which, with 120 pounds left by Captain Robert Keayne, his next-door neighbor, enabled Boston in 1662 to build a poorhouse on the Common, next to the Granary Bury- ing-ground. The corner property, which comprised a large stone house, garden, and yard, with a spring and a well, and a smali piece on the opposite side of Pudding Lane, Webb exchanged in 1656 for the house and lot of Henry Phillips on Cornhill, now STATE STREET, CORNERS OF CONGRESS SQUARE AND DEVONSHIRE STREET IN 1840. (From an old print) JHL SOUTH SIDE OF STATE STREET FROM WASHINGTON TO DEVONSHIRE STREET IN 1840. (From an old print) 18 DEVONSHIRE STREET Washington Street, where Little, Brown & Co., the book dealers, used to be. Webb subsequently bequeathed to Harvard Uni- versity this Phillips property which ran from Cornhill to the lane. The Phillips family figured long in the book-dealing world of Boston, ran for years the ancient tavern, known as the Rose and Crown, on the site, of the Easton Building, and one of the grandsons of the original Phillips figured in the famous Phillips- Woodbridge duel. Phillips, who was a butcher, came to New England in 1637, married Mary D wight, said to have been the first female white child born in Dedham. He joined the Artil- lery Company in 1640, was chosen clerk of the Market and con- stable, and in 1672 represented Hadley at the General Court. He was one of the twenty -five citizens who in 1658 petitioned the General Court against the Quakers, as "professed enemies of the Christian Magistrate and seducers of the people." And he also was one of the hundred and four citizens who contributed to com- plete the Town House when Captain Keayne's legacy proved too small. His donation of five pounds was considered a liberal one for that time. Just when he opened the Rose and Crown Tavern does not appear, but in 1678 he moved his family to a brick house he had built on the opposite side of the lane. The sign which he put over the entrance of the tavern seemed to cause some indignation, for a letter written from New England in 1682 says "a vintner in Boston put up a new sign called the Rose and Crown with two naked boys as supporters. The sight disturbed one Justice S — r, who commanded it down and away were the boys sent to the carvers, but the unlucky dog of a carver sent them back two charming girles. This angered the Justice more and the sign was summoned before the wise Court where they gravely determined that the girles should be encircled with garlands of roses." All of which shows that the landlord was of a determined as well as of a humorous turn of mind. Phillips died in 1687, and was interred with a full military funeral as befitted a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, leaving an estate of 1,550 pounds. His son Henry was the first book dealer in the family, serving DEVONSHIRE STREET 19 .in apprenticeship with Hezekiab I sher, who had a shop in .John Wilson's house, which he had bought. J I is first book was one of Cotton Mather's sermons, and he was succeeded by his brother Samuel, who was a publisher of much note in early days, his authors being' Increase Mather, John Danforth, Benjamin Wads- worth, Samuel Willard, Gilbert Burnet, Deodat Lawson, Solomon Stoddard, and Cotton Mather, the leading literary lights of the seventeenth century. In 170.5 he bought for 475 pounds from his mother the Rose and Crown, thus paying approximately $2,305 for what is now the site of the Easton Building. Phillips also served as first sergeant of the Artillery Company. He set his son Gillam up in business, and when he died in 1720, leaving an enviable reputation as hus- band, father, and citizen, the bulk of his estate, more than 3,000 pounds, went to this son, who had married Mary Faneuil, sister of Peter Faneuil. It was Henry, Gillam's younger brother, who figured in the duel with Benjamin Woodbridge. Henry, a graduate of Harvard, had gone into business with his brother Gillam, and in 1728 with Gillam, Daniel Henchman, Thomas Hancock, and Benjamin Faneuil, father of Peter, established at Milton Lower Falls the first paper-mill in New England, receiving a patent from the Gen- eral Court. The site of the old mill is now owned by the Tileston, Hollingsworth Company, manufacturers of paper. The tragic story of Henry begins at the Royal Exchange Tavern, which stood on the east corner of State and Exchange Streets, was kept by a jolly mason named Luke Vardy, and w r as called at the time by the leading men of the towm "Vardy's." Here the young men of rank were wont to congregate to sip their rum, enjoy the card table, and to gossip. Henry Phillips and Benjamin Woodbridge, scions of the best families and hardly out of their teens, Phillips being three-and-twenty, and Wood- bridge twenty, met here on the evening of July 3, 1728, and the quarrel which started at the card-table culminated in a challenge. The sun had hardly sunk behind the western hills beyond the Charles on the warm summer evening, when the impetuous youths, unaccompanied, met on the Common, near the Great 20 DEVONSHIRE STREET Elm, which stood not far from the Soldiers' Monument. Phillips was "fair, well set and well dressed," and Woodbridge was of simi- lar make-up. Phillips escaped with a few trifling body wounds and cut fingers; but Woodbridge was pierced under the right breast, the blade coming out at the small of his back. He fell, bleeding, to the greensward, while his opponent rushed off for sur- geons. A fog enveloped everything when the surgeons reached the Common, and, not discovering Woodbridge, they supposed he had been cared for. His body, stiff and cold, was found on the grass the next morning about three o'clock by some servants, and was removed to the house of Major Sewall, near the Com- mon, where Woodbridge lived. Phillips, greatly overcome by sorrow and fear, was taken about midnight by his brother Gillam, Peter Faneuil, and several friends to the house of Colonel Estes Hatch and concealed, while arrange- ments were made for his escape. Gillam secured from John Winslow, captain of the pink " Molly," which lay off Long Wharf, a boat to take Phillips to the British man-of-war "Sheerness," which was anchored between Castle and Spectacle Islands. It was arranged with Captain Winslow, who had been a neighbor on Pudding Lane, that Henry should take the boat at Gibbs's Wharf, which jutted from the south- eastern margin of Fort Hill, as the place was least frequented. Henry Phillips, accompanied by Peter Faneuil, proceeded down the dark and narrow Belcher's Lane to Gibbs's Wharf, while Cap- tain Winslow and Gillam went out to the " Molly " to pick up four of the crew, as it was a long row to the "Sheerness." They then went to Gibbs's Wharf, picked up Henry, while Peter Faneuil re- mained on shore. The rowers lost their way in the fog, running ashore on Dorchester Neck and not reaching the "Sheerness" until long after midnight. In the mean time the news of the duel spread about Boston, and during most of the night people searched the Common for Woodbridge, while constables looked for Phillips. Governor Dummer issued a proclamation for the arrest of Phillips, and notices were nailed to the Town Pump and at many of the corners. The "Sheerness" sailed during the night, and Phillips made his STATE STREET, LOOKING INTO WILSONS LANE TOWARDS DOCK SQUARE Before the widening- of Wilson's Lane in 1872 for Devonshire Street 22 DEVONSHIRE STREET way to France, where he died at Rochelle, May 27, 1729. His brother Gillam lived, however, until 1770. The Phillips property at the close of the eighteenth century was the site of a three-story brick house, the residence and office of Abiel Smith, a wealthy merchant. At the middle of the last century the State Street side of the property contained offices of builders and the Mechanics' Exchange, while lawyers and brokers occupied the Devonshire Street side. At the time of the great fire in 1872 the Easton Building corner was occupied, on the ground floor, by the First National Bank, while small business interests were on the upper floors. The famous Exchange Coffee House stood across Devonshire Street, adjoining Congress Square on the lot which had belonged to Robert Scott, a merchant. It was the largest building of its kind when it was built, 1804, covering almost one-third of an acre and being seven stories in height. It cost $500,000, was a mon- strosity of taste, although every effort was put forth to make it architecturally beautiful. It ruined most of those who backed it. Its shape was like a triangle with the apex cut off, and six marble Ionic pilasters in front decorated its entrance on Congress Street. It contained two hundred and ten rooms, had Masonic meeting- rooms in the upper story, and a Merchants' Exchange, or Great Meeting Room, on the ground floor. It was the terminus of the stage routes, the resort of most of the men of the town, and the pride of Boston. Here, during the War of 1812, Captain Hull, the commander of the "Constitution," put up; and here, too, stayed Captain Dacres, who became Hull's prisoner after the capture of the "Guerriere" by the "Constitution." "Dacres, my dear fellow, I'm glad to see you," said Hull to Dacres as the latter came aboard the "Constitution" after the engagement. "Damn it, I suppose you are," replied Dacres. President Monroe was entertained here in 1817 at an elaborate dinner on the Fourth of July, at which were present many of the celebrities of the town and nation, including ex-President John Adams, Governor Brooks, Justices Parker and Story, Commodores Perry, Bainbridge, and Hull. CORNER OF FRANKLIN AND DEVONSHIRE STREETS Before tlie lire of 187-2 WINTHROP SQUARE, DEVONSHIRE AND OTIS STREETS Before the tire of 1872 THE DEVONSHIRl! OF BOST Drawn from Lan according- to the ll and otherr THIS MAP SHOWS SOME OF BOSTON'S FIRST PATHS AI' SITES OF THE HOUSES - Mylne Streete is now Summer Street; Fortt Streete. which led to Fort Hill House Lane is School Street: Prison Lane is Court Street : Blott's Lane is Winter Stn Pudding: Lane, now Devonshire Street : Springate is now Spring: Lane and Water Stro STREET SECTION sT EN 1645 s Pla,n of Boston, ok of Possessions uthorities HIGHWAYS WITH THEIR ORIGINAL NAMES AND THE THE FIRST SETTLERS ■re the Town Fort was. is Milk Street: High Streete is Washington Street : School Cove Streete is Adams Square ; Market Streete is State Street : A is the alley later 26 DEVONSHIRE STREET "All lodgers shall try to be in by eleven o'clock, the retiring hour," read one of the queer regulations. The house was burned in 1818, rebuilt and opened in 1822, and finally closed April 1, 1854, when it was torn down to make room for other buildings, among which was the City Exchange on Devonshire Street. OFFICES OF THE "COLUMBIAN CENTINEL" AND THE "NEWS LETTER" Between the Old Coffee House and State Street was published the Columbian Centinel, which was established in 1784 by Ben- jamin Russell, one of the guards who witnessed Major Andre's execution as a spy. The Due de Chartres, who subsequently became Louis Philippe, wrote, while an exile in Boston, articles on European politics for the Centinel which gave it a great local reputation. The due had a map of the foreign battlefields which enabled the Centinel to describe the battles most accurately. And Louis Napoleon is said to have been a frequenter of the office of the paper when he was in Boston. It was published on Wednesdays and Satur- days, and was long the Federal organ of New England. Russell ran it until about 1824. The Boston News Letter, long supposed to have been the first paper printed in America, was published on Pudding Lane, near the site of the original post-office, at the shop of John Allen, who from 1707 till 1711 printed it for John Campbell, the postmaster, who started the News Letter in 1704. As postmaster, Campbell had the franking privilege and was also the recipient of much early news. He was the logical editor of the "lokel" paper. He came over in the ship with Dunton, the bookseller; and, as Dunton said, so stormy was the passage "even the sailors, who seldom pray, came to the passengers desiring for God's sake we would all go to prayers. The sailors asking us to pray put me in mind of that saying, 'He that would learn to pray, let him go to sea,' at which several of us did." "His aspect has something so extraordinary in it," said Dunton, describing Allen, "that whoever does but look upon him will make FRANKLIN STREET, LOOKING DOWN DEVONSHIRE STREET Before the great fire of 187-2 ■28 DEVONSHIRE STREET no scruple to give him the title of My Lord. He is master of an Excellent Mediocrity of temper, and under some more than Ordinary disappointment I have known him to drown his sadness in a glass of cyder." The redoubtable Allen continued to print the News Letter until the fire of 1711, when his house was rebuilt and he remained in business until 1727. He was a publisher as well. His earliest Boston imprint was in 1690, and his last was in 1724. He pub- lished also Increase Mather's "Mystery of Israel's Salvation." On the opposite side of the lane, about where the Boston Globe office now is, Abel Bowen printed the Boston News Letter and City Record in 1825, and issued his "Picture of Boston, or Citi- zens' and Strangers' Guide to the Metropolis of Massachusetts and its Environs." To him belongs the distinction of introduc- ing wood engraving in Boston. The site of this old printing and engraving shop immediately after the fire of 1711 was a small kitchen that Thomas Knight, a shopkeeper, had on the site of the Globe Building. The land was subsequently occupied by "the North National Bank. The owner in 1639 was Richard Fairbanks, the town's first postmaster, and later it was part of the land of Thomas Oliver, a surgeon of standing and an elder of the First Church, who was one of the earliest owners of the Great Spring. So highly esteemed was he that, when horses were forbidden to feed on the Common, his horse was excepted. DEVONSHIRE STREET AND THE GREAT SPRING The Great Spring, which has perpetuated its name in the short thoroughfare known as Spring Lane and which early played so important a part in the welfare of the town, was a little distance west of the Water Street end of Devonshire Street. It was called .at various times the Governor's Spring, or the Common Spring, and may have been the "excellent spring" to which Blackstone referred when he invited Winthrop and his companions to Boston. It is now marked by an inscription on the Winthrop Building. The cattle, as well as the dames and the goodmen of the town, must have had a fondness for the delicious water, for in 1661 the DEVONSHIRE STREET 20 selectmen gave Captain James Johnson and Amos Richardson permission to set a fence about the spring for the better accommo- dation of the town in the use of the water, and to preserve the spring from annoyances by cattle. The old name for the lane, "Spring Gate," came from the fact that a gate opened the way in the fence about the spring. It was not until 1708 that the town officially gave it the name of Spring Lane. As buildings were gradually erected on the land about the spring, the spring slowly dried up and finally disappeared about the middle of the last century, for the pump which was put over it failed to draw. The old spring, however, reappeared in 1869 in the cellar of the new post-office, between Milk and Water Streets, endangering the foundations and causing much annoyance to the builders. The little brook trickled from the spring across Pudding Lane into Davis's Creek, or Shelter Cove, which covered what is now Post-office Square. The Atlantic approached quite near the centre of Boston in those days, for the hull of a vessel covered with canvas and frayed with tarred rope was dug up at the corner of Congress and Water Streets; and across Pudding Lane, running toward Congress Street, was Winthrop's Marsh, while the south end of JoylifTs Lane terminated in the marshy meadows between what is now Milk and Franklin Streets. WITCHCRAFT DAYS The site of the Second National Bank was the home of Ann Hibbins, the sister of Governor Bellingham, who was executed as a witch in the seventeenth century. Her husband, William Hibbins, a merchant from London, built a house, stable, and garden at what is now the southerly corner of Spring Lane and Devonshire Street. His land ran to the Spring Gate at the north, and south to Fort Street, as Milk was then called, and along each side of Pudding Lane, comprising not only the site of the Second National Bank, but Kidder, Peabody & Co. and the New England Trust Company, together with a portion of the post-office lot. Like many of Boston's settlers, Hibbins was a gentleman of edu- 30 DEVONSHIRE STREET cation and means, and rose to considerable prominence in the colony, becoming deputy to the General Court in 1641-42, and magistrate from 1643 until his death in 1654. After his death Ann, his widow, sold in 1655 the property at Spring and Pudding Lanes to Matthew Coy, a barber. "Her new house near unto the water spring," as the old deed runs, "and next unto the house she now dwells in, with ten feet of land along the south side to her orchard at the east end, next unto Henry Bridgeman, with apple and cherry, and all other fruit trees then growing." No lane is mentioned in the deed, but, when Coy in 1668 sold the house and land to John Joyliff, it measured fifty-nine feet on the west southwest, and on a "lane leading to the dwelling house of John Joyliff." Beautiful, indeed, must have been the site of the Second Na- tional Bank in the days of Ann Hibbins. To the west rose the hills of Trimount, but a stone's throw away bubbled the crystal waters of the Great Spring, past her door trickled the brook through which the spring found its way to the ocean, which was in plain view at the east, while north and south of Ann's house were meadows dotted with apple and cherry trees. Ann's misfortunes seem to have sprung from her high temper and sharp tongue, which were acidified by the financial losses during the latter part of her husband's life. These imbittered her naturally crabbed disposition, and finally her quarrelous ways brought upon her the censure of the meeting-house. All of this smoothed the way to the accusation of witchcraft made against her by her neighbors. The specific charges are not clear. One of them seems to have been telling her neighbors, whom she had seen whispering together and glancing sideways at her, that she knew they were talking about her. Her first conviction was in 1655, but the magistrates, influenced doubtless by her social connections as well as the lack of good evidence against her, set aside the verdict, and in 1656 she was tried again before the General Court and condemned. Passing strange in those days were the tests to which a supposed witch was put. She was "searched" or examined to see if the devil r> £ T) r-r _". -»> 3 2. CO H B. •< -O Bo rt > X lis § •< i ? 2 3 S-" g.t> 2 5 3 2. o m o 5' 32 DEVONSHIRE STREET had made any strange marks upon her, and was "watched" at night to see if any evil imps in the shape of toads, cats, or snakes, and like animals that were thought to attend a witch at night, appeared through a hole which was made in the floor, the sus- pect in the mean time being placed, with her legs crossed, in an un- comfortable position on a table. Ann's "searching" and "watch- ing" revealed, so far as we know, nothing unusual. In her will, which she complacently made before her execution on the gallows of Boston Neck, June 19, 1656, she mentions a "gold wedding ring, a taffety cloak, silk gown, and kirtle, pink colored petticoat, and money in the desk." "She was hanged for having more wit than her neighbors," said John Norton, a celebrated Boston divine. And some at the time thought her a saint, and some a witch, so divided was the town in its opinion of Ann. LATER DAYS OF THE SITE A part of Governor Winthrop's lot east of the Hibbins lot was finally sold for 500 pounds to John Winslow, brother of the gov- ernor of New Plymouth, who married Mary Chilton, the first to land at Plymouth Rock. It then comprised ninety-two feet on Spring Lane and seventy-four feet on JoylifTs Lane, and was sold in 1719 to Jonas Clarke. Winslow in 1689, while at the island of Nevis, learned that the Prince of Orange had been declared king, and, knowing how welcome the news would be to the people of New England, he had the declaration copied and brought it to Boston. Governor Andros sent for Winslow, and demanded to see the declaration, and, when Winslow refused to show it, he was thrown into prison for "bringing into the country a traitorous and treasonable libel." It was acts of oppression such as this by Gov- ernor Andros which led to the uprising that culminated in the Council of Safety, April 20, 1689, Andros being put into prison and ultimately recalled. The three-story wooden house which stood on the lot of Ann Hibbins's house was in 1783 the home of George Richard Minot and his wife. Minot was a son of Stephen Minot, a Boston mer- DEVONSHIRE STREET 83 chant, who had married Sarah, the daughter of Jonas Clarke. Minot, the younger, was judge of the Probate and the Court of CommoD Pleas, and also clerk of the House of Representatives for ten years. He wrote a continuation of Governor Hutchin- son's History of Massachusetts and also a "History of the In- surrection of 1786." The Massachusetts Historical Society was organized January 24, 1791, in this house, the original members being Rev. Messrs. Jeremy Belknap, John Eliot, James Free- man, and Peter Thacher; Hon. Messrs. James Sullivan, William Tudor, James Winthrop, William Baylies, George R. Minot, Thomas Wallcut, Esq. FALL OF A PIRATE Witchcraft and piracy were near neighbors on Devonshire Street in the latter part of the seventeenth century; for next to Ann Hibbins was the estate of Captain Thomas Cromwell, buc- caneer, much of whose story may be found in the Journal of Win- throp. His estate comprised most of the land now owned by the New England Trust Company. At a time when piracy was an inviting stepping-stone to fame and fortune and the beginning of many a gentleman, Cromwell, a London orphan, like some other better-known London orphans, went to sea and soon rose to be an able seaman. As such, he first appeared in Massachusetts in 1636, and sailed in and out of the port on many a shady cruise. His opportunity came in 1646, when he sailed in the frigate "Queen of Bohemia," with Captain Jackson, who had a commission from the Earl of Warwick to en- gage in an expedition to the Spanish main, which was tantamount to saying "be a buccaneer." Under a "commission of deputation" from Captain Jackson, Cromwell was not slow to seize his opportunity, and the expedi- tion which he commanded took four or five Spanish vessels with great riches. A strong northwest wind forced Cromwell and three of the ships, which were frigates of cedar wood of about sixty or eighty tons, manned with eighty men, into Plymouth Harbor at a time when the town was in dire straits from lack of money and w r as almost deserted. The buccaneers spent freely 34 DEVONSHIRE STREET and gave as liberally during their two weeks' stay, and quite set the old place on its feet. Up and down the main streets swag- gered the buccaneers, royally drunk, jingling their pockets full of silver, and crowding the good citizens off the walk. One of Cromwell's men, a desperate drunkard, grew too boisterous and drew his cutlass, when Cromwell reproved him and promptly knocked him down with the hilt of his sword. The sailor refused to have the wound attended, mortification set in, and he died. Cromwell was tried and acquitted. He saw to it that the sea- man had a splendid funeral, giving each one of the mourners an ell of black taffeta, and had the body accompanied by the trained band. Upon reaching Boston, whither Cromwell soon sailed, he gained the good-will of the governor by presenting him a sedan chair worth about 50 pounds, which was to have been presented by the viceroy of Mexico to his sister. Although Cromwell's repu- tation was somewhat spotted and Governor Winthrop had no love for him, he had the good trait of never forgetting his old friends, particularly those who had befriended him when he was not so prosperous. For, although he and his men had "much money and a great store of plate and jewels of great value, he chose to lodge with the poor man in a thatched house, and said, when he was offered the best in town, that the poor man had entertained him when others would not, and therefore he would not leave him now when he could do him good." He made another voyage to the West Indies, and, after being out three years, returned and retired a rich man. He bought from Richard Sherman, a clock maker, John Matthew, a tailor, and Simon Matthew, a tanner, their garden lots, extending from the northwest corner of Devonshire and Milk Streets toward Spring Lane. After he had settled in Boston, complaints were sent from the West Indies to England about him. The Earl of Warwick promptly put in a claim for a share of Cromwell's spoils, asserting that Cromwell had sailed under Jackson's letter of marque from the earl. History does not enlighten us as to the result of the Earl of Warwick's claims. Cromwell presented six bells which he had taken from a Spanish ship to Boston. One of them was o ^ go o 5 P3 H — r° 6^ 6S 2 H o a: W pg r H 2 > z ~ o cc P3 P8 o ^ z « X a h o r §3 o o 58 Z £o CO H 5 H PO PI CD H C r o z o en 03 M O > z 36 DEVONSHIRE STREET used for a clock, which is now in the old State House. He en- joyed but three years of his luxurious retirement in New Eng- land, for in 1649 he died from injuries received by being thrown from his horse upon his rapier hilt. Some of his neighbors were so unkind as to observe that they saw something of the hand of God in it, as his own death was caused by the same instru- ment as that with which he had killed one of his crew. DAYS OF SMALL TENANTS AND LITTLE BUSINESSES In the days of John Wilson and Ann Hibbins the site of the National Shawmut Bank comprised the lands of Robert Scott, a merchant, and William Parsons, a carpenter, or sley maker (the sley being a part of the weaver's loom). As "old Will Parsons," he eked out, in his old age, a precarious existence by selling drinks before his door. Parsons came to Boston in 1635, but, returning to London in 1660, took part in the riot of the Fifth Monarchy Men, led by his Boston neighbor, Thomas Venner. Unlike Ven- ner, who was captured and executed, Parsons's quick wit and nimble legs enabled him to escape in the crowd, and he lost no time in returning to Boston, where he lived until 1702. Before his death he sold his lot to Henry Webb. On the northeast corner of Devonshire and Water Streets, dur- ing the early part of the nineteenth century, stood the counting- room of the Boston Type and Stereotype Foundry. It was sub- sequently moved to Spring Lane and Devonshire Street, now the site of the Second National Bank. At the time of the great fire the Shawmut Bank corner was occupied by the Boston Post, pub- lished by Beals, Greene & Co. Across the street on the northwest corner were in 1644 the garden and shop of Abraham Hagborne, who first rented his place of business from the town. He subse- quently purchased this property, and in 1654 sold the house and lot to Edward Allen, a tailor. At one time it was occupied by a hatter and a blacksmith. In 1798 the Shawmut corner was the three- story wooden home of Charles Sigourney, a merchant at 51 Long Wharf. Mary Langdon kept a three-story brick boarding-house north of Sigourney, and at the middle of the nineteenth century DEVONSHIRE STREET S7 there were on the block between Water Sired and Slate many barbers. In fact, tailor shops, chair makers, carpenter shop-,, and small dealers of every description occupied much of the north end of Devonshire Street about 1856. The property at 83 and 85 Devonshire Street was bought dnr- ing the latter part of the century by Abbott Lawrence, and upon it was built the Lawrence Building. At the time of the fire 79 and 81 Devonshire Street were part of the rear of the store of Little, Brown & Co., the booksellers, and were a part of the estate which Henry Webb had given to Harvard College, which extended from Washington to Devonshire Street. VICISSITUDES OF THE POST-OFFICE SITE The post-office site, according to the Book of Possessions, about 1645 belonged to Ann Hibbins and John Spoore, w 7 ho seems to have been an unruly fellow, for in June, 1651, he was admonished for his "insolent bearing witness against baptism and singing and ye church covenant as no ordinances of God." And the next month the meeting-house excommunicated him. His property was bounded on the north by the creek that flowed from the lane down Water Street into Oliver's Dock, and on the east by the marsh, commonly known as Winthrop's Marsh, which covered the margins of Post-office Square. The part of the property next to William Hibbins, comprising Spoore's house and one acre of land, was mortgaged to Nicholas Willis in 1648 for 66 pounds, and in 1670 it was owned by Deacon Henry Bridgham, a tanner, who built a mansion near his tan-yard, which subsequently became the old Julien House. The Julien House was long a famous inn that took its name from its proprietor, whose fame has been perpetuated in his delectable soups. Much of the post-office land later was part of the estate of John Joyliff, a man of wealth and consideration, w r ho lived from 1663 till 1701, the time of his death, on the lane which took his name. He was for many years a selectman of the town, one of the patriots in 1689 who put Andros in prison, and town recorder 38 DEVONSHIRE STREET in 1691. In 1668 he bought the house and land which Coy had purchased of Ann Hibbins. EARLY VALUATIONS Along the Water Street side of the post-office was the land which the town leased to. the tanners for tan-yards. A portion of this town land, twenty-seven feet on Joyliff 's Lane and twenty- six feet on the highway, Water Street, was leased to Joyliff in 1669 for seventy years for two shillings six pence per annum in silver, or about sixty cents a year, which sounds ridiculous as compared with the present rentals. On this town property toward Congress Street were the lime pits. An idea of the early valuation of the property in this vicinity may be gained by the fact that the town leased part of its property at the corner of Devonshire Street and Water Street to a Mrs. Kezia Harvey in 1738 for seven years for 20 pounds per year, and in 1748 the town sold one hundred and seven feet on Water Street and twenty-six feet on Joyliff's Lane, with stable, shop, and shed, to Captain John Comrin for 175 pounds, one quarter down and three-quar- ters on executing the deed. A portion of the Joyliff estate on the northwest corner of Milk and Devonshire Streets came in 1714 into the hands of Samuel Keeling, a merchant, who was captain of the Ancient and Hon- orable Artillery, a justice, and a man of prominence. And finally in 1755 this portion of the land became the property of Edward and William Tyng. The buildings here escaped the fire of 1760, and the east side of Joyliff's Lane at Water Street was then widened to twenty -five feet. John Rowe, the merchant of tea- party fame, bought in 1763 John Comrin's estate, and the family held it until it became part of the post-office site, about the middle of the last century. On the site of the post-office next to the Comrin property stood the Harvey house, which early in 1812 was leased by Bernard Fitzpatrick, an Irish tailor, who came to Boston in 1805; and here was born in November, 1812, the Right Rev. John Bernard Fitzpatrick, the first American, native born, bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. Fitzpatrick died Feb- ruary 13, 1866. s* ° 3 S 2 -« to - H 1 = H O 40 DEVONSHIRE STREET STACKPOLE HOUSE The southwesterly corner of the post-office property was the site of the famous Stackpole House, which was long one of Boston's most noted taverns, at a time when a tavern played an important part in the business and political life of the town. In 1790, when William Stackpole, a wine merchant, bought the site at auction, it was held by the trustees of the estate of Joshua Winslow. Stack- pole's daughter married Francis Welch, and they lived there until 1821, when the old mansion became a restaurant, like Julien's that adjoined it on the east. It was an imposing colonial brick structure, with rooms on either side of the hall that ran down the centre. The politicians, the actors, and many of the representa- tive men, as well as those of a social or convivial nature, sipped their toddy, gossiped, or exchanged the news in the front yard under the two great spreading horse-chestnut trees before the inn. Here might occasionally be seen Daniel Webster, then in the zenith of his powers, the inimitable John Brougham, the actor, and the lesser lights of the stage, Old Spear and Count Joannes, and other men about town, at the start of the nineteenth century. It was always much frequented by newspaper men and Scotch- men. Up and down the front yard a gorgeous peacock proudly strutted, and occasionally a trained bear performed. Frederick Rouillard became the proprietor in 1823, and for ten years after 1839, when James Ryan succeeded Rouillard, the old house was kept as a reproduction of an English inn of a century previous. Alexander Macgregor took charge in 1849. In 1855 George Bundy was landlord, while "Bill" Stone, remembered for his rumps of beef and his English ale, succeeded in 1858. During the last years of the Civil War Martin Lynch presided, and in 1865 came Edward Evans, who ran the Hancock House in Corn Court. Its proprietor immediately before its demolition to make room for the post-office, which bought the site in 1868, was one E. Bennett. The post-office site comprised in all forty-five thousand square feet of land, land and buildings costing $5,894,295. It was bought by piecemeal, the first portion, that at Congress and Water DEVONSHIRE STREET H Sheds, being bought in 1S(!S. while the rest of the site fliil QOl become available until after the fire of 1872. The corner-stone was laid in 1871 by President l. S. Grant, and the Devonshire Street side of the building was completed in 1874, but it was not until 1885 that the building was finally completed. The sculpt- ure work was the work of Daniel C. French, the well-known American artist. At the time of its completion the post-office was the most costly public building in New England. It escaped the fire, which consumed everything about it and only chipped a few of its granite blocks. THEATRE ALLEY Theatre Alley, later the continuation of Devonshire Street from Milk to Franklin, followed the line of Dinsdale's Alley. Along the line of the old alley on Devonshire Street stand now on the west side the buildings of the International Trust Company, the Compton Building, the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Com- pany, and others, while on the east side are the Equitable Build- ing, the building of the Master Builders' Association, and the John Hancock Insurance Company Building, and others. The house and garden of William Dinsdale, a cooper, covered the land where Devonshire extends from Milk to Franklin, and was occu- pied by Dinsdale as early as 1644. He must have been a man of war at some time, for at his death in 1675 he left his widow, be- sides the house and land, four muskets, three swords, four pairs of bandoliers and a corselet. Three Bibles, a trundle-bed, and a potter's furnace and tools were also inventoried. But five of his tw T elve children survived his widow, and in the division of the prop- erty it was clearly stipulated the alley, five feet three inches wide, to the rear of the land was to remain open forever. It was known for a century or two as Dinsdale's Alley, and later, w T hen it be- came Theatre Alley, the width varied from six feet six inches at Milk Street to ten feet four inches at Franklin Place. It took its name Theatre Alley in 1796 because it was the way to the rear of the Federal Street Theatre, which was opened on February 3, 1794. The prologue, written by Robert Treat Paine, was de- livered by the manager in the character of Apollo. The old 42 DEVONSHIRE STREET theatre was burned on February 3, 1798. Rebuilt and reopened October, 1798, the name was changed to the Boston Theatre, November 8, 1805, to the Old Drury in 1828, and to the Odeon in 1835. It was sold to make way for stores in 1851, and the last play was given in 1852. Theatre Alley was an irregular, dark, narrow thoroughfare, lighted even in daylight by a few oil lamps, and so muddy that planks were needed for dry navigation. It was frequented by those whose characters would bear the light as well as by those whose reputation was shady. It had two famous resorts — the Blue Bonnet and the Bell in Hand — where one could quench his thirst. The Blue Bonnet, famous for its dog and cock fights, was a sporting resort well known to the rapid men of the town as well as to the crooks of the early nineteenth century ; and quite as well known, but eminently more respectable, was the Bell in Hand, whose familiar sign, a hand shaking an old-fashioned dinner bell, may still be seen on Williams Court, the Pi Alley of to-day, where it still invites passers-by to enter. A little farther along, on the west side of Franklin Street, a queer old lady, Grace Dunlap, had a small provision, candy, and tobacco shop. A quaint old sideboard, well supplied with Madeira, Holland, and Jamaica, at which one could serve himself, stood in a rear parlor, and on it in plain view was a little box into which the thirsty could put the money equivalent of his small nip. Here, too, the fashionables of the early Victorian era gathered to gossip while they "tuddled" their noses from snuff- boxes of ancient and costly patterns. The old lady moved her shop and belongings to Province Street when the alley was widened, and lost thereby nearly all her trade. The east corner of the alley, at the corner of Milk Street, was at the close of the Revolution the property of Joseph Shed, a shopkeeper, who lived in a large three-story wooden house, and next to him in a small wooden house lived his son Joseph, a provision dealer. The academy of Benjamin Dearborn, the son of a physician of Portsmouth, N.H., was on the west side of Theatre Alley, near Milk. Dearborn had learned the printing trade, but, preferring to teach, opened a school in Portsmouth, and finally about 1790 SHOWING THE PRESENT SITE OF THE POST-OFFICE AT THE LEFT. AND ANN HIBBINS'S CORNER, NOW OCCUPIED BY THE SECOND NATIONAL BANK, ON THE RIGHT 44 DEVONSHIRE STREET came to Boston, buying of James Wakefield, a printer, a large three story wooden house on Milk Street and ten thousand square feet of land, two hundred and seventy-five feet of which bordered the west side of Theatre Alley. Dearborn conducted for a while the academy on Theatre Alley as a day school, but in 1793 he opened also an evening school for young men. He published the "Columbian Grammar," the "Perpetual Diary," and the "Leni- ent System." Among the inventions which occupied his leisure time was a spring balance which was so successful that soon after 1805 he turned his academy into a factory for making balances. He ran the factory on Theatre Alley until 1813, when he established himself on Front Street, now Harrison Ave- nue, as a manufacturer of the Dearborn Platform Balance. He died in 1832, leaving a will by which each of his tenants was to have three dollars annually to celebrate Thanksgiving. His property was bought in 1846 by George W. Gerrish, of Chelsea, who built many of the better-known brick structures of Boston. As the Federal Street Theatre became known as the Odeon in its later days, so the end of Theatre Alley was changed to Odeon Alley, and was so known from 1842 to 1846. It was not until 1859 that Devonshire Street was extended through to Franklin Street. In 1861 it was extended from Franklin to Summer Street through Winthrop Place, which was laid out in 1821 through the lots that formerly belonged to the estate of Ebenezer Parsons. The middle of the nineteenth century saw great changes in the streets of Boston, particularly between the time from 1822 to 1866, when the pressure of population made more and more annoy- ing and detrimental to commerce Boston's narrow and crooked streets. Accordingly, we find much money being spent for the widening of the various streets, and of this sum Devonshire re- ceived the largest amount, no less than $394,163 being expended in widening and improving it. DEVONSHIRE STREET 45 CONCLUSION To trace the remaining vicissitudes of Devonshire Street would be unprofitable and uninteresting - . It is sufficient to know that, previous to the beginning of the nineteenth century, Devonshire Street about State Street was occupied largely by bookseller shops, and that the rest of the street south was tenanted by many small shop dealers, barbers, dressmakers, shoemakers, carpenter shops, blacksmith shops, fencing schools, and small bar-rooms. At No. 2 Devonshire Street was The Shades, a bar-room kept by Thomas D. Parks, the father of "Billy" Parks, a sporting resort of much fame early in the nineteenth century. At No. 3, a century ago the site of the Exchange Coffee House, was the fencing academy kept by William Tromel, who advertised "to the Officers and Gentlemen of Boston and its vicinity that he continues to give lessons with a Small Sword, Cut and Thrust Broad Sword, and with the Sabre Exercises for the Cavalry and Artillery, and the Single Stick and the Soldiers' drill, with the different Marches and real discipline of the Platoon according either to the French Ex- ercises or the real principles practised by the regular requirements of the United States Army. Academy open from 7.30 morning to 9 in the evening." At the time of the great fire in 1872 the small shops and small business interests had largely disappeared, and Devonshire Street was crowded to its entire length with wholesale dry-goods houses, warerooms, furnishings, and fancy goods. It in fact was the dividing line between the dry-goods section and the wholesale shoe and leather goods trade which then crowded about Federal Street. The great fire of 1872 swept everything on Devonshire Street, from Milk to Summer, but did not touch the part from Milk to State or State to Dock Square. So great was the heat of the flames that silver coins in the safe of E. C. Dyer at 158 Devon- shire Street, though in a tin box, in a thick steel box, in an iron safe, were melted like wax, the silver, tin, and the black enamel of the tin running together. To-day Devonshire Street contains the sites of the biggest banks and the greatest banking houses in New England, the largest DEVONSHIRE STREET AND SPRING LANE IN 1912 Showing the present location of the Second National Bank in the larger building DEVONSHIRE STREET 47 insurance companies, and some of the great commission houses which have made the name of Boston known the world over. Its future development seems to be along financial lines. Indeed, the day may not be far distant when Devonshire Street will be the great financial centre of Boston. Ha im m Date Due 1 BOSTON COLLEGE 3 9031 01572634 2 BOSTON COLLEGE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS CHESTNUT HILL, MASS. Books may be kept for two weeks and may be renewed for the same period, unless re- served. Two cents a day is charged for each book kept overtime. If you cannot find what you want, ask the Librarian who will be glad to help you. The borrower is responsible for books drawn on his card and for all fines accruing on the same. ' >'■■■ ■ v WO 5 , ■■n ■•■•.'■ sg*g ■v - j i