The Boston & Maine and Malden

The Boston & Maine and Malden: The Railroad's Impact on the Development of Malden's West End Neighborhood, 1845-1900

The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters

Citation Solo, Rebecca. 2017. The Boston & Maine and Malden: The Railroad's Impact on the Development of Malden's West End Neighborhood, 1845-1900. Master's thesis, Harvard Extension School.

Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:33826105

Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA

The Boston & Maine and Malden:

The Railroad’s Impact on the Development of Malden’s West End Neighborhood,

1845–1900

Rebecca Joy Solo

A Thesis in the Field of Visual Arts

for the Degree of Master of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies

Harvard University

May 2017

Abstract

This thesis explores the impact of the Boston & Maine Railroad on the development of the West End neighborhood in Malden, Massachusetts. Specifically, I will examine the time-period between the opening of the Boston & Maine Railroad station in Malden in 1845 and the transformation of the West End into a railroad suburb during the final two decades of the nineteenth century. Additionally, I consider the relationship between suburban residential development and the park and nature conservation movements.

Supported by a wealth of primary sources, including local newspapers, town annual reports, and city directories, I argue that the opening of the Boston & Maine

Railroad changed the trajectory of the West End neighborhood’s development. The railroad, in collaboration with other forms of urban transportation, spurred a wave of suburban development for individuals desiring to live closer to nature, but with the availability of the railroad that provided commuters with access to the city for work. This discussion of the West End neighborhood through the context of nineteenth-century suburban development and the transportation revolution demonstrates the importance of preserving our historic districts and promoting local history as a source of community pride.

“What relief one experiences when finally the mind is made up to abandon the noise, turmoil and disquietude of city life, and exchange it for the quiet one in the country, with the pure, clear, strength-giving air, fragrant with the perfume of violets, rose-buds, apple- blossoms, and all the freshness and sweetness of a summer’s morning in the country.”

Edward O. Skelton, Handbook of the Boston & Maine Railroad, 1874

“The Boston & Maine Railroad running directly through the town, has brought it within easy transit of the city. It is now beginning to be known that the face of the country in Malden is diversified with various attractions of land and water scenery. Here, within five miles of Boston, are woody heights and rocky glens, and smoothly rounded hills, clothed in the summer’s livery of green; and affording numerous prospects combining the charms of city, seas, and country.”

The Bi-centennial Book of Malden, 1850

“The life history of humanity has proved nothing more clearly than that crowded populations, if they would live in health and happiness, must have space for light, for exercise, for rest, and for the enjoyment of that peaceful beauty of nature which, because it is the opposite of the noisy ugliness of towns, is so wonderfully refreshing to the tired souls of townspeople.”

Charles Eliot, 1893

Acknowledgments

I am indebted to my thesis director Alexander von Hoffman, research advisor

Cynthia Fowler, and Extension School staff Sarah Powell and Chuck Houston for guiding me through this process. Alexander’s “Architecture in Boston” course and his book on

the development of Jamaica Plain initially inspired me to research Malden’s architectural

history and suburban development.

The Malden Public Library and Malden Historical Society—especially Joe

Anderson, Marilyn Glover, Stephen Nedell, Kenneth Pease, Frank Russell, Jack Ryan,

Dora St. Martin, and John Tramondozzi—were wonderful sources of local history.

It would have been impossible to complete this thesis if not for Harvard’s Tuition

Assistance Program and Education Release Time policy, as well as the flexibility and

encouragement of my co-workers and managers in the FAS Development office.

I am forever grateful for the help of a special group of family, friends, and

colleagues: Arthur Bergevin, Jen Davison, Katherine Evans, Karissa Johnson, Ariel

Linet, Amy Luskin, Dave Solo, and Mika Solo. They went above and beyond to read,

edit, and provide thoughtful feedback on this thesis. I am especially grateful for my friend

Sarah Gaby and mother Gail Solo for reading and editing my thesis, in full.

Finally, thank you to Eric. Like the commuters I’ve studied, we purchased a house based solely on its proximity to transportation and nature. Your love and encouragement gave me the motivation to keep writing about them. Thank you for convincing me that we should move to Malden, a city neither of us knew anything about, and now love.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ...... v

List of Tables ...... viii

List of Figures ...... ix

I. Introduction ...... 1

II. A Brief History of Malden ...... 8

Malden’s Industry and Manufacturing ...... 13

III. Railroad Suburbs ...... 16

Commuting to the City ...... 21

IV. The Boston & Maine Railroad and the West End Railroad Suburb ...... 24

The Boston & Maine Railroad Arrives in Malden ...... 28

Advertising the West End ...... 31

Moving to the West End ...... 35

V. Developing Malden’s West End ...... 39

Richard and Samuel G. Dexter ...... 44

Francisco Beltran de Las Casas and William Beltran de Las Casas ...... 49

Benjamin F. Dutton ...... 53

Alexander Grant ...... 57

Ezra Pratt ...... 58

VI. The West End and the Importance of Nature ...... 59

The Impact of Preserving the Middlesex Fells ...... 65

vi The Park Movement in Boston and Malden ...... 66

The Fellsway and Boston’s Parkways ...... 71

VII. Conclusion: Preserving the West End’s Past ...... 73

Appendix ...... 77

Bibliography ...... 78

vii

List of Tables

Table 1: Population of Malden, 1850 to 1900 ...... 11

Table 2: Occupational Distribution, Ward 3 (Malden, Massachusetts), 1886 ...... 38

viii

List of Figures

Figure 1: 279 Dexter Street and 107 Dexter Street. Malden, MA ...... 1

Figure 2: Peter Tufts, Jr. Map of Malden, 1795 ...... 10

Figure 3: Malden Neighborhoods Map with parcel boundaries ...... 13

Figure 4: Diagram of Railroads Diverging from Boston by Alonzo Lewis ...... 25

Figure 5: City of Malden, Massachusetts by Albert E. Downs ...... 31

Figure 6: Plan of lots on the highlands in Malden belonging to the Edgeworth

Company ...... 41

Figure 7: Map of the Town of Malden...... 42

Figure 8: House on the corner of Cedar and Chestnut Streets ...... 45

Figure 9: Dexter House, Elm Street ...... 46

Figure 10: Index Map of the City of Malden. 1885 Atlas of Malden ...... 47

Figure 11: Development of portion of Dexter land, 1885 to 1897 ...... 47

Figure 12: View from Grandfather’s Hill, also known as Las Casas’ Hill ...... 50

Figure 13: Greenleaf Street, looking north from the corner of Clifton Street ...... 50

Figure 14: Plate 10. 1885 Atlas of Malden ...... 51

Figure 15: Plate 27. 1897 Atlas of Malden ...... 52

Figure 16: Development of Greystone Road. Las Casas property ...... 53

Figure 17: Photograph of the Residence of B. F. Dutton “Glen Rock” by N. W.

Starbird ...... 54

Figure 18: Development of portion of Dutton land, 1885 to 1897 ...... 55

ix Figure 19: Alexander Grant Advertisement ...... 57

Figure 20: Middlesex Fells Reservation. Massachusetts Metropolitan Park

Commission ...... 66

Chapter I

Introduction

Malden’s West End neighborhood demonstrates the lasting effects of the nineteenth-century urban transportation revolution on local architecture and surrounding nature. During the fifty years that followed the opening of the Boston & Maine Railroad in Malden in 1845, local residents built beautiful homes in the Queen Anne architectural style—a popular design during the latter part of the nineteenth century (Figure 1).

Figure 1. 279 Dexter Street and 107 Dexter Street. Malden, MA. 2016. Photo credits: Becky Solo. These homes, built in 1882 and 1884 respectively, are just two of the many that reflect the suburban architectural style that defines Malden’s West End neighborhood.

Primarily built between 1880 and 1900, these homes are fairly typical of the architectural

style that came to define other suburbs influenced by urban transportation surrounding

Boston, including Jamaica Plain, Brookline, Roxbury, Cambridge, and Somerville. And

like many of those neighborhoods across the greater Boston area, Malden’s West End

1 features an array of landscaped parks and nature preservations. These homes and parks

across Boston’s periphery were constructed simultaneously with the development of

urban transportation. Using Malden’s West End as an example, this thesis argues that the

introduction of new modes of urban transportation, like the Boston & Maine Railroad,

spurred new real estate development in the suburbs, inspired middle- and upper-class

Bostonians to commute between their suburban residences and urban workplaces, and

motivated these suburban residents to conserve their natural surroundings for the future.

Malden’s West End homes are remarkable because they illustrate the railroad’s

impact on the relationship between home, workplace, and the commute between these

two locations. The passenger railroads and other modes of urban transportation in Malden

and across the greater Boston area enabled suburban residents to travel between

peripheral communities and the city of Boston with greater ease. This convenience

inspired an increasing number of middle- and upper-class Bostonians to separate

workplace from residence and to relocate to suburbs like Malden’s West End.

Specifically, the Boston & Maine Railroad transformed Malden’s West End

neighborhood into a railroad suburb for commuters who recognized this new opportunity

to live further away from work and closer to nature.1

Local residents of Boston’s peripheral communities were the first to understand

the impact of urban transportation’s new convenience, correctly predicting that the

railroad would encourage people to commute longer distances between work and home.

1. The Boston & Maine Railroad’s impact on other Malden neighborhoods during the second half of the nineteenth century is also noteworthy. For example, the Boston & Maine Railroad encouraged the development of the Edgeworth industrial neighborhood south of Malden’s West End neighborhood. This thesis, however, only addresses the Boston & Maine’s impact on the West End.

2 For example, historian Henry Binford argues that although very few people worked in

factories before 1860, and even fewer took advantage of the available modes of urban

transportation, “the organized activity of these few gradually changed the habits and

expectations of the whole society” (Binford 84). The following chapters will demonstrate

how the residents of Malden’s West End took advantage of the opportunities afforded by

the opening of the Boston & Maine Railroad station in 1845; primarily, it inspired local residents to subdivide their land into individual lots, which they sold based on the proximity of the railroad station. With an increasingly popular desire to escape the city and live closer to nature, groups of Boston businessmen purchased these homes because suburban residency rapidly became a viable option through rail service. As a result, a new socio-geographic pattern of life developed: suburban residents lived in railroad suburbs like the West End and commuted on the Boston & Maine Railroad to get to and from work.

In unison with the West End’s development into a railroad suburb, undeveloped land nearby offered Malden’s prospective residents the fresh air and quiet solitude missing from city life. Within five years of the Boston & Maine Railroad station’s opening in Malden, the town’s historians recognized that the town’s proximity not only to a railroad station but also to nature—specifically, the forests and lakes surrounding much of the town—would appeal to new residents: “It is now beginning to be known that the face of the country in Malden is diversified with various attractions of land and water scenery. Here, within five miles of Boston, are woody heights and rocky glens, and smoothly rounded hills, clothed in the summer’s livery of green; and affording numerous prospects combining the charms of city, seas, and country” (The Bi-Centennial Book of

3 Malden 224). Malden’s proximity to nature had not changed, however; rather the railroad rendered this fact visible in the public’s mind and made Malden’s West End a desirable residential option for Bostonians.

Subsequently, the West End’s development demonstrated to residents the need for formalizing park systems and preserving green spaces. In the final decades of the nineteenth century, residents of Malden and specifically, the West End neighborhood, encouraged the conservation and preservation of the Middlesex Fells Reservation, a large forest preserve north of Boston. Similarly, Malden residents helped to establish the

Massachusetts Parks Commission and formalize the Boston and Malden park systems. By conserving Malden’s natural beauty, these individuals preserved Malden’s status as one of the most beautiful suburbs of Boston, both for its local residents and for the visitors who travel to Malden via the multiple modes of urban transportation established in the mid-nineteenth century.

The concurrent residential development of Malden’s West End and the establishment of Malden’s park system reflects a relationship observed in other suburban towns on Boston’s periphery. Yet the city’s deep commitment to the conservation and preservation movement is unusual. The conservation efforts that began in Malden to support the preservation of the Middlesex Fells influenced the protection of other large forests in cities and towns across the greater Boston area. This thesis shows that the West

End’s suburban development stimulated the greater Boston area’s preservation efforts,

while also demonstrating the specific and exceptional impact of Malden’s residents on the creation and protection of Boston’s park system and forests.

4 An examination of primary sources related to Malden confirms the development

of the West End neighborhood as a railroad suburb in the late nineteenth century. Key

primary sources include the files documenting the early history of many of the West End

neighborhood’s homes held by the Massachusetts Historical Commission, as well as

Malden directories, the City of Malden Assessors’ List of Taxable Polls, Malden atlases, the Middlesex County deeds, and files from the Malden Engineer’s Department. My research utilizes these and other historical materials, such as newspapers and city annual reports, to determine when developers sold their land and built houses, and who purchased and resided in them. Local papers such as the Malden City Press and Malden

Mirror featured descriptions of the homes being built and sold in the West End, with details on the residents’ professions. Likewise, the annual reports provide critical insight into the political context in which Malden grew and the West End developed. Finally, conversations with local historians and archivists associated with the Malden Historical

Society and Malden Public Library supplied me with numerous anecdotal stories about the West End’s history and residents. This thesis also incorporates research methods, including a quantitative analysis of the West End neighborhood based on the 1886 City of

Malden Assessors’ List of Taxable Polls.

In this thesis, I will use the term ‘West End’ to describe the west side of Malden, defined as the area bordered by Pleasant Street to the south, the Medford border to the west, the Middlesex Fells Reservation to the north, and the Boston & Maine Railroad tracks to the east. Although this border today encompasses portions of three separate neighborhoods, the term ‘West End’ was used during the second half of the nineteenth century to describe the broad area of Malden north of Pleasant Street.

5 This thesis is organized into several key parts. First, in chapter II I provide a brief history of Malden, focusing on its settlement, population, and industry. Chapter III

describes suburban development in the greater Boston area, and specifically explores the

history of suburbs, the influence of urban transportation, and the practice of commuting

to work. Chapter IV examines the history of the Boston & Maine Railroad and its impact

on Malden, looking closely at how the railroad changed the way advertisements for

homes in the West End neighborhood motivated people to move to the neighborhood.

Chapter V conveys the stories of the major landowners and real estate developers in

Malden’s West End neighborhood and provides a qualitative understanding of the

neighborhood’s transformation into a haven for Boston commuters. Chapter VI examines

the West End’s influence on the preservation of the Middlesex Fells and highlights

Malden’s efforts to construct a public park system as part of Boston’s overall park

movement.

The final chapter (VII) draws together the aforementioned sections about the

development of Malden’s West End as a railroad suburb, highlighting the enormous

impact of the Boston & Maine Railroad on its transformation. This final chapter

concludes with a call to designate sections of the West End as an historic district, as most

recently proposed by the 2010 City of Malden Master Plan. This report argues for the

development of a Las Casas Historic District, encompassing the houses built between

Glenwood Street, Summer Street, Greystone Road, Las Casas Street, and Beltran Street,

as well as a West End Historic District, comprising the houses built along Clifton Street,

Dexter Street, Highland Avenue, and Maple Street (City of Malden Master Plan 222).

Establishing local historic districts, such as those proposed for the West End, do not

6 simply preserve and protect buildings; rather, they promote local history as a source of pride and community identity.

Chapter II

A Brief History of Malden

During the first three centuries of greater Boston’s settlement, the types of

residents, industries, and forms of transportation in Malden resembled those of other

communities on Boston’s periphery. The Boston & Maine Railroad shaped this evolution,

transforming Malden into a center of industry and contributing to Malden’s population

boom by encouraging new residents to settle in its neighborhoods. Consequently, due to

the railroad’s efficiencies in transporting people between the city and suburbs, the Boston

& Maine also inspired residents to move further north and further away from Boston.

Thus, above population and industry, transportation—specifically, the Boston & Maine

Railroad—played the largest role in Malden’s development.

Malden’s early history demonstrates the importance of accessible transportation

between neighboring towns and cities. Six years after the founding of Salem in 1626 and

just two years after Boston was formed in 1630, a group of Puritans led by Ralph Sprague and under orders from Governor Endicott traveled from Salem to what would become

Malden in order to find new territory for the Bay State Colony to settle (Randall 5).

According to local history, Sagamore John of Winnismmet, leader of the local Native

American Pawtucket tribe, granted Sprague permission to colonize the area. The following year, Governor Winthrop of Charlestown traveled north through what is now

Malden and petitioned the General Court to designate the region as part of Charlestown.

In 1633, the General Court approved the petition to grant this area, then called Mystic

8 Side, to Charlestown and five years later, all of the territory eight miles north of the

Mystic River became part of Charlestown (4, 5). However, within fifteen years, this region—consisting today of portions of Medford, Malden, Everett, Stoneham, and

Melrose—proved too large to be governed as a single territory.

Specifically, Malden’s establishment in the mid-seventeenth century derived from

the hardships of traveling throughout the Mystic Side. As Puritan settlers began to claim

individual lots of land in what would become Malden, they were forced to travel by boat

up the Malden River to Sandy Bank, cross the Malden River by ferry, and then travel by

horseback, or alternatively, travel the Mystic River to the present day Cradock’s Bridge

in Medford (Randall 8). By 1648, the inhabitants of Mystic Side had grown tired of their

long commute to Charlestown for religious services and withdrew from their

Charlestown church in order to establish their own local church in Malden (9). By

forming a local church, the residents of Mystic Side could officially separate from

Charlestown. On May 11, 1649, no longer obliged to travel for religious services, these

residents established the town of Malden.2

Malden’s early inhabitants built their residences along the intersection of

Charlestown Road, Salem Street, Medford Road, and Reading Road, which laid the

foundation of Malden’s current city center (Randall 29).3 The town’s rocky hills and

2. The town’s name, also written as Maldon or Mauldon, comes from Joseph Hills, a leading citizen who arrived in New England from the town of Maldon in Essex, England. The name Mauldon was used until 1769, when it was changed to Malden (Randall 19). Joseph Hills was first married to Rose Dunster, sister of Henry Dunster, the first President of Harvard College. (The Bi-Centennial Book of Malden 168). Former Speaker of the House of Deputies, Hills compiled the Massachusetts Laws, the first printed code of enacted laws in New England (Corey 5).

3. This is the intersection of present-day Salem Street, Main Street, and Ferry Street.

9 numerous ponds and rivers influenced the location of this intersection by providing a

limited amount of land suitable for farms The earliest known map of Malden, drawn in

1795 by Peter Tufts, Jr., shows Malden’s center at this intersection (Fig. 2). During the eighteenth century, the majority of settlers resided on the east side of Malden. At that time, the only notable landmark on Malden’s west side was Captain Dexter’s home along

Medford Road (bottom left hand corner of Tufts map, Fig. 2), indicating that much of

Malden’s west side remained undeveloped.

Figure 2. Peter Tufts, Jr. Map of Malden, 1795. Map reproduction courtesy of the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library.

Over its first two centuries, Malden’s boundaries changed multiple times, causing

the size of its population to fluctuate. These first boundary adjustments occurred in 1695

10 when the town’s governing officials divided more than two thousand acres of common

land among the seventy-four Malden landholders (Randall 28). In 1726, a portion of

Charlestown was annexed to Malden, including present-day Medford’s Wellington

neighborhood and Malden’s Edgeworth neighborhood. This increased the town’s

population to approximately 600 people. The following year, several portions of Malden

separated to join Reading, Melrose Highlands, and Stoneham. In 1817, Medford gained

another portion of Malden. Many of these boundaries were adjusted based on the location

of local churches, following in the steps of Malden’s original residents who refused to travel the great distance to Charlestown for religious services (Randall 28). At the start of the Civil War in 1861, the population of Malden totaled less than 6,000, but within twenty years, it had more than doubled. During the second half of the nineteenth century, regardless of any subsequent boundary adjustments, Malden’s population rapidly grew

(Table 1).

Table 1. Population of Malden, 1850 to 1900.

Gain Year Population Number Percent

1850 3,520 1860 5,865 2,345 39% 1870 7,370 1,505 20% 1880 12,017 4,647 39% 1890 24,626 12,069 51% 1900 33,644 9,018 27% Source: Massachusetts and U.S. Censuses. ma_vitalrecords.org. Between 1850 and 1860, Malden saw a 39 percent increase in its inhabitants, and over the next fifty years, each decade saw an increase of at least 20 percent (as seen in 1870 when Everett separated from Malden) and sometimes as high as 50 percent.

11 Historians attribute the separation of Melrose from Malden in 1850 not to religious reasons, but to the introduction of the Boston & Maine Railroad. This new mode of urban transportation allowed people to build their homes in the sparsely settled areas further away from Malden’s center (Goss 21). As these citizens north of Malden began to establish their own churches, businesses, and town affairs, they incorporated as the separate town of Melrose, an event that Malden historians regard as “depleting” the population by more than 1,000 (Randall 65). In addition to inspiring groups of people to move to Malden, the accessibility of urban transit like the Boston & Maine Railroad also motivated individuals to move even further from Boston’s city center.

By the end of the nineteenth century, Malden had established its present boundaries, and the city’s eight neighborhoods began to form as new and immigrant populations settled in specific areas. For example, the Irish lived primarily in Edgeworth, where Malden’s industry and manufacturing was located, whereas the Swedish lived in

Maplewood and the Jews lived in Suffolk Square (Architectural Survey n.p.; Malden

Historical Society 7). During the nineteenth century, the Edgeworth neighborhood southwest of Malden’s center developed industries and businesses, while the Suffolk

Square and Maplewood neighborhoods east of Malden’s center became predominately residential areas. Joshua Webster developed the Maplewood neighborhood, arranging streets and house lots and planting numerous maple trees that inspired the neighborhood’s name (Randall 64). Figure 3 shows these and Malden’s other neighborhoods today.

Figure 3. Malden Neighborhoods Map with parcel boundaries. Prepared by MAPC Data Services Group for the City of Malden’s Master Planning Committee in February 2009. City of Malden Master Plan. Prepared by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. Boston. 2010. Page 18. Available from http://www.cityofmalden.org/sites/default/files/malden_master_plan_final_072010.pdf.

Malden’s Industry and Manufacturing

From its earliest years, industry and manufacturing connected Malden to Boston and other peripheral towns. Malden’s first settlers were farmers, craftsmen, woodsmen,

and builders who erected mills and cut wood and timber that was then transported to

Boston and Charlestown (Randall 12). Because of this, the town’s inhabitants quickly

recognized the importance of building roads through the area’s thick forests and over the

imposing rocky hills in order to increase Malden’s accessibility to neighboring towns and

the city of Boston. As one historian described, Malden’s first inhabitants found

themselves charged with “subduing forests and wild lands, and bringing them into forms fit for the uses of civilization” (Corey 300). By tempering the town’s natural

13 surroundings, Malden’s residents created efficient connections to other cities and towns,

subsequently enabling it to pursue mutually-beneficial relationships with the surrounding market economy.

During the nineteenth century, Malden became a center for industry and manufacturing. In 1804, William Barrett brought perhaps the first factory to Malden when he started a silk-dyeing business along Three Mile Brook just north of Malden’s

center (Randall 49). Nearby, a rolling and splitting nail mill, established around the same

time, may have been the first of its kind to cut and head nails in one operation. In 1812,

Samuel Cox formed his factory to create shoe lasts, the wooden object around which

shoes are crafted, also near Malden’s center. In the mid-nineteenth century, other

factories for tin-ware, soap, clothing, rubber, and paint opened in Malden. By 1873,

Malden boasted 287 manufacturing firms, and served the greater Boston area as an

industrial center (Randall 49, 52).

Among these industries, the manufacturing of shoes became particularly central to

Malden’s prosperity, especially after 1853 when Elisha S. Converse opened the Boston

Rubber Shoe Company (Randall 50). This company, later named the Converse Rubber

Shoe Company, transformed Malden into a leading shoe manufacturer, joining other

Massachusetts shoe manufacturing towns such as Lynn, Haverhill, and Brockton

(O’Connell 124). At its peak, the Boston Rubber Shoe Company employed as many as

3,500 people and produced up to 50,000 pairs of shoes each day (Corey 12), functioning

as Malden’s largest and most prosperous factory.

During the nineteenth century, the modes and frequency of transportation

throughout Malden increased rapidly, spurring this expansion of local industrial activity.

14 Sandy Bank along the Malden River, south of Malden’s center and near the Edgeworth

neighborhood’s industrial area, served the town as a landing place for boats traveling

north from the Mystic River. In 1847, Otis Tufts erected a wharf there, allowing barges to deliver lumber, coal, and tar products to the town (Randall 51). The horse-car railroad was introduced to Malden in 1848, allowing additional industrial activity. However, the opening of the Boston & Maine Railroad in 1845 served as the major turning point for

Malden. The railroad played the greatest role in transforming Malden from a rural community into an urbanized, manufacturing center. The following chapter will provide additional context for the Boston & Maine Railroad’s role in Malden, exploring how urban transportation inspired the creation of railroad suburbs and influenced the separation of residences and workplaces.

Chapter III

Railroad Suburbs

Beginning in the mid-eighteenth century, city dwellers departed the city center and moved their primary residences to the suburbs. Growing health concerns about living in the crowded city, as well as an increasing interest in landscape gardening and horticulture, spurred this original form of suburban development. However, as new modes of urban transportation opened more convenient access across cities and towns, people used this new mobility to move to the suburbs, not just for the proximity to healthful nature, but to create an intentional greater distance between their homes and jobs. In particular, the introduction of steam railroads led to the development of suburbs along railroad lines, directly linking the newly separated locations of residences and workplaces. Throughout the nineteenth century, Malden’s West End neighborhood followed this pattern and developed similarly to other railroad suburbs around Boston.

The suburban concept in America dates back to the Revolutionary War (Jackson

13). In the mid- to late-eighteenth century, as the populations of those living in and

around American city centers significantly increased, individuals began to depart the

downtown areas to settle in the first suburbs. The suburbs of Boston, in particular,

developed in stages. The first surrounding communities developed individually from

Boston, but participated in trade and politics with the city (O’Connell 11). After the

Revolutionary War, and with a growing market economy in New England, town centers

developed with central meetinghouses and public buildings. Although communities like

16 Cambridge, Charlestown, and Somerville grew independently of Boston, the success of

their individual market economies transformed them into extensions of the city

(O’Connell 11, 13). By the nineteenth century, wealthy upper classes regarded these

suburban spaces as desirable residential areas and helped to drive their development.

Dual forces inspired the nineteenth-century pattern of suburban development along a city’s periphery—the social reform movement and an increased interest in landscape gardening. During the first half of the nineteenth century, a generation of social reformers championed a movement to return to nature. This group included Alexander

Jackson Downing, a horticulturist and landscape designer, and Catherine Beecher, an educator and writer. Social reformers like Downing and Beecher believed the natural environment strongly improved one’s mental health and moral faculties, and emphasized the benefits of constructing houses outside of the city and among nature in their writing.

For example, in 1850, Downing wrote in the preface to The Architecture of Country

Houses, that living in a farm-house or rural cottage would lead to “the highest genius and the finest character” (xix). He continued, “It is the solitude and freedom of the family home in the country which constantly preserves the purity of the nation, and invigorates its intellectual powers” (xix). Likewise, in A Treatise on Domestic Economy for the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School, published in 1841, Beecher argued that “walking and riding and gardening, in the open air” counterbalanced the dangers of the city’s

“intellectual and moral excitement” (44). She also advocated surrounding a family’s house with yards and gardens, suggesting “No father, who wishes to have his daughters grow up to be healthful women, can take a surer method to secure this end… even half an acre, could secure a small Eden around his premises” (253). The healthful benefits of the

17 country, whether by improving one’s character, increasing their intelligence, or ensuring

the physical and moral health of the family, inspired the social reformers to leave the

cities for more natural surroundings.

Concurrently with this domestic wave of suburban development, wealthy men

interested in horticulture and landscape gardening moved to the suburbs to be closer to

nature. These ‘gentlemen gardeners’ also believed horticulture and landscape gardening

improved their mental and moral faculties (Von Hoffman 67).4 Landscape gardeners like

Robert Morris Copeland, who in 1858 published his book Country Life: A Handbook for

Agriculture, Horticulture, and Landscape Gardening, inspired these men to leave the cities. His book provided them with plans for a model estate of sixty acres, a plot of land so large it could only be obtained on the city’s periphery. Copeland recognized that these men were participating in something novel, a movement to the middle landscape between

the city and the country, that we now term suburban development. He wrote, “Every year

we see men of wealth leaving the cities in summer to buy houses in the country; however

wrapt in money making they are not insensible to rural beauty” (qtd. in O’Connell 21).

Thus, the gentlemen gardeners joined the social reformers in moving to the suburbs, with

the express purpose of surrounding themselves with cultivated nature.

Under the influences of social reformers like Downing and Beecher, and with a

growing interest in tending to nature, Boston’s elite members of society established

summer homes in the towns and villages on Boston’s outskirts. Throughout the first half

4. Alexander von Hoffman explains that these gentlemen gardeners “assumed that horticulture and landscape gardening acted as agents of moral reform, an assumption that rested on the belief in the relationship between inner and outer nature… They believed that environments could elevate or debase the mental and moral faculties. The exercise of the mental faculties upon objects of great beauty, such as paintings or natural scenery, improved the imagination (or “taste,” as it was sometimes called) and satisfied the moral sense” (67).

18 of the nineteenth century, wealthy Boston merchants like Harrison Gray Otis, Benjamin

Bigelow, and James Perkins established estates in Watertown, Cambridgeport, and

Jamaica Plain (Von Hoffman 8, 10; Binford 63). Their estates began to change the

character of the outlying towns from farming villages to a mix of uses including homes to

urban princes of commerce.

By the advent of the nineteenth century, increased modes of urban transportation

expanded access across large cities and opened new access to other villages and towns.

Prior to the introduction of “urban transit,” which may be defined as “an operation along

a fixed route, according to an established schedule, for a single fare” (Jackson 33), individuals traveled via horse-drawn carriage or stagecoach. In 1829, Abraham Bower introduced the omnibus, a larger form of stagecoach, as the first form of urban transit in

North America with a route along Broadway in New York City (34). In subsequent years, omnibus service expanded to Philadelphia (1831), Boston (1835) and Baltimore (1844), thereby expanding the commuter practice to the other major cities in America.

This urban transportation revolution shifted the concept of a suburb from the location of summer homes for the wealthy, to full-time residential communities for businessmen and professionals interested in creating a greater intentional distance between their homes and jobs (Binford xiii). Due to its ability to carry an increased number of passengers, the omnibus provided individuals with a more affordable transportation option for traveling to and from the city center. Omnibus firms even developed discounted ‘commuter’ services to different residential areas and offered those commuters annual season tickets, providing them with an unlimited number of rides at an average of four cents per day, compared to the average ten cents charged for a single ride

19 (Jackson 34). The word ‘commuter’ stems from these reduced fares that omnibus proprietors sold in package lots, described as the ‘commutation of fares’ (Binford 89).

The omnibus and the opportunities to more efficiently travel across cities and suburban neighborhoods inspired the next wave of suburban development.

Soon after, steam railroads were introduced to North America, further encouraging faster, longer-distance travel and stimulating new suburban development.

Although steam railroad companies originally invested in long-distance rail travel that linked cities to distant markets and factories in order to transport goods, they adapted rail service for individual travelers as early as the 1830s. Steam railroads broke down the

“barriers of time and distance” and connected the villages on the periphery with their neighbors and the city (Jackson 91), and consequently encouraged a new group of people to live in the suburbs with improved access to the cities.

As residents adopted this practice of using urban transit to commute to work, they assisted in establishing railroad suburbs along the steam railroad lines. Over time, railroad suburbs developed a few specific characteristics: these neighborhoods were located a distance from the city center, their residents were of an upper-middle to upper socioeconomic class and able to afford the daily commute, and between 30 and 50 percent of the heads of households traveled at least five miles to work (Jackson 99, 102;

Binford 79). Railroad suburbs with these characteristics formed along all the major railroad lines, across Boston’s periphery.

In the 1850s, following the introduction of railroads, streetcars were established as an alternative form of public transportation. In 1852, horse-drawn streetcars, also called horsecars, were introduced in New York City; four years later, they arrived in

20 Boston (O’Connell 69). Drawn by horses along the street rails, the streetcars could carry

more passengers than the omnibus at a faster speed, providing commuters with another

economical mode of urban transit.

The multiple modes of urban transportation allowed commuters to efficiently travel to the city from a broad range of origins. Together, the omnibuses, steam railroads, and streetcars created the first integrated transportation system for Americans (Jackson

41). In major cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago, the horsecars connected with omnibuses to provide crosstown service. Concurrently, steam railroads

provided long-distance service and ferries transported individuals across waterways.

Further, the broad range of urban transportation modes resulted in commutes that utilized

more than one form of transportation. For example, some individuals traveled into the

city via railroad or ferry, and then utilized the horsecar or omnibus from the central

terminal to their place of work (41). The many modes of urban transit allowed people to

travel to work from an increasingly diverse range of suburban towns and villages on the

city periphery.

Commuting to the City

During the second half of the nineteenth century, commuting to the city center became increasingly accessible for people living on the periphery, due to these new modes of urban transit. In turn, the ease of commuting encouraged suburban development to accommodate workers who wanted to live outside the city. As the different forms of urban transit expanded, residents of towns on Boston’s fringe took increasing advantage

of new transportation opportunities and reduced fares. These suburb-dwellers commuted

21 to work in the city for their jobs as newspaper owners, bank clerks, attorneys, merchants,

and insurance executives, among others.

Landowners living on the city periphery and real estate developers recognized that urban transit, combined with more remote living, introduced the opportunity to

develop land into railroad suburbs. Individual landowners in the towns surrounding

Boston benefited financially by subdividing their estates into individual land plots.5

Meanwhile, real estate developers bought large tracts of land specifically to divide into

house lots in anticipation of new commuter residents. For example, in 1844, railroad

advocate William Jackson subdivided his Newton farm, designing fourteen acres of

streets, house lots, and green space close to the Boston & Worcester Railroad (O’Connell

44). Around this same time, Cambridge farmers subdivided their land into 5,000 to

15,000 square foot lots (59). In the 1860s and 1870s, local real estate developer George

H. Williams and local carpenter Stephen Heath developed Jamaica Plain’s Alveston

Street into individual homes (Von Hoffman 48). Similarly, in the 1880s, the family of

Abram French developed their Jamaica Plain estate, Parley Vale, into another collection

of houses for Boston commuters. This inspired real estate investors Robinwood

Associates to create an additional development next to it for a similar constituency of

Boston professionals (51). Landowners and real estate developers across the greater

Boston area recognized that urban transportation presented lucrative opportunities for

suburban residential development.

5. Binford suggests that individual landowners did more than develop their land for new residents; they also took advantage of opportunities to change their own careers and began to commute to jobs in the city (84).

22 Railroad executives and local real estate developers worked together to attract

individuals living in Boston to these newly developed railroad suburbs. For example, in

1847, the North Auburn Dale Land Company developed Newton’s Auburndale village

(O’Connell 44). Owned by William Jackson and Alexander Wadsworth, a landscape

architect and surveyor, the company subdivided 120 acres into 84 individual house lots north of the Boston & Albany Railroad tracks. In order to attract Boston businessmen,

Jackson and Wadsworth wrote anonymous articles in Boston newspapers that described the real estate development and offered a free train ride from Boston to the land auction.

Other developers, such as the developer of Wollaston Park in North Quincy, encouraged

individuals to purchase homes in railroad suburbs by providing them with one-year

commuter passes on the local railroad (44, 62). These free train rides and discounted commuter passes directly linked the home-buying experience to the practice of commuting, and influenced this wave of suburban development.

Working together, residents of the city periphery, real estate developers, and urban transportation companies promoted an innovative way of life. The advent of urban transportation inspired a wave of suburban development that separated the physical locations of homes and jobs while simultaneously linking the suburbs and city center in a more efficient manner. The following chapter will demonstrate how the Boston & Maine

Railroad in particular, and in collaboration with real estate developers and local residents, inspired the development of Malden’s West End neighborhood into a railroad suburb and promoted a lifestyle that involved a daily commute into the city for work.

Chapter IV

The Boston & Maine Railroad and the West End Railroad Suburb

Steam railroads were particularly effective in linking the city of Boston to the numerous towns and villages nearby. In 1835, the Boston & Lowell Railroad, one of the first steam railroads to traverse the Boston area, connected Boston to the Merrimack

Valley textile mills (Binford 91). Around this same time, the Boston & Worcester

Railroad opened its first stations between Boston and Brookline, as did the Boston &

Providence Railroad between Boston and Dedham (Jackson 34; Von Hoffman 13). In

1845, the Boston & Maine Railroad became the fourth railroad to connect the inner

Middlesex suburbs (Binford 91). Figure 4 presents the railroad lines as of 1846 that traveled through Boston. By 1849, 59 commuter trains traveled to and from Boston each weekday, with service up to 15 miles from the city’s center. Another 45 trains traveled to

Boston each day from farther away (O’Connell 42), effectively linking Boston to towns and villages not just across the state of Massachusetts, but throughout New England.

Figure 4. Diagram of Railroads Diverging from Boston by Alonzo Lewis. Engraved for Dickinson’s Boston Almanac, 1846. Map reproduction courtesy of the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library.

Of the many railroad lines that spanned the Boston area, the Boston & Maine

Railroad would become the most influential, especially for the city of Malden. During the nineteenth century, the Boston & Maine transformed from a single, seven-mile railroad line north of Boston to an impressive consolidation of independent railroads with thousands of miles of tracks. The Boston & Maine Railroad’s arrival in Malden and the opening of its station in the town’s center stimulated the development of Malden’s West

End, changed the way developers advertised their real estate, and inspired a new group of

residents to move to the neighborhood.

In the 1830s, the railroad that would become the Boston & Maine line received a

Massachusetts charter as the Andover & Wilmington (Heald 7). Although first established as a competitor to the Boston & Lowell Railroad, it connected Andover with

Boston using the Boston & Lowell Railroad’s tracks. The railroad acquired a New

Hampshire charter in 1835 and incorporated as a separate entity, applying the Boston &

Maine Railroad name. The Boston & Maine used the Boston & Lowell Railroad tracks

25 until it built its own tracks in 1845, connecting Boston to Maine by traveling parallel to the Boston & Lowell through Wilmington, and then diverging northwest to Portland.

The Boston & Maine faced competition from the Eastern Railroad, which was founded in April 1836 (Bradlee “The Eastern Railroad” 3). The Eastern Railroad traveled along a similar route to the Boston & Maine, moving people and freight north along the

seacoast and connecting Newburyport to the Portland, Saco, & Portsmouth Railroad

Company in Maine (29). In 1848, the Boston & Maine promoted a new line between

Malden and Lynn in order to divert business away from the Eastern Railroad (Bradlee

“The Boston and Maine Railroad” 27). The Boston & Maine and Eastern railroad companies fought for service north of Boston for close to fifty years.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the Boston & Maine Railroad succeeded in dominating rail service around the greater Boston area. In 1883, after decades of competition, the Boston & Maine took over the Eastern Railroad’s lease and merged the two lines. By May 1890, the Boston & Maine controlled the Eastern Railroad

Company. Over the next decade, the Boston & Maine Railroad also acquired the 424- mile Concord & Montreal Railroad and the 478-mile Fitchburg Railroad. By the close of the nineteenth century, the Boston & Maine Railroad had consolidated 47 major and minor independent railroad lines in central and northern New England and operated on more than 2,000 miles of track (Heald 8).

The Boston & Maine transported both freight and individual passengers along these extensive railroad lines. As early as 1833, when the Boston & Maine originally traveled between Andover and Wilmington (a distance of approximately seven miles), the

railroad primarily dealt with local business rather than long distance travel (Bradlee “The

26 Boston and Maine Railroad” 4). However, within a few years, the residents of

Haverhill—just a few miles north of Andover—requested that the railroad line be extended to connect them to Boston (5). Over subsequent years, the railroad company expanded the line further, moving cargo and passengers from the towns and villages north of Boston to the city’s center.

The residents of towns surrounding Boston, like those in Haverhill, played a significant role in determining how railroad service expanded across New England. For example, in 1845, prominent Salem residents successfully petitioned the legislature for a railroad that would travel from Salem through Peabody, Lynnfield, and Saugus, and eventually connect with the Boston & Maine at its Malden station (Bradlee “The Eastern

Railroad” 32). In 1853, public lobbying also persuaded the Boston & Maine to promote

the first Sunday excursion train. David L. Webster and John G. Webster, two Swedish

manufacturers, requested that the Boston & Maine Railroad allow them to take a train

from Malden to Boston for Sunday religious services. A Malden Evening News article

explained that the Malden residents, “finding no religious worship at Edgeworth,

Malden… conceived the idea of coming into Boston. The company furnished a

locomotive and one car, with the engineer and fireman. The Websters acted as conductors

and paid for the train” (“Sunday Railroad Train” 1). The successful efforts of Salem’s

residents and the Webster brothers demonstrate how suburban populations demanded

better access to the city of Boston as well as to neighboring towns and villages.

27 The Boston & Maine Railroad Arrives in Malden

Within five years of 1845, when the Boston & Maine Railroad station opened in

Malden, the railroad began to play a significant role in Malden’s development. Malden’s leaders recognized the potential of urban transportation to connect Malden to the city of

Boston. Likewise, real estate developers and individual landowners recognized the potential of urban transit and of commuting between their suburban homes and city jobs.

With this foresight, they developed Malden’s west side into a railroad suburb and individual house lots in anticipation of a surge in the town’s population.

As early as 1844, one year before its opening, the Boston & Maine Railroad station had already become a significant Malden landmark. By then, individual

homeowners in Malden had begun to use proximity to the railroad station as a selling

point. In 1844, for example, the Boston Evening Transcript included an advertisement for

the sale of a home “three minutes’ walk from the Railroad Depot” (“For Sale in Malden”

4). Likewise, in 1846, an advertisement in the same newspaper offered “[s]everal lots of

land in Malden in the immediate vicinity of the Railroad Depot” (“Estate in Malden” 4).

As demonstrated by these advertisements, a house’s proximity to the Boston & Maine

Railroad station functioned as a prominent feature for homeowners.

The opening of the Boston & Maine Railroad station significantly impacted

Malden’s development and growth. In 1849, four years after the station’s opening,

Malden celebrated the town’s rail connections to Boston. In a book commemorating the

town’s bicentennial, an unknown author described how the railroad enhanced Malden by providing an affordable mode of transportation to Boston for residents interested in

28 commuting to work or traveling for pleasure.6 He argued that due to the Boston & Maine

Railroad, Malden was no longer cut off from Boston and that “it is now beginning to be known that the face of the country in Malden is diversified with various attractions” (The

Bi-Centennial of Malden 224). As a result, improved access to Boston attributed to the

Boston & Maine encouraged Malden’s industrial and residential development.

Malden’s leaders attempted to take advantage of this improved access to Boston by pursuing opportunities for industrial and residential growth. On April 30, 1850, an article appeared in the Boston Evening Transcript with a four-point list of the reasons that

Malden’s population and businesses were quickly increasing. Third on the list was the recent influx of transportation options: “Because there is already one railroad depot in one village, and another is located and immediately to be built in the southerly section… so that the facilities for going to and from Boston are every day becoming more

numerous and beneficial to the community.” Perhaps prompted by Malden’s leaders, the

authors attempted to attract real estate developers and new citizens to build up the town:

“At no time can land be bought on cheaper or better terms in this flourishing place than

the present; and every person who can secure a lot at the current prices in Malden—

where the inhabitants take both pride and pleasure in encouraging new comers, new

6. The author writes, “Such was Malden half a century ago. Cut off from Boston by two toll-bridges, it had flourished less than some more favored towns in the environs of the great city. A man could not ride into the city and out again with his horse and chaise, without paying the heavy tax of forty-seven cents, a sum sufficient to discourage travel for pleasure, or teaming for trade. But the day of change has come. The tolls are reduced to a mere trifle, with the prospect of speedy extinction. The Boston and Maine Railroad running directly through the town, has brought it within easy transit of the city. It is now beginning to be known that the face of the country in Malden is diversified with various attractions of land and water scenery. Here, within five miles of Boston, are woody heights and rocky glens, and smoothly rounded hills, clothed in the summer’s livery of green; and affording numerous prospects combining the charms of city, seas, and country” (The Bi-Centennial of Malden 224).

29 enterprises and companies—will be pretty sure to make a handsome sum on his purchase

money” (Increase of Business and Population in Malden” 1). The West End provided

much of this available real estate, since by the mid-nineteenth century, land on the east

side of the Boston & Maine Railroad tracks had already been developed. As a result, the

only opportunities for residential and industrial growth existed on the west side of the

Boston & Maine’s railroad tracks.

Although the Boston & Maine Railroad played a pivotal role in the West End’s

development as a railroad suburb, it was just one of many new forms of urban transit in

the town. In addition to the Boston & Maine Railroad, the West End Horse Railway

Company, the Saugus Railroad, the Eastern Railroad (prior to consolidation), and the

Highland Railroad Company connected Malden to other suburbs as well as to downtown

Boston. By 1892, Malden reached the peak of its public transportation service, with

numerous horse-cars, a dozen daily trains on the Saugus Railroad, and up to sixty-six daily trains on the Boston & Maine Railroad—providing multiple choices to Malden’s three thousand commuters traveling across the greater Boston area (Randall 76).

Figure 5. City of Malden, Massachusetts by Albert E. Downs. Published by O. H. Bailey & Co., 1881. Courtesy of the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library. This map identifies Malden’s seven railroad stations as some of the city’s most prominent buildings, reflecting the importance of urban transit to Malden.

Advertising the West End

As early as 1855, newspaper advertisements for West End homes specifically targeted Boston commuters. For example, on April 14, 1855, an estate owner moving to

Iowa posted an advertisement in the Boston Evening Transcript for his two West End homes. The advertisement marketed the homes to Boston commuters, describing the houses as “situated in one of the most flourishing and rapidly increasing towns in the vicinity of Boston… The distance from Boston is only 5 miles, and 30 trains of cars pass to and from the town daily, over the Boston and Maine and Saugus Branch Railroads…

Either of the above estates are suitable for a gentleman doing business in Boston” (“The

31 Owner of the Following Estates” 4). Similar to other railroad suburbs across the greater

Boston area, the advertisement described Malden as a location suitable for a commuter— close enough to the city to travel to work, but far enough to benefit from the feeling of living in the country.

As land developers attempted to sell their tracts of land to people working in

Boston, the local newspapers reported heavily on the emerging modes of urban transit.

Newspaper articles demonstrated the ease with which Boston’s businessmen could live outside of the city in railroad-adjacent suburban neighborhoods like the West End. For example, in 1857 the Boston Evening Transcript announced the opening of a new omnibus line that ran between Malden and Charlestown (“New Omnibus Line for

Malden,” 1857). A year later, the same newspaper announced the extension of the

Middlesex Horse Railroad between Malden and Melrose and its celebration in Malden

(“Malden and Melrose Horse Railroad” 1858). In January 1872, the Malden Mirror reported on the Malden residents who asked the Boston & Maine Railroad for better accommodations, additional trains, and reduced fares. Besides reporting on residents’ requests, the article highlighted the benefits of Malden as a suburb:

That by reason of the largely increased population of town, its continued steady growth, the reasonable prospect of more rapid increase by reason of near proximity to the business centre [sic] of the State, the low price at which the best and most pleasantly situated building lands can be purchased, the inexhaustible supply of pure soft water carried to all parts of town, will not only warrant, but demands the running of additional trains… and lower rates of fare… (“Railroad Indignation Meeting” 4)

Local newspaper articles such as this helped publicize the benefits of suburban living and access to urban transportation throughout the greater Boston area.

32 Simultaneously, the Boston & Maine Railroad directly promoted the benefits of

suburban living and the advantages of commuting. Like other railroad companies, the

Boston & Maine cut fares for commuters, ran special trains to carry prospective buyers to new suburban real estate developments, and created and distributed marketing materials

(Binford 127). For example, in 1874, the Boston & Maine published the Handbook of the

Boston and Maine Railroad to Suburban Homes, Sea Shore, Lake and White Mountains

“with a view of assisting in the selection of location those who contemplate changing

their residence to the country” (Skelton 4). The handbook addressed Boston businessmen

directly, with a section titled “Suburban Homes for City Business Men” that explained

the physical and mental health benefits, as well as financial savings, of living in the

suburbs:

The past few years have borne evidence to the fact that thousands of families have relinquished their homes in the city for quiet ones in some of the many villages adjacent to the city of Boston. The causes which have led to this are numerous. Business, which is no respecter of persons or locality, has constantly encroached on that part of the city devoted to dwellings; these have disappeared, and crowded the inhabitants thereof to inconvenient parts of the city, there to find the alternative of high rents, or be compelled to submit to the discomforts of boarding-house life, - a life certainly void of attractions, and without one argument in its favor.

What relief one experiences when finally the mind is made up to abandon the noise, turmoil and disquietude of city life, and exchange it for the quiet one in the country, with the pure, clear, strength-giving air, fragrant with the perfume of violets, rosebuds, apple-blossoms, and all the freshness and sweetness of a summer’s morning in the country. (Skelton 3)

The handbook also included short descriptions of the benefits of living in each

suburb through which the Boston & Maine Railroad passed, and positioned Malden as a

perfectly situated railroad suburb. Specifically, it emphasized the West End’s beautiful

33 homes, and promised that a commuter could travel between Malden and Boston in just 17 minutes. The handbook’s description of Malden Center emphasized the continuing real estate development, as well as the “broad and well graded streets, bountifully provided with shade trees, rows of neat and attractive cottages here, and there large mansions, with flower gardens and grounds laid out in the most tasteful manner” (Skelton 5). This description perhaps refers to the new streets and home built in Malden’s West End, near

Malden Center. The handbook’s reference to Oak Grove, the northernmost stop in

Malden and the northernmost point of the West End, explained that there are “a number of handsome estates in its vicinity. There is considerable high land here, which renders it quite eligible as a building locality” (6). Through this handbook, not only did the Boston

& Maine Railroad company promote suburban living, but it specifically advertised the benefits of living in Malden’s West End neighborhood.

However, unlike some of the other railroad companies, the Boston & Maine did not go so far as to provide free commuter passes to new homeowners or participate directly in real estate development by purchasing or selling individual lots. In May 1883, a letter to the Malden Mirror editor asked:

Mr. Editor – Where is the fossilized Boston & Maine Railroad in the march of progress and improvement now going on in railroad management? Will this road ever become progressive? The Boston & Lowell road has recently offered to every person who build a $3000 house on the line of their road a free pass for three years; for one costing $2000, one year. (“Railroad Enterprise” 4)

The Boston & Maine’s annual reports from the second half of the nineteenth century oftentimes described the company’s purchase of land in areas along the railroad line, but not expressly for development purposes. For example, the Boston & Maine’s 1870 annual

34 report described the railroad company’s tenements that enabled employees to live near

railroad stations (5). Likewise, the 1873 annual report described the purchase of four acres of land next to a new station in Lawrence for the specific purpose of erecting railroad-related buildings, such as an engine house (3), but there is no indication that the company built or sold land for the general community. Thus, the Boston & Maine’s

primary motivation for marketing suburban living and railroad commuting was not for

land speculation, but rather to increase the number of passengers.

By 1870, the Boston & Maine Railroad recognized the value and importance of

commuters to the company’s success. In that year’s annual report, the company noted

“Scarcely anything demonstrates more clearly the growth and prosperity of the suburban

towns, along the line of our Road, than the steady increase of the sales of season, family

and other commutation tickets” (Boston and Maine Railroad 8). The Boston & Maine

Railroad hoped that by making the commute to and from Boston easy and affordable, commuters would encourage others—such as family members and business associates—

to also take advantage of the Boston & Maine’s urban transportation options.

Moving to the West End7

Newspaper advertisements and the Boston & Maine’s promotional materials inspired people from across the greater Boston area and beyond to move to the West End.

For example, in 1886 approximately 200 of 683 adult male residents of Malden’s Ward 3, which contains the West End neighborhood, had moved to the neighborhood that year. Of

7. This section’s analysis stems from cross-referencing the City of Malden Assessors’ Taxable Polls for Ward 3, whose borders closely align with the West End neighborhood, and the 1886 Malden Directory.

35 these 200, 20 moved to Ward 3 from Boston. A group of seven moved to Ward 3 from

Nova Scotia, four from Maine, and one moved from Prince Edward Island, while the rest

of the new residents moved to Ward 3 from more local neighborhoods, such as

Cambridge, Charlestown, Medford, Melrose, and other parts of Malden. Thus, the majority of these new residents moved to the West End neighborhood from the greater

Boston area.

The analysis of Malden’s Ward 3 also determined these residents’ professions.

The majority of new residents commuted to jobs in Boston. In fact, close to half of the total Ward 3 working population was employed in Boston. Their professions, recorded in the City of Malden Assessors’ List of Taxable Polls, ranged from teachers to clerks, manufacturers, bookkeepers, lawyers, and physicians. More than 100 adult males living in Ward 3 were employed as clerks, while an additional 40 worked as merchants, and close to 30 as salesmen. Table 2 presents a breakdown of the white collar and blue collar professions of those individuals living in Ward 3. More than half of the Ward 3’s residents were employed in white collar professions.

The heavy concentration of white collar workers differs greatly from the occupational profile of the residents just south of the West End neighborhood in Ward 2, which contains the Edgeworth neighborhood. In 1886, two-thirds of the population worked as “laborers” or in “rubber.” Just as the Boston & Maine encouraged the development of Ward 3 into a railroad suburb, the train influenced significant industrial growth in Ward 2, which in turn motivated the development of working-class housing and residents. For example, Ward 2’s industry included the Boston Rubber Shoe Factory, which employed more than 3,500 workers and provided many with housing in the

36 surrounding neighborhood (Corey 12; Thirty-Eighth Annual Report 31). Ward 2’s

industrial focus supported the establishment of lower-class residential developments.

Furthermore, approximately 370 of Ward 2’s 846 adult males moved to that neighborhood in 1886, a higher percentage of new residents than found in Ward 3.

However, these new residents came to Malden from a wider range of cities and countries than those in Ward 3: only four Ward 2 men came from Boston, while sixteen moved from Ireland, twelve from New Brunswick, five from Canada, three from England, and three from Sweden. Unlike in Ward 3, a large percentage of the new residents in Ward 2

(the Edgeworth neighborhood) were immigrants from foreign countries working in blue collar jobs. The vast differences between these two neighborhoods reflects the different effect of railroad transportation: the Boston & Maine Railroad supported the growth of industry in Ward 2, while promoting the practice of commuting in Ward 3.

37 Table 2. Occupational Distribution. Ward 3 (Malden, Massachusetts). 1886.*

Non-Classifiable White Collar (52%) Blue Collar (40%) (8%) Bank Teller 3 Manufacturer 18 Agent 9 Express 4 Rubber 17 [blank] 19 Bookkeeper 26 Merchant 40 Artist 4 Florist 3 Stable 6 At Home 34

Bookseller 3 Priest 3 Blacksmith 6 Groom 5 Tailor 8 Broker 5 Publisher 3 Bootmaker 14 Laborer 35 Teamster 3 Cabinet Clerk 138 Salesman 28 Maker 3 Lasts 11 Miscellaneous 83 Doctor 6 Superintendent 3 Carpenter 23 Machinist 9 Grocer 14 Surveyor 4 Confectioner 3 Mason 6 Insurance 4 Teacher 3 Contractor 3 Painter 3 Paper Lawyer 8 Miscellaneous 46 Cutter 3 Hanger 4 Manager 3 Engraver 4 Printer 3 TOTAL 210 TOTAL 358 TOTAL 53 *Occupations with more than three individuals have been listed separately, while occupations with fewer than two have been grouped together under Miscellaneous. Classifications are based on those used by Kenneth T. Jackson in Crabgrass Frontier (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), 23. Source: 1886 City of Malden Assessors’ List of Taxable Polls and Malden, Medford, Melrose and Everett Directory of the Inhabitants, Institutions, Manufacturing Establishments, Business, Business Firms, Societies, Etc., for 1886.

Chapter V

Developing Malden’s West End

The development of Malden’s West End spanned over the second half of the nineteenth century. The neighborhood’s establishment as a railroad suburb began with the opening of the Boston & Maine Railroad in 1845. Over the following five decades, professional real estate developers and local landowners assisted in transforming the area by dividing individual plots of land, creating streets, and building houses. Much of the

West End’s development during this time period can be traced to the efforts of a small group; namely, the Edgeworth Company and a few Malden residents, such as the Dexter and Las Casas families. By the final two decades of the nineteenth century, several individual local landowners surfaced as the leading figures in the West End’s development.

The Edgeworth Company, led by Elisha Converse, was the first real estate developer to take advantage of the area west of the Boston & Maine’s tracks (Thirty-

Eighth Annual Report 31). Converse owned the Boston Rubber Shoe Company, located in the Edgeworth neighborhood in Ward 2, south of Malden’s West End. He established the Edgeworth Company primarily to develop land and construct houses and buildings for the shoe company and its employees, but he also helped develop the railroad suburb in the neighboring ward. On September 14, 1849, the Edgeworth Company posted an article in the Boston Evening Transcript describing the sale of more than 100 lots of land north of Ward 2, in what would become Malden’s West End (Fig. 6). The advertisement

39 (included in full as Appendix 1) highlighted the location of the individual lots as a “five to ten minutes’ walk of the Depot of the Boston & Maine Railroad at Malden Centre

[sic]” (“Great Sale of Lands” 3). With house lots varying from 17,000 to 100,000 feet, the new development was situated on what the company referred to as the Highlands between Malden and Medford. Specifically, the Edgeworth Company compared the available land to the Roxbury Highlands,8 a popular area for country estates since the beginning of the nineteenth century, which was experiencing its own wave of suburban development due to similar advancements in urban transit (Warner 41). Likewise, just as the North Auburn Dale Land Company in Auburndale did two years prior (described in

Chapter II), the Edgeworth Company offered Boston businessmen free transportation to the auction via train to Malden. Consequently, the Edgeworth Company was the first real estate developer to position the area that would become the West End as a railroad suburb for Boston commuters.

8. The advertisement described the land as follows: “These Lands are very beautifully situated for Cottage Lots, on high ground, commanding most extended views of the city and country, and almost entirely covered with a thick growth of forest trees of large size. The scenery, soil and location of the ground very strongly resemble the highlands of Roxbury, and at once remind the beholder of that favorite locality, and there cannot be a doubt that it is destined to become, in a very few years, quite as much sought after as those highland sites, for the residences of gentlemen of taste and whose business calls them daily to Boston, as it only requires to be well known to be equally appreciated” (“Great Sale of Lands” 3).

Figure 6. Plan of lots on the highlands in Malden belonging to the Edgeworth Company: to be sold by public auction on the premises on Thursday the 27th of September 1849 at ½ past 2 o’clock p.m. Tappan & Bradfords Lith., Boston. Map reproduction courtesy of the Harvard Map Collection. The Edgeworth Company laid out individual house lots in the northwest area of the West End, in between larger tracts of land also owned by the Edgeworth Company to the north and southwest. As the map indicates, land east of this subdivision belonged to the Dexter family, who would also develop large sections of the West End.

Figure 7. Map of the Town of Malden. County Atlas of Middlesex Massachusetts. New York: F. W. Beers, 1875. Courtesy of the Malden Public Library. The earliest comprehensive atlas of Malden from 1875, and those that followed in 1885 and 1896, demonstrate the development, purchase, and sale of Malden’s West End homes.

It was not until the 1880s that the neighborhood’s development surged and

Malden residents gave the West End its official name. In earlier years, residents and

newspapers referred to the neighborhood as the Malden highlands (the Edgeworth

Company described the area as such in the mid-nineteenth century) or the “west side” or

“west end” of Malden. For example, in an August 4, 1883 Malden Mirror article, an

unnamed author described a new street being built through “the Las Casas land at the

west end” (Hall 4). On October 11, 1884 the Malden Mirror published an article titled,

“New Residences at the West End,” which described a new house as “one of the finest at

the west end” (5). The term ‘west end’ is written without capitalization, suggesting the

neighborhood’s name was still unofficial and used solely as a descriptor. However, during the 1890s, newspapers began to capitalize the term West End. In June 1895, the

42 Malden Evening News published an article that detailed another group of new houses being built “in the beautiful and romantic highlands of the West End” (“At the West End”

2), demonstrating the conversion of the West End into an official Malden neighborhood.

During this same time period, newspapers began to recognize the West End as an elite neighborhood for Boston commuters. Newspaper articles in the 1880s and 1890s described the beautiful homes under construction in the West End neighborhood, as well as the successful businessmen purchasing them. For example, an October 1884 Malden

Mirror article described the new home of Theodore N. Foque, a Boston-based financial manager: “Indeed, for perfect taste, beauty, and elegance, comfort and coziness, and convenience of arrangement from cellar to attic, this house is not excelled by any in this city” (“New Residences” 5). The same article also described the new home of Boston- based shoe-dealer Ignacio Soares and highlighted its impressive view of Boston: “From the upper story Bunker Hill monument, the dome of the State House and Tufts College can all be seen without a thing to obstruct the view” (5). In June 1895, the Malden

Evening News published an article detailing another surge of real estate development.

The article suggested that within a few years, the West End “will be the home of the elite in Malden… In very few years the highlands of the West End will be converted into the handsomest residential section within many miles of the metropolis” (“At the West End”

2). Not only did the West End develop into a railroad suburb for commuters, but it also transformed into a neighborhood for Boston’s elite businessmen.

The efforts of several specific landowners played the largest role in developing

Malden’s West End into a railroad suburb for Boston commuters. Inspired by the commuting opportunities afforded by the Boston & Maine, these local residents

43 recognized that Malden’s population would increase as people began taking advantage of

urban transit in their daily commutes. The two brothers Richard and Samuel Dexter,

father-son team Francis and William Beltran de Las Casas, Boston businessman

Benjamin Franklin Dutton, architect Alexander Grant, and real estate developer Ezra

Pratt all lived in the West End and recognized the opportunity to turn their large tracts of land into housing for new residents. In particular, these men helped to shape the West

End into a railroad suburb.

Richard and Samuel G. Dexter

The brothers Richard and Samuel G. Dexter significantly contributed to the

development of Malden’s West End by dividing their family’s large tract of land into

numerous streets and houses. One of Malden’s most influential families, the Dexter

family first settled in Malden in 1663 and purchased a farm including much of today’s

West End. Several generations later, the newspapers praised the family for designing “the heart of the West Side with forethought and enterprise, planting elm and maple trees, building wide streets, and settling the houses well back from the street…” (“Dexter

House and Elm” 2). Upon Richard Dexter’s death, his obituary described him as “the founder of the present West End” (“Death of the Man” 2). The Dexters’ longstanding history in Malden led them to be one of the earliest and most influential developers of the

West End.

The Dexter family’s original property lines extended as far north as Spot Pond in

Stoneham and south to a creek running out of the Malden River, and the first Dexter house was built at the corner of present-day Rockland Avenue and Dexter Street (“Dexter

44 House and Elm” 2). In 1847, the Dexter brothers built a second house for the family (Fig.

9), beginning several decades of real estate development.9

Figure 8. House on the corner of Cedar and Chestnut Streets. 19 April 1907. Courtesy of the Malden Public Library. One of the first houses built upon the tract formerly known as the Dexter Farm.

9. The house was renowned in Malden: in The Bi-Centennial Book of Malden published just a few years later in 1850, the author remarked on the recently rebuilt home and the giant elm tree that towered over it (223).

Figure 9. Dexter House, Elm Street. No date. Courtesy of the Malden Public Library.

Between 1875 and 1897, the Dexter brothers divided their family’s land into

individual house lots and streets, including Dexter Street, Maple Street, and Rockland

Avenue. The brothers built houses between 1882 and 1889 on Dexter Street primarily in

the Queen Anne style, with additional features associated with the Colonial Revival and

Shingle styles. They built other houses on Rockland Avenue (between 1876 and 1887) and Maple Street (between 1882 and 1886), also predominantly designed in the Queen

Anne style, with additional features from the Italianate and French Second Empire styles.

Between 1885 and 1897, the Dexters developed their land north of Clifton Street, between Dexter Street and Highland Avenue, into individual house lots (Fig. 11).

Figure 10. Index Map of the City of Malden. 1885 Atlas of Malden. Boston: George H. Walker & Co., 1885. Courtesy of the Malden Public Library. Note the Dexter land in the upper left-hand corner.

Figure 11. Development of portion of Dexter land, 1885 to 1897. Plate 5. 1885 Atlas of Malden. Boston: George H. Walker & Co., 1885. Plate 1. 1897 Atlas of Malden. Boston: George H. Walker & Co., 1897. Both courtesy of the Malden Public Library.

47 The Dexters also supported the West End’s development by giving land to the

city of Malden. For example, in 1875, the Dexter brothers appealed to the county

commissioners to widen and straighten the road through their property, formally

changing it to Dexter Street (“Formerly Old Road” 4). Likewise, the Dexters provided

Malden with land to be developed into additional streets, which in turn added to the value

of their family’s property.10

Boston commuters purchased many of the Dexter houses and plots of land to take

advantage of their proximity to Malden’s urban transportation. For example, Theodore N.

Foque moved to Malden in 1868, and in 1885, he purchased his West End home at 15

Dexter Street (57-59 Dexter Street11) (MAL.29812). He worked as the treasurer and

collector of the town of Malden from 1877 to 1879, but also commuted to Boston for his

job as the financial manager of A.H. Davenport’s furniture company (“Mr. Theodore N.

Foque Died” 1). In 1886, Alexander Damon, a Boston-based furniture manufacturer,

purchased his West End home at 14 Dexter Street (58 Dexter Street) (MAL.297; 1886

Malden Directory). In 1882, Arthur Bradley, a Boston-based bookbinder, bought land

from the Dexter brothers, on which he constructed a house over the next few years

10. The Annual Report of the Officers of the City of Malden for the Year 1882 noted: “The rapid growth of the city caused a demand for the laying out and construction of new streets unprecedented in its history… One of the largest items, however, was for the purchase of two estates on Cedar Street, rendered necessary for the extension of Maple Street west to Dexter Street, an improvement clearly in the interest of public convenience. The interest on the expenditure, it is judged, will be fully met by the increased taxable value of the land made available for building purposes. The Messrs. Dexter gave the land and built the street, fifty feet wide, through their estate, without expense to the city…” (7).

11. The street addresses for homes in the West End have changed over time. The present- day address will be listed parenthetically for houses whose street addresses have changed.

12. MAL.298 refers to the Massachusetts Historical Commission Inventory number for this specific house. See “Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System” in Works Cited.

48 (MAL.299; 1886 Malden Directory). By dividing their land close to the Boston & Maine

Railroad into individual house lots and houses, the Dexter brothers assisted in motivating

Bostonians to live in the West End neighborhood and commute to the city for work.

Francisco Beltran de Las Casas and William Beltran de Las Casas

Francisco Beltran de Las Casas (also known as Francis) and his son William also contributed significantly to developing Malden’s West End. Francis emigrated from

Spain to Cuba and eventually settled in Massachusetts, where he taught languages at

Williams, Amherst, and other private schools in Boston. He first arrived in Malden in the summer of 1844 and bought a large tract of land in what would become the West End

(Hall 4). Francis’s son William was born in March 1857 in Malden. He attended Harvard

College and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1884. In addition to working as a lawyer in Boston, William devoted much of his energy to preserving the Middlesex Fells

Reservation and developing Malden’s West End. Like the Dexters, the Las Casas family divided their large estate in the West End into multiple streets and houses, influencing the neighborhood’s development into a railroad suburb.

The original Las Casas property located in the northeastern portion of the West

End consisted of “a tract of forest and pastures” (“History of De Las Casas Woods” 2).

The estate extended from Clifton Street to Glen Rock Avenue and included much of what is now Beltran Street, Greenleaf Street, Francis Street, and Glenwood Avenue, bounded by Summer Street on the west and Wyoming Avenue on the east. The estate also featured woods, cold natural springs, and huge hills, including one particular hill referred to as

Grandfather’s Hill or Las Casas Hill, which the family eventually removed to make room

49 for their residential development (2) (Fig. 12; Fig. 13). As of 1875, Francis owned a significant amount of undeveloped land just west of the Boston & Maine Railroad station

(Fig. 7).

Figure 12. View from Grandfather’s Hill, also known as Las Casas’ Hill. No date. Courtesy of the Malden Public Library.

Figure 13. Greenleaf Street, looking north from the corner of Clifton Street. 1899. Courtesy of the Malden Public Library. The rock is the remains of Grandfather’s Hill, sometimes called Las Casas’ Hill, a portion of which is still left (1906), somewhat reduced from that here shown.

Between 1885 and 1897, Francis and William assisted in developing the West

End into a railroad suburb. They divided their land into a number of individual lots and created several residential streets, including Las Casas Street, Francis Street, Glenwood

Street, Las Casas Road, and Greystone Road (Fig. 14; Fig. 15). Francis and William also built a number of houses, predominantly designed in the Shingle style, with additional homes displaying characteristics of the Queen Anne and Colonial Revival architectural styles.

Figure 14. Plate 10. 1885 Atlas of Malden. Boston: George H. Walker & Co., 1885. Courtesy of the Malden Public Library.

Figure 15. Plate 27. 1897 Atlas of Malden. Boston: George H. Walker & Co., 1897. Courtesy of the Malden Public Library

Subsequently, they sold many of their houses to Boston commuters. For example, in

1883, Caleb King, a traveling salesman based in Boston, purchased his home at 47

Francis Street (MAL.314; 1886 Malden Directory). In 1895, Henry Bascom, a clerk in

Boston, bought a house at 50 Francis Street (MAL.315: 1886 Malden Directory). In

1897, the Las Casas family sold the property at 49 Las Casas Street to Hamilton Patch, a

bookkeeper for the National Bank of the Commonwealth in Boston (MAL.226; 1886

Malden Directory). Likewise, a June 1898 newspaper article describing new real estate in

the West End featured several homes from the Las Casas development, including 25

Greystone Road, purchased by Boston-based mill supplier Edward O. Holmes (“Rapid

Growth and Development” 2; MAL.29). Like the Dexters, the Las Casas family attracted

Bostonians who were interested in creating a distinct separation between their homes and

workplaces.

Figure 16. Development of Greystone Road. Las Casas property. No date. Courtesy of the Malden Historical Society.

Benjamin F. Dutton

Although the majority of his land was divided and sold after his death, Benjamin

F. Dutton developed his estate into Malden’s finest during his lifetime. Born in Hillsboro,

New Hampshire in 1831, Benjamin F. Dutton founded the firm Houghton & Dutton, a

well-known Boston department store. In 1880 he purchased the Glen Rock estate in the

northern part of Malden’s West End (Corey 78). Just as the local Malden newspapers and

the Boston & Maine Railroad promoted the appeal of suburban life and commuting,

Boston’s Daily Evening Traveller [sic] advertised the Glen Rock estate as an ideal

suburban residence: “Gentlemen in search of a suburban residence will find within half a

mile of the Boston & Maine Railroad station, in Malden, one of the most romantic and

beautiful situations in this section of Massachusetts, and not to be surpassed for health

53 and prospect in the suburbs of any city on this continent” (“Magnificent Suburban

Residence for Sale” 3). The article described the grand Italianate mansion (Fig. 17), large cottage, two houses for porters, and three summer houses on more than fifty acres of land. For those individuals interested in purchasing the estate, the advertisement suggested that visitors travel via the Boston & Maine Railroad and walk the ten to twelve minutes from the station to the estate. The article concluded with a note that should the estate fail to sell, it would be divided into individual lots. However, Dutton purchased the home and in the following decades, began to build houses and streets.

Figure 17. Photograph of the Residence of B. F. Dutton “Glen Rock” by N. W. Starbird. Boston: Barker & Starbird, 1899. Published in Malden: Past and Present by Deloraine Pendre Corey. Malden: The Malden Mirror, 1899.

Unlike many of the early West End landowners, Dutton developed his land and built houses, but remained the sole owner of the property. Between 1885 and 1897, he also increased his land holdings, expanding his land west towards a plot of land previously owned by the Dexters, a portion of which by this time also belonged to the

54 Metropolitan Park Commission (Fig. 18). Over those twelve years, Dutton also extended his land further north to the town border between Malden and Melrose and to the

Middlesex Fells Reservation, owned by the Metropolitan Park Commission. During this time, Dutton developed his large estate into a number of streets, including Oak Street,

Dutton Street, Glen Rock Avenue, Upland Road, Glen Rock Circle, Lyle Terrace, and

East Border Road. Dutton’s family remained the sole owner of the Glen Rock property

(including the other houses and cottages) until the early twentieth century.

Figure 18. Development of portion of Dutton land, 1885 to 1897. Plate 11. 1885 Atlas of Malden. Boston: George H. Walker & Co., 1885. Plate 28. 1897 Atlas of Malden. Boston: George H. Walker & Co., 1897. Both courtesy of the Malden Public Library.

55 Although the Glen Rock house was the primary and most impressive home on

Dutton’s property, 13 there were additional homes in which his family members, business

associates,14 and others resided, including several cottages15 on the northernmost part of his property on Elliett Street and Glen Rock Avenue. Although some of the residents of these cottages worked in Malden, the majority were employed in Boston. For example,

Charles H. Sherburne lived in Elm Cottage on Glen Rock Avenue and worked in Boston as a boot manufacturer. Miles McCabe lived in Myrtle Cottage on Glen Rock Avenue and worked in Boston as a clerk. Amariah Moody lived in Maple Cottage on Elliett Street and worked as an inspector in Boston. Although Dutton retained ownership of these houses, he supported the development of the West End into a railroad suburb by building cottages in close proximity to the Boston & Maine Railroad that appealed to Boston commuters.

13. A Malden Mirror article described the development of Dutton’s Glen Rock estate as follows: “Glen Rock is well named, standing at almost the very summit of the highlands in this vicinity, and in the midst of the most picturesque glens and rocks of the Middlesex Fells. Passing the lodge gates one beholds a scene of rural beauty… Well filled orchards and green fields lie on the steep slopes of the south and east, and on the eastern slope is situated the first house erected on this estate, now enlarged, and the present residence of J. B. Claus and wife, the oldest daughter of Mr. Dutton… Upon one of the most accessible portions of this estate Mr. Dutton has recently invited others to share with him its enjoyments by erecting upon the Melrose side several dwellings.” (“Home of B. F. Dutton” 3)

14. Local legend suggests that Dutton offered homes on his estate to his company’s managers. In particular, three identical homes sit along a circle at the base of a hill where Dutton’s Glen Rock estate once stood, and it is believed that Dutton encouraged his managers to live in these houses so that at any moment he could call for them from his front door and discuss company matters.

15. Cottages for Boston businessmen were also found in Jamaica Plain, where, as Alexander von Hoffman describes, upper-middle-class Boston commuters lived in cottages as early as the 1840s (11).

56 Alexander Grant

Alexander Grant assisted in transforming the West End into a railroad suburb as both a real estate developer and an architect. Born in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Grant trained as a carpenter prior to his arrival in Malden. He worked with other West End developers, including the Dexters, to divide West End properties into individual homes, many of which he designed in the Queen Anne architectural style and sold to Boston commuters.16 For example, Ezra Stevens, who worked at the Barstow Stove Company in

Boston, purchased 26 Dexter Street (1888 Malden Directory). Between 1893 and 1897,

Edward Noyes, a music teacher at the Pierce Building in Boston, bought 1 Earl Street.

Charles Ball, whose furniture company Conant, Ball & Co. was located in Boston, purchased 14 Earl Street. Thus, Grant supported the development of Malden’s West End by creating individual plots of land, and more importantly, by designing homes in the architectural styles that would best appeal to the upper-class Bostonians desiring to live in the suburbs.

Figure 19. Alexander Grant Advertisement. Directory of the Inhabitants, Institutions, Building Establishments, Societies, Business, Business Firms, Etc., Etc. in the City of Malden. Boston: W. A. Greenough & Co., 1882. 9.

16. Alexander Grant’s obituary estimated that he built over 200 homes during his career (“Alexander Grant Passes Away” 1).

57 Ezra Pratt

Ezra Pratt was one of the West End’s most successful real estate developers. His

significant achievements include developing what was formerly known as Holmes Grove, as well as the portion of the West End surrounding Grace Avenue (named for his daughter), Glen Avenue, and Elsie Avenue (“Ezra F. Pratt” 1). In 1891, Pratt purchased

Holmes Grove17—five acres of land north of Clifton Street and west of Summer Street—

and created 41 individual house lots over five streets (“West End Booming” 1). Pratt’s

Holmes Grove development had four distinct entrances—two from Clifton Street, one at

Kernwood Street, and one at Earl Avenue—that gave the development an exclusive

appearance. Similarly, Pratt preferred to sell his house lots to “high class purchasers,”

including W. H. Ropes, a Boston grocer; J. A. Blake, a Boston shoe manufacturer; F. R.

Prescott, a Boston stock broker; and E. R. Lord of Lord & Spencer, a commission

merchant in Boston (“Wonderful Enterprise!” 1). Pratt’s development of Holmes Grove,

and the widespread knowledge that he preferred to sell his homes to wealthier

individuals, perpetuated the image of the West End as an elite railroad suburb.

17. Local newspapers described Pratt’s purchase of Holmes Grove and his immense efforts developing the West End: “There are hundreds of our readers who do not realize that one section of Malden has been built up by wonderful enterprise and business push, and that today, through the energy of a single man, working without aid, Malden has nearly a half million dollars worth of taxable property in the finest houses and in the most fashionable location in the city limits. Nearly every one has heard of E. F. Pratt and Holmes Grove… After a single view of the property, Mr. Pratt decided to buy. He purchased 250,000 feet of land which contained four small houses and which was taxed for but $15,000. That was four years ago; today exactly the same property has five streets running through it on which are thirty fashionable houses, and the city taxes it for over 250,000” (“Wonderful Enterprise!” 1).

Chapter VI

The West End and the Importance of Nature

The development of Malden’s West End into a railroad suburb perpetuated the creation of Malden’s park system and the preservation of the Middlesex Fells. After the

Boston & Maine Railroad helped to transform Malden’s West End into a haven for

Boston commuters, the West End’s residents recognized the impact of encroaching real estate development and the need to create and preserve green spaces.18 However, some

historians have diminished Malden’s role in the greater Boston area’s preservation efforts

and landscaped park movement.19 This chapter will rectify Malden’s absence from the

metropolitan Boston park system’s history and identify Malden’s significant role in

forming Boston’s public parks and preserving the greater Boston area’s forests.

Beginning in the nineteenth century, many communities across the country faced

the challenge of how to approach land conservation. As suburban development ravaged

the forests on city peripheries, Americans realized the need to preserve the unspoiled

forms of greenery that surrounded them. In 1864, George Perkins Marsh published Man

and Nature; or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action, encouraging

18. In his book Eden on the Charles, Michael Rawson finds a relationship between the development of the suburbs and the area’s conservation and preservation movements (233-276). Rawson’s study helps to demonstrate the relationship between the development of Malden’s West End neighborhood, its landscaped park system, and the preservation of the Middlesex Fells.

19. Most notably, Douglass Shand-Tucci’s Built in Boston: City and Suburb, 1800-1900 makes little mention of Malden, especially in its depiction of the creation of Boston’s park system. In The Hub’s Metropolis, James M. O’Connell describes the Metropolitan Park Commission’s development of the Middlesex Fells and the Fellsway, but makes no mention of the significant work that began in Malden to establish the Metropolitan Park Commission.

59 Americans to prevent the destruction of the forests. Marsh’s book served as a

foundational text for the nature conservation movement and influenced the establishment

of the first state and national forests (Rawson 241). Although primarily directed at the

deforestation occurring on a large scale by lumber companies and settlers, Marsh’s fears of deforestation applied to the development of Boston-area suburbs, where forests were also being cut down at an alarming rate to make room for the increasing number of residents (242). In the decades that followed, organizations and individual advocates began to heed Marsh’s warning against deforestation and join the conservation efforts.

For example, in 1876, concerned botanists and horticulturalists founded the American

Forestry Association to aid in the conservation efforts (244). The following year, John

Muir published God’s First Temple: How Should We Preserve Our Forests? These

individual advocates and nature conservation organizations led the effort to save

America’s forests.

Due to nineteenth-century development, the land that would become the

Middlesex Fells was one such forest in need of preservation. The Middlesex Fells,

previously called Five Mile Wood and now commonly referred to as the Fells, sits within

five Massachusetts cities and towns: Malden, Medford, Melrose, Stoneham, and

Winchester. Because of the rocky terrain and thick forests, the Fells were sparsely

populated until the nineteenth century. However, as early as the 1600s, manufacturers

purchased land surrounding Spot Pond, a large lake at the center of the Fells, in order to

take advantage of its rushing water that could power the area’s earliest mills and plants.

Similarly, portions of the Fells’ forests were cut down to support colonial industries, such

60 as shipbuilding, brickmaking, and cobbling (Simcox 8). Local industry spurred economic

development, at the expense of the natural surroundings, including the Fells.

In addition to harm caused by local industry, real estate developers also found value in the land around Spot Pond, which offered promising potential as an upper-class estate district. In 1846, William Foster, James Eaton, and William Bailey Lang purchased land along the eastern shore of Spot Pond, in the northernmost part of Malden, and created the Wyoming development. These lakeside lots featured large Italianate homes designed by Lang (Simcox 8).20 By 1890, no residential homes remained in use along the lake, and the municipalities of Malden, Medford, and Melrose purchased the land surrounding Spot Pond in order to protect their water supply (Goss 297). This joint effort demonstrates one example of public efforts to preserve the area from future real estate development.

Although protecting Spot Pond’s water supply seemed obvious for the benefit of surrounding towns, naturalist Wilson Flagg and social reformer Elizur Wright were the first to encourage the preservation of Five Mile Wood. As early as 1856, Flagg advocated that the state set aside the areas extending from Stoneham to Salem for one or more natural reserves (Simcox 9). As part of a larger plan to preserve forests nationwide, Flagg believed that the Five Mile Wood “carried more importance for botanists and students of natural history than for foresters and pleasure seekers” (Rawson 247). Flagg argued against the landscaped parks, and believed instead that plants and animals should be

studied, rather than used as embellishments. Thus, Flagg advocated for preserving Five

Mile Wood in its natural state.

20. Only one of these estates remains and it serves as the Fells Visitor Center.

61 Elizur Wright joined Flagg in his efforts to preserve Five Mile Wood. A former

mathematics professor, abolitionist, and state commissioner, Wright fell in love with the natural forest after moving to the base of Pine Hill, one of the southern points of the Fells in Medford (Rawson 243). Like Flagg, Wright believed that landscaped parks, such as

Boston’s Franklin Park, “could not do the environmental work of forests” (244). Using

Babylon’s hanging gardens as an example, he argued that parks and gardens could not save the Assyrian Empire, and would similarly fall short in saving Boston. He dedicated his life to the conservation of Five Mile Wood, first by advocating that Boston’s

Common Council purchase the area as a municipal park, and then by purchasing portions of the land himself (243). However, the preservation of the Fells would require additional public and government support.

The influential work of Malden journalist Sylvester Baxter and landscape architect Charles Eliot complemented Flagg and Wright’s efforts to conserve the

Middlesex Fells. Baxter, who lived south of Fellsmere Park in Malden’s West End, originated the Middlesex Fells name in 1879 as an alternative to Five Mile Wood21 (1882

Directory; Rawson 257). Eliot trained with Frederick Law Olmsted, the renowned

landscape architect, and served as a partner in his firm, Olmsted, Olmsted, and Eliot

(O’Connell 99). However, Baxter and Eliot disagreed with Wright and Flagg’s assertion that landscaped parks provided little benefit. Baxter and Eliot maintained that “parks and suburban housing were necessary for relieving inner-city squalor,” which they viewed as

21. According to Rawson, the name Middlesex Fells “cast back in time beyond the roots of settlement to the roots of the settlers themselves. Middlesex was simply the county in which the rocky forest rested, named after a county in England, but Fells was an Old Saxon word that Baxter put to new use. He defined it as meaning ‘a tract of wild stone hills, corresponding to the German word felsen.’” (257).

62 one of the most pressing social problems of the day (90). Regardless of their differing

opinions on the value of landscaped parks, Baxter and Eliot supported the preservation of

the Fells.

During the 1880s, Flagg, Wright, Baxter, and Eliot pursued their conservation

efforts by raising public and government awareness. In 1880, Flagg and Wright formed

the Middlesex Fells Association. Within two years, they successfully lobbied the

legislature to pass the Forest Law of 1882, which enabled municipalities to manage the

Fells and other wooded areas (Rawson 249). Also known as the Public Domain Act, the

law ensured that individual towns and cities could preserve natural areas within their

borders.22 At the same time, Baxter and Eliot established the Trustees of Public

Reservations, the world’s first private nonprofit trust for preserving “scenic open spaces”

(O’Connell 90). Their first property was a twenty-acre tract of land along Spot Pond, donated by Fannie Foster Tudor in memory of her daughter Virginia (Rawson 258). By raising public and government awareness, Flagg, Wright, Baxter, and Eliot successfully began to conserve natural areas around Boston.

However, the preservation of these large spaces required more than awareness; the purchase and conservation of large forests and parks required the state’s direct involvement. The Fells and other major forest preserves around Boston stretched across numerous cities and towns, necessitating that the state oversee their protection. In 1891, the Trustees of Public Reservations lobbied the legislature to establish a state-owned and

22. The Act “authorized any town or city to take or purchase land within its limits for the maintenance of working forests or the preservation of water supplies. The title of the land would vest in the state and the Board of Agriculture would use income from the land to manage it. The municipalities in which the land was located would receive any profits collected from the forests” (Rawson 249).

63 operated metropolitan park system. Although the suburbs typically valued their municipal

independence, it became a barrier to preserving land for public use (Rawson 260). In

1893, the state created the official Metropolitan Park Commission (MPC) and charged it with purchasing land for preservation purposes. The state provided the MPC with one million dollars to purchase land, and the MPC quickly secured close to 4,000 acres for the Blue Hills south of Boston and approximately 3,000 acres for the Middlesex Fells, as well as land for Stony Brook and Beaver Brook (Simcox 55). Baxter and Eliot first led the MPC as secretary and landscape architect (Rawson 263). With the benefit of the

MPC’s oversight, the efforts that began in Malden to preserve the Fells helped to establish large nature conservations across the greater Boston area.

In 1892, Governor William Russell appointed West End real estate developer

William Beltran de Las Casas to the preliminary MPC (Bacon 190). Like Baxter, Las

Casas was another local Malden resident dedicated to preserving the Fells. In 1893, he joined the permanent MPC commission, and in 1895, he was elected chairman. Las

Casas’ influence on the preservation movement spread throughout the greater Boston area: “Visitors to Boston are invariably attracted by the picturesqueness of the beach resorts, parks and bridges constructed and maintained by the Metropolitan Park

Commission, and the successful work of that body is largely due to the persistent efforts of William B. de las Casas… who has labored zealously since its creation, for the beautification of various points about Boston” (190). The efforts of Las Casas, as well as other local residents like Baxter and Wright, helped Malden to support the preservation of forests across the greater Boston area.

64 The Impact of Preserving the Middlesex Fells

The preservation of the Middlesex Fells at the end of the nineteenth century produced a new surge of upscale real estate development along the border of the protected lands. Beginning in the mid-1890s, Malden’s government became increasingly interested in developing the land surrounding the Fells, along the northern edge of the

West End neighborhood. In his 1894 inaugural address, Malden Mayor Everett Stevens described the construction of a boundary road along the southern edge of the Fells where a number of homes were under construction: “The character of the park improvement naturally assures the occupation of this territory for first-class residential purposes” (20).

Malden Mayor John Farnham repeated these sentiments two years later when he described the extension of the road along the Fells’ border and an increase in “valuable building sites for first-class development” in the West End (95). While some advocated protecting the land from further development, others recognized that the preserved, unspoiled nature would draw new residential development for individuals desiring to live outside of the city and in close proximity to nature.

The Middlesex Fells’ preservation also appealed to non-residents, including those who lived in the more urban parts of Boston. The accessibility of the Boston & Maine

Railroad and other forms of urban transportation enabled people from across the greater

Boston area to visit the Fells. As early as 1885, the Boston & Maine improved service to the Fells by opening a new railroad station north of the Malden/Melrose border (Goss

405). Fells Station was located just a short walk from the trails leading into the preserved forest. The extension of the Boston & Maine Railroad’s service enabled visitors from throughout the greater Boston area to enjoy the benefits of the Fells’ natural beauty.

Figure 20: Middlesex Fells Reservation. Massachusetts Metropolitan Park Commission. Published by the Massachusetts Metropolitan Park Commission, 1905. Map reproduction courtesy of the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library. Circled in red are the Malden Center Station and the Fells Station. William Beltran de Las Casas is listed an MPC commissioner in the top right corner.

The Park Movement in Boston and Malden

Although Malden benefited from the proximity of the Middlesex Fells, Malden city officials also developed a local park system and worked with the MPC to create a parkway that connected the Fells to the city of Boston. Like other suburban neighborhoods, Malden’s local park system grew from informal actions such as integrating landscaped elements such as trees and small parks into real estate developments. Eventually, this led to the more formal development of landscaped parks and green spaces, managed by the city and in coordination with Boston’s efforts. The

66 history of Malden’s park system is linked to that of Boston’s, and this section will

demonstrate Malden’s role in the history of Boston’s park system.

As described in Chapter III, a desire to live closer to nature influenced the

development of residential suburbs. However, nature also influenced the design of these

neighborhoods. As early as the 1840s, residential developers on Boston’s periphery

designed natural elements alongside the streets and houses they built. For example,

Wadsworth and Jackson designed their Auburndale development in Newton as a garden

suburb with picturesque landscape elements (O’Connell 44). Jackson laid out his other

Newton development, Walnut Park, around a central landscaped park (43). Similarly, in

1848 when David Sears developed his Brookline land into the Longwood neighborhood,

he included a number of small parks that provided future residents with views of

greenery. The following year, another Brookline landowner did the same, developing his

land into the Fairmount neighborhood “in a manner that complemented rather than

competed with its hillside setting” (Rawson 166). These informal elements ensured that residential developments appeared as though situated close to nature, regardless of their actual location.

A formal movement to create landscaped parks complemented these informal design elements. The public park movement in Boston stemmed from a growing popularity of designed parks nationwide. In 1851, social reformer and landscape architect

Andrew Jackson Downing, the advocate for suburban life described in Chapter III, designed a large public park in Washington, D.C. The following year, New York City

began building Central Park (Von Hoffman 76). Designed by landscape architects Calvert

Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted, Central Park pioneered the parks movement and

67 inspired cities nationwide to establish their own parks as “breathing spaces and civic

ornaments” (O’Connell 90). The movement encouraged formally developing public

parks within urban spaces as a way to incorporate the country and its natural beauty into

the city.

In 1876, Boston joined the national parks movement when the city’s Park

Commissioners created a master plan for a park system and hired Olmsted as the chief

landscape architect (Shand-Tucci 84). Olmsted’s park system, referred to as Boston’s

Emerald Necklace, strings together five public parks from the Back Bay to Dorchester

and includes the Back Bay Fens, the Muddy River Improvement, Jamaica Park, Arnold

Arboretum, and Franklin Park, while also connecting to the Boston Common and Public

Garden. Described as a “landmark of urban planning,” Olmsted’s park system

dramatically transformed Boston and brought some of the pastoral beauty of the suburbs

back into the city’s urban design (Shand-Tucci 84, 85). Olmsted, along with his sons and

landscape architecture firm, would later support the development of Malden’s park

system, as well.

As seen in the development of other peripheral communities, the first unofficial steps towards incorporating greenery into Malden’s residential areas included informal actions such as planting trees, setting houses back from the street to allow for front lawns, and dissuading residents from putting up fences along their property lines. These actions, promoted by both the city government and the local newspapers, exemplify the ways in which the emphasis on preserving green spaces changed the way local Malden residents treated their streetscapes. For example, a newspaper article about a new West End home described that “it has no fence in front to mar its beauty to offend the view of the

68 passerby” (“New Residences at the West End” 5). Similarly, in 1892, Malden Mayor

James Pierce asked citizens to remove their fences as a way to beautify the city (24). In

1893, when William Beltran de Las Casas sold a plot of land to Boston chemist David

Turpie, the deed provided strict guidelines for how far back the house should be set back from the street (Deed of Sale 599). Likewise, in 1896, Malden Mayor John Farnham discussed the importance of planting trees along public streets: “They add not only to the beauty of the city but to the value of the property. A treeless street is not attractive, but, with very little work in planting trees and the lapse of a few years, a great change can be brought about. The importance of tree-culture cannot be overestimated” (40). Through these small initiatives, Malden’s residents began to incorporate the natural beauty that surrounded the city into its newly developed streets and neighborhoods.

Although conducted on a smaller scale, Malden established its own park system

through the systematic purchase, design, and creation of public parks for the enjoyment

of its residents. Malden’s government first began to consider its own park system in the

early 1880s. In 1882, the city began to secure plots of land for parks or public grounds

(11). A decade later in 1893, Malden Mayor Henry Winn authorized a loan of $80,000

towards the purchase of land for parks and stated in his inaugural address, “Malden is by

nature the most beautiful suburb of Boston. She only needs to utilize her advantages… A

few moderate sized open spaces are all that is needed, and liberal-minded citizens are

said to be willing in some cases to contribute toward these.” (23). Within a few years, the

Malden parks department’s annual budget of $100,000 allowed it to care for more than

65 acres of land and purchase new land. Following Boston’s example, Malden

69 incorporated parks into its urban areas for the benefit of its residents, even though the suburb was already surrounded by natural green spaces like the Fells.

Despite support from city officials and residents alike, developing the park system was slow and expensive. For example, in 1894, Malden’s Park Commissioners considered taking the land on either side of the Boston & Maine Railroad’s station and improving it for park purposes (293). The government believed that making this area more attractive for travelers on the railroad line was a worthwhile investment.23 Although

the expense of the project proved too large and was not pursued, Malden officials

recognized that a park easily accessible from the railroad would have been mutually

beneficial to the city as well as to the Boston & Maine. In 1899, Malden historian

Deloraine Corey described the slow speed at which Malden established its park system,

commenting “The beginnings of a park system promise much of beauty and public utility

in the future, although little has been accomplished beyond the acquirement of desirable

tracts of land” (9). However, through the gifts of land from a few local residents, Malden

established its park system.

A gift from two local residents and former mayors, Elisha Converse and John C.

K. Sleeper, helped Malden to establish Fellsmere Park, a 25-acre park in the West End

that is considered today one of Malden’s most precious gems. Like Boston’s Franklin

Park, Malden’s Fellsmere Park features a pond and walking paths that lead pedestrians

through wooded and open grass areas. In 1868, Elisha Converse purchased the land and

dammed the swamp to create a reservoir for his Boston Rubber Shoe Company located

23. “Such an improvement, by providing an attractive approach to the centre [sic] of the city by the principal line of railroad and thus giving Malden a pleasant appearance in the eyes of the thousands of strangers who pass daily in the cars, would doubtless be a profitable investment worth many times its costs” (Inaugural Address of Hon. Everett J. Stevens 293).

70 south of the park in the Edgeworth neighborhood (MAL.K 8). Twenty-five years later in

1893, Converse deeded his property to the City of Malden. Around this same time, John

C. K. Sleeper bequeathed six acres from the adjacent Quarry Hill area to Malden

(MAL.928). The city hired the landscape architecture firm Olmsted, Olmsted, and Eliot to design a landscaped park from this large parcel of land (MAL.K 9). Led by Frederick

Law Olmsted’s sons John Charles Olmsted and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., and Charles

Eliot, the firm followed the same design principles of Olmsted Sr., and created gently rolling and curving walking paths and picturesque views. In 1897, Malden Mayor John

Farnham described Fellsmere Park as “the most beautiful feature of [Malden’s] local park system, with a popular usefulness that will make it universally appreciated” (96).

Converse and Sleeper’s gifts to Malden more than one hundred years ago continue to delight local residents as the city’s most magnificent landscaped park.

The Fellsway and Boston’s Parkways

A series of parkways connect Boston’s park system to the rest of the greater

Boston area, including the parks north of Boston, such as Malden’s Fellsmere Park. As early as 1879, Olmsted Sr. began to connect the Back Bay to the rest of his Emerald

Necklace with a series of parkways and boulevards, including the Fenway, Jamaicaway,

Riverway, and Arborway (O’Connell 99). The Boulevard Act of 1894 provided the MPC with additional permissions to string the Boston area’s large parks together with a system of linear landscaped parks, including scenic drives, parkways, and ocean boulevards

(Simcox 101; O’Connell 93). Following blueprints designed by Olmsted Sr., the MPC established scenic drives along the large public reservations, including the Fellsway

71 connecting Boston to the Middlesex Fells and the Blue Hills Parkway connecting

Franklin Park Zoo to the Blue Hills Reservation south of Boston (O’Connell 93, 95).

Built on the western edge of Malden’s West End and along Fellsmere Park’s border, the

MPC named the Fellsway in keeping with the nomenclature adopted for the other MPC parkways, such as Fenway and Jamaicaway. These parkways ensure that the city’s landscaped parks and surrounding conserved forests are readily accessible to Bostonians and suburban residents.

Malden’s government predicted that the Fellsway would have an equally large impact on the West End neighborhood as urban rail transportation had earlier in the century. When first built, the Fellsway included a section of unpaved grass along the center for future electric-car tracks (“Inaugural Address of Hon. John E. Farnham” 93), denoting a forward-looking supposition for urban transportation’s future. In 1897,

Malden Mayor John Farnham described the Fellsway as one of the most important developments in the greater Boston area:

This great parkway, together with the one designed to connect the Boston Park System with the Metropolitan Park Reservation of the Blue Hills, is a great step in the modern development of Greater Boston… Malden, in particular, may regard this as the most important event in the history of the municipality since the establishment of the steam railway lines that made it one of the most popular of Boston suburbs. (94)

At the turn of the twentieth century, with the creation of Malden’s park system, the preservation of the Middlesex Fells, and the connections established by the Fellsway complete, nature and urban transportation enveloped the West End neighborhood, culminating its transformation into a railroad suburb.

Chapter VII

Conclusion: Preserving the West End’s Past

The opening of the Boston & Maine Railroad station in Malden was a true turning point for Malden’s growth, and encouraged the development of the West End neighborhood into a railroad suburb for Boston commuters. Prior to 1845 development in

Malden’s West End was minimal, chiefly related to farmers and industry. The introduction of the Boston & Maine Railroad helped the citizens of Malden and beyond to understand the merits of living outside the city and closer to nature, but with the accessibility of urban rail transportation to commute to Boston for work.

The history of Malden’s West End neighborhood demonstrates the relationship between urban transportation, suburban development, and nature conservation. In particular, the opening of the Boston & Maine Railroad station in Malden’s center initiated this relationship by demonstrating the ease of commuting between city and suburb. Perhaps Malden would not have witnessed the same prosperity and growth in the second half of the nineteenth century if not for the Boston & Maine Railroad.

Nevertheless, it is evident that the Boston & Maine provided Malden’s suburban residents with greater access to Boston and other peripheral communities and advertised the benefits of suburban life to city-dwellers. These opportunities afforded by the Boston

& Maine Railroad motivated Malden residents to subdivide their families’ estates into multiple lots of land in support of the city’s growing population, and over time, encouraged commuters to move to Malden’s West End and participate in suburban life.

73 Subsequently, the West End’s development into a railroad suburb demonstrated

the need to conserve the greater Boston area’s surrounding green spaces. Specifically, the development of Malden’s West End drove the creation of Malden’s park system and the preservation of the Middlesex Fells. Because of the efforts of prominent local Malden residents, significant greenery and unspoiled nature continue to surround the West End neighborhood today. The Middlesex Fells serves as the West End’s northern border, while the Fellsway and Fellsmere Park provide additional landscaped beauty to the neighborhood’s western border. These landscaped parks and conserved forests serve

Malden’s residents as green spaces for relaxation, fresh air, and picturesque views. More importantly, they support visitors from the greater Boston area with these opportunities, especially those visitors from urban spaces, without the benefits of unspoiled nature. By preserving the Middlesex Fells and creating a park system, the city of Malden, and the

West End neighborhood in particular, transformed from a residential suburb into a recreation attraction. However, the creation and preservation of Malden’s green spaces relied on the urban transportation that made them accessible to the surrounding communities.

If the Boston & Maine Railroad had not directed its line through Malden, the

West End could look very different today. Thus, this thesis demonstrates the historic importance of Malden’s West End neighborhood as a railroad suburb and complements

the work completed by two previous architectural surveys of Malden that argue for the

development of historic districts in the West End. Since 2002, the City of Malden has

considered establishing the Las Casas National Register Historic District based on

significant research of the suburban houses developed by Francis and William Beltran de

74 Las Casas. Likewise, the City of Malden has studied other parts of the West End area for

its potential designation as an historic district (City of Malden Master Plan 136). As most recently proposed by the 2010 City of Malden Master Plan, sections of the West End deserve to be designated as historic districts. In particular, the Master Plan argues:

The establishment of a Local Historic District can help maintain and restore the historic character of the area in the district, encourage new building designs to be compatible with existing architecture, protect historic assets from needless demolition, and promote local historic and architectural resources as a source of pride and community identity. (131)

Additionally, the city of Malden recognizes that historic districts can stabilize a neighborhood by encouraging reinvestment and increasing property values. Already,

Malden’s West End has lost Dutton’s Glen Rock estate and the primary residences of the

Dexters and Las Casas families, historic assets that would have been protected if part of a historic district. The efforts of these nineteenth-century families to transform the West

End into a prominent railroad suburb must be preserved and the neighborhood’s remaining impressive homes must be protected. Establishing the Las Casas and West End

Historic Districts will promote local history as a source of pride and community identity for the West End neighborhood, and for the city of Malden broadly. Similarly, improved efforts to care for the West End neighborhood’s public parks would better encourage residents and visitors to take advantage of these special spaces. It is my fervent hope that with additional research and attention to the West End, such as through this graduate thesis, the City of Malden will recognize the West End neighborhood’s historical importance and follow through on these efforts to preserve its past. Preserving the neighborhood’s historical spaces will ensure the West End retains the nineteenth-century

75 architectural character that reflects how the city responded to the urban transportation

revolution. It is critical that Malden embrace the West End’s history as it moves forward in re-imagining the city’s future.

Appendix

Advertisement for the Edgeworth Company’s West End Land. Edgeworth Company. Dear sir, your attention is respectfully invited to a great sale of lands of the Edgeworth Company. 1849. The Making Of The Modern World. Web. 20 November 2016.

Bibliography

I. Works Cited

1900 Atlas of Middlesex County. Vol. 1. Massachusetts: Geo. W. Stadley & Co., 1900.

“Alexander Grant Passes Away.” Malden Evening News. 23 April 1930: 1. Microfilm.

Architectural Survey and Inventory. Malden, Massachusetts - Phase One. Bastille-Neiley Architects and Consultants. January 1977.

“At the West End. Rapid Growth and Energetic Development of Eligible Land.” Malden Evening News. 10 June 1895: 2. Microfilm.

Bacon, Edwin Monroe. The Book of Boston: Fifty Years’ Recollections of the New England Metropolis. Boston: Book of Boston Company, 1916. Web.

Beecher, Catherine. A Treatise on Domestic Economy: For the Use of Young Ladies at Home, and at School. Boston: Thomas H. Webb, & Co., 1843. Web.

“B. F. Dutton Died This Morning.” Malden Evening News. 2 June 1915: 1. Microfilm.

Binford, Henry C. The First Suburbs: Residential Communities on the Boston Periphery, 1815-1860. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1985.

Boston and Maine Railroad. Annual Report of the Directors of the Boston and Maine Railroad for the Year Ending 1870. Boston: Dutton and Wentworth, 1870. Web.

Boston and Maine Railroad. Annual Report of the Directors of the Boston and Maine Railroad for the Year Ending 1873. Boston: Dutton and Wentworth, 1873. Web.

Bradlee, Francis B. C. The Boston and Maine Railroad. A History of the Main Road, with its Tributary Lines. Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1921.

City of Malden Assessors’ List of Taxable Polls. Malden: Alvin G. Brown, Steam Book and Job Printer, 1886.

City of Malden Master Plan. Boston: Metropolitan Area Planning Council, 2010. Web.

Corey, Deloraine P. Malden Past and Present. Issued on the Occasion of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Malden, Mass., May, 1899. Malden, MA: Malden Mirror, 1899.

“Death of F. B. de las Casas.” Malden Mirror. 6 August 1887: 2. Microfilm.

78 “Death of the Man Who Founded and Laid Out the West End.” Malden Evening News. 23 June 1898: 2. Microfilm.

Deed of Sale from William B. de Las Casas to David Turpie, July 1893. Malden, Massachusetts. Book 2206, Page 599. Middlesex South Registry of Deeds. Accessed 20 July 2016.

“Dexter House and Elm.” Malden Evening News. 29 May 1936: 2. Microfilm.

Directory of the Inhabitants, Institutions, Manufacturing Establishments, Business, Societies, Business Firms, Etc., Etc. in the Towns of Malden, Medford, Melrose, and Everett. Boston: Greenough, Jones, and Co., 1875.

Directory of the Inhabitants, Institutions, Manufacturing Establishments, Societies, Business, Business Firms, Etc., Etc., in the City of Malden. Boston: W. A. Greenough & Co., 1882.

Downing, Alexander J. The Architecture of Country Houses. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1969.

“Estate in Malden.” Boston Evening Transcript. 10 July 1846: 4. Microfilm.

“Ezra F. Pratt.” Malden Evening News. 7 March 1952: 1. Microfilm.

“For Sale in Malden.” Boston Evening Transcript. 30 November 1844: 4. Microfilm.

“Formerly Old Road.” Malden Mirror. 10 April 1875: 4. Microfilm.

Goss, Elbridge Henry. The History of Melrose, County of Middlesex, Massachusetts. Melrose: The City of Melrose, 1902. Web.

“Great Sale of Lands.” Boston Evening Transcript. 14 September 1849: 3. Microfilm.

Hall, Mildred Fuller. Malden Streets Before 1875. Malden, MA: Mildred Fuller Hall, 1967.

Heald, Bruce D. A History of the Boston & Maine Railroad. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2007.

“History of De Las Casas Woods.” Malden Evening News. 11 May 1936: 2. Microfilm.

“Home of B. F. Dutton at Malden.” Malden Mirror. 22 October 1892: 3. Microfilm.

Inaugural Address of Hon. Clarence O. Walker, Mayor, with the Annual Reports of the Officers. Boston: J. W. Pitman & Sons, Printers, 1896.

79 Inaugural Address of Hon. Everett J. Stevens, Mayor, with the Annual Reports of the Officers. Boston: J. W. Pitman & Sons, Printers, 1895.

Inaugural Address of Hon. Henry Winn, Mayor, with the Annual Reports of the Officers. Malden: Geo. E. Dunbar, 1893.

Inaugural Address of Hon. James Pierce, Mayor, with the Annual Reports of the Officers. Malden: Office of the City Press, 1892.

Inaugural Address of Hon. John E. Farnham, Mayor, with the Annual Reports of the Officers. Boston: Skinner, Bartlett & Co., Printers, 1897.

“Increase of Business and Population in Malden.” Boston Evening Transcript. 30 April 1850: 1. American’s Historical Newspapers. Web. 19 March 2016.

Jackson, Kenneth T. Crabgrass Frontier. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.

Krim, Arthur. Malden Historical Commission Comprehensive Communitywide Survey Project 2001-2002 Final Report. Cambridge, MA: Survey Systems, 2002.

Larsen, Michael and Elizabeth Pomada. Daughters of Painted Ladies. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1987.

“Magnificent Suburban Residence for Sale.” Daily Evening Traveller. 22 August 1871: 3. Web.

“Malden and Melrose Horse Railroad.” Boston Evening Transcript. 16 July 1858. Web.

Malden Directory and House Guide Including the Institutions, Manufacturing Establishments, Societies, Business, Business Firms, Maps, State Census, Etc. Boston: W. A. Greenough & Co., 1898.

Malden Historical Society. Malden. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2000.

“Malden’s Merchant Prince.” Malden Evening News. 18 September 1893: 3. Microfilm.

“Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System.” Massachusetts Historical Commission. Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 18 March 2016. Web.

“Mr. Theodore N. Foque Died.” Malden Mirror. 19 March 1887: 1. Microfilm.

“New Name Sought by Charles J. Hendee.” Aurora. 12 February 1848: 3. Microfilm.

“New Omnibus Line for Malden.” Boston Evening Transcript. 2 May 1857. Web.

80 “New Residences at the West End. Mr. T. N. Foque’s New House.” Malden Mirror. 11 October 1884: 5. Microfilm.

O’Connell, James C. The Hub’s Metropolis: Greater Boston’s Development from Railroad Suburbs to Smart Growth. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2013.

Proceedings of the Two Hundred Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of Malden, Massachusetts. Malden: Malden Historical Society, 1925.

“Railroad Enterprise.” Malden Mirror. 5 May 1883: 4. Microfilm.

“Railroad Indignation Meeting.” Malden Mirror. 27 January 1872: 4. Microfilm.

“Ralph J. Devir Speaks on History of Edgeworth.” Malden Evening News. 28 January 1953: 3. Microfilm.

Randall, Ruth Kimball. Malden: From Primitive Past to Progressive Present. Canaan, New Hampshire: Phoenix Publishing, 1975.

“Rapid Growth and Development.” Malden Evening News. 10 June 1895: 2. Microfilm.

Rawson, Michael. Eden on the Charles. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010.

Report of the Directors of the Boston and Maine Railroad to the Stockholders. Boston: Henry W. Dutton & Sons, 1870. Web.

Shand-Tucci, Douglass. Built in Boston: City and Suburb 1800-2000. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999.

Simcox, Alison C. and Douglas L. Heath. Middlesex Fells. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2015.

Skelton, Edward O. Handbook of the Boston and Maine Railroad to Suburban Homes, Sea Shore, Lake and White Mountains. Boston: Boston and Maine Railroad, 1874.

Stevens, John Calvin and Albert Winslow Cobb. American Domestic Architecture. Watkins Glen, NY: The American Life Foundation and Study Institute, 1979.

“Sunday Railroad Train.” Malden Messenger. 9 March 1872: 2. Microfilm.

The Bi-Centennial Book of Malden. Boston: Geo. C. Rand & Co., 1850.

The Malden Directory Containing a Directory of the Citizens. Street and House Guide. The City Record and Business Directory. With Map. Boston: Sampson, Murdock, & Co., 1902.

The Malden House Guide and City Directory. Salem, MA: Henry M. Meek, 1900.

“The Owner of the Following Estates.” Boston Evening Transcript. 4 April 1855: 4. Microfilm.

Thirty-Eighth Annual Report of the Malden Public Library. Malden: Dunbar-Kerr Company, Printers, 1916.

Thompson, N.A. “Great sale of lands of the Edgeworth Company in Malden.” Boston Evening Transcript. 14 September 1849: 3. America’s Historical Newspapers. Web. 19 March 2016.

Von Hoffman, Alexander. Local Attachments: The Making of an American Urban Neighborhood, 1850 to 1920. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1994.

Warner, Sam B. Jr. Streetcar Suburb. The Process of Growth in Boston 1870-1900. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1962.

“West End Booming.” Malden City Press. 10 March 1894: 1. Microfilm.

Whiffen, Marcus. American Architecture since 1780: A Guide to the Styles. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1969.

“Wm B De Las Casas Dies. Long Chm Met Park Commission.” Malden Evening News. 25 March 1930: 1. Microfilm.

“Wonderful Enterprise!” Malden Evening News. 18 May 1895: 1. Microfilm.

II. Works Consulted

Anderson, Joseph C. The Duttons of Glen Rock, Malden, Massachusetts: An Updated Account Based on Glen Rock and the Dutton Girls by Claire Dutton McGregor Matz. Baltimore, Maryland: Joseph Crook Anderson, 2013.

Annual Report of the Officers of the City of Malden for the Year 1882. Cambridge: John Wilson and Son, 1883.

Annual Report of the Town of Malden Embracing the Report of the Selectmen. Boston: Charles C. P. Moody, 1866.

82 Annual Report of the Several Departments of the Town of Malden, From March 1, 1867 to March 1, 1868. Boston: Charles C. P. Moody, 1868.

Bruce, Charles E. Directory of the City of Malden, and Register of the Inhabitants, Manufacturing Industries, Business Firms, Institutions, Churches, Societies, Etc., Etc. Boston: Press of Rockwell and Churchill, 1885.

Fishman, Robert. Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise and Fall of Suburbia. New York: Basic Books, 1987.

Garvin, James L. “Mail-Order House Plans and American Victorian Architecture.” Winterthur Portfolio. Winter, 1981; 16(4), 309-334. Web.

Hall, Mildred Fuller. “Malden Houses on Parade.” 75th Anniversary of the Founding of the Malden Historical Society. Malden Public Library, Malden, MA. 4 April 1961. Lecture and slideshow.

Hayden, Dolores. Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820-2000. New York: Vintage Books, 2004.

Hudnut, William M., III. Halfway to Everywhere. Washington, DC: Urban Land Institute, 2003.

Inaugural Address of Hon. Joseph F. Wiggin, Mayor, with the Annual Reports of the Officers. Boston: Alfred Mudge & Son, Printers, 1890.

Inaugural Address of the Mayor with the Annual Report of the Officers. Boston: Alfred Mudge & Son, Printers, 1883.

Inaugural Address of the Mayor with the Annual Report of the Officers. Boston: J. W. Pitman & Son, Printers, 1885.

Jefferson, Thomas. Notes on the State of Virginia. London: John Stockdale, 1787. Web. November 2016.

Kennedy, Charles J. “Commuter Services in the Boston Area, 1835-1860.” Business History Review (pre-1986). Summer 1962; 36(2). 153-170.

Lake Sunapee. Boston: Passenger Department of the Boston & Maine Railroad, 1897. Picturesque New England Series. No. 12.

“Malden, A City of Neighborhoods.” CityofMalden.org. City of Malden. 2016. Web. 18 March 2016.

“Malden’s Business History.” City of Malden. Web.

83 Malden and Everett Directory of the Inhabitants, Institutions, Manufacturing Establishments, Business, Societies, Business, Business Firms, Maps, State Census, Etc. Boston: W. A. Greenough & Co., 1897.

Marsh, Margaret. Suburban Lives. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1990.

McArdle, Alma de C. and Deirdre Bartlett McArdle. Carpenter Gothic. New York: Whitney Library of Design, 1978.

Men of Massachusetts. Boston: The Boston Press Club, 1903. Web.

O’Gorman, James F. Drawing Toward Home. Boston: Historic New England, 2010.

Preliminary Report of the Malden Historic District Study Committee. Malden: Malden Historic District Commission, 1999.

Reports of the Town Officers of Malden for the Year Ending December 31, 1875. Boston: Rand, Avery and Company, 1876.

Reports of the Town Officers of Malden for the Year Ending December 31, 1876. Boston: Alfred Mudge & Son, 1877.

Reports of the Town Officers of Malden for the Year Ending December 31, 1879. Boston: Boston Stereotype Foundry, 1880.

The Malden, Medford, Melrose, and Everett Directory, of the Inhabitants, Institutions, Manufacturing Establishments, Business, Societies, Business Firms, Etc. Boston: W. A. Greenough & Co., 1882.

The Malden, Medford, Melrose, and Everett Directory of the Inhabitants, Institutions, Manufacturing Establishments, Business, Business Firms, Societies, Etc. Boston: W. A. Greenough & Co., 1886.

The Second Inaugural Address of Hon. Charles L. Dean, Mayor, and the Annual Reports of the Officers. Malden: George E. Dunbar, Printer, 1900.

Wright, Gwendolyn. Building the Dream: A Social History of Housing in America. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1983.