Boston a Guide Book to the City and Vicinity
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1928 Tufts College Library GIFT OF ALUMNI BOSTON A GUIDE BOOK TO THE CITY AND VICINITY BY EDWIN M. BACON REVISED BY LeROY PHILLIPS GINN AND COMPANY BOSTON • NEW YORK • CHICAGO • LONDON ATLANTA • DALLAS • COLUMBUS • SAN FRANCISCO COPYRIGHT, 1928, BY GINN AND COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 328.1 (Cfte gtftengum ^regg GINN AND COMPANY • PRO- PRIETORS . BOSTON • U.S.A. CONTENTS PAGE PAGE Introductory vii Brookline, Newton, and The Way about Town ... vii Wellesley 122 Watertown and Waltham . "123 1. Modern Boston i Milton, the Blue Hills, Historical Sketch i Quincy, and Dedham . 124 Boston Proper 2 Winthrop and Revere . 127 1. The Central District . 4 Chelsea and Everett ... 127 2. The North End .... 57 Somerville, Medford, and 3. The Charlestown District 68 Winchester 128 4. The West End 71 5. The Back Bay District . 78 III. Public Parks 130 6. The Park Square District Metropolitan System . 130 and the South End . loi Boston City System ... 132 7. The Outlying Districts . 103 IV. Day Trips from Boston . 134 East Boston 103 Lexington and Concord . 134 South Boston .... 103 Boston Harbor and Massa- Roxbury District ... 105 chusetts Bay 139 West Roxbury District 105 The North Shore 141 Dorchester District . 107 The South Shore 143 Brighton District. 107 Park District . Hyde 107 Motor Sight-Seeing Trips . 146 n. The Metropolitan Region 108 Important Points of Interest 147 Cambridge and Harvard . 108 Index 153 MAPS PAGE PAGE Back Bay District, Showing Copley Square and Vicinity . 86 Connections with Down-Town Cambridge in the Vicinity of Boston vii Harvard University .... III Old and New Boston ..... 2 Lexington 135 Boston, Down-Town Section . 4-5 Concord 138 Elevated, Subway, and Tunnel Massachusetts Bay 140 Systems 38 Salem 142 Location of the State House . 42 : NOTE The chief merit of a guide book is that it brings the history of its sub- ject to the present moment. Such has been the aim in the preparation of this Httle book. Yet it is something more than a guide to Boston it is an historical itinerary, a progress from past to present. Its scope embraces, besides the municipaHty of Boston proper, the various com- munities which are comprehended in the term Greater Boston"; his- toric places and literary shrines beyond these limits, as Salem, Plymouth, and Concord ; the North Shore and the South Shore of Massachusetts Bay. Care has been taken to provide the visitor with every possible aid to the convenient and comfortable exploration of the territory treated. The typographical arrangement, with the use of varied types to empha- size places, points, and objects, is designed to make the material available for quick reference. A helpful table of contents, the logical arrangement of the material, the headlines, and a complete alphabetical index contrib- ute to the usefulness of the guide. In the mechanical execution the publishers have endeavored to present the book in a convenient and attractive format. Other distinctive and superior features of this guide are : 1. The material is authentic as it has been obtained by reference to original sources and documents. 2. The diagrams and maps scattered through the pages are based on the latest information provided by the City Planning Board. The map of down-town Boston (pp. 4-5), engraved especially for this guide, has on its reverse pages an alphabetical and locational list of the principal streets and averjues, squares and historic burying grounds, parks, build- ings, bridges, and wharves. 3. The text is profusely illustrated. Strangers will find the section entitled ^'The Way about Town" (pp. vii-ix) particularly valuable. Visitors who have only two or three days to spend in Boston will find the section '^Important Points of Interest" (pp. 147-151) helpful in arranging an itinerary. vi : INTRODUCTORY THE WAY ABOUT TOWN r-^^ The stranger visiting Boston for the first time will * " find the city's reputation of being exceedingly intricate and tortuous to be deserved. But he may quickly get a gene;-al idea of the directions of the streets, and of the ways of reaching desired points, if he will grasp at the outset three important facts, as follows I. The well-worn term "The Hub" applies to down-town Boston in no mere fanciful sense. Roughly, the streets of this confusing Central District form a sort of wheel. The hub of the wheel, however, is not one fixed point, for the streets radiate from several squares. The map (pp. 4-5) shows at a glance that the figure of the wheel applies with sufficient ex- actness to warrant its use. In fact the stranger will save himself many steps PUBLIC GARDEK COMMON i! ^ P 5 I P i 1 2"" To CAMBRIDGE sa and much time by ascertaining at once the names and directions of a few main thoroughfares of the Central District, among them State Street, Milk Street, Washington Street, Tremont Street, Beacon Street, Summer Street, Hanover Street, and Atlantic Avenue. II. The Back Bay District is arranged chiefly in the form of a rectangle, its eastern border united to the Central District described above at the Public Garden. The accompanying map indicates its general form and points out the principal connections with down-town Boston. vii : viii THE WAY ABOUT TOWN III. There are in Boston several important points of arrival or departure in which all routes center. The visitor cannot go far astray if he makes himself familiar with these few landmarks. The most essential are the following Copley Square. Through this square, Boylston Street, running nearly east and west, is an important thoroughfare. Huntington Avenue, diverging to the southwest from Boylston Street at this square, is another artery. Stuart Street leaves Huntington Avenue one block southwest of the square and leads through the newly developed Park Square District to Washington Street. Dartmouth Street crosses the square running north and south. On the southern side of the square Trinity Place is a direct approach to the New York Central Trinity Place Station (one block) where all outgoing trains of this line stop ; and at Hunt- ington Avenue and Irv- ington Street (one block southwest of the square) is an approach to the Hunt- ington Avenue Station of the same line, where all inward bound trains stop. Pedestrians may also reach both of these stations by steps leading down from opposite sides of the Dart- mouth Street bridge over the New York Central tracks. Dartmouth Street also leads to the Back Bay THE SOUTH STATION Station of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad (one block and a half south), the stopping place for all trains in both directions. In or about Copley Square are grouped many important buildings, institutions, churches, and hotels. Park Square, the wide opening south of Boylston Street, where the Public Garden and the Common are separated by Charles Street. Here, between the up-town and down-town retail shopping districts, the construction of new hotels and office buildings is an outstanding feature of Boston's recent develop- ment. Park Square is a terminus for interurban lines of motor coaches. The Intersection of Washington, Summer, and Winter streets, in the middle of the down-town business quarter. Washington Street is not only the great artery of retail traffic but it is the main highway of travel north and south through the older part of the city. Winter Street, but one block long, connects with Tremont Street at the Park Street Subway station ; Summer Street is practically a con- tinuation of it eastward to the South Station and the water. Park Street, also in the down-town business quarter. Here are the central stations of the Subway at the head of the Common, — the most important point THE WAY ABOUT TOWN ix in the rapid-transit service of the city (see map, p. 38). At the head of the short street (a single block in length) is the State House ; at its foot is the thoroughfare of Tremont Street, running north and south, from which cross streets at irregular intervals lead easterly to various parts of the general business districts. ScoUay Square at the junction of the following streets, — Tremont, Court, Brattle, Hanover, Sudbury, Cambridge, and Howard; also of Cornhill and Pemberton Square. The Subway station at this point is a convergence of several lines of the rapid- transit system. The northern parts of the city are conveniently reached from Scollay Square. The North Station, Causeway Street. This is occupied by the several divisions of the Boston & Maine Railroad system, whence trains are taken for points north, east, and west. A North Station development programme was begun in 1927 which is making this railroad terminal the center of a large number of major projects for the construction of public buildings and for the widening of adjacent thoroughfares. The South Station, Dewey Square, junction of Summer Street and Atlantic Avenue. Occupied by the New York, New Haven & Hartford and the New York Central Railroads, whence trains are taken for the south and west. General Information. Details of routes of the many and various trolley and motor-bus lines in the city, and connections v^ith other lines, are issued by the Boston Elevated Railway Company. The several railroad companies also furnish elaborate information in illustrated folders and other forms as to points of interest in New England along their lines reached from Boston. These can be obtained by the victor at the dov^n- town Consolidated Ticket Offices, 67 Franklin Street. At the railroad stations are Information Bureaus, at which the stranger should freely apply for any directions desired. BOSTON: A GUIDE BOOK I.