Preserving Three Hundred Fifty Years of Change in the Blackstone Block

MIGUEL G~MEZIBAREZ*

ith renewed commercial interest in and five years later persuaded Gov. John ’s waterfront and the recent Winthrop and his MassachusettsBay Col- W successful restoration of the ony to establish a permanent settlement Markets, one of Boston’s old- near his spring. Blackstone must have rec- est, yet least publicized, historic districts is ognized the Shawmut peninsula as an ap- beginning to attract the attention of many propriate site for a city. Connected to the visitors and real estate developers. The mainland by a very narrow neck, the land Blackstone Block, occupying 2.3 acres di- was easily defensible. The peninsula also rectly behind Boston City Hall, contains formed a large cove capable of sheltering one of the last remaining fragments of Bos- ships, and high promontories on either side ton’s original seventeenth-century street of the cove provided natural vantage points pattern. In addition, its buildings, including for sentries, thus providing protection by two of national historic significance, repre- sea.2 sent nearly three hundred years of Bos- Today, the topography of Boston bears ton’s development, yet form an architec- virtually no resemblance to that which turally cohesive group. An understanding William Blackstone knew. Over the years of the history of the block reveals it to be a hills have been leveled and bays and coves unique district within the city and one filled in to form the geographicfeatures of which will present preservationists with twentieth century Boston. The desire to difficult problems regardingits use in years regularize the topography, the devastating to come as pressure for its commercial fires that periodically leveled the city, and development increases. the pressuresof a rapidly growing mercan- The name of Blackstone is synonymous tile population combined to wipe out all but with the beginning of Boston. Rev. William a few traces of the early settlement. Partly Blackstone (also spelled Blaxton) was the by accident, partly through a shift in ew- fust white settler credited with making a nomic focus, the Blackstone Block es- permanent home (in 1625)within the boun- caped serious alteration. daries of modem Boston. Blackstone had The block can be identified in the earliest arrived in the New World two years earlier descriptions of the colonial settlement be- as the chaplain of the Robert Gorge expedi- cause three of its four boundaries were tion, which established the fmt English originally defined by natural features. The settlement in the region. This small group block occupied a narrow stretch of usable of explorers soon abandoned its settlement to return to the comforts of England, leav- ing Blackstone and perhapsa few othersto *Miguel Gomez-Ibtiez is an architectwith En- live alone on the newly claimed land.1 devor, Inc., Cambridge,Mass. He receivedhis Blackstone chose to build his home near mastersdegree in architecturefrom the Univer- a spring on the west slope of Beacon Hill, sity of F’eansylvaniaia 1976.

19 20 Old-Time New England

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FIG. 1. MAP OF THE BLACKSTONE BLOCK, BOSTON, . (Drawing by the author.) Preserving Three Hundred Fifty Years 21

KEY TO FIGURE 1

1. Union Oyster House, 41 Union Street, c. 1713 2. Ebenezer Hancock House, 10 Marshall Street, c. 1767 3. Site of Hancock Row, c. 1785, demolished in 1942 4. Union Block, 45-55 Union Street, c. 1844 5. 15-21 Union Street, c. 1822 6. 20-22 , c. 1824 7. Faneuil Hall 8. Faneuil Hall Markets 9. Boston City Hall

land bounded on the east by Town Cove, appearsin 1678. Finally, in 1699 Salt Lane and on the west by a similar inlet, known as was established, thus virtually completing Mill Cove. To the north was a marshy area the street pattern as we know it today.’ through which a creek meandered.3 The buildings of this earliest period are Town Cove, which provided a natural known to have been of wood and rough- harbor, was an early center of economic cast, a style typical of medieval England.* activity in Boston and caused considerable None of these buildings, however, has sur- development of the Blackstone Block in vived. Only in the pattern of alleys and the seventeenth-century.4 Before 1643 the lanes within the block can traces of the creek along the northern edge of the block seventeenth-century still be identified. was enlarged and made to connect Town This street pattern has since been extended Cove with Mill Cove. Mill Cove was then upward by the walls of the larger-scaled cut off from the sea by a causeway (now buildings that strain to conform to the wind- Causeway Street) and became Mill Pond, ing alleys of earlier generations. which, when drained by the outgoing tide, The construction of the immense Long provided the community with a source of Wharf in 1711, reflecting the continued tidal water power. Although a mill was growth of Boston as New England’s pri- operating by the side of Mill Creek in 1643, mary trading center, shifted some of the the center of the block was still unusable economic focus away from the Blackstone marsh land.5 Pressure must have been felt Block. Though the new docking facility to develop this land so close to the dock, eclipsed the old Town Dock, the because in 1644 the town began releasing Blackstone Block still benefitted from the this commonage to individuals for de- continued economic prosperity of the city. velopment.6 The 1722Bonner map of Boston showsthe By the end of the seventeenth-century all extent of this development during the first the lanes within the Blackstone Block had quarter-century(Fig. 2). By 1800the marsh been laid out. First to appear in town rec- within the block was completely filled in, ords is Marshall Lane, donated to the town and virtually all of the usable area had been by Thomas Marshall in 1652. Scottow’s built upon (see Fig. 3). The Blackstone Alley (now Scott Alley) was laid out in Block maintained its identity as a vigorous 1677, and reference to Marsh Lane first commercial center; most of the buildings 22 Old-Time New England

FIG. 2. DETAIL OF THE BLACKSTONE BLOCK. From John Bonner, “The Town of Boston in New England” (Boston, 1722:SPNEA Archives). Preserving Three Hundred Fifty Years 23

FIG. 3. DETAIL OF THE BLACKSTONE BLOCK. From J. G. Hales, “Map of Boston in the State of Massachusetts” (Boston, 1814:SPNEA Archives). 24 Old-Time New England

FIG. 4. UNION OYSTER HOUSE. 41 Union Street,c. 1713.(Photograph by William T. Clark, SPNEA Archives.)

housed artisan workshops, small busi- the revolutionaries. The building was later nessesor tavern on the fit floor and dwel- a dry goodsstore (1780) and in 1826became lings above.9 the Union Oyster House of today.rO Two of these eighteenth-century struc- The Ebenezer Hancock house now tures survive, namely, the Union Oyster stands on a lot once inherited by John House and the Ebenezer Hancock House, Hancock from his uncle, Thomas Han- built by Ebenezer’s more famous brother, cock, at the latter’s death (Fig. 5). John John Hancock. The Union Oyster House, a Hancock constructed the present building three and one-half story gambrel roofed shortly after 1767, and later gave it to his brick building, is believed to have been brother, Ebenezer. Ebenezer Hancock, built between 1713 and 1717 (Fig. 4). From then Paymaster of the Eastern Continental 1771 to 1775 it was the home of Isaiah Army, used 10 Marshall Street to store two Thomas and was where he printed his revo- million silver crowns loaned to the revolu- lutionary broadside, “The Massachusetts tionary government by Louis XVI of Spy.” Inflammatory articles corn “The France in 1778. Next to this house, along Spy” were quoted in newspapers through- the east side of Creek Square, John Han- out the thirteen colonies, and its delivery cock constructed several brick houses in boys were said to double as messengersfor 1785. Known as Hancock Row, they were Preserving Three Hundred Fifty Years 25

FIG. 5. EBENEZER HANCOCK HOUSE. 10 Marshall Street, c. 1767. (SPNEA Archives.)

demolished in 1942.11 A curiosity to be found at 9 Marshall Street in the Blackstone Block is a mill- stone, known today as the Boston Stone (Fig. 6). It was first used by Thomas Child (166?-1706), a painter, who established his business in the Blackstone Block in 1692. In 1737 the mill-stone was set into the comer of a house on Marshall Street to protect it from damage by passing car- riages. In 1835 the stone was reset into the existing building, built on the same site as the fist (now identified as number 9), and was inscribed with the words “Boston Stone.” It was adopted as the zero mile- FIG. 6. THE BOSTON STONE. 9 Marshall stone of Boston and is the point from which Street.(Photograph by Arthur Haskell,SPNEA all distances are measured.‘* Archives.) 26 Old-Time New England

While the seventeenth and eighteenth feet to fdl in the seventy acre Mill Pond, centuries had been a time of rapid growth was begun in 1804 and had an immediate for Boston in terms of power and prestige, impact on the Blackstone Block. With the the nineteenth-century was one of rapid ftiing in of Mill Pond, the mill race along growth in size. Boston’s population, which the edge of the Blackstone Block was no in the proceeding century had grown from longer needed. By 1833it had disappeared, about nine thousand to just over eighteen and in its place was Blackstone Street, thus thousand in 1790, increased at a much completing the boundaries of the block as higher rate in the nineteenth-century. they are today. In 1824, with workmen still Within thirty-five years the population had carting ffl in the direction of Mill Pond, tripled, reaching fiity-eight thousand. Bos- work began on an even larger project ad- ton’s physical dimensions likewise grew. joining the block. First the Town Dock, and In the words of historian Walter Muir then the entire Town Cove were fffled in to Whitehill, this was the century of “cutting add another 112 acres to the city.l* down the hills to fti in the coves.“13 It was The establishment of Blackstone Street the century of Bulfinch and Back Bay, the required the removal of obstructing build- century that established the shape and ings and greatly reduced the size of the character of Boston as it is known today. building lots on that side of the block. Dur- The fmt of these vast earth moving proj- ing the reconstruction that necessarily fol- ects, the lowering of Beacon Hill by sixty lowed, the orientation of the buildings on

FIG. 7. 1521 UNION STREET. c. 1822and 25 UNION STEEET afteralterations. (photograph by the author.) Preserving Three Hundred Fifty Years 27

these lots was changed to face the new street. Thus, when the fiit new structure was completed on Blackstone Street in 1835,just two years after the fiiing of the creek began, it faced out from the center of the block, rather than inward toward Creek Square. During the next twenty years buildings were replaced along the entire length of Blackstone Street and continued to face outward. These structures were similar in style-all were unpretentious common-bond brick buildings with straight brdwnstone lintels and were four or five stories tall. Other changes to the Blackstone Block came about during the nineteenth-century. One of these changes was in the character of the block. The Blackstone Block of the eighteenth-century had been an integrated residential and commercial neighborhood with three story buildings mixing these two functions. During the nineteenth-century the majority of these buildings were re- FIG. 8. 20-22 NORTH STREET, c. 1824. placed by larger commercial concerns, (Photographby the author.) primarily food markets and retail clothing stores, which undermined the block’s resi- dential quality.15 The third change of the nineteenth-cen- Another major effect of the nineteenth- tury was a trend toward the consolidation century was a change in the architectural of smaller parcels of land into larger build- style. The area grew to be dominated by the ing lots to accommodate the larger-scaled many new federal-style buildings con- buildings. This trend has continued into the structed during the expansion years of 1820 twentieth-century. An early example is the to 1850. This neoclassical influence saw its Union Block building at 45-55 Union Street greatest expression in the renovation of (Fig. 9). Some of the larger buildings con- nearby Faneuil Hall by Charles Bulfmch in structed later in the century were not able 1805 and the building of the neighboring to adapt as gracefully to their irregular Quincy or Faneuil Hall Markets by Alex- sites. ander Parris in 1825. Simple federal The economic decline of the waterfront features-ommon-bond brick, a gable area in the twentieth-century greatly af- roof with small cornice, flared lintels, and fected the Blackstone Block. Though the square windows on the top floordre all block showed a surge of vitality in 1928 evident in the three buildings between 15 with the construction of the five story and 21 Union Street (Fig. 7). Later build- Handschumacher Building at 46-52 North ings adopted the squarelintels of the Greek Street, by mid-century the vacant upper Revival style; 20-22 North Street is an ex- floors of many buildings indicated that the cellent example (Fig. 8). Blackstone Block was losing its appeal as 28 Old-Time New England

FIG. 9. UNION BLOCK. 45-55 Union Street, c. 1844.(Photograph by the author.) an attractive commercial area. Some own- threatened by neglect. For example, most ers, burdened with unrentable and dete- of the properties on Union Street, behind riorating properties, had the upper floors of City Hall, have been restored recently. their buildings removed, probably to re- Some buildings, such as the Union Block duce tax assessments.Blackstone Street, were rehabilitated with considerable facing the elevated expressway built in the attention to architectural detail. Other 195Os,had all but two buildings along its properties, however, like the four story length reduced from four and five storiesto Charlestown Savings Bank, which was one (Fig. 10).r6 The development of Gov- “colonialized” down to two stories, were ernment Center in the l%Os, however, sig- not restored with as much sensitivity to the nalled a reversal of this general deteriora- building and its location (see Fig. 7). tion. Nevertheless, economic decay had With the restoration of the Faneuil Hall left its mark. In addition to the lowering in Markets, the northern edge of the block has height of many buildings, some structures captured the attention of real estate de- were removed entirely, including the late velopers. In August, 1977, nine develop- eighteenth-century Hancock Row and a ment proposals were submitted to the blacksmith shop dating from the Boston Redevelopment Authority for one nineteenth-century, both along Creek parcel of land along North Street.” Sub- Square. missions included plans for a theater cen- Today, the buildings that remain in the ter, a luxury hotel, and several shopping Blackstone Block no longer seem to be malls, all capitalizing on the attractive Preserving Three Hundred Fifty Years

pedestrian environment created by the of the expressway on the opposite side of Faneuil Hall Markets acrossthe street. The the street is not noticeable to the pedes- large size of this North Street parcel makes trian. its development a crucial factor in the fu- Perhapsthe area with the greatestpoten- ture of the Blackstone Block. tial for restoration within the Blackstone Blackstone Street, currently the most Block lies among the most unnoticed build- physically decayed section of the block, is ings of the block-the smaller nineteenth- another area in need of attention. The exist- century structures that line the interior al- ing produce markets stand in contrast to leys and lanes. They exist now only as the larger-scaled buildings of North Street. supplemental properties to the larger The markets are remnants of a row of four commercial structures facing the exterior and five story commercial structures built streets. For example, the windows and between 1835 and 1850, but virtually no doors of three nineteenth-century row hint remains of their original nineteenth- houses,which once opened into Salt Lane, century design. But while this area may a narrow passage, are now bricked up. have the least architectural value within the These buildings have been lowered to a block, the Blackstone Street produce height of two stories and are used as stor- markets provide the only real street life in age spacefor a bank on Union Street. They the block. With fruits and vegetables piled are reminders of the residential neighbor- high along the sidewalk, even the presence hood that once existed in the Blackstone

FIG. 10. BLACKSTONE STREET showingthe removal of upper stories.(Photograph by the author.) 30 Old-Time New England

Block. Scott Alley also contains evidence followed by a massive building program. that many nineteenth-century residences The Blackstone Block, on the other hand, opened onto the interior spaces of the derives its character from the fact that it block. Although their openings have been presents a complex picture of three bricked up, two rowhouses retain their hundred fiity years of economic and ar- original height of three and one half stories. chitectural evolution and growth. Each The reopening of thesebuildings onto Scott period has left its mark on the block, but no Alley and Salt Lane would help clarify the single period or architectural style domi- picture of early nineteenth-century Boston nates it today. which the Blackstone Block suggests. The rich and mixed survivals in the Clearly, with mounting pressure to Blackstone Block present problems for realize the economic potential of the their protection-both for the professional Blackstone Block, and with all the oppor- preservationist and for the public. For the tunities for development that the block public, such a complex overlay of buildings presents, those interested in the preserva- and social and economic functions is not tion of this historic district should try to easily understood without the benefit of influence its development as much as pos- historic interpretation. The buildings are sible. The most important historic features likely to be viewed as unrelated, rather of the Blackstone Block must be identified, unattractive structures jumbled together. and preservation goals must be estab- Most people react more sympathetically to lished. the attractive homogeneity of Beacon Hill, The most obvious historic feature of the but feel indifferent toward the preservation block is the original seventeenth-century of an historic district such as the street pattern which remains intact and Blackstone Block. which is the largest example remaining in In the absence of a publicly perceived Boston. As with most historic districts, the need for preservation, the preservation Blackstone Block also contains a number planner must assumeresponsibility forpro- of architectural landmarks whose preser- tecting the block and ensuring its develop- vation is essential. The two most distin- ment in a manner that will enhance its guished buildings are the previously men- educational and historic value. But for the tioned Ebenezer Hancock House and the planner, who may understand the signifi- Union Oyster House. In addition, out- cance of each facet of the block’s image, standingbuildings remain from the first half this is not easily accomplished. The resto- of the nineteenth-century, such as the ration of any single aspectof the block must Union Block and the federal-style buildings necessarily be at the expenseof some other of Union and North Streets. aspect of its historical development. When A less obvious, but more important, his- dealing with an historical image that is toric feature of the Blackstone Block is its made up of several layers, preservationists unique character. The typical historic dis- are put in the position of deciding which tricts with which most people are familiar, layer to restore. For example, the such as Back Bay or Beacon Hill, were Ebenezer Hancock House now stands built over a relatively short period of time alone in Creek Square in the position of and reflect a specificperiod of architectural prominance it must have enjoyed when history. Modem equivalents can be found fiit built. But the isolation of this building in Boston’s Government Center or the has been made possibleonly by the demoli- West End, where large-scaleclearance was tion of the rowhouses along Creek Square Preserving Three Hundred Fifty Years

which were also built by John Hancock. facing the Blackstone Block are indicative Today, these structures would have been of the problems preservationists will be considered valuable and worthy of preser- facing in the future. Ultimately, their con- vation had they survived. cern cannot be for the restoration of the The crucial problem in the future of the physical form of a city but rather the estab- Blackstone Block is not the preservation of lishment of links between generations of landmark buildings, for their value is buildings. It is this delicate relationship readily appreciated. It is instead the pres- between generationsthat is the major asset ervation of the unique evolutionary quality of the Blackstone Block. of this district. In this sense, the problems

NOTES r Walter Muir Whitehill. Bosron, A Topo- 12 Abbott Lowell Cummings, “Decorative graphical History (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Painters and House Painting at Massachusetts University, Belknap Press, 1959).p. 3. Bay. 163@1725,”inAmerican Painting to 1776: 2 Ibid., pp. 4-S. A Reappraisal.ed., Ian M. G. Quimby-(Charlot- tesvihe.Va.: Publishedfor the Henrv Francisdu 3 Ibid., see maps on pages9 and 10. Poot Winterthur Museum by the- University 4 JustonWinsor, The Memorial History of Bos- Pressof Virginia, 1971),pp. 114-16. ton, vol. I, The Early and ColonialPeriods (Bos- 13 Whitehill, op. cit., title of chapter IV. * ton: Ticknor and Co., 1880), pp. 545-46. I4 Ibid.. pp. 7879. See also Henry Russell 5 Annie Haven Thwing, The Crookedand Nar- Hitchcock.- Boston Architecture, i637-1954 row Streets of Boston (Boston: Marshall Jones (New York: Reinhold Pub. Corp., 1954). for Co., 192(J),map insertbetween pages 12 and 13. descriptionsof the many earth m&&g projects 6 Wmsor. op. cit., vol II, The ProvincialPeriod, of that time. Introduction,pp. xii-xiii. 15 The CombinedBusiness Directory for New 7 Thwing, op. cit., pp. 8687. York, Philadelphia, Bostonand Newark, (New B AbbottLowell Cummings,“The Old Feather York: H. A. Curtio and Co., 1893). Store,” Old-Time New England, vol. XLVIII. 16 The loweringin heightof the buildingscan be no. 4 (Spring,1958). pp. 85-89. seenby comparingaerial photographsof the area 9 A Report of the RecordCommissioners of the and by comparing periodic atlases of Boston City ofBoston, Containing the Statisticsof the which list the heightsof buildings.Photographs United States’ Direct Tax of 1798. Document92 appear in MassachusettsGovernment Center (Boston:Rockwell and Ch&chi& City Printers, Commission,A Competition to Select an Ar- 1890). chitectfor the New City Hall (Boston:Published 10 US BostonNational Historic Sites Commis- by the Commission, 1961);and E. C. Banfield sion, The BostonNational Historic Sites Com- and Martin Meyerson, Boston, the Job Ahead missionFinal Report (Washington: U.S. Gov- (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, ernment Printing Offiie, l%l), p. 66. 1966). Also compare Atlas of Boston, 1938 11Ibid.. p. 65. See also Samuel Adams Drake, (Philadelphia:George Washington Bromley and Old L.undmarksand Historic Personnagesof Co., 1938)with Atlas of Boston, 1963 (Pelham. Boston (Boston: James R. Osgood and Co., N.Y.: Sanbom Map Co., 1%3). 1875),pp. 144-45;and E. G. Porter, Ramblesin 17 Miguel G6mez-Ib&iiezto JohnDobie, Project Old Boston(Boston: Cupples. Upham, 1887),p. Architect for the BlackstoneBlock, BostonRe- 38, for discussionsof the Ebeoezer Hancock development Authority, telephone conversa- House and Hancock Row. tion, 11 August 1977.