Back in January I bumped into the Massachusetts Historical Society’s “Massachusetts Maps” online exhibit. A lot of these images are manuscript maps—i.e., drawn by hand, not made for mass reproduction, and thus not to be seen anywhere else. Until now.Among the choice selections:
- A British army officer’s map of Charlestown, Boston, and Dorchester in late 1775, showing the fortifications of his army and the rebels.
- Society founder Jeremy Belknap’s map of Boston harbor that same year.
- Belknap’s sketch of the extent of a fire in Boston in April 1787, with the Rev. Dr. Mather Byles’s house at the top and the site of the chopped-down Liberty Tree at bottom. “Frog Lane” is now [CORRECTED] the part of Boylston Street that defines a southern border of the Common.
- Belknap’s similar report on the fire of 1794, which shows the ropewalks where fights broke out between workers and soldiers in March 1770 as well as some landmarks of post-Revolutionary society: the controversial Federal Street Theater, the Tontine Crescent, and the Boston Glass-house.
- John Adams’s notes on Braintree and Weymouth in 1760.
- Berkshire County in 1777, when it extended more to the east than today.
- Nehemiah Bennett’s 1785 map of Stoughton, which shows “Col. [Richard] Gridleys Mill.”
You say "“Frog Lane” is now Boylston Street, and divides the Common from the Public Garden." I believe it's Charles Street that separates the Common from the Garden, and it would be an extension of the way called 'Pleasant Street' on the right side of the map.
ReplyDeleteYou’re right; Boylston Street (né Frog Lane) defines one southerly edge of the Common, but Charles Street is the border between the Common and Public Garden.
ReplyDeleteIn the 1700 Charles Street would have been more or less at the water’s edge. The Public Garden and Back Bay sit on landfill areas.
Back in the 1770s, Pleasant Street was still being developed, and sparsely populated. It looks like waterfront property, but actually it ran alongside the mudflats and probably wasn‘t so pleasant.