[OSMH] Charlestown in the Victorian Era
Jan. 4th, 2007 04:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidToday was the first of the "Middays at the Meeting House," noonish Thursday lectures in January. This month's theme is Victorian Boston.
The speaker was Ed Gordon, president of the New England chapter of the Vicotiran Society in America, spoke partly about the history of Charlestown, and partly about the architecture tour he wrote for the book Victorian Boston Today (twelve walking tours of Boston). I learned stuff, but more as discrete chunklets than as a flow of narrative, which is what I'd been hoping for. On the plus side, there were slides, so my not remembering to bring my crocheting was not nearly as annoying.
Not in any particular order.
P.S. In looking for some information to link to, I found the Colonial Ancestors site, which has lists of original Harvard graduating classes, among other things.
The speaker was Ed Gordon, president of the New England chapter of the Vicotiran Society in America, spoke partly about the history of Charlestown, and partly about the architecture tour he wrote for the book Victorian Boston Today (twelve walking tours of Boston). I learned stuff, but more as discrete chunklets than as a flow of narrative, which is what I'd been hoping for. On the plus side, there were slides, so my not remembering to bring my crocheting was not nearly as annoying.
Not in any particular order.
- He showed an old map of Charlestown, Boston, etc, and it wasn't only Boston that got lots of landfill (That would be "land creation."). Charlestown didn't gain as much area, but they did fill in the Miller River which had been between Charlestown and Cambridge.
- Settlement took off after bridge tolls were abolished in 1833 (between Boston, Cambridge, Charlestown, and Everett), and the Bunker Hill Monument was built.
- There was little building between 1873 and 1880 due to the stock market crash.
- Charlestown was incorporated as a city in 1848, and annexed to Boston in 1874, partly to get such amenities as schools and fire stations.
- There was a lot of shipping (in addition to the Navy Yard business), including ice from local ponds (Spy Pond, Fresh Pond, etc) sent as far away as Calcutta.
- In 1805, Bullfinch's prison was built where Bunker Hill Community College is today. It was torn down in the 1950s, but that's the reason the Prison Point Bridge has that name.
- From the 1900s to the 1970s there was an elevated railroad from the West End to Charlestown. Apparently at least one station was moved to some museum, which has not kept it in repair, while another, originally going to be used for a restaurant, was torched by arsonists.
- There were lots of names thrown around, some of them builders (the speaker focused a lot on architecture, naturally), some of them people with connections to Charlestown (especially if they built/lived in one of the historic houses featured :-). Edward Everett was one of the latter. Impressive guy.
P.S. In looking for some information to link to, I found the Colonial Ancestors site, which has lists of original Harvard graduating classes, among other things.