Fires swept through the crowded regions of the city with alarming regularity. The city s practical approach to these problems helped shape the Boston we see today. The city was just recovering from a yellow fever epidemic that resulted in the creation of the Boston Board of Health, which had the power to quarantine, eliminate cesspools, and condemn property. Additionally, the city was running out of unoccupied land. A petition from 1805 shows that Bostonians were already keenly aware of the issues relating to housing cost, quality of life, and health.
Rents absorb an undue portion of their industry, and throw a burden upon our productive labour.
The prices of rent abridge the comforts, and expose the health of the poor. The population already accumulates too much in straitened swellings, confined inclosures, and narrow avenues. A due regard to their heath, their morals and their comforts, requires a wider space, and a purer atmosphere. When John Winthrop landed in 1630, the Shawmut Peninsula encompassed 750 acres. Much of this relocated earth came at the expense of the three hills that gave the region its original name, Tremontaine.