Tensas gazette., 1915-07-30
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and Milk streets, where is now the old South
Meeting house. and this was early called Corn
hill Soon, however a further advance was MADE
to Summer this extension later being called
Marlborough street, in commemoration OF the VIC
tory of Benheim. In a few years a third street
was added toward Essex and Boylston streets,
named Newbury The sea" then came up In the
Great cove from the harbor fairly close to the
present square of State street. for high'water
mark was at the present Kilby street on the
South side and Merchants row on the North size.
The Great cove swept inside OF these streets
Merchants row followed the shore northward 10
a smaller cove, stretching from where is now
North Market street and the Quincy market tine
first Mayor Quincy's monument and over the
site of Faneuil hall to Dock square. which De-
came the Town dock. Other pioneer highways
were the nucleus of the present fremont stree"
originally running along the northeastern spurs
of the then broad-spreading Beacon hill and pass
ing through the Common Hanover street, at hrst
a narrow lane from what is now Scollay square,
and Ann. afterward North street. from DOCK
square both leading to the ferries by Copps niii'
where tradition says the Indians had their Terry.
Court street was first Prison lane, from the Mar
ket place to the prison, gruesome dungeon
early set up, where now stands the modern Cny
Hall annex In its day It harbored pirates ana
Ouakers and Hawthorne fancied 1t for the open
ing scenes of his Scarlet Letter" School street
took its name from the first schoolhouse and the
first school, whence sprang the Boston LAtln
school, which felicitates itself that 1t antedates
the university at Cambridge and "dandled Har-
ward college on its knee" Milk street, first Fort
lane" was the first way to Fort hill on the naroor
front Summer street. first "Mylne lane, LED 10
"Widow Tuthills Windmill" near where was
Church Green up to which the water came.
Cow lane" now High street. led from Churcn
Green or Mill lane, to the foot Of Fort hill Essex
street was originally at its eastern emo part OF
the first cartway to the Neck and Roxbury'
beach road that ran along the south shore OF the
South cove another expansive indentation. ex-
tending from the harbor on the south side OF
Fort hill to the Neck. Boylston street. originally
Frog lane" and holding fast to this bucolic ap-
pellation into the nineteenth century was
swampy way running westward along the soutn
side of Boston Common toward the open BACK DAY
the back basin of the Charles-then nowing up
to a pebbly beach at the Commons western eoge
and to the present Park square,
Here then, on the levels about the Great cove
in the form of a crescent facing the sea and
backed by the three-peaked hill, the town was
established.
The first occupation was within the scant ter
ritory bounded, generally speaking. on the east
side by State street at the high-water line OF
the Great cove; northery by Merchants row
around to near the site Of Faneuil hall; north
westerly by Dock square and Hanover street:
westerly by the great hill and fremont street;
southerly by School and Milk streets; and Milk
street again to the water. then working up toward
the present Liberty square at the junction OF
Kilby. water and Batterymarch streets. Soon.
however the limits expanded reaching southwark
to Summer street. and not long after to Essex
and Boylston streets; eastward, to the harbor
front at and around Fort hill; westward and
northwestward about another broad cove-this
the North cove, later the mill cove with busy
mills about it. indentation on the north OF
Beacon hill by the widening Of the Charles river
at its mouth, and covering the space now Hay
market square; and northward, over the pc
ninsula's north end. which early became the seat
of gentility.
No further expansion of moment was made
through the colony period, and the extension was
slight during the Province period. Beacon hill.
except its slopes remained till after the Revolu-
ton in its primitive state its long western reach
a place of pastures over which the cows roamed.
and the barberry and the wild rose grew.
The foot of the Common the margin of the
glinting Back bay was the towns west boundary
till after the Revolution and into the nineteenth
century Till then the tide Of the Back bay
flowed up the present Beacon street. some 200
feet above the present Charles street. The towns
southern limit except few houses toward the
Neck the fourth link of the highway to Rox-
bury (caled Orange street in honor Of the house
or Orange). was still Essex and Boylston streets
The one landway to the mainland till after the
second decade of the nineteenth century, remained
the long, lean Neck to Roxbury. The only water
way, at the beginning of the town, was by means
of ships, boats afterward by scows. No bridge
from Boston was built till the Revolution was two
years past.
So the "storied town" remained. till the close
of the historic chapter. little one the built-up
territory of which could easily be covered in a
stroll of day or two.
From its establishment the capital Boston's
history was so interviewer with that of the Colony
that in England the Colony came early to be desig
mated the "Bostoneers,' and the charter which
the founders brought with them, and for the
retention of which the colonists were in an
almost constant struggle, was termed the "Bos
ton Charter"