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OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY
BY
ROBERT MEANS LAWRENCE, M.D.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press, Cambridge

COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY
ROBERT MEANS LAWRENCE

The total elision of the R, and the amazing, broad, flat A, as in “Park Street,” give to Bostonian speech a magnificently indigenous tang; hint at juniper and spruce forests, rocky fields, pumpkins, Thanksgiving and pie.

HARRISON RHODES

Boston is just like other places of its size; only perhaps, considering its excellent fish-market, paid fire department, superior monthly publications, and correct habit of spelling the English language, it has some right to look down upon the mob of cities.

0. W. HOLMES

Let every child that is born of her, and every child of her adoption see to it to keep the name of Boston as clean as the Sun; and in distant ages her motto shall be the prayer of millions on all the hills that gird the town: “As with our Fathers, so God be with us.”

R. W. EMERSON

There is a region, lovelier far than Eden’s vales and vistas are; Serene and sheltered in repose from every stormy wind that blows; A place than all besides more sweet; at once you know it, Beacon Street!

Boston. A Poem, by A. F. W.

Boston is one of the grandest, sure-footedest, clear-headedest, comfortablest cities on the globe. Unlike every other large city I was ever in, the most of the hackmen dont seem to have bin speshully intended by natur for the Burglery perfession. And its about the only city I know of where you dont enjoy a brilliant opportunity of bein’ swindled in sum way, from the risin’ of the Sun to the goin’ down thereof. There4 I say, loud and continnerd applaus for Boston!

ARTEMUS WARD

THE development of Park Street, from the time of its origin in 1640 as a rude pathway leading across the easterly part of the Common, through the present State House grounds to the Beacon, may be conveniently divided into four periods. In the early days the pressure of bovine hoofs was doubtless an important factor in its maintenance as a well-trodden trail up the incline to the summit of the hill. The building of the Almshouse in 1662 marked the beginning of the second period, which lasted about one hundred and forty years, when Centry Street was lined with public buildings devoted to the care of the worthy poor, vagrants, and criminals. Space was also reserved for the impounding of stray animals. The third or residential period included practically the whole of the nineteenth century, when Park Street was built up with the homes of many prominent citizens. The houses numbered one to four, as also number nine, the Amory-Ticknor dwelling, were built in 1804, and the others shortly thereafter. Some of these were reconstructed wholly or in part by later owners in conformity with the Bulfinch style of architecture. Finally, within recent times, mercantile interests have acquired control of a majority of the estates; and the year 1907 marked the disappearance of the last resident on this street. Park Street Church was built in 1809 on the site of the Granary.

Among the many to whom the writer is indebted for assistance are J. Collins Warren, M.D.; Bernard P. Verne, Esq.; Walter K. Watkins, Esq.; Miss Margaret Fitzhugh Browne, Miss Katharine P. Loring, Miss Jane L. Motley, Mrs. Charles H. Gibson, Mrs. Francis J. Moors, Miss Annie H. Thwing, Dean Rousmaniere; and Messrs. Charles K. Bolton, Alexander Corbett, Jr.; Frank H. Chase, George Francis Dow, Edward Dunham, William Lyman Johnson, Julius E. Tuttle, Charles F. Read, George A. Sawyer, Francis Manning, Andrew McCance, and William B. Clarke.