Friday, February 22, 2013
A closer look at the famous marker in the middle of Charlestown.
Editor's note: This is the second in a two-part series about the history of Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown. Click here to read part 1. Breaking ground for the Granite Railway in 1826 made it possible to get the stone intended for the monument to Charlestown. This was a massive undertaking. Stones weighing several tons were hoisted at the quarry onto railroad cars, which then hauled the massive granite stones from the quarry to the Neponset River. The granite was then loaded onto schooners to be ferried to Charlestown, where, at Deven’s wharf, the stone was transferred, again, to ox-driven carts and trekked to Breed’s Hill. No wonder the monument took 18 years to build. To lift the enormous blocks of granite, Willard, with the help of …
42.37577
-71.06132
Bunker Hill Monument
43 Monument Sq, Charlestown, MA
/articles/story-of-the-bunker-hill-monument-part-2
1519414
/locations/8860631
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
A closer look at the famous marker in the middle of Charlestown.
[UPDATED Monday, Feb. 25, 12:14 p.m.] All that is most important about Charlestown might be found at the top of Breed’s Hill. Towering over the town there, dwarfing everything else, is the solitary Bunker Hill Monument, one of the first public monuments in the history of the United States. Not to overstate the importance of this landmark, but the battle commemorated here, even though considered a victory for the British, proved to be a sword in the side of the British military, a blow from which the Empire never recovered. The granite pillar stands as a testament, not only to the sheer, raw courage of men determined to drive out the enemy, but also to the loss of life of so many. It is witness to an excruciatingly bloody battle and the …
Friday, January 18, 2013
The residence at 16 Harvard St. was built after the Revolutionary War.
According to the Boston Landmarks Commission, the Edward Everett House provides an "elegant and memorable introduction to Harvard Street’s important collection of early mid 19th century Charlestown residences." Matthew Bridge, one of the leaders of the effort to rebuild Charlestown following the Revolutionary War, had the house built. Bridge most likely built the house for his daughter Sally. Soon after the house was finished, Bridge died and Sally and her husband Seth Knowles moved into number 16. When Sally Knowles died unexpectedly in 1825, Seth Knowles and his new wife Sarah Payson remained in the house until 1830. When they relocated to Beacon Hill, they leased the house to Edward Everett, 16 Harvard St.'s best known occupant. Edward …
42.37219
-71.06299
16 Harvard St, Charlestown, MA
/articles/edward-everett-house-was-home-to-several-statesmen
/locations/8624136
Saturday, January 5, 2013
The land owned by successful Morocco dresser Isaac Mead once encompassed several streets, stretching to Bunker Hill.
The land on which the house at 38 Mead St. presently stands was once part of Isaac Mead’s estate. That great swath of land originally encompassed Main, Eden, Mead, Russell and Oak streets and stretched to Bunker Hill Street. The estate included an enormous garden, known as the Vineyard, at the corner of Eden and Russell. According to Timothy Sawyer’s "Old Charlestown," the Vineyard contained "rare and beautiful plants" known to horticulturalists throughout the United States. Sawyer writes that this experimental garden was "devoted to the testing of foreign varieties of grapes," and to the introduction of Keen’s seedling strawberry from Europe. There was also a greenhouse filled with varieties of camellia. Isaac Mead was one of Charlestown’…
42.380088
-71.068526
38 Mead Street Ct, Boston, MA
/articles/mead-street-home-once-part-of-garden-estate
/locations/8525211
Monday, December 3, 2012
The structure was preceded by the Charles River and Warren bridges.
Connecting the new settlement of Charlestown with the Boston mainland was paramount. As early as 1630 a ferry carried passengers between the two points. By 1781 there were four boats, two docked at each side of the Charles River. The ferry was run by Harvard College. In 1786, when the Charles River Bridge opened, there were 17,000 people living in Boston and 1,200 in Charlestown. Perhaps the first public bridge in the country, the Charles River Bridge was built as a toll bridge with private funds. According to "The Ferry, the Charles-River Bridge and the Charlestown Bridge," published in the late 1800s by the Boston Transit Commission, to cross the bridge each foot passenger paid 2/3 of a penny; one person and one horse paid 2 pence and 2/…
Friday, November 23, 2012
Built in 1806, the building was used for a time as a funeral home.
The yellow house at 14 Common Street was built in 1806. The house’s first owner was John Tapley, a blacksmith and master iron worker at the Navy Yard. The Tapley family operated Tapley Wharf, near the entrance to the Navy Yard, for the repair and building of vessels, and as a landing spot for small cargo ships carrying wood, bricks and hay from Maine. Tapley was contracted to repair USS Constitution when the ship was damaged during the war of 1812-1815. Tapley and his wife Lydia, a daughter of Samuel Tufts, had nine children and lived in the yellow house until the 1820s. They then, according to Boston Landmarks Commission, moved to a small farm on Milk Row Road, ‘outside the Neck.’ Reuben Hunt owned the house until 1835, and sold number …
42.37404
-71.060069
/articles/john-tapleys-yellow-house-on-common-street
/locations/8280695
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Local writer Helen O'Neil brings us the history of 240 Bunker Hill Street.
The brick gambrel house at 240 Bunker Hill Street was built around 1800. At one time the house was owned by Phillips Academy. It seems that John Phillips, the only surviving son of Judge Samuel Phillips, the founder of Phillips Academy, lived in Charlestown. After graduating from Harvard College in 1795, Phillips moved to Charlestown, ostensibly to study law. He gave up law to go into business and married Lydia Gorham, daughter of Nathaniel Gorham, one of the signers of the United States Constitution. John and Lydia Phillips stayed in Charlestown for several years, then returned to the Phillips Mansion in Andover. It is not clear how or why Phillips Academy became a one-time owner of 240 Bunker Hill Street but it’s conceivable that the …
Friday, September 21, 2012
This 1842 house is the only one of its type in all of Charlestown.
The house at 20 Albion Place is three quarters up the street on a cul de sac. The four enormous columns of this unusual house grace, not the building’s main entrance, but instead support the roof over the house’s side porch. The modest main entrance faces the street. An entrance into the house from the porch is on the side, under a window, non-ostentatious. The columns are the most dramatic feature. Described as ‘monumental Tuscan columns’ they rise two stories, in support of a ‘heavy projecting entablature’ incorporated into the roof slope. The fluted columns seem to hold up the sloping gable. It’s the only house like it on Albion Place. According to the Boston Landmarks Commission, 20 Albion Place is the ‘only Charlestown example of a…
Friday, September 14, 2012
The house was built for Deacon John Larkin, a man rich in American History.
Deacon John Larkin had the house at 55 Main Street built to replace the one he lost in City Square, which was burned, along with all other homes, by the British in 1775. Larkin was born in Charlestown on April 3, 1735. He was the seventh of ten children and among the fifth generation of Charlestown Larkins. The first Larkin, Edward, arrived in Charlestown in 1638, following Governor Winthrop and the Puritans escaping England. The Larkins were generations of craftsmen. Edward was a wheel-maker. Samuel, John’s father, was a chair-maker and a fisherman. John Larkin became a mariner and prosperous merchant and had a part ownership in a wharf and warehouse, where he ran an import-export business. Larkin and his wife Ruth Kettell had seven …
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Harvard Mall has long, complicated history and is slated for a renovation.
Harvard Mall is one of the coolest places in Charlestown. Literally. On one of the recent hot summer days, while taking photos in the park, I felt a refreshing coolness, and an emptiness there, so different from the noisy, busy streets. There was just one other person there, sitting on a stone bench. The mall, a ‘tree shaded brick square,’ stands on a hill. This hill, originally Fort Hill, contained a fort built by the first European settlers in a spot ideal for protection and inspection over the land and nearby water. There was a wheat-grinding windmill next to the fort, and eventually a church nearby. John Harvard built a home at the bottom of the hill, with an orchard spreading upwards. There were more than 150 other small houses on …
Mary Kay Donovan
6:18 pm on Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Hi Plenty - Was not "The Charlestown Patriot" a weekly paper that was available all over town? And did it not give the community news from new babies to obits and everything in between? Thanks to the hard work of Jim & Gloria Conway, we had a paper. Let's not forget you could even place a prayer request in it. Now that's a paper for the people. more ›