Map 15: Boston
G. W. Boynton Boston, 1838 About this Map This map was engraved by George W. Boynton, Boston's leading engraver in the mid-1800s… [ more ]
About this Map This map was engraved by George W. Boynton, Boston's leading engraver in the mid-1800s. Although it is quite schematized and thus not very accurate, it nonetheless does indicate the extent of the city's growth by 1838, especially in comparison with an 1800 map (see Map 14). By the late 1830s, for example, new bridges connected Boston to Charlestown, Cambridge, and South Boston and a dam with a road on top (now Beacon Street) had been built across the entire Back Bay of the Charles River. Railroads entered Boston from the north across the Charles and the west across Back Bay. To create more land for the growing city, filling had widened Boston Neck and three new streets had been laid out to connect the city with the mainland -- Tremont and Suffolk (now Shawmut Avenue) on the north side and Front (now Harrison Avenue) on the south. Filling had also created the land where Castle Square and Bay Village, the Public Garden, the Brimmer Street area, and Charles Street at the base of Beacon Hill are now located. The Mill Pond (now the Bulfinch Triangle) had been filled in and so had the area north of Causeway Street now occupied by the O'Neill Federal and Registry of Motor Vehicle Buildings. Part of the central waterfront had also been filled in, making the land where Broad, India, Commercial Streets, and the Quincy Markets are now located. South Cove was in the process of being filled in to make land for railroads. Land had been added to outlying districts, too. The huge wharf on the north shore of South Boston-now the location of the Gillette Company-was under construction, though what is shown on the map is projected rather than actual fill. East Boston, which had been virtually uninhabited until 1833, was being developed. Land had been added to Charlestown for railroads, and for the Navy Yard, and filling had also taken place in East Cambridge.
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