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The limits of the present volume
will not permit the writer to give more than an outline of the history of
the streets of Lynn; but it is hoped that this outline, imperfect as it
is, will have something more than a passing interest. An incidental
allusion, or the fixing of a date, is often sufficient to give a hint that
sheds light upon an event that otherwise might remain in obscurity, and
sometimes makes certain a matter having an historical importance.
There were but nine buildings on Exchange street (then called Pine street) in 1830 - five on the northeast side and four on the southwest. Beginning at the corner where now stands the Eastern Railroad Station then stood the house of John Mower, father of Amos E. Mower, now residing on Union street. Following the northeast side of the street stood the house of Nathan Alley. Next, on the northwest corner of Mount Vernon street (then only a court) was the house of Joseph Alley, brother to the one just mentioned. On the opposite corner, where now stands the shoe factory of John Wooldredge, no building then stood; the house built on this lot a few years after by Ira Gove was bought by George Foster and removed to the corner of Union and School streets, where it now stands. Next stood the house of Daniel Breed, wood merchant, and father of the late William N. Breed, who followed the same business. The next and last building on that side was the shoe factory of Isaiah Breed, standing near the present location of the Bank. It will be seen that not one of these old buildings is now standing. Directly opposite the factory of Mr. Breed stood the house of James Pratt - where it now stands, at the junction of Broad and Exchange streets. This is the only building now standing that was on the street fifty years ago. Next, on the southwest side of the street, was the residence of Moses Conner. Next, a barn belonging to Abner Alley, whose house stood where it now stands, fronting on Broad street, next to the Pratt estate. Mr. Alley was the owner of the entire triangle of land bounded by Exchange, Broad and Spring streets, except the estates of James Pratt, of Moses Conner, and that of Daniel Farrington, on the corner of Broad and Spring streets. Next stood the old grammar school house of Ward Four, near the spot now occupied by the shoe factory of Isaac M. Attwill. This school house was not much like the present grammar school house on Franklin street. It was moved soon after to the school yard at the upper end of Mount Vernon court - then reached by ascending quite a hill - a spot very near that covered by the factory now standing in the rear of the shoe factory occupied by J. P. Eaton, and owned by Albert T. Goodwin, and directly in the rear - from Silsbee street - of the Central Church. At the side of this hill there was a deep depression, or gulley, called "Uncle Joe's Hollow Hole," now making part of the railroad bed between the Central Station and the Silsbee street bridge. On the corner of Spring and Exchange streets, on the spot where now stands the shoe factory of Lucian Newhall, was the house of Daniel Carter; and between this corner and the corner of Exchange and Union streets was a vacant lot of land whose line on Union street extended to the estate of Jonathan Conner - the spot now covered by the large factories of the Brown Brothers and Jerome Ingalls. This lot was low and clayey, the last spot one would have thought to be afterward covered with imposing blocks of buildings, and the very center of our growing business.
The Market street of 1830 was a very different place from the Market street of 1879. The eastern end from Munroe street was some five or six feet lower than at present. Its greatest depression was near the head of Harrison avenue - opened some ten years later - and at this point was a stone bridge. (This stone bridge was probably built somewhere near the close of the last century, and replaced a wooden structure which was in use as late as 1780.) The road-bed at this bridge was some five feet below the present grade, while the road at the corner of Market and Broad streets was several feet above it, making a hill, which a veteran teamster of the time declared to be the most difficult of any between that point and Boston - and the hills over that route were a good deal steeper then than now. High tides swept through under this bridge at the foot of this hill, flowing the low lands on the northern side; and exceptionally high tides flooded the street, and all the territory lying between Harrison avenue and Munroe street - the space now occupied by the Eastern Railroad bed and Munroe street, between Market and Washington (then Spruce) streets, being then an unbroken field, known as the Munroe field. This was generally covered with water in the wet season, and furnished good skating-grounds for the boys (the girls did n't skate then) when the weather was cold enough and the ice smooth enough. The building of the Eastern Railroad in 1837 changed all that. This necessitated the filling up of Market street on either side to a level with the railroad bed - an operation that gave to the few buildings then on that part of the street a very much underground appearance. The only building now remaining to bear evidence of this is the old morocco factory of the late John Lovejoy, standing next to the railroad on its east side, and on the north side of Market street. There were then standing forty-nine buildings on Market street, including eight shoemakers' shops - twenty-seven on the northeast side and twenty-two on the southwest side. Of the twenty-two buildings then standing on the southwest side but two remain - one, the morocco manufactory and salesroom of Eugene Barry, the other, the corner building standing next to the old Methodist Church. The first of these was the old bark mill, owned by Winthrop Newhall, father of the late F. S. and H. Newhall. The old tan yard was on the land immediately adjacent. Business was discontinued in this yard some two or three years later, and was the last of six that were in operation in 1820. At this time about twelve thousand dollars' worth of leather was annually tanned in this yard. Besides the two above-mentioned, on the southwest side there is a half of a house, known at that time as the Jerusha Williams' house. It was afterward owned by Samuel Bacheller, father of Thomas W. Bacheller. The other half was sawed off a few years ago to make room for a new block. The remainder now stands on the spot where it was built, between the store occupied by William Filene and the new block on the east. It is now overshadowed by these, and its lower story hidden by an addition, or "wart," running to the sidewalk, on the ground that was formerly the front yard. This addition, together with the lower story of the house, is now occupied as a fruit store. Of the twenty-seven buildings on the northeast side, but four remain. Beginning at the east end of the street, the first of these is the Sheridan House, then the residence of Stephen Smith. At that time it rather fronted on Broad street - then Front street. When the street was widened at that point, the house was moved back, raised up, a lower story added for stores, and the upper part fitted for a public house. The second is the old building standing next to the railroad on its east side. The third is the old store on the corner of Liberty street, then, or soon after, occupied as a shoe factory by one of the Harney brothers, and still later as a clothing store. The fourth is the store on the corner of Market and Essex streets, then kept by Otis Wright as a grocery store, and now occupied - the lower part - by Warren Tapley, as an apothecary shop. A few rods from this corner, on the opposite side of the street, stood the house and shoemaker's shop of Gamaliel Oliver, father of William B. Oliver: In this shoemaker's shop William Lloyd Garrison worked at shoemaking in his early days. In 1830 the old Richard Pratt house, standing on a spot now covered by the Bubier Block, a few rods east of the Post Office, was replaced by the house built by the late John Lovejoy. In 1831 the six following-named persons and firms - reckoning each firm as one - did business on Market street: Joseph Alley, Samuel Bacheller, Baker & Saunderson, Jonathan Boyce & Son, Martin D. Harney and Jacob I. Johnson. In 1840 fourteen persons and firms did business on this street: John B. Alley, Samuel Bacheller, Thomas W. Bacheller, George L. Barnard, Daniel C. Baker, Samuel M. Bubier, Theophilus Hallowell, George B. Harney, Martin D. Harney, Abner S. Moore, W. B. & J. P. Oliver, Richardson & Graves, Joseph N. Saunderson and John A. Thurston. In 1830 there was no street, except Nahant street, between Broad street and the sea; and continuing the line through Lewis street, not a single street or court divided the territory lying between these old thoroughfares and the ocean. The first streets opened were Portland and Baltimore, in 1832; Newhall, and Sagamore - from Nahant to Newhall- in 1835; Bassett and Garland, in 1836; Beach, in 1838; Red Rock, in 1847; Breed, in 1844; Ocean street - to Lewis in 1845 ; Sachem, in 1843; King, in 1847; Ocean - from Atlantic to Nahant - in 1848 ; West Sagamore, in 1845; Wave, in 1848; Amity, in 1851; Nichols and Foster, in 1852; Cherry, in 1853; New Ocean and Suffolk, in 1855, and Farrar, in 1861. Within the boundaries already mentioned - Broad, Chestnut and Union streets - Green street was the first opened - 1833; Silsbee, 1834; School, Ellis, Howard, East Charles, Ezra, Pinkham, Estes, Mailey and Violet, in 1848; Friend, in 1867, and Friend street place, in 1877. What is now known as the Highlands was then called Rocks' pasture. That entire stretch of land inclosed within the boundaries beginning at the City Hall, and running along Essex street, to Chestnut, thence to Western avenue, (then known as the turnpike,) thence to Franklin street, thence to City Hall again, was made up of fields, pastures, ledges and berry swamps. Not a single cross street cut this entire territory for some years later than 1830. The first inroad made upon this large tract of land was Essex court, running from Essex street - near the head of Pearl - and Hutchinson's court, which, extending to the foot of High Rock, made that famous eminence more easily accessible. These were opened in 1835. Rockaway court, (now Rockaway street,) Adams court and Jefferson court were opened in 1846, and other courts further east still later. The streets leading to Mount Pleasant were not opened till 1865. Sheridan street was also opened in 1865. As late as 1850 there were not more than twenty houses - not including those standing on the boundary lines - within the entire territory bounded by Essex street on the east, Chestnut street on the north, Western avenue on the west, and Washington street on the south; and nearly all of these were in Essex court, above named. Within the territory bounded by Market, South Common, Commercial and Sea streets, there were but four streets as late as 1830 - Summer, Pleasant, Shepard and Vine streets. Between 1830 and 1840 there were but three streets opened in all this territory - Church and Tremont streets, opened in 1833, and a part of Neptune, from Vine to Commercial, opened in 1835; George, in 1846 ; Warren, in 1842; Prospect, in 1849; Harbor and Alley, in 1852; Blossom, in 1864 - it existed as a court some years prior to this date, extending on both sides of Summer street. Washington court, in 1843. All the streets between Summer street and the sea, bounded by Commercial street on the east, and Western avenue on the west, were opened later than 1850, except Light, Minot, and a part of Neptune streets. These were opened in 1835. Lowell street was opened in 1841. Stickney, Ann and Charles streets were opened in 1850. The territory bounded by Western avenue, Federal street, Water Hill street and the southwestern line of Wnrd Six, was not broken by a single street. River street was opened in 1833; May court, in 1833. This court was opened through when Berkley street was laid out about 1854. Linden court was opened about 1835, and extended through to Cottage street about 1855. Cottage street was opened in 1845; Hood, in 1850 ; Nelson, in 1852; Allen, in 1868; Morris court, Camden street, and others in this vicinity, at a still later date. Between Boston street - from Chestrnlt on the north, to North Federal on the south - and the high land on the west, there was no street, except the west end of Franklin, prior to 1844, when Grove street was opened. The territory known as Pine Hill, bounded by Forest street, on the east, and Walnut street, on the south, contained no dwelling until 1850, when Nathaniel Holder built the first house on that eminence. The entire tract of land lying north of Fayette street, from Gold Fish Pond to Collins street, thence following the line of Chestnut street to Western avenue, and thence to the northern boundary of the town, was one unbroken field and meadow, through which no street ran, except the section of Chatham street, between Essex and Collins streets - opened about 1825. Jackson street was opened in 1835, and Ingalls street in the same year. Chatham street, east from Essex, was opened in 1853; Chatham, west from Collins, in 1858; Parrott, in 1860; Alice, in 1866; Dana, in 1871; Empire, in 1869; New Chatham, in 1871, and Brookline, Timson and Groveland streets, and others in that vicinity, still later. A large part of the streets lying within the boundaries of North Common street on the south, Western avenue on the west, Essex street on the east, and the high lands on the north, were opened later than 1850. Washington street, from Essex to Laighton, in 1849 - thence to Boston street, in 1850. Hanover, Baker and Chase streets, in 1850; Johnson and Holton streets, in 1855; Harwood, in 1853; Brimblecom, in 1854, and Arlington - first opened as a court about 1849, and called Linden place - was extended to Baker street in 1870; Lloyd, in 1868; Lloyd court, in 1871; others in this immediate vicinity were opened, or extended, between this last date and 1873. In Glenmere - formerly Gravesend - there was no street running from any of the old streets within the limits of the Ward - Chestnut, Turnpike, Maple and Boston streets - until later than 1860, except Lake street, which was opened in 1836. Bowler street was opened just before 1860. Nearly all the other new streets in this territory were opened a few years prior to 1873. The opening of new streets, as well as other marks of growth and improvement, is usually seen in seasons of business prosperity. We have had four such seasons since 1830. Between 1830 and 1837, and more especially the last two or three years of this period, was the first, and, perhaps, the most active season of real estate operations and speculation, if we take into account the difference in population and resources between that day and recent years. The second was chiefly between the years 1843 and 1847. The partial revulsion in business in 1847 checked real estate movements for awhile; but the stimulus given to all sorts of business enterprizes by the discovery of the Californian and Australian mines, a few years later, brought on a third period of intense commercial activity, which culminated in the panic of 1857. Lynn felt the stimulus, and did its full share in pushing forward improvements of every kind. Dollars were more plentiful than ever before. But they were not worth as much as usual. It took more of them to buy a barrel of flour than at any time since 1816. Some people do n't see through this. The fourth period began about 1864, and ended with the revulsion that came in the Fall of 1873. There were more miles of streets laid out during the four years ending at the last-named date than in any equal period of time since Lynn was settled. Things were done on a large scale. Not only short cross streets were cut, but streets and avenues of great length were opened, or projected, in the suburbs - where land was comparatively cheap - enough to meet the wants of the city for a quarter of a century. In 1831 there were sixty streets and courts in Lynn and Swampscott. In 1840 there were one hundred and three streets in Lynn and Swampscott. In 1844 there were two hundred and ten in Lynn. In 1853, two hundred and eighteen. In 1855, two hundred and twenty-nine. In 1857, two hundred and forty-three. In 1859, two hundred and seventy-two. In 1864, two hundred and eighty-nine. In 1866, three hundred and thirteen. In 1868, three hundred and twenty-eight. In 1870, three hundred and seventy-four. In 1872, four hundred and forty. In 1874, four hundred and sixty-five. In 1877, four hundred and seventy. In 1879, four hundred and eighty-one. These figures, if not exact, are such an approximation as gives a dear idea of the comparative growth of Lynn during these several periods, so far as figures like these have a significance. In 1879 we had one hundred and twenty-five miles of streets within the limits of the city. But little more than three-fourths of our streets have been accepted.
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