Chapter I: Historical Chelsea

Before relating the story of THE BURNING OF CHELSEA it seems that a slight sketch of the history of the city may be appropriate. Thousands of people read, with mingled interest and horror, newspaper accounts of the burning of Chelsea, who had previously only heard of the city in a casual way, perhaps in connection with the unfair and time-worn expression, “Dead as Chelsea.” Few people who have not made a study of the matter realize how much Chelsea stands for in history. To quote from a speech made by the late historian, Judge Mellen Chamberlain, L.L.D., at the laying of the corner-stone of the Prattville Schoolhouse, the city is associated with more really “first things” than any other city of this State or continent.

The first settler, Samuel Maverick, landed on the shore of what are now the United States Naval Hospital grounds in 1624. In 1625 he built a fortified house near the water’s edge, which, according to the historical tablet, erected near Chelsea Bridge, was the first house in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Here Governor Winthrop was entertained in 1630. In 1631 the first ferry in the country was established here, the landing being near the present pier on the government grounds, where the first county road in the colony, ending at Salem, began. There is a story to the effect that Maverick’s house was attacked by the Indians, but being completely repulsed, they never attacked again. Maverick traded with the Indians, and in this way acquired some five thousand acres of land, comprising what is now Chelsea, Revere, Winthrop, and Saugus, then known as Winnisimmet.

In 1630 Noddle’s Island, now East Boston, was sold to him. About 1632 Maverick sold Winnisimmet to Richard Bellingham, afterward governor, after whom Mount Bellingham was named. Bellingham built the Cary house, which is still standing, and used it as a shooting lodge, his home being in Boston. Later it was bought by the Carys and greatly altered. Tradition says that British troops were quartered in the house and an officer committed suicide there. There is a secret chamber in the top of the house, reached only by a peculiar passage, which winds about the chimney from the cellar. Although the house is two hundred years old, it is still used as a dwelling, and fortunately escaped the fire.

Until January 10, 1739, Chelsea was a part of Boston. On that date, by the terms of an act passed by the Great and General Court, that part of Boston known as Winnisimmet Village, Rumney Marsh, and Pullin’s Point, including what is now known as Chelsea, Revere, Winthrop, and Saugus was, “in consideration that they had long since built a meeting-house and supported the same,” set off as a town, to be known by the name of Chelsea.

The first naval battle in the history of the United States occurred in Chelsea Creek on May 27, 1775. The conflict occurred between the Provincials and the British troops. Its outcome was that the armed schooner “Diana” was captured by the former and burned on the Chelsea shore.

During the siege of Boston, in 1776, revolutionary troops under command of Colonel Gerrish were stationed in that part of Chelsea known as Prattville, and General George Washington on a tour of inspection took dinner at the Pratt homestead. This house was demolished in 1855. Its doorstep was built into the wall of Washington Park, where it may still be seen. The other old Pratt house which is still standing belonged to the same family. It is the second oldest house in Chelsea to-day, having been built about 1700. It was in this house that Increase Mather (president of Harvard College from 1684 to 1701) took refuge from the persecution of Governor Andros.

In 1802 The Chelsea Bridge and Salem Turnpike Company received a charter, and during that year and the next built a toll bridge between Chelsea and Charlestown. Up to this time the only way to reach Boston with a loaded team was through Malden, Medford, Cambridge, Roxbury, and over Boston Neck, the trip usually requiring a whole day.

On February 28, 1828, the State ceded to the General Government the property now used for the Naval and Marine hospitals.

In 1831 an act was passed giving Boston the exclusive control of county buildings and relieving Chelsea from all expense attached to them. If at any time Chelsea should wish to be set off to another county, Boston has no power to appear in opposition.

In 1831 Francis B. Fay and others, acting for a proposed ferry company, purchased of Thomas Williams his farm and ferry for the sum of $22,500. The company, which still exists, was incorporated in 1833.

In 1832 the first store in the village was built at the corner of Broadway and Everett Avenue, by John Low, and he was ridiculed by his friends for locating a store so far out of the way, as they said there would be few or no dwellings near him for twenty years. In this store were kept dry goods, groceries, medicine, the post-office, and baiting for horses. This being the only public place in the village, it was a general resort for the few early inhabitants, and records show that many pleasant evenings were spent there by Major Chase, Squire Knapp, Samuel Batchelder, Thomas Pratt, Dr. Stedman, Colonel Fay, Joseph and Charles Hanscom, and the “Ferry hands.”

The first postmaster was Rev. Horatio Alger, followed by Abel Bowen and then Benjamin Dodge.

In 1835 the town house was built. The town appropriated $3000. The building committee expended $3036.33, and for this excess “asked the indulgence of the town.”

The first fire in Chelsea of which there is any record occurred in 1834, in Winnisimmet Square. There was no engine in Chelsea at the time, but No. 15 came over from Boston. After this fire the town bought an engine, and in 1835 the original Chelsea No. 1 was bought, and a house built for it in the square. In 1837 a second engine was bought for $150, and a company organized under the name Volunteers No. 2, with quarters on Park Street.

On February 22, 1841, a narrow strip of land extending from Malden, Melrose, and well into Wakefield, known as the Panhandle, was set off to the town of Saugus.

On March 19, 1846, North Chelsea, now Revere and Winthrop, was set off, reducing the town to its present size, which is about two and one quarter square miles or fourteen hundred and forty-one acres.

In February, 1849, the Grand Junction Railroad was granted a charter to run from East Boston through Chelsea to Boston, thus giving Chelsea railroad connection with the outside world.

In February, 1857, as the population was in excess of twelve thousand, the town petitioned the Legislature for a city charter, and on March 13 it was granted. On March 23 the charter was presented to the town and accepted by a vote of seven hundred and thirty-three to one hundred and seven. In the same year the Boston and Chelsea Horse Railroad received a charter to run from Revere along Broadway to Boston, and at the same time the Winnisimmet Railroad got a charter to run from Prattville through Washington Avenue, Park and Winnisimmet streets, to and across the ferry.

When the Civil War broke out Chelsea was among the first to send men to the front, and during the war over one thousand men were forwarded.

Hon. Frank B. Fay, who was mayor at the time, was made chief of the United States Sanitary Commission, and spent nearly two years at the front.

On June 5, 1868, tolls were abolished on Chelsea Bridge and the Salem Turnpike, and they were made free public highways.

Many famous people in all walks of life, both living and dead, came originally from or live at present in the city of Chelsea.

Among them are Benjamin P. Shillaber, better known in the literary world as Mrs. Partington; Lieutenant William B. Cushing, who became famous by his heroic work in blowing up the “Albemarle” during the Civil War; Mellen Chamberlain, L.L.D. and L.L.B., lawyer, judge, statesman, and historian; Hon. Frank B. Fay, chief of the United States Sanitary Commission during the Civil War; Hon. Rufus S. Frost, congressman and ex-president of the National Association of Woolen Manufacturers; John F. Low, inventor of the famous Low Art Tiles; Herman Atkins MacNeil, the sculptor; Rear Admiral John E. Pillsbury, United States Navy, assistant chief of the Bureau of Navigation; Captain J. B. Briggs, United States Navy; Miss Ellen M. Stone, the famous missionary; Congressman Ernest W. Roberts; Ex-Governor John L. Bates; David and Levi Slade, known by their famous spices; Henry Mitchell, the foremost engraver in this country; Fred L. Cutting, late insurance commissioner of Massachusetts; Colonel William Grantman of the Civil War; Mr. Frank Roy Fraprie, the author; Hendricks A. Hallet, the well-known artist; Jabez K. Montgomery, the ship builder; Samuel Orcutt, inventor of the first rapid printing-press ever patented in the United States; Hon. Eustis C. Fitz, trustee of Brown and Wellesley colleges and ex-president of the Boston Board of Trade; William E. McClintock, chairman of the Massachusetts State Highway Commission; Dr. William G. Wheeler, associated with Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes as examining physician for the Federal Government during the war; Mr. Joseph Lincoln, the author; Miss Laura Lee, the artist; Thomas and William Martin, manufacturers and exporters of elastic webbing; Miss Helen Fitz, president of the National Daughters of the American Revolution. There is practically no city of any size in the United States that does not contain former Chelsea people.

In Chelsea there are located many manufacturing concerns, famous not only locally but all over America, and in many cases throughout the civilized world. Among them are The Magee Furnace Company; George D. Emery, the largest mahogany works in the United States, which maintains a line of steamers between Chelsea and South American ports; The Revere Rubber Company; the Low Art Tile Works; the D. & L. Slade Company, spices; Thomas Strahan & Company, whose wall paper is considered the finest made in America; T. Martin & Brothers, elastic fiber; Atwood & McManus, box manufacturers; and many large shoe factories.

There are three prominent hills in Chelsea, Mount Bellingham, already mentioned, which was burned over in the recent fire; Sagamore Hill in Prattville, where lived the tribe of Sagamore Indians, and where up to recent years it was a common thing for Indian graves and relics to be found, better known as Mount Washington, after the visit of General George Washington; and Powderhorn Hill, which tradition says was once sold for a horn of powder. The top of this hill, which was purchased by the city in 1897, is set aside to be enjoyed forever as a public park. From the top of this hill during the Revolution signals were made to the people in Roxbury and Cambridge, giving the news of any movements of the British army in Boston. During the winter of 1775-6 three companies of Colonial troops had their quarters on the south side of this hill.

In addition to the park on Powderhorn Hill, Chelsea has Union Park in the heart of the city, adjoined by two smaller parks at the railroad station, Washington Park in Prattville, and two playgrounds, one in the Highland district, and the other in the extreme western end and adjoining the boulevard. The latter contains a quarter-mile cinder track, a football field, and two baseball diamonds. The Revere Beach Parkway passes through the northern end of Chelsea and adds twenty-one and one fifth acres of boulevard and parks to its open spaces. It connects the city directly with the beautiful Middlesex Fells Reservation of eighteen hundred and eighty-five acres, and the wonderful five-mile Ocean Drive just completed from Winthrop to Revere and Lynn.

Chelsea is the easiest to reach of all the suburbs of Boston, being connected with it by the Winnisimmet Ferry, the Boston Elevated by the East Boston Tunnel, the Boston and Northern Electric line, and the Boston and Maine Railroad. From Chelsea Square to Scollay Square, in Boston, the running time is but thirteen minutes. Chelsea has the same postal service as Boston. It has the advantage of the Metropolitan water system and the Metropolitan sewerage system, both acknowledged unexcelled. Its schools are considered by the best colleges as of very high standing, and up to April 12, 1908, it had many miles of beautiful shaded streets and many natural advantages over other cities.

Why is it, then, that during the few years previous to the fire Chelsea had lost so many desirable citizens? Why was it that in less than fifty years it had entirely lost its standing as the most aristocratic suburb of Boston, a place where people came to spend their summers, as they go to-day to Clifton, Magnolia, and Manchester, with a fashionable hotel on Powderhorn Hill, now the “Soldiers’ Home,” and beautiful country places leading down to the water along Marginal Street? How was it possible for a city of wealth, with a population of ten to fifteen thousand, to change in so short a time to a business and manufacturing community with a population of forty thousand, including ten thousand Hebrews?

This is what happened. In 1846 North Chelsea was set off, leaving an area of only two and one fourth square miles, including the United States Naval and Marine Hospital grounds and the United States Magazine Reservation. As the population increased business crowded the people back, until those who wished large estates migrated one by one to Brookline, Newton, Malden, and other places. The Winnisimmet Ferry Company reduced its fare to three cents, and the crowded North End of Boston overflowed into Chelsea. Fire restrictions were placed on North End property in Boston and more Hebrews landed in Chelsea and set up their rag shops. It was gradual,--so gradual that old residents did not realize the number that were locating in the city. The water front properties were too valuable to lie idle, and large manufacturers secured them and located their factories there. With them naturally came a poorer class, and every two that came drove one old resident away. Young people married and moved away and the old people gradually died. This is why on April 12 this change had taken place, and Chelsea had become the most thickly populated city in the United States in proportion to its size, having forty thousand population in less than two square miles.