Dock Square

Dock Square
Place in Boston
The Dock Square in 2010
Basic data
place	Boston
District	Government Center
Created	1630s
Newly designed	1960s
Confluent streets	Congress Street , North Street , Union Street
Buildings	Faneuil Hall
use
User groups	Pedestrian traffic , bicycle traffic
Space design	Statue of Samuel Adams

The Dock Square is a public space in the Boston District Government Center in the state of Massachusetts of the United States . It is right next to Faneuil Hall and bordered by Congress , North and Union Streets .

The name comes from the 17th century, when the place was right on the shore line and served ships in Boston Harbor as a "widely used jetty" from the 1630s to the early 19th century . "The city's most important business was done around the dock."

Even after the coastline was moved in the early 19th century due to land reclamation measures, the square continued to be used as a trading center for a few years. However, with the development of the Government Center district in the 1960s, the size and character of the square changed in such a way that it transformed from a center of urban life into a place where pedestrians only pass by.

Since the 1950s, the square has been primarily a tourist attraction as the Freedom Trail runs over it .

history

From the 17th to the 19th century

The Dock Square in the 1840s with the now defunct Old Feather Store (left) and the Faneuil Hall (center).

The Dock Square was an important trade center in Boston for much of its long history. In the 17th and 18th centuries in particular, a wide variety of goods - including slaves - were offered there in the open air and on market stalls . In 1733 a market building opened there, but this was associated with protests because its critics rejected regulations of any kind. Only a few years later the mood against the building had reached its peak: "In 1737 a mob of people disguised as clergy appeared on a winter night [...] and completely destroyed the market house on Dock Square ."

In 1742, Faneuil Hall finally reopened - again with many misgivings . “There are numerous complaints in the city's records that Dock Square and other areas near Faneuil Hall are cluttered with carts, wagons and various market items. In addition, the market people would preferably stand outside the marketplace in order to avoid stall fees and to evade the rules and regulations prevailing there. ”In 1764, finally, the parking of horses, carts, merchandise, market stalls, benches, boxes etc. on the square was declared illegal and urged citizens of the city not to purchase goods from anyone selling in Dock Square or in the surrounding streets.

Over time, a variety of stores and businesses have opened and closed in Dock Square . A typical newspaper advertisement from 1723 reads: “Just arrived from London and offered for sale in Mr. John Williams' shop, right next to the Golden Ball tavern in Dock Square : selected Bohea tea for twenty shillings a pound, very good Chester cheese as well as other European trade goods. "In the early 19th century was one of the tenants at Dock Square and Samuel Eliot , father of the future mayor of Boston Samuel Atkins Eliot . There he ran a department store "in which he sold everything from diapers to tombstones".

From the 20th to the 21st century

In the middle of the 20th century, the density of buildings around the square increased sharply, and the density of traffic rose steadily. With Interstate 93 , a large highway was built nearby, which was moved underground by the Big Dig around 2007 . In the 1960s, some of the smaller streets and pedestrian walkways were demolished, including Brattle Street and Cornhill . The Dock Square was thereby greatly reduced to make room for the style of brutalism built Boston City Hall and other buildings in the Government Center to create.

See also

• Faneuil Hall , built in 1742
• Old Feather Store , existed from 1680 to 1860
• Anne Whitney , sculptor of the statue of Samuel Adams in the square (1880)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Street Book - City of Boston. City of Boston, accessed December 20, 2012 . 
2. ^ Walter Kendall Watkins: The great street to Roxbury Gate, 1630-1830 . In: The Bostonian Society (Ed.): The Bostonian Society publications . Volume III, second series. Old State House, Boston 1919, OCLC 20026849 ( online in Google Book Search).
3. ^ Boston (Mass.) Street Laying-Out Dept .: A record of the streets, alleys, places, etc. in the city of Boston . City of Boston Printing Dept., Boston 1910, OCLC 1042846 ( online in Google Book Search).
4. ^ ^{A b} Robert Campbell, Peter Vanderwarker: Dock Square. In: The Boston Globe . October 5, 1997, accessed December 20, 2012 (English, paid article). 
5. ^ Nian-Sheng Huang: Franklin's Father Josiah: Life of a Colonial Boston Tallow Chandler, 1657-1745 . In: American Philosophical Society (Ed.): Transactions of the American Philosophical Society . New Series. tape 90 , no. 3 . American Philosophical Society, 2000, ISSN  2325-9264 , OCLC 55125852 , p. 61 .
6. ^ Robert E. Desrochers: Jr. Slave-for-Sale Advertisements and Slavery in Massachusetts, 1704-1781 . In: Institute of Early American History and Culture (Ed.): The William and Mary quarterly, Third Series . tape 59 , no. 3 . Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, July 2002, ISSN  0043-5597 , OCLC 1607858 .
7. ^ GB Warden: The Caucus and Democracy in Colonial Boston . In: Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Northeastern University (Ed.): The New England quarterly . tape 43 , no. 1 , March 1970, ISSN  0028-4866 , p. 31 .
8. ^ Karen J. Friedmann: Victualling Colonial Boston . In: Agricultural History Society (Ed.): Agricultural History . tape 47 , no. 3 . University of California Press, March 1973, ISSN  0002-1482 , OCLC 1478539 , p. 203 f .
9. ^ The Boston News Letter . 23-30 May, 1723, OCLC 7757121 .
10. ^ Samuel A. Eliot: Being Mayor of Boston a Hundred Years Ago . In: Massachusetts Historical Society (Ed.): Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society . tape 66 , (Oct. 1936 - May 1941). The Society, ISSN  0076-4981 , OCLC 1695300 , p. 154-173 .
11. ^ Walter M. Whitehill, Lawrence W. Kennedy: Boston: a topographical history . Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. 2000, ISBN 0-674-00267-9 .

literature

• Thomas Tileston Waterman: The Savage House, Dock Square, Boston, Mass. In: Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (Ed.): Old-time New England . tape 17 , no. 3 . Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, January 1927, ISSN  0030-2031 , OCLC 4300179 .

Web links

Commons : Dock Square, Boston  - Collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

• Bostonian Society website for more information about the site
• Dock Square and Faneuil Hall in the 1960s
• Google News Archive with articles on Dock Square

Coordinates: 42 ° 21 '36.5 "  N , 71 ° 3' 24.6"  W.