MASSACHUSETTS. 



479 



streets of the town are wide and well laid out, 

 and are considered better than those of any 

 other town in New England. West Roxbury, 

 like the other two places named, is in excellent 

 condition financially, and is one of the wealth- 

 iest towns in the State. This, too, is largely 

 settled by Boston merchants. Before the an- 



STATE HOUSE, BOSTON. 



nexntion, Boston had sixteen wards. West 

 Koxlmry becomes ward seventeen; Brighton, 

 ward nineteen ; and three wards of Charles- 

 town become respectively wards twenty, twen- 

 ty-one, and twenty-two. The Board of Alder- 

 men of the city will not be increased in num- 

 ber, but each new ward wili be entitled to the 



FANECIL HAIL, BOSTON. 



election of two members to the Common Conn 

 cil, which will thus be increased to seventy- 

 four members, each present ward of the city 

 being entitled to four. 



Tlie provisions of the act of union did not 

 take effect until January 1, 1874, except so for 



as they related to the election of municipal 

 and ward officers. The new wards elected 

 their ward officers and school committee men, 

 and voted for municipal officers in Boston nt 

 the city election in December, under the same 

 warrant and regulations that apply in the old 

 wards of Boston ; but for all other purposes 

 the tenure and duties of the local officers re- 

 mained unchanged for the full terms for which, 

 they were chosen. 



All of the places annexed are connected 

 with Boston with lines of horse railroads, and 

 all have excellent school and library facilities. 

 Charlestown is at present the seat of the Mas- 

 sachusetts State-prison, and is largely engaged 

 in the ice-trade. It is thought that the policy 

 of extending the municipal limits of Boston 

 will not end here, and that efforts will be made 

 to incorporate other suburban cities and towns. 



On the 30th of May an extensive conflagra- 

 tion occurred on Washington and Essex Streets, 

 which entirely destroyed many valuable build- 

 ings, prominent among which was the Globe 

 Theatre. The total loss was estimated at 

 $3,000,000, on which, however, there was a 

 large insurance. 



The rebuilding of the burned district of 1872 

 was promptly begun, care being taken to 

 widen and remodel the streets. There were, 

 in the burned section, thirty- one streets, five 

 squares, eight places, and one court. In re- 

 building it, seventeen streets have been wid- 

 ened, four extended, and a large square has been 

 laid out, at a total cost to the city of about 

 5,000,000. Two streets have been made forty, 

 two forty-five, five fifty, six sixty, and one one 

 hundred feet wide. The general plan of the 

 streets has been but slightly changed, with the 

 exception of the extensions of Franklin, Arch, 

 Pearl, and Oliver Streets, but the widenings 

 will facilitate travel in the highest degree. 



In November, the total number of buildings 

 erected or in process of construction, was 3G5, 

 of which 125 were completed and 240 in prog- 

 ress of erection. The buildings are mostly 

 four stories high ; many of them cover more 

 ground than those they replace, and comprise 

 splendid structures, in which all modern im- 

 provements have been introduced. The mod- 

 ern Gothic appears to be the favorite style of 

 architecture, and a majority of the structures 

 of any pretension are of this order, though 

 many buildings of great beauty are in other 

 styles. About three-fourths of the new build- 

 ings have flat roofs, and the remaining one- 

 fourth are Mansard, there being few pitch 

 roofs. 



In this section of the city, will be found, as 

 before the fire, the great markets for wool, 

 boot and shoe leather, and cotton cloths, from 

 the great mills of Massachusetts, New Hamp- 

 shire, and Maine. 



The municipal election held in December re- 

 sulted in the choice of Samuel C. Cobb, a mer- 

 chant of Boston, as mayor. 



The total funded and unfunded debt of the 



