BOSTON 848 



Owing to a limit of 125 feet placed upon the 

 height of buildings, Boston has few large office 

 buildings. It has, however, a number of con- 

 spicuous structures devoted to government pur- 

 poses. First of these is the State House, which 

 was begun in 1795 and completed in 1798 after 

 designs by Charles Bulfinch (1763-1844), later 

 the architect of the Capitol at Washington. 

 The building was greatly enlarged in 1890, the 

 extension maintaining the colonial style of the 

 original part. The customhouse, erected in 

 1837-1848, was originally a low building with 

 a large central dome, but was transformed by 

 the addition of a lofty, central tower over the 

 dome; the work of remodeling was completed 

 in 1915. Not far distant is the United States 

 Government building, covering an entire block 

 and erected at a cost of 56,000,000. The county 

 courthouse, the city hall and the city hall 

 annex, completed in 1914, are other large struc- 

 tures. 



Parks and Boulevards. The pride of the 

 city is Boston Common, the oldest public park 

 in America. It was set off in 1634 and has ever 

 since been cherished because of its close con-- 

 nection with the city's history. Originally the 

 Common ran to the edge of the Charles River 

 but the reclamation of Back Bay put it in the 

 heart of the city. Adjoining it on the west are 

 the Public Gardens, tastefully laid out with 

 an artificial lake and brilliant masses of flowers 

 in season. Both the Common and the Public 

 Gardens are ornamented with numerous monu- 

 ments, the most important being the statues 

 of Washington, Sumner, William E. Channing, 

 the monument commemorating the Boston 

 Massacre and the Ether Monument, celebrating 

 the discovery of ether. Most famous of them 

 all is the great Shaw Memorial, by Saint 

 Gaudens, in memory of Robert Gould Shaw, 

 the commander of the first regiment of negro 

 soldiers to serve in the Federal army during 

 the War of Secession. 



Extending westward from the Public Gardens 

 is Commonwealth Avenue, one of the finest 

 boulevards in America. It is 240 feet wide, and 

 down the center has a shaded parkway or 

 promenade. Many of the finest residences and 

 apartment buildings are on this avenue and on 

 Beacon Street, two blocks north. Common- 

 wealth Avenue is a link in Boston's great park 

 system. The parks really form two separate 

 systems, consisting of two concentric rings. 

 The inner ring, belonging to the city proper, 

 has been laid out since 1875, and includes about 

 2.300 acres. Its' central point is Franklin Park. 



BOSTON 



The outer, or metropolitan, system, comprises 

 over 10,000 acres within a radius of ten or 

 twelve miles from the city. It includes the 

 famous Blue Hill Reservation, the highest land 

 in Eastern Massachusetts, and the lovely Mid- 

 dlesex Fells, a half-wild, half-cultivated area 

 of forest and pond. The Metropolitan Parks 

 are administered by a special commission of 

 five members appointed by the governor of 

 Massachusetts. 



Educational and Other Institutions. Perhaps 

 first among the many educational influences in 

 the city is the public library, which is the sec- 

 ond largest library in the United States and has 

 a larger circulation than any other free public 

 library in the world. It has over a million 

 bound volumes, including one of the greatest 

 existing Shakespeare collections and the best 

 collection on music, according to report, in 

 America. Other famous libraries in Boston are 

 those of the Boston Athenaeum (250,000 vol- 

 umes) and the Boston Medical Library (80,000 

 volumes). It is estimated that within a radius 

 of fifteen miles from the State House are 

 5,000,000 volumes available for public use. 



Boston's public schools, especially those of 

 secondary grade, are famous for their excel- 

 lence. In addition to the kindergarten, gram- 

 mar and usual high schools, there are special 

 high schools of the mechanic arts, the prac- 

 tical arts and commerce, and special trade 

 schools for boys and girls. The Boston Latin 

 School, founded in 1635, is the oldest and one 

 of the most famous schools in America. Among 

 higher institutions of learning are Boston Uni- 

 versity (Methodist Episcopal), Boston College 

 (Roman Catholic), Simmons College (for 

 women), College of Physicians and Surgeons, 

 and the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy. 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, known 

 the world over as "Boston Tech," has since 

 1916 been located in a magnificent group of 

 buildings on the Cambridge side of the Charles 

 River. The medical school of Tufts . College 

 and the medical and dental schools of Harvard 

 University are also in Boston. Besides these 

 collegiate institutions Boston is noted for many 

 free lectures, foremost among which are those 

 given under the auspices of the Lowell Insti- 

 tute. It was endowed by John Lowell, Jr. 

 (1802-1S36), a first cousin of James Russell 

 Lowell, and since its foundation in 1839 has 

 been noted for the high stsmdard of its lectures 

 and the eager response which the people at 

 large have made to the opportunity to hear 

 them. 



