Trinity Church.
The places of public amusement in Boston are not numerous, nor remarkably well patronized. The Tremont theatre affords the only dramatic entertainment that is much resorted to by strangers and people of fashion. It is a handsome building, with a front of Quincy and Hallowell granite. This front is in imitation of the Ionic order, with four pilasters and two antœs, one on each angle, supporting an entablature and pediment, and elevated on a basement seventeen feet. The Warren theatre is a minor establishment, and is much frequented. The New England Museum attracts numerous visitors.
Of the hotels of Boston, we can only particularly mention the Tremont House, a splendid building, in the pleasantest quarter of the city, and esteemed the best house in the country. ‘Most gratifying is it to a traveller in the United States,’ says a recent tourist, ‘when, sick to death of the discomforts of the road, he finds himself fairly housed in the Tremont hotel. The establishment is on a large scale, and admirably conducted.’ This stintedapprobation is one of the few tokens of satisfaction that Mr. Hamilton gives in his unsparing though witty and entertaining volumes; it is not the less acceptable, because it is extorted.
Tremont House.
In the year 1841, there were thirty-one banks in the city, which employed a capital of twenty millions one hundred thousand dollars. The increase, of course, has been in proportion to the increasing enterprise and prosperity of the city. The oldest is the Massachusetts’ bank, which was incorporated in 1785. There are twenty-four insurance companies, with an aggregate capital of seven millions and a quarter. The charitable institutions of the city are numerous. Of these, one of the most important is the Institution for the Education of the Blind, recently established under very favorable circumstances. Besides this are the Asylum for Indigent Boys, the Female Asylum, Charitable Mechanic Association, Prison Discipline Society, and many others. The Massachusetts General Hospital is situated in the west part of the town; it has been pronounced the finest building in the state. The Quarantine Hospital is situated on Rainsford island, in the harbor, and about six miles from the city.
The number of periodicals issued in this city is above seventy, inclusive of dailies and annuals. The first paper published in the country was the Boston News Letter, commenced in 1704, and continued for nearly seventy-two years. The oldest surviving journal established since the revolution is the Columbian Centinel, which was commenced in 1784.
Boston is celebrated for her public schools, and the great efforts which have been made by her citizens in the cause of education. The expenditures for these institutions, during the year ending August, 1833, amounted to over seventy thousand dollars. Social libraries are numerous. The Boston Athenæum was established in 1806, and contains above twenty-eight thousand volumes. Though accessible only to men of fortune, as the price of a share is three hundred dollars, it is still a useful institution.Annual subscribers are admitted at ten dollars. This noble establishment is situated in Pearl street, in a fine building, for the half of which the proprietors were indebted to the munificence of the late James Perkins, Esq. Attached to the Athenæum is a gallery of the fine arts, in which is held an annual exhibition that has hitherto been the source of a considerable income. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Massachusetts Historical Society, are highly respectable institutions which have issued numerous volumes of great value, and possess considerable libraries. On the whole, the libraries of Boston are neither so large nor so generally accessible as might be expected from the wealth and liberality of her citizens.
Middlesex canal unites the water communication between Boston and the Merrimack river, at the bend in Chelmsford; the company for its construction was incorporated in 1793. The toll has amounted some years to about twenty-five thousand dollars. Rail-roads are now complete, connecting this city with Providence, Worcester, Lowell, Springfield and Salem. The marine rail-way, which affords facilities for the repair of large vessels, has been in successful operation since 1826. One of the greatest improvements of late years has been the building of Mercantile wharf, which ranges in front of the harbor, between City wharf and Lewis’s wharf. It has made access to the northern extremity of the city very convenient from the central parts, and has led to great improvements.
Since 1822, when the city was incorporated, Boston has been governed by a mayor, eight aldermen, and a common council of forty-eight members, chosen annually. With the town of Chelsea, it constitutes the county of Suffolk, and sends one representative to Congress. As a commercial city, it holds a second rank among the seaports of the United States. There are many manufactures in the city, and much wealth of the citizens is invested in the manufactories of Waltham, Lowell, and other towns.Population, ninety-three thousand three hundred and eighty-three.[61]