By Nancy Hayford Kueny
Historic City Square, at times known as Market Square and Charlestown Square, has had numerous governmental and municipal associations, beginning in1629 when the English engineer Thomas Graves (1585-1662) established a small colony at Charlestown then known as Mishawum. The following year in the spring of 1630 John Winthrop(1588-1649) arrived in Salem as part of a fleet of eleven ships, funded by the Massachusetts Bay Company and carrying between 700 to 1000 Puritans along with livestock and provisions. Soon thereafter, Winthrop, who had been appointed Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, led a group of colonists south to Charlestown. Graves had earlier built what is historically known as the Great House, located in what is now City Square Park. Following Winthrop’s arrival, the Great House in Charlestown briefly became the seat of government for the Massachusetts Bay Colony, serving as the home of the Governor as well as the Court of Assistants chambers. Shortly thereafter due to adverse conditions the colonists made the decision to reestablish themselves across the Charles River on the Shawmut Peninsula, naming the ‘City on a Hill’ Boston after Boston in Lincolnshire, England.
Following this exodus, the Great House became a meeting house for a time, but by 1635 it had become the Three Cranes Tavern, remaining a tavern until the town was burned by the British in 1775. For 145 years the building served as an important part of community life in colonial Charlestown. Evidence of its 12 ft by 12 ft fieldstone foundation was found during the archeological digs performed in the 1980s, and a number of those stones remain in City Square Park memorializing the area where the building stood.
Following the reconstruction period of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the townspeople of Charlestown wanted a proper town hall. In the early 19th century, Robbins’ Tavern sat at the corner of Harvard Street fronting City Square. In 1816, the owners at the time, Seth Knowles and Thomas Harris, sold the property to the town. In 1818, a handsome Federal style brick town hall was built on the tavern site, which is the site of the current Municipal Court Building. It was three stories high with a tripartite façade, a tall granite basement and two red brick stories above. It was topped with a hipped roof and a white cupola, a local landmark. There was a clock centered within the pedimented top. The ground level was comprised of shops, and there was a large hall on the second floor. Described by 19th century historian James F. Hunnewell as the best hall the town had ever had, it was the scene of town meetings, fairs, lectures, and concerts. It served the town well until 1868 when it was demolished to build a larger town hall.
By 1868, the Square had ceased functioning as a marketplace. The earlier frame residences on the square, including the magnificent Russell Mansion (1780), had been torn down to accommodate the construction of the acclaimed Second Empire style Waverly House (1867), both written about in a previous article. In 1868, Boston architect William Washburn (1808-1890) designed and built a new city hall, also in the Second Empire style. It was a spectacular building, higher than its predecessor, and constructed of red brick with brownstone and painted wood trim and a French mansard roof, culminating in an octagonal wooden and slate dome that rose from its base. It was sited on the same location as its predecessor with an added wing on Harvard Street that housed the court, the police headquarters, and several jail cells. Its function as a city hall was short lived however, as Charlestown was annexed by the City of Boston in 1874. Following its tenure as a city hall, the second floor served as the town library. At that time the building fronted a handsome Victorian park in City Square, graced by an ornate oval cast iron fence and a central three-tiered fountain. City Square was a scene of gentility and refinement. The construction of the Elevated Railway that would destroy the beauty of the Square was still at least three decades hence.
In 1901 the ’powers that be’ decided that a contemporary municipal building was needed to replace the Victorian building. The Second Empire style former city hall was torn down, and in 1915 a ‘modern’ Municipal Court Building was built in the Georgian Revival style. It was designed by Canadian American architect James E. Mclauglin (1873-1966). It features a tripartite façade and includes a round clock, echoing the 1818 town hall. The building includes stone trim and many horizontal design elements but is generally devoid of detail. Like its neighbor, Roughan Hall, it is constructed of yellow brick which was popular at the time.
City Square has gone through myriad changes in the almost four centuries that it has served as an integral part of the colonial settlement, community and governmental life, and development of the town. We are fortunate that following the removal of the elevated railroad in 1975 and the subsequent removal of the overhead highway, a group of forward-thinking citizens and government officials proposed and implemented the creation of City Square Park. Finally, a step forward for this historically significant area that had been so adversely affected by urban decay. Please support the Friends of City Square Park, an active community group which honors and perpetuates the legacy of this vital historic community space. Visit the website at www.citysquarepark.org for more information.
For additional historic images relative to this article, as well as past articles, please go to www.nancykueny.com/blog.
© Nancy Hayford Kueny
Sources: City of Boston, Landmark Commission’s Charlestown Historic Resource Study, E.W. Gordon Consultant, Wikipedia, Old Charlestown by Timothy T. Sawyer, A Century of Town Life by James F. Hunnewell