Boston illustrated; . elevators and broad stairways of basements are occupied by the massive fire and burglar-proof safe depositvaults of the Security Safe Deposit Co. Above these are banks, railroad andmining corporations, and other offices, occupying the various stories, whichare divided by heavy fire-proof partitions, with artificial stone floors laid on7 98 BOSTON ILLUSTRATED. iron ffiiders and arches. The roof, easily reached by elevator, commands a fine view of thecity and harbor. Itwas formerly occti-pied by the UnitedStates Signal Ser-vice, with its wind-vane, anemometer,and
Boston illustrated; . elevators and broad stairways of basements are occupied by the massive fire and burglar-proof safe depositvaults of the Security Safe Deposit Co. Above these are banks, railroad andmining corporations, and other offices, occupying the various stories, whichare divided by heavy fire-proof partitions, with artificial stone floors laid on7 98 BOSTON ILLUSTRATED. iron ffiiders and arches. The roof, easily reached by elevator, commands a fine view of thecity and harbor. Itwas formerly occti-pied by the UnitedStates Signal Ser-vice, with its wind-vane, anemometer,and other scientificappliances, whichnow occupies theroof of the Post-Offiee officers of thisdepartment arecontinnally makingobservations cautionary sig-nals to the vesselsabout to sail aredisplayed here, andwarn of approach-i n g storms. Atanother point o nthe roof is the greattime-ball, whichfalls daily at pre-cisely noon, beingconnected by tele-graph with the Ob-servatory of Har-vard Equitable Building. The site of Franklin Street was a miry swamp, and was di-ained a hundredyears ago by Joseph Barrell, a wealthy trader on the northwest coast ofAmerica. The reclaimed site of Franklin Street became ^Mr. Barrells gardenand fish-pond, his mansion being on Summer Street. In 1793 Bulfinch andScollay built here the first block of buildings in Boston, a line of sixteendwellings, called the Tontine Crescent, in front of which was a grass-plot threeliundred feet long, containing a monumental urn to the memory of BenjaminFranklin. Ten years later the Cathedral was erected, farther down the street,and was a great structure in Ionic aichitecture, designed by Bulfinch. In1860 the Cathedral had become insecure, and the gromid on which it stoodwas sold for enous^h to aid greatlv in the construction of the enormous and BOSTON ILLUSTRATED. 99 costly Cathedral at tlie South End. The old Cathedral fronted on Devon-shire Street, which was then known as Pudding La
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookpublisherbostonhoughtonmiff
