. Old Boston days & ways; from the dawn of the revolution until the town became a city. des of the hand-some granite shaft which now perpetuates hisdesign. Park Street Church and its gracefulspire, designed by Peter Bonner, dates from1809. One pride of Boston at this period, whichhowever, was unfortunately destroyed prema-turely by fire, was the Exchange Coffee House,in Congress Square. The principal floor wasintended to be used by the merchants as anExchange and the building was, therefore, farlarger than the travelling public of that daycalled for; its erection occupied two and a halfyears,
. Old Boston days & ways; from the dawn of the revolution until the town became a city. des of the hand-some granite shaft which now perpetuates hisdesign. Park Street Church and its gracefulspire, designed by Peter Bonner, dates from1809. One pride of Boston at this period, whichhowever, was unfortunately destroyed prema-turely by fire, was the Exchange Coffee House,in Congress Square. The principal floor wasintended to be used by the merchants as anExchange and the building was, therefore, farlarger than the travelling public of that daycalled for; its erection occupied two and a halfyears, and it cost half a million dollars! Witha front on Congress Street and entrances onState Street and Devonshire Street the house wasadmirably situated for business purposes andwas very convenient also as the stopping placefor stages. But it never paid, and many of themechanics, who had a share in building it, were 414 OLD BOSTON DAYS & WAYS ruined by their failure to collect the money duethem for their labor. The town of Boston wasnot yet developed to the point of filling a house. PARK STREET CHURCH mth two hundred and ten apartments. CaptainHull made the Exchange his quarters when hewas in port during the war of 1812, and whenPresident Monroe visited the town, in July, OLD BOSTON DAYS & WAYS 415 1817, he put up here. A sumptuous Fourth ofJuly dinner was served for him here with ex-president John Adams and Commodore Perryamong the guests. But a fire destroyed thehouse in November 1818, and its proprietor,Mr. Barnum, lost twenty-five thousand dollars!The tavern and transportation conditions ofBoston at this period might very well occupya book of their own, and inasmuch as I haveelsewhere^ dealt with that subject at considerablelength, I shall just touch on it here. One veryinteresting tavern-keeper was Israel Hatch, whoalso ran a line of stages, and who lured cus-tomers to his house by the following sirens song: My friends and travellers, youll meetWith kindly welcome and good ch
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbostonmasssociallife
