A Short History of Massachusetts Place Names: The Book of Possessions and the Street Directory of 1708

The Boston Book of Possessions

The “Book of Possessions of the Inhabitants of Boston” was written between 16xx and 16xx by William Aspinwall, the town Notary. It is also called the “Domesday Book” in the tradition of William the Conqueror’s Book of 1086, recording private properties across England.  In 1905, the City of Boston published George Lamb’s compilation of the Book, including a series of maps drawn by Lamb showing land owners in 1630, 1640 and 1645. The maps weren’t quite accurate, but provide an excellent view of ancient Boston as a town in 1630.

The Shawmut peninsula was connected to the mainland by an isthmus along the south end of present Washington Street called the Boston or Roxbury Neck, terminating at a Gate by Dover Street. All who entered Boston on foot passed through the Gate and past the gallows, which was often flooded at high tide. The Neck served its purpose for more than 200 years and millennia before that as an Indian path.

The long Washington Street can be seen above from the Neck Colbron’s Field to Bendell’s Cove on the right. Bendell’s Cove, named after Edward Bendell, became the town dock where most of Boston’s business was conducted and was later filled in to become Dock Square in the area of Faneuil Hall. Off Blackstone’s Point on West Hill, looking out toward the Charles was the future Charles Street, lower Beacon Hill, and Boston Gardens under water. Copp’s Hill at the present North End (its own peninsula at the time) at the far right of the map was joined to the peninsula when Mill Pond was filled in by leveling the Beacon hills in the mid-1800’s.

Corn Hill, at the bottom of the map was flattened. A shortened Cornhill Street can still be found as the gently sloping curve hugging the buildings on the south side of Government Center Plaza by the steaming kettle. Cornhill was once the site of publishers, writers, booksellers, bookbinders, and literati for more than a century, now just a sloping curve but still officially a street.

The Boston Street Directory of 1708

The shape of Boston didn’t change much since 1630 for another 200 years, but the population grew. New residences followed old pathways and streets took shape.  In 1701, the town Selectmen ordered a record of the streets and ways to be made and Bartholomew Green published it in 1708 in a broadside named “The Names of the STREETS, Lanes & Alleys, Within the Town of Boston in New England”.  It was the first street directory in America.

Most of the 110 streets were named prior to the broadside, but current street directories show 1708 as the earliest official date of origin. One landmark led to another; often corners, farms, pastures, wharfs and the occasional tenement. There was a Cow Lane named later, but streets were formed more along the landscape features than cow paths.

The first and most important street entered Boston across the Neck from Roxbury and called Orange Street, described as “The broad Street or Way from the Old Fortification on the Neck, leading into Town as far as the late Deacon Eliot’s corner”. Orange, King, Queen and Marlborough Streets (not the present one) were named around the same time, likely due to William of the House of Orange. William and his Queen, Mary Stuart, ascended to the throne of England in 1689 with the assistance of the Duke of Marlborough and the promise of securing Protestantism in England. The Boston Puritans must have been jubilant at the news. Today, in the name of the Orange Line after the street there is still the echo of the House of Orange.   

 “The Way leading from the Mansion House of the late Simon Lynde, Esq., by Captain Southack’s, extending as far as Col. Townsend’s corner” was “Trea Mount” or Tremont.  Summer Street was “The street passing easterly from Dr. Oakes corner in Newbury Street, passing by the house of Capt. Timothy Clark, extending to the sea”. Cambridge Street was “The way leading from Emmon’s Corner passing by Justice Lynde’s Pasture, extending from thence westerly to the sea”. And Beacon Street was “The Way leading from Mrs. Whetcomb’s corner Westerly through the upper side of the Common, and so down to the Sea”.  The three steep peaks of the Shawmut peninsula surrounded by water had most roads leading down to the sea.

The “Common” was designated as a pasture in 1634 (until 1830), and the “Latin School” on School Street founded in 1635 gave that street name in perpetuity. Church Square is gone, but Clark’s became North Square by the present Paul Revere house. Dock Square, down by Faneuil Hall, was razed but is still an official address. Two meeting-houses are identified in the Directory as well as a “watering place”, a ferry and a windmill.

There were no shortages of taverns in Boston. Beer and ale could be found at the Old Brew House, the Castle Tavern, and the Signs of the Orange Tree, the Black Horse, the Swan, the Star, and the Dragon. Since beer was drunk more often than water, even at breakfast, it could be had by take-out. A few business establishments appear as Cox the Butchers shop, Mr. Clarks the Pewterers shop, Mr. Indicott’s and Mr. Kenny’s shops and the Corn Market.

Trades were found at Coopers, Tanners, and Merchants Row and goods at Milk, Flounder, Pudding, Beer, Lime, Mackerel, Crab and White Bread Alley. As a port city surrounded by water, there were multiple nautical references in the streets at Creek, Dock, Fish, Ferry, Fleet, Marsh, Pond, Sea, Salt, Ship and Water Streets and a later Atlantic Avenue in 1868.