Cornhill, Boston

This article is about the Boston street named in 1829. For the Cornhill section of Washington Street, see Washington Street (Boston).

Cornhill, Boston, 1962

Cornhill was a street in Boston, Massachusetts, in the 19th-20th centuries, located on the site of the current City Hall Plaza in Government Center. It was named in 1829; previously it was known as Market Street (1807-1828).^[1][2] In its time, it comprised a busy part of the city near Brattle Street, Court Street and Scollay Square. As of 1969, Cornhill exists as 144 feet along the edge of City Hall Plaza.^[3]

See also

• City Hall Plaza
• Sear's Crescent building (built 1816) 100 City Hall Plaza; formerly 38-68 Cornhill)^[4][5]
• Sear's Block (built 1848) corner Court + Washington St., formerly 70-72 Cornhill^[6][7]

Previous tenants of Cornhill

• Annin & Smith, 19th c. engravers^[8]
• Iver Johnson Sporting Goods Company, Located in the Iver Johnson Building, corner of Washington Street and Cornhill
• Daniel Clement Colesworthy, bookseller, ca.1850s^[9]
• Frost & Adams, art supplies
• The Liberator (anti-slavery newspaper), published by Isaac Knapp, Cornhill, ca.1837^[10]

Image gallery

• 

  Detail of 1826 map of Boston, showing Market Street (renamed Cornhill in 1828)

• 

  Detail of 1832 map of Boston, showing Cornhill and vicinity

• 

  Cornhill, ca.1836. Shows shops of Light & Horton; Gerry & Burt; George W. Light; Peck & Co.; William Peirce; etc.

• 

  Advertising for the Prisoner's Friend published on Cornhill, ca.1840s. "Devoted to the abolition of capitol punishment, and the improvement of prison discipline"

• 

  Advertisement for George C. Rand & Co. printers, 1849

• 

  Advertisement for Stephen Smith's Desk Warehouse, 1854

• 

  Whig Head Quarters, 1856

• 

  Ad for James Campbell, antiquarian bookshop, ca.1860s^[11]

• 

  Ad for Frost & Adams, artists' materials, 19th c.

• 

  ca.1897

• 

  Cornhill, Boston, ca.1905

• 

  Overview of Brattle St. (left), Cornhill (right), and Faneuil Hall (upper right), ca.1920

References

1. ^ Edward Hartwell Savage. Boston events. Boston: Mutual News Co., 1886
2. ^ From 1708 to 1824, a portion of Washington Street was known as "Cornhill;" cf. Boston Street Laying-Out Dept. A record of the streets, alleys, places, etc. in the city of Boston. Boston: City Printing Dept., 1910.
3. ^ "Public way. Open from Franklin Ave to approximately 144 feet easterly." cf. City of Boston. Street Book. Retrieved 2010-06-17
4. ^ http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/
5. ^ AIA Guide to Boston. 2008
6. ^ AIA Guide to Boston. 2008
7. ^ http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/
8. ^ Boston Directory. 1832
9. ^ Boston Directory. 1857
10. ^ American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series 1, no. 5153
11. ^ Boston Directory. 1861

External links

• Bostonian Society has materials related to the street.
• G.Kepes. Photo of Scollay Square From Pemberton Square Looking Across to Cornhill Street, 1957.
• Flickr. Sears Crescent, 1999
• Flickr. Sears Crescent, 2008
• Flickr, 2009