66 'pieces," etc. I will only add that the front of the building did not abut directly on the street, but ten or twelve feet from it. There was a small yard in the rear, and a flight of stairs (in a small addition to the back part of it) led to the second story. There was a gate to the back yard* which opened into an alley, where there were three small houses, and at the upper part of it a stable, kept by one Zeph Spurr, whose son was at the School, I think, for a time. Mr. Jona. Darby Robins, of our Class of 1766, said, about 1847:The School-house was of one story, with an attic above, a cupola, with the bell in front, as in the late School-house. There was but one school-room, in which the whole School assembled, though some of the boys, particularly those of the seventh form, were permitted sometimes to go upstairs into the attic room. This was reached by a staircase in the rear on the outside. The boys of the younger forms sat on benches, with a box underneath in which to put their books; but after the fourth form, when they began to make Latin, they had desks in front of them on which to write. There was a single entrance in front, and you then ascended two or three steps. Hon. Edward G. Loring, of our Class of 1811-12, writes that his recollection of the School-house, when under Mr. Gould, is of a twostory building on the south side of School Street, with windows on a side alley. His class was in the second story. He cannot remember how the lower story was occupied, nor any architectural details of the building. He adds: There is a lurking impression in my mind that under Master Biglow the Latin School was a smaller building than under Master Gould, and that on the opposite side of the street, where the City Hall now stands, there was a square wooden building, where the schools for reading, writing, and arithmetic, were kept under Masters Snelling and Haskins, but these impressions are very vague and unreliable to myself. From these varying descriptions we have had our drawing prepared, which, while not exactly agreeing with any of them, combines the characteristic features included in each.† When finished it was *This back-yard, or play-ground, was a space about 20 x40 feet, not a tree nor shrub therein; nor anything but a high-peaked fence, and a clumsy, rickety gate, with a six pound shot tied to it to keep it closed.-J. L. W. + In addition to these old pupils of the School the Committee addressed a number of aged citizens of Boston, and several of the oldest surviving graduates of Harvard College, who having been at Cambridge while this house was still standing, might fairly be supposed to have passed it occasionally on their visits to Boston, even though School St. in these days was not so much of a resort for the Harvard student as it has become since Artemus Ward described the College as pleasantly located there; and the result of these applications is given below: Mr. Joseph Head (Harv. 1807), in 1881 the oldest living graduate of the College, writes in that year, that the building was a one-story building of brick, partly black and partly submitted to most of these gentlemen for approval, and was generally acceptable. The Hon. Henry K. Oliver of our Class of 1810-11, on red, with gable end to the street, surmounted by a small circular cupola in which hung a small bell which was said to have belonged to the original King's Chapel. It was approached by six or seven steps, door of ordinary size in middle of front, with a single window on each side of door, and he thinks there was a cornice to both gable and eaves, but is not certain. It was replaced by a three-story building about the time of the incorporation of the city, about the year 1822. [Here, of course, he is in error as to time.] The mansion house of Moses Gill stood directly west of the old building. A few days later, after seeing our rough sketch, he writes that it agrees very well with his recollection of the old house, but "I think the windows were smaller in proportion, and that there were at least five or six steps to the front door. The basement was higher in front and the ground sloped upward considerably to the rear." Dr. Wm. Perry, of the Class of 1811, Harv. Coll., one of the four survivors of the class in 1881, writes in that year, that although he passed it daily during the closing months of 1812-1813 and part of 1814 his recollections of it are not very definite. "I can only say that the building was two stories high, by no means an imposing structure, wooden, I believe, and painted white. Its roof gradually descended from the front to the rear. It stood in a yard that appeared sufficiently large for the uses of the students, and was separated from the street by an iron fence." Mr. Moses Williams, an aged citizen of Boston, writes, April 19, 1881: "I remember the building. It was a two-story wooden building, stood end to the street, and I have the impression that it stood a few feet back from the street, and that there was a flight of steps on the outside to the second story. The roof was not steep. The dimensions did not exceed forty by eighty feet. The roof had only a slight pitch. I have an impression that the land on which the School-house stood belonged to a Mr. Holloway (sic)* previous to the Revolution. He was a tory and went to England. His estate was forfeited for his life, but was, after his death, inherited by his nephew, Ward Nicholas Boylston. The old School-house was a cheap building, probably built at a small cost, on account of the uncertain title."+ In a later letter, after having seen the sketch, he writes: "The Latin School-house which I have in my eye as on the Boylston Holway tory estate, was a two-story wooden building with a low pitch to the roof, too low to look well, and too narrow in its front on School Street to strike the eye pleasantly. The pitch of the roof was also too low for beauty and at one time there was an outside flight of stairs to the second story, giving it a very awkward appearance. I think this is an accurate description of the building which was on this confiscated estate in 1800, or in 1801 or 1802." Mr. Wm. Thomas (Harv. 1807), writes in 1881: "It stood, as I remember, opposite or nearly opposite the School Street side of the Stone Chapel, and was about 30 or 40 feet back from the line of buildings on the opposite side of the street to the Chapel. I do not remember ever going from the sidewalk up to the building, but do remember noticing that not any doors of entrance were to be seen from the sidewalk,‡ so that I concluded the end of • An error for Hallowell. + Perhaps the agreement to have it correspond with the house on the opposite side of the street, from which the School had been removed, may be a better reason for its inexpensiveness. Dr. Watson writes that he can only account for this impression of Mr. Thomas's by "the supposition that he had in his mind the appearance of the public writing-school, Master Snelling's, which in those days was immediately opposite, occupying very nearly the position of the City Hall of to-day; it was a long wooden building with the entrance on the eastern side, and showing nothing but the ugly dimensions of its sides to a spectator on the sidewalk on School Street." seeing it, said: "If the Latin School building was of but one story, that is it, but I thought it had two;" an opinion easily accounted for when we read Dr. Watson's description of the upper or attic. room. Mr. John Rogers, of our Class of 1808, who was also a pupil attending in this School-house, pronounces it substantially the School which he attended. Dr. Watson further describes the building : From the west side was a brick wall about four feet high (and, perhaps, a kind of lath rail above it) running down to the side-walk, and separating the School grounds from the next premises; there was no passageway between the western wall of the School and the eastern wall of the next house.* There were no windows in the western wall of the School-house. In front of the School there was a wooden fence of some kind and a gate opening between the two sides, from a very narrow side-walk of brick, always out of order. On the 3d of May, 1749, Mr. Lovell was notified to remove his boys into the new building. Here the School remained until 1785, when it became necessary to make some repairs upon the building, and Master Hunt, for a time, taught in Faneuil Hall. About 1812 the building was presented to the street, and the doors of entrance were on the sides of the house, which could not be readily seen from the street." A few days later Mr. Thomas writes, after having seen a rough sketch of the building, "I remember the windows on the end to be as numerous as the space could with any propriety justify. The panes of glass were small and of much older type than then prevailed in the town, and the framework and sashes of the window much heavier." Mr. Thomas T. Spear writes in April, 1881: "The facade of the building was of granite and the rest was of brick," and sends a rough sketch of a two-story building. He has evidently confounded the school of Lovell with that of Gould. *This next house was that of the Hon. Moses Gill, Lieut.-Governor of the Commonwealth. Mr. Thayer says it was a three-story house, but Dr. Watson says that as he recollects it, "it was a two-story house with an attic, a long covered piazza, which in winter time was entirely closed in. I think also that it was used as a hotel or stage house at one time." This building was known earlier as the Boylston House. It was situated about fifty feet west of Cook's court, had a front of forty feet and a door in the centre. It stood about ten or twelve feet from the street, on which was a fence on a foundation of stone two feet above the sidewalk, surmounted by an open rail. It was three stories high, with dormer windows on the roof. On the westerly, or upper side of the house, was a passage way twenty to twenty-five feet wide, leading to the stable and gardens. This garden extended to Madame De Blois's house on Bromfield street. In the rear of the School in Cook's court was a double dwelling house, 40 x 40, of two stories with dormer windows on all sides, and fifty feet of gardens on each side. The doors of the houses were on the north and south sides respectively, and were reached by a small yard leading from Cook's court. The lot of land on which the School-house was built belonged to, Mr. Thayer thinks, and was probably given by Mr. Ezekiel Cook, who lived on the side of Cook's court, opposite the School, and was the owner of much land in the neighborhood. |