Brattle Street (Boston)

This article is about a former street in Boston. For the existing, historic street in Cambridge, see Brattle Street (Cambridge, Massachusetts).

Brattle Street in Boston (1855)

Brattle Street, which existed from 1694 to 1962, was a street in Boston, Massachusetts, located on the current site of City Hall Plaza, at Government Center. ^{[1] [2]} The street ran the short distance from Scollay Square to Faneuil Hall. ^{[3] [4]}

History

John Adams and his family lived on this street for a year in 1768, and in another house in 1770, before moving to Braintree; he may have had a law practice in his house. ^{[5] [6]}

Around 1853, former Virginia slave Anthony Burns worked for "Coffin Pitts, clothing dealer, no.36 Brattle Street." ^[7] Nearby, abolitionist John P. Coburn managed a clothing store at 20 Brattle Street. ^[8] In 1850, Joshua Bowen Smith, a black abolitionist and member of Boston's Vigilance Committee, operated a catering business at 16 Brattle Street." ^[9]

In 1921, the first Radio Shack store opened at 46 Brattle Street. ^{[10] [11]} The antiquarians Brattle Books was originally located on Brattle Street.

Gallery

• 
  Detail of 1775 map of Boston, showing Brattle St. and vicinity
• 
  Shelton & Cheever, importers and manufacturers of "engine hose, fire buckets ... harnesses, collars, whips, carpet bags," 1852
• 
  Funeral of Abbott Lawrence, photo by Southworth & Hawes, 1855
• 
  Corner of Brattle and Court St., engraving by Winslow Homer, 1857
• 
  R. Marston & Co. Dining Rooms, ca.1881
• 
  Overview of Brattle St., ca.1920
• 
  Brattle Street, Boston, 1962
• 
  Brattle St., with steps to Cornhill, Boston, 1962

See also

• Brattle Street Church
• John Smibert

References

1. Boston (Mass.). Street laying-out Dept. (1910), A record of the streets, alleys, places, etc. in the city of Boston (2nd ed.), Boston: City of Boston Printing Dept., OL   16574538M
2. Walter Muir Whitehill (1968), Boston: a topographical history (2nd ed.), Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, ISBN   0674079507, OL   21601121M, 0674079507
3. David Kruh (1999), Always something doing: Boston's infamous Scollay Square (Rev. ed.), Boston: Northeastern University Press, ISBN   1555534104, 1555534104
4. Geo H. Walker (1883). "Detail of Geo H. Walker's 1883 map of Boston showing Scollay Square" (Map). Geo H. Walker, Map of Boston. Boston Public Library via West End Museum . Retrieved November 4, 2025.
5. "John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 13 September 1790". National Archives: Founders Online. Archived from the original on January 11, 2025. Retrieved April 5, 2025.
6. "Diary of John Adams, volume 2". Massachusetts Historical Society. Archived from the original on November 29, 2020. Retrieved April 5, 2025.
7. Boston slave riot, and trial of Anthony Burns: Containing the report of the Faneuil Hall meeting, the murder of Batchelder, Theodore Parker's Lesson for the day, speeches of counsel on both sides, corrected by themselves, a verbatim report of Judge Loring's decision, and detailed account of the embarkation, Boston: Fetridge and Company, 1854, OL   6948460M
8. Snodgrass, Mary Ellen (2015). "Coburn, John P.". The Underground Railroad: An Encyclopedia of People, Places, and Operations. Routledge. p. 123. ISBN   9781317454168.
9. "Universalist General Reform Association," Christian Freeman and Family Advertiser, June 7, 1850, page 2
10. Brustein, Joshua (February 2, 2015). "Inside RadioShack's Slow-Motion Collapse". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on February 11, 2015. Retrieved April 5, 2025.
11. "A Brief History of Radio Shack". RadioShack Catalogs. Archived from the original on April 24, 2024. Retrieved April 6, 2025.

External links

• Bostonian Society Archived 2010-05-09 at the Wayback Machine has materials related to Brattle Street.

42°21′37.08″N71°3′28.44″W / 42.3603000°N 71.0579000°W / 42.3603000; -71.0579000