Population, Valuation, &c.—The population of Boston, in 1708, was about 12,000; in 1719, about 18,000; in 1780, about 23,000; in 1800, 25,000; in 1850, 139,000; and, with Roxbury and Dorchester, in 1873, was 308,875. Charlestown brought with it 32,040; West Roxbury, 10,361; and Brighton, 5978. The total, in 1875, must be nearly 360,000. The valuation of the city in May 1875 was $554,200,150 of real estate, and $244,554,900 of personal property,—total, $798,755,050. The value of the corporate public property is $30,787,292. The net city debt is $27,294,208. The number of public paupers, including insane, is 689; of criminals, 1495. There are fifty-eight banks of deposit and discount in the city, the capital of which is $52,900,000, and the circulation $27,074,396. The number of savings-banks is twenty-one, with deposits of $73,322,368·56. Of fire and marine insurance companies, stock and mutual, there are thirty, with four new ones in formation, besides life insurance companies and those against accidents and for specific forms of property. The annual sale of merchandise in the city is estimated at $1,000,000,000.
Commerce.—Boston has commercial relations with every part of the globe. In 1874 the gold value of its foreign imports was $49,522,547; of its exports of foreign merchandise, $2,084,257; and of its domestic merchandise, in currency, $27,035,169. There arrived 167 American vessels from foreign ports, with a tonnage of 234,587 and 6324 men; of foreign vessels from foreign ports 1849, with a tonnage 484,448 and 18,486 men. There cleared for foreign ports, 598 American vessels, with 254,347 tons and 6606 men; and 1882 foreign vessels, with 472,941 tons and 17,995 men. The total tonnage of Boston, registered and enrolled, on December 31, 1874, was 331,266. Its commerce is slowly recovering from the effects of the war of secession.
Great Fires.—The buildings of Boston having from the first been largely of wood, the use of which material for that purpose is now under severe restrictions, and closely compacted, the old town suffered from frequent and disastrous conflagrations, several of which were successively described as "The Great Fire." There had been ten of these disasters, severe under the then existing circumstances, before the year 1698. In 1711, the town-house and a meeting-house, both of brick, and a hundred dwellings were destroyed. In 1760 a conflagration consumed 349 dwellings, stores, and shops, and rendered more than 1000 people homeless. But these and all subsequent ones were eclipsed in their devastation by the disaster of November 9-10, 1872, in which hundreds of costly warehouses filled with goods, with banks, offices, churches, &c., were destroyed, though all of brick or granite, involving a loss of over $80,000,000. It is an evidence of the energy and resources of the citizens, that in a little more than two years after the catastrophe, the whole “burnt district,” with widened and improved thoroughfares, was covered with solid, substantial, and palatial edifices combining all the safeguards, improvements, and conveniences of modern skill. At least as large an amount has been expended on this restoration as was lost in the ruin. The fire department has been made more efficient under the control of three commissioners. There are now in the city twenty-nine steam fire-engines and a fire-boat in the harbour, eleven hook and ladder companies, sixteen horse-hose companies, a protective department, an insurance brigade, with waggons, &c., an alarm telegraph, and a system of signal boxes.
Water Supply.—Though the first white settlers were drawn to Boston by its pure and abundant springs, the want of water resources was long felt till efficient measures were taken for a supply. The southern portion of the town was supplied at the beginning of this century by an aqueduct from Jamaica Pond in Roxbury. The works already constructed and still in progress fully meet the present and prospective demands. The waters from Cochituate Lake and its tributaries, from twenty to thirty miles from the city, flowed into it by gravitation, October 25, 1848. The storage reservoirs and the works have cost up to May 1875, $10,786,739. The length of the conduit of brick is 14⅛ miles, and of supply pipes of iron 262⅓ miles. The annexation of Charlestown brought with it the waters of Mystic Lake, the works for which had cost $1,147,902, with 1½ miles of brick conduit, and 127 miles of pipe, pumping engines, and reservoir.
The public schools of the city are organized and supervised under the statutes of the State which make provision for free education by some compulsory enactments, subject to such special regulations as may be enjoined by the Legislature. The Legislature of 1875, by an Act (chapter 241), introduced a change in the composition and functions of the school committee. Henceforward this board is to consist of twenty-four members, chosen by the citizens on general ticket, to be disposed in three sections of eight members each. After the close of the first year from the first election, eight members are to retire, and eight new members are to be elected, to serve for three years, all without compensation. The board is to elect and fix the compensation of a secretary, an auditing clerk, and other necessary subordinate officers, and also of a superintendent of schools, and a board of not more than six supervisors. The mayor is to be, ex officio, chairman of the general board, to which no other member of the city government can belong, and which shall have the whole management of the schools, choosing and fixing the compensation of all teachers, janitors, &c., but needing the authority of the city council before incurring an expense exceeding $1000 for the purchase of land, or the erection or alteration of a building. Boston has now 9 high schools, 49 grammar-schools, 416 primary schools, 25 evening schools and industrial, licensed minors', deaf-mute, and kindergarten schools,—total, 499. The number of teachers employed is 1289; of scholars, 53,391. Cost of maintenance for the year ending May 1, 1875, $1,724,373·61. In the old city there is a Latin, English high, girls high, and normal school; and in each of the municipalities that have been annexed there is a high school, where classical education is furnished.
The public buildings of Boston are very numerous, embracing those of the United States Government, the State, the county, and the city. Most of them have been built within a few years, and are substantial and commodious, but, owing to the constant expansion and growth of the city, each of them in turn becomes contracted, and needs enlargement or a substitute. The buildings connected with each of the railroad stations have been reconstructed for extension three or four times. The largest group of edifices and works is that of the United States navy-yard, with docks, manufactories, foundries, machine shops, ordnance stores, rope-walks, furnaces, casting pits, timber sheds, ordnance parks, ship-houses, &c. The half of a very elaborate and costly edifice, the corner-stone of which was laid by President Grant, is now (1875) completed and in use for the United States post-office and sub-treasury. The other half, now in progress, will accommodate the United States courts. There is also a custom-house, with bonded warehouses, and the United States court-house.
