Quincy's Market : a Boston landmark / John Quincy, Jr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Quincy, John, 1951-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Quincy's Market (Boston, Mass.).

Markets--Conservation and restoration.

Architecture.

Boston (Mass.)--History.

Boston (Mass.).

Boston (Mass.)--Buildings, structures, etc.

Architecture--Massachusetts--Boston.

Markets--Conservation and restoration--Massachusetts--Boston.

Markets.

Boston (Mass.)--Economic conditions.

Massachusetts--Boston.

Physical Description:

xviii, 283 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Boston : Northeastern University Press, [2003]

Summary:

A bustling commercial center and favorite tourist attraction on Boston's historic waterfront, Quincy Market, the popular name for Faneuil Hall Marketplace, draws throngs of visitors to the magnificent granite buildings and cobblestone concourses that house the area's specialty shops, restaurants, boutiques, pushcarts, and food stalls. Yet few are aware of the rich heritage of this legendary public place and its importance in the history of Boston and the nation. John Quincy, Jr., tells the absorbing story of the Market's unique evolution over the centuries. Beginning with John Winthrop's landing at the Great Cove on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630, Quincy weaves together a tapestry of the district's rise, fall, and rebirth. He describes how the site was transformed from open field courts that supplied foodstuffs to the early settlers in the town of Boston, to a maze of haphazard wharves, alleys, and buildings, to the permanent market house and town hall generously donated by Peter Faneuil in 1742. By the end of the eighteenth century, the area had lapsed into decay and Boston's means of provisioning its rapidly growing population was in a state of chaos. In the 1820s, the visionary Josiah Quincy, Boston's second mayor and the author's antecessor, proposed the unprecedented and highly controversial redevelopment of the dilapidated, congested, and noisome Market Square. Drawing on a treasure trove of historical, architectural, and anecdotal material from family papers, the author chronicles in lively detail how Mayor Quincy successfully spearheaded the massive project, a masterpiece of civic design and accomplishment that served as Boston's chief wholesale food distribution center for the next 125 years. By the early 1950s, Quincy Market had once again deteriorated, spurring plans for demolition. The book concludes with an account of how civic leaders reversed their thinking about the preservation of historic structures, and describes how a coalition of federal, state, city, and private agencies restored the market buildings and nearby streets to their nineteenth century grandeur, re-opening the new Faneuil Hall Marketplace in the late 1970s. Boston residents, tourists, and historians will delight in this engaging portrait of a beloved American landmark.

Contents:

1. Divisions over a Marketplace: From Open Fields to Faneuil Hall 1

2. Faneuil Hall and the Marketplace Witness a Revolution 21

3. A Need for Renewal: Josiah Quincy Proposes a New Marketplace 40

4. Negotiating for a Grand Market 60

5. Building the New Market 81

6. Faneuil Hall Market Is Born 108

7. Quincy's Market: Decline and Survival 144

8. Rebuilding the Markets 181

9. Faneuil Hall Marketplace: Sustaining the Results 207.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 268-274) and index.

ISBN:

1555535526

OCLC:

50695248