The Circle of Knowledge: A Classified, Simplified, Visualized Book of Answers

Part 142

Chapter 1423,725 wordsPublic domain

* Original Thirteen States. ‡ Organized Territories.

=Cities.=--In January, 1917, three cities of the United States, New York, Chicago and Philadelphia, had a population of over one million. St. Louis, Boston, Cleveland, Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Detroit had each over 500,000. Buffalo, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Newark, New Orleans, Washington, Minneapolis and Seattle had over 300,000. Forty-seven others had populations ranging from 100,000 to 300,000; while altogether there were one hundred and ninety-eight above 30,000.

The following table gives the approximate population of all cities in excess of 100,000.

=POPULATION OF CITIES HAVING OVER 100,000 IN 1917=

=Atlanta= (ăt-lăn´tȧ), =Ga.= [The “Gate City”; the name Atlanta was suggested by its geographical position, immediately on the dividing ridge, separating the Gulf and Atlantic waters.]

It is situated at the base of the Blue Ridge, near the Chattahoochee River; has an elevation of over one thousand feet, and a remarkably healthful climate.

Atlanta is laid out in the form of a circle, with the Union Depot as its center. A little to the south of the old Union Station is the State Capitol, which contains a library of about sixty thousand volumes and an interesting geological collection. A little to the northwest is the New Court House; and farther to the north, beyond the railway, are the Custom House and the L. & N. Freight House, an enormous concrete structure. The City Hall, the Chamber of Commerce, the Opera House, the Carnegie Library (of white marble), the Century Building, the Empire Building, the Equitable Building, the Jewish Temple, and the First Methodist Church are notable edifices. Among the chief educational establishments are the Georgia School of Technology, the Atlanta University (for colored students), the Agnes Scott Institute, and the Clark University (colored students). The finest private houses are in Peachtree Street.

Several railroads, converging at Atlanta and leading to other important Southern cities, greatly facilitate the city’s extensive and rapidly increasing trade. It has a large export trade in tobacco, cotton, horses, and mules, its mule market being one of the most important in the United States. Its manufactures include implements, fertilizers, cotton goods, other foundry and machine products.

Atlanta was first settled in 1830. In 1843 it was incorporated as a town, and called Marthasville. In 1845 changed its name to Atlanta, and two years later secured a city charter. It was an important city in the Confederacy and the objective point of General Sherman’s campaign. The battle of Atlanta (July 22, 1864) was fought southeast of the city. In September the city was made a military camp by Sherman, and in November he left the city in flames, and started on his “march to the sea.” The city was almost entirely destroyed, but recovered rapidly after the war, and in 1878 became the capital of Georgia.

=Baltimore= (bôl´tĭ-mōr), =Md.= [The “Monumental City”; named for the proprietor of a large tract of land in Maryland, Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore, who settled the province in 1635.]

It is situated on an estuary of the Patapsco River, at the head of navigation, about fourteen miles from Chesapeake Bay, and is on the Baltimore and Ohio, the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, and other railroads. A good harbor and fine geographical situation give Baltimore unusual trade advantages, and it has become one of the great export centers of the United States.

The city is roughly divided into two nearly equal parts by a small stream, Jones Falls, which flows entirely through the city. The portion of the city northeast of the stream is called “Old Town.” Baltimore Street is the chief longitudinal thoroughfare.

The natural center for the visitor is Mt. Vernon Place, a small square, prettily laid out and suggesting Paris in its tasteful monuments and surrounding buildings. In the middle rises the Washington Monument, a column one hundred and thirty feet high, surmounted by a colossal statue of George Washington.

At the northeast corner of the square is the handsome Mt. Vernon Methodist Episcopal Church; at the southeast corner, Peabody Institute, for the encouragement of science, art, and general knowledge.

On the south side of the square is the house of Henry Walters, connected by an overhead bridge with a new picture-gallery containing the celebrated Walters Collection, one of the finest private collections of art in America.

Charles Street, one of the chief thoroughfares of the city, leads to the north from the Washington Monument past the Union Station, near which, at the north end of the B. & O. tunnel, is the Mt. Royal Station. Following Charles Street to the south we pass (right) the First Unitarian Church and the back of the Roman Catholic Cathedral, which faces Cathedral Street. The latter is surmounted by a dome one hundred and twenty-five feet high, and contains some interesting paintings. Adjacent is the residence of the Cardinal.

Farther on Charles Street passes the Masonic Temple, intersects Baltimore Street, the chief business street of the city, and is continued to South Baltimore. In East Fayette Street, to the left, is the Court House, a handsome white marble building, and the Post Office, in front of which rises the Battle Monument, erected in 1815 in memory of the struggles of the war of 1812-1814. The interior of the Court House is adorned with admirable mural paintings. To the east of the Post Office is the City Hall, a large and handsome building, with a dome two hundred and sixty feet high.

To the south of the City Hall, in Gay Street, between Water and Lombard Streets, is the imposing new Custom House, which was damaged by the fire of 1904, but has since been repaired and completed.

A little to the west of Mt. Vernon Place, between Howard St. and Eutaw St., are the unpretentious buildings formerly occupied by Johns Hopkins University, one of the foremost institutions of learning in the country. It was endowed with over three million five hundred thousand dollars by Johns Hopkins, a Quaker. In 1902 a suburban site about two miles north of the Washington Monument was secured for this famous university, and the first of a fine group of buildings was occupied by it in 1914.

The Johns Hopkins Hospital, opened in 1889, is also due to the liberality of Mr. Hopkins, who bequeathed over three million dollars for its foundation.

Both as a scientific and charitable institution, this hospital is an important adjunct to the University; and in the completeness of its equipment and excellence of its system, it ranks with the foremost hospitals in the world. The buildings of the Medical School of Johns Hopkins University adjoin the hospital.

Druid Hill Park, a pleasure-ground of about seven hundred acres, owes its beauty in great part to the fact that is has been preserved as a private park for one hundred years before passing into the hands of the city. Its hills afford beautiful views. Druid Lake, one-half mile long, is one of the reservoirs of the city waterworks.

Baltimore is an important center of the traffic in breadstuffs, and is also the seat of extensive and varied industries--cotton and woolen goods, flour, tobacco and cigars, beer, glassware, boots and shoes, iron and steel (including machinery, car-wheels, iron bridges, stoves, furnaces, etc.), clothing, pianos, organs, and the canning of oysters. Shipbuilding has become an important development, and Sparrows Point, with its immense Bessemer steel plant, is a place of great industrial activity.

The construction of the first important line of railway in the United States was begun at Baltimore in 1828 and carried on by private enterprise, and the first telegraph line was constructed to, and the first message received in, Baltimore. In 1904 Baltimore was visited by a fire which consumed fifty million dollars’ worth of property.

=Boston= (_bôs´ton_), =Mass.= [Called the “Hub” and “Athens of America”; name is derived from Boston, a seaport in England, originally called Botalf, or Botolph’s town.]

The capital of Massachusetts, the chief town of New England, Boston is one of the oldest and most interesting cities of the United States. Whether considered from the point of view of its educational and charitable institutions, its trade, manufactures and public buildings, its influence upon the intellectual life and literary culture of the nation, or its historic part as an inspirational center of political liberty and social reform, its record and position command attention.

In no other American city are the civic and other public buildings more closely associated with events of national importance.

Boston is situated at the head of Massachusetts Bay, about two hundred miles northeast of New York, and occupies a peninsula between the Charles River and the arm of the bay known as Boston Harbor. Originally the town was founded on three hills, Beacon, Copp’s and Fort, which, however, have been materially cut down. The metropolitan area now includes also East Boston, on Noddle’s or Maverick Island, on the other side of the harbor; South Boston, separated from the old city by an arm of the harbor; Charlestown, on the other side of the river; and the suburban districts of Brighton, Roxbury (or Boston Highlands), West Roxbury (including Jamaica Plain), and Dorchester. Boston is connected with the city of Cambridge by several bridges across the Charles. The old town is cramped and irregular, and its streets are narrow and crooked; but the new parts, especially the so-called Back Bay, formed by filling in the tide-water flats on the Charles, are laid out on a very spacious scale.

The chief retail business streets of Boston are Washington Street and Tremont Street. Among the finest residence streets are Commonwealth Avenue, Beacon Street, Marlborough Street, Mt. Vernon Street, and Bay State Road.

Boston Common, a park of forty-eight acres in the heart of the city, shaded by fine elms and other trees and crossed by many pleasant walks, has been reserved for public use since 1634 and is carefully guarded for this purpose in the charter of 1822. Just across Charles from the Common is the fine Public Garden, reclaimed from what was low-lying waste land.

That part of the Common adjoining Tremont Street and known as the Tremont Street Mall is now occupied by eight small buildings, covering the entrances to the stations of the Boston Subway, a wonderful piece of engineering that facilitates traffic by an underground system of electric cars. The subway was, in part, constructed in 1895-1898, at a cost of about four million one hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars, and since greatly extended by the expenditure of many millions more.

Near the northeast angle of the Common, on Beacon Hill, stands the State House, an imposing building surmounted by a huge gilded dome, and preceded by a Corinthian portico and a flight of steps. On the terrace in front are statues of Daniel Webster and Horace Mann. The dome is illuminated at night.

In Beacon Street, opposite the State House, is the beautiful Shaw Monument, by Saint-Gaudens, erected in honor of Colonel Shaw and his regiment, the first colored regiment raised during the Civil war.

In Pemberton Square is the new County Court House, a massive granite building in the German Renaissance style, with an imposing central hall adorned with emblematic figures. In School Street, to the left, is the City Hall, behind which is the Old Court House. In front of the City Hall are statues of Franklin and Josiah Quincy.

School Street ends at the large Old South Building in Washington Street, the most crowded thoroughfare in Boston, with many of the best shops. Following Washington Street (“Newspaper Row”) to the left, we soon reach, at the corner of State Street, the Old State House, dating from 1748 and restored as far as possible to its original appearance, even to the figures of the British lion and unicorn on the roof.

State Street, the center of financial life, leads to the east, past the Exchange Building (with the Stock Exchange) and other large office buildings, to the Custom House, a massive granite building in the shape of a Greek cross, with lofty tower.

Change Alley (now inappropriately styled “Avenue”), diverging to the left from State Street leads to Faneuil Hall, the “cradle of American liberty,” originally presented to the city in 1742, by Peter Faneuil, a Huguenot merchant, but rebuilt after a fire in 1761 and reconstructed on the original plan in 1898.

Devonshire Street leads to the right from State Street to the Government Building, a huge edifice occupying the entire block between Milk Street, Devonshire Street, Water Street and Post Office Square. The Post Office occupies the ground floor, the basement, and part of the first floor, while the rest of the building is devoted to the United States Sub-Treasury and the United States Courts.

At the corner of Washington Street stands the Old South Meeting House, built in 1729 on the site of an earlier church of wood, which lay near Governor Winthrop’s house.

Boylston Street, another important thoroughfare, diverging from Washington Street to the right, skirts the Common and Public Garden and leads to the Back Bay. At the corner of Berkeley Street (right) stands the Museum of Natural History, with a library of thirty thousand volumes and good zoological, ornithological, entomological and mineralogical collections. Opposite is the Berkeley Building, a structure of a fine commercial type. Adjacent are old buildings of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the leading institutions of the kind in the world. It now occupies a magnificent group of buildings on the Cambridge side of the Charles River, erected at a cost of ten million dollars.

Boylston Street now reaches Copley Square, which offers perhaps the finest architectural group in Boston, including Trinity Church, the Copley-Plaza Hotel, the Public Library, the New Old South Church, and a number of imposing business structures. (See illustrations.)

Trinity Church, on the east side of the square, the masterpiece of H. H. Richardson and a typical example of “Richardsonian” architecture, is deservedly regarded as one of the finest buildings in America. Its style may be described as a free treatment of the Romanesque of Central France.

The Public Library, on the west side of the square, designed by McKim, Mead & White, and erected in 1888-1895, is a dignified, simple and scholarly edifice which forms a worthy mate to the Trinity Church. Its style is that of the Roman Renaissance.

The New Old South Church, so called as the successor of the Old South Church, is a fine building in the Italian Gothic style, with a tower two hundred and forty-eight feet in height. The marbles and ornamental stone work are very fine.

Huntington Avenue, which diverges to the left from Boylston Street at Copley Square, contains many important buildings. This thoroughfare, and the district known as the Back Bay Fens, is celebrated for its cultural institutions. Among them are Mechanics Hall, Horticultural Hall, the imposing Symphony Hall, the New England Conservatory of Music, and the new Opera House--all in Huntington Avenue. Just beyond this is the New Museum of Fine Arts, a large granite edifice by Guy Lowell, admirably adapted for its ends. Farther out, at the corner of Longwood Avenue, are the extensive new buildings of the Harvard Medical School, erected at a cost of five million dollars, and equipped in the most complete and up-to-date manner.

Commonwealth Avenue, which runs parallel with Boylston Street, is one of the finest residence streets in America, with rows of trees and handsome houses. It is two hundred and forty feet wide and adorned with statues.

Beacon Street, beginning on Beacon Hill, skirting the north side of the Common, and then running parallel with Commonwealth Avenue is the aristocratic street of Boston. Its back-windows command a fine view of the Charles River.

The Back Bay, the fashionable west end district traversed by the above-named streets, was at the beginning of the nineteenth century occupied by dreary mud-flats, salt-marshes and water.

The Back Bay Fens have been skillfully laid out on the site of unsightly swamps and form the first link in the splendid chain of parks and boulevards, of which Franklin Park is the chief ornament. The chief entrances to the Fens are marked by a gateway and a fountain; and at the end of Boylston Street is a fine memorial of John Boyle O’Reilly, by D. C. French.

Fenway Court, the residence of Mrs. John L. Gardner, a building in a Venetian style, enclosing a courtyard and incorporating many original balconies, windows, and other details brought from Italy, contains a choice collection of art, which is open to the public from time to time.

Franklin Park is five hundred and twenty acres in extent and lies in West Roxbury (reached by electric car). It abounds in natural beauty and many of its drives and walks are very attractive.

The Public Park System of Boston, as a whole, is almost unique. The City Park System, with a total area of twenty-four hundred acres, forms an almost unbroken line of parks and parkways from the Public Garden to City Point, in Boston Harbor. The Metropolitan System, forming an outer line of parks, has an area of eleven thousand acres, including two large wooded reservations (Blue Hills, and Middlesex Fells), three beaches (Revere Beach, Nantasket Beach, and Lynn Beach), and the boating section of the Charles River. When completed this system will afford fifty miles of drives.

The North End of Boston, embracing the site of Copp’s Hill, now one of the poorer districts and occupied mainly by foreigners, contains some points of considerable historical interest. The Copp’s Hill Burial Ground, dating from 1660, contains the graves of Increase, Cotton and Samuel Mather. Adjacent, in Salem Street, is Christ Church, the oldest church now standing in the city (1723), on the steeple of which the signal-lanterns of Paul Revere are said to have been displayed on April 18th, 1775, to warn the country of the march of the British troops to Lexington and Concord. North Square is the center of what is known as “Little Italy.” The House of Paul Revere has recently been restored and contains some relics.

Within metropolitan Boston are many famous institutions of learning. At the head of these stand Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Radcliffe College, the greater part of whose schools are in the adjoining city of Cambridge and the remaining in Boston. Among the institutions of higher education are Boston University, with its affiliated colleges, its schools of law, medicine, and theology, and its post-graduate department in philosophy, science, and language; the medical, dental, and agricultural schools of Harvard University; Boston College; the medical and dental schools of Tufts College; Simmons College for Women; the New England Conservatory of Music; the Massachusetts Normal Art School; the Lowell Institute; and the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy.

Wellesley College is situated in the beautiful village of Wellesley, about fifteen miles from Boston, on Lake Waban.

Besides Trinity Church, already referred to, there are upward of three hundred other edifices. Chief of these are the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, on the corner of Washington and Malden Streets, the largest and most noteworthy Catholic church in New England; Arlington Street Church, corner of Arlington and Boylston Streets; First Church of Christ, Scientist, on Falmouth Street, corner of Norway; and Fremont Temple, a Free Baptist Church.

The beauty of the parks, squares, and of many public buildings is enhanced by monuments and statues, of which the following are the chief: Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown, two hundred and twenty feet high, built of granite and commemorative of the resistance and heroism of American patriots at the Battle of Bunker Hill; the equestrian statue of Washington in the Public Garden; the monument to Colonel Shaw; the Soldiers’ Monument in the Common; the Crispus Attucks monument, a memorial of the Boston Massacre of 1770; statues to General Joseph Warren, Edward Everett, Charles Sumner, Alexander Hamilton, Governor Winthrop, William Lloyd Garrison, Benjamin Franklin, Josiah Quincy, Beethoven, Daniel Webster, Horace Mann, Phillips Brooks and many other notable men.

The principal industries of Boston are the manufacture of food preparations, clothing, building, printing, publishing, and book-binding, distilled liquors, machinery, metals and metallic goods, and furniture. Other important manufactures include musical instruments, woolen goods, boots and shoes, rubber goods, tobacco, and drugs and medicines. As a commercial port, Boston ranks next to New York, the value of foreign trade amounting to two hundred million dollars annually. After London, the city is the leading wool market of the world.