Gaining Ground: A History of Landmaking in Boston
by Nancy S. Seasholes
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Book Summary Information
Author: Nancy S. SeasholesEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2003-09-28
ISBN: 0262194945
Number of pages: 549
Publisher: The MIT Press
Book Reviews of Gaining Ground: A History of Landmaking in Boston
Book Review: Fascinating history
Summary: 5 Stars
If one lives and Boston and was curious about what the city looked like 100, 200, 300, or 400 years ago this is the book for you. I discovered that somewhere between 1837 and 1851 the street I lived in was filled and went from being underwater to land.
An incredibly well-researched history of how people altered the landscape of Boston.
Summary of Gaining Ground: A History of Landmaking in Boston
Winner of the 2004 Historic Preservation Book Prize presented by the University of Mary Washington Center for Historic Preservation and Co-winner of a special 2004 Boston Authors Award for books about Boston presented by the Boston Authors ClubFully one-sixth of Boston is built on made land. Although other waterfront cities also have substantial areas that are built on fill, Boston probably has more than any city in North America. In Gaining Ground historian Nancy Seasholes has given us the first complete account of when, why, and how this land was created.
The story of landmaking in Boston is presented geographically; each chapter traces landmaking in a different part of the city from its first permanent settlement to the present. Seasholes introduces findings from recent archaeological investigations in Boston, and relates landmaking to the major historical developments that shaped it. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, landmaking in Boston was spurred by the rapid growth that resulted from the burgeoning China trade. The influx of Irish immigrants in the mid-nineteenth century prompted several large projects to create residential land--not for the Irish, but to keep the taxpaying Yankees from fleeing to the suburbs. Many landmaking projects were undertaken to cover tidal flats that had been polluted by raw sewage discharged directly onto them, removing the "pestilential exhalations" thought to cause illness. Land was also added for port developments, public parks, and transportation facilities, including the largest landmaking project of all, the airport.
A separate chapter discusses the technology of landmaking in Boston, explaining the basic method used to make land and the changes in its various components over time. The book is copiously illustrated with maps that show the original shoreline in relation to today's streets, details from historical maps that trace the progress of landmaking, and historical drawings and photographs.
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