Church, extending from Howard Street to
Pemberton Square, which constitutes a large portion of that enclosure.
And lastly, proceeding southerly, comes the four-acre pasture of William
Phillips, extending from the southeasterly corner of Pemberton Square to
the point of beginning, and enclosing the largest portion of that
enclosure. The Hotel Pavilion, the Suffolk Savings Bank, and Houghton
and Dutton's stores, stand upon it.

Less than a century ago Charles River flowed at high tide from the
southeast corner of Cambridge Street and Anderson Street across
intervening streets to Beacon Street, up which it flowed one hundred and
forty-three feet easterly across Charles Street to No. 61. When Mr. John
Bryant dug the cellar for that building he came to the natural beach,
with its rounded pebbles, at the depth of three or four feet below the
surface. It also flowed over the Public Garden, across the southern
portion of the parade-ground, to the foot of the hill, upon which stands
the Soldiers' Monument. A son of H.G. Otis was drowned, about seventy
years ago, in a quagmire which existed at that spot. It also flowed
across the westerly portion of Boylston Street and Tremont Street, and
Shawmut Avenue, to the corner of Washington Street and Groton Street,
where stood the fortifications during the American Revolution, across
the Neck, which was only two hundred and fifty feet in width at that
point, and thence to the boundary of Roxbury. A beach existed where now
is Charles Street, and the lower part of Cambridge Street, on both
sides, was a marsh.

Less than a century ago, land on Beacon Hill was as cheap as public
documents. Ministers are enjoined not to be worldly minded, and not to
be given to filthy lucre. But the Reverend James Allen would furnish an
excellent pattern for a modern real-estate speculator. In addition to
his pasture on the south side of Cambridge Street, he had also a
twenty-acre pasture on the north side of that street, between Chambers
Street and Charles River, extending to Poplar Street, for which he paid
one hundred and forty pounds, New-England currency, equivalent to four
hundred and sixty-seven dollars, equal to twenty-three dollars per acre.
He was thus the proprietor of all the territory from Pinckney Street to
Poplar Street, between Joy Street and Chambers Street on the east, and
Grove Street and Charles River on the west; for which he paid the
magnificent sum of nine hundred and sixty-seven doll