House numbering -- minor detail

[Joel S. Berson]

Victor,

I think you're incorrect on a couple of historical points.

Long Wharf was long when it was built, or at least its contemporaries
thought so.  It's shorter today; much of it is State Street.  Justin
Winsor (Memorial History of Boston) quotes 18th-century observers as
writing 800 feet, 1800-2000 feet, and "about half a mile."  Perhaps
not long enough, and having no turning-off points, to make it
difficult for someone to find a particular building without
numbers.  But still, if they were very similar-looking, and with no
well-known spot (such as a corner or a prominent building), numbers
might have been useful.  (One might ask, why not signs with the
proprietors' names?  A question I can't answer.  Perhaps the
warehouses changed hands frequently; perhaps they were shared by
several merchant shippers, so it was the shipper's name not the
warehouse owner's name that was important; etc.)

As for "suites", Walter Muir Whitehill (Boston: A Topographical
History) writes "Long Wharf was early lined with continuous rows of
shops and warehouses".  Whitehill has an engraving by Paul Revere
depicting it in 1768, which shows buildings all along one side, with
little or no clearance between them.  Winsor writes "a continuous
range of warehouses extended down the wharf, for they are delineated
in the original sketch of the waterfront as made by Bonner in
1714."  Jonathan Belcher, later governor, bought and sold buildings
on Long Wharf.

Even at only 800 feet, and assuming wide buildings for warehouses,
say 40 feet, that would allow 20 individual buildings.  I count about
15 in Revere's engraving, but of course I can't know whether he
intended accuracy or just suggestion.

Winsor's source for house numbering is Drake's History of
Boston.  That doesn't seem to be in Google Books; I'll have to go to
the library to track it down.

Joel

At 6/25/2011 02:35 PM, victor steinbok wrote:
>A couple of minor points--I agree with lack of connection with the
>Declaration of Independence. I was not implying any such connection when I
>wrote that piece. I did choose to use "proclamation" to avoid tying the
>development either to a specific document or a specific date.
>
>On Long Wharf, there is an issue as to whether it would be considered a
>"street". But it would still be interesting if the units (I suppose, they'd
>be "suites" today) within the structure were numbered. The "Long Wharf" is
>not particularly long, so finding a particular merchant, undoubtedly
>displaying the mark of his wares on the storefront, would not be difficult
>without the numbering. Slips and docks, on the other hand, might have been
>numbered in their own right. But that certainly would not translate to
>"street numbers".
>
>Please don't interpret my remark as pouring cold water on this
>development--I simply want to ascertain what actually transpired before
>getting excited about the result.
>
>VS-)
>
>On Sat, Jun 25, 2011 at 11:49 AM, Joel Berson <berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> >
> > From Victor, more than a little while ago:
> >
> > "Note that by December 1777, Queen Street had already had house numbers
> > exceeding 200.
> >
> > "There may be earlier references--I did not check other New York
> > newspapers. I found no similar ads with house numbers in Philadelphia
> > or Boston newspapers, but I did not look extensively. It does appear,
> > however, that New York may well have had house numbers on downtown
> > streets (including Wall Street!) at the time of the proclamation of
> > Independence."
> >
> > The Declaration of Independence has little relevance, I think.  In 1777 New
> > York was still under British control, and the war was not settled until the
> > 1780s.
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > --- On Sat, 6/25/11, Joel Berson <berson at ATT.NET> wrote:
> >
> > > From: Joel Berson <berson at ATT.NET>
> > > Subject: [ADS-L] House numbering
> > > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > > Date: Saturday, June 25, 2011, 10:37 AM
> > > Justin Winsor wrote "There is reason
> > > to believe that the stores and shops upon Long Wharf were
> > > designated by numbers before the system became general in
> > > the town. In some old advertisements letters were used
> > > instead of numbers.  (The Memorial History of Boston,
> > > 2:502.)
> > >
> > > Winsor's footnote for this is Drake, History of Boston, p.
> > > 537, note.
> > >
> > > I have not yet had the opportunity to follow this up.
> > > Long Wharf was built circa 1710, so such numbering/lettering
> > > could have arisen long before the Revolutionary period,
> > > which is, IIRC, when researchers on this list have first
> > > found it.
> > >
> > > Joel
> >
>
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