Commercial Businesses

frontispiece of 1887 Boston Directory

During the late 19th Century, State Street’s easternmost addresses housed a variety of businesses from commercial merchants and shipping companies, to clerks, wholesale grocers, and even a coffin making business. The nearby location of several transportation routes via the wharf, railroad, and later subway, created a thriving mercantile district with easy access for shipping and receiving goods. Further, the architectural designs of the State Street buildings accommodated their commercial and shipping functions through the inclusion of hoists, scuttles, and sail lofts. 

View from State Street onto Long Wharf

View from State Street onto Long Wharf

Transporting Goods & people

Proximity to transportation facilitated State Street’s commercial development. Located adjacent to Long Wharf, the Union Freight Railroad, the elevated Atlantic Railroad, and the East Boston subway line, State Street provided its tenants with easy access to multiple means of transporting their wares. The street’s location within this transportation mecca provided an ideal environment for commercial merchants, wholesale grocers and  manufacturers to import supplies and export finished goods, cementing State Street as one of Boston’s commercial and shipping hubs.

Image Citation

Griffin, Arthur. "State Street (including Long Wharf & Atlantic Ave.)." Photograph. 1935. Digital Commonwealth, https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/k930f972v (accessed May 05, 2021).

Horse & Carriage 238-280 State Street, 1912
Horse & Carriage238-280 State Street, 1912
Pedestrian, Automobile, Elevated Rail Road Overpass State Street (including Long Wharf & Atlantic Ave.)
Pedestrian, Automobile, Elevated Rail Road OverpassState Street (including Long Wharf & Atlantic Ave.)
View of On-Grade Union Freight Railroad State Street Station -  Boston Elevated Railway Company- 1901
View of On-Grade Union Freight RailroadState Street Station -  Boston Elevated Railway Company- 1901
Southern View from Elevated Atlantic Railroad, State Street Station
Southern View from Elevated Atlantic Railroad, State Street Station 
Image Citations
From Left to Right
1.) Boston (Mass.), 238-280 State Street, September 26,1912, Photograph, Public Works Department photograph collection (5000.009), May 5, 2021.https://cityofboston.access.preservica.com/uncategorized/IO_c7b54f65-5bed-4b00-b198-69a48f02d932/.

2. Griffin, Arthur. "State Street (including Long Wharf & Atlantic Ave.)." Photograph. 1935. Digital Commonwealth, https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/k930f976z (accessed May 05, 2021).

3. Boston Elevated Railway Company, State Street Station, August 8, 1901, Photograph,Boston Elevated Railway photographs (9800.018), May 5, 2021 https://cityofboston.access.preservica.com/uncategorized/IO_b35e3f9e-21c1-49ac-99ab-cded378a6c8d/.

4.) Boston (Mass.). "State Street Station looking south." Photograph. September 14, 1939. Digital Commonwealth, https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth-oai:h415s458s (accessed May 05, 2021).

ARCHITECTURAL ACCOMODATIONS

State Street’s architectural designs also promoted commercial development along the corridor. The majority of the buildings on State Street’s eastern-most strip were 4-6 story brick buildings, that held multiple businesses within a single structure. Annotations on the1882 Sanborn map, reveal specific design features in each of the State Street buildings that aid their commercial function. For example, each of the State Street properties came equipped with hoisting scuttles, typically inserted into hoist walls. These devices helped to raise and lower loads via a drum. In addition, the 296 & 298 properties were also equipped with sail lofts, special areas where ship sails could be cut out and stitched. The 1882 Sanborn map marks the sail loft parcels and address 232 in green, with a pink border. This indicates that these buildings held special manufacturing hazards due to the use of oil, ovens, etc. in the building (see Sanborn Map Key for details). These design accommodations helped to store and move goods for the commercial businesses and storage spaces housed within.

Multistoried Brick Buildings 227-215 State Street and 217-219 State Street - 1912
Multistoried Brick Buildings227-215 State Street and 217-219 State Street - 1912
State Street, Fifty Associates
State Street, Fifty Associates
Image Citations

Left: Boston (Mass.),227-215 State Street and 217-219 State Street, September 26,1912, Photograph, Public Works Department photograph collection (5000.009), May 5, 2021.https://cityofboston.access.preservica.com/uncategorized/IO_bc259ba5-79dc-491c-b604-cd86897662a7/

Right: Boston (Mass.). "182-184 State Street, Fifty Associates." Photograph. October 7, 1912. Digital Commonwealth, https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth-oai:h415rw542 (accessed May 05, 2021).

Detail of 1882 Sanborn showing Hoist & Sail Loft Accommodations

Detail of 1882 Sanborn showing Hoist & Sail Loft Accommodations

Sanborn Fire Insurance. Insurance Map of Boston. New York: D.A. Sanborn, 1882. Boston Public Library, via Atlascope.
Detail of Sanborn Map key

Detail of Sanborn Map Key

photograph of  Easterly End of Custom House Block, Long Wharf

Easterly End of Custom House Block, Long Wharf

interior photograph of Sail Loft in Boston Naval Ship Yard

Sail Loft in Boston Naval Ship Yard

Image Citations

Left: https://www.loc.gov/rr/geogmap/sanborn/images/sankey22c.jpg

Upper Right: Boston Transit Commission, Easterly end of Custom House Block, Long Wharf, Photograph, Boston Transit Archive, 1895-1960s, May 5, 2021 https://www.historicnewengland.org/explore/collections-access/gusn/217098/.

Lower Right: Cutler, Wolcott. "Sail loft in the Boston Naval Shipyard." Photograph. 1850. Digital Commonwealth, https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/8k71p1637 (accessed May 06, 2021).

TYPES OF BUSNIESSES & SHIFT TOWARDS FINANCIAL SERVICEs

Boston City Directories from 1874, 1887, and 1925 evidence the diverse industries housed in the 214-298 State Street addresses and reveal the growing presence of financial services in the area in the 1920-30s. 

frontispiece of 1887 Boston Directory
Citations

DIRECTORIES

Sampson & Murdock Co. Boston Streets: Mapping Directory Data: City Directories, July 1, 1925. http://dca.lib.tufts.edu/features/bostonstreets/people/directories.html

Sampson & Murdock Company. Catalog Record: The Boston directory. HathiTrust Digital Library, 1874. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000499337

Sampson, Murdock & Company. “The Boston Directory.” Google Books. Google, July 1, 1887. https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Boston_Directory/pf0DJRSpGh8C?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover.

IMAGE

https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Boston_Directory/pf0DJRSpGh8C?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover

Early directories show a wide variety of businesses along the State Street corridor. Wholesale grocers, flour and grain companies, and soap manufacturers shared spaces with clerks, cobblers and even coffin producers (see Selected Inventory Above detailed address information).

Billhead for Bronson & Williams, flour & grain, 221 State Street, Boston, Mass., 1870s

Billhead for Bronson & Williams, flour & grain, 221 State Street, Boston, Mass., 1870s

Billhead for Brown, Chickering & Co., Dr.

Billhead for Brown, Chickering & Co., Dr., wholesale dealers in dry & pickled fish, 224 State and 30 Commerce Streets, Boston, Mass., dated May 7, 1872

Image Citations

Left: "Billhead for Bronson & Williams, flour & grain, 221 State Street, Boston, Mass., 1870s." Ephemera. 1870. Digital Commonwealth, https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth-oai:k643bg195 (accessed May 05, 2021).

Right:"Billhead for Brown, Chickering & Co., Dr., wholesale dealers in dry & pickled fish, 224 State and 30 Commerce Streets, Boston, Mass., dated May 7, 1872." Ephemera. 1872. Digital Commonwealth, https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth-oai:k643bb53n (accessed May 05, 2021).

By the 1880s, a heavier concentration of flour and grain companies appeared on the street, giving State Street a reputation for its wholesale grain businesses (see flour ads above). However, shifting market practices soon drove out the majority of the wholesale flour and produce grocers. A Boston Globe Article from March 1886 quotes a former State Street flour broker lamenting the new practice of mills directly selling to customers, “business isn't what it was years ago...in those days all a merchant had to do was sit in his store and wait for customers.”


The shift away from wholesale foods and manufacturing is cemented with the dramatic increase in clerk tenants seen in the 1925 directory.  Over 25 of the directory entries for State Street addresses indicate that the tenant is either a salesman, clerk, bookkeeper, department manager or secretary, thus revealing the increasing presence of financial, sales, and accounting services in the area during the early 20th century.

Citation

Bibliography

"Currents of Commerce: A Marjed Change in Flour Trade Methods." Boston Daily Globe (1872-1922), Mar 25, 1886.

https://holycross.idm.oclc.org/login?auth=cas&url=https://www-proquest-com.holycross.idm.oclc.org/historical-newspapers/currents- commerce/docview/493331053/se-2?accountid=11456.

Sampson & Murdock Co. Boston Streets: Mapping Directory Data: City Directories, July 1, 1925. http://dca.lib.tufts.edu/features/bostonstreets/people/directories.html. 

Sampson & Murdock Company. Catalog Record: The Boston directory. HathiTrust Digital Library, 1874. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000499337. 

Sampson, Murdock & Company. “The Boston Directory.” Google Books. Google, July 1, 1887. https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Boston_Directory/pf0DJRSpGh8C?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover.

The transition from commercial shipping, manufacturing, and wholesale food services towards financial and accounting services seen in the commercial occupants of State Street is also seen in changing trends in building ownership, to find out more see Absentee Landlords.

1938 Bromley Map Showing Increasing Property Ownership by Financial Service Institutions

Detail from the 1938 Bromley Map Showing Increasing Property Ownership by Financial Service Institutions

Bromley, George Washington and Walter S. Bromley. Atlas of the City of Boston. Philadelphia: G.W. Bromley & Co., 1938. Boston Public Library, via Atlascope.