Brattle Street (Boston)

This article is about a former street in Boston. For the existing, historic street in Cambridge, see Brattle Street (Cambridge, Massachusetts).

Brattle Street, which existed from 1694 to 1962, was a street in Boston, Massachusetts, located on the current site of City Hall Plaza, at Government Center.^[1][2] The street ran the short distance from Scollay Square to Faneuil Hall.^[3][4]

Brattle Street in Boston (1855)

History

John Adams and his family lived on this street for a year in 1768, and in another house in 1770, before moving to Braintree; he may have had a law practice in his house.^[5][6]

Around 1853, former Virginia slave Anthony Burns worked for "Coffin Pitts, clothing dealer, no.36 Brattle Street."^[7] Nearby, abolitionist John P. Coburn managed a clothing store at 20 Brattle Street.^[8] In 1850, Joshua Bowen Smith, a black abolitionist and member of Boston's Vigilance Committee, operated a catering business at 16 Brattle Street."^[9]

In 1921, the first Radio Shack store opened at 46 Brattle Street.^[10][11] The antiquarians Brattle Books was originally located on Brattle Street.

Gallery

• 
  Detail of 1775 map of Boston, showing Brattle St. and vicinity
• 
  Shelton & Cheever, importers and manufacturers of "engine hose, fire buckets ... harnesses, collars, whips, carpet bags," 1852
• 
  Funeral of Abbott Lawrence, photo by Southworth & Hawes, 1855
• 
  Corner of Brattle and Court St., engraving by Winslow Homer, 1857
• 
  R. Marston & Co. Dining Rooms, ca.1881
• 
  Overview of Brattle St., ca.1920
• 
  Brattle Street, Boston, 1962
• 
  Brattle St., with steps to Cornhill, Boston, 1962

See also

• Brattle Street Church
• John Smibert