DESCRIPTION: A large, unrecorded pen and ink trace map on tracing cloth depicting lands on the Charles River Flats then held by the estate of Frederick Lothrop Ames (1) and associated owners, on the site now occupied by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The map was copied by William H. Whitney after Mason in the same month that the Massachusetts Legislature passed legislation that forced the cities of Cambridge and Boston to build the Harvard Bridge and share costs (2). Some portion of the map is attributed in pencil to a blueprint in Ames' possession, likely by W. A. Mason. Verso with the oval blue ink overstamp of William H. Whitney and index number 313.
The map was prepared in 1887, at a moment when the Charles River Embankment Company had begun construction of its granite seawall and was actively filling the Charles River Flats with dredged material from the river. It shows significant detail of the hydrography of the area including height in feet above low water at spring tide and the course of several small waterways including a detailed survey of Goff's Cove.
Using the west line of the proposed Main Street extension, later realized as the Harvard Bridge, as a fixed boundary, and reading the notation on the mapped boundary, it appears Ames had already deeded lands west of this line to the Embankment Company. This drawing would have served as the working basis for negotiations over the remaining eastern portion of the Flats still under hs ownership.
The sheet approximately covers the Charles River Flats from the navigable canal on the east to Goff's Cove on the west, and from the Boston and Albany Branch Railroad south to the planned 200 foot parkway along the riverbank. Detailed annotations at center record precise parcel boundaries totaling more than 2.3 million square feet and specify the fractional ownership interests of four parties, including Ames and the Charles River Embankment Company. Scale 80 feet to 1 inch.
(1) Frederick Lothrop Ames (1835 - 1893) emerged as one of the wealthiest and most influential business figures in nineteenth-century Massachusetts, steering the Ames family’s industrial legacy into the broader realms of finance, railroads, and corporate enterprise.
(2) It is no coincidence that this map was laid down in July, 1887. In that same month, the Massachusetts General Court enacted Chapter 282 of the Acts of 1887, the statute that compelled construction of the Harvard Bridge with the cost to be shared between Cambridge and Boston. For the four owners, the map guided financial decision making at the moment the bridge ceased to be speculative and became legally assured. With the bridge alignment and approach streets fixed by law, the calculations shown supplied the remaining variables needed to value the land. It recorded, in precise and defensible terms, how much ground each party controlled, how those holdings related to the bridge corridor and proposed street system, and which portions of the flats could realistically be converted from tidal land into buildable parcels.
By tying ownership percentages and square footage to tidal elevations and fill limits, the drawing clarified likely costs, potential returns, and each owner’s position under the new infrastructure regime. It allowed decisions about holding, selling, or negotiating to rest on measured facts rather than assumptions. The map also positioned the owners for dealings with the city, enabling compensation, takings, or land exchanges to be argued from surveyed quantities instead of estimates. In effect, it gave the owners a shared factual basis for negotiating partnerships, sales, or assessments, reducing disputes and allowing them to position their interests strategically as Cambridgeport shifted from tidal flats to valuable urban land.
PUBLICATION DATE: 1887
GEOGRAPHIC AREA: United States
BODY OF WATER: Charles River, Goff Cove, Navigable Canal
CONDITION: Good.
Intact with no losses. Light dirt and abrasions. Folds, some persistent. Pen and ink on tracing cloth with pencil notation near title.
COLORING: None
ENGRAVER:
SIZE: 44
" x
28 "
ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION:
PRICE: $2750
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