The Old Feather Store (1680–1860) was a shop located at
Dock Square and
North Street (formerly Ann Street) in
Boston
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
, in the 17th–19th centuries. It was also called the Old Cocked Hat. Built in 1680 by Thomas Stanbury, it was demolished in 1860.
[Albert William Mann. Walks & talks about historic Boston. The Mann publishing co., 1917; p.117.][Michael Holleran. Boston's changeful times: origins of preservation and planning in America. 1998; p.89.]
Brief history
Through the years the building had several successive owners and was used for varying commercial purposes. William Antram made hats, c. 1708. John Greenleaf ran an apothecary, 1766–1778. Samuel Wallis sold goods from West India, c. 1789. Samuel Richards sold hardware, c. 1789, as did Jonathan Phillips, c. 1803. Beginning in 1806, Daniel Pomeroy, John K. Simpson, Daniel P. Simpson, and William B. Simpson sold feathers. Charles Lovejoy sold clothes, c. 1806. William Tileston conducted business in the indigo trade, c. 1809.
Its timber-frame architecture featured multi-level gables, and facades embedded with glass. A contemporary observer described its appearance in the mid-19th century, prior to its demolition:
The outside of the building was covered with a strong, and, as time has proved, durable cement, in which was observable coarse gravel and broken glass, the latter consisting of fragments of dark-colored junk bottles. At the upper part of the principle gable on the Dock square front the date of the time of erecting the building, 1680, was distinctly impressed into the rough-cast cement in Arabic figures, together with various ornamental devices.
The "cement" material was called "roughcast" and was a well-known material in England used to cover the exterior of buildings. Roughcast was a suggested building covering after the great Boston fire of 1679, as it was less likely to catch fire than clapboards, which were used on many buildings due to their lower cost and the lack of a lime source in New England. Please see
Roughcast
Roughcast and pebbledash are durable coarse plaster surfaces used on outside walls. They consists of lime and sometimes cement mixed with sand, small gravel and often pebbles or shells. The materials are mixed into a slurry and are then throw ...
.
References
Further reading
* Edward Griffin Porter. Rambles in old Boston, New England. Cupples, Upham and company, 1887.
* Abbott Lowell Cummings. The Old Feather Store in Boston. Old-time New England v.48, 1958.
* Old Boston in early photographs, 1850–1918: 174 prints from the collection of the Bostonian Society. Courier Dover Publications, 1990.
* D. Brenton Simons. Boston Beheld: Antique Town and Country Views. UPNE, 2008.
External links
*
New York Public Library Items related to Old Feather Store.
*
Images
Image:1839 FeatherStore Boston MFABoston.png, Drawing by unknown artist, 1839
Image:OldFeatherStore ca1841 Boston.png, From: Buckingham's America, 1841
Image:Eduard Hildebrandt Boston.jpg, Painting by Eduard Hildebrandt, 1844
Image:FeatherStore Ballous1855.JPG, From: Ballou's Pictorial, 1855
Image:Old Feather Store2.jpg, Stereograph, 19th century
Image:DockSquare byPrang NMAH2003-32006.jpg, Print by Louis Prang & Co., 1860
Image:CockedHat 1873 OurYoungFolks.png, From: Our Young Folks, 1873
Image:FeatherStore Boston.png, From: Walks & Talks About Historic Boston, 1917
{{coord, 42, 21, 36.52, N, 71, 3, 24.64, W, type:landmark_region:US-MA, display=title
Demolished buildings and structures in Boston
Buildings and structures completed in 1680
Economic history of Boston
Government Center, Boston
1680 establishments in the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Buildings and structures demolished in 1860