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THE GREAT LEGAL HISTORY OF BOSTON
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1. Column on Beacon Hill
The column on Beacon Hill is a logical place to begin a lawyer's tour of Boston. This column behind the State House reminds us that in the 17th century, a wooden pole and beacon, intended to warn the citizenry in case of attack, stood on Trimountain -- Beacon Hill and its two sister peaks, before the area was leveled to provide landfill for Back Bay and profit for the landowners. Charles Bulfinch, Boston's most eminent architect, designed a 60-foot column, topped with an eagle perched on a globe, on the former site of the beacon -- to commemorate Boston's glorious past and prospects. The Bulfinch monument came down in 1811 to make way for real estate development. The replacement we now see -- erected after the Civil War -- still symbolizes the original hill and beacon that William Blackstone, Boston's first settler, saw 350 years ago. |
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2. John W. McCormack State Office Building
The John W. McCormack State Office Building, houses the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office, along with other state agencies. |
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3. Archer Building of Suffolk University
The Archer Building of Suffolk University was dedicated by Governor Calvin Coolidge in 1920. Founded in 1906 by Gleason Archer, Suffolk is near the headquarters of both the Boston and the Massachusetts bar associations. Together, Suffolk's own law library, the Social Law Library and the State Library (room 341 of the State House) form one of the country's best legal and legislative facilities. |
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4. Charles Sumner
On Hancock Street was the home of Charles Sumner (1811 - 1874), abolitionist, lawyer, and for many years, senator from Massachusetts. Sumner's statue stands on the Boylston Street side of the Public Garden, and a portrait of him hangs in the State House library. |
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5. African Meeting House
The African Meeting House on Smith Court once housed the "earliest school for Afro-American children in the area." When one of the students tried to enroll in a white school, Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw first propounded the separate-but-equal doctrine in Roberts v. City of Boston, 59 Mass. (5 Cush.) 198 (1850). Charles Sumner argued without fee against that doctrine. Not until 1885 was it legislated out of existence in the state, and only in 1954 did the U.S. Supreme Court put to rest Chief Justice Shaw's unfortunate precedent. (See Leonard W. Levy, The Law of the Commonwealth and Chief Justice Shaw (1957) and Elijah Adlow, The Genius of Lemuel Shaw (1962).)
Also on Smith Court, William Lloyd Garrison, printer and journalist, introduced Bostonians to radical antislavery, along with such other causes as prohibition of alcoholic liquors and tobacco; an end to war, capital punishment and debtor's prisons; and the advocacy of political equality for the sexes. He was the leader of the New England Antislavery Society (1832), which was headquartered there.
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