Boston Stone

File:Boston_Stone_(line_drawing).jpg

The Boston Stone was originally a millstone also called a "muller" used for grinding paint pigments in a long stone trough. It was imported from England around 1701 by the painter Tom Childs.{{cite book |last=Weston |first=George F. |title=Boston Ways: High, By, and Folk |year=1957 |publisher=Beacon Press |isbn=9780807051818}} cited in {{cite web |url=http://forgotten-boston.com/alleys/blackstone/creeksq.html |title=(untitled) |editor=Kevin Walsh |date= |work=Forgotten Boston |accessdate=January 5, 2014}} The stone was originally displayed with a painted plaque including Child’s initials and the date 1701.

Child’s estate was purchased by John Howe who found the stone while building the present building around 1737 and removed it to the corner of his property to keep vehicles from damaging the building. The stone was placed in the brick wall above another stone carved to read "Boston Stone 1737" when the building was rebuilt by James Davis in 1835.{{cite web |title=Broadsheet: "The Boston stone." Opposite the "Marshall House" may be seen the celebrated "Boston Stone" imbedded in the wall, long an object of interest to the curious and antiquary. |url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.07106200/?st=text |website=Library of Congress |access-date=24 July 2024}} According to Howe’s daughter, a Mrs. Green, their neighbor who had seen the famous London Stone proposed that the paint mill be made into a similar landmark by adding the inscription.{{cite book |last1=Thwing |first1=Annie Haven |title=The crooked & narrow streets of the town of Boston 1630-1822 |date=1920 |publisher=Marshall Jones Company |page=80 |url=https://archive.org/details/crookednarrowstr00thwi/page/80/mode/2up |access-date=24 July 2024}} The new building popularized the old artifact; in 1839, the Boston Courier reported that a replica of the stone made entirely of sugar was exhibited at a fair at Quincy Market. In 1879 it was mentioned by poet John Greenleaf Whittier in his poem "Landmarks" lamenting the loss of some of Boston's early landmarks, stating "When from Neck to Boston Stone, All thy pride of place is gone."{{cite journal |last1=Whittier |first1=John Greenleaf |title=The Landmarks |journal=The Atlantic |date=March 1879 |url=https://cdn.theatlantic.com/media/archives/1879/03/43-257/132122220.pdf |access-date=24 July 2024}}

According to popular legend, the stone is the geographic center of Boston, used in colonial times by surveyors as the zero point for outlying milestones showing the distance to Boston, but this is almost certainly not true.{{cite web |url=http://bostonhistory.typepad.com/notes_on_the_urban_condit/2006/02/the_boston_ston.html |title=The Boston Stone and Marshall Street |date=February 7, 2006 |work=The City Record and Boston News-Letter |accessdate=January 5, 2014}}{{cite web |url=http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMD800_The_Boston_Stone_Boston_MA |title=The Boston Stone - Boston, MA |date=December 3, 2011 |work=Waymarking |publisher=Groundspeak |accessdate=January 5, 2014}} There are no contemporary records indicating this. Nineteenth century advertising for the Marshall House inn describes the original inscribing of the Boston Stone's plinth; it is possible that its attribution as Boston's zero milestone was an early 19th-century advertising ploy. The 1921 Rand, McNally guide to the city suggested that it was probably set up to provide directions to nearby shops in imitation of the London Stone.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/randmcnallybosto07newy/randmcnallybosto07newy_djvu.txt|title=Rand, McNally Boston guide to the city and environs, with maps and illustrations|date=1921|publisher=Rand, McNally}}

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• List of individual rocks

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• {{commons category-inline|Boston Stone}}

Category:Landmarks in Boston

Category:Stones

Category:Government Center, Boston