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Boston: Complaining about development since before you were born

Quincy Market in 1828 or 1829

Quincy Market a couple years after its opening.

Mass. Moments alerts us that today's the anniversary of the grand opening of Quincy Market, in 1826:

[O]nly two years earlier, Bostonians had derided Mayor Josiah Quincy's huge construction project — the largest public works project yet undertaken in the new nation — as "Quincy's Folly." ...

From the beginning, the mayor faced stiff resistance. Many opposed the plan because of longstanding concerns about government regulation of trade. Some insisted the project was too expensive. Others felt that such an ambitious engineering and architectural project was better left to private enterprise. A few landowners simply refused to sell their property to the city.

Quincy Market: The Whiskey Priest of its day - you could jump off it into the harbor.
The Whiskey Priest of its day - you could jump off it into the harbor.

But, Mass. Moments continues, within a few years, Bostonians grew to love the marketplace, which they started calling Quincy's Market in honor or the crusading mayor who had gotten it built.

By 1850, you could no longer jump off Quincy Market into the harbor.
By 1850, you could no longer jump off Quincy Market into the harbor.
By the turn of the 20th century, Quincy Market had gotten rather crowded.
By the turn of the 20th century, Quincy Market had gotten rather crowded.

All images from the BPL's Quincy Market collection. Posted under this Creative Commons license.

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Comments

Happily, Quincy Market has become what Mayor Quincy undoubtedly hoped for. An enormous mall food court.

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Great title for this post, Adam

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What is the monthly rent Todd English was charged? How much rent for a greenhouse? Last month I was at the food court, a vendor wanted $7 for an ice cream cone. No thanks.

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Well Quincy Market happens to be in the middle of a tourist city, in an area where real estate is exorbitantly high priced, in a historical building. Mark, if you want cheap crap, go to the Burlington Mall. I don't shop at Quincy Market because I can go to the same Gap at Cambridgeside, but I'm not going to whine about the pricing of food and beverages, which is tied to rent, which is tied to surrounding property value, which is high because of a PRIVATE market.

Not sure if you were gunning to make a stab at government spending, but you failed miserably. Quincy Market is privately run, by some company based in Chicago if I do recall. So yeah, Mark, there are bike lanes to complain about, get out of this thread.

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Just pointing out that some things stay the same. In this case, expensive. There isn't always a political agenda, sorry.

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This is why food trucks are so damn popular.

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