by Earl Taylor
An elaborate tide mill project was proposed for East Boston in the 1830s, although it appears the idea never came to anything. An 1834 plan shows a proposed tide mill site near today’s Central Square, a tide mill dam closing off a large basin on the east side of the town, and a wide canal running between the basin and the tide mill site.
This 1834 plan was never implemented, but it proposed a 3,700-foot mill dam (red highlight) to create a large tidal mill pond (labeled “Basin”), two canals and tide mills (yellow highlight) just south of East Boston’s Central Square (green highlight). From Eddy, R. H., Plan of East Boston Shewing the Location of the Mill Dam and Other Improvements. (Boston: Pendleton’s Lithography, 1834). Click image to enlarge.
This plan shows an “Old Mill Dam” with an opening at its north end and a new, much longer mill dam of 3,700 feet completely enclosing the the basin. When the basin was filled by the tide, the water could be trapped and then power the mills as it returned to the Mystic River when the tide level fell. The canal leading westward from the basin to the river was to be 180 feet wide and extend 1,000 feet to mills on each side of the western end.
This detail from the 1834 proposal for tide mill power shows the 180-foot-wide Water Power Company Canal south of Central Square (green highlight). The canal was intended to power two mills (yellow highlight) at the west end of the canal. The old mill dam, shown also on an 1801 map, is still present in 1834. Click image to enlarge.
Proposed 1834 dam, basin and power canal superimposed on a current Google map of East Boston. Click image to enlarge.
The proponents of this ambitious tide power project were optimistic. In 1836 an application was submitted to incorporate The East-Boston Water Power Company, stating as its purpose:
Inclosing, by a granite dam, from West Wood Island to the extremity of Section No. 1 as seen on the plan, a space of about 180 acres of water, and thus to create water power for general and manufacturing purposes … the power thus to be created is reckoned by the Engineer as equal to forty mill powers. [1]
But harnessing the power of the tides wasn’t a new idea for this area. As far back as 1693 when East Boston was still called Noddle’s Island, it seems that two tide-powered mills were operating near the same location proposed in 1834. A 1693 map shows a narrow channel between Noddle’s Island and Isle Ronde connecting an apparent tide mill pond with a feature labeled “Deux Moulins,” or “Two Mills” in English.
A 1693 map shows two mills (“deux moulins”) on Noddle’s Island (now East Boston). Map from Franquelin, Jean Baptiste Louis, Carte de la Ville, Baye, et Environs de Baston. (1879) “Traced from the original in the Dépôt des Cartes de la Marine at Paris & presented to the Boston Public Library by Alfred Greenough, Architect, June 1879.” Original version : 1693.- from the Leventhal Map & Education Center, Boston Public Library.
Detail from the Franquelin 1693 map showing two mills (“deux moulins”) at the west end of a channel between Noddle’s Island and Isle Ronde (now East Boston). It seems to show a dam between the two islands, forming a mill pond for powering the mills.
Historian Peveril Meigs wrote about this tide mill site in 1974:
Noddles Island had a tide mill of unknown date of origin. … In 1698 Medford citizens sometimes had to go as far as Noddles Island to have their corn ground. The 1693 map shows the legend of “Deux moulins,” or two mills. …[2]
There is also mention in the history of Medford (Mass.) that prior to 1698 Medford families needed to travel to Noddle’s Island to have their grain ground. [3] An 1801 plan by William Taylor also shows a mill dam, probably the same “Old Mill Dam” on the 1834 plan, but it shows no mill.
1801 map details a mill dam and a 10-acre mill pond, but it does not show a mill. Great Creek, running south from the mill pond toward the wharf, is still visible on the 1834 proposed plan. (Apologies for the rotated text necessary to keep the maps in similar orientation.) From Taylor, William, A Plan of a Survey of Noddles Island. (Boston: J.H. Bradford’s Lith., 1801). Click image for enlarged view.
So really all we know is that there was an important tide mill on Noddle’s Island (now East Boston) between 1680 and 1720 and it was used by Medford farmers until a grist mill was constructed in that town.
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Notes:
[1] Sketch of the Recent Improvements at East-Boston. January, 1836. (Boston: J. T. Buckingham, 1836) and Sumner, William H. A History of East Boston; With Biographical Sketches of Its Early Proprietors. (Boston: J. E. Tilton, 1858)
[2] Meigs, Peveril. “Energy in Early Boston.” The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 128 (April, 1974), 85.
[3] “Medford/s First Gristmill.” The Medford Historical Register, 23 (1920), 58.
About the author:
Earl Taylor serves on the board of directors of the Tide Mill Institute and is one of its founders. He is also president of the Dorchester (Mass.) Historical Society and a board member of the Massachusetts History Alliance. He has worked at the Boston Public Library, the American Antiquarian Society, the John Carter Brown Library and Boston College.