The City of Chelsea.

The City of Chelsea.

Chelsea, Mass., the scene of the great fire of April 12, the loss at which seems to have been about $8,000,000, is probably one of the most inflammable cities on this continent and has been described, not inaptly as the centre of the junk business of New England. It is a suburb of Boston and a chartered city of Massachusetts, distant not more than three miles from the centre of the mother city, lying to the northeast of that city and at the mouth of the Mystic river. Ferries and steam railways connect it with the city. The place which is called Chelsea was settled in 1626 as Winnisimmet and was a part of Boston front 1634 to 1638. It was then incorporated as a town. In May, 1775, there was a skirmish between a small body of British and American forces in Chelsea, in which the Americans were victorious. Chelsea was incorporated as a city in 1857. The principal public buildings were the courthouse, city hall, the United States naval and marine hospitals, the soldiers' home, the Fitz public library and the Odd Fellows and Masonic halls. Union Park and the public playgrounds are the city’s spaces. The annual income of the city is about $425,000. The chief expenditures are: Police, $35,000: lire department, $35,000. and schools, $120,000. Chelsea has a population of 40.000. The section which was burned is mostly inhabited by Jews, who have built up in the

西部城市的可能最大的破布shop district in the world. Most of the buildings from West Third street, where the fire began, to the water front facing East Boston are of wood. In this district there have been numerous destructive fires during the last few years, which on investigation, generally have proved to be of incendiaryorigin. Chelseai according to the last-census, had nearly 400 manufacturing establishments, and until the rag-shop industry attained its present growth the city had some of the finest residences in any of the places surrounding Boston. With the building up of the rag industry many of the older families moved from Chelsea, and their fine homes were converted into tenements, many of which were in the path of the recent fire. The brick blocks on Everett avenue which were destroyed were a dozen years ago the homes of some of Boston's wealthiest merchants.