Big Manufacturing Gains in 1859

The Boston Stock Market was in bull mode throughout 1859, and the biggest gains were in manufacturing. Boston and Roxbury Mill Dam, for one, was up from $29 to $50 per share that year.

The Boston and Roxbury Mill Dam Corporation was created in 1814 to build a dam over the tidal marsh lands of the Charles River in Boston and to generate power for mills. In 1824, shareholders started the Boston Water Power Company to manage mills and water rights. However, over the next two decades, railroads covered the area and the original plan became unserviceable. In 1857, the corporation and the power company, along with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, filled in the basin and divided ownership of the land. The Boston and Roxbury Mill Corporation built up the area, the Back Bay, until the 1890s, creating the late Victorian residential district known for its architecture.

See Boston historian Anthony Sammarco discuss the creation of Boston's Back Bay: