Proceedings relative to the House of Industry -- Opposition of the Overseers
of the Poor to the Measures of the City Council -- Sale of the Almshouse in
Leverett Street -- The Paupers transferred to the House of Industry -- The
question of applying to the Legislature for a Modification of the Powers
claimed by the Overseers of the Poor, submitted to a General Meeting of
the Citizens -- Its Result -- Death of Alderman Hooper -- Claims of Political
Parties for the use of Faneuil Hall -- Difficulties relative to the Board of
Health -- Change in that Department -- Visit and Reception of General
Lafayette.

IMMEDIATELY after the organization of the city government, in
May, 1824, a committee, consisting of the Mayor, Aldermen
Child, Benjamin, and Eddy, with Messrs. E. Williams, Shaw,
Frothingham, Otis, Barry, Upham, and Davis, of the Common
Council, were appointed to consider the best mode of disposing
of the Almshouse, with authority to sell it, at a sum not less
than one hundred thousand dollars.

On the nineteenth of July, the Directors of the House of In-
dustry reported to the City Council their receipts and expendi-
tures on account of that institution, its prosperous state, and the
necessity of a stockade fence around it; and a committee, con-
sisting of the Mayor, Aldermen Patterson and Eddy, with Messrs.
Wales, Russell, William Wright, and Goddard, were appointed,
with full authority to transfer to the House of Industry all the
inmates of the Almshouse, with the concurrence of the Overseers
of the Poor. This Committee, in repeated interviews with those
Overseers, stated the completion and success of the House of
Industry; its special adaptation to the class of poor then in the
Almshouse, its chief design being to supply them with a varied
succession of healthful employment, on the land and in the
House, according to the season of the year, their age, sex, and
capacity, thus enabling them to do something for their own sup-

-138-