Board of Commissioners of the Summer Street Fire Loan records

The Commissioners were appointed by the Mayor, with the approval of the Board of Aldermen, under the "Act to enable the City of Boston to issue its bonds for certain purposes" which was passed by the Massachusetts Legislature on December 7, 1872 and accepted by the City Council on December 20, 1872. Duly qualified in compliance with the act, and with the order of the Board of Aldermen, gave notice on the 26th and 28th of December of 1872, through the newspapers, that they were ready to receive proposals in writing for the loan of money on first mortgage, to the owners of land, the buildings upon whoch were burned by the fire in the city on the 9th and 10th day of November, 1872. Two milltions of square feet of land, excluding all streets and passageways, were burned over by the fire. Applications and inquiries were made by many parties, but the delays necessarily incident to the state of the winter season, and to fixing the lines of streets, were such that the Commissioners would not able to form any accurate estimate of the amount which would have been called for under the act. No arrangements to borrow money on behalf of the city, or to make loans under the act were completed when the Board received notice on the 7th of February of 1873 that a petition to restrain the city from issuing bonds under the act had been filed in the Supreme Judicial Court. The Court on the 14th day of March 1873 decided that the act was unconstitutional and the Board had no authority to continue. The records of the board were delivered to the Mayor on March 17, 1873.