Did Boston rip off Mary Cummings — and Burlington?

To understand this post, you’ll probably need a few quick refreshers:

Mary Cummings — Bequeathed her 239-acre farm to Boston upon her death in 1927. Boston allows Burlington to use it as a park, accessible from Blanchard Road. The town’s Recreation Department officially sanctioned Mary Cummings Park for recreation activities 50 years ago this month, July of 1976.

Friends of Mary Cummings — A nonprofit organization focused on protecting and promoting the park.

Faneuil Hall Marketplace — A group of four buildings in Boston: Faneuil Hall, Quincy Market, North Market, South Market.

So what’s the scandal? According to Mary’s will, she had set up a trust to maintain her farm/park in Burlington, using the proceeds from a rental property she owned. That property was 53 North Market — which is now part of Faneuil Hall Marketplace!

Here’s 53 North Market in the mid-1800s:

Now that building is part of THIS building:

Well, according to the Friends, Boston seized 53 North Market in 1929 via eminent domain just two years after Mary’s death, for a price of $118,000, so the Burlington park never benefitted from renting out the place. Okay, you say, but at least that lump sum of $118,000 has grown by leaps and bounds over the years, and is now worth millions, right? Well, no. The Friends say Boston never actually put $118,000 into the trust. From the Friends website:

Any perceived lack of funds in the principal account of the trust is the City of Boston’s own doing. In 1929, before the trust fund was even accepted by the City council, the Boston Transit Department seized the main asset of the trust, which was an office building on North Market Street. The compensation of $118,000 was withheld from the trust fund account. By any conservative estimate, the principal account should have grown to millions of dollars over the past 77 years that this money and interest has been withheld.

Burlington Retro has reached out to several Friends, hoping they could cite a primary source for this claim, but nobody has responded yet. Meanwhile, here’s the layout of Faneuil Hall Marketplace. We can only dream of renting out North Market to fund Mary Cummings Park. Oh what a park it could be.

Faneuil Hall
South Market
Quincy Market
North Market

Mary Cummings summer home — Mary’s summer home, on the corner of Cambridge Street and South Bedford Street. It burned down in the 1930s. Now that corner is just woods.

Cummings home S. Bedford Street — Another Cummings residence across the street and up the hill. Until recently, this was the home of Warren Cummings.

The park suffered another setback in 1955, when the US military seized about 26 acres for one of its Nike missile operations during the Cold War with Russia. Details here and here. Then Northeastern University bought the Nike area in 1963 for its Burlington satellite campus.