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The Committee also regret that an additional sum of $6,000 will be necessary, beyond the present appropriation, for the current expenses of the Sewer Department, to 1st of May, 1870. As the abutters repay three-fourths of the cost of sewers and have been very urgent in their demands for them, the Committee have felt justified in keeping on with the work as long as the season would allow.

The Committee would suggest that the fund of $12,441.03, which has remained untouched as the balance left from the construction of Stony Brook Sewer by the City of Roxbury, could be very appropriately used for the greater part of the amount required.

For the Committee,

MOSES FAIRBANKS, Chairman.

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In Common Council, December 2, 1869.

Laid on the table, and ordered to be printed.

Attest:

W. P. GREGG,

Clerk of the Common Council.

CITY OF BOSTO N.

OFFICE OF THE

BOARD OF DIRECTORS FOR PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS,

CITY HALL, BOSTON, December 1, 1869.

To the Honorable the City Council of Boston :

GENTLEMEN, The Board of Directors for Public Institutions have the honor to communicate to the City Council, certain information in reference to the location of the New Lunatic Hospital at Winthrop Farm, much of which is of recent date, and none yet in possession of the city government. They have received the favorable judgment of all physicians conversant with the treatment of insanity who have visited the location, entertaining the idea that their opinions were entitled to greater consideration than those of physicians eminent in other branches of the medical profession. The annexed communication from Drs. C. H. Nichols, Superintendent of Government Hospital for the Insane, Washington, D. C., John S. Butler, Superintendent of Retreat for the Insane, at Hartford, Conn. (first Superintendent of the South Boston Hospital), and W. P. Jones, Superintendent of State Hospital, Nashville, Tennessee, is conclusive, in our judgment, as to the paramount value of the Winthrop site. Dr. Choate, Superintendent of the Taunton Hospital has recently visited the Codman Estate, and his letter, which is also annexed, gives his views of the relative value of each in terms of decided preference for the Winthrop site.

We also subjoin a letter in answer to a note from the Presi dent of the Board, to General John G. Foster in reference to an erroneous statement generally received, that he surveyed Winthrop Farm, and considered that an expensive sea-wall was necessary to prevent the same from being washed away by the action of the sea. To this he replies that he referred to "Winthrop Head" or Bluff.

Winthrop Head is the large headland or bluff near Taft's, at Point Shirley and at the northern end of the Gut. This bold headland, it is well-known, has been washing away for many years and may soon require the protection of a sea-wall.

Winthrop Farm lies between this and Breed's Island, near the boundary line of North Chelsea and not far from the creek that divides Boston and Winthrop. The headland forming a portion of this farm is the rocky bluff known on the charts as "Grover's Cliff" from which on the eastern boundary is a fine beach extending far beyond our limits to the south. The farm is not over a mile, on an air line, from the bridge that connects Boston with Winthrop at Breed's Island. A broad, sandy space lies between the southerly line of the farm and Winthrop Head, terminating with the beach referred to above.

The error in reference to the location of Winthrop Farm, originated in a correspondence between General Foster and Hon. Otis Norcross, Mayor at that time. That correspondence is subjoined, and readily explains itself.

It is hoped that no prejudice against the project will be allowed to interfere with a just investigation of the question upon its merits.

Respectfully,

J. P. BRADLEE,

President of Board of Directors for Pub. Inst.

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