Society president Matthew T. Page shares his research on Thomas Norton Hart—a famous son of North Reading who, as a young lad, left our town to seek his fortune in Boston. Enjoy!

Like U.S. Senator Frank Flint and presidential speechwriter Jon Favreau, Thomas Norton Hart’s path to success and political prominence began here in North Reading, Massachusetts. Born in 1829, Hart attended the local school before leaving town at age thirteen to seek his fortune in the big city. Over the next few decades, he became an enormously successful businessman. By his mid-fifties, he was the president of a bank, living in a luxurious townhouse on Commonwealth Avenue, and serving on the Board of Aldermen—the forerunner of the Boston City Council). He went on to serve three terms as Mayor of Boston—the fifth largest city in the United States at the time.

Poor but Pedigreed

Thomas Norton Hart was born into a family typical of early nineteenth century North Reading: one that was firmly working class, but could trace its lineage back to the earliest days of the colonial period. He was a direct descendant of John Endicott (1588-1665), the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. His maternal grandfather—Major John Norton of Royalston—served in the Revolutionary War, fighting at the Battle of Bunker Hill. His paternal great-grandfather, meanwhile, was a sergeant in a militia unit that fought at the Battle of Concord in April 1775.

Thomas Norton Hart was also descended from Isaac Hart, a Norfolk-born Englishman who first settled in Watertown before relocating to Lynnfield in 1656. In 1673, Isaac bought 500 acres in north Lynnfield, roughly where the Sagamore Spring Golf Club sits now. The crossroads south of the Hart farm—where Lowell Street crosses Main Street—is still remembered as “Hart’s Corner.” According to the 1895 History of the Town of Lynnfield:

“The land around here for acres and acres was the Hart grant…Everything was of magnificent distances, the orchard, the meadow, the deep tangled wildwood, the pig-yard, cow-yard, and all else of a great farm. A few traces remain to tell the tale. An old house known as the Hart house stood at the left of the ‘Four Corners’, as the road is called. It stood in the midst of an enormous farm, and the apple orchard was near half a mile from the house.”

Above: A portion of an 1831 map of Lynnfield showing the approximate location of Hart’s Farm (north of the intersection of Chestnut and Essex streets). The Ipswich River and the dotted line on the left side of the map mark the border with North Reading. (*Boston Public Library*)

Although Hart’s Farm has since disappeared, stories of Isaac’s wife Elizabeth (“Goody”) Hart are still very much with us. In 1692, Elizabeth’s life was upended by the notorious Salem Witch Trials (depicted below) after teenager Mary Walcott accused her of evil practices. Walcott said that “an apparition of Goody (Mrs. Hart) who hurt me much by pinching and choking of me and urged me grievously to set my hand to her book, and several other times she tormented me, ready to tear my body to pieces.”

Elizabeth was jailed in Boston for six months awaiting trial, during which time her family petitioned the authorities, promising that they “never saw nor knew any evil or sinful practice wherein there was any show of impiety nor witchcraft by her…[she] has lived a sober and godly life.” Elizabeth was then released and allowed to return to Hart’s Farm. Little did she know that, nearly two hundred years later, her five-greats-grandson would become mayor of the city where she was falsely imprisoned for practicing witchcraft.

From Elm Street to Commonwealth Ave

That future mayor—Thomas Norton Hart—was born in 1829: the same year North Reading’s Third Meeting House was built. He grew up in a modest farmhouse along the eastern end of Elm Street. Since destroyed by a fire, the house was located near the corner of Fairview Street and Elm.

*An 1889 map showing the Hart’s home (the N.B. Case house) on eastern Elm Street.*

As a young lad, Hart attended North Reading’s only school—an academy established by Colonel Daniel Flint in 1825—that operated in a repurposed tavern located near where the Batchelder School stands now.

Below: A 1906 photo showing the Town Common and the Campbell Building (far left)—a former tavern-turned-academy where the Hart attended school. It was used as classroom space until 1960, when it was demolished. (NRH&AS Collection)

At age thirteen, Hart left school and set out for Boston to seek employment. He found a job at Wheelock & Pratt—a dry goods shop—where he worked for two years before becoming a clerk at a local hat store. There he remained for the next sixteen years, slowly working his way up to become a partner in the firm. Along the way he married Elizabeth Snow from Bowdoin, Maine with whom he had a daughter, Abbie.

In 1860, Hart and Frederick Taylor—his wife’s brother-in-law and a lifelong friend—bought the firm and renamed it Hart, Taylor & Company. Specializing in high-end hats and furs, the company boomed under Hart’s leadership, becoming one of the largest such firms in the country. Although it had multiple shop fronts, the largest was located on Chauncy Street (pictured below). The business made Hart incredibly wealthy. In 1878, he retired from business to begin dabbling in politics and banking. He was just 49 years old.

A few years later, Hart bought 298 Commonwealth Avenue (below right)—a beautiful brick townhouse where he, Elizabeth, Abbie, as well as Taylor (now widowered) and Taylor’s daughter would live the rest of their lives. In 1885, Abbie married Carl Ernst: a German-born minister-turned-journalist who went on to become Hart’s longtime private secretary. Carl and Abbie continued to live with the Harts and the Taylors at 298 Commonwealth. Around 1889, Hart bought “Hillhurst” (below): a stunning oceanside mansion in an upscale Swampscott neighborhood where Massachusetts’ wealthiest families spent their summers. Hart would continue to vacation there for the next four decades.

*An 1897 map* *of Galloupe’s Point in Swampscott showing the location of the Hillhurst Mansion (labelled “T.N. Hart”).*

“For the Benefit of the Whole People”

Shortly after selling his business, Hart began his second career as a politician and public servant. From 1879 to 1881, he represented his ward on Boston’s Common Council: the lower house of the city’s legislature (which was bicameral from 1822 to 1909). Between 1882 and 1886, he spent three years on the Board of Aldermen: the council’s upper chamber.

*An aerial view of the City of Boston circa 1877 (Boston Public Library*)

As a politician, Hart soon developed a reputation for integrity, selflessness, and compassion. In doing so, he differentiated himself from many of his bare-knuckle, cigar-chomping, patronage-dispensing peers. As one contemporary source notes, Hart “commanded the support and confidence of the people rather than of party men. All his nominations came to him unsought, unbought and unpledged.” Another remembers him as an advocate of “free public schools, and of equal rights for all American citizens, without making a distinction of race, color, nation, or creed.”

Hart also had the distinction of being a popular Republican politician in a city where the Democrats had been the party-to-beat since the end of the Civil War. Before 1896, Boston held mayoral elections every year, making politicking a year-round affair. Interparty competition was stiff and mayors were often elected by a few hundred votes.

In 1886 and 1887, Hart (above) was nominated to be the Republican candidate for mayor, but lost to the incumbent Hugh O’Brien (below): Boston’s first Irish Catholic mayor. Although O’Brien had a reputation for integrity and sound leadership, incumbent fatigue and party infighting handed victory to Hart by the slimmest of margins in 1888. As Boston’s Democrats engaged in post-defeat realignments and recriminations, Hart won a second term in 1889 by a much wider margin. During his tenure, he worked to reduce city expenses, finance the city’s newly-formed street car company, and make improvements to Boston’s school system.

Ahead of the 1890 election, however, Hart lost his party primary—likely because he was too busy governing to mount an effective primary campaign. When Moody Merrill (a former school teacher and legislator) won the nomination, Hart said "The result of the Republican city convention is in no sense a surprise to me. I held it to be improper to work up my own nomination, preferring to leave the choice of the nominating convention to the people, and to the convention, the fullest freedom of action.”

Hart was barely out of office before President Benjamin Harrison appointed him postmaster of the city of Boston, a position he held for two years. Republicans tapped him to be their mayoral pick again in 1893, but he lost to popular Democratic incumbent Nathan Matthews Jr. Over the next several years, Democrats largely dominated city politics until a dispute between two party factions gave Hart an unexpected political opening. As a result, he narrowly triumphed in the 1899 mayoral election, winning a two-year term. In the wake of his unexpected victory, Hart declared that "the election means, if I understand it right, that the people want a change of policy in city hall, and they shall have it."

*As postmaster, Hart worked in Boston’s ornate* *Post Office and Sub-Treasury building (built in 1885 and* *demolished in 1929).*

Widely seen as a safe pair of hands, Mayor Hart used his third term to try to reform what he saw as a confusing mixture of city, state, and county government activities in Boston, arguing that such a situation “would never have taken place had City Hall proved equal to all demands.” He supported home rule for Boston, but opined that it would only happen when the city’s leaders stopped “playing games” and proved it worthy of greater self-governance. During his tenure, city Democratic leaders settled their differences, ensuring that their unity candidate had enough votes to defeat Hart by a landslide in the 1901 election.

Later Life and Legacy

After completing his term, Hart (by now 73) retired for the second time, focusing on his managing his investments and spending long summers at Hillhurst in Swampscott. Exceptionally hardy, Hart outlived his wife Elizabeth (d. 1906), son-in-law Carl (d. 1919), and daughter Abbie (d. 1924). Indeed, The New York Times reported that—when city and state leaders gathered in 1924 to toast his 95th birthday—Hart personally greeted all those who attended and appeared in excellent health. He finally passed away at Hillhurst aged 98. Still Boston’s longest-lived mayor, he is buried in Forest Hills Cemetery.

In terms of his legacy, Hart’s list of accomplishments runs as long as his lifespan. Born into a humble farming family in North Reading, he left familiar surroundings to seek a better life in Boston. Working his way from the bottom of the heap to the top of the corporate ladder, he became one of the country’s top fur and hat dealers at a time when such accessories were coveted symbols of prosperity and social status.

As a politician, Hart is remembered as a class act, someone who was “well-liked by all parties during his term; was courteous, genial and efficient in all the relations of life, with clear and quick perceptions, and is capable of any office in the United States." As mayor, he was progressive but fiscally prudent, supporting necessary projects such as street paving, sewers, water mains, and schools while pushing back against costly plans to build a subway and grandiose public parks.

Hart also streamlined city government, consolidating several of Boston’s more than 50 city departments in order to improve efficiency and boost service delivery. In his third term, he pushed through key reforms to the School Committee that allowed it more financial independence and thus more latitude to build, repair, and furnish city schools.

Hart’s legacy here in North Reading is, however, much harder to discern. Apart from a donation to the trust fund to maintain the Harmony Vale cemetery, Hart directed his considerable philanthropy elsewhere. He occasionally returned for visits, speaking at “Old Home Week” in the summer of 1904, for example. His only mention in the N. Reading Transcript dates back to 1956 when the Society (then the Antiquarian Club) compiled a short profile on him. Nearly seventy years later, we have expanded that profile in the hope that Hart—by all accounts a decent man and dedicated public servant—remains a part of our town’s fascinating story.

Thomas Hart: A Mayor to Remember

Poor but Pedigreed

From Elm Street to Commonwealth Ave

“For the Benefit of the Whole People”

Later Life and Legacy

“As It Is & As It Was”