Intro

Music

Jake:
[0:04] Welcome To Hub history, where we go far beyond the Freedom Trail to share our favorite stories from the history of Boston. The Hub of the universe. This is Episode 1 96 The Gold Gilded Grasshopper. Hi, I’m Jake.
This week, I’m talking about what’s arguably the most famous and recognizable weathervane in Boston.
It’s not the sunburst and Star on top of Park Street Church or the swallowtail streamers on the Old Statehouse and Old North Church, or even the Grazing Bull on Quincy Market.
Legend has it that Faneuil hall’s grasshopper weathervane became such a symbol of Boston in the 18th and 19th centuries that it was used as a loyalty test.
If any stranger couldn’t name the animal on Faneuil Hall, they’d be considered a potential spy.
So imagine the city’s shock upon waking up one morning in 1974 to discover that the gold gilded grasshopper weathervane was gone.
But before I talk about Faneuil hall’s Golden grasshopper, it’s time for this week’s Boston Book Club selection and our upcoming historical event.

Boston Book Club

[1:14] My pick for the Boston Book Club this week is Quincy Market, a Boston landmark by John Quincy Jr Since Faneuil halls at the center of this week’s story, I thought it would be fun to feature a broader history of Boston’s premier market.
Strictly speaking, Faneuil Hall is the singular brick building that opened in 17 42 on the former site of Boston’s Town Doc.
But when people say they’re going to Faneuil Hall, they probably mean that they will also visit the 19th century granite market building behind Faneuil Hall and perhaps the former warehouses that flanked on either side.
This entire market complex is Quincy Market, named after Boston Mayor Josiah Quincy, the third it opened 84 years after the original Marketsite in 18 26.

[2:04] This history of Quincy Market was originally published in 2003 and a new, more heavily illustrated edition seems to be in the works.
Here’s how the publisher describes the original.

[2:16] A bustling commercial centre and favorite tourist attraction on Boston’s historic waterfront.
Quincy Market, the popular name for Faneuil hall Marketplace draws throngs of visitors to the magnificent granite buildings in cobblestone concourses that house the areas specialty shops, restaurants, boutiques, pushcarts and food stalls.
Yet few are aware of the history of this legendary public place and its importance in the history of Boston and the nation.
In this elegantly written and lavishly illustrated work, John Quincy Junior tells the absorbing story of the markets unique evolution over the centuries, Beginning with John Winthrop’s Landing at the Great Co.
From the Shawmut Peninsula in 16 30 Quincy weaves together a remarkable tapestry of the district’s rise, fall and rebirth.

[3:08] Author John Quincy Jr is described as an 11th generation direct descendant of one of America’s founding families.
I have to imagine that means he’s a descendant of one of the many Josiahs Quincy.

Upcoming Event

[3:23] And for the upcoming event this week, I’m featuring the virtual version of an in person tour we talked about a few months ago.
Back in Episode 1 69 we featured a themed tour at the Gibson House in the Back Bay.
The Gibson houses a unique time capsule of Victorian Boston as it was built in 18 60 only very minimally updated after that and then left completely untouched since its last owner died in 1954.
This undiscovered gem of a museum has been getting more attention in recent months because it was used as a set in the recent Little Women movie.
The last owner of the house was Charles Gibson Jr.
Who is the subject of the upcoming Virtual Tour and the In person tour that was offered back in January and February, when such things were still allowed.
Charlie grew up in the Gibson house and then moved back in after his father’s death In 1960 he cultivated a persona as the ultimate Boston Brahmin, a throwback to an earlier era.
A later profile in The Boston Herald described him as a proper Bostonian whose Victorian elegance puts modern manners to shame, and a small man with a nimble, if sometimes cantankerous physique.
He strolls around with a sort of swagger stick with a silver tip out of deference to the fact that gold would be too vulgar.

[4:51] He affected in English accent and was always quick to mission is ties to the elites of Boston, London and Paris.
Charlie Gibson maintained his eccentric ways right up to the end into the 19 fifties. He kept up a habit of walking to the Ritz Carlton hotel every night where you take his dinner in a full tuxedo entails a top hat and a raccoon coat in cold weather.

[5:14] Charlie, who was a lifelong bachelor and wrote an entire book of love poems that never mentioned a woman, has recently re emerged as a sort of gay icon for the LGBT Q history of early 20th century Boston.

[5:29] Since their themed tour, Charlie Gibson’s Queer Boston, had to be cut short when the pandemic began, the Gibson House will be offering a virtual version at 6 p.m. On August 4th.
Here’s how they describe it.
Explore the Gibson House in the gay subculture of early 20th Century Boston through Charlie Gibson’s Eyes.
The story of the museum’s founder is one of legacy and family history, of the fading grandeur of Victorian era Boston and of Boston’s LGBT Q history.
The suggested donation for this event is 5 to $15. An advanced registrations required to get the zoom connection details, additional reading materials and a recipe for the evenings themed cocktail.
I’ll include the registration link, plus a link to buy Quincy is Market, and this week’s show Notes hub history dot com slash +19 Sex.

[6:25] Before I start the show, I just want to pause and say thanks to everyone who supports Hub history on patriotic If you’re anything like me, you consume hours of podcasts every week.
My list of my favorite shows whole amount for my morning run while I walk the dog while I’m with grass do chores around the house. Before the pandemic, I listened on my morning commute as well, but that’s less of a concern these days.
When I’m listening to podcasts, I learned a lot. Even though my hands and eyes might be occupied with other tasks.
And because podcasts are free to listen to, I can always queue up one more episode.
Unfortunately, though, podcasts aren’t free to produce. Every month I pay for podcast media hosting, Web hosting and security transcription services, audio processing services and research databases.

[7:18] The generous listeners who signed up to contribute $2.5 dollars or even $10 a month to have history makes all that possible to everyone who supports the show. Thank you.
If you’d like to be our next sponsor, just go to Patri on dot com slash hub history or visit hub history dot com Man click on the Support US link and now it’s time for this week’s main topic.

Main Topic: The Gold Gilded Grasshopper

[7:45] On January 5th, 1974 Boston woke upto a front page story in the globe announcing 17 42 grasshopper weathervanes snatched from a top Faneuil Hall.

[7:57] About 3 p.m. The day before, which was a Friday Building Superintendent Donald McDonald got a call saying that the American flag it slipped down the flagpole a little bit.
I’ll include a photo taken about a month after this incident. In the show notes, you can see how the flagpole protruded above the Coupal atop Faneuil Hall.
Though he didn’t say so explicitly in the news story, it appears that McDonald would have needed to climb up the Coppola and lean out to adjust the flag.
When he looked up to see what the flag was stuck on, he realized that the golden grasshopper was gone.
The weathervane was made out of copper and, in turn, gilded with gold.
It was four feet long, weighed about £80 have been on a staff that stuck eight feet up above Faneuil Holes Coppola, which was itself seven stories above ground level.
City officials were immediately skeptical that someone could have gotten themselves up to the top of the coup. Pelo lifted the heavy metal vein four feet up off its spire and then made it safely to the ground.
There was plenty of motive for such a theft However, while officials called the weathervane priceless, the Globe quoted the owner of a company that had been making weathervanes for over a century as saying that the grasshopper would be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars on the black market.

[9:17] Perhaps surprisingly, there was an established black market for antique New England weather vanes in the 19 seventies.
The same edition of the globe that initially reported the theft of the grasshopper also outlined a pattern of thefts.
Skyrocketing prices for antique weathervanes in recent years have brought out ladder climbing thieves from Maine to the Carolinas.
The most recent such theft in Massachusetts was that of a grasshopper from the top of swamps. Get Town Hall on October 21st 1973.
Earlier, a grasshopper was swept from William Pump for its roof on Cape Cod, a cow from a top Fannie S Stories garage in Springfield, Vermont, and a rooster from an Ellenville, New York, office building.

[10:02] This apparent theft in 1974 wasn’t the first time Bostonians had looked up and seen that the golden grasshopper was going on.
There were two other major events in Boston history that caused the weathervane to disappear.
They occurred about six years apart and over 200 years before the 1974 theft.
Let’s start from the beginning unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last couple of years. You know that there’s been a lot of controversy surrounding Faneuil Hall lately, mostly because of its namesake in primary funders, deep ties to slavery.
Peter Faneuil was up to his eyeballs in the triangle tree,
shipping enslaved Africans to the Caribbean, sugar from the Caribbean to mainland British colonies, an American rum fish and produce to Europe to generate the capital to buy more enslaved Africans.
He became a wealthy philanthropist and in 17 40 offered to fund a new market building for the town of Boston.
Because the money used to construct Faneuil whole came from slave trading.
Activists believe the building should be renamed, with many advocating to name it after Boston massacre victim Christmas addicts.

[11:14] While I’m on board with tearing down the Statue of Columbus and replacing the embarrassing Emancipation Monument.
I’m much more personally ambivalent about renaming Faneuil Hall, not because I think Peter Faneuil was a great guy, but because I think the intervening 280 years have redeemed Faneuil Hall.
It earned a reputation as the cradle of liberty in the years leading up to the Revolutionary War, and during the decades before the Civil War, it became a major center of the abolition movement, hosting speeches by both black and white activists.
I’d argue that the name Faneuil Hall is much more closely associated with impassioned speeches by Theodore Parker and Frederick Douglass.
Then it is with a rich merchant who died almost 300 years ago.
And it’s remembered more is a site for organizing the attempts to free accused fugitive slaves by force than it is for how its founder and funder made his fortune.
However, with the current controversy around Peter Faneuil and Faneuil Hall, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that the hall was built in the midst of justice, much controversy just three years before work began.
On the market hall that would eventually bear Faneuil is name, Bostonians rioted and destroyed the town’s previous Central Market house.
The Diary of Thomas Prince, minister of Old South Church, has an entry from March 25th 17 37 this morning it to the town Doc Market House was torn down.

[12:44] That same day, theology student John Birt wrote in his own diary last night, the DOC market was torn down by a mob.
The next edition of the Boston newsletter confirmed these reports printing on Thursday night, the 24th instant, the middle market house in this town, together with several butchers.
Shops near the same were cut, pulled down and entirely demolished by a number of persons unknown, and several posts of the North Market House were also saw nous under the same night.

[13:18] The whole idea of an official centralized marketplace was controversial in Boston.
While it made commerce convenient, it also came with regulations.
Price gouging could be curtailed and quality could be enforced to some degree.
Market days were restricted to Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and peddlers were forbidden from roaming the streets, hawking their wares.
On any other day, the town voted to open three regulated markets on March 12th 17 34 and two years in. Two weeks later, the town tour one of them down.

[13:54] The 17 37 riot effectively ended Boston’s first experiment with regulated markets, but three years later, Peter Faneuil pick that scab by offering to fund a new one,
a 1994 study by the Boston Landmarks Trust described the 17 40 controversy.
Cognizant of the inflammatory environment in which is gift to the town was tendered. Faneuil attached three stipulations to his donation.
First, the town must pass a vote for the market. Second, the market must be regulated, and third, the town must never alter the buildings use from that of a market.
In accordance with these guidelines. On July 2nd, 17 40 a petition was submitted at the town meeting to consider Faneuil is proposal to erect a market at his own expense.
On July 14th Faneuil is offer was approved at a town meeting by a narrow margin of just seven votes.
The final tally was 367 yays toe 360 days.

[14:58] Quoting from the 17 40 select Mons minutes and handwritten notes created by Charles Bulfinch in 18 05 the report continues.
The new market was to be constructed a dock square on the parcel, which had served as the site of the middle market, erected in 17 34 on September 2nd, 17 40.
The Selectmen, accordingly met, marked in staked out a piece of ground for that use, measuring in length from the lower or easterly end, fronting the warehouses and merchants row 100 feet and in breath 40 feet,
which leaves a passageway of 30 feet wide between the towns.
Shops in the market house to be built during the initial stage of construction, The Selectmen appear to have been troubled by continued opposition, an effort to appease all parties.
They induced Faneuil to make an addition of a large hall over the market house for public meetings and for transacting the business of the town.

[15:57] While the building that would bear his name was still under construction. Peter Faneuil commissioned a local coppersmith to make a weathervane to go on the Coppola,
which, like the rest of the building, was designed by Scottish portraitist John Smi Bert.

[16:12] Faneuil was probably smitten with the Copper Smith’s latest design, a six foot long swallowtail banner made of copper that now adorns the spire atop Old North Church.
The artisan who created it was Shem Drowne, who was born in the main frontier in 16 83 but have been living in Boston since at least 17 12.
Shem Drowne is now considered the earliest maker of weathervanes to be active in America.
Hiss, first known work, portrayed a Native American man with a feathered headdress and flowing hair wearing a beaded necklace and feathered blowing cloth.
He’s holding a boat partially drawn with the oversized arrow pointing in the direction of the wind.
Known colloquially as the Indian archer, the weathervane was installed in 17 16 on the province house, a 16 79 mansion that had just been purchased to serve as the royal governor’s mansion.
It was used by Massachusetts governors until the turn of the 19th century, when the new state house on Beacon Hill opened in 17 98.
The building itself was torn down in 1922 to make way for avoid ville theater.
But Shem Drowne is weathervane, was rescued and now hangs in the main public stairway inside the Mass Historical Society.

[17:33] Along with the Indian archer and Old North swallowtail to Shem Drowne, weathervanes construed be found in the Boston area.
One is a 17 21 golden rooster on top of the first church in Cambridge, which is not to be confused with the first parish in Cambridge, right here on the corner.
The other is the grasshopper on top of Faneuil Hall, Peter Faneuil probably pattern the grasshopper weathervane after a similar vein on the royal exchange in London.
That building was the center of commerce in Old England, and he meant for his new market building to become the center of commerce in New England.
The grasshopper was made is ah, hollow copper form. Coated with 23 karat gold gilding.
It’s glowing eyes or glass door knobs.
The weathervane was installed in May 17 42 and after Peter Faneuil is death in 17 43 the building was formally named in his honor.

[18:33] One of the articles I read noted that the grasshopper weathervane is the only part of the building that remains unmodified from the original structure, as it was completed in 17 42,
most of the intervening changes or due to an 18 06 renovation by Boston’s most famous architect, Charles Bulfinch,
he added 1/4 floor doubled the within the height of the building and move the Coupal a from the center of the building to the end.
Not all the changes to Faneuil Hall through the ages, whereas deliberate as both inches renovation.
A diary entry written by John Adams on November 18th 17 55 records one of the unexpected events in the history of the grasshopper.
The future president had just turned 20 and he was working as a schoolteacher in Braintree, he wrote.
We had a severe shock of an earthquake. It continued near four minutes.
I was then at my father’s in Braintree and awoke out of my sleep in the midst of it all.
I was then at my father’s in Braintree and awoke out of my sleep. In the midst of it.
The house seemed to rock and real and crack as if it would fall in ruins about us.
Seven chimneys were shattered by it within one mile of my father’s house.
This was the very first entry in a diary that John Adams would keep until his death over 70 years later.

[20:00] In a 1980 article about the great New England quake in American Heritage magazine, Jordan House and Rights imaginatively.
Shortly before dawn, the five inch pine spindle of the Faneuil Hall wind vein snapped, dislodging the £30 gilded cricket that spun 10 feet above Boston’s marketplace roof.
Early risers first heard the baying of dogs. Then the roar.
Beneath the autumn moon, 1500 chimneys swivelled and spewed bricks.
The gable ends of brick houses that had survived the fire of 17 47 collapsed onto cobblestone.
As the contents of their homes toppled or migrated, families fled into the streets with streaks attributed by one observer less to their embarrassment at seeing their neighbors as it were naked,
than to their fears of confronting judgment day at last and in night clothes.

[20:57] One of John Adams professors at Harvard, was named John Winthrop, and he published a lecture containing the best scientific thinking about earthquakes of the era just a few weeks after the quake.
It’s pretty lengthy, so I’ll save it in case I do a future episode on earthquakes in Boston.
However, given the many handwritten notes in the margins of his copy, future President Adams was very interested in the topic of earthquakes.
Professor Winthrop summarized the effects of the earthquake, which were succinctly in a 17 57 letter saying, I shall now proceed to mention the principal effects of this earthquake, for which I confined.
Sufficient vouchers from many strange things have been related, which upon examination appear to be without foundation.

[21:42] Besides the throwing down of glass, pewter and other movable zin the houses, many chimneys were leveled with the roofs of the houses and many more shattered and thrown down in part,
some were broken off several feet below the top and by the suddenness and violence of the jerks, kidded horizontally an inch or two over.
So it’s a stand very dangerously.
Some others were twisted or turned round in part, the roofs of some houses were quite broken in by the fall of chimneys and the gable ends of some brick buildings thrown down and many more cracked throughout the whole country.
The stone fences were more or less thrown down.
The vein upon the public market house in Boston was thrown down the wooden spindle, which supported it about five inches in diameter, which had stood the most violent gusts of wind being snapped off.

[22:35] Modern analysis of the historical record, as well as physical evidence like sediments in lakes and ponds, indicates that the 17 55 New England earthquake was the strongest to occur in the region’s history.
Scientists estimate that it was around 6.0 to 6.3 on the Richter scale, and the epicenter was very nearby, only about 25 miles off the shore of Gloucester.

[23:00] While the damage was worst in Boston and Salem, the earthquake and it’s too strong. Aftershocks were felt as far away as the Caribbean.

[23:09] Some ministers in the town argued that the sudden proliferation of Benjamin Franklin’s lightning rods had caused the terrible tragedy by attracting electricity out of the air and transmitting it into the ground, where it slowly built up until it was violently released.
On the other side, Professor Winthrop argued that the intense heat of the Earth’s core caused volatile gases to build up and eventually explode.

[23:36] While this argument was being carried out from pulpits, in newspapers and on street corners, Shem Drowne got toe work, restoring the golden grasshopper and putting it back on its spire on Faneuil Hall.
The exact date that the grasshopper was reinstalled seems to be lost to history, but we do know the date of the next trauma to befall it.
Just six years later, the 1994 Boston Landmarks Trust report that I quoted from before says,
On the night of January 13th 17 61 fire swept through Doc Square, engulfing Faneuil Hall.

[24:14] The Boston newsletter of January 15th reported it crossed the street to that stately edifice, Faneuil Whole Market, the whole of which was soon consumed, accepting the brick walls which are left standing.
The loss of Faneuil Hallmark It must be great to this town as it was a noble building, esteemed one of the best pieces of workmanship here in an ornament to the town, going back to the report of the landmark commission.
The brick exterior wall survived. Other. The building’s interior and roof were destroyed.
The town voted to reconstruct the building, utilizing the brick shell, thus retaining the original dimensions in order to safeguard against future fires.
The building was repaired with a slate roof.
Stone trend was favored over wooden decorative elements.

[25:06] This time, instead of relying on the largess of a wealthy philanthropist, the town of Boston decided to raise the money to rebuild Faneuil Hall itself.
A lottery was proposed and the provincial government gave its assent.
John Hancock was one of the administrators of the lottery, and he signed each ticket Within a year. Sufficient funds have been raised, and the hall was rebuilt using the original brick show.
The hall was rededicated during a town meeting held there in 17 63.
In one of his most famous orations, James Otis dedicated the hall to the cause of liberty, saying no other constitution of civil government has yet appeared in the world so admirably adapted to those great purposes as that of Great Britain.

[25:55] Every British subject in America is of common, right by acts of Parliament and by the laws of God, nature entitled Toe all the essential privileges of Britain’s,
by particular charters, their peculiar privileges granted as injustice.
They might know it in consideration of the arduous undertaking to begin so glorious and empire is British. America is rising too.
Those jealousies that some weakened wicked minds have endeavoured to infuse with regard to the colonies had their birth in the blackness of darkness and his great pity they had not remained there forever.
The true interests of Great Britain and our plantations Air mutual and what God in his providence has united, let no man dare attempt to pull us under.

[26:44] At this, our first meeting in Faneuil whole since the fire. I take the liberty to express part of what you must all sensibly feel upon this occasion.
We are this day Met toe exercise one of our invaluable privileges. The choice of officers in this metropolis for the ensuing year.
Let us keep the public good only in view. Trinity, prejudices or animosities exist.
This is a proper season for their burial and everlasting oblivion.
Let not the poor envy the rich nor the rich despise the poor.
But let us remember We are all of one flesh and one blood and that the good of the whole is closely and intimately connected with the welfare and prosperity of each individual.

[27:28] When James Otis gave this famous speech, the golden grasshopper was once again watching over Faneuil Hall despite having been badly damaged by the fire and subsequent fall from the roof to the ground.
This time, Shem Drowne didn’t restore the weathervane. Instead, his son Thomas drowned, took care of the task.
By this time, Thomas was a respected maker of weathervanes himself.
You can see an example of his work hanging in the art of the Americas way at the M F A. It depicts a rooster.

[28:02] Thomas drowned didn’t record the exact date the grasshopper was put back into service, much as his father didn’t after the earthquake in 17 55.
However, after taking the weathervane down in 17 68 perform additional repairs, Thomas drowned began a tradition that still continues,
when he got ready to put the weathervane back up on top of the coup pilot Faneuil Hall, he tucked a note inside titled Food for the Grasshopper. The note read.
Shem Drowne made it May 25th 17 42 to my brethren and fellow grasshoppers fell in the year 17 55 November 13th early in the morning by a great earthquake by my old master.
Above again like to have met with utter ruin by fire by hopping timely for my public station came off the broken bones and much bruised,
carrot and fixed old master son Thomas drown June 28th 17 68.
And though I will promise to discharge my office yet, I shall very as the wind.

[29:12] With the inclusion of this note, the hollow body of the grasshopper would be treated as a time capsule for over two centuries to come.
On his website, Boston Tour Guide on Paul Revere descendant Ben Edwards has a handy timeline of the grasshopper is public service.
In it, he record states when maintenance was performed on the grasshopper and items were added to the time capsule.
Such dates popped up in 18 05 18 50 to 18 89 18 98 and 1952.
Each time The notes, newspapers, coins and other artifacts inside the grasshopper were examined, and some token of the times was added during the investigation into the theft of the grasshopper, The Boston Globe noted.
In July 1952 the grasshopper was removed from the roof and opened inside.
Among other things were copies of the Boston Newspapers of 18 89 an envelope containing one Chinese yen, various American silver coins and a card with the names of various city officials, including Boston Mayor Thomas Hart.

[30:23] Detective Paul Are Carol of the Bpd, was put in charge of investigating the 1974 theft.
He immediately came to the conclusion that whoever took the grasshopper had help either from the ground from the air.

[30:39] The January 6th Globe said it would be impossible to carry something that size off the roof.
I can’t see any human being climbing up there, either on the inside or the outside.
You’d have to be a monkey to do it.
Carol also said that a burglar alarm in the loft would have been tripped by anyone attempting to reach the grasshopper from inside.
This leads us to believe that either a helicopter or a crane was used, he said.
But it would take 100 foot crane to reach the weathervane, and we just haven’t located any that tall in the area.

[31:16] If I could just interrupt myself for a moment. Ah, 100 foot Crane is enormous.
Something tells me that if a gang of criminals had set up 100 foot crane right across the street from City Hall, somebody would have noticed.
At the very least, Inspectional Services would have come out and asked for the thieves building permit, the Globe continues.
Carol said he talked with several area helicopter rental firms yesterday, but added that none or suspects they usually supply an experienced pilot with every helicopter rental.
It would be very risky for them to try something like this, Carol said. He also contacted several military reserve units on the theory that the grasshopper could have been taken by a pilot with access to a military aircraft.

[32:06] Pilots in the Army, Navy and Coast Guard Reserve units are allowed to take helicopters to get their mandatory flight time in, he explained.
But it is difficult to get the records of the flights they make.

[32:19] I’m interjecting again here to note that a helicopter hovering low over Faneuil Hole would be even more noticeable than a crane,
when a helicopter delivered an animatronic Bronte’s sort of the Museum of Science in July 4th 1984.
Photos of the dinosaurs soaring over the Charles River made front pages around the world.
When a Sikorsky Sky Crane’s been a few days in September 2018 delivering H vac components to the roof of one Devonshire, social media was buzzing.
The local news blood Universal hub covered the event in exhaustive detail.
Helicopters used for mosquito spraying, Coast Guard rescues, news videography, medevacs and military overflights all generate intense public interest.
Now, now I’m gonna guess they would have done even more so in 1974 the real story in 1974 turned out to be somewhat more terrestrial.
About five days after Boston noticed that the grasshopper was missing, 38 year old Frank Price of Taunton called up the Plymouth County district attorney.
He said he had outstanding bench warrants and was wanted by the Abington police on drug charges.
He offered to turn himself in and said that he could trade information about the whereabouts of the weathervane for leniency.

[33:42] The next day, a friend of Price told the police that she believed the grasshopper had gone missing late Thursday night, the night before its absence was discovered that Ropes had been involved in its disappearance and that she believed it to be hidden somewhere.

[33:57] It turned out that Frank Price was a steeple jack, someone who would climb steeples, towers or smokestacks to build or repair though a detective and taught and remembered that when Frank Price was low on cash,
he used to come into the station and ask if he could paint a chip on the flagpole.
We would say, Okay, and he’d shinny up the pole in just a few seconds.

[34:22] Detectives in Taunton weren’t the only ones who remembered prices, dexterity, confidence and lack of fear of heights.
When his name was brought up, officials in Boston’s real property department checked the records and discovered that he’d been paid 100 $75 in 1966 to re gild the grasshopper.
An official who preferred to remain nameless told the Globe Price is the only one who’s ever done any work on the grasshopper.
He’s the only one we could get for the job.

[34:55] Almost exactly a week after the grasshopper went missing, it came back.
On Thursday, January 10th. An attorney acting on behalf of a client he declined to name suggested that Boston police check a certain locker in the Park Square bus station at about 1 p.m.
They did so discovering a three foot long spire topped with golden sphere that had previously topped the grasshopper.
Another account says that the attorney asked to meet the detectives in Park Square, and then he showed up with the spire wrapped in plain brown paper.
Whichever version is correct, the Plymouth County D A. Confirmed to the press that the anonymous tipster was none other than steeple Jack Frank Price.

[35:38] At 5 p.m. The bpd got another call. One assumes the delay was to give prices attorney and the D A a chance to come to a deal.
This time the police were given the exact location of the grasshopper was stashed.
While detectives have been prepared to go to the ends of the Earth in search of this artifact, the tip led them to a destination. Closer to home, the grasshopper was tucked away in a corner of the Faneuil whole Coppola.
Apparently, Price had scaled the coupal A in the middle of the night, climbed at the spire and come back down with the £80 copper and gold grasshopper.
Rather than trying to carry it back toe Abington or taunting without anybody noticing, he simply put it into a corner and covered it with some old flags and bunting that were kept there.
On July 23rd 1974 specialists from Skyline Engineering took the restored grasshopper to the top of Faneuil Hall, climbing out on the roof of the Coupal. Oh, they put the weathervane back onto the spire.
This time they installed a locking mechanism, so the next Frank Price couldn’t just walk off with it.

Wrap-Up

[36:50] To learn more about Boston’s Golden grasshopper, check out this week’s show notes at hub history dot com slash 196,
I’ll have links to photos of Faneuil Hall and the Grasshopper, as well as original news reports about the 17 37 destruction of Boston Central Market accounts of the 17 55 Earthquake by John Adams and John Winthrop,
in the Landmark Commission report, I quoted from,
I’ll also linked to the key 1974 Boston Globe stories chronicling the investigation of the grasshopper heist.
And of course, we’ll have links to information about our upcoming event. And Quincy is market, this week’s Boston Book Club pick.

[37:35] If you’d like to leave us some feedback, you can email us at Podcast, a hub history dot com.
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You can also listen on your favorite smart speaker. If you have an Amazon echo, just say, Alexa, play the Hub history podcast.
Or, if you have a Google home, you can say.

Music

Jake:
[38:31] Apple podcasts is the most influential podcast out.
If you subscribe on Apple podcasts, please consider writing a summary for view.
If you do, drop me a line and I’ll send you a hub history sticker is a token of appreciation.

Music

Jake:
[38:47] That’s all for now. Stay safe out there, listeners.