New Chardon Street was originally
Chardon Street
, connecting Bowdoin Square to
Merrimac
and
Portland Streets
(where
Congress Street
now intersects). The street was originally "laid out through the Parker-Gerrish pasture in 1682. It was called "the highway to Jackson's distill house," "the lane to the mill pond," and in 1785, "Chardon's lane."
[1]
Chardon Street was named after a
Huguenot
descendant, Peter Chardon, who acquired the property on the street in 1733
[1]
and "built a house on the corner of the street bearing his name. He was a man of polished manners, and an influential merchant of the old time. A school-house was erected in 1804, at the corner of Chardon and Hawkins Streets."
[2]
Hawkins Street was also the site of many
distilling
houses.
[2]
In the nineteenth century, Chardon street was home to Chardon Street Chapel (1838), a large church founded by
Joshua V. Himes
, an early leader of the
Advent Christian Church
.
[3]
The full length of the street had
streetcar
tracks added between 1872 and 1874; they were gone by 1925.
The street stayed in the same configuration until the 1960s, when
Government Center
was built and the streets in the area were reconfigured. Chardon Street was realigned and renamed New Chardon Street, made one-way westbound, and extended east to
Washington Street North
and the
Central Artery
as a continuation of
Cross Street
.
As part of the
Big Dig
in the early 2000s, the road was made two-way, along with easier access to the
Sumner
and
Callahan Tunnels
at its east end provided by new ramps.