Horticulture

The special committee to whom were referred the applications of H. W. Muzzey and J. G. Coolidge for payment of damages caused to their estates by grading Coolidge Avenue by the City of Cambridge in 1869 submit the following report.

In the year 1862, a claim made that this Corporation was bound to grade and repair the avenue was referred to Messrs. C. P. Curtis and E. S. Rand, and from their full examination and report we find, that the fee of the avenue is in this Corporation, that it was laid out as a private way in 1830 and has since been open to public travel. It is not a public way except by dedication. Since 1846 no way can be made public unless laid out by the public authorities. As the Corporation as lately as 1848 exercised its power of granting rights in the way it seems clear it has never become a public way by dedication.

The original agreement between [Businesses?] and Josiah Coolidge provided that this way should be kept open and unobstructed, and that said Coolidge his heirs and assign should at all times have free