Quincy, Massachusetts; A Political History, 1889-2000

Quincy, MA: Francis X. McCauley, 2000. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good. xii, 353, [1] pages. Minor cover wear. Signed, with sentiment, by the author on the fep. Contents include a Special Dedication, Introduction, Acknowledgments, Original Charter, Plan A 1917-1949, Plan E 1950-1957, Plan A Phase Two 1958-1999, Quincy School System. Miscellaneous Photographs, Quincy Voter Registration, Women in City Government 1889-1999, What's in a Name?, Mayoral Hall of Fame, Mayoral Photographs, The 20 year Club, Individuals Who Polled Over 20,000 Votes, Special Notes, Selected Biographies, Quincy Officials Service History, Epilogue, Frank McCauley's Election Record, Bibliography, and Every Name Index. Frank McCauley was Quincy mayor from 1982 to 1989 and spent a total of 32 years in public office. McCauley grew up in Houghs Neck, served a year in the Navy between World War II and the Korean War and then attended Boston College. He first ran for a seat on the Quincy City Council as a political unknown in 1959, and finished last. In his last time on the ballot, in 2003, he was the top vote-getter in the city council race. McCauley served in all four elective office in Quincy: ward Councillor, councillor at large, school committeeman, and mayor. He rose to the presidency of a local bank. He later served as the Executive Director of the State Retirement Board. Mayor James A. Sheets asked him to writ this history which covers the period after Quincy changed from a town meeting form of government to that of a city. "I've had a great life and I just wanted to share some of what I learned along the way," he told a Patriot Ledger reporter. Quincy is a U.S. city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts. It is the largest city in the county and a part of Metropolitan Boston as one of Boston's immediate southern suburbs. Its population in 2010 was 92,271, making it the eighth-largest city in the state. Known as the "City of Presidents", Quincy is the birthplace of two U.S. presidents—John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams—as well as John Hancock, a President of the Continental Congress and the first signer of the Declaration of Independence, as well as being the first and third Governor of Massachusetts. First settled in 1625, Quincy was briefly part of Dorchester before becoming the north precinct of Braintree in 1640. In 1792, Quincy was split off from Braintree; the new town was named after Colonel John Quincy, maternal grandfather of Abigail Adams and after whom John Quincy Adams was also named. Quincy became a city in 1888. For more than a century, Quincy was home to a thriving granite industry; the city was also the site of the Granite Railway, the United States' first commercial railroad. Shipbuilding at the Fore River Shipyard was another key part of the city's economy. In the 20th century, both Howard Johnson's and Dunkin' Donuts were founded in the city. In the 1870s, the city gave its name to the Quincy Method, an influential approach to education developed by Francis W. Parker while he served as Quincy's superintendent of schools. Parker, an early proponent of progressive education, put his ideas into practice in the city's underperforming schools; four years later, a state survey found that Quincy's students were excelling.
Quincy was additionally important as a shipbuilding center. Sailing ships were built in Quincy for many years, including the only seven-masted schooner ever built, Thomas W. Lawson. The Fore River area became a shipbuilding center in the 1880s; founded by Thomas A. Watson, who became wealthy as assistant to Alexander Graham Bell in developing the telephone, many famous warships were built at the Fore River Shipyard. Amongst these were the aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-2); the battleships USS Massachusetts (BB-59), now preserved as a museum ship at Battleship Cove in Massachusetts, and USS Nevada (BB-36); and USS Salem (CA-139), the world's last all-gun heavy warship, which is still preserved at Fore River as the main exhibit of the United States Naval Shipbuilding Museum. John J. Kilroy, reputed originator of the famous Kilroy was here graffiti, was a rivet inspector at Fore River. Quincy was also an aviation pioneer thanks to Dennison Field. Located in the Squantum section of town it was one of the world's first airports and was partially developed by Amelia Earhart. In 1910, it was the site of the Harvard Aero Meet, the second air show in America. It was later leased to the Navy for an airfield, and served as a reserve Squantum Naval Air Station into the 1950s. Quincy is also home to the United States' longest-running Flag Day parade, a tradition that began in 1952 under Richard Koch, a former director of Parks and Recreation, who started the "Koch Club" sports organization for kids and had an annual parade with flags.