One of Charlestown’s developers in the mid-1800s was Moses A. Dow, who built the double town houses at 1-4 Harvard Place.

Born in 1810 to a prominent New Hampshire family, Dow had many careers as a printer, as a newspaper publisher in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts and as a real estate speculator.

Although the papers that he founded failed – one after only three weeks – undaunted, Dow started the Waverly Magazine in 1850 and based his publishing business at the Waverly Hotel, which he had built on City Square.

His new idea, after so much experience, was brilliant. He invited young people to submit stories and articles of any subject. He didn’t pay for their writings but did publish them, and friends and relatives of the young people bought the magazine to read the articles.

It was an immediate success, and one report says that Dow earned $150,000 a year from Waverly Magazine.

About 1857 he bought the Mathew Bridge estate, a sizable tract that included Bridge’s large wooden house at 28 Harvard St. Dow tore it down and built a brick mansion for himself, according to the Boston Landmarks Commission.

He also built several houses on City Square, including the double house at 1 and 2 Harvard Place, which had been part of Bridge’s lower gardens.

The Landmarks Commission noted that when Dow bought the land, Harvard Street “had fallen on hard times.”

Nevertheless, Dow built stylish and substantial town houses along Harvard Street, Harvard Place and Washington Street, demonstrating “his faith and confidence in Charlestown as an abiding place.”

Today Harvard Street/Harvard Place is a fine area. The name is derived from John Harvard, one of Charlestown’s early settlers who lived near a fort that was built in 1629 on Town Hill, where the Harvard Mall is located.

Harvard died in 1638, just 14 months after his arrival from England. He left his library of 300 books and his fortune to the new university that was being planned in Cambridge.

He bequeathed his library of 300 books and his fortune to the new university that was being planned for Cambridge.

In 1639 the General Court of Massachusetts voted to name the school after Harvard, and in 1943 a Harvard grad donated Harvard Mall in his honor.