Stony Brook Improvements -- Costs to Johann Friedrich's Land

On April 6, 1885, the city of Boston was concerned about gaining greater control of the course of Stony Brook and its tributaries that flowed within the city. They were focused on directing surface drainage and clearing out obstacles in the brook's flow. As a result, the city paid for improvements and maintenance to the brook, estimated at $330,906.62. However, the city wanted to have a fair balance between the expenses in the improvements being made and the individual estates that were benefiting from the greater care of Stony Brook (which they estimated benefited by a sum total of $104,025). So the city charged the estates for that increased value. Amongst these estates and land benefiting from the improvement were Johann Friedrich Kohlhepp's (Fred's father). The city documents note 2 parcel's of lands of belonging to his father, which benefited from the improvements by $160 and $80 respectively.

See Document 46 -- 1885. City of Boston. Order Making Assessment of Betterments for Stony-brook Improvement. 1885. Pages 11 and 14. There isn't a lot to gain from this, except that it does give us some size of the land the Fred's father owned. The first is listed as 16,025 square feet, and the other as 3,708 square feet. The lengthy descriptions of how the land was bordered really makes one wish they could see it on a map. Which just makes me want to see if I can find any historical maps of the area...