Living in Boston
Tax assessment records show two addresses for William Watkins during his time in medical school: 105 Kendall St. in 1874, and 27 Warwick St. in 1875.
These were probably boarding houses (a common habitation at the time) and the streets are within blocks of each other in Roxbury. William Watkins likely rented a room for the approximately six months of the school year and returned to his parents’ home in New Bedford between sessions.
Although there is no number 27 on Warwick St. today, nor a 105 on Kendall St., the closest numbers remaining are within a mile of the BU Medical Campus, which would have been an easy walk for a healthy young man.
We don’t know William Watkins’ rent, but the BUSM Catalog says that “[t]he cost of board and rooms need not exceed from five to eight dollars per week,” which would be about $500-800 a month today.
Tax assessment records found online via FamilySearch.org; cost of board and rooms from First Annual Announcement, 1873
The City of Boston, 1879
Subsection of 1879 map, showing the general area of William Watkins’ neighborhood outlined in green (specific street numbers could not be identified) and the School of Medicine outlined in blue.