Heirs on hand, gerrymandering draws a nod
Even in a city that loves history, this marker stands out. It does not honor the home of a fiery Colonial preacher, ancient burial ground, or beloved 19th-century brewery.
It commemorates a less exalted and often vilified milestone: In 1812, on the corner of Summer and Arch streets, Governor Elbridge Gerry and State Senator Israel Thorndike drew state senatorial districts, with one shaped like a salamander, to keep their party in power.
Gerrymandering was born.
And so yesterday, the great-great-great-grandsons of Gerry and Thorndike posed for photographs and applauded as they unveiled an official plaque. A dozen of their relatives cheered.
"Dubious, as they say, dubious," said a slightly bashful John Thorndike, 80, a retired investor from Dover. "But still hardly a month goes by that you don't hear the term on the radio."
"That's right!" chimed in Elbridge Gerry Jr., 74, a retired banker from Long Island.
Then he grumbled, "Mispronounced." His family, he said, wince every time they hear gerrymandering mentioned on the news. They pronounce the family name with a hard G sound.
Gerrymandering has been a seemingly intractable feature of the political landscape. In the centuries since its debut, the practice and the name have survived lawsuits, the advent of computer- aided mapping, and the vigilance of civil rights groups and partisan opponents.
The term most recently made headlines with the fall from power of Tom DeLay, former US House majority leader, and Thomas M. Finneran, former Massachusetts House speaker. Both were accused of rigging political districts to protect their allies.
"They were even talking about it in the French elections in the last two or three months," Thorndike said proudly. "Whenever you're drawing districts, something like this is bound to happen. And this is the term that stuck."
Gerry smiled.
"I guess Thorndike was too long," he said. "They couldn't call it a Thorndikemander."
Brian LeMay, executive director of The Bostonian Society, which sponsored the plaque, acknowledged that the ceremony was a departure from the great moments the society typically honors. But he argued that it was no less important to recall gerrymandering.
"Boston's history consists of many things -- and not all of them are proud moments -- but they're all part of the history of the city," LeMay said. "And this one has had national and international significance right here on this spot."
The 10-inch-square green plaque, made of ceramic-coated metal, is mounted on the side of a vacant Summer Street building across from a
In 1812, the spot was home to Israel Thorndike's Federal-style townhouse, where he and Gerry devised their district map.
One district on the North Shore was so contorted to protect a fellow member of the Democratic-Republican Party (also known as the Jeffersonian Democrats) that its outline resembled a salamander.
Lore says that when the celebrated portrait artist Gilbert Stuart saw a copy of the map in a newspaper office, he drew a head, wings, and claw on it. Gerry's political foes dubbed the beast a Gerrymander.
The plaque shows an image of the district, which stretched from Salisbury to Haverhill to Marblehead to Chelsea.
The inscription pays homage to the lines "oddly redrawn to provide advantage to the party in office" and "shaped by political intent, rather than any natural boundaries."
Elbridge Gerry Jr. said he prefers to celebrate his great-great-great-grandfather's noblest moment, signing the Declaration of Independence.
His forebear was also vice president of the United States when James Madison was president, though the elder Gerry died in office in 1814 .
But Thorndike said he was proud that his forebears played a role in political history.
The Thorndike family pushed for the recognition, starting about two years ago.
It wasn't difficult to persuade The Bostonian Society's committee of historians to give their unanimous approval.
"This one kind of tickled the fancy of members of the committee," LeMay said. "It was also in the news and had such an intimate Boston connection; it made it not so much of a hard sell."
Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com. 