Boston City Hall
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Boston City Hall is the seat of city government of Boston, Massachusetts. It includes the offices of the mayor of Boston and the Boston City Council. The current hall was built in 1968 to assume the functions of the Old City Hall.
Boston City Hall in February 2012
Governor Chub Peabody and Mayor John F. Collins at the building's groundbreaking
City Hall construction, c. 1960s
Boston City Hall, c. 1968
John F. Collins
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John Frederick Collins was an American lawyer who served as the mayor of Boston from 1960 to 1968. Collins was a lawyer who served in the Massachusetts Legislature from 1947 to 1955. He and his children caught polio during a 1955 outbreak. He was reliant on a wheelchair and crutches the rest of his life. After partially recovering, he ran for mayor in 1959 as an underdog. He successfully portrayed himself as outside corrupt "machine politics" and was elected.
Collins with Massachusetts U.S. Senator Leverett Saltonstall (1945–1967). In 1966, Collins ran to succeed Saltonstall when Saltonstall retired but lost in the Democratic primary to former Massachusetts Governor Endicott Peabody (who in turn lost to Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke).
Collins with Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth Kevin White (1961–1967). White would succeed Collins following the 1967 mayoral election.
Collins speaking at the groundbreaking of Boston City Hall in 1963.