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Malcolm Nichols
American politician From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Malcolm Edwin Nichols (May 8, 1876 – February 7, 1951) was a journalist and American politician. Nichols served as the Mayor of Boston in the late 1920s. He came from a Boston Brahmin family and is the most recent Republican to serve in that post.
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Early life, education, and career
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Nichols was born in Portland, Maine,[6] the son of Edwin T. Nichols and Helen J. G. (Pingree) Nichols. He graduated from Harvard in 1899.[7] After graduating from Harvard he moved to East Boston and later to Ward 10 in Boston, where he began politics by unsuccessfully running for the Boston Common Council as an opponent of Charles Hiller Innes's political machine. He later forged a friendship and alliance with Innes, the who was the local ward boss.[6]
Nichols was the Massachusetts State House reporter for The Boston Traveler,[8] covering both houses of the legislature, and later a political reporter for The Boston Post.[2]
Early public offices
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In addition to his newspaper work, Nichols was a lawyer and Collector of Internal Revenue.[9] He was elected to the Boston Common Council, serving from 1905 to 1906.[6][10] He was later elected a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives representing Ward 10 of Boston from 1907 to 1909.[6][11] His district represented the Back Bay. In the state house, he was a member and clerk of the House Committee on Metropolitan affairs.[1] He served as a member of the Massachusetts Senatein 1914, and again from 1917 to 1919.[6]
After leaving the state senate, Nichols became chairman of the Schoolhouse Commission of Boston. He was later made chairman of the city's Transit Commission. He served as the head of the city's Rent Commission amid a housing shortage, and its and Fuel Commission amid a coal labor strike.[6]
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Mayoralty
Nichols was elected Mayor of Boston in November 1925,[12] serving from 1926 to 1930.
Nichols' mayoralty saw the creation of two dozen new schools, 197 new streets, and the start of construction on the Sumner Tunnel. He focused on increasing Boston's municipal services, providing $3 million in raises to city workers. In 1926 he raised taxes but every year after saw cuts. He relaxed zoning restrictions in his 1928 pyramidal building statute, allowing the construction of many skyscrapers, such as the United Shoe Machinery Corporation Building, and creating a boom in their construction. He established the Boston Port Authority and Boston Traffic Commission. He attempted to combat congestion in the city by proposing a $5 to $10 annual parking fee, claiming that "four out of every five cars" parking in downtown Boston were owned by nonresidents. He also attempted to lower telephone rates.[7][10]
Nichols was unable to run for reelection in November 1929 due to a ban on consecutive terms at the time. He was succeeded by his predecessor, James Michael Curley.
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Later career
Nichols was an unsuccessful candidate for mayor in the November 1933, November 1937, and November 1941 elections.
Personal life
Nichols was married on December 16, 1915, to Edith M. Williams (died 1925).[13] He and his first wife had three children: sons Clark and Dexter, and daughter Marjorie.[6][13][14] His first wife died in mid-1925, leaving him a widowed.[6][15] In 1926 he married Edith's twin sister Carrie Marjorie Williams.[14] His son Clark acted as his best man and his son Dexter acted as the ring bearer.[13][16][17]
By the time he was elected mayor, Nichols had moved to the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of the city.[6]
Nichols was a Swedenborgian and of English ancestry. He was a member of the Freemasons, Shriners, and Elks. Nichols died of a heart attack, in Jamaica Plain, Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, on February 7, 1951. He was interred in Forest Hills Cemetery in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston.
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