Josiah Quincy IV is elected mayor of Boston.

Quincy (W), with 5,33 votes, defeats William Durrell, with 1,647, and John Heard, with 1,354, and all others to win election to the first of three consecutive terms as mayor. The first and to date only son of a former mayor to win election to the office in Boston, he lives at 5 Park Street. Inaugurated on December 11, 1845, Quincy, a Prohibitionist, completes the effort to acquire Long Pond (Lake Cochituate, Algonquian for “The torrent” or “place of rushing water”) as a water supply for the city and presides over the Water Festival that celebrates water first being piped into Boston. Quincy is also credited with skillfully administering city finances, doubling the size of the police department, building new schools and a new county jail, and spending generously on city parks.