Citizen complaint of the day: Victorian-era coal chute causing problems on Kenmore Square sidewalk

A concerned citizen filed a 311 complaint this morning about a missing manhole cover outside 470 Commonwealth Ave. in Kenmore Square.

The Boston Water and Sewer Commission promptly responded - and said it's out of their hands because the missing cover is on a "coal chute; private property causing public hazard."

Bostonians, of course, long ago gave up heating their homes with coal, but being thrifty Bostonians, residents of areas like the Back Bay and the South End didn't just fill in the chutes. Instead, some simply covered them over with concrete or metal plates - while others, admiring the looks of the distinctive covers, left them in place.

You can find dozens of the things if you look down as you walk around Boston Proper. Some even still have their original "jewels," like this one on East Concord Street in the South End:

The idea behind the lenses was to provide natural sunlight during the day for the basements of the homes serviced by the chutes - in an era when you didn't want a lamp burning right next to all that flammable coal and coal dust coming down a chute. Many of the ones in Boston are based on the work of Thomas Hyatt, a New Yorker who was awarded a patent in 1845 for his "illuminating vault-cover."

In addition to leaving his mark on Boston streets, Hyatt became famous for getting thrown in jail refusing to testify before Congress after the execution of his friend, abolitionist John Brown.