On October 13, 1901, a crowd gathered to watch a hunt.

The Boston Globe recounted how “Bostonians left their business” to see a gardener try to remove three alligators from a public fountain.

The animals were not intruders, but a public display. The city budget that year included $30.91 for, “Food for cats, dogs, and alligators.”

If successful in his mission, the gardener would transport the gaters from their “happy summer home” to “winter quarters in the conservatories at Franklin park.”

One alligator was captured easily, “quite unconscious that anything in particular was happening.” The gardener carefully slipped a metal loop around the animal and pulled him to the shore, where an assistant was waiting.

The next two put up a fight. It took three hours to capture the biggest of them. By two o’clock that afternoon, the job was done.

William Doogue, superintendent of Common and Public Grounds from 1878 to 1906, owned the alligators. Doogue oversaw the Public Garden and introduced a variety of plants, including palm and banana trees, rubber plants, and canna lilies.

Doogue’s alligators didn’t appear to be a public nuisance, but several residents did write into the Globe to protest their being fed live rats and mice.

“Of course rats and mice must be killed,” an August 1901 Globe article quotes, “but why should they be killed in public for fun?” The writers went on to request, “Let us send away the alligators rather than permit people to feed them with poor little live victims.”

Today, the Public Garden hosts over 80 species of plants. Winding paths, a pond, and flower beds are distinct features, designed by architect George Meacham in 1859.

A few years earlier, Frederick Law Olmstead had begun designing Central Park in New York City. Olmstead went on to draw up Boston’s Emerald Necklace, a 1,100-acre chain of nine parks that include the Public Garden.

If Bostonians are itching to see alligators from a safe distance, the American alligator can be found at Stone Zoo in Stoneham. Franklin Park Zoo is home to a West African dwarf crocodile, but no gaters.

American alligators traditionally live in the wetlands of the southern United States.

At one point, they were on their way to extinction due to extensive hunting for skin and meat. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 made their hunting illegal.

Alligators are now a rare sight in Massachusetts, but they have made appearances. In 2014, a four-foot alligator was spotted in the Charles River. It was quickly captured by state Environmental Police. The animal had likely escaped after being kept illegally as a pet.

Gaters don’t make very good pets (they pack a powerful bite and live 30-50 years). They do, however, make for good entertainment in the middle of an early 1900’s work day. Or a good read from behind the secure pages of a newspaper.