Malcolm Edwin Nichols (May 8, 1876 – February 7, 1951) was an American journalist and politician. He served as the Mayor of Boston in the late 1920s, the most recent Republican to do so.
Early life, education, and journalism
Nichols was born on May 8, 1876, in Portland, Maine, He graduated from Harvard in 1899. 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. covering both houses of the legislature, and later a political reporter for The Boston Post. He was elected to the Boston Common Council, serving from 1905 to 1906. He was later elected a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives representing Ward 10 of Boston from 1907 to 1909. His district represented the Back Bay. In the state house, he was a member and clerk of the House Committee on Metropolitan affairs. serving from January 4, 1926, to January 6, 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. He and his first wife had three children: sons Clark and Dexter, and daughter Marjorie. His first wife died in mid-1925, and in 1926, he married Edith's twin sister, Carrie Marjorie Williams.
By the time he was elected mayor, Nichols had moved to the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of the city.