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| Boston Apartment Locator Services : Boston Apartments |  | Contents | |
| History |
| European settlement |
| Founded on September 17, 1630, on a peninsula called Shawmut
by the Native Americans who lived there, Boston is named after
Boston, England, a town in Lincolnshire from which several prominent
colonists originated. The Puritans, who were part of the Winthrop
Fleet led by John Winthrop to Boston, were not Separatists like
the Pilgrim Fathers, but chartered colonists. Boston's deep
harbor and advantageous geographic position helped it to become
the busiest port in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, surpassing
Plymouth and Salem. From its founding until the 1760s, Boston
was America's largest, wealthiest, and most influential city. |
| Colonial Boston |
| Early colonists believed that Boston was a community with
a special covenant with God. Winthrop's sermon, "a City
upon a Hill," captured this idea. This influenced every
facet of Boston life, and made it imperative that colonists
legislate morality as well as enforce marriage, church attendance,
education in the Word of God, and the persecution of sinners.
These values molded an extremely stable and well-structured
society in Boston. Puritan values of hard work, moral uprightness,
and education remain a part of Boston's culture. Both the first
school in America, Boston Latin School (1635), and the first
college in America, Harvard College (1636), were founded in
the early days of Boston. |
The18th-century Old State House in Boston is surrounded
by tall buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries. |
|
| On June 1, 1660, Mary Dyer was hanged on Boston Common for
repeatedly defying a law banning Quakers from the colony. She
is considered to be the last religious martyr in North America.
A statue of Mary Dyer now stands in front of the Massachusetts
State House |
| Boston in rebellion |
| Boston played a key role in the sparking both the American
Revolution and the ensuing American Revolutionary War. The Boston
Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, and several of the early battles
of the Revolution, (such as the Battle of Lexington and Concord,
the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston) occurred
near or in the city. During this period, Paul Revere made his
famous midnight ride. |
| Today Boston is sometimes called the Cradle of Liberty
and its historic sites remain a popular tourist draw. The city
has attempted to preserve its colonial and revolutionary past,
from the harboring of the USS Constitution to the many famous
sites along the Freedom Trail. |
| 19th-century Boston |
| After the revolutionary war, the city became one of the world's
wealthiest international trading ports, exporting products such
as rum, fish, salt and tobacco. It was chartered as a city in
1822, and by the mid-1800s it was one of the largest manufacturing
centers in the nation, noted for its garment production, leather
goods, and machinery industries. |
| In 1831, William Lloyd Garrison founded The Liberator, an
abolitionist newsletter, in Boston. It advocated "immediate
and complete emancipation of all slaves" in the United States,
and established Boston as the center of the abolitionist movement |
| A poem about Boston, attributed to various people, describes
the city thus: "And here’s to good old Boston/The land of the
bean and the cod/Where Lowells talk only to Cabots/And Cabots
talk only to God." While wealthy colonial families like the
Lowells and Cabots (often called the Boston Brahmins)
ruled the city, the 1840s brought waves of new immigrants from
Europe. These included large numbers of Irish people and Italians,
giving the city a large Roman Catholic population. It is currently
the third largest Catholic community in the United States (after
Chicago and Los Angeles). |
| The first medical school for women, The Boston Female Medical
School (which later merged with the Boston University School
of Medicine), opened in Boston on November 1, 1848. |
| The Great Boston Fire of 1872 started at the corner of Summer
Street and Kingston Street on November 9, and in two days destroyed
about 65 acres (260,000 m²) of city, 776 buildings, much of
the financial district and caused US$60 million in damage. The
first "Great Fire" of Boston destroyed 349 buildings on March
20, 1760. |
1888 German map of Boston |
|
| In 1879, Mary Baker Eddy founded the Church of Christ, Scientist
in Boston. |
| "As a literary centre Boston was long supreme in the United
States and still disputes the palm with New York," says Baedeker's
United States (1893). "A list of its distinguished literary
men would be endless; but it may not be invidious to mention
Hawthorne, Emerson, Longfellow, Holmes,
Lowell, Everett, Agassiz, Whittier,
Motley, Bancroft, Prescott, Parkman,
Ticknor, Channing, Theodore Parker, Henry
James, T. B. Aldrich and Howells among the
names more or less closely associated with Boston." Most of
the great publishing houses of Boston have been acquired or
moved, leaving little but the magazine The Atlantic Monthly
(founded 1857) and the publisher Houghton Mifflin to bear witness
to Boston's former publishing glory. Despite this, many renowned
authors continue to live and work in Boston |
| The first vaudeville theater opened on February 28, 1883 in
Boston. The last one, the Old Howard in Scollay Square, which
had evolved from opera to vaudeville to burlesque, closed in
1953. |
| On September 1, 1897 the Boston subway opened as the first
underground metro in North America. Today it is affectionately
known as "The T" and is run by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation
Authority. |
Scollay Square, Boston, in the 1880s |
|
| From the late 19th century until the mid-20th century, the
phrase "Banned in Boston" was used to describe a literary work,
motion picture, play, or other work prohibited from distribution
or exhibition. During this time, Boston city officials took
it upon themselves to "ban" anything that they found to be salacious,
immoral, or offensive; theatrical shows were run out of town,
books confiscated, and motion pictures were prevented from being
shown, sometimes stopped in mid-showing after an official had
"seen enough". This movement had several effects. One was that
Boston, arguably the cultural center of the United States since
its founding, now came across as less sophisticated than many
lesser cities without such stringent censorship practices. Another
is that the phrase "banned in Boston" began to be associated
in the popular mind with something sexy and lurid; many distributors
of such works were happy when they were banned in Boston, as
it gave them more appeal elsewhere; many distributors also advertised
that their products had been banned in Boston when in fact they
had not to increase their appeal. |
| 20th-century Boston |
| On January 15, 1919, the Boston Molasses Disaster occurred
in the North End. Twenty-one people were killed and 150 injured
as hot molasses crushed, asphyxiated, and cooked many of the
victims to death. It took over six months to remove the molasses
from the cobblestone streets, theaters, businesses, automobiles,
and homes. Boston Harbor ran brown until summer. |
| On August 23, 1927, Italian anarchists Sacco and
Vanzetti were sent to the electric chair after a seven year
trial in Boston. Their execution sparked riots in London, Paris
and Germany, and helped to reinforce the image of Boston as
a hotbed of intolerance and discipline. |
| On November 28, 1942, Boston's Cocoanut Grove nightclub was
the site of the deadliest nightclub fire in United States history,
killing 492 people and injuring hundreds more. |
| By 1950, Boston was slumping. Few major buildings were being
built anywhere in the city. Factories were closing and moving
their operations south, where labor was cheaper. The assets
that Boston had -- excellent banks, hospitals, universities
and technical know-how -- were minimal parts of the U.S. economy.
To combat this downturn, Boston's politicians enacted urban
renewal policies, which resulted in the demolition of several
neighborhoods, including the Old West End, a largely Jewish
and Italian neighborhood, and Scollay Square. In their places
went additions to Massachusetts General Hospital, and Government
Center. These projects displaced thousands, closed hundreds
of businesses, and provoked a furious backlash, which in turn
ensured the survival of many historic neighborhoods. |
| Between June 14, 1962 and January 4, 1964 thirteen single
women between the ages of 19 and 85 were murdered in Boston
by the infamous Boston Strangler. |
Aerial view of the Back Bay and Cambridge |
|
| In the 1970s, after years of economic downturn, Boston boomed
again. Financial institutions were granted more latitude, more
people began to play the market, and Boston became a leader
in the mutual fund industry. Health care became more extensive
and expensive, and hospitals such as Massachusetts General,
Beth Israel Deaconess, and Brigham and Women's led the nation
in medical innovation and patient care. Higher education also
became more expensive, and universities such as Harvard, MIT,
BU and Tufts attracted hordes of students to the Boston area;
many stayed and became citizens. MIT graduates, in particular,
founded many successful high-tech companies, which made Boston
second only to Silicon Valley as a high-tech center. |
| In 1974, the city dealt with a crisis when a federal district
court judge, W. Arthur Garrity, ordered busing to integrate
the city's public schools. Racially-motivated violence erupted
in several neighborhoods -- many white parents resisted the
busing plan. Public schools - particularly public high schools
- became scenes of unrest and violence. Tension continued throughout
the mid-1970s, reinforcing Boston's reputation for discrimination. |
| On March 18, 1990, the largest art theft in modern history
occurred in Boston. 12 paintings, collectively worth over $100
million, were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
by two thieves posing as police officers. As of 2004 these paintings
have not been recovered. |
Boston's Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge is a result of the Big
Dig |
|
| As of 2005, the city is in the final stages of the Central
Artery/Tunnel project, nicknamed the Big Dig. Planned and approved
in the 1980s under Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis, with
construction beginning in 1991, the Big Dig moved the jumble
of elevated highway that made up Route 93 underground, produced
the Zkim Bunker Hill Bridge, and will create over 70 acres (280,000 m²)
of public parks in the heart of the city. The Big Dig should
ease Boston's notorious traffic congestion; however, it is now
the most expensive construction project in United States history,
and currently the most expensive construction project in the
world. |
| 21st-century Boston |
Downtown Boston as seen from Cambridge |
|
| Recently, Boston has experienced a loss of regional institutions
and traditions, which once gave it a very distinct social character,
as it has become part of the more homogenized BosWash megalopolis.
Examples include: the acquisition of the Boston Globe by The
New York Times; the loss of Boston-headquartered publishing
houses (noted above), the acquisition of the century-old Jordan
Marsh department store by Macy's; the increasing rarity of ice-cream
shops using cone-shaped scoops; the financial crisis currently
being experienced by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society;
and the loss, to mergers, failures, and acquisitions of once-prominent
financial institutions such as Shawmut Bank, BayBank, Bank of
New England, and Bank of Boston. In 2004, this trend continued
as Charlotte-based Bank of America acquired FleetBoston Financial
and P&G has announced plans to acquire Gillette. |
| Despite these losses, Boston's ambiance remains unique among
world cities, and in many ways, has improved in recent years
-- racial tensions have eased dramatically; city streets bustle
with a vitality not seen since the 1920s; crime and poverty
remain remarkably low for an American city; and once again,
Boston has become a hub of intellectual, technological, and
political ideas . |
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