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Boston

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This is an intermediate page for Boston.

Stephensonia

Daniel is very surprised by the unexpected appearance of Enoch Root on the doorstep of the Massachusetts Bay Colony Institute of Technologickal Arts on October 12, 1713.

Authored entries

Community entry: Boston's History as cherrypicked from Wikipedia

Boston and Charlestown in the 18th Century

Boston and Charlestown in the 18th Century
Map seem to possess details from Sir Robert Dudley's cartographic efforts
Slighty larger version available here

Native Americans had been living on the Boston peninsula for more than 2,000 years when Captain John Smith, famous for helping lead the settlement of Virginia to the south, sailed into the harbor in 1614. Smith mapped the area between Cape Ann to the north and Cape Cod to the south and called it New England. The Indians had called it Shawmut. John Smith named the largest river in the area, the Charles, after his Prince. In 1620, the Puritans, chased out of England for their religious beliefs, landed their ship, the Mayflower, in nearby Plymouth, and founded the first permanent European settlement in the Boston area. Founded in 1630, Boston is named for Boston, England, the town in Lincolnshire from which the Pilgrim Fathers originated, which in turn had been named after Saint Botolph, the patron saint of fishing. Boston grew rapidly and became wealthy as the primary port for ships bound to Great Britain and the West Indies from the colonies. During the first 200 years, the city was primarily composed of English Puritans.

Bostontoday.jpg

Boston's Charles River Today

A lone scholar and clergyman from the Plymouth settlement named William Blackstone set out for solitude and found himself, his bull, and several hundred books at the foot of what is known today in Boston as Beacon Hill. In 1630, Blackstone lured other Puritans with promises of of ample supplies of fresh water. He soon found himself smack in the middle of a bustling community, including among his new neighbors the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, John Winthrop. Bostonians would build more than 730 ships to fuel its ocean economy. At the same time, explorers ventured north for timber, west to expand the city limits, and south to chart the unknown.

Purchasing Blackstones original field in 1634, Boston now had a large tract of "common" ground, atop which was situated a powder house and other means of defense. This tract would later evolve into present day Boston Common, and later expand to include the Public Gardens.

The Boston Latin School, the nations oldest, was founded in 1635. Its alumni include such key figures in American history as Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin, and Cotton Mather. Across the Charles River in Cambridge, Harvard University, the oldest college in North America, was founded the next year.

Fire has been a part of the Old State House's history from the beginning. A blaze in 1711 destroyed the meeting house that once stood on the site, also burned a third of the town. It revolutionized the Old State House, which was constructed in 1713 to replace one destroyed by flames, was itself damaged by fires in 1748, 1832 and 1921. On March 20, 1760 the "Great Fire" of Boston destroyed 349 buildings. Later fires would not be be seen via the Puritan interpretation of fires as messages from an angry God. Enoch notes the signs the 1711 fire left on the remaining older buildings ...

Revolution Forward

Boston played a key role in the American Revolutionary War. The Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill and several of the early battles of the revolutionary war (such as the Battle of Lexington and Concord) occurred near the city. During this period, Paul Revere made his famous ride, as well as one previous that is less noted, but perhaps just as important.

It was the home of Patriots such as Revere, Samuel and John Adams, John Warren, and the birthplace of Benjamin Franklin. Samuel Adams founded the Sons of Liberty, considered by many in todays world of governent-approved history as a rabblerousing group of near-terrorists. As a result Boston is known as the Cradle of Liberty and historic sites remain a popular tourist draw to this day.

After the Revolutionary War, the city continued to develop as an international trading port, 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, leather goods, and machinery industries.

While wealthy families able to trace their roots back to the Puritans continue to be powerful in the city (some called the Boston Brahmins), by the 1840s waves of new immigrants began to arrive from Europe. These included large numbers of Irish, 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 on Lincoln Street on November 9 and in two days destroyed about 65 acres of city, 776 buildings, much of the financial district and caused US$60 million in damage.

On September 1, 1897 the Boston subway opened as the first underground metro in North America.

The first vaudeville theater opened on February 28, 1883 in Boston.

In 1950, Boston was slumping. Few major buildings were being built anywhere in the city. Factories were closing up, and moving their operations south, where labor was cheaper. The assets Boston had -- excellent banks, hospitals, universities and technical knowhow -- were minimal parts of the U.S. economy.

But all that changed in the next 50 years and Boston boomed. Financial institutions got far more latitude, many more people began to play the market, and Boston became a leader in the mutual fund industry. Health care became far more extensive and expensive, and hospitals such as Massachusetts General became major profit centers in the city. Universities, such as Harvard, MIT, Boston College, Boston University and Tufts University brought thousands of bright students to the area; many stayed and became taxpayers.

Finally, MIT and other universities became a source of high-tech talent. Many MIT graduates, in particular, founded successful high-tech companies in the Boston area. Powerful politicians such as John and Teddy Kennedy and Tip O'Neill made sure Boston got plenty of federal investment.

High tech, education, finance and medical research, and health care are key industries and Boston has world-renowned cultural attractions (including the Museum of Fine Arts and two famous orchestras, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops Orchestra).

The largest art theft in US history occurred in Boston on March 18, 1990 when 12 paintings, collectively worth $100 million, were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum by two thieves posing as police officers. As of 2003 these paintings had not been recovered.

Boston enjoys an intense rivalry with New York City, New York. This rivalry is considered to be the most infamous in the United States. It is most intensely embodied on the baseball field in the rivalry between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. This is largely attributed to the "Curse of the Bambino", which, legend has it prevented Boston from winning the World Series since 1918, when Babe Ruth was traded to the Yankees. The Curse was broken in 2004, a world series losing streak of 86 years came to a close. Incidentally, the airliners that struck the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, both flew out of Boston's Logan Airport.