Boston

I

Introduction

Boston, city, capital of Massachusetts, United States. Located on Boston Bay, Boston is the largest city in Massachusetts and New England and serves as the main commercial, financial, and cultural centre of the six-state region. The city is situated on a magnificent natural harbour opening on to Massachusetts Bay. Boston not only dominates much of New England but also exerts influence on the rest of the country through its banks, financial institutions, insurance companies, and educational institutions. Population 559,034 (2005 estimate).

II

Economy

Boston is a service-oriented city with over half of its labour force engaged in government, education, health, and other service jobs. Manufacturing is far less important and has been losing ground steadily since World War II. The once important fishing industry has experienced a drastic decline. The port of Boston was once the premier port of the country. Petroleum products and liquefied gases constitute the bulk of Boston's imports by weight, along with cement, salt, and gypsum. Petroleum products and ferrous scrap dominate the city's exports. In 1990 containerized general cargo constituted over 90 per cent of all cargo handled in the port. Printing and publishing are the leading manufacturing employers here, continuing the city's long tradition as a major book-publishing centre.

III

Places of Interest

The city abounds in historic sites, many of which are connected by the Freedom Trail, a self-guided walking tour followed annually by thousands of tourists. The Paul Revere House (c. 1680), the Old North Church (1723), Faneuil Hall (1742-1805), and the Old State House (1748) are high points on the route. The Boston Common is the oldest park in the United States. The architect Charles Bulfinch left Boston with a legacy of handsome Federal-style buildings. The Shaw Monument (1897) commemorates the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Regiment of the American Civil War. This unit, composed entirely of black soldiers and commanded by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, is memorialized in a relief sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Smith Court on Beacon Hill is the site of the African Meeting House (1806), the oldest surviving black church in the nation and a centre of the Abolitionists movement. The Black Heritage Trail originates in this area and includes the Hayden House, a station on the Underground Railroad. Boston's professional sports facilities include Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox baseball team, and the FleetCenter, used by the Celtics basketball team and the Bruins ice hockey team.

Boston is a centre of higher education in the United States, even more so if its adjacent suburbs are included. The two largest universities within the city itself are Boston University (1839) and Northeastern University (1898). Other schools include the University of Massachusetts in Boston (1964). In nearby Cambridge are Harvard University (1636) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1861). Tufts University (1852) is in Medford, Boston College (1863) in Newton, and Brandeis University (1948) is in Waltham. The Boston state school system is the oldest in the United States. The Boston Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1881 and ranks as one of the esteemed orchestras of the world. The celebrated Museum of Fine Arts, established in 1876, houses American, European, Egyptian, Chinese, and Japanese collections.

IV

History

Before the coming of European explorers and settlers, the Boston region was inhabited by several tribes of the Algonquian linguistic group, who resided along the coast and the interior river valleys. Archaeological evidence of their long settlement is widespread and abundant. The introduction of European diseases greatly reduced their numbers by the early 17th century. The first permanent settlers arrived in 1630. These first colonists were Puritans led by John Winthrop, who moved to Boston from nearby Salem. Their primitive settlement on a small peninsula (known as Shawmut to the Native Americans) was declared to be a town in the autumn of 1630 and was named after Boston, in Lincolnshire. The town was soon made the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and served as the springboard for other settlements in eastern Massachusetts. By 1750 Boston had grown into an important seaport and trading centre with industries associated with maritime activities. Colonial life was dominated by political quarrelling with England and by the strong secular power of the Congregational Church.

During the 1760s tension with England increased as the punitive Sugar Act (1764) and Stamp Act (1765) were enacted by the English Parliament. Violence erupted in the Boston Massacre of March 5, 1770, when five colonists were killed by British soldiers. The Boston Tea Party of December 16, 1773, was a protest against a British-imposed tax. Finally, a raiding force of British troops, marching from Boston, precipitated the battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. The Battle of Bunker Hill followed on June 17, 1775, in Boston; nine months later the British withdrew from Boston, leaving the town relatively unmolested for the duration of the war. Afterwards, new profitable trade routes were found and explored. During the second half of the 19th century Boston annexed several adjoining communities to increase its land area several times over. Waves of immigrants, first from Ireland during and after the Irish Famine and later from Canada, Russia, and Italy, streamed into the city. By 1900 Boston was the undisputed capital of New England and had achieved national status in finance, education, and medicine. By 1950, however, Boston's population had peaked at 801,444 and had begun a steady decline. The city nevertheless retained its importance as one of the United States’ leading university centres and a leading centre of medical research. In the 1990s a major urban project of placing the Central Expressway underground was initiated. Work commenced on the Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel project, also known as “The Big Dig”, in 1992. The project, which replaced the system of elevated highways built in the 1950s, was largely completed in 2006 at an estimated cost of US$14.6 billion, making it the most expensive such public-works project in United States history.