The History of Massachusetts Avenue

Before European colonization, the region surrounding present-day Boston was inhabited by the Massachusett people, who established small, seasonal communities in present-day Boston. In 1630, settlers led by John Winthrop arrived, and found Shawmut Peninsula nearly empty of Native people. Most had died of European diseases borne by earlier settlers and traders. Archaeological excavations have unearthed one of the oldest fishweirs in New England, located on Boylston Street, which Native people constructed as early as 7,000 years before European arrival in the Western Hemisphere. The first European to live in what would become Boston was a University of Cambridge-educated Anglican cleric named William Blaxton. He was most directly responsible for the foundation of Boston by Puritan colonists in 1630, after Blaxton invited one of their leaders, Isaac Johnson, to cross Back Bay from the failing colony of Charlestown and share the peninsula with him. In September 1630 Puritans made the crossing to present-day Boston. Puritan influence on Boston began even before the settlement was founded with the 1629 Cambridge Agreement, which created the Massachusetts Bay Colony and was signed by the colony's first governor, John Winthrop. Puritan ethics and their focus on education also influenced the city's early history. In 1635, America's first public school, Boston Latin School, was founded in Boston. Boston's oceanfront location made it a lively port, and the town engaged in shipping and fishing during the colonial era. Boston was a primary stop on the Caribbean trade route and imported large amounts of molasses, which led to the creation of Boston baked beans. Boston's economy stagnated in the decades prior to the American Revolution. By the mid-18th century, New York City and Philadelphia both surpassed Boston in wealth. During this period, Boston encountered financial difficulties even as other New England cities were growing rapidly. Boston played a central role in the American Revolution. Many crucial events of the American Revolution and subsequent American Revolutionary War occurred in or near Boston, where the city's revolutionary spirit against Britain's colonial governance was demonstrable and ultimately inspiring to the rest of the Thirteen Colonies. The British responded by sending two regiments to Boston in 1768 in an attempt to quell the revolt, but the increased British military presence in Boston only ended up further inflaming the Boston colonists. In 1770, during the Boston Massacre, British troops fired into a Boston mob that was protesting their presence. The massacre forced the British to withdraw their troops and helped fuel revolutionary sentiment in the colonies. During the siege of Boston from April 19, 1775, to March 17, 1776, New England-based Patriot militia impeded movement by the British Army. Sir William Howe, then commander-in-chief of British forces in North America, led the British army in the siege. On June 17, the British captured Charlestown in present-day Boston during the Battle of Bunker Hill during which the British Army outnumbered Patriot militia. But the British sustained irreplaceable casualties, turning the Battle of Bunker Hill into a pyrrhic victory for the British. The Battle of Bunker Hill also demonstrated the skill and training of the Patriot militia, whose stubborn defense made it difficult for the British to capture Charlestown without suffering even further casualties. On June 14, 1775, in an effort to unify the Revolutionary War effort, the Second Continental Congress, convening in the colonial-era capital of Philadelphia, founded the Continental Army and unanimously appointed George Washington as its commander-in-chief. Washington then immediately departed Philadelphia for Boston, where he arrived on July 2, 1775, and led the newly-formed Continental Army in the siege. Fighting was limited to small-scale raids and skirmishes, and the Continental Army faced challenges with a deficiency of munitions and supplies. Boston Neck, then narrow and only approximately 100 feet wide, impeded Washington's ability to invade Boston, which led to a prolonged stalemate between the Continental Army and British forces. A young officer, Rufus Putnam, came up with a plan to make portable fortifications out of wood, which were erected on the frozen ground under cover of darkness. Putnam supervised the effort, which successfully installed the fortifications and dozens of cannons on Dorchester Heights that Henry Knox laboriously brought through the snow from Fort Ticonderoga. The following morning, the astonished British Army awoke to see a large array of cannons bearing down on them. General Howe is believed to have said that the Americans had done more in one night than his British Army could have done in six months. The British Army responded by attempting to launch a cannon barrage for two hours, but their shots could not reach the Continental Army's cannons at such a height. The British then gave up, boarded their ships, and sailed away from Boston in what has come to be known as "Evacuation Day", which is now celebrated in Boston annually on March 17. After the British retreat, Washington was so impressed with the effort of Rufus Putnam that he appointed him as his chief engineer. After the Revolution, Boston's long seafaring tradition helped make it one of the nation's busiest ports for both domestic and international trade. Boston's harbor activity was significantly curtailed by the Embargo Act of 1807, which was adopted during the Napoleonic Wars, and the War of 1812. Foreign trade returned after these hostilities, but Boston's merchants had found alternatives for their capital investments in the meantime. Manufacturing became an important component of the city's economy, and the city's industrial manufacturing overtook international trade in economic importance by the mid-19th century. The small rivers bordering the city and connecting it to the surrounding region facilitated shipment of goods and led to a proliferation of mills and factories. Later, a dense network of railroads furthered the region's industry and commerce. During this period, Boston also flourished culturally. It was admired for its rarefied literary life and generous artistic patronage. Members of old Boston families, later dubbed "Boston Brahmins", came to be regarded as the nation's social and cultural elites. They are often associated with the American upper class, Harvard University, and the Episcopal Church. Boston was a prominent port of the Atlantic slave trade in the New England Colonies, but was soon overtaken by Salem, Massachusetts, and Newport, Rhode Island. Boston eventually became a center of the American abolitionist movement. The city reacted largely negatively to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, contributing to President Franklin Pierce's attempt to make an example of Boston after Anthony Burns's attempt to escape to freedom. In 1822, At the time Boston was chartered as a city, the population was about 46,226, while the area of the city was only . In the latter half of the 19th century, the city saw increasing numbers of Irish, Germans, Lebanese, Syrians, French Canadians, and Russian and Polish Jews settling there. By the end of the 19th century, Boston's core neighborhoods had become enclaves of ethnically distinct immigrants with their residence yielding lasting cultural change. Italians became the largest inhabitants of the North End, Irish dominated South Boston and Charlestown, and Russian Jews lived in the West End. Irish and Italian immigrants brought with them Roman Catholicism. Currently, Catholics make up Boston's largest religious community, and the Irish have played a major role in Boston politics since the early 20th century; prominent figures include the Kennedys, Tip O'Neill, and John F. Fitzgerald.

Source: Wikipedia