Boston

Introduction
Getting There
Getting Around
People
Neighborhoods
History
Government
Public Safety
Economy
Environment
Shoppping
Education
Health Care
Media
Sports
Parks and Recreation
Performing Arts
Libraries and Museums
Tourism
Holidays and Festivals
Famous Citizens
For Further Study

Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, North America

Founded: 1630; Incorporated: 1822
Location: Eastern Massachusetts on the Atlantic coast; United States, North America
Flag: Adopted in 1917, the flag features the city seal in white with a creamy beige border on a dark blue field.
Time Zone: 7 am Eastern Standard Time (EST) = noon Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
Ethnic Composition: White 63%; Black 26%; Hispanic origin (of any race) 11% (numbering 34,200 in 1990)
Elevation: 6.1 m (20 ft) above sea level. Much of Boston's once-hilly peninsula at the head of Massachusetts Bay was leveled to fill in the tidal flats of the Back Bay. Now the city lies mostly on gently rolling terrain.
Latitude and Longitude: 42°35'N, 71°06'W
Climate: Generally mild summers and cold, damp winters. The city's climate is influenced by the Atlantic Ocean, which moderates winter cold, increases fog and humidity, and makes Boston one of the country's windiest cities. With frequent spring and summer showers and regular snowfall in the winter, Boston is also one of the wettest cities in the country.
Annual Mean Temperature: January–1°C (30°F); July 23°C (74°F).
Seasonal Average Snowfall: Over 101.6 cm (40 in)
Average Annual Precipitation (total of rainfall and melted snow): 1,120 mm (44 in)
Government: Mayor and nine-member city council
Weights and Measures: Standard U.S.
Monetary Units: Standard U.S.
Telephone Area Codes: 617, 781
Postal Codes: 02101–02125; 02127–28; 02133–63; 02199; 02201–22

1. Introduction

The historic city of Boston is located in New England, on the Atlantic coastline of Massachusetts. One of the first European settlements in North America, the city has been called the "Cradle of the American Revolution." The home of Paul Revere, Boston was also the site of the Boston Tea Party and the Battle of Bunker Hill. In the nineteenth century, it became a major center for the abolitionist movement, as well as the focal point for an unprecedented flowering of American culture. For most of its history, Boston has been a major maritime and commercial center. The decades following World War II have seen the growth of the service and financial sectors and the tourist industry. Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) head the long list of colleges and universities that have made Boston "the college capital of the United States." By drawing an educated work force to the city, these schools helped make the Boston area one of the nation's leading centers for research-based high-technology industries.

2. Getting There

Boston is located on an extension of Massachusetts Bay and runs along the Charles River, which divides it from Cambridge to the north, the location of the area's two most prestigious institutions of higher learning—Harvard University and M.I.T. Major neighborhoods and other well-known parts of the city include the waterfront, the North End, the West End, Beacon Hill, Charles-town, the financial district, Downtown Crossing, Back Bay, the theater district, Chinatown, South Boston, and the South End.

Highways

Three major interstate highways lead to and from Boston: I-95 runs northward along the Atlantic coastline in New Hampshire and Maine, and south to Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and beyond; the Massachusetts Turnpike (I-90) runs westward from Boston through Massachusetts and connects with the New York State Thruway; and I-93 extends northward (the Northeast Expressway) to Canada and southward (the Southeast Express-way) toward Cape Cod.

Bus and Railroad Service

Buslines serving Boston include Greyhound, Bonanza, American Eagle, Concord Trailways, and Peter Pan. Boston's main bus station is the South Station Transportation Center at 700 Atlantic Avenue. Travel times to Boston via Greyhound are four to five hours from New York; 11 hours from Washington, D.C.; and 24 to 27 hours from Chicago. Amtrak passenger trains arrive and depart from South Station and Back Bay Station. Express trains travel between New York and Boston in four hours.

Boston Population Profile

City Proper

Population: 574,283 (1990 Census)
Area: 125 sq km (48.4 sq mi)
Ethnic composition: 63% white; 26% black

Metropolitan Area

Population: 5,690,000 (1990 Census)
Description: Five-city New England County Metropolitan Area (Boston-Worcester-Lawrence-Lowell-Brockton), including all or part of seven counties in Massachusetts and one in New Hampshire
Area: 16,800 sq km (6,450 sq mi)
World population rank ¹: 102
Percentage of total US population ²: 1.1%
Average yearly growth rate: 0.5%
Ethnic composition: 91% 2hite; 6% black; 3% other

1. The Boston metropolitan area's rank among the world's urban areas.
2. The percent of the total US population living in the Boston metropolitan area.

Airports

Major domestic airlines running flights to and from Boston's Logan International Airport include American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, and TWA. Many international airlines also fly directly into Logan, which is five kilometers (three miles) northeast of downtown Boston.

Shipping

With 40 kilometers (25 miles) of docking area, Boston's outstanding natural harbor is the largest port in New England, handling over 18 million metric tons (20 million tons) of freight annually. Port operations are managed by the Massachusetts Port Authority.

3. Getting Around

Many of Boston's major roads—including Beacon Street, Storrow Memorial Drive, Commonwealth Avenue, Marlborough Street, and Boylston Street—converge at the Boston Common, the famous park near the center of the city. The major arteries of Charles Street and Atlantic Avenue form a semi-circle bordering the city's wharves.

Bus and Commuter Rail Service

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA, known locally as "the T") operates buses, subway trains, and trolleys throughout Greater Boston, as well as running two ferry systems. Boston's subway system, the nation's oldest, was completed in 1897. The subway lines are color-coded Red, Green, Blue, and Orange, and cars run from 5:15 am until after midnight. A separate Purple Line, providing commuter rail service to the suburbs and beyond, extends as far as Providence, Rhode Island. The 85-cent fare is paid by purchasing a token. Trains are labeled "inbound" or "outbound," referring to their direction in relation to the Part Street station. Buses operated by the MBTA provide service across the city and to the suburbs; fares are 60 cents.

Sightseeing

Walking tours to Boston's compact historic sites are very popular. The best-known route is the Freedom Trail, which connects 16 historic sites in a space of less than five kilometers (three miles). Several companies offer hour-and-a-half to two-hour trolley tours. One-hour and hour-and a-half cruises of Boston's harbor are offered by Boston Harbor Cruises, Massachusetts Bay Lines, and the Charles River Boat Company, and longer cruises in the surrounding waters are also available.

4. People

In 1996 Boston ranked twenty-second in population among cities in the United States, with a population of 558,394, down 2.8 percent since the 1990 census when its residents numbered 574,283 (48 percent male, 52 percent female). The 1997 population for Boston's five-city New England County Metropolitan Area (NECMA), spanning both Massachusetts and New Hampshire, was 5.83 million, up from 5.69 million as of the 1990 census. Boston's population is projected to pass 600,000 by 2010 when a population of 6.5 million is projected for the NECMA.

Boston's original settlers were mostly of English origin and formed the basis of the city's old aristocracy, known as the "Boston Brahmins." By the middle of the nineteenth century, the first waves of Irish immigration began, made up largely of peasants fleeing the potato famine in that country. The Irish eventually became one of the city's major ethnic groups and gained a dominant position in its political life. The first Irish mayor of Boston was elected in 1885. In 1960 the scion of two prominent Boston Irish political families—John Fitzgerald Kennedy(1917–1963)—was elected president of the United States. In spite of the city's original Puritan roots, nineteenth-century waves of Irish, Italian, and French-Canadian immigration made Boston a strongly Catholic city. Today more than half the city's population is Catholic—the third-largest percentage of any city in the United States.

Escaped slaves arrived in Boston during the Civil War era via the Underground Railroad. In the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, Boston's Hispanic and Asian American populations grew. Many immigrants are drawn to the region by its educational institutions and high-technology jobs.

Boston is also home to a sizable Jewish community, which accounts for the single largest distinct religious denomination after the Catholics. Two other religions have their headquarters in Boston: the Unitarian-Universalist Association and the First Church of Christ, Scientist, founded in the city in 1894 by Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910). An imposing modern Christian Science complex, including a school, library, and worship facilities, was completed in the early 1970s.

5. Neighborhoods

Housing in Boston is notoriously expensive, particularly in the wake of a real estate boom that began in the 1980s, the effects of which have been felt as far away as Providence, Rhode Island. More than 60 percent of the city's residents live in apartments. As of the 1990 census, Boston had 250,000 housing units, with the lowest vacancy rate in the country (four-and-a-half percent). The median value of an owner-occupied home in 1990 was $161,400 (compared with the national average of roughly $100,000); median monthly rent was $546.

Boston's rich ethnic mix is reflected in the composition of several of its best-known neighborhoods. Beacon Hill has traditionally been known as the home of the Boston Brahmin elite. The major Irish population centers are Charles-town and South Boston ("Southie"). The North End is heavily Italian, and primarily black neighborhoods include Roxbury, Mattapan, and Codman Square. In recent years, sizable Hispanic populations have grown up in Jamaica Plain and Dudley.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority, established in 1957 by Mayor John B. Hynes, oversaw the development of the $150 million, 13-hectare (31-acre) Prudential Plaza, a shopping, residential, and hotel complex crowned by Prudential Tower, the 52-story building that gave the city a new skyline and was its tallest building until the completion of the John Hancock Tower in the 1970s. In the 1960s, the rundown Scollay Square area was razed to make way for Government Center, a complex of federal and state office buildings. Development of Boston's waterfront since the 1970s has seen the conversion of existing buildings into apartments and the erection of new high-rises.

6. History

The city of Boston was founded in 1630 by the Puritans, three years after the landing at Plymouth Rock. It was named for the town in Lincolnshire, England, from which some of the first settlers had come. Within the first decade, it was already flourishing: the nation's first school (1635) and first post office (1639) were founded, as well as Harvard University (1636), then called Harvard College and established for the training of future ministers. Within ten years, the population reached 16,000. With its excellent natural harbor, Boston became a center for shipping, shipbuilding, and other maritime occupations.

In 1684 the British revoked the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (of which Boston was already the capital), and the city came under direct British rule. In the following decades and throughout the eighteenth century tensions between Bostonians and their rulers—like tensions elsewhere in the colonies—grew. Known as the "Birthplace of the American Revolution," Boston was the site of the Boston Massacre (1770), the Boston Tea Party (1773), and the Battle of Bunker Hill (1775).

In the first half of the nineteenth century, shipping declined in importance as manufacturing grew. The first railroad connected Boston with inland areas of Massachusetts by the late 1830s. As home to William Lloyd Garrison's antislavery newspaper, The Liberator, during the same period, Boston became known as a center of the abolitionist movement, as well as the site of a great intellectual flowering that came to include such eminent figures as Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864), Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888), and Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894).

The city's new industrial base was assured of a steady supply of labor as new immigrants began arriving from Ireland by mid-century. Nearly 243 hectares (600 acres) were added to Boston with the reclamation of the Back Bay's lowlands between 1857 and 1894. In addition, Boston annexed the nearby towns of Roxbury, Dorchester, Charles-town, Brighton, and West Roxbury. Major cultural and scientific institutions founded in the following the Civil War included Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts General Hospital, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the New England Conservatory of Music.

The decline of Boston's industrial base in the early twentieth century was hastened by the Great Depression of the 1930s, although wartime mobilization the following decade brought with it a temporary reprieve. After World War II (1939–45), however, New England's traditional manufacturing industries—textiles, shoes, and glass—once again weakened, as did its shipping industry. However, its colleges and universities brought new life to the city as thousands of students enrolled on the G.I. Bill. (In its original version, signed into law in 1944, the G.I. Bill entitled anyone with 90 days of service in the U.S. military to one year of higher education. Each additional month of active duty earned a month of schooling, up to a maximum of 48 months.) In the post-war decades, Boston grew into a major financial and commercial center. A construction boom beginning in the late 1950s changed the city's skyline with the completion of the Prudential Center in 1959. In 1962 Scollay Square was torn down to make way for the new Government Center complex, and the restored Faneuil Hall Marketplace opened in 1976.

Racial tensions erupted into violence in the mid-seventies with the advent of court-ordered busing to desegregate the public schools, and whites organized a boycott of the schools. By the 1990s, "white flight" had given Boston a disproportionately large black population (25 percent) while many whites had moved to suburbs surrounding the city. In the 1980s and 1990s Boston became one of the country's foremost centers for high technology, with research-based firms clustered in a band along Route 128, which encircles the city.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a number of businesses left Boston and relocated to surrounding areas of Massachusetts and other states, driven out by high taxes and lease rates and a general downturn in the region's economy as the country slipped into recession and unemployment rose. However, the city effectively confronted its fiscal problems, and by 1993 a recovery was under way. In the same year, Thomas Menino became Boston's first Italian-American mayor.

In 1988 a massive highway construction project was approved to relocate the city's Central Artery (I-93) underground, reclaim the land above it, and link the Massachusetts Turnpike to Logan International Airport. The expected completion date was 2004.

7. Government

Boston has a mayor-council form of government, with a nine-member council elected at large and a strong executive branch. The mayor is elected to a four-year term; council and school committee members are elected for two years. Municipal elections, held in November of odd-numbered years, are nonpartisan. Boston has traditionally been a strongly Democratic city.

8. Public Safety

Established in 1838, Boston has the oldest police department in the United States. The city comprises 11 police districts. Boston has a relatively high crime rate. In 1995, the FBI crime index figure for Boston was 9,492, with the following breakdown into specific categories (all figures are per 100,000 population): all violent crimes, 1,737; murder, 17.4; rape, 68.8; robbery, 182.3; aggravated assault, 998.2; all property crimes, 7,755; burglary, 1,211; larceny, 4,721; and motor vehicle theft, 1,822.

In 1997 the police department moved into a new state-of-the-art headquarters at One Schroeder Plaza.

9. Economy

After its founding in 1630, Boston's economy was initially based on shipping and shipbuilding, which retained their central position until the nineteenth century when they were eclipsed by manufacturing, which was fueled by technological advances, the development of railroads, and a steady supply of immigrant labor. Boston's traditional industries started to decline in the twentieth century, especially during the Great Depression of the 1930s. However, there was an upsurge in industrial demand during World War II.

Since then new industries have helped keep Boston's economy strong, as well as spur growth in the service sector. The area circling the city along Route 128 has seen a proliferation of new research-based firms, becoming one of the nation's leading high-technology centers, with the nation's second-highest number of biotechnology firms. Boston has also grown into one of the country's leading banking, insurance, and investment centers. The largest employment sectors are service industries (especially health care), government (Boston's local government had a work force of 22,000 in 1995), and the financial sector. In 1996 Boston's labor force numbered 288,267, and unemployment stood at four-anda-half percent.

The Boston area is considered a leading manufacturing center, especially in electronics and computers. Other manufacturing industries in the region include machinery, motor vehicles and other transport equipment, ships, apparel, cameras, printing and publishing, chemicals, shoes, books, and textiles. Since the 1980s Boston has become known for its research-based high-tech industries, although these are largely located outside city limits along Route 128, which circles the city. Major companies headquartered in the Boston area include Raytheon, Gillette, Fidelity Investments, and Digital Equipment Corporation.

10. Environment

Located on the Shawmut Peninsula, at the mouths of the Charles and Mystic Rivers, Boston has an excellent natural harbor that has played a decisive role in its history as a shipping and shipbuilding center, and its access to the Atlantic Coast has contributed to the cosmopolitan character of the city. Once the maritime capital of the nation, Boston today remains its leading fishing port, with more than 907,200 kilograms (two million pounds) of fish caught in the surrounding waters annually.

At the time the city was founded, Boston's hilly peninsula was almost entirely surrounded by water and connected to the mainland by only a narrow strip of land. The area today known as Back Bay was composed of marshes and mud flats that were covered by water during high tide. In the early nineteenth century a dam was constructed there to generate power for the new mills that were being built. By the 1830s, the portion of the Back Bay just west of the Boston Common was filled in to create the land for the 10-hectare (24-acre) Public Garden. In the latter part of the century, additional land from the peninsula was leveled to fill in and reclaim more of the marshlands, adding significantly to the original area of the city.

In the 1880s a master plan for a network of city parks was laid out by esteemed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted (1822–1903). A large open park called the Fenway was created, linking the Boston Common and Public Garden with Franklin Park. The Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain, affiliated with Harvard University, was part of the network as well.

11. Shopping

Boston's traditional retail district is located in Downtown Crossing, in the heart of the city on the narrow thoroughfares of Washington, Summer, and Winter streets, which have been turned into a pedestrian mall. The most famous landmark here is the teeming and chaotic Filene's Basement—literally the lower level(s) of Filene's department store, where a wide variety of merchandise undergoes a series of markdowns the longer it remains on the shelves.

Today the most popular shopping district is Back Bay, which combines high-quality national retail establishments like Neiman Marcus, Lord & Taylor, and Saks Fifth Avenue with the trendy, upscale boutiques for which Newbury Street, in particular, is famous. Also found in this neighborhood are bookstores, coffee shops, galleries, and a variety of specialty stores, as well as numerous restaurants. Other distinctive shopping destinations are the restored Faneuil Hall marketplace and Harvard Square in Cambridge.

12. Education

Home of the nation's first school and first university (both established in the 1630s), Boston is renowned as an educational mecca. There are more than a dozen four-year institutions of higher learning within the city proper and many more in the surrounding area. Colleges and universities within Boston itself include Boston University, Northeastern University, the New England Conservatory of Music, Simmons College, and a branch of the University of Massachusetts, and Harvard's medical school. Across the Charles River in Cambridge are the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) and Harvard University. Other well-known institutions of higher education in the region include Tufts University, Boston College, Brandeis University, and Wellesley College.

Boston Latin School, opened in 1635, is the oldest public school in the United States. In 1998, the Boston School District was comprised of 129 elementary, middle, and high schools (72 elementary schools, 20 middle schools, seven K–8 schools, and 18 high schools), with a pupil/staff ratio of approximately 13 to 1. As of fiscal year 1999, public school enrollment was 63,000; the racial and ethnic breakdown was 49 percent black, 26 percent Hispanic, 15 percent white, and 9 percent Asian. Private and parochial schools enrolled 15,400 students. Boston was the first major city to provide Internet access to all public school students. The public school system employed 4,534 teachers, 536 administrators, and 450 support personnel.

The Boston school system's NetYear project was launched in 1996, with the goal of providing one computer for every four students by 2001.

13. Health Care

With world-class research institutions and more than a dozen teaching hospitals in the region, Boston is known for pioneering medical advances and quality health care. The number of patient-care physicians in 1995 was 18,449. Well-known medical facilities include Massachusetts General Hospital, New England Medical Center, the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and New England Deaconess Hospital. In 1997 Massachusetts General Hospital had 819 beds. It recorded 34,908 admissions and 657,777 outpatient visits, and employed a work force of 10,902. Hospital expenditures for the year totaled $705 million. The health-care industry is one of the city's top employers.

14. Media

Boston has two major daily newspapers: the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald. The Christian Science Monitor, a national newspaper that appears daily on weekdays, is also published in Boston. Well-known magazines published in Boston include Boston Magazine and The Atlantic. The city has nine television stations, including affiliates of the four major commercial networks and the Public Broadcasting System (PBS). PBS station WGBH is recognized nationally as a leading outlet for educational and cultural programming.

15. Sports

Boston has professional major league baseball (the Red Sox, American League), football (the New England Patriots), basketball (the Celtics), and hockey (the Bruins). The Red Sox won their only World Series in 1918. Between 1918 and 1986, they played in four more World Series contests, losing all of them in the seventh game.

Boston's major sports venues are Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox, and Fleet Center, site of the Celtics' and the Bruins' games. The Patriots play at Foxboro Stadium. Horse racing takes place at Suffolk Downs. Greyhound racing at Wonderland Park is also a popular sport. Boston is also famous as the site of the Boston Marathon, held annually on the third Monday in April.

16. Parks and Recreation

Boston's best-known park is the 19-hectare (48-acre) Boston Common, located in the heart of the city, along with the 10-hectare (24-acre) Public Garden. The land for the Common was purchased by the city in 1634 from a property owner for $150. Today's visitors to the Common jog, skate, or play frisbee on a historic site that has, in its time, served as a pasture, execution and drill ground, and football field. Also within the city limits, located in the Back Bay, are the Back Bay Fens, which extend from Beacon Street to Brookline Avenue, and the Esplanade along the Charles River, site of the summer Boston Pops concerts, which take place in the Hatch Shell. Other notable parks in the Boston area include Harvard's 90-hectare (223-acre) Arnold Arboretum and Franklin Park and Zoological Garden, covering 213 hectares (527 acres).

17. Performing Arts

In addition to its historic attractions, Boston boasts numerous cultural attractions. The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), founded in 1881, is considered one of the country's top orchestras. During the regular season, it performs in Symphony Hall. In the summer the BSO is in residence at the Tanglewood Festival in the Berkshires, a popular destination for Bostonians, who can also hear concerts by the Boston Pops at the Hatch Shell on the banks of the Charles River in Back Bay. Boston is also a thriving concert venue for recitals and chamber music concerts by top-notch local performers and major touring artists, and is noted for its active early-music scene. The New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall, noted for its exceptional acoustics—and completely renovated in the early 1990s—is the scene of numerous student and faculty concerts and recitals, as well as performances by other artists. Boston is also home to three opera companies and the Boston Ballet, the fourth-largest ballet company in the nation. In addition, the city has several professional theater troupes, including the American Repertory Theater, the Huntington Theater Company, and the Boston Shakespeare Company.

18. Libraries and Museums

The reference and research collections at the Boston Public Library are ranked third in the country, following only those of the New York and Los Angeles public libraries. The library, founded in 1852, employs a staff of 489 and circulates some 2.4 million items annually. Its book collection includes 6.7 million volumes. The library's main building in Copley Square is an architectural landmark. Built in Italian Renaissance style in 1895, it boasts murals by John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) and other beautiful works of art, as well as a picturesque courtyard. A modern atrium-centered addition, the McKim building, was completed in 1972 and provides a dramatic contrast to the original building. The John F. Kennedy Library holds the presidential papers of the late president.

The Museum of Fine Arts is one of the finest in the country; many rank it second only to New York's Metropolitan Museum. Built in 1909, it added the new West Wing, designed by renowned architect I. M. Pei (b. 1917), in 1981. The museum is especially noted for its Asian and Old Kingdom Egyptian collections, but there are many masterpieces by European and American painters as well, including a 1796 portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart (1755–1828). Boston's other museums include the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Harvard's Fogg Art Museum, and the Science Museum.

19. Tourism

Boston has a combination of attractions that make it one of the nation's most popular tourist destinations. More than ten million people visit the city annually. In 1995 Boston attracted 970,000 foreign visitors, ranking tenth among the nation's cities in this category. Boston's most famous tourist attractions are its historic sites, many of which can be found on the Freedom Trail, covering some four kilometers (two-and-a-half miles) of downtown Boston. It begins at the Boston Common, a large park in the heart of the city, which also offers the legendary Swan Boat rides on an artificial pond. Among the historic sites included on the trail are the State House, the Park Street Church, the Old South Meeting House, the Old State House, Paul Revere's house, the Old North Church, and the Bunker Hill Monument. The Black Heritage Trail, another popular walking tour, celebrates Boston's history as a center of the abolitionist movement and includes stops on the Underground Railroad and abolitionist meeting places. Other popular Boston tourist sites include the restored Faneuil Hall marketplace; the redeveloped waterfront; the 226-meter-high (740-foot-high) observation deck of the John Hancock Building, Boston's tallest structure; and Harvard Square in Cambridge.

Convention facilities in Boston include the John B. Hynes Veterans Convention Center, the World Trade Center, and the Bayside Exposition Center.

20. Holidays and Festivals

January
Chinese New Year celebration featuring parade and fireworks (Chinatown)
Boston Wine Festival

February
Black History Month
Beanpot Hockey Tournament

February-March
International Cultural Festival

March
New England Spring Flower Show
St. Patrick's Day Celebration

April
Boston Marathon
Red Sox opening day
Patriots Day

April-October
Boston Pops Concerts in the Hatch Shell

May
Boston Kite Festival
Lilac Sunday (Arnold Arboretum)
Street Performers Festival (Faneuil Hall Marketplace)

June
Art Newbury Street
Boston Globe Jazz & Blues Festival

July
Boston Harborfest
Central Square World's Fair

August
Heritage Days
Italian-American Feasts

September
Boston Film Festival
Cambridge River Festival

October
Columbus Day Parade
Head of the Charles Regatta
Harvard Square Oktoberfest

November
Christmas Crafts Show

December
Boston Common Tree Lighting
Boston Tea Party Reenactment
First Night Boston

21. Famous Citizens

Samuel Adams (1722–1803), Revolutionary War leader.

Larry Bird (b. 1956), star player for the Boston Celtics.

Louis D. Brandeis (1856–1942), first Jew appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Charles Bulfinch (1763–1844), architect of numerous Boston landmarks.

William Ellery Channing (1780–1842), founder of American Unitarian Association.

Julia Child (b. 1912), culinary expert and television personality.

John Singleton Copley (1738–1815), first great North American portrait painter.

Dorothea Dix (1802–1887), tenacious investigative reporter.

Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910), founder of the Christian Science church.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), writer, philosopher, and leading Transcendentalist.

Arthur Fiedler (1894–1979), Boston Pops conductor and organizer of the Esplanade concerts.

William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879), abolitionist writer and editor.

John Hancock (1737–1793), first signer of the Declaration of Independence.

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963), president of the United States (1960–1963).

Malcolm X (1925–1965), Black Muslim leader.

Cotton Mather (1663–1728), Congregational clergyman known for sermons.

Frederick Law Olmsted (1822–1903), landscape architect who planned Boston's park network.

Paul Revere (1735–1818), Revolutionary War era patriot.

Ted Williams (b. 1918), Red Sox baseball hero.

22. For Further Study

Websites

Excite Travel. About Boston. [Online] Available http://www.city.net/countries/united_states/massachusetts/boston. (accessed October 14, 1999).

Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau. Welcome to Boston USA. [Online] Available http://www.bostonusa.com. (accessed October 14, 1999).

Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism. Massachusetts: Take a Real Vacation. [Online] Available http://www.mass-vacation.com. (accessed October 14, 1999).

Massachusetts Port Authority. Mass port. [Online] Available http://www.massport.com. (accessed October 14, 1999

Government Offices

Boston Redevelopment Authority
Boston City Hall, Ninth Floor
Boston, MA 02201
(617) 722-4300

Mayor's Office
City of Boston
One City Hall Square
Boston, MA 02108
(617) 725-3914

Tourist and Convention Bureaus

Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau
P.O. Box 990468
Prudential Tower, Suite 400
Boston, MA 02199
(617) 536-4100; (888) SEE-BOSTON

Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism
100 Cambridge St., 13th Floor
Boston, MA 02202
(800) 227-6277; (617) 727-6525

Other Resources

The Bostonian Society
200 Washington St.
Old State House
Boston, MA 02110
(617) 242-5610

Boston Public Library
666 Boylston St.
Boston, MA 02117
(617) 536-5400

Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce
125 High St.
Boston, MA 02110
(617) 426-1250

Publications

Boston Business Journal
200 High St.
Boston, MA 02110

The Boston Globe
P.O. Box 2378
Boston, MA 02110

Boston Herald
P.O. Box 2096
Boston, MA 02106

Boston Magazine
300 Massachusetts Avenue
Horticulture Hall
Boston, MA 02115

Books

Appleberg, Marilyn J. I Love Boston Guide. Illustrations by Albert Pfeiffer. 3rd ed. New York: Collier Books, 1993.

Campbell, Robert. Cityscapes of Boston: An American City Through Time. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1992.

Formisano, Ronald P. Boston Against Busing: Race, Class, and Ethnicity in the 1960s and 1970s. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991.

Frost, Jack. Boston's Freedom Trail: A Souvenir Guide. 2nd ed. Chester, CT: Globe Pequot Press, 1986.

Harris, Patricia, and David Lyon. Boston. 2nd ed. Oakland, CA: Compass American Guides, 1999.

Hitzemann, Marietta, and Ed Golden. Newcomer'sHandbook for Boston. 2nd ed. Chicago: First Books, 1998.

Kennedy, Lawrence W. Planning the City Upon a Hill: Boston Since 1630. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1992.

Lukas, J. Anthony. Common Ground. 1st ed. New York: Knopf, 1985.

Meerwood, Anne. Frommer's Irreverent Guide to Boston. New York: Macmillan, 1999.

Moore, Barbara W. and Gail Weesner. Back Bay: A Living Portrait. Boston : Century Hill Press, 1995.

Morris, Jerry. The Boston Globe Guide to Boston. 4th ed. Old Saybrook, CT: Globe Pequot Press, 1999.

O'Connor, Thomas H. Boston Catholics: A History of the Church and its People. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1998.

O'Connor, Thomas H. South Boston, My Home Town: The History of an Ethnic Neighborhood. Boston: Quinlan Press, c. 1988.

Waldstein, Mark. Mr. Cheap's Boston. Holbrook: Adams Pub., 1995.

Wilson, Susan. Boston Sites and Insights. Boston: Beacon Press, 1994.

Videorecordings

Boston: The Way It Was. Produced and written by Lorie Conway. Boston: WGBH Educational Foundation, 1995.