Guide to Boston History Research

Frequently Asked Questions

Mill cove, 70 acres

South Cove, 86 acres

East Cove, 112 acres

Back Bay, 570 acres

Furthermore, a much larger amount of land has been added to Boston through annexation. Today, Boston covers approximately 24,000 acres.

When were Boston's neighborhoods annexed?

South Boston: March 6, 1804

Roxbury: January 6, 1868

Dorchester: January 3, 1870

West Roxbury: January 5, 1872

Charlestown: January 3, 1874

Brighton: January 5, 1874

Hyde Park: January 1, 1912

How long did it take to fill in the Back Bay?
Filling in of the Back Bay began in 1857, and proceeded westward until 1890. By 1860 the Bay had been filled in to Clarendon Street; by 1870 Exeter Street had been reached; by 1880 the Back Bay district was entirely filled.

African-Americans in Boston

Where did Boston's African-American community live, historically?
Since the 18th century, Boston's African-American community lived principally in the North End of Boston. As the black population increased in the early to mid-19th century, blacks began to move to the north slope of Beacon Hill. Here they lived in the area bounded by Pinckney Street on the north, from Joy Street to the Charles River. Beginning around the turn of the 20th century, African-Americans began moving from Beacon Hill to the South End, and by the 1930s, into the lower Roxbury area.

What sites are associated with the Underground Railroad in Boston?
The Lewis Hayden House on Beacon Hill, owned by noted abolitionist Lewis Hayden, provided refuge to escaped slaves in the 1850s. The Farwell Mansion in Boston was also used to harbor fugitive slaves during that time.

Immigration and Ethnicity

When did Irish immigration to Boston begin?
Irish had actually been emigrating to Boston ever since the mid-17th century. Beginning in the late 1820s and 1830s, the number of Irish immigrating to Boston increased significantly. The 1840s and 1850s, however, brought the largest waves of immigration, due to the Irish Potato Famine (famine conditions caused by a blight on potato crops, which were a basic staple of the Irish diet).

Where did the Irish live?
Irish immigrants crowded into neighborhoods along the waterfront, especially in the North End and the Fort Hill area. Beginning in the 1860s and 1870s, Irish began to move out of North End and Fort Hill, into the West End and the South End, later into South Boston, Roxbury, Dorchester, and Charlestown.

When did Chinatown develop?
Initially, Chinese immigration to Massachusetts came from California. The Chinese had come to America in the 1850s and 1860s to work in the Gold Rush and to help build the railroads. They then began moving east after construction of the railroads was completed. In 1875, a group of Chinese workers were brought in to break a strike in a shoe factory in North Adams. When the strike ended, many of these workers came to Boston. They arrived by train at South Station, and settled in the nearby South Cove area.

When did Italians and other immigrant groups arrive in Boston?
Beginning in the 1880s, the nature of immigration began to change. Previously, newcomers had almost exclusively been from England, Scotland, Ireland and northern parts of France and Germany. Beginning in the 1880s, however, people began immigrating in rapidly increasing numbers from southern and eastern Europe - Italy, Poland, Greece and Russia.

The first group of Jewish immigrants had been from Germany in the 1850s and 1860s. Jewish immigration increased in 1880s and 1890s, in response to pogroms in Poland and Russia. The height of Jewish immigration was in the 1890s.

Where did these immigrants live?
Italians settled in parts of the North End. Jewish immigrants initially settled in a small part of the North End, bounded by Hanover, Endicott and Prince streets. Jewish residents gradually moved into the West End, East Boston and parts of Roxbury and the South End. Italian Bostonians gradually moved into the West End.