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East Boston Our history is Boston’s history 

Contents Introduction  3 

Immigration  4 

Landscape & Environment  10 

Land Use  15 

Visitor Center & Museum Planning  23 

For Information, please contact: The East Boston Initiative  Ron Hardaway, Project Coordinator RHH118@comcast.net 617.569.1818  Susan Parker Brauner, Site Manager spbrauner@comcast.net or 617.568.1749 This work by Neenah Estrella-Luna is licensed under a Creative Commons

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

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The story of East Boston is one of change. Change in the land, change in the people, and change in technology.  The story of East Boston is the story of how Boston became, and continues to be, the center of an urban metropolis.

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    East Boston eventually became the center of Clippership building, shipping, and trade.  With that development, the population of East Boston became a working class neighborhood, attracting Irish, Norwegian, Canadian and Portuguese immigrants to work in its ports, shipyards and other industries.  

Originally, East Boston was a resort and residential suburb for Boston’s wealthy. 

Maverick House Source: Boston Public Library

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Source: The Story of the Irish in Boston: Together with Biographical Sketches of representative men and noted women . Written by William Taylor Jr (1889)

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East Boston was a primarily Italian immigrant and Italian‐American neighborhood for much of the 20th century.  Starting in the 1980s, the population of East Boston began to diversify again.  In the late 20th century, South‐East Asian and North African refugees and Latin‐American migrants moved into the neighborhood and are establishing roots here.

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Latin America79%

Europe9%

Asia6%

Africa5%

Northern America1%

Source:  2005‐2009 American Community Survey, US Census Bureau

The largest Latin American countries represented in East Boston are: El Salvador Colombia Brazil Mexico

More than half of European immigrants in East Boston are from Italy.

Morocco and Vietnam comprise the two largest African and Asian groups in East Boston.

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The islands that make up modern day East Boston were used by Native American Indians as hunting and fishing grounds.

The main island, Noddle Island, was a popular pastoral spot and an important source of wood for early colonists.  By 1833, most of the islands had been completely denuded of all but two trees.

In the early 19th century, General W.H. Sumner incorporated the East Boston Company, which created a street and development plan for Noddle Island.  That street plan, with very little change, continues to exist to this day.

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East Boston in the late 18th century East Boston Company’s street plan

1774 Hinton Map of Boston. Source: Leventhal Map Center, Boston Public Library

1834 Lewis Plan for the East Boston Company. Source: Leventhal Map Center, Boston Public Library

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East Boston as it exists today was created through wharfing out* and also by joining the original five islands through infilling.    

Infilling occurred slowly in the mud flats on the southeastern side.   

Noddle and Breed Islands were not joined until well into the 20th century. 

*Wharfing out is a specific form of landmaking in which the space in between docks is filled in as they extend into water. This is different than general infilling where land is made by depositing fill in tidal areas.

1893 Walker Map. Source: Leventhal Map Center, Boston Public Library

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Filling happened much more rapidly with the expansion of the airport.

Aerial Photograph of Boston Municipal Airport, 1932 Source: Boston Public Library

Aerial Photograph of Boston Logan Airport, 1950 Source: Boston Public Library

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Through the mid‐19th century, East Boston was the center of New England’s Clippership building.   

The ferries were the most important means of transportation between East Boston and Boston proper until the construction of the trolley tunnel in the early 20th century.    

When Eastern Railroad constructed the first rail line in 1838, there was only one pier in East Boston, located near Maverick Square.  Within a few decades, the entire waterfront transformed into a busy working port.

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East Boston was the center of Clippership building for almost a half century.

Ferries were the primary form of transit to and from East Boston’s busy ports and

north-bound rail lines. North Ferry. Source: Images of America, East Boston by Anthony Sammarco. (date unknown)

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Source: Boston Public Library

East Boston’s ports ….

… and rail lines…

… were very active well into the 20th century.

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Other industries located along the waterfront included coal storage warehouses , slaughterhouses, macaroni manufacturing companies, sugar processing facilities, metal works and foundries, and docks for lobster trawlers.

Source: Boston Public Library

Industry on Sumner at New and Border streets, 1911 Source: Boston Public Library

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East Boston had always had lively social institutions for all kinds of people.  Maverick Square hosted a popular hotel and lyceum.  There  

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were settlement houses to support the immigrant community.  The Paris Street Public Gymnasium and Baths is one of the oldest public gyms and bathhouses in the country.  Our library is also the first municipally supported branch library in the country.

Maverick Congregational Church, now the site of the East Boston Social Centers

East Boston branch library

Immigrants Home on Marginal Street

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Source: John Lynds, East Boston Times November 2, 2011

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Source: Boston Redevelopment Authority

“There are nine projects...that could provide new jobs, new housing, and new vibrancy..."  ‐Mayor Thomas Menino 

Source: John Lynds, East Boston Times December 7, 2011

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This is just a sample of the varied and complex history we would like to share at the East Boston Visitor Center and Museum.    We would like your help in telling this story.