This document provides an overview for planning a visitor center and museum in East Boston, Massachusetts. It summarizes East Boston's history from its origins as hunting grounds for Native Americans, to its development in the 18th century, to waves of immigration throughout the 19th and 20th centuries that transformed its population. Industries like shipbuilding and ports thrived before declining in the 20th century. The document outlines sections to be included in the center on topics like immigration, landscape/environment, land use, and outreach efforts.

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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 America
79%
Europe
9%
Asia
6%
Africa
5%
Northern America
1%
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
a
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.