Boston (48)

On August 15, 1945, as Bostonians celebrated the end of World War II, a well-dressed woman asked a teenage boy to watch her newborn baby. She promised to return after...

The name Mattapan originated with the Neponset Tribe of the Massachusett Indians, a tribe of the Massachusetts confederation of Native Americans. For well over 200 years, the area remained farms...

The Christmas Tree Shops was an icon of New England, with stores that offered a diverse assortment of merchandise from seasonal decorations, home decor, housewares, food and giftware, and just...

The Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston has long been a thriving nexus of cultures, with residents of all walks of life, including numerous workers in the medical field, making it...

In his new book East Boston Through Time, Anthony Sammarco outlines a neighborhood of the city of Boston which was once known as Noddle’s Island, one of five islands that...

An exploration of Boston's hidden history through its cemeteries, revealing the city's complex relationship with death and memorialization. One of the oldest cities in America, Boston's story is one richly...

Known in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as the Jamaica End of Roxbury, the neighborhood of Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, evolved from agrarian farmland for over 200 years into one of...

Jutting out into Boston Harbor is the Nahant peninsula, the smallest township in Massachusetts. Despite its size, it was selected to house the most powerful seacoast weaponry ever conceived by...

From the Mayflower Pilgrims and the founding of Plymouth Colony to the high-tech firms and medical institutions surrounding Boston today, the last 400 years in Massachusetts has seen growth, prosperity,...

In 1659, the General Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony banned by law the celebration of Christmas as it was deemed to be a time of seasonal excess with no Biblical...

Boston has been called the Hub of the Universe, the Athens of America, and the Cradle of Liberty. It is a city renowned for literature and education, rich in colonial...

The Church of the Holy Spirit was founded by Annie Lawrence Rotch as a memorial to her father, Benjamin Smith Rotch. She said in her booklet, Early Days of the...

When Samuel Stillman Pierce opened his store in 1831, he vowed, “I may not make money for the next five years, but I shall make a reputation.” Pierce went on...

Noah Webster identifies Halloween as “October 31: observed especially with dressing up in disguise, trick-or-treating, and displaying jack o'lanterns during the evening.” Concise and correct, but it is so much...

Kenmore Square and The Fenway of Boston Through Time chronicles the history and development of an area of the city of Boston that only began in the early nineteenth century....

The Other Red Line is literally the connecting point between Scollay Square and the Combat Zone, the two preeminent adult entertainment districts in Boston. With burlesque houses such as the...

Beacon Hill is not just the location of the Massachusetts State House but is a neighborhood which has evolved over the last two centuries as a thriving nexus of cultures....

Noah Webster describes Easter as “an annual Christian festival in the spring, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.” Though a solemn religious holiday preceded by forty days of Lent and a...

Noah Webster described Thanksgiving as “The act of rendering thanks or expressing gratitude for favors or mercies,” and it has been celebrated nationally on and off since 1789. Governors of...

Since the publication of Shrewsbury Through Time in 2013, a number of collections of historical photographs have come to light. Photographs from the Harlow family collection help to document the...

In Massachusetts there were, at one time, three institutions built specifically for the care and education of the intellectually and physically disabled. Set in the rolling hills and bucolic farmland...

Captain Cassin Young served with distinction in the US Navy until his death in the battle of Guadalcanal in January 1942. His fine example of courage and sacrifice was immortalized...

When Abington was founded in 1812, it was much larger than it is now. At that time, it encompassed both East Abington and South Abington, which today are Rockland and...

Chatham's location, spectacular coastline, bountiful resources of seafood, and a temperate climate attract people. First it was the Monomoyick tribe, then in the 17th century, English settlers who gave it...

When Rockland was king, shoes were its currency. As part of a seven-town shoe manufacturing district that saw its heyday between the 1880s and 1920s, Rockland helped make one quarter...

In his new book Anthony M. Sammarco outlines the Back Bay of Boston, a neighborhood of the city that is not just the quintessential Victorian neighborhood of the 19th century,...

Brighton and Allston Through Time outlines a neighborhood of the city of Boston which was once known as Little Cambridge before it became an independent town from Cambridge in 1807....

By the mid-nineteenth century 80 percent of Charlton land was used for agricultural purposes. The railroad arrived in 1838 giving the farmers new markets. The dairy industry, from which Charlton...

In his new book Anthony M. Sammarco outlines the Back Bay of Boston, a neighborhood of the city that is not just the quintessential Victorian neighborhood of the 19th century,...

Milton Cemetery's evolving landscape and storied headstones vividly reveal centuries of Milton's diverse historic legacy. Laid out in 1672 as the Field of Reedman, Milton Cemetery evolved over the next...

A veteran journalist’s engaging memoir recounting four decades in newspapers, from sports and politics to Hollywood and the industry's decline. Boston's Fading Ink: A Journalist's Path Through the Good Years...

Captain Cassin Young served with distinction in the US Navy until his death in the battle of Guadalcanal in January 1942. His fine example of courage and sacrifice was immortalized...

St. Michael's Church in Milton, Massachusetts, was built in 1898 as an "early English style of architecture," composed of rough coursed granite blocks set in a random ashlar design with...

An exploration of the chilling haunted history of New England where ghostly tales are connected to pivotal events and figures from America's past. The New England area, with its rich...

Inferno: The Great Boston Fire of 1872 was written to commemorate the 150th anniversary of a devastating fire that destroyed sixty-five acres of land in Boston, from Washington Street, between...

Valentine’s Day Traditions in Boston is a fun and interesting way to recall the holiday from the exchange of Valentine cards in day school to the cards, candy, and flowers...