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Boston (Largest city of New England)

the largest city of New England, the capital of Massachusetts and the county-seat of Suffolk co. It is situated at the Boston harbor and at the mouths of the Mystic and Charles rivers.

It is also on the New York, New Haven and Hartford, and the Boston and Maine railroads. It has regular steamship communication to all important domestic and manufactures include boots and shoes, and meats and dairy products. The foreign points. The city has an area of foundry and machine-shop products, 47.81 square miles. The city includes musical instruments, machinery, cloth- Boston proper, and the suburbs of East ing, iron ware, books, brass goods, con- Boston, South Boston, Roxbury, Dor- fectionery, rubber goods, and many chester, Charleston, Brighton, West Rox- others. It is also the greatest fish market bury, and other outlying communities. in the world. There were in 1917 2,- Within a 50 mile radius of the city more 653 industrial establishments. The value people live than in any other similar area of the products of industry in 1918 was in the United States with the exception $522,646,032. The capital invested in of New York. Old Boston or Boston the same year was $281,497,115. The proper occupies a peninsula of about 700 average number of wage earners emacres of uneven surface and contained ployed was 88,763. The total amount originally originally three hills, known as Beacon, paid in wages in 1917 was $68,002,939. Copp and Fort. From these hills the The value of the exports of the city in place was called by the early settlers 1919 was $334,554,031, and of the im- Trimountain, later changed to Tremont. ports $299,364,999, or a total trade of Extending about two miles along the $633,919,030. Boston ranks second among harbor and separated from Boston proper ping center and has an important seataining large docks and warehouses. The port. It ranks fourth in the total of city is connected with Charleston and foreign trade, in the amount of bank Cambridge by several bridges. The clearings, assessed valuation, and popuharbor is an indentation of Massachuby an arm of it, is South Boston, consetts Bay, embracing about 75 square miles, with numerous arms, and containing many islands. The population of the city, according to the census of 1920 was 748,060. The estimated population of the metropolitan district in 1920 was 1,824,746. Within this metropolitan district are included Cambridge, Lynn, Waltham, Somerville, Malden and other cities.

Boston has one of the finest natural harbors of the world, with a water frontage of more than 40 miles, most of which is in active use for commercial purposes. the cities of the United States as a shiplation. It ranks eighth in the value of the manufactured products. The chief exports are iron and steel products, meat and dairy products, breadstuffs, boots, shoes, and leather, metal, cotton and cotton products, rubber products, paper, chemical products, and dyes. The chief imports are wool, cotton, hides and skins, fiber products, sugar and molasses, chemicals, drugs and dyes, leather and fish. In 1919 Boston was the richest community per capita in the United States. The total assessed valuation of the city in that year was $1,528,165,778.

Boston is noted for its magnificent BOSTON park system. There are within the city limits 24 large parks and 42 separate playgrounds, with a total of 327 acres.

There are in addition 14 playgrounds and parks with an area of 155 acres. There are also 75 smaller parks and squares, making a total of 2,688.5 acres. The cost of the main park system from 1877 is $11,788,065. The largest park is Franklin Park, named for Benjamin Franklin, containing 527 acres, of which about 80 are occupied by the zoological gardens. There are also within the city limits 958 acres of metropolitan parks and parkways under State control, the largest of which is Stony Brook Reservation in West Roxbury. The most noted parks within the city limits are the Common and the Public Garden. These contain many memorials, including statues of Washington, Edward Everett, and others.

The school system has always been noted for its excellence. Boston spent more per capita for school purposes than any other city in the United States.

There is an extensive system of kindergarten and primary grade schools, besides a large number of secondary BOSTON cradle of liberty, and erected in 1742; the Old State House, erected in 1748; the Old South Church, the Old North Church, and Kings Chapel.

The city has excellent transportation facilities facilities, which include surface, underground, and elevated railroads. The Tremont street subway, opened in 1897, was the first municipal subway in the United States. There are now completed the East Boston tunnel, Washington street tunnel, the Cambridge connection subway, the Boylston street subway, the East Boston tunnel extension, and the Dorchester tunnel. The total approximate cost of all subways and tunnels is $36,000,000.

There are 345 churches of all denominations, including Roman Catholic, 65; Jewish, 38; Baptist, 35; Congregational, 36; Unitarian, 24; Methodist Episcopal, 31; Protestant Episcopal, 36; Lutheran, 12; and Presbyterian, 11. The mother byterian. 11. The mother church of the Christian Scientists is located in Boston and is one of the most beautiful structures in the city.

There were in 1920 15 National banks, with an aggregate capital of $28,959,000.

There were also 30 trust companies with a capital of $26,901,100. The total resources of the National banks were $601,- 284,213. There were 24 savings banks with deposits of $341,215,952. The city is the seat of a branch of the Federal Reserve Bank. schools. There were in 1920, 264 permanent school buildings, and 137 portable houses. There were 3,413 teachers in all the schools. The number of pupils registered in the day schools in 1919 was 122, 452, in the evening schools 8,260, and in the continuation schools were registered 9,651. The valuation of the school prop-

The net funded debt of the city in 1919 erty was $27,670,000, and the cost of was $82,287,030. The tax rate was $2.12. maintenance was $7,373,499. The insti- Boston was settled in 1630 by a party tutions for higher education in the city of Puritans from Salem. It was named included Massachusetts Institute of Tech- after a town in Lincolnshire, England, nology, Boston University, the New Eng- from which most of the colonists had land Conservatory of Music, and Sim- come. In 1632 the first meeting house mons College and Boston College. Within was erected, and in 1635 a public school the metropolitan area are Harvard Uni- was built. In the same year the first versity and Tufts College. Among the grand jury in the country met here. A notable and historical buildings in the memorable massacre occurred here in city are the State House on Beacon Hill, 1770, and in 1773 several cargoes of Engthe Boston Atheneum on Beacon street, harbor by citizens exasperated by the mont and Boylston streets, the Public imposition of taxes. During the early Library in Copley Square, and the Mu- part of the Revolution the British were a Masonic temple on the corner of Trelish tea were thrown overboard in the seum of Fine Arts in Copley Square. The quartered in the town. The battle of Public Library is one of the largest and Bunker Hill was fought on Breed's Hill, best equipped in the United States. It within the present city limits, June 17, contained in 1920 1,197,498 volumes, of 1775. Washington forced the British to which about 300,000 were in the branch evacuate in 1776. The city charter was libraries. The city is well equipped with granted in 1822, and in 1872 a great fire theaters and other public buildings. broke out in the business portion of the There were in 1919 39 theaters. The city and destroyed about 65 acres of Mechanics' Building on Huntington avenue seats 4,350 people, the Boston Opera House 3,000, the Symphony Hall 2,569, and Tremont Temple 2,441.

Among the buildings which date from colonial times and are of great historical value are Faneuil Hall, known as the buildings. This part of the city was soon rebuilt, and, since then, Boston has been one of the most prosperous cities in the United States.