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BOSTON
There’s no finer city in the US to settle down than Boston, MA, home to fascinating history, unique architecture, a diverse population and a plethora of entertainment options. Blending historical roots with high-tech companies and modern infrastructure, Boston is clean, compact and offers an incomparable quality of life.
While the city never stops reaching for the future, it has lovingly preserved the treasures of its past, cherishing its patriotic connections with the Boston Tea Party and Bunker Hill. Boston is a city of lively ethnic neighborhoods as well as sedate sanctuaries of old wealth, each seemingly a world unto itself, yet melding in harmony to create this renowned city’s one-of-a-kind, urban identity.
There are beautiful single-family homes, townhouses and condominiums at every price point and in every architectural style throughout the city. Some of Boston’s charming neighborhoods include Allston/Brighton, which is located west of downtown and is home to both Boston Collage and Boston University. Renovated homes, new bars and restaurants plus major clean-up efforts on Harvard Ave., the area’s main street, have made the neighborhood more desirable than ever and have caused home prices to appreciate. While Allston is a popular community for students featuring multi-bedroom apartments that make great investment properties, Brighton offers residential areas with beautiful single-family homes surrounded by ample open spaces.
West Roxbury is small, quiet and calm neighborhood in the heart of Boston. Despite it’s heart-of-the-city location, West Roxbury possesses a lovely suburban feel, with strong community values in place. West Roxbury is an ideal place to raise a family, boasting a well-maintained stock of single-family residences and townhome communities. It is one of the most ethnically diverse and multi-cultural of Boston’s neighborhoods offering excellent access to public transportation.
Referred to as "JP", Jamaica Plain is a lively and highly populated area of Boston blending different cultures and people into a community with essence. Jamaica Plain is home to the largest Hispanic community in the Boston as well as students, artists, writers, musicians and young professional, which gives JP its coveted characteristics. Close to Harvard Medical School and Boston University, Jamaica Plain boasts a gorgeous housing stock of triple-decker, Victorian homes and high rise condos.
Roslindale is a quaint and quiet suburb of Boston that has the market cornered on charm. A cultural and historic area, the neighborhood is captivating, a great place to start or raise a family and offers an easy commute to the city. Roslindale has four divisions including Centre-South, Village-Lower Washington, Mount Hope, and Metropolitan Hill-Beech. There are ultra desirable family homes with big backyards and two to four unit buildings where you can find a home for yourself with an income unit to help cover your mortgage.
Many of the city’s historical sights and centers of culture are contained within a five square mile area, making Boston one of the most walker-friendly cities in the nation. Boston also boasts some of the world’s leading academic institutions, including MIT and Harvard, making it a hub of intellectual stimulation and innovation.
As the region’s hub, Boston is home to nearly 590,000 residents, a vibrant and diverse business sector, unrivaled hospitals and world-renowned museums all within close proximity to the beaches of Cape Cod and the White and Green Mountains. Boston’s energetic economy offers employment focused primarily within the finance, health care, education and service industries plus it’s a great place to incubate a new business.
You’ll never run out of exciting things to do and places to go. From exploring Revolutionary War history at Faneuil Hall to viewing extraordinary art at the Gardner Museum to cheering on the Red Sox at Fenway Park, the renowned attractions are endless. Row the Charles River, roller-skate along the Esplanade, sail Boston Bay and ice skate in outdoor rinks throughout the city. Sing along with the Boston Pops, run the renowned marathon or dance all night on Landsdown Street, no matter your interests, Boston has you covered.
Dining is world class whether you linger over linguine in the North End, do dim sum in Chinatown or indulge in a gourmet extravaganza Downtown. See and be seen on fashionable Newbury Street or browse for bargains in Filene’s basement, whatever you seek the shopping is beyond compare. And you can leave the car at home because the “T”, Boston’s easy-to-use, awesomely integrated public transportation system can take you just about anywhere you want to go in the Greater Boston area.
As New England's largest city, Boston’s fascinating blend of history, academia, recreation, culture, culinary arts, fashion and business combine to create big-city excitement found nowhere else. Come home to Boston and experience true pride of ownership
LOCATION
Boston is located in the eastern part of Massachusetts on Boston Harbor, an inlet of Massachusetts Bay, at the mouth of the Charles River. Located in Suffolk County, it is the largest city in New England and set at the nexus of three major interstate highways including the I-90, I-95 and I-93.
The beaches of Cape Cod are 70 miles south, an hour-and-a-half drive, New York City is 215 miles northeast, a four hour drive and Washington, DC is 440 miles southwest, a six-and-a-half hour drive.
TRANSPORTATION/AIRPORTS
Boston is famed as a “walking city,” and there’s no better way to get around and enjoy the scenery. Walking, however, is not the only mode of transportation because Bostonians enjoy a modern infrastructure of highways and bridges plus a clean, efficient subway, buses that run on schedule, even ferries that shuttle both passengers and cars.
Three major interstates feed into Boston, including the I-90, I-95 and I-93 and an underground peripheral highway known as the Big Dig has helped to ease the city’s traffic congestion. If you’d rather sit back and use public transportation, you’re not alone. Thousands of residents use the extensive MTBA system of trains and buses, known as the “T” to get to work and enjoy attractions both far and near. The "T" is the easiest way to get around offering more than 60 miles of track snaking throughout the city and beyond. Hop the Red Line to Harvard Square, take the Green Line to the North End or catch the Orange Line to Jamaica Plain, any place you want to go is just a train ride away.
Boston’s Logan International Airport offers nonstop and connecting service to destinations around the world with service provided by all the major carriers. You even have the option of taking an MBTA train into downtown and the neighborhoods by catching a ride on the free Massport shuttle bus to the Blue Line's Airport subway stop.
Amtrak provides frequent train service, including high-speed Acela Express service, to New York and points all around the Northeast Corridor. Amtrak has three Boston stations including Route 128, Back Bay and South Station. Route 128 is about 12 miles from downtown and a good place to get off for the western or southern suburbs. Back Bay Station is convenient to the South End and the Orange Line subway and South Station is near the financial district and the Red Line subway.
Various bus and van companies offer service to and from Boston including Greyhound with its own depot while other lines arrive and depart from South Station.
BRIEF HISTORY
The first English immigrant to settle in Boston was the Reverend William Blackstone. He came by himself in 1629, to a peninsula by a stream, called by the local Algonquin inhabitants, Shawmet. A year later, John Winthrop and his Puritan settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, arrived to the north in Salem. Finding Salem less than desirable for a settlement, Blackstone invited Winthrop to visit Shawmut.
On September 17, 1630, Winthrop decided to make Shawmut a permanent settlement and renamed it Boston, after his hometown in Lincolnshire England. Winthrop and his followers left England to escape religious persecution and to establish a pious Puritan state. Ironically, Blackstone shortly left the colony due the harsh, intolerant society that the Puritans had created.
Citizenship in Massachusetts was restricted to church members until 1664. Dissidents like Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams were banished. Despite these facts and the hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, the colony was developing representative institutions that would help form a future democratic nation.
Over the next two centuries Boston developed as a center for Puritan life. Early on, Boston began to emerge as an intellectual and educational center with the arrival of noted theologians and statesmen as well as the founding of Boston Latin School and Harvard University. With its excellent harbor, Boston became the leading commercial center in the colonies and Colonial Boston was a world leader in shipbuilding and the primary port of North America.
The growth of the Boston area continued in the 18th century. As settlements grew into towns around the city, overseas trade increased and mills were built along the rivers for logging, the forging of iron and processing wool. .
Separated by a great geographical distance, the American colonies were still loyal British subjects. This began to change in the 1730's when the Crown increased taxes on the colonists to help replenish the treasury. Boston became a leading center of colonial resistance as a great philosophical distance began to grow between the Colonies and Britain and the seeds of revolution were planted.
The Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend Acts of 1767 led to the Boston Massacre in 1770. The Tea Act of 1773 resulted with The Boston Tea Party. The British responded to the defiant acts by closing the ports and bringing in more troops to contain the dissidents. On the evening of April 18, 1775, the British dispatched troops to the towns of Lexington and Concord to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock, and to seize arms, which the colonists were storing.
Paul Revere and William Dawes rode through the night to warn the colonists of the approaching soldiers. The next morning, on Lexington Green, "the shot heard round the world" was fired, and the American Revolution began. Two months later after the Battle of Bunker Hill, George Washington was summoned to Boston to take command of the rebel army.
Massachusetts prospered in the early 19th century with improved roads, new canals and the construction of railways, linking cities and towns. Laborers were recruited locally, but by the 1840's there were not enough to fill the work force which led to the arrival of the first non-English immigrants who came from Ireland and went on to leave their lively cultural imprint upon the city.
The Civil War was a profitable time for Boston manufacturers, with the production of weapons, shoes, blankets and other materials for the troops. Boston also played a role as a leading voice of the abolitionist movement. The late 19th century was Boston's greatest industrial era. As millions of immigrants from around the world came to America, Boston continued as a leading manufacturer of a wide variety of goods and products.
Boston's manufacturing went into a state of decline during the first decade of the 20th century. The once thriving factories and mills had become old and obsolete. The tenements were aging and decaying and many businesses closed and relocated to the South. Prosperity continued in the Hub however with the development of service industries, banking and finance as well as retailing and wholesaling.
Boston suffered along with the rest of the nation during the Great Depression. With the outbreak of War II, factories were retooled for the war effort and people went back to work on the production lines. Boston again became a major arms manufacturer during wartime.
By the 1950's, fishing and farming were in decline in Massachusetts, but the Boston area emerged as a leader in the fledgling computer and high-tech industries. Many of these new business were created and staffed by graduates of MIT and the other colleges in the Boston area. The financial and service industries continued to expand and today, the Boston skyline is brimming with skyscrapers and office towers, a testament to Boston's achievements and vitality.
Boston continues to evolve in the new millennium. A new convention center and an addition to the Museum of Fine Arts are part of the city’s renaissance. In March of 2003, the new Freedom Tunnel and the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge were completed and opened, as part of the Big Dig Project.
Boston is a city with a rich past, but it is also a city looking ahead to tomorrow.
ABOUT EDUCATION
Boston’s public school system is the oldest in the US with an enrollment of 58,000 students. The district is focused on excellence, improving test scores and features caring faculty and administration. Elementary and secondary schools are scattered throughout the cities neighborhoods, and a commitment to education has always been one of the city’s hallmarks and priorities. There are many fine private schools as well offering instruction in both religious and secular settings.
There are more than fifty colleges and universities in the Greater Boston Area including some the finest institutions of higher learning in the world. Most famously home of Harvard University, arguably the top university in the US, Boston is also the site of MIT, Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis, Radcliff, Tufts, Wellesley and the New England Conservatory of Music to name just a few. With more than 300,000 students, the Boston area is rife with intellectual stimulation and opportunity, whether you’re just graduating high school, a mid life professional looking for a new career or a senior interested in broadening horizons.
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