| North End | |
|---|---|
| — Neighborhood of Boston — | |
| Image of the North End, Boston neighborhood. The Old North Church is at center, a Big Dig vent building is near the bottom, and the green Tobin Bridge over the Mystic River is at the top. | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Massachusetts |
| County | Suffolk |
| Neighborhood of | Boston |
| Time zone | Eastern (UTC-5) |
| Zip Code | |
| Area code(s) | 617 / 857 |
The North End is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It has the distinction of being the city's oldest residential community, where people have lived continuously since it was settled in the 1630s. Though small (⅓ mi²), the neighborhood has approximately 100 eating establishments, and a variety of tourist attractions. It is known as the city's Little Italy for its Italian-American population.
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The North End as a distinct Boston community was evident as early as 1646.[1] By 1649, the area had a large enough population to support its own church, called the North Meeting House. The construction of the North Meeting House also led to the development of the area now known as North Square; this area was the center of North End life.[1][2]
Increase Mather, the minister of the North Meeting House, was a powerful man who attracted residents to the North End.[1] His home, the meeting house, and surrounding buildings were destroyed by a fire in 1676; the meeting house was rebuilt soon afterwards. The Paul Revere House was later constructed on the site of the Mather house.[1]
Part of Copp's Hill was converted to a cemetery, called North Burying Ground (now known as Copp's Hill Burying Ground). The earliest grave markers located in the cemetery date to 1661.[2]
The North End became a fashionable place to live in the 18th Century.[2] Wealthy families shared the neighborhood with artisans, journeymen, laborers, servants, and slaves.[1] Two brick townhouses from this period still stand: the Moses Pierce-Hichborn House and the Ebenezer Clough House (on Unity Street).[2] The Christ Church, now known as the Old North Church, was constructed during this time, as well. It is the oldest surviving church building in Boston.[2]
In the early stages of the Revolution, the Hutchinson Mansion, located in North Square, was attacked by anti-Stamp Act rioters on the evening of August 26, 1765, forcing then Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson to flee through his garden.[3] In 1770, 11 year old Christopher Seider was part of an angry crowd that attacked the home of a Custom's Office employee, which was located on Hanover Street. The employee, Ebenezer Richardson, fired a gun into the crowd, hitting and fatally wounding Christoper Seider.[1]
During the Siege of Boston, the North Meeting House was dismantled by the British for use as firewood.[1][3]
In the first half of the 19th Century, the North End experienced a significant amount of commercial development. This activity was concentrated on Commercial, Fulton, and Lewis Streets. During this time the neighborhood also developed a red-light district, known as the Black Sea.[1] By the late 1840s, living conditions in the crowded North End were among the worst in the city.[4][3] Successive waves of immigrants came to Boston and settled in the neighborhood, beginning with the Irish and continuing with Eastern European Jews and Italians.[5] Boston as a whole was prosperous, however, and the wealthy residents of the North End moved to newer, more fashionable neighborhoods such as Beacon Hill.[3]
In 1849, a cholera epidemic swept through Boston, hitting the North End most harshly; most of the seven hundred victims were North Enders.[6][3] In 1859, tensions between the Catholic Irish immigrants and the existing Protestant community led to the Eliot School Rebellion. By 1880, the Protestant churches had left the neighborhood.[1]
The Boston Draft Riot of July 14, 1863 began on Prince Street in the North End.[3]
In the latter half of the 19th Century, several charitable groups were formed in the North End to provide aid to its impoverished residents. These groups included The Home for Little Wanderers and the North End Mission. The North Bennet Street Industrial School (now known as North Bennet Street School) was also founded at around this time to provide North End residents with the opportunity to gain skills that would help them find employment.[1] Beginning in the 1880's, North End residents began to replace the dilapidated wooden housing with four and five story brick apartment buildings, most of which still stand today. The city contributed to the revitalization of the neighborhood by constructing the North End Park and Beach, Copp's Hill Terrace, and the North End Playground.[1]
In the early 20th century, the North End was dominated by Jewish and Italian immigrants.[5] Three Italian immigrants founded the Prince Macaroni Company, one example of the successful businesses created in this community.[3][7] Also during this time, the city of Boston upgraded many public facilities in the neighborhood: the Christopher Columbus School (now a condominium building), a public bathhouse, and a branch of the Boston Public Library were built.[8][1] These investments, as well as the creation of the Paul Revere Mall (also known as the Prado), contributed to the North End's modernization.[1]
In 1918, the Spanish Influenza Pandemic hit the crowded North End severely; so many children were orphaned as a result of the pandemic that the city created the Home for Italian Children to care for them.[3] The following year, in 1919, the Purity Distilling Company’s 2.3 million gallon molasses storage tank exploded, causing the Great Molasses Flood. A 15 ft wave of molasses flowed down Commercial Street towards the waterfront, sweeping away everything in its path. The wave killed 21 people, injured 150, and caused damage worth $100 million in today's money. [1][5][9]
In 1927, the Sacco and Vanzetti wake was held in undertaker Joseph A. Langone’s Hanover Street premises. The funeral procession that conveyed Sacco and Vanzetti’s bodies to the Forest Hills Cemetery began in the North End.[3]
In 1934, a tunnel was constructed to connect the North End to East Boston, the location of the then new Boston Airport (now Logan International Airport). In the 1950s the John F. Fitzgerald Expressway (locally known as the Central Artery) was built to relieve Boston’s traffic congestion. Hundreds of North End buildings were demolished below Cross Street, and the artery walled off the North End from downtown, isolating the neighborhood.[1][4] The increased traffic led to the construction of a second tunnel between the North End and East Boston; this second tunnel opened in 1961.[1] Although the construction of the Central Artery created years' worth of disorder, in the 1950s the North End had low disease rates, low mortality rates, and little street crime.[1] As described byJane Jacobs in The Death and Life of Great American Cities, in 1959 the North End's "streets were alive with children playing, people shopping, people strolling, people talking. Had it not been a cold January day, there would surely have been people sitting. The general street atmosphere of buoyancy, friendliness, and good health was so infectious that I began asking directions of people just for the fun of getting in on some talk."[10]
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the North End experienced population loss. During this time, many shops in the neighborhood closed, the St. Mary's Catholic School and the St. Mary's Catholic Church closed, and the waterfront industries either relocated or went defunct.[1] During the 1970s and 1980s, the Boston Redevelopment Authority approved high-rise, high-density housing projects in the neighborhood while North End residents worked to build affordable housing for the elderly. One of these projects, the Casa Maria Apartments, stands on the site of the St. Mary's Catholic Church.[1]
In 1976, the neighborhood welcomed President Ford and and Queen Elizabeth II, who each visited the North End as part of the United States Bicentennial Celebrations.[1]
During the late 20th Century through the early 21st Century, the Central Artery was dismantled and replaced by the Big Dig project.[11] Throughout the construction process, access to the North End was difficult for both residents and visitors; as a result, many North End businesses closed.[1] The Rose Kennedy Greenway is now located on the former site of the Central Artery.[1]
A small community of free African Americans lived at the base of Copp's Hill from the 17th to the 19th Century. Members of this community were buried in the Copp's Hill Burying Ground, where a few remaining headstones can still be seen today.[1][5] The community was served by the First Baptist Church.[1]
By the late 19th Century, the African American community of the North End was known as New Guinea. By that time, however, much of the community had actually moved to Beacon Hill.[1]
Between 1845-1853, a massive wave of Irish immigrants settled in the North End; the neighborhood became predominantly Irish (the city’s overall population was also affected, going from a predominantly Yankee-Protestant city to being one-third Irish in just a few years).[3] Between 1865-1880, the North End was almost exclusively Irish (or Irish-American) and Catholic.[1]
In the late 19th Century, a stable Jewish community began to develop in the North End. Much of the community settled along Salem Street. The community founded places of worship, a Hebrew School, and social programs. In 1903, the first and only new synagogue to be built in the North End was constructed. Carroll Place was renamed "Jerusalem Place" in honor of the new building.[1] By 1922, however, the majority of Jewish residents had moved out of the North End, preferring other neighborhoods such as Roxbury.[1]
By 1890, the North Square area was known as Little Italy.[1] The population of Italian immigrants in the North End grew steadily until reaching its peak, in 1930, of 44,000 (99.9% of the neighborhood's total population).[12]
In 1923, the Michael Angelo (later renamed "Michelangelo") School was built in the North End and named in honor of the Italian residents. The street on which the building was constructed was renamed Michelangelo Street, and remains the only street in the North End with an Italian name.[1] The Michelangelo School closed in 1989, and the building was converted into housing.[1]
Italian bakeries, restaurants, small shops, and groceries opened in the first half of the 20th Century. The first immigrants found work selling fruit, vegetables, wine, cheese and olive oil. Later immigrants found more opportunities in the construction trades, and by 1920 the neighborhood was served by Italian physicians, dentists, funeral homes, and barbers.[12] Residents founded businesses, some of which still exist today, including Prince Pasta[13] and the Pastene Corporation.[14][1][12]
The Italian American community faced anti-Italian sentiment, prejudice, and neglect. After World War II, however, Italian Americans began to gain political power which then helped the community to address these issues. Today, the "old world" Italian atmosphere of the North End helps to drive tourism, and many of the small neighborhood shops have been replaced by restaurants.[12] Italian religious feasts, such as the Feast of St. Anthony, and processions are still celebrated in the streets of the North End, and draw large crowds.[12]
Today, approximately one third of the North End's residents are Italian or Italian Americans. The remaining residents are composed of young professionals, college students, empty-nesters, business owners, and other families. The politics of the neighborhood are still dominated by Italian Americans, and the area continues to be considered as Boston's "Little Italy."[1]
Although the North End is part of Boston's original area of settlement, the bulk of the architecture one sees there today dates from the late nineteenth to early 20th centuries (tenement architecture is especially prominent). The neighborhood has a mixture of architecture from all periods of American history, including early structures such as the Old North Church (1723), the Paul Revere House (1680), the Pierce-Hichborn House (1711), and the Clough House (1712).
The historic Copp's Hill is the site of Copp's Hill Burying ground, one of America's oldest cemeteries. The cemetery contains many graves dating back to the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries including Puritan divines Cotton and Increase Mather and Prince Hall, founder of Prince Hall Freemasonry. The Skinny House, the narrowest house in Boston, is across the street.
The famous Great Brink's Robbery took place in the North End. The Brink's Building in which the robbery took place still stands as the North End Parking Garage, at the corners of Prince St., Hull St., and Commercial St..
The Freedom Trail passes through the North End, making official stops at some of the sites mentioned above.
The Boston Public School system operates the John Eliot Elementary School [15] in the North End.
St. Johns School is a private Catholic school that serves the area. [16]
The North End is also home to the North Bennet Street School, a trade and craftmanship school that was founded in 1885.[16][17]
The Boston Public Library operates the North End Branch Library, located at 25 Parmenter Street. The branch was established in 1913 and moved to its present location in 1963. This branch maintains an Italian-language collection as well as a local history collection in addition to its regular holdings. [18]
The North End is accessible via mass transit, including the MBTA's Orange and Green Line at both Haymarket and North Station, by the Blue Line at Aquarium Station, and by the 4, 89/93, 92, 93, 111, 117, 191, 192, 193, 325, 326, 352, 354, 355, 424, 426, 426/455, and 428 bus lines. It is also accessible by ferry at Rowes Wharf.
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