Did you know? Boston History Facts

Boston's history is full of well-known names, events, and discoveries. Over four centuries, the city has produced founding fathers, American presidents, literary giants, esteemed artists, cultural and political activists, and many scientific breakthroughs. The city is also associated with many “firsts” - the first college and university in America, the oldest public transit system, oldest public park, first free municipal library, oldest MLB ballpark, and the oldest continuously operated hotel, tavern and restaurant – as well as a hub of discovery and innovation, everything from the telephone and anesthesia to Facebook and the COVID-19 vaccine.

There is so much more. Boston's history is full of people, personalities and perspectives that have changed the course of US and world history. Sure, we’ve got many famous Johns – JFK, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, John Hancock – but did you know that Martin Luther King, Jr. spent formative years in Boston? King earned his PhD in theology from Boston University, ministered at the 12th Baptist Church in Roxbury, and met his wife Coretta Scott in Boston, where she was enrolled at the New England Conservatory. King is just one example of monumental 20^th century social and political figures who spent time in Boston. Ho Chi Minh worked as a baker at the Omni Parker House in 1913 during a two-year period spent studying in the United States. Malcolm X also spent seminal years in Boston; as a teenager he lived with his sister Ella at 72 Dale Street in Roxbury, a location that is now a designated City landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission and also on the National Register of Historic Places. 

In the 19^th century, Boston activists and pioneers played paramount roles in both the abolitionist movement and the emergence of the first true literary culture in the United States. Abolitionist leaders like Charles Sumner, Wendell Phillips, and William Lloyd Garrison collaborated with fervent female antislavery societies to advocate for liberation. Writings and artifacts from this era are available for viewing at the Boston Public Library – including a full archive of Garrison’s paper “The Liberator.” Tours with the Freedom Trail Foundation and Boston by Foot also explore this history. The National Park Service operates tours of the Black Heritage Trail, a resonant tour through Beacon Hill where a thriving Black community existed throughout the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

In this same period, greater Boston writers made an indelible mark on the literary world at a time when there was no identity for American literary culture, which was seen as a poor offshoot of European styles. Boston and Massachusetts writers changed all this with the emergence of authors such as Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, James Russell Lowell, and of course Nathaniel Hawthorne. These writers formed a literary society known as the Saturday Club, which would convene at the Parker House to discuss literary trends and the emergence of the American novel. They drove this process and even invited Charles Dickens to join them on his circuit throughout the United States, where he read from A Christmas Carol at Tremont Temple in 1867. Dickens always noted that Boston was his favorite American city because of the literary influences emanating from the city. 

As impressive as this collection of writers is, it should be noted that the most essential literary story associated with Boston is that of Phillis Wheatley, who was enslaved as a child and grew up in Boston. Wheatley emerged as an iconic poet in the late 18^th century, with Boston pamphlets and newspapers frequently publishing her work. She struggled to find a national publisher in the US but when she traveled to London in 1773 she found a publisher for a compilation called Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. When her published poetry arrived in America it made her the first Black poet to be published in the New World. 

Wheatley’s work arrived in Boston aboard the Dartmouth, one of three ships involved in the famous Boston Tea Party in December of 1773. In 2024, the city commemorated the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, and in 2025, the city will celebrate the semiquincentennial of the Battles of Lexington and Concord and then the Battle of Bunker Hill, all leading up to the big event in July of 2026. 

In the midst of these notable anniversaries, it should be noted that Boston is always looking ahead, recreating itself, and making new history. The Back Bay is called a bay because Boston literally created it from landfill in the 19^th century. Similarly, in the 21^st century, Seaport is emerging as a new neighborhood growing from empty lots and wharves into a hub of entertainment and culture. Across the river in Kendall Square is the most innovative mile on earth, a mecca of life-sciences, start-ups, biotech, and digital media companies adjacent to the MIT campus. Visitors can explore this ecosystem of creative ingenuity with the Boston Innovation Trail.

Given all this, it’s fitting that Boston has enjoyed many monikers over the centuries, including “City Upon a Hill” and the “Athens of America.” In 1858 Oliver Wendell Holmes coined the phrase The Hub and that name has also stuck. These nicknames all illustrate that Boston is a place of unique influence and unmistakable history, some well-known, some lesser known, and some still being discovered. 

We encourage you to come see for yourself and perhaps play a role in what will be discovered next!