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| Home - City Guide - Boston - City Overview | ||
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City Overview Grand claims have been made of Boston, the capital of Massachusetts, throughout its history and are reflected in several of its nicknames: 'Cradle of Modern America', 'Hub of the Solar System' and 'Athens of America'. However, in the beginning, when the settlement took root in 1624, it was simply called 'Trimountain', given its location beside three hills on the mouth of the Charles River. This was before being named after the small English town in Lincolnshire, the original home of several founding Puritan families. The 'Cradle of Modern America' sums up its relationship to the country as a whole - as the capital of the original Massachusetts Bay Colony founded in 1630 and the place where the Revolutionary War against British Colonial rule was ignited, with the incident of the Boston Tea Party in 1773. Harvard College was founded in 1638 in the Cambridge district over the river. Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894), physician and writer born there, regarded Boston as the 'Hub of the Solar System' at the same time as others were calling it the 'Athens of America', during its literary and cultural flourishing of the 1850s. But today, the presence of such university, college and research establishments as the prestigious Harvard College, but also the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has attracted leading industries in electronics, engineering, finance and biotechnology - and given the city a strong future. Of Boston's many famous sons, the statesman, scientist and inventor Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) stands in the highest regard. His Boston can be rediscovered on foot - and, indeed, despite being in the acclaimed land of the motor car, Boston today refers to itself as the 'Walking City'. The Freedom Trail is a physical manifestation of the birth of the modern American Republic - around four kilometres (2.5 miles) of the city's streets and sights. Also, Boston's place in black American history can be discovered by following the 2.5km (1.6-mile) Black Heritage Trail - as the city was a goal of black slaves escaping the oppressive South on the 'Underground Railway'. Boston's sharp Puritan roots have been softened over the centuries, yet it retains an ethic of commitment to life as a whole, be that sports, pastimes, work, cafÉs, bars or culture. Boston has the typical East Coast climate of hot, humid summers and freezing winters. But, after all, the city that imported an English pub that became the model for TV's hugely successful Cheers, which hosts the Boston Pops concerts and gave the rock music world Aerosmith is hardly going to let the weather dominate it. Modern Boston is very much a microcosm of New England. In autumn, the suburbs have white church steeples set against the turning colours of the trees. Human vibrancy is added by the thousands of students returning to begin their new academic year. Perhaps, after all, the city deserves to be called the 'Rome of Massachusetts', since all New England roads, physical, cultural and historical, lead to it. |
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