Boston is the capital of the state of Massachusetts, capital of the county of Suffolk, occupies seventh place by population among the cities of the United States and is the most important cultural and commercial center of the north-eastern part of the great North American republic, that is, of New England.
Boston is located at 42 ° 21 ′ 27 ″ N. and 71 ° 3 ′ 30 ′ W on the Atlantic Ocean (Gulf of Maine), at the mouth of the two rivers Charles and Mystic, which flow into the great bay of Boston. It is only 373 km from New York. and it is the last North American metropolis on the sea, to be encountered proceeding beyond the 42nd parallel. The primitive nucleus of the city is to be found in the peninsula located between the sea and the Charles River, of just over 3 square kilometers. of surface, once strewn with coastal ponds and marshes, and joined with the continent by a narrow neck one mile long and so low that it was not infrequently submerged by the waters. The interior of the peninsula was slightly hilly and wooded. The peninsula was called by the Indians Mushauwomuk or Shawmut for short or “spring of living water”; the company of Giovanni Winthrop took possession of it in 1630, since it had seemed an excellent place both for defense and for trade, being almost everywhere surrounded by the sea and with some hills, one of which with three points gave rise to the name Trimountain, of the which is still traced today in Tremont, the name of one of the main streets of the metropolis. On this peninsula the primitive center of Boston was built (the name was solemnly inaugurated in the same year 1630); the coastal ponds were gradually filled so that the surface of the peninsula was 3 sq. km. passed to 7.
According to a2zcamerablog, Boston has a temperate oceanic climate. The average annual temperature is 9 °, 4, that of the winter period of −1 °, 6, that of the summer period of 20 °, 5. The average minimum temperature in winter is −6 °, 1, in summer 16 °, 1. The average of the maximums is in the winter of + 2 °, 8, in the summer of 25 °, 6. The absolute maximums are found in September with 38 °, 9. The coldest month is January with an average of -2 °, 8, the hottest July with 22 °, 2 (annual excursion, 25 °). Snow is abundant, hovering around an average annual layer of 1000 mm.: it falls in the months from November to April, with very well accentuated peaks in January and February. The average normal amount of rain fluctuates around 1100 mm.; all months are rainy with insensitive differences. The monthly average rainfall is 91 mm.; the maximum rainfall occurs in March with 107 mm., the minimum in June with 76.2; although not very sensitively, the winter semester is rainier.
The population of the city, according to the 1920 census, was 748,060 inhabitants and lived on an area equal to over 120 sq km. This very high figure is the result of the special conditions of the topographical and geographical environment in which the city has been developing, and of the territorial changes that have occurred over the centuries. In fact, the limits of the center gradually increased: already in the first half of the century. XVII (1636) included Noddle’s Island, which would later be called East Boston or Eastern Boston, between the Charles and Mystic estuaries and Chelsea Creek; in 1804 Dorchester Neck was annexed, which later became South Boston, located to the east of the primitive core of the city, separated from it by Fort Point Chanal and South Bay; subsequently the Washington Village became part of the city in 1855, Roxbury in 1868, Dorchester in 1874, Charlestown in 1874, West Roxbury and Brighton, Hyde Park in 1912, so that today the city occupies an area of over 120 square kilometers. he city is the capital of the county of Suffolk, which borders to the south with that of Norfolk, to the west and north with that of Middlesex.
With the continuous expansion, even the characteristic topographical aspect of the center has undergone considerable metamorphosis: now it can be said that no traces of the old city remain except in the narrow and winding streets of the North End. Modern Boston has wide and spacious streets, with an overall length which reaches 1000 km. The main ones are vòlte da southwest northeast
Boston has a great wealth of parks and public gardens: it has them in the heart of the old city (the famous Common, full of statues), in South Boston (Commonwealth Park), in eastern Boston (Nood Island Park), and in other suburban neighborhoods.
Boston’s population has been increasing dramatically over the past few centuries. In 1790 it had only 18,320 inhabitants, in 1830 the figure rises to 61,392; in 1850 the population was 136,881, and this very strong increase continues in subsequent censuses: in 1900 it was 560,892. In 1910 the population rose to 670,585 and in 1920 it was 748,060 residents A 1927 calculation gave 799,200 individuals living in Boston, and with the cities of Cambridge, Lynn, Somerville, Chelsea, Everett, Brookline, etc., becoming its suburbs, about 1,900,000 inhabitants. As for race, in 1920 97.2% of the population was made up of whites and 2.1% of blacks. There were also about 1200 Indians and Chinese.
From an industrial point of view, Boston holds the absolute primacy over all other cities in Massachusetts: in 1919 there were 713,800 employees in the state, of which 88,700 in Boston alone (12.4%). The total number of establishments exceeded 3000.
The greatest industrial increase occurred between 1914 and 1919. The articles of greatest production are: jams, articles of clothing, footwear, chocolate and cocoa, paper, articles of iron and steel, machinery. Special mention should be made of the printing-publishing industry, which includes 311 factories.
The commercial movement is done both by land and by sea. Boston is in this respect a railway and maritime center of the highest importance. All the main railways are headed by two stations: the North Station, located almost on the bank of the Charles River, from which lines depart for the north (Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine); the South Station, located on the Fort Point canal on the opposite side of the northern station, one of the largest in the world, 270 meters long and 230 wide, from which the railways radiate to the west and south, especially to New York.
The various parts of the metropolis are connected by means of numerous bridges, including the Harvard bridge between the Back Bay and Cambridge, the Warren and Charleston bridges that connect the heart of Boston with Charleston.
But the main source of wealth for Boston is the port, one of the main in the United States, which in the period 1920-1927 had an average annual traffic of 12,200,000 tons. approximately. Petroleum and coal, vegetable products, then textile fibers (cotton, wool) and finally animal products occupy the first places. The city has commercial relations with all the Atlantic countries, in which the traffic essentially takes place, especially with the countries of Western Europe (England).
Among the regions of the United States with the greatest commercial contact with Boston are the states of northeast , First of all Massachusetts, which is the immediate hinterland of the port, then Maine, Vermont, Illinois, etc. In 1920 the people employed in commerce added to the conspicuous figure of 52,700.
Libraries and cultural institutes. – Boston’s main library (Boston Public Library) is one of the most notable in existence. Founded in 1852 by Harvard University professor G. Ticknor, moved to its present location in 1895 and expanded in 1918, it contains over 1 million volumes. About thirty associated libraries depend on the mother library, with a complex of about 400,000 volumes. Also worth mentioning is the Massachusetts State Library (with about half a million volumes), and that of the American Academy of Sciences and Arts (about 300,000 volumes).
Among the cultural institutes, the University, founded in 1869 by I. Rich, L. Chaflin and J. Sleeper, attended by over 11,000 students: it is divided into various branches: liberal arts, theology, law, medicine, education, commerce, etc. The library includes over 300,000 volumes, and a large part of Giorgio Washington’s library. The Boston Latin School, founded in 1635, is the oldest school in the United States, and the “Boston School System”, which is connected to it, spread throughout the Confederation, includes over 140,000 students and about 4,500 teachers, distributed in a large number of elementary and middle schools. We must also remember the Roxbury Latin School, also very old (1641), and the English High School.
Harvard University (v.), Although not in Boston, exerts great influence on the cultural life of the city.
Boston also holds one of the first places in regard to charitable institutions: we must remember the Massachusetts General Hospital (1799), one of the best equipped in the world, the Boston City Hospital, which includes 26 buildings, the Massachusetts Homoeopathic Hospital, etc. There are numerous hotels, clubs and theaters, among which the main one is the Boston Theater, capable of over 3000 seats.
Monuments. – The Museum of Fine Arts, designed by the architect Guy Lowell, is a large and imposing building in front of which stands the famous bronze statue of an Indian on horseback, entitled The Prayer to the Great Spirit, by Cyrus E. Dallin. The museum has oriental collections which are among the most important. The Egyptian section is also very rich, with its large representation of the sculpture of the IV dynasty. The collection of prints is also very conspicuous. Greek vases, classical sculpture, and Italian Renaissance painting are also worthily represented in the Boston Museum, to which a section for decorative art was added in 1928.
One of its kind in America is the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Fenway Court, built in the style of Venetian Renaissance palaces, with a magnificent, constantly flowered courtyard. The collection of paintings, sculptures and other art objects, mostly Italian, remains distributed in the rooms in the order in which it was left on her death by Mrs. Gardner, and boasts works by Raphael, Titian, etc.
The public library (built on designs by McKim, Mead and White) has a central courtyard that reproduces that of the Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome. It contains a series of frescoes by Puvis de Chavannes, the History of the Religion of the Sargent and the Quest for the Saint Grail of the Abbey.
The Government House on Beacon Hill was designed in 1789 by Bulfinch. It is built of red brick with white stone decorations, and topped with a golden dome. The large stone side wings were added to the original nucleus in the present century. Across the street, on the threshold of Boston Common, stands the monument to Robert Gould Shaw, the work of Saint-Gaudens, one of the best works of American sculpture. The nearby public garden contains Ball’s monument to General Washington, the first equestrian statue performed in New England.
Among the many churches, notable the King’s Chapel, by Peter Harrison (1749-54), an example of the first severe classical style, and the Trinity Church in Copley Square, built to Richardson’s designs in a romantic style that found wide imitation.
