Anthony M. Sammarco is a noted historian and author of over seventy books on the history and development of Boston, and he lectures widely on the history of his native city. His books Lost Boston, The History of Howard Johnson's: How A Massachusetts Soda Fountain Became a Roadside Icon, Christmas Traditions in Boston, and The Baker Chocolate Company: A Sweet History have been bestsellers.
Noah Webster described Thanksgiving as “The act of rendering thanks or expressing gratitude for favors or mercies,” and it has been celebrated nationally on and off since 1789. Governors of...
The Christmas Tree Shops was an icon of New England, with stores that offered a diverse assortment of merchandise from seasonal decorations, home decor, housewares, food and giftware, and just...
In 1659, the General Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony banned by law the celebration of Christmas as it was deemed to be a time of seasonal excess with no Biblical...
Valentine’s Day Traditions in Boston is a fun and interesting way to recall the holiday from the exchange of Valentine cards in day school to the cards, candy, and flowers...
Noah Webster describes Easter as “an annual Christian festival in the spring, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.” Though a solemn religious holiday preceded by forty days of Lent and a...
Noah Webster identifies Halloween as “October 31: observed especially with dressing up in disguise, trick-or-treating, and displaying jack o'lanterns during the evening.” Concise and correct, but it is so much...
Inferno: The Great Boston Fire of 1872 was written to commemorate the 150th anniversary of a devastating fire that destroyed sixty-five acres of land in Boston, from Washington Street, between...
The name Mattapan originated with the Neponset Tribe of the Massachusett Indians, a tribe of the Massachusetts confederation of Native Americans. For well over 200 years, the area remained farms...
The Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston has long been a thriving nexus of cultures, with residents of all walks of life, including numerous workers in the medical field, making it...
Kenmore Square and The Fenway of Boston Through Time chronicles the history and development of an area of the city of Boston that only began in the early nineteenth century....
The Other Red Line is literally the connecting point between Scollay Square and the Combat Zone, the two preeminent adult entertainment districts in Boston. With burlesque houses such as the...
Beacon Hill is not just the location of the Massachusetts State House but is a neighborhood which has evolved over the last two centuries as a thriving nexus of cultures....
Known in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as the Jamaica End of Roxbury, the neighborhood of Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, evolved from agrarian farmland for over 200 years into one of...
In his new book East Boston Through Time, Anthony Sammarco outlines a neighborhood of the city of Boston which was once known as Noddle’s Island, one of five islands that...
In his new book Anthony M. Sammarco outlines the Back Bay of Boston, a neighborhood of the city that is not just the quintessential Victorian neighborhood of the 19th century,...
Brighton and Allston Through Time outlines a neighborhood of the city of Boston which was once known as Little Cambridge before it became an independent town from Cambridge in 1807....
