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...
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...
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...
From the Mayflower Pilgrims and the founding of Plymouth Colony to the high-tech firms and medical institutions surrounding Boston today, the last 400 years in Massachusetts has seen growth, prosperity,...
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...
Seeking the opportunity to begin anew, Samuel Newman, an Episcopalian, left England after being accused of rebelliousness. He moved to Massachusetts, became disgruntled yet again and relocated to a new...
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...
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...
In Massachusetts there were, at one time, three institutions built specifically for the care and education of the intellectually and physically disabled. Set in the rolling hills and bucolic farmland...
The isolated Aleutian Islands became stepping stones to the United States for the Japanese military during World War II. Their thrust was terminated by bitter battles in 1943, but in...
Medford, Massachusetts, has been a part of Massachusetts history since the 1630s when Governor John Winthrop travelled here, and named a rock in the Middlesex fells after the cheese in...
Worcester, the "Heart of the Commonwealth", developed an extremely diverse industrial base. This diversity was a magnet for drawing immigrants from all parts of the world to work in the...
When Abington was founded in 1812, it was much larger than it is now. At that time, it encompassed both East Abington and South Abington, which today are Rockland and...
Chatham's location, spectacular coastline, bountiful resources of seafood, and a temperate climate attract people. First it was the Monomoyick tribe, then in the 17th century, English settlers who gave it...
Plymouth is known world-wide because of the Pilgrim story and its considerable significance for the history of the United States. Visitors have made their own pilgrimages to Plymouth for hundreds...
Early in its 250 year history Northborough presented a varied environment. The town's rich soils supported family farms while its location on the Assabet River encouraged water powered manufacturing. Positioned...
Jutting out into Boston Harbor is the Nahant peninsula, the smallest township in Massachusetts. Despite its size, it was selected to house the most powerful seacoast weaponry ever conceived by...
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....
An exploration of Boston's hidden history through its cemeteries, revealing the city's complex relationship with death and memorialization. One of the oldest cities in America, Boston's story is one richly...
An exploration of the chilling haunted history of New England where ghostly tales are connected to pivotal events and figures from America's past. The New England area, with its rich...
Since the second half of the nineteenth century, Cape Cod has been a vacation destination. Generations of people have made memories there. It has been, and still is, known for...
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...
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...
Plum Island, a barrier island off Newburyport, Massachusetts, is facing major challenges. The inhabited northern part of the island has sustained serious coastal erosion, and some homes are in danger...
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...
Native Americans, Wampanoags, inhabited vast acreage abutting the Taunton River and its tributaries in Southeastern Massachusetts prior to the arrival of European settlers in the early 1600s. In 1672, 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....
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 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...
Having settled on Shawomet ground in 1677, colonists were instructed how to fish, farm, and hunt by the Wampanoags, a Native American tribe. Settlers found the riverside location ideal for...
The history of East Point commences in the 1700s and continued through construction of an elegant summer hotel for Bostonians, later becoming the property of a Massachusetts Senator. The strategic...
The state of Massachusetts was home to many historic institutions; however, few compared to the size and elegance of the asylums built in Worcester and Danvers during the late-nineteenth century....
Since the publication of Shrewsbury Through Time in 2013, a number of collections of historical photographs have come to light. Photographs from the Harlow family collection help to document the...
