Boston

Prior to European colonization, the region around modern-day Boston was inhabited by the indigenous Massachusett. Their habitation consisted of small, seasonal communities. The people who lived in the area most likely moved between inland winter homes along the Charles River (called Quinobequin, meaning "meandering", by the Native people) and summer communities on the coast. Game was more easily hunted inland during bare-tree seasons and fishing shoals and shellfish beds were most easily exploited during the summer months.[28][29]

Being surrounded by foul-smelling mudflats during the temperate part of the year, the Shawmut Peninsula itself was more sparsely occupied than its surroundings before the arrival of Europeans. Nevertheless, archeological excavations have revealed one of the oldest fishweirs in New England on Boylston Street. Native people constructed this weir to trap fish as early as 7,000 years before European arrival in the Western Hemisphere.[29][28][30]

The first European to live in what would become Boston was a Cambridge-educated Anglican cleric named William Blaxton. He was the person most directly responsible for the foundation of Boston by Puritan colonizers in 1630. This occurred after Blaxton invited one of their leaders, Isaac Johnson to cross Back Bay from the failing colony of Charlestown and share the peninsula. This the Puritans did in September 1630.[31][32][33]

Before dying on September 30, 1630, one of Johnson's last official acts as the leader of the Charlestown community was to name their new settlement across the river "Boston". He named the settlement after his hometown in Lincolnshire, the place from which he, his wife (namesake of the Arbella) and John Cotton (grandfather of Cotton Mather) had emigrated to New England. The name of the English town ultimately derives from its patron saint, St. Botolph, in whose church John Cotton served as the rector until his emigration with Johnson. In early sources the Lincolnshire Boston was known as "St. Botolph's town", later contracted to "Boston". Before this renaming the settlement on the peninsula had been known as "Shawmut" by Blaxton and "Trimountain" by the Puritan settlers he had invited.[34][35][36][37][38]

The Puritan influence on Boston began even before its foundation, with the 1629 Cambridge Agreement. This document created the Massachusetts Bay Colony and was signed by its first governor John Winthrop. Puritan ethics and their focus on education influenced the early history of the city. America's first public school, Boston Latin School, was founded in Boston in 1635.[18][39]

Boston was the largest town in the Thirteen Colonies until Philadelphia outgrew it in the mid-18th century.[40] Boston's oceanfront location made it a lively port, and the city primarily engaged in shipping and fishing during its colonial days. Boston was a primary stop on a Caribbean trade route and imported large amounts of molasses, which led to the creation of Boston baked beans.[41]

Boston's economy stagnated in the decades prior to the Revolution. By the mid-18th century, New York City and Philadelphia surpassed Boston in wealth. During this period, Boston encountered financial difficulties even as other cities in New England grew rapidly.[42][43]

In 1773, a group of angered Bostonian citizens threw a shipment of tea by the East India Company into Boston Harbor in protest of the Tea Act, an event known as the Boston Tea Party that escalated the American Revolution.

Map showing a British tactical evaluation of Boston in 1775

Many crucial events of the American Revolution[45] occurred in or near Boston. The city's mob presence along with the colonists' growing lack of faith in either Britain or its Parliament fostered a revolutionary spirit in the city.[42] When the British parliament passed the Stamp Act in 1765, a Boston mob ravaged the homes of Andrew Oliver, the official tasked with enforcing the Act, and Thomas Hutchinson, then the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts.[42][46] The British sent two regiments to Boston in 1768 in an attempt to quell the angry colonists. This did not sit well with the colonists. In 1770, during the Boston Massacre, British troops shot into a crowd that had started to violently harass them. The colonists compelled the British to withdraw their troops. The event was widely publicized and fueled a revolutionary movement in America.[43]

In 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act. Many of the colonists saw the act as an attempt to force them to accept the taxes established by the Townshend Acts. The act prompted the Boston Tea Party, where a group of angered Bostonian citizens threw an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company into Boston Harbor. The Boston Tea Party was a key event leading up to the revolution, as the British government responded furiously with the Coercive Acts, demanding compensation for the destroyed tea from the Bostonians.[42] This angered the colonists further and led to the American Revolutionary War. The war began in the area surrounding Boston with the Battles of Lexington and Concord.[42][47]

Boston itself was besieged for almost a year during the siege of Boston, which began on April 19, 1775. The New England militia impeded the movement of the British Army. Sir William Howe, then the commander-in-chief of the British forces in North America, led the British army in the siege. On June 17, the British captured the Charlestown peninsula in Boston, during the Battle of Bunker Hill. The British army outnumbered the militia stationed there, but it was a pyrrhic victory for the British because their army suffered irreplaceable casualties. It was also a testament to the skill and training of the militia, as their stubborn defence made it difficult for the British to capture Charlestown without suffering further irreplaceable casualties.[48][49]

Several weeks later, George Washington took over the militia after the Continental Congress established the Continental Army to unify the revolutionary effort. Both sides faced difficulties and supply shortages in the siege, and the fighting was limited to small-scale raids and skirmishes. The narrow Boston Neck, which at that time was only about a hundred feet wide, impeded Washington's ability to invade Boston, and a long stalemate ensued. A young officer, Rufus Putnam, came up with a plan to make portable fortifications out of wood that could be erected on the frozen ground under cover of darkness. Putnam supervised this effort, which successfully installed both the fortifications and dozens of cannon on Dorchester Heights that Henry Knox had laboriously brought through the snow from Fort Ticonderoga. The astonished British awoke the next morning to see a large array of cannons bearing down on them. General Howe is believed to have said that the Americans had done more in one night than his army could have done in six months. The British Army attempted a cannon barrage for two hours, but their shot could not reach the colonists' cannons at such a height. The British gave up, boarded their ships and sailed away. Boston still celebrates "Evacuation Day" each year. Washington was so impressed, he made Rufus Putnam his chief engineer.[47][48][50]

Boston, as the Eagle and the Wild Goose See It, an 1860 photograph by James Wallace Black, was the first recorded aerial photograph.

State Street in 1801

After the Revolution, Boston's long seafaring tradition helped make it one of the nation's busiest ports for both domestic and international trade. Boston's harbor activity was significantly curtailed by the Embargo Act of 1807 (adopted during the Napoleonic Wars) and the War of 1812. Foreign trade returned after these hostilities, but Boston's merchants had found alternatives for their capital investments in the interim. Manufacturing became an important component of the city's economy, and the city's industrial manufacturing overtook international trade in economic importance by the mid-19th century. A network of small rivers bordering the city and connecting it to the surrounding region facilitated shipment of goods and led to a proliferation of mills and factories. Later, a dense network of railroads furthered the region's industry and commerce.[51]

During this period, Boston flourished culturally, as well, admired for its rarefied literary life and generous artistic patronage,[52][53] with members of old Boston families—eventually dubbed Boston Brahmins—coming to be regarded as the nation's social and cultural elites.[54] They are often associated with the American upper class, Harvard University;[55] and the Episcopal Church.[56][57]

Boston was an early port of the Atlantic triangular slave trade in the New England colonies, but was soon overtaken by Salem, Massachusetts and Newport, Rhode Island.[58] Boston eventually became a center of the abolitionist movement.[59] The city reacted strongly to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850,[60] contributing to President Franklin Pierce's attempt to make an example of Boston after the Anthony Burns Fugitive Slave Case.[61][62]

In 1822,[15] the citizens of Boston voted to change the official name from the "Town of Boston" to the "City of Boston", and on March 19, 1822, the people of Boston accepted the charter incorporating the city.[63] At the time Boston was chartered as a city, the population was about 46,226, while the area of the city was only 4.8 sq mi (12 km²).[63]

In the 1820s, Boston's population grew rapidly, and the city's ethnic composition changed dramatically with the first wave of European immigrants. Irish immigrants dominated the first wave of newcomers during this period, especially following the Great Famine; by 1850, about 35,000 Irish lived in Boston.[64] In the latter half of the 19th century, the city saw increasing numbers of Irish, Germans, Lebanese, Syrians,[65] French Canadians, and Russian and Polish Jews settling in the city. By the end of the 19th century, Boston's core neighborhoods had become enclaves of ethnically distinct immigrants with their residence yielding lasting cultural change. Italians became the largest inhabitants of the North End,[66] Irish dominated South Boston and Charlestown, and Russian Jews lived in the West End. Irish and Italian immigrants brought with them Roman Catholicism. Currently, Catholics make up Boston's largest religious community,[67] and the Irish have played a major role in Boston politics since the early 20th century; prominent figures include the Kennedys, Tip O'Neill, and John F. Fitzgerald.[68]

Between 1631 and 1890, the city tripled its area through land reclamation by filling in marshes, mud flats, and gaps between wharves along the waterfront. Reclamation projects in the middle of the century created significant parts of the South End, the West End, the Financial District, and Chinatown.[69]

After the Great Boston fire of 1872, workers used building rubble as landfill along the downtown waterfront. During the mid-to-late 19th century, workers filled almost 600 acres (240 ha) of brackish Charles River marshlands west of Boston Common with gravel brought by rail from the hills of Needham Heights. The city annexed the adjacent towns of South Boston (1804), East Boston (1836), Roxbury (1868), Dorchester (including present-day Mattapan and a portion of South Boston) (1870), Brighton (including present-day Allston) (1874), West Roxbury (including present-day Jamaica Plain and Roslindale) (1874), Charlestown (1874), and Hyde Park (1912).[70][71] Other proposals were unsuccessful for the annexation of Brookline, Cambridge,[72] and Chelsea.[73][74]

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  Downtown Boston from Dorchester Heights in 1841
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  Tremont Street in 1843
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  The Old City Hall was home to the Boston city council from 1865 to 1969.
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  View of Boston by J. J. Hawes, c. 1860s–1880s
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  Haymarket Square in 1909

Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, opened in 1912.[75]

Many architecturally significant buildings were built during these early years of the 20th century: Horticultural Hall,[76] the Tennis and Racquet Club,[77] Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum,[78] Fenway Studios,[79] Jordan Hall,[80] and the Boston Opera House.  The Longfellow Bridge,[81] built in 1906, was mentioned by Robert McCloskey in Make Way for Ducklings, describing its "salt and pepper shakers" feature.[82]

Logan International Airport opened on September 8, 1923.[83] The Boston Bruins were founded in 1924 and played their first game at Boston Garden in November 1928.[84]

Boston went into decline by the early to mid-20th century, as factories became old and obsolete and businesses moved out of the region for cheaper labor elsewhere.[85] Boston responded by initiating various urban renewal projects, under the direction of the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) established in 1957. In 1958, BRA initiated a project to improve the historic West End neighborhood. Extensive demolition was met with strong public opposition, and thousands of families were displaced.[86]

The BRA continued implementing eminent domain projects, including the clearance of the vibrant Scollay Square area for construction of the modernist style Government Center. In 1965, the Columbia Point Health Center opened in the Dorchester neighborhood, the first Community Health Center in the United States. It mostly served the massive Columbia Point public housing complex adjoining it, which was built in 1953. The health center is still in operation and was rededicated in 1990 as the Geiger-Gibson Community Health Center.[87] The Columbia Point complex itself was redeveloped and revitalized from 1984 to 1990 into a mixed-income residential development called Harbor Point Apartments.[88]

By the 1970s, the city's economy had begun to recover after 30 years of economic downturn. A large number of high-rises were constructed in the Financial District and in Boston's Back Bay during this period.[89] This boom continued into the mid-1980s and resumed after a few pauses. Hospitals such as Massachusetts General Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Brigham and Women's Hospital lead the nation in medical innovation and patient care. Schools such as the Boston Architectural College, Boston College, Boston University, the Harvard Medical School, Tufts University School of Medicine, Northeastern University, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Berklee College of Music, the Boston Conservatory, and many others attract students to the area. Nevertheless, the city experienced conflict starting in 1974 over desegregation busing, which resulted in unrest and violence around public schools throughout the mid-1970s.[90]

The Charles River in front of Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, in 2013

Boston is an intellectual, technological, and political center but has lost some important regional institutions,[91] including the loss to mergers and acquisitions of local financial institutions such as FleetBoston Financial, which was acquired by Charlotte-based Bank of America in 2004.[92] Boston-based department stores Jordan Marsh and Filene's have both merged into the New York City–based Macy's.[93] The 1993 acquisition of The Boston Globe by The New York Times[94] was reversed in 2013 when it was re-sold to Boston businessman John W. Henry. In 2016, it was announced General Electric would be moving its corporate headquarters from Connecticut to the Seaport District in Boston, joining many other companies in this rapidly developing neighborhood.

Boston has experienced gentrification in the latter half of the 20th century,[95] with housing prices increasing sharply since the 1990s when the city's rent control regime was struck down by statewide ballot proposition.[96]

On April 15, 2013, two Chechen Islamist brothers detonated a pair of bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring roughly 264.[97]

In 2016, Boston briefly shouldered a bid as the US applicant for the 2024 Summer Olympics. The bid was supported by the mayor and a coalition of business leaders and local philanthropists, but was eventually dropped due to public opposition.[98] The USOC then selected Los Angeles to be the American candidate with Los Angeles ultimately securing the right to host the 2028 Summer Olympics.[99]

John Hancock Tower at 200 Clarendon Street is the tallest building in Boston with a roof height of 790 ft (240 m).

Boston is sometimes called a "city of neighborhoods" because of the profusion of diverse subsections; the city government's Office of Neighborhood Services has officially designated 23 neighborhoods. The 23 neighborhoods of Boston include: Allston, Back Bay, Bay Village, Beacon Hill, Brighton, Charlestown, Chinatown, Dorchester, Downtown, East Boston, Fenway, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, Mission Hill, North End, Roslindale, Roxbury, Seaport, South Boston, South End, the West End and West Roxbury.[103] More than two-thirds of inner Boston's modern land area did not exist when the city was founded. Instead, it was created via the gradual filling in of the surrounding tidal areas over the centuries,[69] with earth from leveling or lowering Boston's three original hills (the "Trimountain", after which Tremont Street is named) and with gravel brought by train from Needham to fill the Back Bay.[16]

Downtown and its immediate surroundings consist largely of low-rise masonry buildings (often Federal style and Greek Revival) interspersed with modern highrises, in the Financial District, Government Center, and South Boston.[104] Back Bay includes many prominent landmarks, such as the Boston Public Library, Christian Science Center, Copley Square, Newbury Street, and New England's two tallest buildings: the John Hancock Tower and the Prudential Center.[105] Near the John Hancock Tower is the old John Hancock Building with its prominent illuminated beacon, the color of which forecasts the weather.[106] Smaller commercial areas are interspersed among areas of single-family homes and wooden/brick multi-family row houses. The South End Historic District is the largest surviving contiguous Victorian-era neighborhood in the US.[107] The geography of downtown and South Boston was particularly affected by the Central Artery/Tunnel Project (known unofficially as the "Big Dig") which removed the elevated Central Artery and incorporated new green spaces and open areas.[108]

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  Boston's skyline in the background with fall foliage in the foreground
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  A graph of cumulative winter snowfall at Logan International Airport from 1938 to 2015. The four winters with the most snowfall are highlighted. The snowfall data, which was collected by NOAA, is from the weather station at the airport.

Under the Köppen climate classification, depending on the isotherm used, Boston has either a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) under the −3 °C (26.6 °F) isotherm or a humid continental climate under the 0 °C isotherm (Köppen Dfa).[109] The city is best described as being in a transitional zone between the two climates. Summers are typically warm and humid, while winters are cold and stormy, with occasional periods of heavy snow. Spring and fall are usually cool to mild, with varying conditions dependent on wind direction and jet stream positioning. Prevailing wind patterns that blow offshore minimize the influence of the Atlantic Ocean. However, in winter areas near the immediate coast will often see more rain than snow as warm air is drawn off the Atlantic at times.[110] The city lies at the transition between USDA plant hardiness zones 6b (most of the city) and 7a (Downtown, South Boston, and East Boston neighborhoods).[111]

The hottest month is July, with a mean temperature of 74.1 °F (23.4 °C). The coldest month is January, with a mean temperature of 29.9 °F (−1.2 °C). Periods exceeding 90 °F (32 °C) in summer and below freezing in winter are not uncommon but rarely extended, with about 13 and 25 days per year seeing each, respectively.[112] Sub- 0 °F (−18 °C) readings usually occur every 3 to 5 years.[113] The most recent sub- 0 °F (−18 °C) reading occurred on February 4, 2023, when the temperature dipped down to −10 °F (−23 °C); the lowest temperature reading in the city since 1957.[112] In addition, several decades may pass between 100 °F (38 °C) readings, with the most recent such occurrence on July 24, 2022, when the temperature reached 100 °F (38 °C).[112] The city's average window for freezing temperatures is November 9 through April 5.[112][lower-alpha 2] Official temperature records have ranged from −18 °F (−28 °C) on February 9, 1934, up to 104 °F (40 °C) on July 4, 1911. The record cold daily maximum is 2 °F (−17 °C) on December 30, 1917, while, conversely, the record warm daily minimum is 83 °F (28 °C) on August 2, 1975, and July 21, 2019.[114][112]

Boston's coastal location on the North Atlantic moderates its temperature but makes the city very prone to nor'easter weather systems that can produce much snow and rain.[110] The city averages 43.6 in (1,110 mm) of precipitation a year, with 49.2 in (125 cm) of snowfall per season.[112] Most snowfall occurs from mid-November through early April, and snow is rare in May and October.[115][116] There is also high year-to-year variability in snowfall; for instance, the winter of 2011–12 saw only 9.3 in (23.6 cm) of accumulating snow, but the previous winter, the corresponding figure was 81.0 in (2.06 m).[112][lower-alpha 3]

Fog is fairly common, particularly in spring and early summer. Due to its location along the North Atlantic, the city often receives sea breezes, especially in the late spring, when water temperatures are still quite cold and temperatures at the coast can be more than 20 °F (11 °C) colder than a few miles inland, sometimes dropping by that amount near midday.[117][118] Thunderstorms occur from May to September, which are occasionally severe with large hail, damaging winds, and heavy downpours.[110] Although downtown Boston has never been struck by a violent tornado, the city itself has experienced many tornado warnings. Damaging storms are more common to areas north, west, and northwest of the city.[119] Boston has a relatively sunny climate for a coastal city at its latitude, averaging over 2,600 hours of sunshine per annum.

See or edit raw graph data.

U.S. Navy sailors march in Boston's annual Saint Patrick's Day parade. Irish Americans constitute the largest ethnicity in Boston.

Armenian American family in Boston, 1908

Chinatown with its paifang gate is home to several Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants.

African-Americans comprise 22% of the city's population. People of Irish descent form the second-largest single ethnic group in the city, making up 15.8% of the population, followed by Italians, accounting for 8.3% of the population. People of West Indian and Caribbean ancestry are another sizable group, collectively at over 15%.[147] Boston has the second-biggest congestion of Irish Americans in the United States, trailing Butte, Montana.

In Greater Boston, these numbers grew significantly, with 150,000 Dominicans according to 2018 estimates, 134,000 Puerto Ricans, 57,500 Salvadorans, 39,000 Guatemalans, 36,000 Mexicans, and over 35,000 Colombians.[148] East Boston has a diverse Hispanic/Latino population of Salvadorans, Colombians, Guatemalans, Mexicans, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, and even Portuguese-speaking people from Portugal and Brazil. Hispanic populations in southwest Boston neighborhoods are mainly made up of Dominicans and Puerto Ricans, usually sharing neighborhoods in this section with African Americans and Blacks with origins from the Caribbean and Africa especially Cape Verdeans and Haitians. Neighborhoods such as Jamaica Plain and Roslindale have experienced a growing number of Dominican Americans.[149]

There is a large and historical Armenian community in Boston,[150] and the city is home to the Armenian Heritage Park.[151] Additionally, over 27,000 Chinese Americans made their home in Boston city proper in 2013.[152] Overall, according to the 2012–2016 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, the largest ancestry groups in Boston are:[153][154]

Data is from the 2008–2012 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates.[155][156][157]

Old South Church at Copley Square at sunset. This United Church of Christ congregation was first organized in 1669.

According to a 2014 study by the Pew Research Center, 57% of the population of the city identified themselves as Christians, with 25% attending a variety of Protestant churches and 29% professing Roman Catholic beliefs;[158][159] 33% claim no religious affiliation, while the remaining 10% are composed of adherents of Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Baháʼí and other faiths.

As of 2010, the Catholic Church had the highest number of adherents as a single denomination in the Greater Boston area, with more than two million members and 339 churches, followed by the Episcopal Church with 58,000 adherents in 160 churches. The United Church of Christ had 55,000 members and 213 churches.[160]

The city has a Jewish population of an estimated 248,000 Jews within the Boston metro area.[161] More than half of Jewish households in the Greater Boston area reside in the city itself, Brookline, Newton, Cambridge, Somerville, or adjacent towns.[161]

A small minority practices Confucianism, and some practice Boston Confucianism, an American evolution of Confucianism adapted for Boston intellectuals.

Boston Latin School was established in 1635 and is the oldest public high school in the U.S.

The Boston Public Schools enroll 57,000 students attending 145 schools, including the renowned Boston Latin Academy, John D. O'Bryant School of Math & Science, and Boston Latin School. The Boston Latin School was established in 1635 and is the oldest public high school in the US. Boston also operates the United States' second-oldest public high school and its oldest public elementary school.[18] The system's students are 40% Hispanic or Latino, 35% Black or African American, 13% White, and 9% Asian.[184] There are private, parochial, and charter schools as well, and approximately 3,300 minority students attend participating suburban schools through the Metropolitan Educational Opportunity Council.[185] In September 2019, the city formally inaugurated Boston Saves, a program that provides every child enrolled in the city's kindergarten system a savings account containing $50 to be used toward college or career training.[186]

Map of Boston-area universities

Harvard Business School, one of the country's top business schools[187]

Several of the most renowned and highly ranked universities in the world are near Boston.[188] Three universities with a major presence in the city, Harvard, MIT, and Tufts, are just outside of Boston in the cities of Cambridge and Somerville, known as the Brainpower Triangle.[189] Harvard is the nation's oldest institute of higher education and is centered across the Charles River in Cambridge, though the majority of its land holdings and a substantial amount of its educational activities are in Boston. Its business school and athletics facilities are in Boston's Allston neighborhood, and its medical, dental, and public health schools are located in the Longwood area.[190]

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) originated in Boston and was long known as "Boston Tech"; it moved across the river to Cambridge in 1916.[191] Tufts University's main campus is north of the city in Somerville and Medford, though it locates its medical and dental schools in Boston's Chinatown at Tufts Medical Center.[192]

Five members of the Association of American Universities are in Greater Boston (more than any other metropolitan area): Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tufts University, Boston University, and Brandeis University.[193] Furthermore, Greater Boston contains seven Highest Research Activity (R1) Universities as per the Carnegie Classification. This includes, in addition to the aforementioned five, Boston College, and Northeastern University. This is, by a large margin, the highest concentration of such institutions in a single metropolitan area. Hospitals, universities, and research institutions in Greater Boston received more than $1.77 billion in National Institutes of Health grants in 2013, more money than any other American metropolitan area.[194] This high density of research institutes also contributes to Boston's high density of early career researchers, which, due to high housing costs in the region, have been shown to face housing stress.[195][196]

Greater Boston has more than 50 colleges and universities, with 250,000 students enrolled in Boston and Cambridge alone.[197] The city's largest private universities include Boston University (also the city's fourth-largest employer),[198] with its main campus along Commonwealth Avenue and a medical campus in the South End, Northeastern University in the Fenway area,[199] Suffolk University near Beacon Hill, which includes law school and business school,[200] and Boston College, which straddles the Boston (Brighton)–Newton border.[201] Boston's only public university is the University of Massachusetts Boston on Columbia Point in Dorchester. Roxbury Community College and Bunker Hill Community College are the city's two public community colleges. Altogether, Boston's colleges and universities employ more than 42,600 people, accounting for nearly seven percent of the city's workforce.[202]

Smaller private colleges include Babson College, Bentley University, Boston Architectural College, Emmanuel College, Fisher College, MGH Institute of Health Professions, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Simmons University, Wellesley College, Wheelock College, Wentworth Institute of Technology, New England School of Law (originally established as America's first all female law school),[203] and Emerson College.[204]

Metropolitan Boston is home to several conservatories and art schools, including Lesley University College of Art and Design, Massachusetts College of Art, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, New England Institute of Art, New England School of Art and Design (Suffolk University), Longy School of Music of Bard College, and the New England Conservatory (the oldest independent conservatory in the United States).[205] Other conservatories include the Boston Conservatory and Berklee College of Music, which has made Boston an important city for jazz music.[206]

Many trade schools also exist in the city, such as the Boston Career Institute, the North Bennet Street School, the Madison Park technical School, JATC of Greater Boston, and many others.

Air quality in Boston is generally very good. Between 2004 and 2013, there were only four days in which the air was unhealthy for the general public, according to the EPA.[241]

Some of the cleaner energy facilities in Boston include the Allston green district, with three ecologically compatible housing facilities.[242] Boston is also breaking ground on multiple green affordable housing facilities to help reduce the carbon impact of the city while simultaneously making these initiatives financially available to a greater population. Boston's climate plan is updated every three years and was most recently modified in 2019.[243] This legislature includes the Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance, which requires the city's larger buildings to disclose their yearly energy and water use statistics and to partake in an energy assessment every five years. These statistics are made public by the city, thereby increasing incentives for buildings to be more environmentally conscious.[244]

Mayor Thomas Menino introduced the Renew Boston Whole Building Incentive which reduces the cost of living in buildings that are deemed energy efficient. This gives people an opportunity to find housing in neighborhoods that support the environment. The ultimate goal of this initiative is to enlist 500 Bostonians to participate in a free, in-home energy assessment.[244]

Many older buildings in certain areas of Boston are supported by wooden piles driven into the area's fill; these piles remain sound if submerged in water, but are subject to dry rot if exposed to air for long periods.[245] Ground water levels have been dropping in many areas of the city, due in part to an increase in the amount of rainwater discharged directly into sewers rather than absorbed by the ground. The Boston Groundwater Trust coordinates monitoring ground water levels throughout the city via a network of public and private monitoring wells.[246] However, Boston's drinking water supply from the Quabbin and Wachusett Reservoirs[247] is one of the very few in the country so pure as to satisfy the Federal Clean Water Act without filtration.[248]

Population density and elevation above sea level in Greater Boston as of 2010

The City of Boston has developed a climate action plan covering carbon reduction in buildings, transportation, and energy use.[249] Mayor Thomas Menino commissioned the city's first Climate Action Plan in 2007, with an update released in 2011.[250] Since then, Mayor Marty Walsh has built upon these plans with further updates released in 2014 and 2019. As a coastal city built largely on fill, sea-level rise is of major concern to the city government. The latest version of the climate action plan anticipates between two and seven feet of sea-level rise in Boston by the end of the century. A separate initiative, Resilient Boston Harbor, lays out neighborhood-specific recommendations for coastal resilience.[251]

The Boston Globe is the oldest and largest daily newspaper in the city[283] and is generally acknowledged as its paper of record.[284] The city is also served by other publications such as the Boston Herald, Boston magazine, DigBoston, and the Boston edition of Metro. The Christian Science Monitor, headquartered in Boston, was formerly a worldwide daily newspaper but ended publication of daily print editions in 2009, switching to continuous online and weekly magazine format publications.[285] The Boston Globe also releases a teen publication to the city's public high schools, called Teens in Print or T.i.P., which is written by the city's teens and delivered quarterly within the school year.[286] The Improper Bostonian, a glossy lifestyle magazine, was published from 1991 through April 2019.

The city's growing Latino population has given rise to a number of local and regional Spanish-language newspapers. These include El Planeta (owned by the former publisher of the Boston Phoenix), El Mundo, and La Semana. Siglo21, with its main offices in nearby Lawrence, is also widely distributed.[287]

Various LGBT publications serve the city's large LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) population such as The Rainbow Times, the only minority and lesbian-owned LGBT news magazine. Founded in 2006, The Rainbow Times is now based out of Boston, but serves all of New England.[288]

Boston is the largest broadcasting market in New England, with the radio market being the ninth largest in the United States.[289] Several major AM stations include talk radio WRKO, sports/talk station WEEI, and iHeartMedia WBZ.[290] WBZ (AM) broadcasts a news radio format and is a 50,000 watt "clear channel" station, whose nighttime broadcasts are heard hundreds of miles from Boston. A variety of commercial FM radio formats serve the area, as do NPR stations WBUR and WGBH. College and university radio stations include WERS (Emerson), WHRB (Harvard), WUMB (UMass Boston), WMBR (MIT), WZBC (Boston College), WMFO (Tufts University), WBRS (Brandeis University), WTBU (Boston University, campus and web only), WRBB (Northeastern University) and WMLN-FM (Curry College).

The Boston television DMA, which also includes Manchester, New Hampshire, is the eighth largest in the United States.[291] The city is served by stations representing every major American network, including WBZ-TV 4 and its sister station WSBK-TV 38 (the former a CBS O&O, the latter an independent station), WCVB-TV 5 and its sister station WMUR-TV 9 (both ABC), WHDH 7 and its sister station WLVI 56 (the former an independent station, the latter a CW affiliate), WBTS-CD 15 (an NBC O&O), and WFXT 25 (Fox). The city is also home to PBS member station WGBH-TV 2, a major producer of PBS programs,[292] which also operates WGBX 44. Spanish-language television networks, including UniMás (WUTF-TV 27), Telemundo (WNEU 60, a sister station to WBTS-CD), and Univisión (WUNI 66), have a presence in the region, with WNEU serving as network owned-and-operated station. Most of the area's television stations have their transmitters in nearby Needham and Newton along the Route 128 corridor.[293] Six Boston television stations are carried by Canadian satellite television provider Bell TV and by cable television providers in Canada.

Several television shows have used Boston as a setting, such as the popular sitcom Cheers and the drama series The Practice.

Films have been made in Boston since as early as 1903, and it continues to be both a popular setting and a popular filming location.[294][295] Notable movies like The Departed, The Fighter and The Town were filmed in Boston.[296] Notable movies set in Boston include Good Will Hunting and The Social Network.[297][298][299]

Video games have used Boston as a backdrop and setting, such as Assassin's Creed III published in 2012 and Fallout 4 in 2015.[300][301] Some characters from video games are from Boston, such as the Scout from Team Fortress 2.[302] The gaming convention PAX East is held in Boston, which many gaming companies like Microsoft, Ubisoft, and Wizards of the Coast have previously attended.[303]

An MBTA Red Line train departing Boston for Cambridge. Over 1.3 million Bostonians utilize the city's buses and trains daily as of 2013.[304]

South Station, the busiest rail hub in New England, is a terminus of Amtrak and numerous MBTA rail lines.

Bluebikes in Boston

Logan International Airport, in East Boston and operated by the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport), is Boston's principal airport.[305] Nearby general aviation airports are Beverly Municipal Airport to the north, Hanscom Field to the west, and Norwood Memorial Airport to the south. Massport also operates several major facilities within the Port of Boston, including a cruise ship terminal and facilities to handle bulk and container cargo in South Boston, and other facilities in Charlestown and East Boston.[306]

Downtown Boston's streets grew organically, so they do not form a planned grid,[307] unlike those in later-developed Back Bay, East Boston, the South End, and South Boston. Boston is the eastern terminus of I-90, which in Massachusetts runs along the Massachusetts Turnpike. The elevated portion of the Central Artery, which carried most of the through traffic in downtown Boston, was replaced with the O'Neill Tunnel during the Big Dig, substantially completed in early 2006. The former and current Central Artery follow I-93 as the primary north–south artery from the city. Other major highways include US 1, which carries traffic to the North Shore and areas south of Boston, US 3, which connects to the northwestern suburbs, Massachusetts Route 3, which connects to the South Shore and Cape Cod, and Massachusetts Route 2 which connects to the western suburbs. Surrounding the city is Massachusetts Route 128, a partial beltway which has been largely subsumed by other routes (mostly I-95 and I-93).

With nearly a third of Bostonians using public transit for their commute to work, Boston has the fourth-highest rate of public transit usage in the country.[308] The city of Boston has a higher than average percentage of households without a car. In 2015, 35.4 percent of Boston households lacked a car, which decreased slightly to 33.8 percent in 2016. The national average was 8.7 percent in 2016. Boston averaged 0.94 cars per household in 2016, compared to a national average of 1.8.[309] Boston's public transportation agency, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) operates the oldest underground rapid transit system in the Americas, and is the fourth-busiest rapid transit system in the country,[19] with 65.5 mi (105 km) of track on four lines.[310] The MBTA also operates busy bus and commuter rail networks, and water shuttles.[310]

Amtrak intercity rail to Boston is provided through four stations: South Station, North Station, Back Bay, and Route 128. South Station is a major intermodal transportation hub and is the terminus of Amtrak's Northeast Regional, Acela Express, and Lake Shore Limited routes, in addition to multiple MBTA services. Back Bay is also served by MBTA and those three Amtrak routes, while Route 128, in the southwestern suburbs of Boston, is only served by the Acela Express and Northeast Regional.[311] Meanwhile, Amtrak's Downeaster to Brunswick, Maine terminates in North Station, and is the only Amtrak route to do so.[312]

Nicknamed "The Walking City", Boston hosts more pedestrian commuters than do other comparably populated cities. Owing to factors such as necessity, the compactness of the city and large student population, 13 percent of the population commutes by foot, making it the highest percentage of pedestrian commuters in the country out of the major American cities.[313] In 2011, Walk Score ranked Boston the third-most walkable city in the United States.[314][315] As of 2015, Walk Score still ranks Boston as the third most walkable US city, with a Walk Score of 80, a Transit Score of 75, and a Bike Score of 70.[316]

Between 1999 and 2006, Bicycling magazine named Boston three times as one of the worst cities in the US for cycling;[317] regardless, it has one of the highest rates of bicycle commuting.[318] In 2008, as a consequence of improvements made to bicycling conditions within the city, the same magazine put Boston on its "Five for the Future" list as a "Future Best City" for biking,[319][320] and Boston's bicycle commuting percentage increased from 1% in 2000 to 2.1% in 2009.[321] The bikeshare program Bluebikes, originally called Hubway, launched in late July 2011,[322] logging more than 140,000 rides before the close of its first season.[323] The neighboring municipalities of Cambridge, Somerville, and Brookline joined the Hubway program in the summer of 2012.[324] In 2016, there were 1,461 bikes and 158 docking stations across the city, which in 2022 has increased to 400 stations with a total of 4,000 bikes.[325] PBSC Urban Solutions provides bicycles and technology for this bike-sharing system.[326]

In 2013, the Boston-Cambridge-Newton metropolitan statistical area (Boston MSA) had the seventh-lowest percentage of workers who commuted by private automobile (75.6 percent), with 6.2 percent of area workers traveling via rail transit. During the period starting in 2006 and ending in 2013, the Boston MSA had the greatest percentage decline of workers commuting by automobile (3.3 percent) among MSAs with more than a half-million residents.[327]