Quincy, Massachusetts

View of Mount Wollaston as it appeared in 1840, virtually unchanged from the time of initial English settlement in 1625. The central part of this sketch was adopted as the seal of Quincy.

The road that eventually became the Old Coast Road from Boston to Plymouth, going through Quincy and Braintree, started out as a native american trail.[5]

Massachusett sachem Chickatawbut had his seat on a hill called Moswetuset Hummock prior to the settlement of the area by English colonists, situated east of the mouth of the Neponset River near what is now called Squantum.[6] It was visited in 1621 by Plymouth Colony commander Myles Standish and Squanto, a native guide.[7]

Four years later, a party led by Captain Richard Wollaston established a post on a low hill near the south shore of Quincy Bay east of present-day Black's Creek. The settlers found the area suitable for farming, as Chickatawbut and his group had cleared much of the land of trees. (The Indians used the name Passonagessit ("Little Neck of Land") for the area.[8]) This settlement was named Mount Wollaston in honor of the leader, who left the area soon after 1625, bound for Virginia.[9]

The Wollaston neighborhood in Quincy still retains Captain Wollaston's name. Upon the departure of Wollaston, Thomas Morton took over leadership of the post. Morton's history of conflict with the Plymouth settlement and his free-thinking ideals antagonized the Plymouth settlement, who maligned the colony and accused it of debauchery with Indian women and drunkenness.[9] Morton renamed the settlement Ma-re-Mount ("Hill by the Sea") and later wrote that the conservative separatists of Plymouth Colony to the south were "threatening to make it a woefull mount and not a merry mount", in reference to the fact that they disapproved of his libertine practices.[10] In 1627, Morton was arrested by Standish for violating the code of conduct in a way harmful to the colony. He was sent back to England, only to return and be arrested by Puritans the next year.[9] The area of Quincy now called Merrymount is located on the site of the original English settlement of 1625 and takes its name from the punning name given by Morton.[11]

The area was first incorporated as part of Dorchester in 1630 and was briefly annexed by Boston in 1634.[12] The area became Braintree in 1640,[13] bordered along the coast of Massachusetts Bay by Dorchester[14] to the north and Weymouth[15] to the east. Beginning in 1708, the modern border of Quincy first took shape as the North Precinct of Braintree.[13]

Following the American Revolution, Quincy was officially incorporated as a separate town named for Col. John Quincy in 1792, the grandfather of Abigail Adams [16] and was made a city in 1888.[17] Quincy, Massachusetts, is the only one of 17 cities named Quincy in the United States whose residents pronounce the name as "KWIN-zee" rather than "KWIN-see". In 1845 the Old Colony Railroad opened; the Massachusetts Historical Commission stated that the railroad was "the beginning of a trend toward suburbanization". Quincy became as accessible to Boston as was Charlestown. The first suburban land company, Bellevue Land Co., had been organized in northern Quincy in 1870.[18] Quincy's population grew by over 50 percent during the 1920s.[19]

Among the city's several firsts was the Granite Railway, the first commercial railroad in the United States. It was constructed in 1826 to carry granite from a Quincy quarry to the Neponset River in Milton so that the stone could then be taken by boat to erect the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown. Quincy granite became famous throughout the nation, and stonecutting became the city's principal economic activity. Quincy was also home to the first iron furnace in the United States, the John Winthrop Jr. Iron Furnace Site (also known as Braintree Furnace), from 1644 to 1653.

Quincy, Massachusetts, oil on canvas, Childe Hassam, 1892

In the 1870s, the city gave its name to the Quincy Method, an influential approach to education developed by Francis W. Parker while he served as Quincy's superintendent of schools. Parker, an early proponent of progressive education, put his ideas into practice in the city's underperforming schools; four years later, a state survey found that Quincy's students were excelling.[20] Many of Quincy’s teachers were recruited by districts in other states, spreading the Quincy method beyond Massachusetts to New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Vermont, Florida, Minnesota, and other places.[21]

Quincy was additionally important as a shipbuilding center. Sailing ships were built in Quincy for many years, including the only seven-masted schooner ever built, Thomas W. Lawson. The Fore River area became a shipbuilding center in the 1880s; founded by Thomas A. Watson, who became wealthy as assistant to Alexander Graham Bell in developing the telephone, many famous warships were built at the Fore River Shipyard. Amongst these were the aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-2); the battleships USS Massachusetts (BB-59), now preserved as a museum ship at Battleship Cove in Massachusetts, and USS Nevada (BB-36); and USS Salem (CA-139), the world's last all-gun heavy warship, which is still preserved at Fore River as the main exhibit of the United States Naval Shipbuilding Museum. John J. Kilroy, reputed originator of the famous Kilroy was here graffiti, was a rivet inspector at Fore River.[22]

Quincy was also an aviation pioneer thanks to Dennison Field. Located in the Squantum section of town it was one of the world's first airports and was partially developed by Amelia Earhart. In 1910, it was the site of the Harvard Aero Meet, the second air show in America. It was later leased to the Navy for an airfield, and served as a reserve Squantum Naval Air Station into the 1950s. The Army has also long maintained a presence in the city, with the Massachusetts Army National Guard occupying the Kelley Armory in Wollaston, from 1971 to 1976 it served as headquarters for the 187th Infantry Brigade.

The Howard Johnson's and Dunkin' Donuts restaurant chains were both founded in Quincy. Celtic punk band Dropkick Murphys got its start in the city's Wollaston neighborhood in 1996. Quincy is also home to the United States' longest-running Flag Day parade, a tradition that began in 1952 under Richard Koch, a former director of Parks and Recreation, who started the "Koch Club" sports organization for kids and had an annual parade with flags.[23]

Kam Man Food in Quincy

As of 2010, Quincy has the highest per capita concentration of persons of Asian origin in Massachusetts.[44] As of 2003 about 66% of the Asians in Quincy are ethnic Chinese,[45] giving the city one of the largest Chinese populations in the state.[46] There is also a community of persons of East Indian origins, with most of them working in information technology and other skilled professions.[45] A growing number of people with Vietnamese origins live in the area as well and make up the second largest Asian American group in Quincy; it is estimated that nearly 4,000 Vietnamese people live in the city.

In 1980, there were 750 persons of Asian origin in Quincy. Most of the Asian immigrants coming in the 1980s originated from Hong Kong and Taiwan.[47] In 1990, Quincy had 5,577 persons of Asian origin,[44] with 143 of them being of East Indian origin.[45] The number of Asians increased to 13,546 in 2000,[44] with about 9,000 of them being ethnic Chinese,[46] and 1,127 of them being ethnic East Indian. The latter group grew by 688%, making it the fastest-growing Asian subgroup in Quincy.[45] Around 2003, most Asian immigrants were coming from Fujian instead of Hong Kong and Taiwan.[47] At that time, Quincy had a higher Asian population than the Boston Chinatown.[48] The overall Asian population increased by 64% in the following decade, to 22,174 in 2010.[44] Quincy's Chinese population increased by 60% during that time period.[49]

Historically, Quincy residents traveled to shops in Chinatown, Boston, but by 2003 Asian shopping centers became established in Quincy.[48] By 2003, New York City-based Kam Man Food was establishing a supermarket in Quincy.[50] In February 2017, City Councilor Nina Liang presented a motion to designate Quincy as a "Sanctuary City".[51] This motion was voted down by the City Council. Quincy has an estimated 8,000 undocumented residents and has the 11th-highest concentration of immigrants in Massachusetts overall.[52]

As of 2000, about 50% of Asians in Quincy own their own houses; many who rent do so while saving money for down payments for their houses.[47] Sixty-five percent of the Chinese were homeowners, while only 10% of the East Indians were homeowners.[45] As of 2003, slightly more than 2,500 Asian Americans in Quincy were registered to vote, making up almost 25% of Asians in the city who were eligible to vote.[53]

In the 1980s, there was racial violence against the Asian community by whites,[54] and at the time the city did not employ any Asian police officers, leaving the Asian population to feel a lack of trust in the police.[55] By 2003, the racial tensions had been greatly reduced,[54] and the Quincy Police Department at that time had Asian officers.[55]

By 2003, Quincy Asian Resources Inc. planned to establish a newsletter for Asian residents.[53] In 2011, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, Inc. (BCNC; 波士頓華埠社區中心) executive director Elaine Ng stated that the center would begin to offer services in Quincy. The number of persons using BCNC services residing in Quincy increased by almost 300% in a period beginning in 2004 and ending in 2005.[49]

Data is from the 2009–2013 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates.[66][67][68]

Quincy has a strong mayor government. The incumbent mayor, Thomas P. Koch, has served since 2008; he is the 33rd mayor of the city. Mayors in the city were elected to two-year terms. In 2013, the city's voters opted to extend the mayoral term to four years, beginning after the 2015 election.[69]

In addition to the mayor, the city has a nine-member city council, with Noel T. DiBona serving as current president. Six councilors are elected to represent Quincy's wards, and three are elected at large. Councilors serve two-year terms. The city also has a school committee with seven members—the mayor and six members elected to staggered four-year terms.[70]

The Quincy Police Department was formed in 1888, currently headquartered at the original Quincy Police Station which was built in 1925 as the city's first purpose-built police station and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. In 2010, the city of Quincy was the first in the US to have its police department carry the nasal spray Narcan (Nalaxone) to combat the overdose outbreak associated with the opioid epidemic in the US.[71] When the program first began, the city's officers were reviving an overdose victim every four to five days. By 2014, police officers had administered the opioid antagonist over 300 times. Other cities and police departments throughout the US developed their own Narcan-dispensing programs based on the model pioneered by the Quincy PD.[72] In 2017, overdose deaths in the city and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts had declined, it was thought, due to the use of naloxone by the police and others. The state legislature, in 2018, required all pharmacies to keep Narcan in stock and available to anyone, without a prescription.[73]

Fire emergencies are handled by the Quincy Fire Department, which was founded in 1889 and includes the Central Fire Station, which is on the National Register of Historic Places and is still active as of 2023.[74] The city's Emergency Medical Services are privately contracted, with ambulance response being handled by Brewster Ambulance Service since 2015.[75]

Quincy is represented in the Massachusetts State Senate by Democrat John F. Keenan (Norfolk and Plymouth district). Three members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives represent Quincy: Bruce Ayers (1st Norfolk district), Tackey Chan (2nd Norfolk district), and Ronald Mariano (3rd Norfolk district).[76] Each representative is a Democrat, and Mariano is the speaker of the House.

The city is home to Eastern Nazarene College, a college of the liberal arts and sciences located in Wollaston Park. The college relocated to the area in 1919 from its original location in Saratoga Springs, New York, where it was established as a holiness college in 1900. Quincy College, a community college in Quincy Center, operates under the auspices of the City of Quincy. The college is unusual in this respect, as it is the only one of Massachusetts' 16 community colleges to be run by a city rather than by the state.[77] It is one of only two colleges in the United States organized this way.[78]

Public education at the primary and secondary levels is managed by Quincy Public Schools, a system that includes one early childhood center, eleven elementary schools, five middle schools and two high schools.[79]

Public high schools

• North Quincy High School
• Quincy High School

Public middle schools

• Atlantic
• Broad Meadows
• Central
• Point Webster
• South-West (formerly Reay E. Sterling)

Public elementary schools

Private and alternative education institutions for children in preschool–8th grade include Quincy's three Catholic schools—Sacred Heart, St. Ann, and St. Mary.[80][81][82] Because of declining enrollment and the ongoing economic crisis, the three merged to form the Quincy Catholic Academy, which opened in September 2010, at the site of the Sacred Heart school.[83] The Woodward School for Girls is a non-sectarian college preparatory day school for girls in grades 6–12.[84] Campus Kinder Haus (CKH) is operated by the Eastern Nazarene College on its Old Colony campus.[85] The Adams Montessori School is open for children of preschool through elementary school age.[86]

For a number of years, the Fore River Apprentice School was operated at the Fore River Shipyard to teach its students how to work in the shipyard.[87]

Quincy is also home to the Massachusetts School of Barbering.

The Thomas Crane Public Library serves as the public library system of Quincy, Massachusetts.

Peter Jae established the Quincy Chinese Language School, which offers supplementary education for Chinese children, in 1988. As of 2003 it holds Cantonese-language classes for 150 students at the Sacred Heart School in North Quincy on Saturday mornings. The school at one time had 400 students but the school reduced itself in size when a lack of qualified teachers occurred.[46]

The Chung Yee School is another Chinese school in Quincy. As of 2008 the headmaster is Harry Kwan, who originated from Hong Kong. That year the school had 100 students and charged $100 ($135.92 adjusted for inflation) per child per month for Chinese language and culture after school classes. It was first established around 1996. The school was briefly closed by the Quincy Police Department on November 28, 2008, due to a lack of Massachusetts state and local government permits. After the state and municipal authorities cleared the school of allegations of child abuse, it was scheduled to reopen that year.[88] After the allegation, Chung Yee School continued to operate without obtaining a government childcare license for after-school programs.

In December 2002 the Vrindavana Preservation Society established the Vaisnava Academy which caters to Quincy's East Indian community and offers courses for children. Subjects include the Hindi language, Indian dance and music, and yoga.[45]

Interstate 93 and U.S. Route 1 travel south to north concurrently through Quincy beginning in the southwest, where the Quincy–Randolph border bisects the median between the northern and southern halves of the Exit 5 cloverleaf at Massachusetts Route 28. Following a route around the southern extent of the Blue Hills Reservation, this I-93 and US 1 alignment is along the former southern section of Route 128. The highway travels along a wooded wetland region of the Reservation, entering Quincy completely just beyond Exit 5 and then crossing into Braintree as it approaches the Braintree Split, the junction with Massachusetts Route 3. Weekday traffic volume averages 250,000 to 275,000 vehicles per day at this intersection, the gateway from Boston and its inner core to the South Shore and Cape Cod.[89]

As Route 3 joins I-93 and US 1 at the Braintree Split, the three travel north together toward Boston around the eastern extent of the Blue Hills Reservation, entering West Quincy as the Southeast Expressway. The expressway provides access to West Quincy at Exit 8—Furnace Brook Parkway and Exit 9—Bryant Avenue/Adams Street before entering Milton. The Furnace Brook Parkway exit also provides access to Ricciuti Drive and the Quincy Quarries Reservation as well as the eastern entrance to the Blue Hills Reservation Parkways.

Principal numbered state highways traveling within Quincy include: Route 3A south to north from Weymouth via Washington Street, Southern Artery, Merrymount Parkway and Hancock Street to the Neponset River Bridge and the Dorchester section of Boston; Route 28, which travels south to north from Randolph to Milton along Randolph Avenue in Quincy through a remote section of the Blue Hills Reservation; and Route 53, which enters traveling south to north from Braintree as Quincy Avenue, turning right to form the beginning of Southern Artery in Quincy Point before ending at the intersection with Washington Street/Route 3A.

Quincy Center as seen from the intersection of Adams Street and Hancock Street

In addition to the Blue Hills parkways, Quincy includes two other Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation parkways. Furnace Brook Parkway travels east from I-93 through the center of the city from West Quincy to Quincy Center and Merrymount at Quincy Bay. There the parkway meets Quincy Shore Drive at the mouth of Blacks Creek. Quincy Shore Drive travels in a northerly direction along the shore of Quincy Bay through Wollaston and into North Quincy, with much of its length abutting Wollaston Beach, then turns in a westerly direction upon intersecting with East Squantum Street and continues to meet Hancock Street at the Neponset River Bridge.

As for Quincy's other important city streets, Hancock Street begins at the southern extent of Quincy Center and travels north to Dorchester as a main commercial thoroughfare of Quincy Center, Wollaston and North Quincy. Washington Street enters the city at Fore River Rotary after crossing Weymouth Fore River and continues to Quincy Center, ending at Hancock Street. Along with Quincy Avenue and Southern Artery, other heavily traveled streets include Newport Avenue, which parallels Hancock Street to the west on the opposite side of the MBTA railway, Adams Street heading west from Quincy Center to Milton, and West and East Squantum Streets in the Montclair and North Quincy neighborhoods. Other streets are discussed in several of the neighborhood articles listed above.

Boston's Logan International Airport is accessible via MBTA Red Line connections at South Station, directly on the MBTA commuter boat (see below) or by motor vehicle using Interstate 93 or surface roads to the Ted Williams Tunnel.

Subway service is available on the Red Line of the MBTA from four stations in Quincy: North Quincy, Wollaston, Quincy Center, and Quincy Adams. Commuter rail service operates out of Quincy Center. Both services serve South Station in Boston with connections to MBTA Commuter Rail and Amtrak intercity lines. Buses are also available for transportation in Quincy, including private bus lines and several lines provided by the MBTA. Most of the MBTA routes funnel through the Quincy Center station, which is the principal hub south of Boston for all MBTA bus lines. The southern bus garage for the MBTA system is adjacent to the Quincy Armory on Hancock Street.

Quincy was a major terminal for the commuter boat system that crosses Boston Harbor to Long Wharf, Hull, Rowe's Wharf, Hingham, and Logan Airport. The commuter boats, which were operated by Harbor Express under license by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, docked at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy Point.[90] Service ended in October 2013 after a water main break damaged the sea wall and wharf. Temporary repairs would have cost $15 million; permanent repairs $50 million. In 2014, the MBTA made the decision to permanently end the service and sell the land.[91]