Welcome To Boston SAFeDATA

Boston`s reputation as the Athens of America derives in large part from the teaching and research activities of more than 100 colleges and universities located in the Greater Boston Area, with more than 250,000 students attending college in Boston and Cambridge alone. Within the city, Boston University exudes a large presence as the city`s fourth-largest employer, and maintains a campus along the Charles River on Commonwealth Avenue and its medical campus in the South End. Northeastern University, another large private university, is located in the Fenway district. Wheelock College, Simmons College, Emmanuel College, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and Wentworth Institute of Technology, founding members of the Colleges of the Fenway, are adjacent to Northeastern University. Suffolk University, a small private university known for its law school, maintains a campus on Beacon Hill. New England School of Law, a small private law school located in the theater district, was originally established as USA`s only all female law school. Emerson College, a small private college with a strong reputation in the fields of performing arts, journalism, writing, and film, is located nearby on Boston Common. Boston College, whose original campus was located in South Boston, moved its campus west to a site that straddles the Boston(Brighton)-Newton border. Boston College is enlargeing further into the Brighton neighborhood following the purchase of adjacent land from the Boston Catholic Archdiocese.

In 1630, Puritan colonists from England founded the city on the Shawmut Peninsula. During the late eighteenth century Boston was the location of several major events during the US Revolution, including the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party. Several early battles of the US Revolution, such as the Battle of Bunker Hill and the Siege of Boston, occurred inside the city and surrounding areas. After US independence Boston became a major shipping port and manufacturing center, and its rich history now attracts 16.3 1,000,000 visitors annually. The city was the site of several firsts, including USA`s first public school, Boston Latin School (1635), and first college, Harvard College (1636), in neighboring Cambridge. Boston was also home to the first subway system in the US.

Through land reclamation and municipal annexation, Boston has enlargeed beyond the peninsula. With many colleges and universities inside the city and surrounding area, Boston is a center of higher education and a center for health care. The city`s economy is also based on research, finance, and technology — principally Biotechnologynology. Boston has been experiencing gentrification and has one of the highest costs of living in the US.

The Shawmut peninsula was connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus, and surrounded by the waters of Massachusetts Bay and the Back Bay, an estuary of the Charles River. Several prehistoric Native US archaeological sites excavated in the city have shown that the peninsula was inhabited as early as 5,000 BC. Boston`s early European settlers first called the area Trimountaine, but later renamed the town after Boston, Lincolnshire, England, from which several prominent colonists had emigrated. Massachusetts Bay Colony`s original governor, John Winthrop, gave a famous sermon entitled "A Model of Christian Charity," popularly known as the "City on a Hill" sermon, which captured the idea that Boston had a special covenant with God. (Winthrop also led the signing of the Cambridge Agreement, which is regarded as a key founding document of the city.) Puritan ethics molded a stable and well-structured society in Boston. For example, shortly after Boston`s settlement, Puritans founded USA`s first public school, Boston Latin School (1635), and USA`s first college, Harvard College (1636). Boston was the largest town in British North America until the mid-1700s.

In the 1770s, British attempts to exert more stringent control on the thirteen colonies, primarily via taxation, prompted Bostonians to initiate the US Revolution. The Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, and several early battles occurred in or near the city, including the Battle of Lexington and Concord, Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston. During this period, Paul Revere made his famous midnight ride.

In the 1820s, Boston`s populus began to swell 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. By 1850, about 35,000 Irish stayed in Boston. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, the city saw increasing numbers of Irish, Germans, Lebanese, French Canadians, and Russian and Polish Jews settle in the city. By the end of the nineteenth century, Boston`s core neighborhoods had become enclaves of ethnically distinct immigrants — Italians inhabited the North End, the Irish dominated South Boston, and Russian Jews stayed in the West End.