Most great cities in today’s world hold a long history, a history that has given such cities their soul and identity. Boston City is no different, with its history clearly written in many aspects of the city today, including its architecture, a good example being Paul Revere’s house (Warner, 1976). The shifts over the years, majorly brought about by modernization, may be changing the city’s landscape and people, but there still exists many memories of a time past. For many historians, the final half of the nineteenth century denotes one of the most dynamic and prosperous for the city (Warner, 1976: Shand Tucci, 2000) due to the major physical changes this period brought to the city. The changes during this time also included changes in inhabitants, with the population shifting from a mere two hundred thousand to over a million within a span of fifty years. This paper will concentrate on the time period of 1870 to 1900, looking at the changes that occurred in Boston both physically and in terms of the inhabitants, while also identifying the main drivers of this change.
Change in Boston
Being a port city on the East Coast, Boston was a first stop for many European immigrants landing in the country looking for opportunities. It also offered rail services to locations as far as California, with Husband and O’Loughlin (2004) highlighting that in 1889, it would have cost about $400 for a luxury tour between these two cities. The ease of accessibility was undoubtedly one of the main reasons the city grew at such a high pace between these years. A lot of the architecture that came up during this period was also influenced by European cultures, shifting from the Puritan style the city had embraced prior to the 1850s (Shand Tucci, 2000). The changes were however most palpable not in terms of the building architecture, but in terms of the city structure and populations.
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These changes came about as a result of the industrial revolution that took hold of America as a whole during this period. It was a transition period across the country. Looking at the long history of the city, the period between 1870 and 1900 is often identified as being the most crucial to the modern day Boston. This is because it is this period where various stakeholders seem to have come together to plan for the development of the city to become a major industrial metropolis. According to Warner (1978), this period saw a partnership between homeowners, individual investors and large institutions to construct an industrial and suburban metropolis. But this relationship was not official, but rather led by common ideas as well as attitudes (Warner, 1978).
Part of the shared ideas and attitudes included a belief in creating a two part city, where one side would be for work, and the other for homes. Warner asserts that this drive to create a new city that separated the work areas from the city of homes was well received and executed by hundreds of thousands of middle class city citizens. There were also prevailing beliefs not only among Bostonians, but Americans in general during this period that led to greater changes within the city and the country at large. These beliefs centered on the growing capitalism, industrialization and immigration. With these three factors influencing Boston politics and development, the city was able to grow from a merchant town and into a major industrial center.
The People
Change did not just come in the form of infrastructure and buildings nonetheless; the inflow of immigrants into Boston during this period came about as a result of the job opportunities that arose from industrialization (Warner, 1978: Husband and O’Loughlin, 2004). The combination of industrialization and immigration immensely influenced the economy of Boston. Nonetheless, there was also a major shift in the population dynamics of the city, with European immigrants from the British Isles, Germany and even provinces in Canada and Ireland. With such a growing mixture of cultures, the expectation would be that there were cultural clashes amongst the city’s classes.
There were little to not cultural clashes within Boston though, an outcome that came from the fact that many of the residents of the city were themselves descendants of immigrants from these same areas, most notably the British Isles. Considering their shared origin, these immigrants generally shared a background, as well as habits and religion; they easily assimilated into the Boston community. This allowed for tolerance between old residents and the new immigrants within the city, and allowed for continuity of economic activities and growth of the city. Indeed, the assimilation allowed the immigrants to easily fit into the Boston ‘old stock,’ (Warner, 1978), albeit with some influences, such as within architecture as aforementioned.
In conclusion, today’s Boston can trace much of its soul to the occurrences of the period of 1870 – 1900, especially the immigrations. The mixture of European immigrants enabled the city to hold a huge labor force that attracted industrialists and made Boston one of the leading manufacturing centers in America during the industrialization period (Warner, 1978: Husband and O’Loughlin, 2004). Overall, the dream for a two part city also came to pass, with the working poor living within the inner city, while the rich and middle classes chose outskirts for their townhouses and country estates (Warner, 1978). Today, much of this history is still visible, both among the people in the city, and in its architecture.
References
Husband, J., & O'Loughlin, J. (2004). Daily life in the industrial United States, 1870-1900 .
Westport, Conn. [u.a.: Greenwood Press.
Shand-Tucci, D. (2000). Built in Boston: City and suburb : 1800-2000 . Amherst: Univ. of
Massachusetts Press.
Warner, S. B. (1978). Streetcar suburbs: The process of growth in boston, 1870-1900-2nd ed .
Cambridge, Ma: Harvard University Press.
