History of Boston - Geographic Expansion

Geographic Expansion

The City of Boston has expanded in two ways - through landfill and through annexation of neighboring municipalities.

Between 1630 and 1890, the city tripled its physical size by land reclamation, specifically by filling in marshes and mud flats and by filling gaps between wharves along the waterfront, a process Walter Muir Whitehill called "cutting down the hills to fill the coves." The most intense reclamation efforts were in the 19th century. Beginning in 1807, the crown of Beacon Hill was used to fill in a 50-acre (20 ha) mill pond that later became the Bulfinch Triangle (just south of today's North Station area). The present-day State House sits atop this shortened Beacon Hill. Reclamation projects in the middle of the century created significant parts of the areas now known as the South End, West End, Financial District, and Chinatown. After The Great Boston Fire of 1872, building rubble was used as landfill along the downtown waterfront.

The most dramatic reclamation project was the filling in of the Back Bay in the mid to late 19th century. Almost six hundred acres (240 hectares) of brackish Charles River marshlands west of the Boston Common were filled in with gravel brought in by rail from the hills of Needham Heights. Boston also grew by annexing the adjacent communities of East Boston, Roxbury, Dorchester, West Roxbury (including Jamaica Plain and Roslindale), South Boston, Brighton, Allston, Hyde Park, and Charlestown, some of which were also augmented by landfill reclamation.

Several proposals to regionalize municipal government failed due to concerns about loss of local control, corruption, and Irish immigration, including:

• 1896 - "County of Boston" proposal in the state legislature
• 1910 - "Real Boston" proposal by Edward Filene to create a regional advisory board
• 1912 - "Greater Boston" proposal by Daniel J. Kiley that would have enlarged the City of Boston to include all 32 municipalities within 10 miles
• 1919 - Annexation proposal by Boston mayor Andrew Peters

The state government has regionalized some functions in Eastern Massachusetts, including the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (public transit), the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (water and sewer), and the Metropolitan District Commission (parks, later folded into the state-wide Department of Conservation and Recreation).

Timeline of annexations, secessions, and related developments (incomplete):

• 1705 - Hamlet of Muddy River split off to incorporate as Brookline
• 1804 - First part of Dorchester by act of the state legislature
• 1851 - West Roxbury (including Jamaica Plain and Roslindale) is split off from Roxbury as an independent municipality.
• 1855 - Washington Village, part of South Boston, by act of the state legislature
• 1868 - Roxbury
• 1870 - Last part of Dorchester
• 1873 - Brookline-Boston annexation debate of 1873 (Brookline was not annexed)
• 1874 - West Roxbury, including Jamaica Plain and Roslindale (approved by voters in 1873)
• 1874 - Town of Brighton (including Allston) (approved by voters in 1873)
• 1874 - Charlestown (approved by voters in 1873)
• 1912 - Hyde Park
• 1986 - Vote to create Mandela from parts of Roxbury, Dorchester, and the South End passes locally but fails city-wide.

Timeline of land reclamation (incomplete):

• 1857 - Filling of the Back Bay begins
• 1882 - Present-day Back Bay fill complete
• 1890 - Charles River landfill reaches Kenmore Square, formerly the western end of the Back Bay mill pond
• 1900 - Back Bay Fens fill complete