Historic
Timeline
Charlestown Massachusetts
1614-1996
1614
English
Navigator
Captain John Smith discovers the entrance to the Charles River and
names it for
Prince Charles, son of the reigning King of England, James I.
Before
1624, Mishawum peninsula was inhabited by Indians
led by Sachem Wonohagaham (Sagamore John).
ca. 1624 Thomas
Walford (blacksmith) and his family
settle at the southerly end of Breed's Hill, "a little way up from the
Charles River." They are members of
an earlier expedition, possibly the Fernando and Robert Gorges
expedition of
1623 to Weymouth that failed, with its members dispersing about the
area.
1628 Massachusetts
Bay Company receives a patent
for settlement of the Massachusetts coast from three miles north of the
Merrimack River to three miles south of the Charles River.
To secure the claim, about 300 settlers are
sent to Salem under the Governorship of John Endicott.
1629 The Company hires Kentish engineer Thomas Graves and sends him to Salem to prepare for the settlement of a larger expedition to come. Graves leads a band of about 100 settlers to the Mishawum peninsula and directs the construction of the Great House and the laying out of the streets of a new town given the name, Charlestown, after the adjacent river and the reigning King, Charles l.
Thomas Graves builds a fort with "palisadoes and flankers" atop Fort Hill (now Town Hill) for protection from the Indians..
The Mishawum peninsula has three major hills: Bunker’s, Breed’s, and Moulton’s, plus two minor hillocks: Fort (later Town) Hill and School Hill (later site of the Phipps Street Burying Ground).
The territorial extent of
Charlestown originally included the area
covered by these towns that were later set off: Malden, Medford,
Melrose,
Everett, Woburn, Burlington, Winchester, Wilmington, Stoneham,
Somerville and
parts of Cambridge, Reading and Wakefield.
1630 Governor John Winthrop leads an expedition of about 1,000 Puritan settlers in 11 ships to Charlestown, arriving off Salem in June and landing in Charlestown, on July 12. Despite hardships and disease, July 8 was declared a day of Thanksgiving for God's protection from the perils of the sea.
On July 30, the first signatures are appended to a religious covenant and the first church is established under a spreading oak tree on the slope of Fort (Town) Hill with Rev. John Wilson as the first Pastor.
Governor Winthrop and his Court of Assistants meet for the first time in the New World on August 23 and establish a government for the Massachusetts Bay Colony under a self-governing charter, with the Great House as its first seat.
After a few months in Charlestown,
a majority of the settlers migrate to the Shawmut peninsula which they
name
Boston, and elsewhere in the area in search of better water and more
space. After the Governor's departure to
Boston, the Great House is used as a meeting house (church) for the
Charlestown
congregation.
1631 A severe food shortage is eased by the arrival of a supply ship and the first general Thanksgiving Day is proclaimed for February 22.
A
ferry to Boston is established by Edward
Converse.
1632 A meeting house is built between the Market Square and Charlestown Neck where the peninsula joins the mainland.
The First Congregational Society of Charlestown is founded with Rev. Thomas James as Pastor. Upon the arrival of Rev. Zechariah Symmes from England, he is ordained Teacher of the congregation, giving it both a pastor and teacher in accordance with scripture (Ephesians 4:11.)
The Train Band (militia) is organized by Capt. Robert Sedgwick for protection from the Indians. The Training Field is set aside for the drilling of the militia.
The first ship built in the Bay Colony, “The
Blessing of the
Bay,” is launched on the Mystic River.
1633 The boundary with Newtowne (later Cambridge) is established.
The Great House is sold to the
General Court by the Massachusetts Bay Company.
1634 Charlestown Battery
is built at Sconce Point to command the mouth of the
Charles River. It accommodates six
cannon left on the beach by Governor Winthrop upon his departure to
Boston in
1630.
1635 A windmill for grinding grain is erected atop Fort (Town) Hill by Robert Hawkins causing the hill to become known as "Windmill Hill."
The Great House is
sold to Robert Long and becomes the Three Cranes tavern and inn, named
for a
London tavern.
1636 The fort atop Windmill Hill is improved with breastworks and platforms for three cannon.
The first free public school is
established and a schoolmaster engaged.
1637 Clergyman John
Harvard arrives from England, is admitted as an inhabitant and freeman,
and
becomes Teacher in the Charlestown church.
He builds his house on Country Road (later Market and now Main
Street)
next to Gravel Lane. The site is now
Harvard Mall. Gravel Lane (remnants
still visible) was so named due to the gravel dug from the hill in the
town's
earliest days. Behind Harvard's house,
his orchard extended up the hill.
1638 John Harvard dies
leaving his library and half his estate to the nascent college at
Cambridge
which is named in his honor the next year.
1634 A new meeting house
is built on the slope of Windmill Hill facing the Square.
1640 Penny Ferry across
the Mystic River to Malden is established by Phillip Drinker. Receipts from the Boston Ferry are assigned
to Harvard College for its support.
1641 The town's first
shipyard is built by Francis Willoughby.
1642 Woburn is set off
from Charlestown. Other towns are later
set off from Woburn: Wilmington (1730), Burlington (1799), and
Winchester
(1850).
1648 Phipps Street Burying Ground is established on School Hill. (Previous burials were on Fort (Town) Hill.)
Margaret Jones of Charlestown, the first person in the colony accused of witchcraft, is convicted and hanged in Boston.
The first schoolhouse is built on
Windmill Hill.
1649 Malden is set off
from Charlestown. Other towns are later
set off from Malden: Melrose (1850) and Everett (1870).
1650 Charlestown has
about 150 houses.
1655 Elizabeth Foster is
born in Charlestown. She later marries
Isaac Goose (or Vergoose) and moves to Boston. The rhymes sung to her
children
and grandchildren are copied by a son-in-law and printed as "Mother
Goose's Nursery Rhymes" in 1719.
1657 A Town House (town
hall) is erected on the lower slope of Windmill Hill facing the Square.
1670 The
fort atop Windmill Hill is abandoned as
cannon-fire would endanger adjacent buildings and set fire to the
grass.
1671 Benjamin Thompson,
"celebrated" teacher, is engaged to teach in the town school,
succeeding the "renowned" Ezekiel Cheever.
1672 The Meeting House is
repaired and enlarged.
1673 A Great House addition is built to better accommodate the Long family.
A swing bridge is built crossing the
slip
through which vessels pass to enter Wapping (Town) Dock.
1674 Samuel Phipps
replaces Benjamin Thompson as schoolmaster.
1675 A watch-house is built on Charlestown Common. (The Common was a pastureland located where the Sullivan Square MBTA station now lies.)
The Meeting House galleries are
rebuilt.
1678 The first dry-dock
in the colonies is built by James Russell on the Charlestown waterfront.
1682 The school house is
replaced by a new one with a cupola for a bell.
1686 The Massachusetts
Bay Colony's self-rule charter is revoked.
Democratic representative government is suspended.
Royal Governor Andros and the King's Council
rule by decree.
1689 Capt. Sprague of
Charlestown leads a revolt against Royal Governor Andros to protest the
revoking of the charter. Governor Andros
is imprisoned. Rebellious Charlestown
votes to reinstate self-rule and town meeting democracy.
1690 John Knight is
appointed town's first postmaster.
1691 The first general
letter (post) office is opened in Charlestown,
1692 The first
"American Revolution" is successful.
A new self-rule charter for the Bay Colony is obtained from
England.
1704 Peleg Wissell becomes the new schoolmaster.
1712 Samuel Long and Ebenezer Breed build fine houses on the Market Square on lots set off from the Great House parcel.
The first women teachers are hired
to teach the children of the poor and pupils living in remote areas of
Charlestown beyond the Neck. The first
school committee consisting of Samuel Phipps and Jonathan Dowse is
appointed to
"inspect and regulate" the school and solve overcrowding.
1713
A clock is installed
in the Town House cupola.
1714 A new larger school is erected atop Town Hill on the site of the previous one.
Parker Pottery
begins production of redware using local clays.
1716 A new Meeting House
with a steeple is erected in the Market Square.
The Market Square is paved with cobblestones.
1735 A
Court House with cupola is built in the
Market Square.
1735 The first school
building is constructed "beyond the Neck."
1740 Parker Pottery adds
stoneware to its pottery line.
1746
Nathaniel Brown purchases the Three Cranes tavern and operates it
until its
destruction during the Battle of Bunker Hill, 1775.
1748 A permanent school
committee is appointed to conduct quarterly inspections of the schools
and
examinations of the students.
1754 Josiah Harris buys
Parker Pottery which becomes Harris Pottery.
1764 School overcrowding
is resolved by the conversion of the old Town House to a school
building and
the hiring of additional teachers. The
days of the one-room schoolhouse occupied by a single schoolmaster are
at an
end.
1765 Charlestown has
become a principal port of the Bay Colony.
The town manufactures rum, sugar loaves, candles, pottery and
leather
goods and exports those items plus fur, lumber, pipe staves, and
building
frames. . . . Charlestown defies Parliament’s newly-passed Stamp
Act and
conducts its own "Tea Party" by destroying a quantity of tea in a
bonfire eight years before the "Boston Tea Party" dumps tea in the
harbor in a similar protest in 1773.
1774 Charlestown suffers
great hardship under the Boston Port Bill which closes the port to
trade in
retaliation for the Boston Tea Party.
Aid is sent from other towns and colonies.
1775 Charlestown patriots, Col. William Conant, Richard Devens, and John Larkin are involved in the planning and execution of Paul Revere's Midnight Ride, April 18. Revere asks church sexton Robert Newman to show lantern signals from Old North Church to alert the Charlestown patriots that British troops are coming out so they can send their own rider to alarm the countryside in case Revere fails to reach Charlestown. Revere is rowed from Boston and lands safely near Charlestown Battery. John Larkin provides Revere with a horse for his ride to Lexington and Concord. In this Revere and other riders activated by his alarm succeed. Assembled patriot militias battle the British troops at Lexington and Concord thus beginning the Revolutionary War. Battle weary British troops, ranks thinned by the battles and harassing sniper fire along their line of march, return to Boston through Charlestown, April 19..
The Battle of Bunker Hill is fought on Breed's
Hill in Charlestown on June 17. Though
defeated when their ammunition runs out, the patriots inflict a
significant
number of casualties causing the British to make no more forays out of
besieged
Boston prior to their evacuation in 1776.
During the battle, Charlestown, ignited by British cannon-fire,
burns
down.
1781 The Revolutionary
War ends with the Battle of Yorktown, Virginia.
Charlestown rebuilding continues.
1782 The Town begins the
clean-up and assembly of parcels to create a large open market square
(now City
Square).
1783 A new Congregational
Meeting House is erected atop Town Hill.
A steeple by Charles Bulfinch is later added. . . .The First
Masonic
Lodge in Charlestown, King Solomon's Lodge, is founded in a room of the
Warren
Tavern (later known as Mason's Hall) in September.
1784 Paul Revere, a
frequent guest, was present at King Solomon's Masonic Lodge
Consecration
Ceremonies on January 7, 1784.
1786 General George Washington visits Charlestown.
The Charles River Bridge is built, replacing the ferry.
The Charlestown Artillery, a militia company, is founded.
Nathaniel Gorham, a prominent Charlestown merchant and politician, whose house faces the Market Square (now City Square) is elected President of the Continental Congress. Gorham was later a signer of the U.S. Constitution. .
Warren Hall is built as an addition to
the Warren Tavern by
the tavern's owner, an avid Mason, to house King Solomon's Masonic
Lodge
meetings.
1787 The Malden Bridge
opens across the Mystic River.
1789 Rev. Jedidiah Morse,
Father of American Geography and Congregational minister, becomes
pastor of the
First Church of Charlestown. He and his
family live at the Edes House on Main Street while a parsonage is being
built
on Town Hill. . . . The Timothy Thompson house (now 9 Thompson Street)
is built.
1790 The Deacon John
Larkin house is built on Main Street at Winthrop Street.
1791 Telegraph inventor and painter Samuel F. B. Morse is born in the Edes House. .
Samuel Dexter,
Jr., U.S. Senator and, later,
Secretary of War and Treasury in the Adams and Jefferson
Administrations,
builds his mansion house on Green Street (still extant though much
altered).
1794 The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company donates the former Three Cranes tavern parcel to the town to become part of the market square..
King Solomon's Masonic Lodge erects a monument to Joseph Warren on the Battle of Bunker Hill site. Warren was a surgeon, Mason, Major General and President of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress who served as a private at the Battle of Bunker hill and was killed at batttle’s end as British troops overwhelmed the redoubt. A marble replica of the original Masonic monument exists in the well-room at the base of the present monument.
The Benjamin Thompson house (now 119 Main
Street) is
built by Timothy Thompson for his son.
1795 The Hurd House on
Main Street, corner of Monument Avenue, is built.
1796 The Thomas Russell
mansion house is completed on Charles River Avenue (Water Street)
according to
plans by Charles Bulfinch. A Federal
style brick building, it has a hipped roof, balustrade and domed cupola. It later became a public house with a
succession of owners and names, the last of which were James Walker and
Middlesex House, respectively, before it burned in the great fire of
1835.
1800 The Charlestown Navy Yard is established.
The Bunker
Hill Burying Ground is opened on Bunker Hill Street..
1801 A Baptist Church built of wood is dedicated at the head of Salem Street on land given by Oliver Holden, composer of the hymn, "Coronation."
The first
post-Revolution school, the two-story Harvard School, is erected on the
traditional schoolhouse site atop Town Hill.
1802 The holding of
market days in Market Square ceases.
1803 The Middlesex Canal
between Boston and Lowell with its entrance near Charlestown Neck opens.
1804 The Warren Phalanx
militia is chartered.
1805 A Massachusetts State Prison is built on Prison Point using a design by Charles Bulfinch.
The Arnold Mansion is built (now 14 Common Street).
Tudor Wharf is built as home of the export trade in ice begun by Frederick Tudor, "the Ice King," using ice cut from area ponds in winter.
A second school, Bunker Hill School is built on Bunker Hill Street.
The Commandant's
House in the Navy Yard is
completed.
1807 Loammi Baldwin, Jr.,
the "Father of Civil Engineering in America," opens his offices at 18
Charlestown Square. His home is at 194 Main Street.
1808 Edmands Hall/Armstrong House (125-127 Main Street) is erected by James C. Edmands. Edmands Hall in an upper story was later the site of the first meetings of the First Universalist Society prior to the dedication of their church in 1811.
The Federal-style house at
81 Warren Street is built.
1810 The Salem Turnpike Hotel is built opposite the Training Field (now a private residence at 16 Common Street).
A new
Baptist
Church of brick is built on Austin Street to replace the wooden one at
the head
of Salem Street.
1811 The
Universalist Meeting House is built of
brick near Thompson Square (located in
what is now the parking lot behind the Charlestown Savings Bank
Building).
1812 The Edmands pottery
works is established at 55 Austin Street (corner of Richmond Street) by
Barnabas Edmands and a brother-in-law, William Burroughs.
Charlestown had extensive deposits of clay
(silt from the outwash of departed continental glaciers) and became a
center of
ceramics, pottery and brick manufacture.
New England's first documented potter worked in Charlestown
using this
clay. A number of early potteries
clustered along the Charles riverfront from where their products were
shipped
to Connecticut and Maine.
1813 Washington Hall is
built on site of John Harvard's house on Main Street (present site of
Harvard
Mall) and becomes the new meeting place of King Solomon's Masonic Lodge
which
formerly met in Warren Hall at the Warren
Tavern. The first
subscriber-supported lending library established in Washington Hall.
1814 The Matthew Bridge House is built on Town Hill Street (now 16 Harvard Street). Later, the house is home to statesman Edward Everett and manufacturer/philanthropist William Carleton, the benefactor of Carleton College in Minnesota.
The Round Corner Building
(121-123 Main
Street) is built by shipwrights.
1818 The Second Congregational Church, which became the Harvard Church (Unitarian), is built at Main and Green Streets (site of the present Branch Library). An early pastor, Rev. Dr. James Walker, who ministered there from 1818 to 1839, later became a professor and, subsequently, President of Harvard College. A magnificent chandelier given to the church by John Skinner now hangs in the faculty room of Harvard's University Hall.
1819 Baker's circulating
library opens at 26 Main Street.
1820 The Charlestown
Union Library is founded using space in the Town House and later in the
Swan-Hurd House at Main and Henley Streets.
1822 The Austin Stone
House (92 Main Street), is built of stone from Outer Brewster Island by
General
Nathaniel Austin, prominent militia leader, politician, public official
and
owner of a wharf near the State Prison.
Austin Street bears his name.
1823 The Bunker Hill
Monument Association is incorporated and undertakes the purchase of the
battleground to preserve it as an historical site.
The Association initiates plans to erect a
suitable monument thereon. The concept of an obelisk by Harvard student
and
future sculptor Horatio Greenough is chosen in a design competition. Engineer Loammi Baldwin,
Jr. and Architect Solomon Willard
develop final design plans and construction drawings.
1825 The Bunker Hill Monument’s cornerstone is laid in the presence of Lafayette. Daniel Webster gives the oration.
The
Bunker Hill National Bank is incorporated.
The bank's building is located on Charlestown Square at Park
Street.
1826 The first stage line
between Boston and Charlestown is established by Alson Studley. The coaches run between Brattle Street,
Boston, and Sullivan Square.
1827 The first successful Charlestown newspaper, the Bunker Hill Aurora, begins publication in the Austin Stone House on Main Street.
The first Winthrop School is built on the Training Field.
The Mount Benedict Academy, a
Catholic finishing school or convent for females,
is built just north of the Neck in a portion of Charlestown that is now
part of
Somerville. The boarding school,
operated by sisters of the Ursuline Order and known for its educational
excellence, is attended by girls from both Protestant and Catholic
families.
1828 The Warren Avenue Bridge, paralleling the Charles River Bridge, is built under legislative charter. Competition between the two bridges for tolls brings a suit by the Charles River Bridge's proprietors who hire Daniel Webster and Lemuel Shaw to plead their case all the way to the Supreme Court. The Court finds against the plaintiffs in 1837 in a landmark case favoring competition in private enterprise.
The John Harvard memorial monument
is dedicated in
Phipps Street Burying Ground having been funded by Harvard alumni
donations at
the instigation of Edward Everett who gives the dedicatory oration.
1829 The first St. Mary's Catholic Church is dedicated on Richmond Street (now Old Rutherford Avenue).
Warren Institution for Savings is incorporated.
The Lyceum lecture
series, held in the Town House, is begun.
1830 Edward Everett,
orator, statesman, and his family occupy the Bridge house on Town Hill
Street
(now 16 Harvard Street) until 1837, when, as Governor of Massachusetts,
he
moves to Boston.
1831 The Charlestown
Female Seminary is established at 30 Union Street by the First Baptist
Church.
1833 The Infant School
Society, supported by the Town's Protestant societies, opens on Warren
Street
to care for young children of working mothers.
1834 The first granite naval dry-dock in the U.S. is completed at Navy Yard using designs by Loammi Baldwin, Jr.
The Winthrop Church (First Parish Congregational) is built of brick on Union Street. The First Congregational Meeting House on Town Hill is replaced by one in brick.
The Ursuline
convent on Mount Benedict is burned
by an intolerant mob. All the occupants
escape unharmed.
1835 A great fire destroys all the buildings between Charlestown Square and the Navy Yard.
The Town Dock, made obsolete by larger ships, is filled in and the entire area redeveloped.
National House, Charlestown's finest hotel until the construction of Waverley House in 1867, is built at the corner of Chelsea and Joiner Streets in the burned area. Proprietor James Walker, an avid fisherman, often served bass in the hotel dining room he had caught from the Charles River Bridge. Rebuilt and enlarged in 1849, the hotel was later named the City Square Hotel even though it was not directly on the square.
Charlestown's
first major masonry row house development is undertaken at 7-23 Harvard
Street.
1836 Town Hill Street is renamed Harvard Street on November 7 in honor of the bicentennial of Harvard College.
Dexter Row, consisting of six elegant brick row houses facing Thompson Square, is built by Shadrach Varney, former head of the blacksmith department in the Navy Yard. (Only three of the Dexter Row houses survive.)
The Union
Block, a
group of three fine Greek Revival row houses (which still survive), is
built on
Main Street at the corner of Union Street.
1837 William Carleton, inventor, manufacturer of lighting fixtures, philanthropist, and benefactor of Carleton College, moves into the Everett House on Harvard Street.
The Ropewalk Building in the Navy Yard, designed by Alexander Parris, is completed
1839 The
Bunker Hill Monument Association sells, at
auction, 9 of the original 15 acres purchased for the Bunker Hill
Monument
grounds. The 9 acres had been subdivided
into house lots. The sale's purpose is to retire debt and raise funds
toward
the completion of the Monument.
1840 Women's magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale organizes a Ladies Fair at Fanieul Hall to raise funds for the completion of the Bunker Hill Monument. The successful fair raises over $30,000, which, along with $10,000 each donated by Amos Lawrence and Judah Touro, is sufficient to complete the Monument. .
St. John's Episcopal Parish is founded.
The
first Warren School is built on Salem Street.
1841 St.
John's Episcopal Church on Devens Street
is dedicated. It contains the first
stained glass window installed in a Charlestown church.
1842 The
Bunker Hill Monument is completed.
1843 The Bunker Hill Monument is dedicated on June 17, anniversary of the battle. Daniel Webster again gives the oration, as he had at the cornerstone laying in 1825.
The
Baptist Church on Austin Street is replaced by new one in brick
fronting
Lawrence Street.
1845 The
Bunker Hill School of 1805 is rebuilt and
enlarged.
1846 A
Methodist Church is built at High Street and
Monument Square.
1847 Charlestown is chartered as a city. Charlestown Square is renamed City Square.
Winthrop (Training Field) School is moved across the street to present site at 5 Common Street (now private residences) and renamed the Nahum Chapin School.
Row houses at 6 and 7 Monument Square are built. They are the first houses built on the Square after it was lotted..
A larger Harvard School replaces that of 1801 on Town Hill's Harvard Street. (Still in existence, it was converted to apartments as part of The Court-yard development in 1985.)
A new and larger Winthrop
School is built at the
corner of Bunker Hill and Lexington Streets.
1848 The first Charlestown High School is constructed on Monument Square.
Adams Street brick row
houses are built.
1849 The
First Parish Church (Winthrop Church -
Congregational) is relocated to a new brick church built on Green
Street
(existing).
1850 Rufus Stickney and John R. Poor open a spice mill in Charlestown.
Charlestown's three militia infantry companies, the Warren Phalanx, the Charlestown Light Infantry, and the Columbian Guards are combined into one unit known as the Charlestown City Guard with a membership of 250. The Charlestown Artillery remained a separate organization.
Barnabas Edmands
sells the Edmands Pottery works (since moved to a wharf-estate on the
Mystic
River) to his sons, Edward and Thomas R. B. and foreman Charles Collier
who
continue the company as Edmands & Co., adding drain pipe to the
pottery
line.
1851 The Mercantile Library is opened by the Mishawum Literary Association.
The Lawrence and Sawyer houses at
44 and
46 High Street (former Knights of Columbus hall) are completed.
1852 Louis
Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot, visits
Charlestown, hosted by Mayor Richard Frothingham amid great public
ceremony,
flags and decorations.
1853 The
Middlesex Canal closes due to railroad
competition.
1854 The
Charlestown Five Cents Savings Bank is
incorporated (now Citizens Bank).
1856 The
Prescott School is built on the northerly
portion of the Bunker Hill Burying Ground, a site today occupied by
Charlestown
High School.
1857 The
Charlestown City Guard marches in the
inaugural parade of President James
Buchanan, March 4, 1857, and returns to a tumultuous welcome home in
City
Square.
1860 The establishment of a Charlestown Public Library is voted by the City.
The Warren Institution for Savings building is completed at the corner of Main and Henley Streets.
The Prince of
Wales visits Charlestown.
1861 The
Soldiers Relief Society is founded to aid
the soldiers and sailors serving the Union during the Civil War and
their
families.
1862 The Charlestown Public Library opens on the third floor of the Warren Institution for Savings building.
St. Francis
de Sales Catholic Church on Bunker Hill Street is dedicated.
1863 William
Carleton moves into a new
ltalianate-style house at 4 Monument Square built to his design.
1865 Waverley House, a large elegant hotel, is erected on City Square by Moses Dow, successful publisher of Waverley Magazine.
The Winchester Home for Aged Women is founded by Mrs. Nancy Winchester, philanthropist.
1867 The new Bunker Hill School at Bunker Hill and Baldwin Streets opens.
Trinity Methodist Church (now Charlestown Boys and Girls Club) is built on High Street opposite Elm Street.
Stickney and Poor Spice
Company opens a large plant
at the corner of Cambridge and Spice Streets.
1868 The
second Warren School is built on Summer
Street between School and Pearl Streets.
1869 A domed Second Empire-style City Hall is completed in City Square on the site of the former Town House.
The Charlestown Public Library is moved to the second floor of City Hall.
The Crafts Corner building
is demolished
for the enlargement of Thompson Square by City Council order.
1870 A second Charlestown High School replaces the first on Monument Square.
John Boyle O'Reilly, Irish patriot, poet and writer marries Mary Murphy of Charlestown. They raise a family in the house at 34 Winthrop Street.
An addition is made to the
Waverley Hotel using the site of the
former James Russell mansion.
1871 The
Harvard School (now the Mary Colbert
Apartments) is built on Devens Street.
The former Harvard School on Harvard Street is renamed the
Samuel Dexter
School and continues to operate into the 1940's.
1872 The
Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Monument,
sculpted by Martin Millmore, is dedicated on the Training Field
(Winthrop
Square).
1874 Charlestown is annexed to the City of Boston and becomes part of Suffolk County (previously Middlesex).
The Charlestown Public Library becomes a branch of the Boston Public Library.
The Winthrop School
on Bunker Hill Street is converted to other municipal uses.
1875 A
triumphal arch is built at the entrance to
City Square in celebration of the Centennial of the Battle of Bunker
Hill..
1876 The Charlestown Five Cents Savings Bank building is completed on Thompson Square in the High-Victorian Gothic style.
The Neo-Gothic
Frothingham School is built on Tremont Street
at Prospect.
1887 Hawaiian royalty,
Queen Kapiolani and Princess Liliuokalani, are guests of James
Hunnewell at his
home between Wood and Green Streets (now the site of the Boys and Girls
Club
Green Street building.)
1889 The Battle of Bunker
Hill Memorial Tablets are dedicated in Winthrop Square on June 17.
1891 St. Francis de
Sales' Parochial School is founded.
1892 Second (existing)
St. Mary's Catholic Church, built in granite on Warren Street, is
dedicated. St. Mary's Parochial School
is founded.
1896 The Roughan Hall
building is completed on City Square.
1899 A new (existing)
Charlestown Bridge is completed, replacing the Charles River Bridge of
1786.
1904 The Chain Forge and
Foundry Building in the Navy Yard is completed.
1905 A
new Sailor's Haven building is built on
Water Street under the sponsorship of the Episcopal City Mission.
1906 An elevated rail
rapid transit line from Boston, built down Main Street and terminating
at a
grandiose Sullivan Square station, is completed.
1907 The third
Charlestown High School on Monument Square is built to replace that of
1870.
(Still extant, the building is now converted to condominium apartments.)
1911 St. Catherine of
Siena's Parochial School is founded.
1913 A new building for
the Charlestown Branch Library is built on Monument Square.
1914-1918 The Navy Yard
expanded as a result of World War I.
1915 Old City Hall is
replaced by new Municipal Services Building and Courthouse on same site
in City
Square.
1917 The Army-Navy YMCA
is built in City Square on the site of the former 1870 addition to
Waverley
House to accommodate World War I servicemen from the Navy Yard.
1919 A Revere Sugar refinery is built on Medford Street.
The Bunker Hill Monument
Association
transfers the monument to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for
administration
by the Metropolitan District Commission.
1928 The Boston &
Maine Railroad North Terminal freight yards are completed.
1932 The Clarence
R. Edwards Middle School is built on Walker
Street.
1943 Harvard Mall, the
gift of Harvard College, is dedicated on the site of John Harvard's
former
house and grave.
1953 The Friends of the
Charlestown Branch Library is founded by Branch Librarian Mary K.
Harris.
1958 Community newspaper, the Charlestown Patriot, is founded.
1962 A great fire
destroys the old potato sheds next to the rail yards.
1963 The existing
Warren-Prescott School is built on School Street.
1965 Urban renewal begins
in Charlestown, leading to considerable demolition and redevelopment.
1970 A new Charlestown
Branch Library building opens on Thompson Square.
1972 The existing
Harvard-Kent School is built on Bunker Hill Street.
1973 An elevated
interchange connecting the I-93 expressway and Tobin Bridge is
completed in
City Square.
1974 Boston Naval
Shipyard is closed.
1975 The elevated transit line on Main Street is demolished and replaced by a subway and surface line under the elevated I-93 expressway.
An urban renewal plan for the Navy
Yard is completed and conversion to private sector uses begins. The earliest most historic section of
the
Navy Yard is designated a National Historical Site administered by the
National
Park Service.
1976 The
Bunker Hill Monument is transferred to
the National Park Service, becoming part of the Boston National
Historical
Park.
1978 Holden School, a
private school offering special education classes, is established. . .
. The
fourth and existing Charlestown High School is built on former site of
the
Prescott School on Medford Street.
1980 The Holden School
refurbishes and occupies the former Oliver Holden Elementary School on
Pearl
Street.
1984 Keane, Inc.
purchases Roughan Hall and begins its rehabilitation for corporate
headquarters.
1985 The Courtyard
apartment development is completed on Main Street.
1986 The Tontine Crescent
apartment development is completed on Main Street.
1993 All Charlestown
Catholic parochial schools are combined into Charlestown Catholic
Elementary
School in the former St. Catherine's Parochial School building.
1996 City Square Park is
completed and opened on October 6.
Charlestown Historical Society • Offices, Top Floor, Bunker Hill Museum • PO Box 291776
• Email editor@charlestownhistoricalsociety.org • tel-617-241-2201
