Officially founded in 1628, Charlestown is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the United States, steeped in rich colonial and revolutionary history. Known for its pivotal role in the American Revolutionary War, particularly the Battle of Bunker Hill, Charlestown has evolved into a vibrant community that preserves its historic charm while embracing modern development. This timeline highlights the key events and milestones that have shaped Charlestown from its founding to the present day.
The 1600’s
The Humble beginnings of Charlestown
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.
1639
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.
The 1700’s
Revolution in Charlestown
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.
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.
1776
John Hay rebuilds his house at Thompson Square: the first frame house to be built in Charlestown after the Battle of Bunker Hill conflagration. Occupied by the apothecary shop of Elias Crafts, Jr. in 1828, the location becomes known as Crafts Corner (now Thompson Square).
1780
Revolutionary War activity moves south, Charlestown’s population returns and begins rebuilding the town in earnest. The Warren Tavern is built by Eliphalet Newell. The Edes House on Main Street is built by David Wood, Sr. (now the site of The Cooperative Bank). The James Russell mansion house is built on the Market Square. A handsome house of wood with corner pilasters and a cupola, it later becomes a public house known as the “Mansion House” before being demolished in 1866 for an extension of Waverlev House.
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.
The 1800’s
Rebuilding Charlestown
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 the 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 is 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.
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 its 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.
The 1900’s
Creation of the modern Charlestown
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 the new Municipal Services Building and Courthouse on the 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 the 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.