2001 Op-ed from the Boston Globe,
September 7, 2001
Happy Birthday, Boston
By Charles C. Euchner and William M. Fowler, Jr.
Today is the 371st anniversary of the creation of Boston
as a formal political entity. On this day in 1630,
the town of Trimountaine was renamed Boston and declared
the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Possessing
a land grant and a charter from King Charles I, John
Winthrop was named the first governor of the colony.
Winthrop selected Boston as the capital at the urging
of William Blackstone, who built a home for him. (If
you build it, they will come.)
Boston's selection as colonial capital came only after
the towns of Salem and Charlestown proved unsatisfactory.
The new town's spring water proved irresistible to
colonists who had lost many compatriots to illness.
Good water was the first requirement of good health
for the new settlers.
Boston was named after the British town of the same
name, which evolved from its original St. Boat Helper
to St. Botolph to Boston. The city's very name expresses
a civic ethic, the need to help the strangers who arrive
at a port broken and in need of a friend. The date
of the founding was Sept. 7, according to the old-style
calendar; adjusted for the new calendar, we know the
founding to have occurred on Sept. 17. But who cares?
Let's go with the date the settlers used.
Boston is, of course, a vastly different place than
it was in the days of Winthrop and Blackstone. Besides
the sheer size of the city - it has grown from 750
acres to 49 square miles since the founding - Boston
has expanded from a small church-based sailing port
to the hub of a sprawling region with a diverse array
of industries and cultural institutions. It has also
become a rich mix of ethnic and racial groups.
But much about the character of Boston remains the
same. At its best, it is still a walking city. It has
a conservative cultural climate. Although it does not
rely on fishing and shipping commerce anymore, it is
today rediscovering the awesome power and beauty of
its waterfront. The city is also discovering anew that
the environment can determine whether the place has
a good quality of life.
It makes sense for us to commemorate Boston's founding.
We now celebrate Patriots Day and Evacuation Day, making
important military victories over the British in the
years before the Declaration of Independence. And,
of course, we celebrate July 4, a national holiday
saturated with the importance of Boston and Massachusetts.
But moments of founding are important in themselves.
By its very nature, a founding creates the framework
within which all subsequent generations act. Founding
moments help people to construct their identity and
to understand their continuing challenges as a people.
The founding of a political community creates the possibility
for individual and collective action. It creates a
secure space where people can realize their power and
become something larger than themselves.
Boston has a strange relationship with its past. We
rightly embrace the revolutionary era and all of its
stirring places like Old North Church and the Old South
Meeting House. We have also begun to explore the complexity
of our ethnic history; just last year, a new Museum
of Immigration opened on the site of Benjamin Franklin's
boyhood home. Sometimes we also celebrate our maritime
and literary heritages as well.
But we never seem to go back to the very beginning.
We do hear about John Winthrop's stirring charge to
fellow passengers aboard the Arbella to create a city
upon a hill. But the meaning of Winthrop's words -
and how that meaning was built into the new settlement
- are rarely explored.
We need to understand better how old Boston gave rise
to new Boston - how the density of development in the
old city forced us to expand and build out from the
center. What created today's East Boston? Where did
the South Boston Waterfront come from? How was the
South Bay area or the Fenway created? How did Beacon
Hill come to have its current shape?
Besides the faded outlines of the old wharf lines near
Faneuil Hall, we have few markers that show the shape
of old Boston. But the old city's shape has done much
to determine the contours of today's Boston. So much
of the city's current shape owes itself to the jumbled
pattern of streets that were established in the city's
earliest days to accommodate the three hills, and to
the helter-skelter way that the city fills waterways
and annexed nearby communities.
The original Shawmut Peninsula, a mere bulb of land
connected to the rest of Boston by a skinny isthmus,
shaped the city's eventual contours. Today's Washington
Street traversed that skinny connector and became the
first of many other radial streets that extended from
the old peninsula. It is those radial streets that
pose some of our greatest challenges as a city and
as a set of neighborhoods.
The fact that Boston is the state capital, and not
Salem, has had a dramatic impact on the city and the
state. Most other capitals are outside the state's
big cities, from Albany, N.Y., to Salem, Ore., Boston's
twin status as the state's economic and political capital
makes it a much more cosmopolitan and detached home
for government than, say, Springfield, Ill.
A more important question is how we got along, quite
prosperously and happily as subjects of the British
crown for more than a century. So much happened in
Boston before we got angry with King George. And so
much of that founding moment is with us today. It's
time we acknowledged that defining moment in our history.
We don't need another day off. After all, Labor Day
occurs around the same time as Boston Charter Day.
But somehow, we should find a way to go back to our
earliest days to understand our present challenges.
Charles C. Euchner is executive director of the Rappaport
Institute for Greater Boston at Harvard University's
John F. Kennedy School of Government. William M. Fowler
Jr. is the director of the Massachusetts Historical
Society.