Roxbury (Boston)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Roxbury is a neighborhood ( English neighborhood ) of Boston in the state of Massachusetts of the United States . Roxbury was one of the first places to be established in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630 and was granted city charter in 1848. The city of Roxbury was incorporated into Boston in 1868. The original city of Roxbury included what is now the Boston districts Jamaica Plain , West Roxbury , Mission Hill , South End and a large part of Back Bay . Today Columbus Avenue in the north and Melnea Cass Boulevard in the east are considered to be the suburb boundaries.

history

Roxbury Conglomerate, also called "puddingstone"

The first settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony established seven villages in 1630. Originally, the place about three miles south of Boston was called "Rocksbury", which was due to its location in a hilly landscape and the Roxbury Puddingstone , which can often be found on the surface . At the time, Boston was on a peninsula connected to the mainland by the narrow Boston Neck land bridge . Therefore, all road traffic to Boston initially ran through Roxbury, which made the city very important. Several of the colony's first leaders lived there, including Governors Thomas Dudley , William Shirley, and Increase Sumner . The Shirley-Eustis House in Roxbury is one of the four remaining mansions of the British royal colonial administration in the United States.

The First Church Roxbury , 2004

The settlers of Roxbury founded the First Church Roxbury in 1630, the first parish in town. Before the first winter, however, there was not enough time to build a meeting room, and so the settlers met in the neighboring parish in Dorchester . One of the first church leaders was Amos Adams . The first assembly building was completed in 1632; the one that still exists today is the fifth in the community and the oldest timber-frame building in Boston. The congregation in Roxbury, which is still part of the Unitarian Universalist Association , can claim some peculiarities of American history: It founded the first church school in a British colony and attended with Boston, Cambridge, Watertown , Charlestown and Dorchester Involved in founding Harvard College . In 1640 the Bay Psalm Book was published in Roxbury, the first book published in the British colonies, on which John Eliot, Thomas Weld and Richard Mather , among others, contributed. In 1663 the first Bible was published in the British colonies. It was a translation into the Massachusett language by the parish priest and teacher John Eliot , also known as the "Apostle of the Indians". The midnight ride of William Dawes began on April 18, 1775 at First Church Roxbury .

In the further course of the 19th century, the northern part of Roxbury developed into an industrial city with districts that were mostly inhabited by English, Irish and German immigrants and their descendants, while the greater part of the city remained agricultural. One of the first trams in the United States was set up in Roxbury. At that time, Roxbury was also one of the first places in Massachusetts to be granted city rights. The city of West Roxbury was now part of the urban area.

Development from 1900

In the early 20th century, a Jewish community emerged in the Grove Hall area on Blue Hill Avenue. Roxbury also became the center of a Boston African American community that arose through migration from the southern to the northern cities in the 1940s and 1950s. Social tensions and urban renewal during the 1960s and 1970s contributed to the neighborhood's decline. The riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. , in particular, resulted in looting and arson of shops along Blue Hill Avenue, leaving a devastated and largely deserted area. In the 1970s, continued arson in the Dudley Street area also contributed to the neighborhood's decline; there remained abandoned, burnt out and littered ruins. The advent of the drug crack in the 1980s made Roxbury one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Boston. The violent crimes could not be contained decisively until the end of the 1990s. In April of 1987, which was Orange Line of the MBTA from Washington Street in the Southwest Corridor laid, where the Southwest Expressway few years should run before.

Development from 1990

The Fort Hill Tower , a fortification from the American Revolutionary War .

Through organized efforts by citizens, the historic areas were revitalized and the Roxbury Heritage State Park established. A review of the Boston traffic concept resulted in the proposal to move the Orange Line back again. Major investments were made in the development of Southwest Corridor Park, including Roxbury Community College and Ruggles Center. In the residential areas of Fort Hill and Mission Hill , the population structure improved significantly from the 1990s to the beginning of the 21st century with the influx of students from Northeastern University and the Wentworth Institute of Technology, as well as artists and young families. Today the neighborhood is characterized by residential and commercial renewal, but violent crime, particularly gang warfare and drug abuse , remain persistent problems in certain areas of Roxbury.

Known citizens

One of the most famous residents of Roxbury is the clockmaker Simon Willard (1753–1848), whose important works included the introduction of his patented, non-striking wall clock. He made only about 4000 pieces of this richly decorated clock resembling a banjo. His "Roxbury style" grandfather clocks, which were manufactured until around 1815, also became famous.

Other well-known citizens of the place are:

Attractions

Web links

Coordinates: 42 ° 20 ′  N , 71 ° 6 ′  W