Interior House Painter
East Boston MA

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East Boston
Neighborhood of Boston
An airplane approaching Logan International Airport in 1973
Nicknames:  Eastie
Neighborhood map of East Boston, Massachusetts
Country	United States
State	Massachusetts
County	Suffolk
Neighborhood of	Boston
Annexed by Boston	1836
Area
• Land	4.7 sq mi (12 km2)
Population  (2010)	40,508
• Density	8,618/sq mi (3,327/km2)
Time zone	UTC-5 (Eastern)
Zip Code	02128, 02228
Area code(s)	617 / 857
Website	www.eastboston.com

East Boston, nicknamed Eastie, is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts with over 45,000 residents. Annexed by the city of Boston in 1836, it is bordered by the towns of Winthrop and Revere. It is separated from the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown and downtown Boston by Boston Harbor. The footprint of the East Boston neighborhood as it is known today was created in the 1940s by connecting five of the inner harbor islands using land fill.

East Boston has long provided homes for immigrants with Irish, Russian Jews and later, Italians. John F. Kennedy’s great-grandfather was one of many Irish people to immigrate to East Boston, and the Kennedy family lived there for some time. From 1920 to 1954, East Boston was the site of the East Boston Immigration Station, which served as the regional immigration hub for Boston and the surrounding area. The 1990s into the early millennium brought new Latin American immigrants, who today compose more than sixty-five percent of the neighborhood population.

Logan International Airport is located in East Boston, connecting Boston to domestic and international locations.

History

Early history

Sumner and the development of Noddle’s Island

The landmass that is East Boston today originally comprised five islands: Noddle’s; Hog’s; Governor’s; Bird; and Apple, but the town first developed on the desirable Noddle’s Island, which served as a source of timber, grazing land, and had been used for farming throughout the eighteenth century.

As early as 1801, William H. Sumner, who had inherited a large tract on Noddle’s Island, proposed that the federal government of the United States create a turnpike to connect Salem (and Noddle’s Island) to Boston, arguing that the road would create a much more direct route, making it easier for the neighborhood to develop: “There is no doubt that but that the necessities of the town of Boston will some require a connection with Noddle’s Island with the town of which it is part.”
When this plan was rejected in favor of a route through Chelsea (a route that would, not coincidentally, leave the developing Charlestown Navy Yard with its ocean access), Sumner moved onto other plans for Noddle’s development.

By 1833, Sumner, with partners Steven White and Francis J. Oliver, had bought up the half of Noddle’s land. Together they founded the East Boston Company, and consolidated additional landholdings. By the year’s end, the East Boston Company had complete control over the entire Island. The company’s purpose was to own and develop the land and call it East Boston. In anticipation of population growth, the proprietors adopted a grid street plan, the first planned neighborhood in the city of Boston. Jeffries Point, located at the southern end of the peninsula that faced Boston, was the earliest area of East Boston to be settled. A bridge to Chelsea was built, roads were laid out, and houses were built. Much of this activity was spurred by the formation of the East Boston Lumber Company. During this period, the Boston Sugar Refinery was also founded, which was the first manufacturing establishment in East Boston. They are credited for the creation of white granulated sugar.

The Boston Shipyards and Donald McKay

By 1835, ten wharves had been built. The abundance of wharf area opened the new East Boston to further rapid expansion, and it was the shipbuilding companies that soon became East Boston’s most famous industry, and the mainstay of its economy. In 1836, as development began to totally change the former islands, East Boston was annexed to Boston.

In 1845, Donald McKay, as a sole owner, established his own shipyard on Border Street. His ships included the Flying Cloud (1851), which made two 89-day passages from New York to San Francisco and the Sovereign of the Seas (1852), which posted the fastest speed ever by a sailing ship (22 knots) in 1854.

In the 1840s and 1850s, the principal shipbuilders besides McKay included Paul Curtis and Samuel Hall. In addition, Sylvanus Smith became a noted shipbuilder in East Boston.