Boston Bits ~ Insiders’ Tips -- our monthly journal of things Bostonian, to give Boston Your Way site visitors a sense of our city.

Happy Birthday Boston
It was 375 years ago this month John Winthrop and his community of Puritans arrived on the shores of the Shawmut Peninsula and established the City on the Hill.
We are celebrating the founding of Boston all month – with arts festivals, neighborhood parties, and even hot air balloon rides. And we are topping it off with a parade down Commonwealth Avenue on Sunday, September 25th at 1 p.m.

Insider’s Tip
A good vantage point is the foot of Comm. Ave. at the Boston Public Garden. Get there early and stand at the garden’s gate and you will get a head-on view of the parade as it comes down the boulevard.

About that moment in Boston’s history
In honor of the city’s milestone birthday, Boston Bits will be dedicated to some history about the founding of Boston.

The Puritans made their settlement on the Shawmut Peninsula, a bulbous-shaped virtual island, save the narrow “neck” or strip of land that connected the peninsula to the main land. At high tide Shawmut was cut off from the coast. The peninsula was hilly and barren and about half the size it is today. Many areas, including the Back Bay and the South End, were originally marshes that were “filled in” with land during the 1800s.

The leaders briefly named the settlement “Trimountain,” after the three peaks that crowned a ridge at the western end. They soon decided to name their new home “Boston,” after the town in Lincolnshire, England, a good number of the group left behind.

Today all that remains of the three hills of Trimountain is a trimmed Beacon Hill. The other two peaks, Mt. Vernon and Mt. Pemburton, were leveled soon after the American Revolution to make room for development and to fill in parts of the shore. Sixty feet of Beacon Hill were cut and the elite neighborhood and State House with the Golden Dome that define the neighborhood were built.

Insider’s Tip
You can see just how high Beacon Hill once was. On the Bowdoin Street side of the State House is a column with an eagle at the top. It represents the original height of the hill.

Why Boston?
The Puritans tried twice to create settlements before they came to Boston. They first tried to join the Salem settlement north of Boston, but found a struggling community that could not handle any more newcomers. They moved south to Charlestown, but found the water there brackish and undrinkable. Fortunately, in September of 1630, they came to Shawmut and found the fresh water and space they needed to survive the coming winter. It didn’t hurt that there was also a deep harbor that would eventually support a robust shipping and trading economy.

Insider’s Tip
The site of the original “Great Spring” is a forgotten stop on the Freedom Trail. You can see the plaque that signifies its location right in the heart of Downtown Crossing. It is on tiny Spring Lane between Washington and Devonshire streets, just west of Water Street. John Winthrop made his home next to the spring.

Puritans? Pilgrims?
A guest of Boston Your Way wanted to know the difference between the Pilgrims and the Puritans Like many visitors to Boston, she confused the Pilgrims, who sailed the Mayflower and landed at Plymouth Rock, with the Puritans, who settled Boston ten years later. Both sects emerged from a movement in England to reform the Anglican Church. The Pilgrims eventually despaired of reform and became Separatists. They left England, first for the Netherlands and then for the New World, landing at Plymouth in 1620. They are the settlers who observed the First Thanksgiving.

The Puritans chose to remain within the church, to reform and “purify” it. They also remained attached to the English establishment, which helped John Winthrop win the charter to found the Massachusetts Bay Company. When they sailed to America, they aimed not only to create the country’s newest colony but also to establish a “city on a hill,” -- a pure and righteous church and state for all the world to see.

Insider’s Tip
Where do you think today’s terms “Puritan Ethic” and “Puritanical” come from? They are part of the legacy of Boston’s founders, who were industrious and hardworking, yet harshly intolerant of dissenting values.

back to archives