Expansion of Boston in the 18th and 19th Century

The Shawmut peninsula had plenty of shoreline with flats, marshes and low-lying islands in the harbor. To the west of the Neck (at left on the map) lay the great back bay of the Charles River and above it West Cove. To the north lay Mill Cove, to the east lay the Town Cove and below it the South Cove by Fort Point Channel. Charles Town and South Boston were peninsulas while East Boston originally consisted of two large islands and three small ones.

Land reclamation came first by “wharfing out” at the perimeter of the sea, later filling in the slips between the wharfs at Charles Town and the Town Cove of Boston. By 1800, the Charlestown Bridge connected Boston to the north and the West Bridge to Cambridge to the west. Mill Cove was dammed, becoming Mill Pond, as well as the head of the cove between Charlestown and present Somerville.

By 1852, East and West Coves had been filled in by the Neck along with Mill Pond at present Haymarket Square, tripling Boston’s size. The Back Bay was filled in around 1880 and quadrupled the size of the City. By 1916, thousands of acres were filled in. Noddles Island (East Boston) was joined with Hog Island (Orient Heights) while Apple, Bird, and Governor’s Islands were joined together as Logan Airport by 1950.

Boston also annexed some surrounding towns in the 1800’s; including, Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, and West Roxbury as Suffolk County.

A Street Laying-Out Department was formed by the City and has issued reports since 1834. A glance at a report of the alleys, avenues, courts, circles, corners, squares, places, parks, public streets, lanes, roads, terraces, yards, ways and footways now shows many thousands of entries.