Boston, Massachusetts

This article is about Boston, Massachusetts. For other uses of the term Boston, please see Boston (disambiguation).

Skyline of Boston, Massachussetts as seen from the harbor in 2017.

Boston is an Atlantic coast harbor city of 675,647 people (and 4.8 million in the metro area). It is the capital of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and has a historically large 15% of its population from Irish immigrants. The city began as a tiny English colony founded in 1630 and was an early battleground during the American Revolution. In recent decades, the area has voted heavily Democratic in presidential elections. The city is home to a major regional international airport (Boston-Logan), Amtrak, and substantial public transportation via subway, bus and commuter rail.

Boston has many notable colleges and universities, including Boston University, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The city's best-known professional sports teams are the Boston Red Sox and the New England Patriots (American football). Boston is home to one of the twelve district Federal Reserve System banks.

Since 1897, Boston has hosted the Boston marathon on the third Monday of April. It is currently the world's oldest annual marathon, and a very large one (with usually 30,000+ registrants) and is one of the world's best-known foot races, attracting half a million spectators each year.

Boston was named after Boston, Lincolnshire.

© Photo: The First Church of Christ, Scientist
The Mother Church for Christian Science stands in downtown Boston in the Christian Science Plaza, one of the city's largest privately-owned spaces that is accessible to the public.