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The
North End of Boston is positioned at (as the name
implies) the very Northern tip of downtown Boston (what was
once known as the Shawmut Peninsula). As such, it is
surrounded by waterfront. On the eastern side are historic
wharves that have become residential, including
Battery
Wharf, a newly constructed luxury condominium project, as
well as several older ones. Defining the Southwest
edge of the North End is the new
Rose Kennedy Greenway, replacing the hulking John
Fitzgerald Expressway. This has basically reconnected the
North End to the rest of the city.
This is a
neighborhood that has had strong ethnic roots, but is also
welcoming a more varied, younger crowd.
The North
End is widely known as the neighborhood where for
generations, the dominant group has been comprised of
families whose forebears emigrated from Italy. As tourists
and Bostonians alike know, the best place to get an Italian
meal is here in the North End, and everybody's got a
favorite (free plug: unreal homestyle Italian--Pagliucca's
on Parmenter Street. But be ready to wait on line!)
What
is not as widely known is the history here. The North End is
the city's first neighborhood, settled in the 1630s. Paul
Revere lived and worked here as a silversmith during the
second half of the 18th century.
His house still stands. Additionally, the
old North Church is located here, on Salem Street.
In
the 19th century, the Irish dominated the neighborhood until
the early 1920s.
Rose
Kennedy, whose father was John "Honey Fitz" Fitgerald, a
storied Boston Mayor (and whom the old elevated expressway
was named after) lived here as a young girl. It also had a period as a heavily Jewish neighborhood.
File under tragic but....weird: In 1919, the
Boston
Molasses flood occurred here. Check it out.
The main shopping and eating street is Hanover Street.
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