Settled as New Towne in 1631, Cambridge was referred to by Wood, a seventeenth-century chronicler, as "one of the neatest and best compacted towns in New England." The founding of Harvard College in 1636 was to ensure the town's notoriety, as it was the first college in the New World. Harvard gave
Cambridge a cosmopolitan flavor, but the town retained its open farmland and its well-known fisheries along the Charles and Alewife Rivers for nearly two centuries. By the early nineteenth century Cambridge saw tremendous development, with industrial concerns in Cambridgeport. New residents...

Referred to as "one of the prettiest and pleasantest places of all New England towns," Georgetown grew rapidly and, by the mid-nineteenth century, the population had risen dramatically. This town, "a pleasant and flourishing place," saw the Boston & Maine Railroad laid out in 1854, with depots at Pentucket Square and at Baldpate, and two street railways in 1896-the Haverhill, Georgetown & Danvers Line and the Georgetown, Rowley & Ipswich Line, both of which greatly facilitated the ease of transportation.

Join the author in Georgetown as he takes you on a tour through the town's early years....

The streets of Boston's North End, some laid out in the seventeenth century, exude a rich history that has included every generation of immigrants to Boston since 1630. An active port, the neighborhood of the North End also included churches of every denomination, historic homes, and early commercial concerns. Immigrants from Russia, Ireland, Germany, Italy, and most other European countries settled in the North End and contributed to its
development over the years. Today, most visitors to Boston tour the North End and see the Paul Revere House and the famous Old North Church. On the...