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Home
> Boston's Neighborhoods
> Hyde Park
Learn
more about your ancestor's neighborhood through the
timeline, find more information in the Further Reading
section, or use the links to experience life in that
community today.
Timeline
- 1630:
The area known as Hyde Park is referred to as "Tist"
by Wampanoag Indians living in the area.
- 1639:
The first major canal in the United States is dug
in Dedham. Known as "Mother Brook," it is
a diversion canal running between the Charles and
Neponset Rivers.
- 1661-1662:
William Sumner and William Robinson, selectmen from
Dorchester, lay out the River Road, a route from Dedham
to Neponset Mill (today known as Milton Lower Mills).
- 1668:
The first house in Hyde Park is built by Robert Stanton.
- 1776:
General George Washington plans the bombardment of
Boston Harbor from Back Street (today Wood Avenue).
Dorchester Heights is fortified with trees taken from
Hyde Park and Readville.
- 1786:
The First Butler School is constructed. It is renovated
in 1790 and again in 1804.
- 1790:
Revolutionary War hero William Sumner (d. 1836) builds
a house on River Street.
- 1801:
Edmund Pitt Tileston and Mark Hollingsworth open a
paper making factory on Neponset River on the site
of Thomas Sumner's old mill.
- 1814:
James Read constructs the original Dedham Manufacturing
Company. Over the years, the company is known as the
Readville Cotton Mill, Smithfield Manufacturing Company,
and B. B. & R. Knight Cotton Mill. It is the largest
textile mill in the United States and second oldest
behind Slater's Mill of Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
- 1834:
The Boston and Providence Railroad (organized in 1831)
begins service from Readville to Boston. Readville,
a section of the Hyde Park neighborhood, is named
for James Read, a Hyde Park cotton mill owner, in
1847. The town chose to honor Read after he paid back
his creditors (including accumulated interest) despite
the fact that the court had declared his debts void
due his business going bankrupt.
- 1838:
Angelina
Grimke, who later moves to Hyde Park with her
husband Theodore Weld in 1864, becomes the first woman
to speak in front of the Massachusetts State Legislature.
- 1846:
The Boston and Providence Railroad extends to Cleary
Square.
- 1847:
Multi-millionaire Henry S. Grew (1808-1892) moves
to Hyde Park to an 800-acre area known as "Grew's
Hill."
- 1850:
The Sumner sisters open Boston's first cut flower
market.
- 1852:
Charles H. White purchases 216 acres along the Providence
Railroad which forms the nucleus of Hyde Park.
- 1853:
The Hyde Park Land Company begins settlement near
West Street, Gordon Avenue in what it then part of
Dorchester. The first three settlers are Charles H.
White, Gordon Nott, and Henry Lyman.
- 1855:
The Twenty Associates or Fairmount Land Company and
Twenty Associates buys land in Milton from Deacon
Tucker. They begin the first speculative housing development
in the United States on Fairmount Hill. Their leader
is 23 year old Alpheus Perley Blake (b. 1832), Hyde
Park's founder, and they include: William E. Abbott
(merchant tailor), Amos S. Angell (sea captain), Ira
L. Benton (blacksmith), Enoch E. Blake (whole fruit
merchant), John N. Brown (teacher, fire insurance),
George W. Currier (carpenter), Hypolitus C. Fisk (wholesale
miller), John C. French (teacher), William E. French
(master mason), David Higgins (master builder), John
S. Hobbs (lime and cement dealer), Samuel S. Mooney
(barber), William H. Nightingale (grocer), J. Wentworth
Payson (handwriting master), Dwight B. Rich (real
estate, construction), Alphonso J. Robinson (lawyer),
William H. Seavey (school principal), Daniel Warren
(Massachusetts State senator), John Williams collector
for the Boston Gas Light Company).
- 1856:
George Currier's house is the first home built by
the Twenty Associates in Fairmount.
- 1855-66:
Warren Hilton uses his fortune made during the California
gold rush of 1849 to build 400 houses in Hyde Park.
- 1857:
The Boston and New York Railroad begins service to
Fairmount during a fierce winter which raises the
Neponset River sweeping away a bridge.
- 1858:
First Baptist Church is organized.
- 1859:
Mrs. J. Wentworth Payson founds the "Fairmount
and Hyde Park Lyceum" culture club which later
becomes the Wentworth Club in 1884.
- 1860:
Christ Church (Episcopal) is organized by Reverend
A.H. Washburn.
- 1861:
The Ebenezer Paul Farm becomes the Camp Meigs training
ground for Civil War troops including the Massachusetts
54th Regiment (1863). This all-Black regiment is later
involved in a daring attack on Fort Wagner, South
Carolina that is featured in the movie Glory.
The camp becomes a hospital in 1864.
- 1863:
The First Congregational Church is organized.
- 1864:
Benjamin Radford (1827-1894) moves to town and convinces
the American Tool and Machine Company to move its
foundry to Hyde Park (1872) which ends up employing
many of the area's workers.
- 1866:
Zenas Allen (1777-1866), a member of the first board
of selectmen (1868) moves to town.
- 1867:
The Hyde Park Unitarian Church is founded.
- 1868:
Hyde Park is incorporated. The town is made up of
lands obtained from Dorchester, Milton, and Dedham.
The town is named after Hyde Park in London. Henry
Grew becomes the chairman of the first board of selectmen.
- 1869:
Writer Sylvanus Cobb (1823-1887) comes to town, acting
as moderator of the town meeting where Hyde Park women
are first women in America allowed to vote (1870).
- 1870:
The Town Hall is moved into Hyde Park on wagons from
Boston.
- 1871:
The Glover and Willcomb factory is founded and is
the largest curled hair factory in the United States
by 1888.
- 1872-3:
Three schools are built in town: The Henry Grew, The
Fairmount, and the Elihu Greenwood.
- 1874:
John Gately arrives from England and becomes a squatter
on Henry S. Grew's property. Known as the "Hermit
of Sally's Rock," Gately is eventually given
an old shed from Grew which was listed as "The
Hermitage" on many of the old maps of Grew's
land.
- 1876:
The Hyde Park Chorus Club sends 100 singers to the
Peace Jubilee in Boston to commemorate the end of
the Civil War.
- 1880:
The Clarendon Congregational Church is established.
- 1882:
Joseph Hamblin founds The Hyde Park Company.
- 1883:
The Hyde Park Times newspaper is established.
- 1884:
William Ellery Channing is president of the newly
established Hyde Park Horticultural Society.
- 1885:
The Most Precious Blood Church is dedicated on the
corner of Maple and Oak Streets. The congregation
was originally organized as the Church of the Epiphany
of the Redeemer in 1870.
- 1886:
The Hyde Park Cooperative Bank opens.
- 1887:
The Hyde Park Historical Society is organized.
- 1888:
The first electric street lights are turned on in
town.
- 1889:
The Blue Hill Community Evangelical Society (today
Blue Hill Community Church) is formed.
- 1891:
The first Hyde Park high school magazine, The High
School Register, is published.
- 1893:
The Hazelwood Universalist Church opens.
- 1894:
Opening of Christ Church (Episcopal). It is designed
by Ralph Adams Cram.
- 1897:
Mary H. Hunt is elected the first vice-president of
the International Conference Against Alcoholism in
Brussels, Belgium.
- 1898:
The Hyde
Park Library is built on the corner of Harvard
and Winthrop.
- 1899:
Cleary Square is named for John Augustus Cleary, a
local boy who dies in the Battle of Santiago during
the Spanish American War. His remains are in Arlington
National Cemetery.
- 1900:
On her 90th birthday, Mehitable Sunderland gives the
people of Hyde Park a tapestry she had woven called,
"Isaac and Rebecca on Their Return to Abraham
and Sarah."
- 1901:
The B.F. Sturtevant Company begins manufacturing heating
and ventilating equipment.
- 1904:
Hyde Park Telephone Company building is constructed.
- 1909:
The Dana Avenue Bridge is constructed over the Neponset
River. It is the earliest surviving example of a reinforced
concrete arch in Boston.
- 1912:
Hyde Park is annexed to Boston.
- 1913-14:
The Hyde Park section of the Neponset River is dredged.
- 1919-1925:
Immigrants from Russia and the Ukraine arrive in town.
- 1920:
The Franklin Foundry is established and makes iron,
semi-steel, and brass.
- 1921:
Saint Anne's Church, under Father David Regan, opens.
- 1923:
John Simson opens a wool waste reprocessing company
called the Garnetting Company.
- 1925:
The South Boston Condit Electrical Manufacturing Company
opens forms and later becomes the Allis-Chalmers Company
in 1936.
- 1926:
Bay State Upholstery Company opens on Business Street
and soon has hundreds of workers.
- 1928:
The present Hyde Park High School is completed on
Metropolitan and Central Avenues.
- 1931:
The L. E. Mason Company makes bronze, silver, and
gold castings.
- 1935:
The M. S. Dress Company begins producing women's dresses.
- 1939:
The National Wadding Company is one of only three
plants in America that makes wool wadding.
- 1945-1950:
Corriganville on Huntington Avenue is a housing project
for veterans of World War II. In addition, new houses
are built on Grew's Hill and the Rugby section along
Truman Highway and River Street.
- 1950-1959:
New schools are constructed to replace Fairmount,
Elihu Greenwood, and Henry Grew. In addition, the
Franklin Roosevelt School is built for veterans' children
in Corriganville.
- 1956:
Saint Joseph's Church is dedicated by Richard Cardinal
Cushing.
- 1962:
Hyde Park celebrates its 50th anniversary as part
of Boston.
- 1969:
The Hyde Park High School Alumni Association is formed.
- 1970s
-1980s: African-American families move into Hyde
Park, as the neighborhood becomes more integrated
racially.
- 1970:
The Hyde Park Historical Society regroups and adds
new officers and members.
- 1973:
Many families with young children move out of town
or send their kids to private school in response to
the Court-ordered busing for Boston Public Schools.
Hyde park High is a site of racial strife in 1974
and 1975.
- 1987:
The Hyde Park Historical Society celebrates 100 years.
Twenty-five books about the history of Hyde Park are
published.
- 1993:
Thomas M. Menino is the first Hyde Park resident and
first person of Italian descent elected Mayor of Boston.
Further
Reading
- Sammarco,
Anthony Mitchell. Hyde Park. Images of America
Series. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 1996.
- Hannan,
Nancy. Compendium of Hyde Park History, Vol. I-III.
Hyde Park: Albert House Publishing.
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