History permeates contemporary Boston. While active as a state capital and financial center, the city’s institutions, ethos and cultural diversity are all shaped by its colonial heritage and later cultural roles which encourage contemporary tourism, as well as shaping local landscapes, politics and divisions within a metropolitan area of 5 million inhabitants in New Hampshire and Eastern Massachusetts.

Founded in the 1630s by English Puritan settlers at the intersection of the Charles River and the Atlantic Ocean, Boston was the main settlement of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Boston was a seat of revolutionary activity during the late eighteenth century and is still closely associated with early American patriots Paul Revere, Samuel Adams and John Hancock, as well as the “Boston Tea Party” tax revolt of 1773. During the nineteenth century Boston was considered “the Hub of the Universe” because of its geographic importance in terms of transportation, economics and culture. The nineteenth century also saw significant geographic expansions with the creation of bourgeois neighborhoods such as the Back Bay and the South End. Immigration from Italy and Ireland also helped create an ethnic blue-collar neighborhood culture, which defines such areas as the North End, South Boston and nearby Somerville and Charlestown to this day Other cultural influences include African Americans (especially in Roxbury and the South End), Armenians (in Watertown), Portuguese and more recent immigrants from the Caribbean and Asia. Boston is still widely associated with white racism over such issues as busing and school integration. Loyalty towards the area’s sports franchises (Celtics, Bruins, Red Sox, Patriots) has also defined the character of the city. Boston’s ethnic neighborhood culture, well known for its distinctive accent, has been represented in such films as Good Will Hunting (1997) and television series such as Cheers.

Architecturally the city is characterized by brick town houses in the older neighborhoods and the triple-decker type in the suburbs, although this was dramatically changed by urban renewal in the postwar era, including the creation of the Central Artery and the destruction of the West End in the 1950s, and the creation of a new Boston City Hall (designed by Kallmann, McKinnell and Knowles), completed in 1969. Recently gentrification has attracted many young professionals back into the city and Fanieul Hall is typical of urban festival marketplaces in historic locations.

Boston and its surrounding towns host over sixty colleges and universities, including Boston College, Boston University and Northeastern University Cambridge, across the Charles River, is the site of both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has long been considered a center of progressive politics and local nightlife. This large urban student population stimulated active underground music and art, producing such artists as Nan Goldin and rock bands as the Lemonheads, Juliana Hatfield and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones.