Boston, Massachusetts

Where Boston is

Boston is the seat of Suffolk County, at 42.36°N, 71.06°W, on Boston Harbor at the western edge of Massachusetts Bay. The Charles River separates it from Cambridge on the north, and the Mystic and Neponset rivers mark the northern and southern edges of the city. Much of the modern city, including the Back Bay and the South End, is land filled in during the 19th century; the original Shawmut Peninsula was less than a square mile. Suffolk County, like most Massachusetts counties, no longer has a working county government. Boston is on Eastern Time.

How it became the capital

The Massachusetts Bay Company's settlers under John Winthrop moved from Charlestown to the peninsula in 1630 and made it the seat of the colony's General Court. Boston has held that role continuously through the colonial period, the Revolution and statehood, apart from occasional sessions elsewhere during epidemics and the British occupation of 1775–76. The Old State House of 1713 on State Street was the seat of colonial government and the site of the Boston Massacre.

Population

Boston had 675,647 residents in 2020, the largest city in Massachusetts and in New England; Worcester, at about 206,000, is second. The city limits are small, only 48 square miles of land, and the Boston metropolitan area, which extends into New Hampshire, has about 4.9 million people. Massachusetts as a whole had 7,029,917, so about seven in ten residents of the state live in the Boston metro.

The capitol

The Massachusetts State House on Beacon Hill was designed by Charles Bulfinch and completed in 1798 on land that had been John Hancock's cow pasture. The dome was originally wood shingle, then copper sheathed by Paul Revere's company in 1802, and gilded in 1874. The building was extended to the rear in 1895 and with wings in 1917. The Sacred Cod, a wooden fish hung in the House chamber since 1784, moves with the House whenever it changes rooms.

Distances to other cities

Portland, Maine, is about 110 miles to the north, and Concord, New Hampshire, about 70 miles.

Related maps

• Massachusetts map — the whole state with borders, cities and counties.
• Boston city map — the city page with nearby cities and distances.
• Massachusetts county map · blank Massachusetts map · printable Massachusetts map.
• All 50 state capitals on one map, and the state capitals quiz.
• Northeast region · New England division · Eastern Time Zone.