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Charlestown is the oldest neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Originally called Mishawum by the Massachusett, it is located on a peninsula north of the Charles River, across from downtown Boston, and also adjoins the Mystic River and Boston Harbor. Charlestown was laid out in 1629 by engineer Thomas Graves, one of its early settlers, in the reign of Charles I of England. It was originally a separate town and the first capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Charlestown became a city in 1848 and was annexed by Boston on January 5, 1874. With that, it also switched from Middlesex County, to which it had belonged since 1643, to Suffolk County. It has had a substantial Irish American population since the migration of Irish people during the Great Irish Famine of the 1840s. Since the late 1980s the neighborhood has changed dramatically because of its proximity to downtown and its colonial architecture. A mix of Yuppie and Upper-middle class gentrification has overtaken much of the area, as it has in many of Boston's neighborhoods, but Charlestown still maintains a strong Irish American population and "Townie" identity. ==History== Thomas and Jane Walford〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Walford Family Line )〕 were the original English settlers of Mishawaum (later Charlestown); they settled there in 1624. They were given a grant by Sir Robert Gorges, with whom they had settled at Wessagusset (Weymouth) in September 1623. John Endicott, first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, had sent William, Richard and Ralph Sprague to Mishawaum to lay out a settlement. Thomas Walford, acting as an interpreter with the Massachusetts Indians, negotiated with the local sachem Wonohaquaham for Endicott and his people to settle there. Although Walford had a virtual monopoly on the region's available furs, he welcomed the newcomers and helped them in any way he could, unaware that his Episcopalian religious beliefs would cause him to be banished from Massachusetts to Portsmouth, New Hampshire within three years. Originally a Puritan English city during the Colonial era (a time to which many of the neighborhood's structures date), Charlestown was founded in 1628, and settled July 4, 1629, by Thomas Graves,〔Thomas Graves the engineer was from Gravesend, County of Kent, England and signed a contract with the Massachusetts Bay Company in March 1629, arriving in New England in July 1629 where he laid out Charlestown. He is not to be confused with Rear Admiral Thomas Graves (1605-1653) who also settled in Charlestown in 1636 or ’37. Also see (Descendents of Thomas Graves, Engineer... )〕 Increase Nowell, Simon Hoyt, Rev. Francis Bright, Ralph, Richard and William Sprague and about 100 others who preceded the Great Migration. John Winthrop's company stopped here for some time in 1630, before deciding to settle across the Charles River at Boston. The territory of Charlestown originally included what is now Melrose and Malden (both until 1649),〔 City of Melrose. Retrieved 2010-07-15〕 Stoneham (until 1725), Somerville (until 1842), Medford, Everett, Woburn, Burlington, and parts of Arlington and Cambridge.〔(History of the Town of Medford, p. 2 )〕 On June 17, 1775 the Charlestown Peninsula was the site of the Battle of Bunker Hill. Much of the battle took place on Breed's Hill, which overlooked the harbor and the town and was only about 400 yards from the southern end of the peninsula; Bunker Hill is near the northwest end of the peninsula, close to Charlestown Neck and about a mile from the Charles River. The town, including its wharves and dockyards, was destroyed by fire during the battle. Around the 1860s an influx of Irish immigrants arrived in Charlestown. The neighborhood remained an Irish stronghold in the cultural, economic, and Catholic traditions of neighborhoods like South Boston, Somerville, and Dorchester. The city developed a water supply from the Mystic Lakes.〔http://www.mwra.state.ma.us/04water/html/hist1.htm〕 On October 7, 1873, a vote was held to determine whether Charlestown should leave Middlesex County and join Boston as part of Suffolk County; Boston residents approved the question, 5960–1868, and Charlestown residents also approved, 2240-1947.〔"The Result in Figures", ''The Boston Globe'', p. 5, October 8, 1873.〕 During the early 1960s, the city initiated plans to demolish and redevelop sixty percent of the housing in Charlestown.〔("Charlestown District Study #5" ), Boston City Planning Department, Comprehensive Planning Section, March 14, 1960, p. 1; ("Charlestown Preliminary Sketch Plan" ), Boston Redevelopment Authority, December 15, 1961, p. II-2.〕 In 1963, the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) held a town meeting to discuss their development plans with the community. The BRA's dealings with Boston's West End had created an atmosphere of distrust towards urban renewal in Boston, and Charlestown residents opposed the plan by an overwhelming majority. By 1965, the plan had been reduced to tearing down only eleven percent of the neighborhood, as well as the removal of the elevated rail tracks.〔Jones, Michael, ''The Slaughter of Cities: Urban Renewal and Ethnic Cleansing'' pp. 528-29, St. Augustine's Press, South end Indiana, 2004. ISBN 1-58731-775-3〕 Throughout the 1960s until the middle 1990s, Charlestown was infamous for its Irish Mob presence. Charlestown's McLaughlin Brothers were involved in a gang war with neighboring Somerville's Winter Hill Gang, during the Irish Mob Wars of the 1960s. In the late 1980s, however, Charlestown underwent a massive Yuppie gentrification process similar to that of the South End. Drawn to its proximity to downtown and its colonial, red-brick, row-house housing stock, similar to that of Beacon Hill, many Yuppie and upper-middle class professionals moved to the neighborhood. In the late 1990s, additional gentrification took place, similar to that in neighboring Somerville. Today the neighborhood is a mix of Yuppies, upper-middle and middle-class residences, housing projects, and a large working class Irish-American demographic and culture that is still predominant.. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Charlestown, Boston」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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