Dorchester

By far Boston’s largest neighborhood, Dorchester was founded as a separate town in 1630. Before being annexed to Boston in 1870, Dorchester was a popular country retreat for Boston elite. John F. Kennedy’s family lived in the Ashmont Hill area of the neighborhood, and his grandfather John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald was mayor of Boston.

During the late 19th and early-mid 20th centuries, Dorchester was a center for community activism, including the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King Jr. lived there for much of the time he attended Boston University for his PhD.

The early 20th century also saw an influx of Catholic immigrants from Ireland, French Canada, Poland, and Italy, as well as Protestant African Americans from the South who were part of the Great Migration to northern industrial cities. This diverse mix is still prominent to this day.

Much of the neighborhood is lined with iconic “triple deckers,” (3-story, usually 3-unit apartment buildings), which were built in Dorchester in the 20th century to safely house the large wave of immigrants the city was experiencing at the time.