Era: New Fields (~1625-1780)
Early Boston, Trimount, farmland, mills, ropewalks, and early industry
In 1625, the Shawmut Peninsula, home to modern day Boston, was known in the Algonquian language as “Mushauwomuk” (“the boat landing place”), and sat within the territory of the Massachuset nation, serving as a seasonal base for fishing and light farming. Within ten years, the Massachuset people lost the Shawmut to English settlers who claimed and occupied it as their land of promise.
Boston’s rapid development in the seventeenth century would not have been possible without the labor of enslaved Africans, which allowed the construction of an integrated political economy linked primarily to markets of the West Indies. Boston served as a center of the slave trade and port of entry for enslaved Africans. By the early 1700s, the New England Colonies were deeply involved in an economic alliance with the sugar-producing West Indies, driven by the abduction and enslavement of Africans and the trade of raw materials, molasses, and rum.
The original West Church, a wood-framed structure erected in 1737 at the corner of Cambridge and Lynde Streets, played a significant role in Revolutionary-era Boston. At this site, minister Jonathan Mayhew preached for civil liberties and resistance to tyranny, influencing prominent patriots such as John Adams and Paul Revere. The church was used as barracks by British troops during their occupation of the city and its steeple was destroyed by British forces in 1775. Severely damaged during the Revolutionary War, the original West Church was taken down and the current Old West Church was built in 1806.
Jonathan Mayhew (1720-1766) was a minister and influential theologian who was a foundational figure in the philosophy that spurred revolutionary sentiment in the colonies. He preached at Old West Church from 1747 to 1766, where he would deliver sermons on politics and share his unorthodox theology.
Easily missed as one trundles down Cambridge Street or behind the golden dome of the Massachusetts State House, Ridgeway Lane in the historic West End is one of Boston’s longest and narrowest streets. Often mistaken for a simple alley, it has served ropewalk workers, residents, Suffolk University students, and the occasional criminal on the run for over 250 years. As one walks the length of this dark road, surrounded by brick on both sides and heavy paving stones below, it is hard to imagine much life here. Yet, hidden, urban pathways like Ridgeway Lane hold many stories worth telling.
A digital reframing of “Ropewalks of the West End and Beyond”, an 2012 exhibit designed and written by Duane Lucia and Tom Burgess.
Executive Director Sebastian Belfanti explains the many answers to a common question: where, geographically, is the West End?
The Early Settlers of the West End (1630 – 1645): Robert Fairbanks, Public House Keeper
