Paving Contractor in East Boston, MA

The landmass that is East Boston today originally comprised five islands sited east of the confluence of the Malden, Mystic, and Charles rivers, and across the harbor from the westerly city of Boston. These islands included: Noddle’s; Hog’s; Governor’s; Bird; and Apple. The town of East Boston was first developed on the largest of these, Noddle’s, a noted source of timber and grazing land, used for farming by English colonists throughout the eighteenth century.

Sumner and Noddle’s Island[edit]

As early as 1801, William H. Sumner, who had inherited a large tract on Noddle’s Island, proposed that the federal government of the United States create a turnpike to connect Massachusett’s North Shore (along with Sumner’s property on Noddle’s) to Boston, arguing that such a road would create a valuable, direct route across Boston’s harbor, making it easier for Boston, at the time an isolated peninsula surrounded by water, to expand: “There is no doubt but that the necessities of the town of Boston will some time require a connection with Noddle’s Island.” When this plan was rejected in favor of a route through Chelsea (a route, not coincidentally, that left the Boston navy yard in nearby Charlestown with ocean access), Sumner moved onto other plans to improve Noddle’s value.

By 1833, Sumner, with partners Steven White and Francis J. Oliver, had bought up half of Noddle’s acreage. Together, they founded the East Boston Company, and continued to consolidate additional landholdings. By 1834, the East Boston Company had complete control over the island. The company’s purpose was to own and develop the land and call it East Boston. In anticipation of population growth, the proprietors adopted a grid street plan, the first planned neighborhood in the city of Boston. Jeffries Point, located at the southern end of the peninsula that faced Boston, was the earliest area of East Boston to be settled.