On this day in 1630, according to the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities. The colony's first college was established two years later. The name of the town was changed to Cambridge to honor the English university town in 1638. The college changed its name to Harvard the following year.
In 1630, the Massachusetts Bay Colony proprietors chose a site along the northern bank of the Charles River for their capital. They named it Newtowne, and laid out an orderly grid of streets fortified by a wooden palisade. It was the first planned town in English North America. Six years later, the colony's first college was established in Newtowne. In honor of the English university town, Newtowne was renamed Cambridge. Contemporary William Wood noted "this is one of the neatest . . . towns in New England, having many fair structures with many handsome . . . seats." Despite its well-ordered appearance, Cambridge did not remain the colony's capital. In 1638 the General Court settled five miles downstream, in the neighboring town of Boston.
Ah, those Boston arrivistes -- Cambridge's largest suburb. What might our Commonwealth have accomplished if fair Cambridge had only remained its capital -- lower taxes, a more dynamic economy, more diversity, and what goes along with all of these, of course ... ever more progressive politics? Read the full story here. |
