Mattapan, Massachusetts
Encyclopedia
Mattapan is a neighborhood in Boston
, Massachusetts
. Historically a section of neighboring Dorchester
, Mattapan became a part of Boston when Dorchester was annexed in 1870. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 36,480. Like other neighborhoods of the late 19th and early 20th century, Mattapan developed, residentially and commercially, as the railroads and streetcars made downtown Boston increasingly accessible. Predominantly residential, Mattapan is a mix of public housing, small apartment buildings, single-family houses, and two- and three-family houses (known locally as "Three-Deckers" or "Triple-Deckers"
). Blue Hill Avenue and Mattapan Square, where Blue Hill Avenue, River Street, and Cummins Highway meet, are the commercial heart of the neighborhood, home to banks, law offices, restaurants, and retail shops. The new Mattapan Branch of the Boston Public library opened 2009, at a cost of more than $4 million.
Mattapan is the original Native American name for the Dorchester area and meant "a good place to be," or "a good place to sit."
In the 1960s/70s Mattapan went through a major change in the makeup of its population. It changed from a predominantly Jewish neighborhood to one that is now largely African American
and Caribbean American having a population of 37,486 that is over 77% African American and Caribbean American.
The years between 1968 and 1970 made up the most dramatic period of ethnic transition in Boston. According to Levine and Harmon in their book, Death of an American Jewish Community, redlining
the area, blockbusting
, and fear in neighborhood residents created by real estate agents allegedly brought about panic selling
and white flight
. The banking consortium
Boston Banks Urban Renewal Group (B-BURG) allegedly drove the Jewish community out of Mattapan and are held partially responsible for the ensuing deterioration of the neighborhood, especially along the Blue Hill Avenue corridor. This widely held belief has been disputed, with differences between the Catholic and Jewish communities in Boston being the greater contributing factor. According to Levine and Harmon, the reason behind this orchestrated attack on the community was to lower market values to buy property, sell the housing with federally guaranteed loans at inflated prices to black families who could not afford it, and to get the white community to buy property owned by the banks in the suburbs. Today Mattapan is seeing another major population shift, albeit a natural turn over of housing, as a large number of immigrants from Haiti
and other Caribbean countries continue to move in. Mattapan now has the largest Haitian community in Massachusetts, and is also largely made up of African Americans and immigrants from other Caribbean countries. .
Boston-based rapper Big Shug
frequently refers to the neighborhood as "Murdapan", due to its high crime rate.
line of the MBTA
serves Mattapan as well as several bus routes. The Fairmount Line
of the MBTA Commuter Rail
also serves Mattapan at Morton Street, providing service to downtown Boston and the suburbs.
operates the Mattapan Post Office.
(BPS) operates public schools in Mattapan. Ellison/Parks Early Education School is in Mattapan. Elementary schools include James J. Chittick, Mattahunt, and Charles H. Taylor. Mildred Avenue K-8 School is located in Mattapan. The Young Achievers Science and Mathematics Pilot K-8 School, a BPS school, occupies the former campus of Solomon Lewenberg Middle School, which closed in 2009.
Pope John Paul II Catholic Academy of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston
operates the Mattapan Square Campus. (Formally the Saint Angela Merci elementary school)
operates the Mattapan Branch Library. On December 18, 1849 a Mattapan resident named Increase S. Smith opened the Mattapan Library Association. In 1870 Dorchester, Massachusetts
, which included Mattapan, was annexed into Boston
. The Mattapan branch began as a reading room attached to the Oakland Hall Building's delivery station. In 1923 the reading room was declared a branch of the Boston Public Library. On June 22, 1931 the Mattapan Library Branch opened on Hazelton Street. The current library opened on February 28, 2009 at 1350 Blue Hill Avenue.
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. Historically a section of neighboring Dorchester
Dorchester, Massachusetts
Dorchester is a dissolved municipality and current neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is named after the town of Dorchester in the English county of Dorset, from which Puritans emigrated and is today endearingly nicknamed "Dot" by its residents. Dorchester, including a large...
, Mattapan became a part of Boston when Dorchester was annexed in 1870. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 36,480. Like other neighborhoods of the late 19th and early 20th century, Mattapan developed, residentially and commercially, as the railroads and streetcars made downtown Boston increasingly accessible. Predominantly residential, Mattapan is a mix of public housing, small apartment buildings, single-family houses, and two- and three-family houses (known locally as "Three-Deckers" or "Triple-Deckers"
Triple decker
A triple-decker is a three-story apartment building, typically of light-framed, wood construction, where each floor usually consists of a single apartment; although two apartments per floor is not uncommon....
). Blue Hill Avenue and Mattapan Square, where Blue Hill Avenue, River Street, and Cummins Highway meet, are the commercial heart of the neighborhood, home to banks, law offices, restaurants, and retail shops. The new Mattapan Branch of the Boston Public library opened 2009, at a cost of more than $4 million.
Mattapan is the original Native American name for the Dorchester area and meant "a good place to be," or "a good place to sit."
Demographic change
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
and Caribbean American having a population of 37,486 that is over 77% African American and Caribbean American.
The years between 1968 and 1970 made up the most dramatic period of ethnic transition in Boston. According to Levine and Harmon in their book, Death of an American Jewish Community, redlining
Redlining
Redlining is the practice of denying, or increasing the cost of services such as banking, insurance, access to jobs, access to health care, or even supermarkets to residents in certain, often racially determined, areas. The term "redlining" was coined in the late 1960s by John McKnight, a...
the area, blockbusting
Blockbusting
Blockbusting is a business practice of U.S. real estate agents and building developers meant to encourage white property owners to sell their houses at a loss, by implying that racial, ethnic, or religious minorities — Blacks, Hispanics, Jews et al. — were moving into their previously racially...
, and fear in neighborhood residents created by real estate agents allegedly brought about panic selling
Panic selling
Panic selling is a wide-scale selling of an investment, in order to get out of an investment . The main problem is that investors react simply out of emotion and fear, without evaluating the fundamentals. Almost all market crashes are caused by panic selling. Most major stock exchanges use trading...
and white flight
White flight
White flight has been a term that originated in the United States, starting in the mid-20th century, and applied to the large-scale migration of whites of various European ancestries from racially mixed urban regions to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurban regions. It was first seen as...
. The banking consortium
Consortium
A consortium is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a common goal....
Boston Banks Urban Renewal Group (B-BURG) allegedly drove the Jewish community out of Mattapan and are held partially responsible for the ensuing deterioration of the neighborhood, especially along the Blue Hill Avenue corridor. This widely held belief has been disputed, with differences between the Catholic and Jewish communities in Boston being the greater contributing factor. According to Levine and Harmon, the reason behind this orchestrated attack on the community was to lower market values to buy property, sell the housing with federally guaranteed loans at inflated prices to black families who could not afford it, and to get the white community to buy property owned by the banks in the suburbs. Today Mattapan is seeing another major population shift, albeit a natural turn over of housing, as a large number of immigrants from Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
and other Caribbean countries continue to move in. Mattapan now has the largest Haitian community in Massachusetts, and is also largely made up of African Americans and immigrants from other Caribbean countries. .
Boston-based rapper Big Shug
Big Shug
Big Shug is a hip hop artist from Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of the Gang Starr Foundation collective.-Biography:...
frequently refers to the neighborhood as "Murdapan", due to its high crime rate.
Transportation
The Mattapan-Ashmont trolleyLight rail
Light rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...
line of the MBTA
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, often referred to as the MBTA or simply The T, is the public operator of most bus, subway, commuter rail and ferry systems in the greater Boston, Massachusetts, area. Officially a "body politic and corporate, and a political subdivision" of the...
serves Mattapan as well as several bus routes. The Fairmount Line
Fairmount Line
The Fairmount Line or Dorchester Branch is a line of the MBTA Commuter Rail system in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Except for a short portion in Milton, it lies entirely within Boston, progressing in a southwesterly trajectory, passing through the neighborhoods of Dorchester, Mattapan and Hyde Park...
of the MBTA Commuter Rail
MBTA Commuter Rail
The MBTA Commuter Rail serves as the regional rail arm of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, in the United States. It is operated under contract by the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Company a joint partnership of Veolia Transportation, Bombardier Transportation and Alternate...
also serves Mattapan at Morton Street, providing service to downtown Boston and the suburbs.
Government and infrastructure
The United States Postal ServiceUnited States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
operates the Mattapan Post Office.
Primary and secondary schools
Boston Public SchoolsBoston Public Schools
Boston Public Schools is a school district serving the city of Boston, Massachusetts, United States.-Leadership:The district is led by a Superintendent, hired by the Boston School Committee, a seven-member school board appointed by the Mayor after approval by a nominating committee of specified...
(BPS) operates public schools in Mattapan. Ellison/Parks Early Education School is in Mattapan. Elementary schools include James J. Chittick, Mattahunt, and Charles H. Taylor. Mildred Avenue K-8 School is located in Mattapan. The Young Achievers Science and Mathematics Pilot K-8 School, a BPS school, occupies the former campus of Solomon Lewenberg Middle School, which closed in 2009.
Pope John Paul II Catholic Academy of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the New England region of the United States. It comprises several counties of the state of Massachusetts...
operates the Mattapan Square Campus. (Formally the Saint Angela Merci elementary school)
Public libraries
Boston Public LibraryBoston Public Library
The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was the first publicly supported municipal library in the United States, the first large library open to the public in the United States, and the first public library to allow people to...
operates the Mattapan Branch Library. On December 18, 1849 a Mattapan resident named Increase S. Smith opened the Mattapan Library Association. In 1870 Dorchester, Massachusetts
Dorchester, Massachusetts
Dorchester is a dissolved municipality and current neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is named after the town of Dorchester in the English county of Dorset, from which Puritans emigrated and is today endearingly nicknamed "Dot" by its residents. Dorchester, including a large...
, which included Mattapan, was annexed into Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
. The Mattapan branch began as a reading room attached to the Oakland Hall Building's delivery station. In 1923 the reading room was declared a branch of the Boston Public Library. On June 22, 1931 the Mattapan Library Branch opened on Hazelton Street. The current library opened on February 28, 2009 at 1350 Blue Hill Avenue.
Notable residents
- Dana BarrosDana BarrosDana Bruce Barros is a retired American professional basketball player from the NBA. Before the NBA he played at Boston College, finishing as one of the school's all-time leading scorers....
- Former player in the National Basketball AssociationNational Basketball AssociationThe National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
and member of the Boston CelticsBoston CelticsThe Boston Celtics are a National Basketball Association team based in Boston, Massachusetts. They play in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. Founded in 1946, the team is currently owned by Boston Basketball Partners LLC. The Celtics play their home games at the TD Garden, which... - Leonard BernsteinLeonard BernsteinLeonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
- Conductor and composer - Big ShugBig ShugBig Shug is a hip hop artist from Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of the Gang Starr Foundation collective.-Biography:...
- Rapper under DJ Premier and Guru of Gang Starr - Thomas M. FinneranThomas FinneranThomas M. Finneran , is a radio talk host and former Massachusetts Democratic politician who served as Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from April 1996 to September 2004...
– Massachusetts politician - Nat HentoffNat HentoffNathan Irving "Nat" Hentoff is an American historian, novelist, jazz and country music critic, and syndicated columnist for United Media and writes regularly on jazz and country music for The Wall Street Journal....
- Jazz critic and social commentator - Theodore WhiteTheodore H. WhiteTheodore Harold White was an American political journalist, historian, and novelist, known for his wartime reporting from China and accounts of the 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972 and 1980 presidential elections.-Life and career:...
- author, political commentator
External links
- "Why the Jews Left Boston", New York Times book review of Urban Exodus: Why the Jews Left Boston and the Catholics Stayed.
- Death of an American Jewish Community (ISBN 0-02-913866-3).
- First Year Urban Project, A Harvard University urban program.
- Historian Francis Russell on ethnic change in Mattapan - from Russell's book "The Knave of Boston & Other Ambiguous Massachusetts Characters"