Boston Harbor is a natural

harbor A harbor (American English), or harbour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be moored. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is ...

and

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime enviro ...

Massachusetts Bay Massachusetts Bay is a bay on the Gulf of Maine that forms part of the central coastline of Massachusetts. Description The bay extends from Cape Ann on the north to Plymouth Harbor on the south, a distance of about . Its northern and sout ...

, located adjacent to

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, Massachusetts. It is home to the

Port of Boston The Port of Boston (Automated Manifest System, AMS Seaport Code: 0401, UN/LOCODE: US BOS) is a major seaport located in Boston Harbor and adjacent to the Boston, Massachusetts, City of Boston. It is the largest port in Massachusetts and one of th ...

, a major shipping facility in the

Northeastern United States The Northeastern United States (also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau. Located on the East Coast of the United States, ...

History

17th century

1863 BrigAntelopeInBostonHarbor byFitzHenryLane MFABoston

Since its discovery by Europeans by John Smith in 1614, Boston Harbor has been an important port in American history. Boston Harbor was recognized by Europeans as one of the finest natural harbors in the world due to its depth and natural defense from the Atlantic as a result of the many islands that dot the harbor. It was also favored due to its access to the

Charles River The Charles River (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ), sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles, is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton, Massachusetts, Hopkinton to Boston along a highly me ...

Neponset River The Neponset River is a river in eastern Massachusetts in the United States. Its headwaters are at the Neponset Reservoir in Foxborough, near Gillette Stadium. From there, the Neponset meanders generally northeast for about to its mouth at ...

, and

Mystic River The Mystic River is a riverU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 in Massachusetts. In the Massachusett language, means "large estuary", alluding to the tidal ...

, which made travel from the harbor deeper into

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

far easier. By 1660, almost all imports came to the greater Boston area and the New England coast through the waters of Boston Harbor. A rapid influx of people transformed Boston into an exploding city.

18th century

On December 16, 1773, Boston Harbor was the site of the

Boston Tea Party The Boston Tea Party was a seminal American protest, political and Mercantilism, mercantile protest on December 16, 1773, during the American Revolution. Initiated by Sons of Liberty activists in Boston in Province of Massachusetts Bay, colo ...

, an iconic development in the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

19th century

Through the 19th century, Boston Harbor underwent extensive construction and development, including the building of wharves, piers, and new filled land into the harbor. In the late 19th century, Boston citizens were advised not to swim in any portion of the Harbor. Two of the first steam sewage stations were built, with one in East Boston and one later on Deer Island. With these mandates, the harbor was seeing small improvements, but raw sewage was still continuously pumped into the harbor.

20th century

In 1919, the Metropolitan District Commission was created to oversee and regulate the quality of harbor water. However, not much improvement was seen and general public awareness of the poor quality of water was very low. In 1972, the

Clean Water Act The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Its objective is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters; recognizing the primary respo ...

was passed in order to help promote increased national water quality. Since the mid-1970s organizations within the Boston community have battled for a cleaner Boston Harbor. More recently, the harbor was the site of the $4.5 billion Boston Harbor Project. Failures at the Nut Island

sewage treatment Sewage treatment is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable to discharge to the surrounding environment or an intended reuse application, thereby preventing water p ...

plant in Quincy and the companion Deer Island plant adjacent to Winthrop had far-reaching

environmental Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...

and political effects.

Fecal coliform bacteria A fecal coliform (British: faecal coliform) is a facultatively anaerobic, rod-shaped, gram-negative, non- sporulating bacterium. Coliform bacteria generally originate in the intestines of warm-blooded animals. Fecal coliforms are capable of growth ...

levels forced frequent swimming prohibitions along the harbor beaches and the

for many years. In 1982,

Quincy, Massachusetts Quincy ( ) is a city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest city in the county. Quincy is part of the Greater Boston area as one of Boston's immediate southern suburbs. Its population in ...

sued the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) and the separate

Boston Water and Sewer Commission The Boston Water and Sewer Commission (BWSC) serves retail customers with water services in Boston, Massachusetts. It purchases water wholesale from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA). The largest retail water and wastewater utili ...

in 1982, charging that unchecked systemic pollution of the city's waterfront contributed to the problem. That suit was followed by one by

Conservation Law Foundation Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) is an environmental advocacy organization based in New England, United States. Since 1966, CLF's mission has been to advocate for New England's environment and its communities. CLF's advocacy work takes place acr ...

and finally by the

United States government The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct ...

, resulting in the landmark court-ordered cleanup of Boston Harbor. The lawsuits forced then-

Massachusetts Governor The governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the head of government of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The governor is the chief executive, head of the state cabinet and the commander-in-chief of the commonw ...

Michael Dukakis Michael Stanley Dukakis ( ; born November 3, 1933) is an American politician and lawyer who served as governor of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1979 and from 1983 to 1991. He is the longest-serving governor in Massachusetts history and only the s ...

to propose separating the water and sewer treatment divisions from the MDC, resulting in the creation of the

Massachusetts Water Resources Authority The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) is a public authority in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that provides wholesale drinking water and sewage services to 3.1 million people in sixty-one municipalities and more than 5,500 large ...

in 1985. The slow progress of the cleanup became a key theme of the

1988 U.S. presidential election United States presidential election, Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 8, 1988. The Republican Party (United States), Republican Party's ticket of incumbent Vice President George H. W. Bush and Indiana Senator Da ...

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...

defeated Dukakis partly through campaign speeches casting doubt on the governor's environmental record, which Dukakis himself had claimed was better than that of Bush. The court-ordered cleanup continued throughout the next two decades and is still ongoing. Before the cleanup projects, the water's pollution gained notability in popular culture when

The Standells The Standells are an American garage rock band from Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles, California, formed in the 1960s, who have been referred to as a "punk band of the 1960s", and are said to have inspired such groups as the Sex Pistols and ...

released their 1965 song, " Dirty Water", which referred to the state of the

Neal Stephenson Neal Town Stephenson (born October 31, 1959) is an American writer known for his works of speculative fiction. His novels have been categorized as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, and baroque. Stephenson's work explores mathemati ...

, who attended

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

from 1977 to 1981, based his second novel, ''Zodiac'', around pollution of Boston Harbor. Since the writing of the song, the water quality in both the Harbor and the Charles River has significantly improved, and the projects have dramatically transformed Boston Harbor from one of the filthiest in the nation to one of the cleanest. Today, Boston Harbor is safe for fishing and for swimming nearly every day, though there are still beach closings after even small rainstorms, caused by bacteria-laden storm water and the occasional combined sewer overflow.

21st century

In 2022, pieces of plastic transmission line used in rock explosives, known as explosive shock tubing, began washing up on coastal shores of

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The ...

and

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

br>
This led to an investigation that was conducted by the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wor ...

, it was suspected to have been related to a concluded Boston Harbor dredging project. The outcome was to seek to find methods to prevent future environmental impacts from reoccurring.

Geography

Boston Harbor is a large harbor, which constitutes the western extremity of

. The harbor is sheltered from Massachusetts Bay and the open

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

by a combination of the Winthrop Peninsula and Deer Island to the north, the hooked Nantasket Peninsula and Point Allerton to the south, and the harbor islands in the middle. The harbor is often described as being split into an inner harbor and an outer harbor."Boston Harbor and Approaches." ''Coast Pilot 1 – 43rd Edition, 2015''
NOAA Office of Coast Survey. Accessed April 25, 2016. The harbor itself comprises with of shoreline and 34 harbor islands.

Inner Harbor

The inner harbor was historically the main port of Boston and is still the site of most of its port facilities as well as the Boston waterfront, which has been redeveloped for residential and recreational uses. The inner harbor extends from the mouths of the

and the

, both of which empty into the harbor, to

Logan International Airport General Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport — also known as Boston Logan International Airport — is an international airport located mostly in East Boston and partially in Winthrop, Massachusetts, United States. Covering , it has ...

and Castle Island, the latter now connected by land in 1928 to Boston, where the inner harbor meets the outer harbor.

Outer Harbor

The outer harbor stretches to the south and east of the inner harbor. To its landward side, and moving in a

counterclockwise Two-dimensional rotation can occur in two possible directions or senses of rotation. Clockwise motion (abbreviated CW) proceeds in the same direction as a clock's hands relative to the observer: from the top to the right, then down and then to ...

direction, the harbor is made up of the three small bays of Dorchester Bay,

Quincy Bay Quincy Bay is the largest of the three small bays of southern Boston Harbor, part of Massachusetts Bay and forming much of the shoreline of the city of Quincy, Massachusetts. Locally in the Wollaston neighborhood of Quincy it is known as Wollaston ...

and

Hingham Bay Hingham Bay is the easternmost of the three small bays of outer Boston Harbor, part of Massachusetts Bay and forming the western shoreline of the town of Hull and the northern shoreline of Hingham in the United States state of Massachusetts. It ...

. To seaward, the two deep water anchorages of President Roads and Nantasket Roads are separated by

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

. The outer harbor is fed by several rivers, including the

, the

Weymouth Fore River Weymouth Fore River is a small bay or estuary in eastern Massachusetts and is part of the Massachusetts Bay drainage basin, watershed. The headwater of Weymouth Fore River is formed by the confluence of the Monatiquot River and Smelt Brook in the ...

, the

Weymouth Back River The Weymouth Back River, sometimes called Back River, is a short, primarily tidal river in Hingham and Weymouth, Massachusetts, about south of Boston. It arises from a number of tributaries in ponds and swamps, most notably Whitmans Pond, flows ...

and the Weir River. Dredged deep water channels stretch from President Roads to the inner harbor, and from Nantasket Roads to the Weymouth Fore River and Hingham Bay via Hull Gut and West Gut. Some commercial port facilities are located in the Fore River area, an area which has a history of

shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other Watercraft, floating vessels. In modern times, it normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation th ...

including the notable

Fore River Shipyard Fore River Shipyard was a shipyard owned by General Dynamics Corporation located on Weymouth Fore River in Braintree, Massachusetts, Braintree and Quincy, Massachusetts. It began operations in 1883 in Braintree, and moved to its final location on ...

Land fill

In the 1830s, members of the maritime community observed physical decay in the harbor. Islands in the outer harbor were visibly deteriorating and erosion was causing weathered materials and sediment to move from where it was protecting the harbor to where it would do the most harm. Recent shoaling experiences and comparisons with old charts caused observers to insist that the inner harbor was also filling and created widespread anxiety about the destruction of the Boston Harbor. Although the scientific understanding of hydraulics was still in its infancy and there were high degrees of uncertainty regarding the meeting of land and water, scientists and engineers began to describe the Boston Harbor as a series of channels created and maintained by the scouring force of water moving in and out of the harbor, river systems, and tidal reservoirs. This interpretation came to be known as the theory of

Tidal scour Tidal scour is "sea-floor erosion caused by strong tidal currents resulting in the removal of inshore sediments and formation of deep holes and channels". Examples of this hydrological process can be found globally. Two locations in the United St ...

. This understanding of the harbor as a dynamic landscape assuaged concerns some had over the negative impacts of land fill operations of land and real estate developers. As the 19th century progressed, the acceleration of urban growth dramatically increased the need for more land. The Ordinance of 1641 extended the property rights of riparian owners from the line of ''low tide'' to a maximum distance of from the line of high tide. Generally, other states drew the line of private property at ''high tide.'' However, extending shore lines into bordering bodies of water was not unique to Boston. Chicago built into Lake Michigan, New York extended itself into the Hudson and East rivers, and San Francisco reclaimed sections of its bay. The Boston Harbor's unique geography inspired the law that made land reclamation such a widespread activity in Boston. By the end of the nineteenth century, the city had created more land in two generations than it had in the previous two centuries.

Harbor Islands

Georges Island and Fort Warren in Boston Harbor

Boston Harbor contains a considerable number of islands, 34 of which have been part of the

Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park is a combination national recreation area and state park situated among the islands of Boston Harbor. The park is made up of 34 islands and peninsulas and is managed by the Boston Harbor Islands Pa ...

since its establishment in 1996. The following islands exist within the harbor, or just outside it in Massachusetts Bay: *

Bumpkin Island __NOTOC__ Bumpkin Island, also known as Round Island, Bomkin Island, Bumkin Island, or Ward's Island, is an island in the Hingham Bay area of the Boston Harbor. Bumpkin Island is part of Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park. The islan ...

* Button Island * Calf Island * Castle Island * Deer Island *

Gallops Island Gallops Island, also known as Gallups Island, is an island in the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. It is situated between Georges Island and Long Island, and is just over from downtown Boston. The island has a permanent size of , p ...

* Georges Island * Grape Island *

Great Brewster Island Great Brewster Island is one of the outer islands in the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area, situated some offshore of downtown Boston. The island has a permanent size of , plus an intertidal zone of a further . Unlike the other oute ...

* Green Island * Hangman Island * Langlee Island *

Little Brewster Island Little Brewster Island is a rocky outer island in the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. It is best known as the location of Boston Light, one of only five remaining Coast Guard-staffed lighthouses in the United States, and an importa ...

* Little Calf Island *

* Lovells Island *

Middle Brewster Island Middle Brewster Island is a rugged outer island in the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area, located offshore from downtown Boston. The island has a permanent size of , reaches a height of above sea level, and is bounded by sharp cliffs ...

* Moon Island * Nixes Mate *

Outer Brewster Island Outer Brewster Island, also known as Outward Island, is one of the outer islands in the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area and is situated some offshore of downtown Boston. The island has a permanent size of , and consists of exposed be ...

* Peddocks Island * Raccoon Island * Ragged Island * Rainsford Island * Sarah Island * Shag Rocks * Sheep Island *

Slate Island Slate Island is an uninhabited island of about (at high tide) in Hingham Bay, an arm of Boston Harbor. It is part of Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park and is just east of Grape Island (Massachusetts), Grape Island. The island mostly ...

* Snake Island * Spectacle Island * Spinnaker Island * The Graves * Thompson Island Two former islands, Castle Island and Deer Island, still exist in a recognizable form. Castle Island was joined to the mainland by

land reclamation Land reclamation, often known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new Terrestrial ecoregion, land from oceans, list of seas, seas, Stream bed, riverbeds or lake ...

, while Deer Island ceased to be an island when the channel which formerly separated it from the mainland was filled in by the

New England Hurricane of 1938 The 1938 New England Hurricane (also referred to as the Great Long Island - New England Hurricane and the Long Island Express) was one of the deadliest and most destructive tropical cyclones to strike the United States. The storm formed near th ...

. Nut Island is a small former island in Boston Harbor that was joined by landfill to the

Houghs Neck Houghs Neck is a one-square-mile (2.6 km2) peninsula in Quincy, Massachusetts. It is surrounded by Quincy Bay, Hingham Bay and Rock Island Cove. It is lined by Perry Beach, which runs along Manet Avenue; Nut Island, which is just beyond Gr ...

peninsula in northeastern Quincy by the 1940s so it could be used as the site of a sewage treatment facility. Two other former islands, Apple Island and

Governors Island Governors Island is a island in New York Harbor, within the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located approximately south of Manhattan Island, and is separated from Brooklyn to the east by the Buttermilk ...

, have been subsumed into land reclamation for

. The Harbor Islands have made up Boston's least populated electoral area, Ward 1, Precinct 15, since 1990, though the

polling place A polling place is where voters cast their ballots in elections. The phrase polling station is also used in American English, British English and Canadian English although a polling place is the building and polling station is the specific ...

is on the mainland at

Columbia Point Columbia Point is a high mountain summit of the Crestones in the Sangre de Cristo Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The thirteener is located east by south ( bearing 102°) of the Town of Crestone in Saguache County, Colora ...

. Since 1920, Boston must pass legislation to redistrict. As of 2018, there were two active voters, staff at the Thompson Island Outward Bound Educational Center. There were previously registered voters at a recovery center and a homeless shelter on Long Island, but few voted and they have closed.

Aquaculture

In 1996, ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

'' reported that Mayor

Thomas Menino Thomas Michael Menino (December 27, 1942 – October 30, 2014) was an American politician who served as the mayor of Boston, from 1993 to 2014. He was the city's longest-serving mayor. He was elected mayor in 1993 after first serving three mont ...

and

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

engineer Clifford Goudey were planning a program to use the great tanks on Moon Island as a fish farm or a temporary home for tuna or lobster in an attempt to implement a recirculating

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. Nelu ...

system in Boston Harbor.Marcus, John
"Scientists Test Once-Polluted Harbor’s Crop Potential"
Los Angeles Times, Sunday, January 11, 1998 The prices of both these fish types vary by season. The plan was to collect and store fish in the tanks and sell the fish at higher prices when they were out of season. Nothing has come of this plan to date.

Lights and other aids to navigation

Boston Light Boston Light is a lighthouse located on Little Brewster Island in outer Boston Harbor, Massachusetts. The first lighthouse to be built on the site dates back to 1716, and was the first lighthouse to be built in what is now the United States. The ...

Deer Island Light Deer Island Light is a lighthouse in Boston Harbor, Boston, Massachusetts. The actual light is above Mean High Water. Its alternating white and red light is visible for . The light is at the end of a reef that extends about south from Deer Isl ...

* Egg Rock Light * Long Island Head Light * Lovells Island Range Lights * Nixes Mate * Spectacle Island Range Lights * The Graves Light

Images

File:Boston ca1765 byJohnCarwitham.png, "South East View of the Great Town of Boston," by John Carwitham, c. 1765 File:View from beacon hill.jpg, View from Beacon Hill, c. 1770s (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington) File:Boston byNathanielDearborn MFABoston.png, Boston Harbor, c. 18th century, by Nathaniel Dearborn after

Paul Revere Paul Revere (; December 21, 1734 O.S. (January 1, 1735 N.S.)May 10, 1818) was an American silversmith, military officer and industrialist who played a major role during the opening months of the American Revolutionary War in Massachusetts, ...

(Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) File:1852 BoatRace BostonHarbor byAALawrence MFABoston.png, Boat Race, Boston Harbor, by A. A. Lawrence, 1852 (

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...

) File:Boston Harbor by Fitz Hugh Lane, 1854.jpg, Boston Harbor by

Fitz Hugh Lane Fitz Henry Lane (born Nathaniel Rogers Lane; also formerly, mistakenly, known as Fitz Hugh Lane; December 19, 1804 – August 14, 1865) was an American painter and printmaker of a style that would later be called Luminism, for its use of pervasi ...

, 1854 File:Boston harbor and East Boston from State St. block, by Soule, John P., 1827-1904 cropped.jpg, Boston harbor and East Boston from State Street Block, by John P. Soule, 19th century File:USS Constitution downtown Boston 2005.jpg,

USS Constitution USS ''Constitution'', also known as ''Old Ironsides'', is a Full-rigged ship, three-masted wooden-hulled heavy frigate of the United States Navy. She is the world's List of oldest surviving ships, oldest commissioned naval warship still afloat ...

, 2005 File:Boston from Spectacle Island.jpg, Boston's skyline from Spectacle Island File:Boston cruse terminal and Drydock No. 3, Oct 2019.agr.jpg, Container and cruse terminals and dry dock #3 in 2019

References

External links

Save the Harbor / Save the Bay

The Boston Harbor Association

NOAA Soundings Map of Boston Harbor

Flickr.com
Photos, January 2009.
Flickr.com
Photos, November 2009.
Flickr.com
Photos, February 2010. * Dutton, E.P
Chart of Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay with Map of Adjacent Country.
Published 1867. A good map of a proposed build-out of infrastructure into the Boston Harbor.
Judge A. David Mazzone chambers papers on the Boston Harbor Cleanup Case, 1985–2005
University Archives and Special Collections, Joseph P. Healey Library,

University of Massachusetts Boston The University of Massachusetts Boston (stylized as UMass Boston) is a Public university, public US-based research university. It is the only public research university in Boston and the third-largest campus in the five-campus University of Ma ...

{{Coord, 42, 20, 30, N, 70, 57, 58, W, display=title Bodies of water of Norfolk County, Massachusetts Bodies of water of Plymouth County, Massachusetts Bodies of water of Suffolk County, Massachusetts Geography of Boston Estuaries of Massachusetts Ports and harbors of Massachusetts