John Eliot Square
by Marcia Butman, Discover Roxbury
JOHN ELIOT SQUARE is named after John Eliot, the second minister of the First Church in
Roxbury and best known as “the Apostle to the Indians.” Eliot translated the Bible into the Massachusetts
language and spent most of his life converting the native people, mostly of the Massachusetts
and Nipmuc tribes, to the Puritan faith.
Eliot Square was first settled by Europeans in 1630, when members of the Massachusetts Bay
Company, under the leadership of William Pynchon moved to Roxbury. The first homes were
clustered around the meetinghouse (built in 1632), in what is now known as Eliot Square.
Roxbury was located right at the end of Boston Neck; anyone going to or coming from Boston by
land had to travel through Roxbury. The parting stone still standing at the west end of Eliot Square
was placed there by Chief Justice Paul Dudley in 1740 as a marker for travelers going to Cambridge
and Watertown (to the northwest) and to Dedham and Rhode Island (to the southwest).
The area around Dudley Square became the center of commerce for Roxbury, while John Eliot
Square was the institutional and governmental heart of the town. Until Roxbury was annexed by
Boston in 1868, the Roxbury Town Hall was located in Eliot Square, on Putnam Street.
During the siege of Boston (1775-1776), Eliot Square was a focal point for the almost 5000 patriot
troops camped in Roxbury, guarding the only land route out of Boston. The church green functioned
as a parade ground and officers were housed in the residences around Eliot Square. The two
forts in Roxbury, the lower fort and the Roxbury High Fort, were vital links in the ring of patriot
forts and redoubts surrounding the British who spent from April 1775-March of 1776 trapped on
the Shawmut peninsula.
A description of the camp gives a vivid picture of Eliot Square in 1775. “It is very diverting to walk
among the camps. They are as different in their form as the owners are in their dress, and every tent
is portraiture of the temper and taste of the person who encamp in it. Some are made of boards,
and some of sail cloth; some partly of one and partly of the other. Again, others are made of stone
and turf, brick or brush, some are thrown up in a hurry, others cunningly wrought with doors and
windows, done with wreaths and withes in the manner of a basket.” (William Emerson quoted in
Francis Drake, History of Roxbury.)
Eliot Square suffered considerable destruction during the siege of Boston, both from the exchange
of fire between the British and the patriots and from the military encampment of the area. Trees
and houses were town down to use for firewood and shelter for the patriot troops. Most residents
fled the area and moved to safer territory outside of Boston.
“Nothing had prepared me with more horror than the present condition of Roxbury; that once busy street is now occupied only by a piquet-guard. The houses are deserted, the windows taken out, and many shot-holes visible; some have burnt and others pulled down to make room for fortifications.” (Jeremy Belknap in Richard Frothingham, History of the Siege of Boston.)
After the revolution, Eliot Square went through a period of rebuilding and new development: the
5th building of the First Church in Roxbury, the Spooner Lambert House, Ionic Hall and later the
Norfolk House, a public house and hotel frequented by travelers to and from Boston. The Norfolk
House ran horse cars from down town Boston to John Eliot Square.
John Eliot Square and Highland Park, the area south of Eliot Square and up the hill developed
together: first farmland, then estates and then wealthier suburban dwellings with a rich diversity
of architectural styles. In the 20th century multiple unit buildings were added to the mix to accommodate
the need for more affordable housing.
The population of the Eliot Square/Highland Park area was predominantly Puritan and then Yankee
until the last part of the 19th century, when Irish, Jewish, Italians and Latvian immigrants (to
name a few) also moved into the area. In the 20th century African Americans became the predominant
group living in Highland Park.
A series of fires in the 1970’s contributed to the neglect and disinvestment in the community. Efforts
by the Roxbury Action Program and other community groups helped turn the tide and today
the area is looking beautiful. It is home to both long time African American and white residents
and to a new influx of both blacks and whites who value the area for its convenience, beauty and
built environment. Preservation, gentrification and affordable housing are the main issues facing
Eliot Square and Highland Park in the 21st century.