Last updated: February 26, 2025
Article
History of Dorchester Heights
Photo by Matt Teuten
Watching over South Boston, Dorchester Heights has witnessed moments of celebration and joy, tension and protest, commemoration and community. The Monument's steadfast presence during these moments shows that Boston remains ever evolving as its citizens continue to aspire towards the original ideals the first soldiers fought for at the Heights.
Thousands of Years in the Making
Dorchester Heights stands as a physical reminder of this area's geologic history. During the most recent glacial period 95,000 years ago, an ice sheet covered this region.
Archaeologists excavated this flake during a 1990s dig. BOSTD308
As the glacier melted and receded, it left behind debris, known as glacial till. The debris formed hills that we call drumlins. The Dorchester Peninsula, also known as Dorchester Neck, had two drumlins, one of which has since been cut down.[1] The remaining drumlin is today's Telegraph Hill.
Local Indigenous peoples lived in this region for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Indigenous Massachusett villages dotted the coastline, with the Neponset Band of the Massachusett residing on the Dorchester Peninsula. Just a half-mile northeast of Telegraph Hill, a freshwater spring on the peninsula, called "Mattapannock," served as a traditional meeting place and possible burial ground for local Native peoples.[2]
The 1600s brought English settlers to the area. They named Dorchester after a small Dorset town of the same name in the south of England. While the first houses on Dorchester Neck were built in the 1670s and 1680s, the peninsula remained primarily grazing land and pastures for the next century.[3]
America's War for Independence
Following the battles at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, colonists formed a New England army to surround and contain the British forces occupying Boston. Boston became the center of a developing war between rebelling colonists and British forces. The town was under siege for the next 11 months, until March 1776. Dorchester Heights played a pivotal role in bringing this siege to an end.
In June 1775, the Continental Congress appointed George Washington as Commander-in-Chief of the newly established Continental Army. As he made his way north to take command, news came about the bloody fighting outside Boston at Bunker Hill. Upon his arrival, Washington set up his headquarters in Cambridge, just west of Boston, and organized his army.[4] Over the next several months, Continental forces expanded defensive works to resist a potential British attack, while Washington and his generals considered options to dislodge the British from Boston.
"Gen. Washington's Revolutionary campaign war map : after a survey ordered by him showing the position of his army in defence of Boston, 1776..." Norman B. Leventhal Center Collection, Boston Public Library.
Preparing for Action
On November 16, 1775, Washington directed General Henry Knox to retrieve cannon from Fort Ticonderoga in New York. As he wrote to Knox, "the want of them is so great, that no trouble or expence [sic] must be spared to obtain them."[5] Following orders, Knox retrieved 59 cannon for the Continental Army. Writing to Washington, he planned to use "eighty yoke of Oxen" to make the 300-mile journey to Cambridge.[6] The arrival of Knox and the cannons in January 1776 greatly strengthened the Continental Army's artillery.
In addition to artillery, General Washington also needed as many reinforcements as possible to temporarily augment the Continental Army. Units from across New England formed and marched to Cambridge and Roxbury. These units consisted of Black and White soldiers, both new to service as well as seasoned veterans.[7] Luther Jotham, for example, was one of several soldiers of color who answered the call. From the town of Bridgewater, Jotham responded to the Alarm of April 19, 1775, and then served an enlistment in Roxbury in the autumn of 1775.
In February, Washington and his generals agreed to a strategy to finally dislodge the British from Boston. They recognized the strategic military advantage of fortifying Dorchester Heights, which overlooked Boston Harbor and the town from the south and east. But there was a challenge: how would the Army fortify the Heights undetected?
Using the additional artillery that Knox recovered, Washington ordered a large bombardment of Boston to divert the attention of British forces to the west of town. Finally, on the night of March 4, 1776, Washington directed General John Thomas and Colonel Richard Gridley, the chief engineer of the army, to fortify the Heights at Dorchester. Over 1,200 soldiers and volunteers and 360 oxcarts transported tools and materials to the site as stealthily as possible.[8]
After hours of hard work, Jotham's regiment relieved the forces in the newly constructed fort. As 2nd Lieutenant Isaac Bangs of another company in the regiment recalled in his diary:
Upon our Arrival upon the Hills (for We took possession of 2 by building Forts) I was prodigiously Surprised to find the Vast works that had been carried on in so little Time ...[9]
National Park Service/©Louis S. Glanzman
Evacuation of Boston
The dawn of March 5, 1776 – the 6-year anniversary of the Boston Massacre – revealed to everyone what the Continental forces achieved overnight. A fortification with cannon towered over Boston, as well as the only shipping routes out of the Harbor. British General William Howe commented, "My God, these fellows have done more work in one night than I could make my army do in three months."[10] Howe planned an attack in response to this aggressive act by the colonial forces, yet a storm prevented an immediate response. Having been surrounded by Washington's army, Howe recognized he was at a military disadvantage and determined to remove his troops from the city. On March 17, 1776, British forces evacuated Boston, along with over a thousand colonial Loyalists.[11]
This quiet military operation on Dorchester Heights not only led to the evacuation of British troops, but also effectively ended the Siege of Boston. After marching into Boston on March 18, Washington prepared to move his army to New York, anticipating the focus of the war to shift there.
"Boston from Dorchester Heights, 1836." Boston Public Library.
Thomas Park
Over the decades following the war, the uses of Dorchester Heights shifted from a fortification to a community space.
Shortly after the end of the Siege of Boston in 1776, Chief Engineer and Colonel Richard Gridley reconstructed the fortification into a star shape to better defend against a future attack.[12] During the War of 1812, U.S. forces refortified the site, however, British forces did not attack Boston. Over time, the fort degraded, leaving remnants into the mid-1800s.[13]
In the late 1840s, the growing community in the South Boston neighborhood of Boston called upon the city to improve city services for local residents, which included better access to water and more public spaces. The city selected Telegraph Hill as a site to build both a reservoir and a park.[14] The city of Boston constructed Thomas Park between 1852 and 1854. This 5.43-acre park became one of the first public parks in the city.[15] Its original elliptical-shaped plan still stands today.
"Evacuation Day celebrations." Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.
Evacuation Day
By the late 1800s, the growing population of South Boston needed its own high school. Local officials chose the now decommissioned reservoir as the new location for the school. This decision caused an uproar for many long-standing Bostonian families with ties to the Revolution. They felt the largely Irish immigrant families in South Boston did not fully appreciate the significance of Dorchester Heights, and they feared the events of March 1776 would be forgotten if the site was developed.
The communities settled on a compromise: the City of Boston would build a much-needed high school on Telegraph Hill while also approving a new monument and establishing a holiday called "Evacuation Day" to mark the historical significance of Dorchester Heights in the Siege of Boston.[16]
"South Boston, Massachusetts. Thomas Park and Evacuation Monument, Dorchester Heights." ca. 1902-1920. Boston Public Library.
The Monument
One hundred years after the fortification of Dorchester Heights and Evacuation Day, the community held a memorial to recognize this significant moment in the site's history.[17] Initially the community installed a granite Centennial Monument in 1877. However, in the 1890s local residents called for "a more substantial monument."[18] This led to a design competition for a new monument. Boston architectural firm Peabody & Stearns won this contest and in 1901 constructed the 115-foot-tall marble commemorative tower.[19] Dedicated on March 17, 1902, the Georgian Revival Style tower commemorates the fortification of Dorchester Heights during the Revolutionary War, which led to the British evacuation of the city.[20]
South Boston High School
Herbert E. Glasier, City of Boston Archives.
Seventy years after the compromise to build a neighborhood high school, Telegraph Hill once again became a battleground over access to education. On September 12, 1974, buses filled with Black students arrived at South Boston High School. Court-ordered desegregation reassigned these students to this school.
A divided Boston was split between those who wanted students to access equitable education and those who wanted to keep students in their neighborhood schools. Here in South Boston, some residents protested this court order, upset that their children were taken outside of their community without their consent, and against Black students coming to their neighborhood. Opponents to busing reactivated the park by gathering to protest desegregation.
Preserving the Site
Throughout the 1900s, community members and local leaders sought to protect and preserve the site due to its historical significance and value to the local community. In 1951, the Secretary of the Interior and the Mayor of Boston announced the designation of Dorchester Heights as a National Historic Site. About twenty-seven years later, in 1978, Dorchester Heights National Historic Site joined Boston National Historical Park, with the transfer of ownership occurring in 1980.[21] Today, the National Parks of Boston continues to steward Dorchester Heights.
Photo by Matt Teuten
To learn more about the history and legacy of this local and national site, explore the articles and digital content on the Dorchester Heights webpage.
Footnotes
[1] "Cultural Landscape Report: Dorchester Heights / Thomas Park, Boston National Historical Park," Danielle D. Desilets, RLA (Historic Landscape Architect, Kyle Zick Landscape Architecture, Inc.) and Cynthia Zaitzevsky, Historian, 2020, NPGallery, 24-26.
[2] "Cultural Landscape Report: Dorchester Heights / Thomas Park, Boston National Historical Park," 30.
[3] "Cultural Landscape Report: Dorchester Heights / Thomas Park, Boston National Historical Park," 31.
[4] "Cultural Landscape Report: Dorchester Heights / Thomas Park, Boston National Historical Park," 33.
[5] "Instructions to Colonel Henry Knox, 16 November 1775," Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-02-02-0351. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 2, 16 September 1775 – 31 December 1775, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1987, pp. 384–385.]
[6] "To George Washington from Colonel Henry Knox, 17 December 1775," Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-02-02-0521-0001. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 2, 16 September 1775 – 31 December 1775, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1987, pp. 563–565.]; "Cultural Landscape Report: Dorchester Heights / Thomas Park, Boston National Historical Park," 38-39.
[7] Robert K. Wright Jr., The Continental Army (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, U.S. Army , 1983) 55-56; "Cultural Landscape Report: Dorchester Heights / Thomas Park, Boston National Historical Park," 238.
[8] "Cultural Landscape Report: Dorchester Heights / Thomas Park, Boston National Historical Park," 40-41; "Letter from Gen. John Thomas to Hannah Thomas, 9 March 1776," Collections Online, Massachusetts Historical Society, accessed January 29, 2025, MHS Collections Online.
[9] "Isaac Bangs journal, 1776," Collections Online, Massachusetts Historical Society, page 8, accessed January 29, 2025, MHS Collections Online.
[10] David McCullough, 1776 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), 93.
[11] "Cultural Landscape Report: Dorchester Heights / Thomas Park, Boston National Historical Park," 42; Richard Frothingham, History of the siege of Boston (Boston: C. C. Little and J. Brown, 1851), 309, Internet Archive.
[12] "Cultural Landscape Report: Dorchester Heights / Thomas Park, Boston National Historical Park," 44-46.
[13] "Cultural Landscape Report: Dorchester Heights / Thomas Park, Boston National Historical Park," 49-51.
[14] "National Park Service Cultural Landscapes Inventory: Dorchester Heights National Historic Site," Boston NHP - Dorchester Heights, 2010 https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/DownloadFile/449583, 33; "Cultural Landscape Report: Dorchester Heights / Thomas Park, Boston National Historical Park," 63-65.
[15] "Nation Park Service Cultural Landscapes Inventory: Dorchester Heights National Historic Site," 3; "Cultural Landscape Report: Dorchester Heights / Thomas Park, Boston National Historical Park," 240.
[16] National Park Service, "Evacuation Day," interpretive wayside, in "National Park Service Cultural Landscapes Inventory: Dorchester Heights National Historic Site," 205.
[17] "National Park Service Cultural Landscapes Inventory: Dorchester Heights National Historic Site," 2.
[18] "National Park Service Cultural Landscapes Inventory: Dorchester Heights National Historic Site," 2.
[19] "National Park Service Cultural Landscapes Inventory: Dorchester Heights National Historic Site," 2.
[20] "Cultural Landscape Report: Dorchester Heights / Thomas Park, Boston National Historical Park," 241.
[21] "Cultural Landscape Report: Dorchester Heights / Thomas Park, Boston National Historical Park," 107, 131.
Sources and Related Materials
- "Cultural Landscape Report: Dorchester Heights / Thomas Park, Boston National Historical Park." Danielle D. Desilets, RLA (Historic Landscape Architect, Kyle Zick Landscape Architecture, Inc.) and Cynthia Zaitzevsky, Historian, 2020. NPGallery.
- Frothingham, Richard. History of the siege of Boston. Boston: C. C. Little and J. Brown, 1851. Archive.org.
- "Instructions to Colonel Henry Knox, 16 November 1775," Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-02-02-0351. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 2, 16 September 1775 – 31 December 1775, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1987, pp. 384–385.]
- "Isaac Bangs journal, 1776." Collections Online, Massachusetts Historical Society. Page 8. Accessed January 29, 2025, MHS Collections Online.
- "Letter from Gen. John Thomas to Hannah Thomas, 9 March 1776." Collections Online. Massachusetts Historical Society. Accessed January 29, 2025. MHS Collections Online.
- McCullough, David. 1776. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005.
- Millman, Amy. "National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form Dorchester Heights." National Park Service. NPGallery.
- "Nation Park Service Cultural Landscapes Inventory: Dorchester Heights National Historic Site," Boston NHP - Dorchester Heights, 2010. https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/DownloadFile/449583.
- "Park Archives: Boston National Historical Park." NPS History. Accessed February 16, 2022. Park Archives.
- Stockwell, Mary. "Siege of Boston." George Washington's Mount Vernon. Accessed February, 14, 2022. Siege of Boston · George Washington's Mount Vernon. https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/siege-of-boston/.
- "To George Washington from Colonel Henry Knox, 17 December 1775," Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-02-02-0521-0001. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 2, 16 September 1775 – 31 December 1775, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1987, pp. 563–565.]