Washington Street in Boston was the first street to be named for George Washington, and represents his route of march into Boston following the British evacuation in 1776.  Before it received its present name, it had various names in different parts.  At present the street runs through to Pawtucket, the name of Washington Street applying to the whole Massachusetts portion.  The couple of miles in Rhode Island bears the name of Broadway, and the Pawtucket terminus of the street is named Times Square.

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        From farthest Readville to the marshes east of Suffolk Downs―both in the official Boston city limits―the distance is a full thirteen miles.

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        The most popular county in Massachusetts is not Suffolk, where Boston is located.  It is Middlesex, which includes much of the residential area of the Great Metropolis, as well as a large proportion of the metropolitan industries.  Middlesex was the starting point of the American Revolution (Paul Revere’s ride through Middlesex is well known).  Its population is now over a million.

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        Boston’s largest acquisition of territory at a single time was in the election of October 7, 1873, when legislative acts were voted on by the municipalities concerned, purporting to annex Brookline, Brighton, Charlestown and West Roxbury to Boston.  These acts of annexation were accepted by Charlestown, Brighton and West Roxbury, which thereby became part of Boston; but Brookline maintained its independence, rejecting all entangling alliances.  The result was that Brighton, while annexed to Boston, was separated from the rest of Boston by a mile width of Brookline territory.  The following year the legislature solved this mixup by arbitrarily annexing to Boston a connecting strip taken from Brookline.  Thus Cottage Farm became part of Boston, and Brookline lost its frontage on the Charles.

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