Roxbury history

On the morning of Oct. 4, 1703, Thomas Bedunah and Lydia Craft made the four-mile trek from Roxbury to the Boston home of Justice of the Peace Samuel Sewall, the one man they trusted would agree to marry an interracial couple.

A new report about the First Church of Roxbury, released Monday, brings new historical perspective about the presence of people of color and enslaved people in colonial Massachusetts.

Thanksgiving is a special holiday when families gather to celebrate their good fortune. This practice acknowledges the safe arrival of the Pilgrims in Plymouth in 1620. But this year will be different. The Covid-19 pandemic prevents groups of people, even relatives, from assembling too closely.

In the middle of bucolic 1700s Roxbury sat Shirley Place, a royal governor’s mansion visited by Boston elites. Nearly three centuries later, a carriage house reflective of Roxbury’s transportation in the 1800s was relocated to the site as an addition to the property and has been maintained by The Shirley-Eustis House Association (SEHA) ever since.

Roxbury residents share reminiscences of growing up in a tight-knit community where neighbors looked out for each other.

Roxbury retains historical buildings and sites going back to its founding in the early 17th century.

In 1630 this area was part of the settlement of Roxbury It was so named because of the natural rocky surface filled with a rock called puddingstone. The original boundaries of Roxbury included the present day Fenway, Jamaica Plain, Mission Hill, Roslindale and West Roxbury neighborhoods.

You can see its pointed, pencil-shaped top from Columbus Avenue and Ruggles Street, from Roxbury Crossing and from Jackson Square. The Standpipe is a brick and stone structure rising 133 feet above the ground. It sits right in the middle of Roxbury High Fort in the Highland Park section of Roxbury.