South Boston Harbor III
South Boston Harbor III
The population in Boston rapidly expanded in the 1840s. Between 1840
and 1850, Boston's population grew from 93,383 to 136,881, due in large
part to a spurt of Irish immigrants leaving Ireland during the Potato Famine.
Boston needed more land for housing and so began the development of
the South End and the filling of the South Bay flats. The flats had long been
the dumping grounds of raw sewage, making the flats a ripe place for land
development. The 1852 map below depicts the South Boston Harbor right
before the city's next wave of land-making projects.
