The Blake House - 350 years!

Boston's oldest house, The Blake House (1661), is owned and operated by the Dorchester Historical Society, and they are having a big party! Join in the festivities tomorrow! Follow this link for details!

Boston Archaeology Lab Open House Oct. 1

Come on Friday between 3 and 6 PM to thank Ellen Berkland - the Dorchester Historical Society's long-time resident caretaker at the Blake House - for her fifteen years as Boston's City Archaeologist.

surprising facts about Dorchester

Inspired by the more constructive tone of my fellow Dorchesterites on lowerdot, I am breathing deeply and concentrating on figuring out new ways to respond to infuriating and/or inaccurate comments about my adopted community. rather than attempts to be scathing. which often doesn't come across well.
now, I just read [on about.com] that the North End is Boston's oldest neighborhood.
but - Boston has grown over the years, through cutting down hills to fill in wetlands and through annexation of several separate towns. One of these towns was Dorchester, a large town founded several months prior to Boston in 1630, prospering for 240 years, then annexed to Boston in 1870.
So the North End may be said to be the oldest part of the original Boston peninsula, the boundaries of which also contain Chinatown, part of Beacon Hill and Washington Street.
but Dorchester is Boston's oldest neighborhood.

oh, and by the way, the James Blake House (built 1661) at the intersection of Columbia Road and Pond Street in Dorchester is the oldest in the city of Boston.