Roxbury Maps

Click on each image to enlarge.

Founded by English colonists in 1630, Roxbury began as an independent community, connected to Boston only by a narrow neck of land along Washington Street. Today, after massive landfill and annexation to Boston, Roxbury is at the city's geographical center and contains buildings and landmarks that tell the story of three centuries. Even with dense urban development, Roxbury still has much open, green space, a legacy of its days as a farming town and as an early suburb. This map collection illustrates Roxbury as it once was, its current state, and what could have been.

A moden map can be downloaded here.

Map 1: New England, John Smith (1635)

Map 2: A New Survey of the harbor of Boston in NE, George Grierson (1749)

Map 3: “A map of the most inhabited part of New England…”, Thomas Jeffreys (1774)

Map 4: “Boston Harbor, Nachant Bay, Nantasket Road, Broad Sound &c., Joseph F.W. Des Barres (1775)

Map 5: “Carte du port et harve de Boston avec les côtes adjacentes…”, Jean de Beaurain (1776)

Map 6: Patriot and British routes on April 18 -19, 1775

Paul Revere and William Dawes: Patriot messengers

Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith and Earl Hugh Percy: British officers

From: America Rebels. A Boston Globe Centennial Publication

Map 7: “Boston” -- T. G. (Thomas Gamaliel) Bradford (1838)

Map 8: Map of the Vicinity of Boston, Unknown (1849)

Map 9: Map of Boston and its Vicinity from Actual Survey, John G. Hales (1819?)

Map 10: Map of the Vicinity of Boston, Massachusetts, J.C. Sidney and J.B. Shields (1853)

This map illustrates the location of the border between the City of Roxbury and the Town of West Roxbury after West Roxbury became an independent town in 1851.

Map 11: Boston and adjacent cities, J.H. Colton (1855)

Map 12: Roxbury Towne 1640, drawn by Richard Heath from Drake, Francis. The Town of Roxbury Its Memorable Person and Places, Boston Municipal Printing Office (1908)

Map 13: Map of Boston– Boston Directory: Sampson, Davenport, & Co. (1883)

Map 14: Proposed Southwest Expressway & Inner Belt highways (circa 1962)

Map 15: Proposed design for the Metro Boston highway system (circa 1962)

Map 16: Roxbury Strategic Master Plan, Boston Redevelopment Authority (2004)

Unless otherwise stated all maps courtesy of the Norman Leventhal Map Center, Boston Public Library.

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