Charlestown was laid out in 1629 by engineer Thomas Graves, one of its earliest settlers, during the reign of Charles I of England.

A mix of yuppie and upper-middle-class gentrification has influenced much of the area, as it has in many of Boston's neighborhoods, but Charlestown still maintains a strong Irish-American population.

Today Charlestown is a largely residential neighborhood, with much housing near the waterfront, overlooking the Boston skyline.

Charlestown is home to many historic sites, hospitals and organizations, with access from the Orange Line Sullivan Square or Community College stops or the I-93 expressway.

They were given a grant by Sir Robert Gorges, with whom they had settled at Wessagusset (Weymouth) in September 1623 and arrived at what they called Mishawaum in 1624.

John Endicott, first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, sent William, Richard and Ralph Sprague to Mishawaum to lay out a settlement.

Thomas Walford, acting as an interpreter with the Massachusett Indians, negotiated with the local sachem Wonohaquaham for Endicott and his people to settle there.

Although Walford had a virtual monopoly on the region's available furs, he welcomed the newcomers and helped them in any way he could, unaware that his Episcopalian religious beliefs would cause him to be banished from Massachusetts to Portsmouth, New Hampshire within three years.

Originally a Puritan English city during the Colonial era, Charlestown proper was founded in 1628 and settled July 4, 1629, by Thomas Graves, Increase Nowell, Simon Hoyt, the Rev.

John Winthrop's company stopped here for some time in 1630, before deciding to accept the invitation of William Blaxton to settle across the Charles River with him on the Shawmut peninsula.

British troops unloaded at Moulton's Point[3] and much of the battle took place on Breed's Hill, which overlooked the harbor from about 400 yards off the southern end of the peninsula.

[3] The town was not appreciably rebuilt until the end of hostilities but, in 1786, the first bridge across the Charles River connected Boston with Charlestown.

[3] The Bunker Hill Monument was erected between 1827 and 1843 using Quincy granite brought to the site by a combination of purpose-built railway and barge.

[13] In 1963, the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) held a town meeting to discuss their development plans with the community.

Drawn to its proximity to downtown and its colonial, red-brick, row-house housing stock, similar to that of Beacon Hill, many yuppie and upper-middle-class professionals moved to the neighborhood.

the neighborhood is a mix of yuppies, upper-middle-class and middle-class residents, housing projects, and a large working-class Irish-American demographic and culture that is still predominant.

Major institutions include Bunker Hill Community College, Spaulding Rehabilitation Center, and a facility of Massachusetts General Hospital.

The Navy Yard, home to USS Constitution, is now part of the Boston National Historical Park, which marks the southern edge of the neighborhood.

The Central Artery North Area (CANA) project moved these underground, into the City Square Tunnel, making way for a revitalized surface park.

A small portion of Charlestown is north of the Mystic River, containing the northern approach to the Malden Bridge and now the entrance to Encore Boston Harbor (which made jurisdiction over the casino a matter of dispute).

[17] This boundary was part of the original 1649 separation of Malden from Charlestown, where the Penny Ferry[18] operated at the time; the first bridge opened on the site in 1787.

[20][21] Charlestown has many places of historical interest, some of which are included along the northern end of Boston's Freedom Trail.

Charlestown was also the location from which Paul Revere began his famous "midnight ride" before the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

It was Warren who directed Paul Revere and William Dawes to send the message to Samuel Adams and John Hancock that the British were setting out to raid the town of Concord.

According to the 2012–2016 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, the largest ancestry groups in ZIP Code 02129 are:[26][24] The Massachusetts Department of Correction operated the Charlestown State Prison from 1805 until its closure in 1955.

The sole city-owned road linking the neighborhood Charleston with Downtown Boston is North Washington Street to the Southwest.

The train transportation is the MBTA Orange Line, the Community College station, located near Bunker Hill Community College and serves the center of the town; and the Sullivan Square station, located on what was once a narrow neck of land referred to as the Charlestown Neck.