1815–1891
1815
Gale destroys elm trees planted at the site of the Old North Meeting House.
1824
Wood Lane renamed Richmond Street
1828
The Port Society for the City of Boston founds a Seamen's Bethel "for the moral and religious instruction of seamen" in the old Methodist chapel in Methodist Alley near North Square. The Rev. Edward Thompson Taylor, a former sailor, is hired as preacher.
1832
The Kimble House on Moon Street is demolished, and is replaced by a tobacco warehouse.
1833
Seamen's Bethel (present day Sacred Heart Church) constructed by the Boston Port Society. The Bethel includes a reading room for self-improvement, a school for sailors (navigation) and a union to hear grievances against masters and owners of vessels. The Seamen's Aid Society is founded by Sarah Josepha Hale and a number of other society ladies of Boston to assist the wives and daughters of sailors while their husbands and fathers are away at sea.
1834
Hutchinson mansion, on Garden Court Street, is taken down. Store opened on the ground floor of the Bethel to sell goods made by seamen's wives and daughters.
1836
Free school for seamen's daughters established at the Bethel - academic subjects and needlework are taught.
1838
The firm of James Martin and Son established. The company manufactures awnings, flags, tents, sails and horse goods at its factory aI89-97 Richmond Street.
1845
Irish immigrants, driven out of their homeland by successive years of partial or complete failures of the potato crop, begin to arrive in large numbers. Unitarians build new church on the site of the New Brick (Cockerel) Church. Ward 2 (eastern half of the North End) averages 1j .19 inhabitants per house (10.57 city wide).
1847
Martner's House moves from rented quarters to a new building on North Square on March 24. Founded ten years earlier, the Marirrer's House provides temporary lodging for sailors waiting to ship out. The new building includes a store, smoking and reading room, and a chapel. c. 1848 North End Mission opens at 201 North Street to provide food and clothing for the poor.
1849
Cholera devastates the North End and other sections of the city. Mortality is especially high in the Irish districts, forcing the city to appoint a committee to investigate the causes of the epidemic. The committee recommends tearing down the worst tenements and slums, and cleansing the streets with water piped in from the suburbs.
1850s
Jewish immigrants begin settling in the North End.
1860s
Many Scandinavians, mostly transient sailors, live in boarding houses in or near North Square.
1860s
St. John’s Hall on Moon Street serves as a social club for Irish immigrants.
1862
James Fitzgerald, the uncle of John F. "Honey Fitz', Fitzgerald (grandfather of President John F. Kennedy) purchases a grocery store at 310 North Street.
1869
"Great Gale" of September damages the Old Cockerel Church on Hanover Street, blowing down its gilded rooster weather vane.
1870s
A cholera epidemic sweeps through the North End. Portuguese immigrants begin to settle in the neighborhood. Many are from the Azores, a group of islands in the center of the Atlantic Ocean dependent on Portugal.
1871
The Unitarian Church, on the site of the old Cockerel Church, is torn down for the widening of Hanover Street.
1873
The "Cockerel" weathervane purchased by the First Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1870s and 1880s
Italian immigrants, primarily from northern Italy, begin to settle in the North End.
1870s
Hotel Sorrenro is constructed at the corner of North Street and North Square (now Rachel Revere Park).
1882
John F. "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, later the first American born Irish mayor of Boston, works as a tour guide in the North End.
1883
Rev. Soloman E. Breen of the Mariner's House on North Square reports that there were over 140 rum shops in the small area bounded by Hanover, Richmond, North and Clark Streets.
1884
Seamen’s Bethel sold to an Italian religious organization, the Societa Cattolica Italiana di San Marco (Society of St. Mark's).
1885
Matthew Keany, the Irish "boss" of the North End, owns a grocery store at One Prince Street.
1888
The former Seamen’s Bethel remodeled as the Sacred Heart Church.
1889
"Honey Fitz" and his bride, Mary Josephine Hannon, move to 4 Garden Court Street.
1890
Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald, later Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, born at 4 Garden Court Street.
1891
Records indicate that 154 families in the North End are living in one-room flats.