BOSTON 124 BOSTON park system. There are within the city limits 24 large parks and 42 separate playgrounds, with a total of 327 acres. There are in addition 14 playgrounds and parks with an area of 155 acres. There are also 75 smaller parks and squares, making a total of 2,688.5 acres. The cost of the main park system from 1877 is $11,788,065. The largest park is Frank- lin Park, named for Benjamin Frank- lin, containing 527 acres, of which about 80 are occupied by the zoological gar- dens. There are also within the city lim- its 958 acres of metropolitan parks and parkways under State control, the larg- est of which is Stony Brook Reservation in West Roxbury. The most noted parks within the city limits are the Common and the Public Garden. These contain many memorials, including statues of Washington, Edward Everett, and others. The school system has always been noted for its excellence. Boston spent more per capita for school purposes than any other city in the United States. There is an extensive system of kinder- garten and primary grade schools, be- sides a large number of secondary schools. There were in 1920, 264 perma- nent school buildings, and 137 portable houses. There were 3,413 teachers in all the schools. The number of pupils regis- tered in the day schools in 1919 was 122,- 452, in the evening schools 8,260, and in the continuation schools were registered 9,651. The valuation of the school prop- erty was $27,670,000, and the cost of maintenance was $7,373,499. The insti- tutions for higher education in the city included Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology, Boston University, the New Eng- land Conservatory of Music, and Sim- mons College and Boston College. Within the metropolitan area are Harvard Uni- versity and Tufts College. Among the notable and historical buildings in the city are the State House on Beacon Hill, the Boston Atheneum on Beacon street, a Masonic temple on the corner of Tre- mont and Boylston streets, the Public Library in Copley Square, and the Mu- seum of Fine Arts in Copley Square. The Public Library is one of the largest and best equipped in the United States. It 3ontained in 1920 1,197,498 volumes, of which about 300,000 were in the branch libraries. The city is well equipped with theaters and other public buildings. There were in 1919 39 theaters. The Mechanics' Building on Huntington ave- nue seats 4,350 people, the Boston Opera House 3,000, the Symphony Hall 2,569, and Tremont Temple 2,441. Among the buildings which date from colonial times and are of great historical Talue are Faneuil Hall, known as the cradle of liberty, and erected in 1742; the Old State House, erected in 1748; the Old South Church, the Old North Church, and Kings Chapel. The city has excellent transportation facilities, which include surface? under- ground, and elevated railroads. The Tre- mont street subway, opened in 1897, was the first municipal subway in the United States. There are now completed the East Boston tunnel, Washington street tunnel, the Cambridge connection sub- way, the Boylston street subway, the East Boston tunnel extension, and the Dorchester tunnel. The total approxi- mate cost of all subways and tunnels is $36,000,000. There are 345 churches of all denomi- nations, including Roman Catholic, 65; Jewish, 38; Baptist, 35; Congregational, 36; Unitarian, 24; Methodist Episcopal, 31; Protestant Episcopal, 36; Lutheran, 12; and Presbyterian, 11. The mother church of the Christian Scientists is lo- cated in Boston and is one of the most beautiful structures in the city. There were in 1920 15 National banks, with an aggregate capital of $28,959,000. There were also 30 trust companies with a capital of $26,901,100. The total re- sources of the National banks were $601,- 284,213. There were 24 savings banks with deposits of $341,215,952. The city is the seat of a branch of the Federal Reserve Bank. The net funded debt of the city in 1919 was $82,287,030. The tax rate was $2.12. Boston was settled in 1630 by a party of Puritans from Salem. It was named after a town in Lincolnshire, England, from which most of the colonists had come. In 1632 the first meeting house was erected, and in 1635 a public school was built. In the same year the first grand jury in the country met here. A memorable massacre occurred here in 1770, and in 1773 several cargoes of Eng- lish tea were thrown overboard in the harbor by citizens exasperated by the imposition of taxes. During the early part of the Revolution the British were quartered in the town. The battle of Bunker Hill was fought on Breed's Hill, within the present city limits, June 17, 1775. Washington forced the British to evacuate in 1776. The city charter was granted in 1822, and in 1872 a great fire broke out in the business portion of the city and destroyed about 65 acres of buildings. This part of the city was soon rebuilt, and, since then, Boston has been one of the most prosperous cities in the United States. BOSTON, a seaport in Lincolnshire, England, 107 miles N. E. of London. Its name is a contraction of Botolph's town,
