Winthrop, Massachusetts

The Town of Winthrop is a municipality in Suffolk County, Massachusetts. It is an oceanside suburban community in the Greater Boston area, situated at the north entrance to Boston Harbor, close to Logan International Airport. The town is on a peninsula, 1.6 square miles (4.2 km2) in area, connected to Revere by a narrow isthmus and to East Boston by a bridge over the harbor inlet to the Belle Isle Marsh Reservation. Settled in 1630, Winthrop is one of the oldest communities in the United States. It is also one of the smallest and most densely populated municipalities in Massachusetts.

The town is named after John Winthrop (1587-1649), second governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and an English Puritan leader. On 8 April 1630, Winthrop departed from the Isle of Wight, England on the ship Arbella, arriving in Salem in June where he was met by John Endecott, the first governor of the colony. Winthrop served as governor for 12 of the colony’s first 20 years of existence.

The town of Winthrop is divided into several neighborhoods around the downtown area, including Court Park and Cottage Park along the Boston Harbor side of town, Point Shirley and Cottage Hill on either side of what was Shirley Gut and Winthrop Beach, Ocean Spray and Winthrop Heights on the Massachusetts Bay side. By land, Winthrop is 5.5 miles (8.9 km) from Beacon Hill, the measuring point for all road signs in Massachusetts.