Maverick Square

Maverick Square is a section of the neighborhood of East Boston in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is East Boston's oldest commercial center.^[1] At the heart of the square is Maverick Station, which is part of the Blue Line of the MBTA. The square is named after Samuel Maverick, one of the earliest colonists of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.^[2]

Maverick Square occupies land that was originally part of Noddle's Island. In 1833, General William H. Sumner and other investors formed the East Boston Company to develop the island for residential and industrial use; steam ferry service began from Maverick Square to Rowe's Wharf on the mainland of Boston.^[3] To encourage tourism, the Company built a wharf and the Maverick House, an 80-room luxury hotel (1835). In 1840, the Cunard transatlantic mail service established its terminus at the East Boston wharf. The waterfront became a hub of shipbuilding in the 1850's, with various industries and warehouses along the water's edge, while Maverick Square became the commercial and banking center.^[4] Historic buildings around Maverick Square include the 1835-1837 Fettyplace-Thorndike House (47 Maverick Square), the 1835 Joshua Pollard House (33 Maverick Square), and the 1841 Woodbury Building (191-201 Sumner Street).^[5]

In 2010, a revitalization of Maverick Square began.

The nearby Maverick public housing project – once a source of urban blight that gave the area the reputation as the most crime-ridden in the neighborhood – has been redeveloped by Trinity Financial and the East Boston Community Development Corporation. The razing of crime-ridden high-rises, reintroduction of the urban street grid removed in the 1940s, and construction of individual homes with privates access, combined with mixed-income home ownership, contribute to the area's revitalization.