The Public Garden is a historic botanical garden next to Boston Common. Many people like to ride the boats that look like swans on the lake in the Public Garden.

Boston’s Neighborhood Are Like Small Cities

Boston has neighborhoods with names like Back Bay, North End, South Boston and Roxbury.

Many people of Italian ancestry live in North End. This area is along the waterfront. Ships brought large numbers of immigrants to Boston from southern and eastern Europe between 1880 and 1914. Many Italians arrived to start a new life in America.

The Irish population in Boston began to grow sharply in about 1845. Large numbers of people left Ireland when potato crop failures led to starvation. The traditional center of the Irish-American community in Boston is South Boston, or “Southie.”

The children and grandchildren of the first Irish families in Boston became political leaders of the city. These included politicians like John Francis Fitzgerald. He was known as "Honey Fitz." He served two terms as mayor.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy speaking to Congress on January 14, 1963.

One of his grandsons became a senator from Massachusetts. Then, in 1960, that grandson was elected the 35th president of the United States. His name was John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

“And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”