About Dorchester

Dorchester is Boston's most populous neighborhood. Dorchester, including a large portion of today's Boston, was incorporated in 1630. It is named after the town of Dorchester in the English county of Dorset, from which Puritans emigrated. It is now a large, diverse working class community with many Caucasians, African Americans, Caribbean Americans, Latinos, and East and Southeast Asian Americans, and is still a center of Irish American immigration. America's first chocolate factory opened in Dorchester, in 1765, and the Walter Baker Chocolate Factory operated until 1965. Dorchester is the birthplace of the first public elementary school in America, the Mather School, established in 1639. The school still stands as the oldest elementary school in America.

Notable residents:
Ray Bolger- American actor. "Scarecrow" in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz
Jordan Knight- lead singer of the 80s-90s Original boy band New Kids on the Block
Julio Lugo - starting shortstop for the Boston Red Sox
Cotton Mather- Puritan minister, prolific author, and pamphleteer. Influential in the Salem Witch Trials, son of Increase Mather.
Leonard Nimoy- American actor. "Mr. Spock" of Star Trek
James Reid - A model/actor and contestant on the fourteenth season of the television series "Survivor"
Lucy Stone- women's rights activist and first woman to keep her last name upon marrying
Mark Wahlberg- Academy Award-nominated American actor and television producer, rapper "Marky Mark"