EMMANUEL RESEARCH REVIEW

In this issue: Understanding Boston's Neighborhoods: Morton-Norfolk Area of Mattapan

Introduced by Brian Corcoran 
Research Associate, Emmanuel Gospel Center
Managing Editor, Emmanuel Research Review

The Emmanuel Gospel Center has been studying Boston's churches and neighborhoods for over 40 years. In this community study of the Morton-Norfolk area in Mattapan, a neighborhood of Boston, we look at changes in this urban area over four hundred years, as well as neighborhood demographics and trends, assets, and public safety concerns. Understanding the history, systems, and stories of a community deepens our knowledge about communities and helps us understand the context in which our ministry is taking place so we can help nurture the vitality of urban churches, ministries, and communities. This community study and approach explores the dynamics of change common to many urban communities while also providing practical information that can shape urban ministry and neighborhood development.

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Understanding Boston's Neighborhoods: Morton-Norfolk Area of Mattapan 

Introduced by Rudy Mitchell, Senior Researcher, Emmanuel Gospel Center

In this community study, we trace the changes in the Boston neighborhood of Mattapan over four hundred years, while also looking at demographics and trends, assets (including schools, organizations, and faith communities) and public safety concerns in the Morton-Norfolk area of Mattapan. In the early 1600s Native Americans fished, hunted and grew food in the area. English settlers arrived in the 1630s and over the next couple of centuries developed mills along the Neponset River and a village at the site of Mattapan Square. Much of the area remained rural, dotted with country estates and farms, until the coming of electric streetcars in the late 1800s. In the twentieth century, many immigrants filled the newly developing residential sections of the neighborhood.

Mattapan became a center of Jewish life, culture and business, especially as people moved south from the Roxbury neighborhood. This particular community is a very interesting example of rapid racial change. This study presents demographic tables and graphs to document these changes. Additionally, three full-length books have studied this racial transition in depth from different perspectives.¹ Following the Jewish to African American transition, the Morton-Norfolk neighborhood became the heart of Boston's Haitian community. The following Neighborhood Briefing Document for the Morton-Norfolk neighborhood explores the dynamics of change common to many urban communities, as well as unique aspects of the neighborhood.