Gas Line Replacement in Squantum, MA

Before the arrival of English colonists in the seventeenth century, Squantum was populated by Native Americans who valued it as a fertile mollusk harvesting site. Moswetuset Hummock, a hill located at the head of the present day causeway leading to the neighborhood, is by one account the origin of the name of the Massachusett tribe of indigenous people for whom the state of Massachusetts is named. In 1621 the tribe’s chief, Chickatawbut, was visited there by Plymouth Colony commander Myles Standish and Squanto, a native guide from whom the peninsula and neighborhood take their names. In the early years following colonization Squantum was part of Dorchester before joining Quincy when it was incorporated as a town separate from Braintree in 1792.

By the middle of the eighteenth century Squantum had become a resort destination and was eventually connected to the area’s trolley system. By the end of World War I, the neighborhood had formed as a year round residence. Also around this time Squantum had been part of early aviation history as an airshow put on by Harvard University’s Aeronautical Society was held on the peninsula in 1910. On July 1, 1912, during the 3rd annual Boston aviation meet held in Squantum, Harriet Quimby, the first woman pilot in the United States died while piloting an aircraft. In 1927, Dennison Airport opened at the lower end of Squantum Peninsula with Amelia Earhart as a chief employee and pilot. The Naval Air Station Squantum also began operations on the peninsula in the 1920s as a naval reserve training base. The base was used until closing in 1954 and eventually was developed into the neighboring Marina Bay section of Quincy in the 1980s, with some opposition from Squantum residents who feared traffic congestion, noise pollution, and environmental damage from filling wetlands. Today Marina Bay includes a variety of restaurants, other businesses, and housing, as well as a popular boardwalk.