Winthrop is a town in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, United States, zip code 02152. The population was 18,303 at the 2000 census.

History

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Winthrop was first settled in 1635 and was officially incorporated in 1852. Winthrop was named after the first Governor of Massachusetts, John Winthrop, and is one of the four municipalities, and the only town, in Suffolk County, (the cities of Boston, Revere, and Chelsea, and the Town of Winthrop). It is located on a peninsula, at the beginning of the North Shore, with 7 miles of shore line that provides breathtaking views of the ocean to the East and of the Boston skyline to the West.

Originally part of an area called Winnesimmet by the Native Americans, the peninsula was annexed by Boston in 1632 and within 5 years became the grazing area for farm animals of the rapidly growing Boston colony. In 1637 it was divided into 15 parcels of land which were given by Governor Winthrop to prominent men in Boston with the stipulation that each must erect a building on his land within 2 years. Few, if any, of these men ever lived here but their farms prospered. One of these early houses, built initially during the first half of the 1600’s,and rebuilt in 1675, was the home of Governor Winthrop’s youngest son, Deane Winthrop, who lived there until his death in 1703. This house is still standing and is maintained, for public viewing, by the Winthrop Improvement and Historical Association.

In 1739, what is now Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop withdrew from Boston due to governmental control disputes and became the Town of Chelsea. Again the desire for more local control resulted in Revere and Winthrop seceding from Chelsea in 1846 to become North Chelsea. Shortly thereafter, in 1852, Winthrop was incorporated as a Town in its own right with a Board of Selectmen and Town Meeting form of government. In 1920, Winthrop was the second Town in the Commonwealth to apply for and receive a Charter for a Representative Town Meeting which continued to 2006.

In 2006, a new Town Charter was passed in a special election. The Board of Selectmen was abolished, and legislative powers were vested in an elected Town Council. Executive power, largely ceremonial, resides in the Council President, who is popularly elected. An appointed Town Manager serves as the head of administrative services.

Deer Island, though within the city limits of Boston, is located in Winthrop Bay and actually ceased to be an island in the 1930s when Shirley Gut, which separated it from Winthrop, was filled in. The island has a sordid past as an internment camp for Indians during King Philip's War, a quarantine station where many immigrants died, and the site of a county jail. Today the island is home to the mammoth Deer Island Waste Water Treatment Plant, which treats sewage treatment for the Boston area.

Winthrop includes Snake Island in Boston Harbor as well as a portion of Logan Airport.

Geography

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According to the United States Census Bureau,...