Maverick Square

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Maverick Square is a section of the neighborhood of East Boston in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is East Boston's oldest commercial center.{{cite web |title=East Boston: Maverick Square and Beyond |url=https://www.bostonbyfoot.org/tours/east-boston/ |website=Boston by Foot |accessdate=8 November 2019}} At the heart of the square is Maverick Station, which is part of the Blue Line of the MBTA. The square is named after Samuel Maverick, one of the earliest colonists of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.{{Cite news| title = Name That Square| work = The Boston Globe| access-date = 2024-10-10| date = 2017-11-30| url = https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/11/30/name-that-square/WpxECJPLOYCq5KDroM4YBO/story.html }}

Image:Maverick Square looking towards Sumner St. from Winthrop St.jpg

Maverick Square occupies land that was originally part of Noddle's Island. In 1833, General William H. Sumner and other investors formed the East Boston Company to develop the island for residential and industrial use; steam ferry service began from Maverick Square to Rowe's Wharf on the mainland of Boston.{{Cite web| publisher = Environment Department, City of Boston| last = Boston Landmarks Commission| title = East Boston: Exploring Boston's Neighborhoods (brochure)| series = Exploring Boston's Neighborhoods| date = 1994 |url=https://www.cityofboston.gov/images_documents/East_Boston_brochure_tcm3-19117.pdf}} To encourage tourism, the Company built a wharf and the Maverick House, an 80-room luxury hotel (1835). In 1840, the Cunard transatlantic mail service established its terminus at the East Boston wharf. The waterfront became a hub of shipbuilding in the 1850's, with various industries and warehouses along the water's edge, while Maverick Square became the commercial and banking center.{{Cite book| publisher = Historic Boston Inc| last = Historic Boston Incorporated| title = Commercial Casebook: East Boston| chapter = Maverick and Central Squares, East Boston| url=https://historicboston.org/wp-content/uploads/Casebook-East-Boston-District.pdf | date = 2015}}

Historic buildings around Maverick Square include the 1835-1837 Fettyplace-Thorndike House (47 Maverick Square), the 1835 Joshua Pollard House (33 Maverick Square), and the 1841 Woodbury Building (191-201 Sumner Street).{{Cite web| title = East Boston’s Oldest Buildings and Where to Find Them {{!}} Boston Preservation Alliance| access-date = 2024-10-10| date = 2022-06-16 | url=https://www.bostonpreservation.org/news-item/east-bostons-oldest-buildings-and-where-find-them}}

In 2010, a revitalization of Maverick Square began.

The nearby Maverick public housing project – once a source of urban blight that gave the area the reputation as the most crime-ridden in the neighborhood – has been redeveloped by Trinity Financial and the East Boston Community Development Corporation. The razing of crime-ridden high-rises, reintroduction of the urban street grid removed in the 1940s, and construction of individual homes with privates access, combined with mixed-income home ownership, contribute to the area's revitalization.{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}}