Hingham, Massachusetts

Template:Infobox Town MA Hingham is a town in Plymouth County on the South Shore of Massachusetts. The population was 19,882 at the 2000 census.

For geographic and demographic information on the census-designated place Hingham, please see the article Hingham (CDP), Massachusetts.

History

Hingham was first settled as "Bare Cove" by English colonists in 1633, and it was officially incorporated as a town in 1635 under the name "Hingham". The eastern part of the town later became Cohasset, Massachusetts in 1770. The town was named for Hingham, a village in the English county of Norfolk, where a number of the first colonists came from including some of Abraham Lincoln's ancestors [2], including Samuel Lincoln (1622–1690), who and came to Massachusetts in 1637. There is a statue of President Lincoln located adjacent to downtown Hingham Square.

Hingham is home to the United States' oldest continuously used wooden house of worship, the Old Ship Church, built in 1681, which currently serves members of the Unitarian Universalist faith. The meetinghouse name comes from the fact that the roof and ceiling rafters resembled the upside-down hull of ship to the early settlers who worshipped there. This is not surprising since many of the architects who helped build the church were shipbuilders. Old Ship Church is the only remaining 17th century meeting house in New England. The town also has many other late eighteenth century and nineteenth century homes still standing. Many of these homes can be found in six historic districts set up to maintain their unique character into the future.

Hingham was originally part of Suffolk County, and when the southern part of the county was set off as Norfolk County in 1793, it included the towns of Hingham and Hull. In 1803 those towns opted out of Norfolk County and became part of Plymouth County.

In 1889, a wealthy Hingham resident, mattison barkas, commissioned Frederick Law Olmsted to design a residential subdivision on a peninsula Brewer owned adjacent to Hingham Harbor. While Law's tree-lined horse-cart paths were made, the residential buildings were never constructed. After World War II, Hingham was unsuccessful in its bid to have Brewer's peninsula used as the site of the planned United Nations Secretariat building. In later years the site was also considered for a nuclear power plant. In the 1960s, to prevent eventual development, townspeople organized an effort to preserve the peninsula as open space. Today this natural conservation land is called World's End and is maintained by The Trustees of Reservations.

Hingham's Contribution in the World Wars

From 1903 until 1961, The Hingham Naval Ammunition Depot (Originally called the Hingham Naval Reserve) was a major supplier of U.S munitions, occupying 990 acres on the Weymouth Back River (in the section once known as The Hockley). Most of the munitions used in the European front in World War II were created at the depot. At peak capacity in 1945, over 2,400 civilians and military personnel worked there. In the mid 1950s, the site contained over 90 buildings, its own telephone exchange, and 15 cranes. The base was decommissioned in 1961, though the Navy held on to the property until 1971, when it was turned over to the town of Hingham. Today much of the site is now occupied by the town's Bare Cove Park.

Hingham was also the location of a 97-acre shipyard set up as an adjunct to the Fore River Shipyard in nearby Quincy, operated for some 39 months during the Second World War. The facility employed approximately 23,500 workers and produced some 75 destroyer escorts (DEs), 17 high speed transports (APDs), 95 tank landing ships (LSTs), 40 landing craft (LCIs), for a total of 227 vessels. These smaller, relatively simple ships played a vital role in the U.S. victory, and were built in record time. One DE was launched just 23 days after keel-laying, and in one 50-hour span a total of 5 LSTs were delivered. The steel mill erected on the site (used later as a General Services Administration warehouse) was the largest single-story building in New England, at 1,000 feet. (A twin building was demolished in the 1980s.) After the war, the complex became an industrial park. By the 1970s, the complex had fallen into disuse. It is currently used as a commuter boat terminal and parking area. Most of the buildings have now been demolished to pave the way for a new multi-use marina, condominium, and retail complex that is to be constructed over the next five to ten years.

"The Main Street of America"

Hingham Center in c. 1912

During World War II, Eleanor Roosevelt authored a book entitled This is America, which used Hingham as an embodiment of the typical American town in wartime. As part of her visit researching the book she toured Hingham's Main Street, with its stately eighteenth and nineteenth century houses and, at the time, a canopy of elm trees. Mrs. Roosevelt later concluded in the book that "[t]his is the most beautiful Main Street in America." Today Main Street looks much as it did then, though the elm canopy has mostly fallen victim to the ravages of Dutch Elm disease.

In January 2007, the town carrried out a long-discussed plan to put up the first set of traffic lights along Main Street, intended to improve safety at the intersection with Free and High Streets.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 64.9 km² (25.0 mi²). 58.2 km² (22.5 mi²) of it is land and 6.7 km² (2.6 mi²) of it (10.26%) is water. Hingham is bordered on the east by Cohasset, and Scituate, on the south by Norwell and Rockland, on the west by Weymouth, and on the north by Boston Harbor and Hull. Cohasset and Weymouth are in Norfolk County; the other towns, like Hingham itself, are in Plymouth County.

Hingham borders the Weymouth Back River, and has set aside adjacent land as parks and natural areas.

Demographics

As of the census² of 2000, there were 19,882 people, 7,189 households, and 5,478 families residing in the town. The population density was 341.6/km² (884.8/mi²). There were 7,368 housing units at an average density of 126.6/km² (327.9/mi²). The racial makeup of the town was 97.51% White, 0.40% Black or African American, 0.04% Native American, 0.88% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.22% from other races, and 0.95% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.75% of the population.

There were 7,189 households out of which 37.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 65.7% were married couples living together, 8.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.8% were non-families. 21.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.72 and the average family size was 3.19.

In the town the population was spread out with 27.7% under the age of 18, 4.3% from 18 to 24, 26.3% from 25 to 44, 27.5% from 45 to 64, and 14.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 89.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.6 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $83,018, and the median income for a family was $98,598. Males had a median income of $66,802 versus $41,370 for females. The per capita income for the town was $41,703. About 2.4% of families and 3.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.7% of those under age 18 and 3.1% of those age 65 or over.

Education

Hingham is home to three secondary schools: Hingham High School, Derby Academy, and Notre Dame Academy. Hingham High is a co-educational, public high school serving the residents of the entire town for grades 9 to 12 and is located on Union Street near Hingham Center. Notre Dame, established in 1853, is an all-girls Roman Catholic parochial high school located on Main Street (Route 228) in South Hingham. There is one intermediate public school in Hingham called Hingham Middle School; the school itself was formed by the merger of South and Central Junior High Schools in the 1990s, its building (formerly housing South Junior High) was renovated in 1995, and it is located on Main Street near Notre Dame. (What was Central Junior High is now the location of the Town Hall and Police Department.) Derby Academy, founded in 1784, is the oldest co-educational school in the country. There are a variety of public and private elementary and pre-schools in town. The three currently operating public elementary schools are named South, Foster, and Plymouth River. Pre-schools include: Wilder Memorial, Hingham Nursery School, South Shore Conservatory, The Children's Place, Old Colony Montessori and Dolly's.

Roads and Transportation

Hingham is traversed by four Massachusetts state highways. These include Route 3, Route 53 (which was originally Route 3 before it was moved onto its current location), Route 3A and Route 228, which was originally part of Route 128, Boston's circumferential highway.

Public transportation is currently served by the MBTA's bus route 220 and by commuter boat service at the Hingham Shipyard. Commuter rail is being restored along the Greenbush Line through Hingham. Trains will stop at two stations in town; West Hingham and Nantasket Junction, starting in 2007. As part of the MBTA's agreement to restore train service a tunnel is being built which will carry the commuter trains under historic Hingham Square. There were disputes in Hingham about whether to allow the train to pass through the town. Some people feel that Hingham is becoming less like a town and more like a small city. Others feel that the line will benefit the town.

Famous citizenry

Hingham's most famous line of citizens are from two unrelated families named Lincoln that came to Massachusetts from England in the seventeenth century — one from Hingham and the other from Swanton Morley, both in Norfolk County in England. A bridge in Hingham over Route 3, the Southeast Expressway, is named after Revolutionary War hero General Benjamin Lincoln of the Swanton branch. General Lincoln is most remembered for accepting Cornwallis's sword of surrender at the Battle of Yorktown. The most famous Lincoln descendant however, who did not actually live in Hingham, is United States President and Civil War Commander-in-Chief Abraham Lincoln of the Hingham branch. A bronze statue, a replica of the famous sitting Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. sits at the foot of Lincoln Street at North Street. Native son Isaac Sprague was the best-known American botanical illustrator in the 1800s. John F. Andrew was a United States Congressman in the 19th century.

Current TV sportscaster Sean McDonough, NHL player Tony Amonte, and VH1's White Rapper Show contestant "Sullee" are Hingham natives. Current Hingham residents of some notoriety include children's author Marc Brown, former Florida senator Bob Graham, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, Boston Globe sports editor Bob Ryan and Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield.

Current Development

While strongly rooted in America's colonial past, Hingham has seen a wave of development in the past ten years. Real-estate development pressure in Hingham is likely spurred by several factors: the town's close proximity to Boston; its high-quality public education; its relatively unspoiled historic character, and expanding availability of public transportation to Boston, both by commuter ferry and restoration of commuter rail service planned for 2007.

Recent development includes the Conservatory Park residential subdivision and the Black Rock residential subdivision (a gated community, golf course, and private club). Another gated community, Linden Ponds, has been constructed in the southern part of Hingham. A second private golf club and residential community is nearing completion. Both golf clubs were developed on Hingham's western border with neighboring Weymouth, in areas that had previously been woodland or quarry.

Future growth in Hingham includes a large senior-citizen development being constructed in the southern part of town near Derby Street. The zoning board is also reviewing plans for the town's largest development project to date, a complete renovation of the town's former naval shipyard area into a multi-functional residential apartment, condo, and townhouse community, with shops, restaurants, and a proposed cineplex.

Hingham's recent and future projected growth have led its school board to conclude that additional educational resources must be constructed for the town's expanding student population. Proposals currently include a second renovation/expansion of Hingham's middle school, the opening of a fourth elementary school, and a possible additional expansion of the town's high school.

External links

• Official Town Site
• Mass.gov Information on Hingham
• Hingham High School
• Hingham High School Alumni Web Site
• Hingham Public Library
• Plymouth County, Massachusetts
• Hingham, England
• A History of Shipbuilding at Fore River
• Greenbush Line Construction Project Photos and Links
• Template:Geolinks-US-hoodscale