Charlestown (Boston)

Charlestown (Boston), section of Boston, Massachusetts, situated on a peninsula between the Charles and Mystic rivers, on Boston Harbor. Charlestown was settled in about 1628, incorporated as a town in 1634, and as a city 1847. During the American Revolution the Battle of Bunker Hill (1775) was fought in Charlestown and is commemorated here by the Bunker Hill Monument. Over the years much of Charlestown's peripheral territory was subdivided to form new towns and cities. The remaining portion was incorporated into Boston in 1874. A major United States Navy yard, established here in 1801, was closed in 1973; it is now part of Boston National Historical Park and is the berth of the USS Constitution.