House of Industry (first) is established.

Also known as the Almshouse, it is created by a vote of Town Meeting and subsequently located at today’s 9 Park Street. The first almshouse in the U.S., the wooden building is destroyed by fire in 1682, rebuilt (second) in 1686,* and replaced by a new building on Leverett Street (third) in 1802.* A provision is made “for the separation of the vicious from the worthy poor,” when a new facility is built in South Boston (fourth) in 1826.* The institution moves to Deer Island (fifth) in 1851, to Rainsford Island (sixth) in 1866, West Roxbury (seventh) in 1877, and to Long Island (eighth) in 1891 [1887-Leahy].